Open Virtualized Technology Demonstrators for Smart Grids

Vicomtech leads the Open-VERSO Network of Excellence Cervera in which i2CAT and Gradiant also participate, three leading partners with extensive experience in 5G nationwide. The network was born with the aim of developing the deployment architecture of new solutions for 5G and beyond networks, evaluating use cases, integrating as a federated service infrastructure through RedIRIS and cooperating with other innovation projects related to 5G technologies nationwide. and international.

All this will be done with a clear vocation to transfer technology and knowledge to companies that will play a key role in the development of industries from multiple sectors that will benefit from the set of 5G technologies, based on the advantages offered by these innovative technologies.

An innovative concept at the service of companies and society

Open-VERSO will design and develop a scalable architecture by evolving a set of cross-cutting technologies that will enable early prototyping and implementation of advanced concepts not commercially available. For example, the series of technologies that will be enabled in the project will be related to artificial intelligence, advanced management of 5G networks and the evolution of technologies of the standards on which they are based.

In a service-oriented network such as 5G, it is essential to provide differentiated resources to each of the sectors in which the technology will impact. Open-VERSO contemplates carrying out proofs of concept and developing prototypes that will be validated using visually appealing and functional applications. For this reason, an important part of the proposed methodology consists of identifying and evaluating relevant indicators for different use cases that are representative enough to serve as a seed for future technology transfers of the group. Among other use cases, and by way of example, Open-VERSO addresses fundamental aspects related to the evolution of traditional mobile network infrastructures to fully virtualized “end-to-end” infrastructures that will include radio access technologies themselves in the future. In this context of "virtualization" of radio technologies, Open-VERSO will place special emphasis on the applicability of these technologies to sectors such as TV and digital radio broadcasting or "5G-Broadcast" where their integration into a common 5G network.

 They will potentially enable the broadcast of TV content not only to conventional televisions but also to smartphones in a much more efficient way using the same network infrastructure. Other technologies that will be addressed in Open-VERSO are those aimed at improving the use of spectral resources, through Artificial Intelligence techniques for radio spectrum management or through full-duplex in-band technologies that allow transmission and reception. Simultaneous information on the same frequency band.

The network will therefore be highly market-oriented, at the service of companies that are called to accelerate digitization in various sectors with applicability of 5G and future technologies, forming part of a true economic and social revolution. In addition, it will be an important boost for the 5G ecosystem in the scientific-technological field at the national level

Other fundamental aspects that have been very much taken into account since the conceptualization of the grouping are the economic ones and those related to sustainability. Open-VERSO proposes the federation of infrastructures through RedIRIS as a key aspect that will allow sharing knowledge and material resources, thus increasing the group's individual and collective capacities.

A firm commitment to collaboration and R&D at the national level

Open-VERSO is a network of excellence financed by the Cervera Program for Technological Centers, the national commitment to develop market-oriented research promoted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).

With an investment of € 2.3M by the Program, the partners face the challenge of materializing an intense collaboration with very ambitious goals. The Open-VERSO network of excellence will accelerate the development of 5G and future technologies together with its various sectoral applications, with the ultimate goal of transferring them to the driving companies that will themselves be architects of the revolution that is already being experienced at the connectivity level and digitization.

Cervera Excellence Centre