The future of 5G: global peer research project

As part of JB5GRI, ADLINK will join in exploration of a range of technologies- network automation with AI, how to decentralise communication, how to distribute even further, how to push high spectrum communication, and more. JB5GRI focuses on promising technologies for the future mobile telecommunication system and targets early pre-standardisation and coordination of technology for networks and services beyond 5G, towards 6G.

“We’re planning for the future. The time frame to go from concept to market with a new generation of mobile networks is about ten years. In order to be ready at a production level for 6G, we need to start at the research and innovation level now,” said Luca Cominardi, Senior Technologist and Researcher in ADLINK’s Advanced Technology Office.

JB5GRI will research hypothetical use cases that include:

• AI connected car of the future
• Network-wide resource sharing built on distributed AI with end-to-end cybersecurity
• Tactile internet with smart glasses in AR/VR
• Validation of beamforming in THz bands

ADLINK is bringing its expertise in distributed communication, distributed management and distributed computing including edge, fog and multi-access edge computing (MEC) to JB5GRI. ADLINK’s participation will be informed by the company’s leadership on open-source Eclipse Edge Native and IoT projects including Zenoh, Fog05 and Cyclone DDS.

• Zenoh is a built-from-scratch new messaging protocol that addresses the challenges of data management in fog and edge computing. The Zenoh paradigm is decentralised and distributed to enable scaling up from constrained scenarios to Internet scale.
• Fog05 tackles decentralised infrastructure management for distributed devices, virtualised applications, and robotics operations along the fog and edge infrastructure.
• Cyclone DDS is the new fastest growing open-source implementation of the OMG Data Distribution Service standard for mission critical IoT systems.

ADLINK currently has hardware and software to support the demands of 5G today, including MEC edge servers to expedite the rollout of Open RAN initiatives and private 5G networks, edge AI hardware to support heterogeneous computing for processing acceleration, and software such as ADLINK’s DDS and ADLINK Edge that connect distributed systems for real-time intelligent decision making.

"Our participation in this research initiative demonstrates ADLINK's commitment to 5G and what comes after. Customers who look to ADLINK for our current 5G, AI and IoT edge hardware and software can have confidence that we are thinking about what they will need in the future. We’re already invested in what’s beyond 5G.”

JB5GRI has already submitted the project proposal, Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence-based smart networks for Reliable mobile cOmmunicationS (KAIROS), to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program call ‘Smart Connectivity Beyond 5G’.