On 20 June 2024, a seminar was held in Warsaw to finalise the PL-5G National Laboratory for Advanced 5G Research project implemented by the PL-5G consortium, which includes, among others, the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center. The main objective of the project is to provide easy and universal access to an environment that enables research and development of 5G technology. The event was an opportunity to meet the members of the consortium and to summarise the joint work.
The national laboratory created as part of the PL-5G project is a unique research infrastructure on a national scale for conducting practical research on 5G technologies and services. The importance of this project for Poland is particularly significant, not only because of the 5G solutions currently being implemented in national operator networks, but also because of the possibility of starting work on private networks in connection with the approved frequency plan for the 3800-4200 MHz band.
The project summary event was attended by representatives of the PL-5G consortium (Warsaw University of Technology – Project Leader, National Institute of Telecommunications – National Research Institute, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Gdansk University of Technology, AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences – Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center), the event sponsors (Innergo, ALMA S.A., Systemics PAB and Comtegra) and invited guests, including suppliers to the project, the scientific community (Deans of units), other scientific and research units (e.g. NASK), representatives of the Office for Electronic Communications and companies (e.g. Nokia).
The whole event was divided into three sessions; during the first session, the project manager, Dr Andrzej Bęben (Warsaw University of Technology), summarised the achievements of the PL-5G project. Each partner then presented their local laboratory and its characteristic elements. During the second session, new areas of research possible thanks to the construction of the project’s research infrastructure were presented, the principles of using the laboratory were explained, and the 5G Network Laboratory Management and Monitoring System developed by PSNC was demonstrated. The last session was dedicated to the presentation of a stand with fragments of the project partners’ research infrastructure. PSNC representatives presented experiments with remote access to the infrastructure in Poznan, which consisted of testing the performance of a 5G terminal device connected to the project’s research network, and the capabilities of a set of PSNC research infrastructure elements specially prepared for the event. The possibilities of researching the development of 5G network technologies using an advanced drone, which is an open software platform, were also demonstrated, and a portable shielding chamber for testing user terminals was presented. A promotional video presenting the Interregional 5G Network Node in Kąkolewo was also shown at the stand.
