A 5G corridor for testing & demonstration of new applications

In the coming year, 5G will become available at selected locations in the Netherlands. 5G technology has several advantages over the current 4G network, such as higher speed, capacity and reliability and shorter response time; essential components for innovations such as autonomous driving.

The opportunities posed by 5G seem endless. To explore potential applications, 5G fieldlabs are being set up throughout the country to test the technology in the real world. These fieldlabs provide the required 5G infrastructure, but also an appropriate regulatory system to support businesses with research, testing and demonstration of new applications that rely on 5G. Among other things, applications can be found in more efficient mobility and smart cities.

“for example, in the case of an autonomous car in a traffic jam, a half-second delay in the interaction between vehicles can already cause a collision,” says Lenneke de Voogd, innovation manager at Delft University of Technology. “Not only the speed, but also the reliability of the network is crucial in this type of application. But there are many more potential applications where 5G provides essential conditions for innovations to meet use requirements.”

5G brings four advantages:

More bandwidth

The availability of more bandwidth allows the distribution of larger data volumes

Reduced response time

The reduced response time enables more precise motion as required in for example robotic surgery

Increased capacity

The increased capacity allows multiple applications to run simultaneously.

Ultra reliable

5G technology provides reliability approaching 100%, which is required for many smart-city applications

Delft field lab provides its own infrastructure

In order to take research and applications for 5G to the next level, companies, knowledge institutes and governments must work together,” says Mick van Kappen, Smart Digital Delta transition manager at InnovationQuarter. The fieldlabs provide the necessary conditions for that collaboration to succeed.

At the TU Delft campus, the Delft Internet of Things (Do IoT) fieldlab is developing a digital infrastructure to enable students, companies and scientists to test all kinds of products and services in the field of Internet of Things based on 5G technology. Here, collaboration with experts and scientists in areas such as telecommunications and data science will be much more accessible for startups and companies.

“What makes the Do IoT Fieldlab so special is that we have our own 5G infrastructure with an independent data services platform. Because of this, government organisations and companies can run tests independent from commercial providers. Providers can work with us to further develop and test their own network and services,” she says.

The network will be set up on different locations, such as The Green Village and Unmanned Valley Valkenburg. The Green Village provides a low-regulation environment for testing autonomous driving and Unmanned Valley Valkenburg provides a location for testing drones. The Do IoT Field Lab will also have a mobile set-up so that various companies can experiment with 5G on their own location for a few weeks.

Drones save lives through 5G

Delft Dynamics is one of the companies that experiment with a 5G network in collaboration with the Do IoT Field lab. The company uses drones to support rescue workers. The moment a report comes in, a drone is immediately sent to the drowning person or accident. The drone can pass on the location and possibly other data about the situation and the victims to the boat with rescue workers and if necessary also to the hospital. “In this way rescue workers can operate much more efficiently and people can be helped more quickly. But that requires a fast and, above all, reliable network,” she says.

Developing maket-ready 5G applications at WorldStartup

In The Hague, Global Entrepreneurship Platform WorldStartup has set up a 5G field lab together with T-mobile, which is focused on developing and scaling up business ideas based upon the 5G infrastructure. Here, interested people from various backgrounds can apply and work in a multidisciplinary team. Sometimes they already have an application in mind, but it can also emerge along the way

“We start with several workshops to let people develop applications and learn how to go from there to running a startup,” says Steginga.

or example, the participants first attend a workshop on concept development, then they draw up a user path for their intended product. The next step is to start working with paper prototyping and finally, they look at business modeling.

An example workshop at World Startup

Followed by the workshops is a pitch event, where the teams present their concept to a jury. The winners in the first workshop developed a smart evacuation system that enables buildings to be evacuated faster and more efficiently; the team gets to attend the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. Another team worked on a payment system that uses facial recognition for identity verification.

World Startup is currently coaching the teams with the best concepts towards market-readiness. “One way we do this is by connecting the participants to interested parties who can contribute to the idea,” says Mark Beermann, managing partner of the 5G lab. An example of such a company is SPIE, which focuses on the implementation of smart systems in buildings. “The participants also continue working on a business case to really set up a company.

Scheveningen

In addition to the field labs in Delft and The Hague, experiments with 5G are also taking place in Scheveningen. The municipality is setting up a small-scale digital infrastructure there to test and further develop various applications and business cases around smart cities. 5G plays an important role in this as a connecting network between various smart devices. Both public organizations and companies contribute to the infrastructure and can use it at the same time. Possible applications include smart traffic management, air quality measurement and safety monitoring.

“All field labs have the same goal: to support collaboration between companies and knowledge institutes in a real-life testing ground. This will help accelerate innovation and find new solutions to today’s problems. But inventing new technology is not enough; it must be scalable,” says Mick van Kappen of InnovationQuarter. “

Next Economy

“That’s why there will be a connection between the various fieldlabs in the region, the 5G corridor. This corridor creates cohesion between the the field labs. This will also stimulate cross-industry innovation. This really takes us a step further in realizing our social missions.” According to Mick, the grater Rotterdam – The Hague area is an important region for this because the region contributes almost a quarter GDP in the Netherlands. “That makes the urgency for our region to come up with digital solutions all the greater.”