5G-DRIVE joint kick-off in China

Martel had a successful trip to China in November, 2018, facilitating the joint kick-off event between 5G-DRIVE and its sister project led by China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI), 5G Large-Scale Trials, in China. The trip also took European delegates around several 5G-related key site visits in different cities.

5G-DRIVE joint kick-off in China

The 5G-DRIVE joint kick-off seminar was held in Beijing from 19-20 November. The meeting was proposed and co-organised by Martel in liaison with China Mobile and other consortium members of 5G-DRIVE.

“We were delighted to play a role in facilitating this important 5G-DRIVE joint kick-off with CMRI in China,” says Martel’s Ms Kai Zhang. “It marks a significant milestone in the continued collaboration between Europe and China in the area of next generation communications and smart mobility.”

The highlight of the two-day seminar in Beijing at China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI)’s premises was a signing ceremony for the cooperation agreement, held on 19 November. Martel also coordinated the planning of this ceremony. The signatories were 5G-DRIVE Project Coordinator Mr. Uwe Herzog from Eurescom and Ms. Yuhong Huang from CMRI. Furthermore, Martel played an important role in involving the policy makers from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the European Commission’s Mr. Philipp Barth representing the Delegation of the European Union to China. All parties witnessed the signing of the agreement.

After the seminar, the 5G-Drive delegation conducted site visits to three cities in China – Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi. The twin project in China coordinated and hosted the first two visits. These showed technologies developed jointly with Huawei at China Mobile Zhejiang Province and with Ericsson at China Mobile Jiangsu Province. CMRI then hosted the third site visit to Wuxi to observe the town’s city-wide LTE-V2X trial site. The site includes segments of real road and road infrastructure in the city centre of Wuxi. Finally, there was a wrap-up meeting in Shanghai.

EU-China collaboration

The 5G-DRIVE project is a joint-funded collaboration between Europe and China. The project will trial and validate the interoperability between EU & China 5G networks operating at 3.5 GHz bands for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and 3.5 & 5.9 GHz bands for V2X (vehicle to everything) scenarios. As well as the China event, 5G-DRIVE held a European kick-off in Heidelberg in September 2018. Martel also facilitated the presentation of  5G-DRIVE at the World IoT expo in Wuxi in September. By organising this 5G-DRIVE joint kick-off, Martel has helped foster deeper understanding and closer collaboration between both sides.

As the project moves forward, Martel looks forward to continued professional liaison and consultation between the EU and China.

Read more about the 5G-Drive kickoff and site visits.