The laboratory will be located at IMDEA Networks' headquarters and will include several sites situated at appropriate distances to allow for testing the different technologies under study. The center will open its doors next November and its work will continue at least until the first 5G products are commercially developed, which is expected to happen around 2020. Telefónica, which is also a founding partner of the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey, is thus reinforcing its commitment to the development of new 5G technologies.
Pragmatic approach based on feasibility studies.
This is the first center of excellence of its kind in Spain, focused on research and innovation, as well as conducting field tests and demonstrations of all the technologies and equipment that will constitute 5G communications, including its services and applications.
It is also the first laboratory in Europe to propose approaching this research process from a decidedly practical perspective. Thus, the center will foster the right environment for Telefónica and other interested companies—Ericsson has already joined this initiative—to conduct feasibility tests of specific technologies, determine hidden deployment costs, and analyze all the technological aspects and the complexity of different solutions. In this sense, the laboratory will allow various stakeholders in the sector to carry out a realistic evaluation of 5G candidate technologies and accelerate the development of innovations that will be necessary in the network architecture to enable use cases and applications across multiple industrial sectors
Although 5G networks are still in the early stages of development, industry experts generally agree that the next generation of mobile technology will significantly improve latency, carry 1,000 times more data than current networks, allow for a 10- to 100-fold increase in the number of simultaneously connected devices, and increase battery life tenfold, among other benefits. Future use cases such as remote robot control and sensor interconnection, coupled with the demands of future mobile customers, will require ultra-fast, high-quality connections with virtually zero latency.
Currently, efforts by operators, regulators, manufacturers, and other ecosystem players are focused on cooperating to define the system's requirements and use cases—that is, the new application scenarios that 5G should enable—and on identifying the network technologies and designs that will allow them to do so.
Enrique Blanco, Telefónica's Global CTO: “The opening of this center is a step forward for Telefónica, which has been actively participating in a wide range of international projects, industry associations, and 5G technology standardization bodies. The 5G Center of Excellence in Madrid will allow us to test, select, and prioritize the functionalities of the networks and services that are candidates to be part of the future of 5G networks, ensuring that the resulting system is consistent and coherent. We don't want the rollout of 5G networks to be a one-off event, but rather a process that we want to begin now.”
Arturo Azcorra, Director of IMDEA Networks: "5TONIC is essential for developing the scientific and technological solutions so that Spain doesn't miss the 5G train. Through 5TONIC and IMDEA Networks, we want to consolidate a Unique Scientific Initiative that openly brings together public and private R&D efforts in Network Science. The ICT sector, through AMETIC, as well as leading companies like Telefónica and Ericsson, are ready to drive this leading European initiative."
José Antonio López, CEO of Ericsson Spain: “5G is the evolution of mobile communications. It will be instrumental in meeting the needs of the connected society and enabling the digital transformation of other industries, with the potential to address numerous new use cases. Ericsson actively participates in European and international 5G research and development programs such as Horizon 2020, 5GPPP, and METIS II, which we lead. Our alliance with Telefónica and IMDEA Networks for 5TONIC, within the framework of our 5G for Europe program, will help Spanish industries and society enjoy the benefits of 5G in the future.”
