5G-Blueprint and 5GCroCo have a lot in common. Both projects focus on teleoperation and defining a successful path toward seamless cross-border network handovers. Both are publicly funded, which is one of the reasons why strong collaboration among them is of such great importance. The consortia are committed to ensuring that the EU citizens not only benefit from the projects’ end results but are also informed about the specific activities and the progress achieved to date.
Each 5G-Blueprint and 5GCroCo have only three years (5GCroCo has recently been extended) to address several technical challenges, which impede a smooth provision of CCAM services in cross-border scenarios. Each project looks at these challenges from their unique angle, hence increasing the potential for valuable knowledge exchange between both consortia. Another highly motivating factor is the geographical proximity between the Dutch- Belgian (5G-Blueprint) and the French-German-Luxembourgish (5GCroCo) 5G corridors.
Means of collaboration
To facilitate the process of exchanging know-how and ideas, the projects established a collaboration framework spanning several types of activities.
One of the first steps has been the appointment of Wim Vandenberghe, the 5G- Blueprint project coordinator to the 5GCroCo advisory board. As such, Vandenberghe not only the regular 5GCroCo Advisory Board online meetings but also participates in the 5GCroCo events, such as the demonstration days held in October 2021. Similarly, 5GCroCo representatives will also attend the 5G-Blueprint demonstration events.
Upon suggestion from the EC, the two projects held a joint teleconference to discuss the details of their respective teleoperated driving use cases. The valuable discussion has led to the invitation of the 5GCroCo representatives to the 5G-Blueprint Forum on Teleoperation, which took place on December 2, 2021. 5GCroCo was one of the three projects presented during the event.
5G-Blueprint and 5GCroCo also support each other in their communication and dissemination efforts. The communication teams inform each other of relevant events and papers and cross-share each other’s articles and social media posts in an effort to reach an even larger audience and raise awareness about the work performed within both projects.
When feasible and beneficial, the collaboration and knowledge transfer goes beyond the two projects. For example, 5GCroCo and 5G-MOBIX consortia have regular exchanges focusing on service continuity for the 5G-MOBIX test site in Helmond, the Netherlands, which also benefits 5G-Blueprint.
Future plans
The projects intent to cooperate and liaise with one another throughout their whole duration. In addition to the abovementioned means of collaboration, the consortia plan to further facilitate knowledge exchange also on the technical and engineering levels using dedicated communication channels, as already demonstrated during the exchange of practical experience with 5G modems.
The projects are also committed to sharing the lessons learned not only with each other but also with a broader community, including the standardization bodies in an effort to support the creation of a strong legal, regulatory, and standardization framework across the EU. Besides, 5G-Blueprint and 5GCroCo are considering running more joint communication and dissemination activities in 2022, such as co-organizing workshops and tutorials, collocated with relevant conferences and industry events, such as the EuCNC and 6G Summit 2022.