IoT goes Large Scale: Meet Martel at the IoT Week 2017

IoT goes large scale – BE A PART OF IT!

6-9 June 2017, Geneva

This is an intense week for the Internet of Things (IoT) community gathered for the IoT Week 2017. Organised by the IoT Forum, which Martel Innovate officially joined beginning of 2017, this 7th edition of the international IoT Week is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland with over 200 sessions and various activities focusing on the latest R&D developments in the Internet of Things domain, including emerging technologies, security and privacy, sustainable development, industry and market evolution.

Martel in action with EXCITING

On June 6th, Martin Potts, Director and Founder of Martel Innovate, presented the EU-China collaboration underway with H2020 project EXCITING (EU-China Study on IoT and 5G) during the IoT Week in Geneva. As the coordinator of EXCITING, Potts spoke about the project’s mission, partners, objectives and achievements, stressing the relevance of the work conducted within the project to set closer relationships between researchers and innovators in Europe and China, which in turn should foster synergies and collaborations in the IoT and 5G research domains.

_DJT0613 IoT Geneve 2017

Original photo from the IoT Week official website

Although the project has only been operating for 7 months, it is already well advanced in the facilitation of an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the European AIOTI (Alliance of IoT Innovation) and AII (Alliance of Industry Internet), led by CAICT (China Academy of Information Communications Technology). This will complement existing MoUs that the AIOTI has signed in February 2017 with Brazil and Japan.

The EXCITING project is also evaluating practical collaboration between the IoT and 5G Large-Scale Pilots in Europe and China.  This idea has been initiated during the first consortium plenary meeting in Beijing in March 2017, following the successful conference. The project wants to ensure that emerging standards can be applied in practical situations and that systems can interoperate.

As one of the concrete cooperation opportunities offered in the field of IoT and 5G, project partner University of Surrey, which has probably the largest 5G testbed in Europe, then expressed interest in 5G testbeds cooperation with China, which is was responded to positively by one of the Advisory Group Members, Prof. Yang YANG from the Shanghai Research Center for Wireless Communications (WiCO).

As the Coordinator of project EXCITING, Martel has been actively facilitating the linkages between the two bodies, which is not only benefits the project, but also Martel’s international ambitions. Through such collaboration, Martel is gaining an insight into the global state of the art.

This presentation was followed by presentations from AIOTI, the H2020 Large-Scale Pilot project IOF2020, the EC Joint Research Centre and Ericsson, and concluded with an interactive panel discussion with the audience. Emphasis was placed by the panelists on the need to define and adhere to global standards and to encourage collaboration between the EU and China (and globally). Members of the audience raised the idea of funding projects in the future that specifically combined 5G and IoT aspects.

Martel invited to join Experimental Infrastructure panel

On June 9th, Dr. Monique Calisti, Executive Director of Martel Innovate, has been invited to participate in the panel session entitled Experimental Infrastructure. In the last decade, several projects have been financed by the European Commission to develop research tools and testbeds. With the end of the Future Internet Research Experimentation (FIRE) initiative, the generation of short term R&D projects is over, while there is a growing need for IoT research infrastructure. How to address this need will be at the centre of the debates that will take place on Friday.

Having been involved in FIRE since its inception, and participated in its transition into the Next Generation Internet (NGI), we see great potential to expand the circle of collaborators and scope of the work being achieved. “says Dr. Calisti, Coordinator of the FIRE STUDY and of the recently started HUB4NGI. “I am very much looking forward to the debates that will take place in Geneva at the IoT Week as a way to better understand how to strategically position ongoing and future R&D efforts in the IoT domain at Martel“.

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