Objectives of the platform
Acquiring and processing data digitally is revolutionizing the field of industrial production. In all sectors, it is necessary to control the digital processing chain, from sensors to actuators, while taking care of power consumption. The 5G-mMTC project aims to develop an end-to-end platform comprising the software and hardware building blocks required for the rapid implementation of a secure and sovereign 5G system including i) communicating objects (static and/or mobile), ii) 5G digital infrastructure (RAN and Core Networks), and iii) application environment hosted in a Cloud and/or Edge. The 5G-mMTC platform will enable manufacturers (large corporations, SMEs) and academics to test their innovations, new use cases and associated business models in real configuration and on a large scale, based on electronic devices communicating in 5G with the Cloud. 5G-mMTC allows to divide the costs and risks around the launch of 5G IoT projects, and strongly contributes to the rapid testing and deployment of industrial products.
2 use cases
The connected bike
The professional bike used by the French team is equipped with several sensors that measure the rider's performance. Wireless solutions have been tested by the FFC such as WiFi or Bluetooth. They did not give conclusive results in real competitions (Olympic Games, World Cup) mainly because of interference and collisions, the physical channel (ISM band) being shared by too many devices.
The objective is to allow the FFC to equip itself with a portable 5G private network, redeployable anywhere in the world. The sensitivity of the data is very high. This environment and use case is highly competitive, and data loss must absolutely be avoided. Therefore, the security aspect of this 5G private network will be studied in depth to prevent and eliminate cyber attacks. 5G-mMTC results will be used by our French team for future competitions: World Track Cycling Championship in Great Britain and Olympic Games in France.
The telemetry
EDF has a fleet of sensors in various sensitive infrastructures from production plants (nuclear, wind, hydro, etc.) to equipment close to the customer like electric vehicle chargers.
The objective of the 5G-mMTC project is to enable EDF to manage the entire heterogeneous sensor fleet via a 5G core network and thus exploit the "Slices" technique to differentiate the services offered by the sensors. By doing so, network management will be automated and its cost minimized, and moreover secured.
Organization
The project consists of 3 main steps
The first step of the project consists in defining the technical reference frame common to all the partners: prioritization of the needs, "energy" metrics (devices and network), characterization means, definition of the project use cases, of the results validation approach and of the success criteria.
The "system of systems" architecture is formalized with the main generic transversal elements: data protocols, (device) management protocols, consumption and bandwidth constraints and cybersecurity risk analysis. In addition, a specific study is carried out for the two use cases of the project (FFC/EDF).
Finally, the basic bricks of the 5G-mMTC platform will be prototyped during this first stage, in order to validate the technical choices and remove the locks identified simultaneously on the three segments: Devices (sensor carriers), 5G Infrastructure and Cloud/Edge.
If the first step contained an important exploratory phase, this second step is focused on the implementation of generic bricks allowing the rapid construction of an end-to-end 5G IoT system.
The implementation of these bricks in the two use cases consolidate these bricks by "field" feedback of implementation, and mutually fertilize each other. Thus, this stage raises the maturity levels of the step ONE prototypes to "production ready" degrees of quality and reusability (TRL ≈ 8).
Finally, the last step focuses on collecting the first feedback from implementation, feedback from experience. It allows to consolidate the bricks of the 5G-mMTC platform for their use by the largest number of industrialists.
This step contains the dissemination part, with in particular the factual gains measured on the two use cases implemented and tested in 5G-mMTC. In particular, "promotion" elements are realized (video, slides, website, git/repo code), as well as presentations on the partners' exhibition booths in the largest IoT and 4G/5G ecosystem exhibitions, telco, embedded and industry.
The coordination
Vivien RAYNAL
Administrative Coordinator 5G-mMTC
Bid and delivery manager
Médiane Système
The consortium
With partners throughout France, the project brings together all types of players (academics, large groups, SMEs) in the value chain around the 5G IoT.
