A partnership between the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Three Ireland, Ericsson and Samsung is using 5G Standalone technology to develop novel solutions in a range of areas including smart agriculture, sport and personal safety.
5G Standalone is the next generation of 5G technology, according to Karl McDermott, head of IoT and 3IoT with Three. It operates with a 5G dedicated core network, providing much faster data transfer speeds, minimal latency and enabling higher device density and capacity. It also offers ‘network slicing’, which allows for the creation of what are effectively dedicated private networks for business and other users.
“Our relationship with TUS dates back to 2023 when we were the first in Ireland to launch 5G Standalone,” McDermott says. “We had the technology and were looking for problems to solve with it. TUS has relationships with lots of companies with problems we wanted to solve and has staff and students who can develop solutions.”
The partnership has seen Three install a dedicated 5G Standalone testbed at the university’s Athlone campus. “The 5G Standalone deployment provides our students with state-of-the-art facilities to prototype solutions on behalf of our industry partners,” says Dr Enda Fallon, head of the Department of Computing and Software Engineering at TUS. “It is one of the few deployments of its type in Europe. Our students are solving real problems, for real customers using real infrastructure.”
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According to Fallon, the key advantage of 5G Standalone is its guaranteed quality of service. “Out in very remote rural areas you need that if you are using Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) based applications which are hosted in the cloud. Network reliability is critical for real time applications like autonomous tractors working in fields.”
What differentiates TUS is the day one ready skills of its graduates, he adds. “In particular, it is the way those skills are achieved using problem-based learning and research-informed course provision within a culture of teamwork and innovation.”
The university engages with local companies to help them understand the potential of new technologies like 5G Standalone. “We want to create a feedback loop in which local industry and communities not only understand but demand technical innovation.”
In the smart agriculture area, the iTarra tractor is a fully autonomous or semi-autonomous unit that was designed and built by a local company in Roscommon. “It is a brilliant example of the use of 5G standalone technology,” says Fallon. The tractors can use real-time information on soil and other conditions to apply fertiliser only to where it’s needed in a field, he adds. From a health and safety perspective, it can be programmed to automatically cut out if a child or other human enters the field where it is operating.
Autonomous machinery will have an increasingly important role to play in agriculture due to labour shortages and growing demand for agricultural produce, according to Fallon. “Agriculture has declined from 24 per cent of the total workforce in Ireland in 1973 to just 4 per cent in 2022,” he points out. “By 2050, global food demand is expected to increase by 60 per cent.”
In sport, he points out that video assistant referee (VAR) technology is quite expensive and not available to smaller clubs and organisations at present. “5G Standalone can provide low cost ubiquitous solutions available to all. We can create personalised and localised solutions to meet the specific needs of particular sports. A prime example would be the challenge for referees with the new rules in GAA. Using cloud-based optical recognition the referee can be informed in real time of breaches of frequently changing rules.”
It could also inform the referee if a score was worth one or two points.
For personal safety, Fallon notes that many athletes and ordinary people go for training or recreational runs in rural or remote areas. The Angel on My Shoulder concept enables a small remote drone to follow the runner as they train. “The solution uses the high capacity 5G network to stream content to a cloud-based service where a personal safety or health risk assessment is undertaken,” he explains. “If assistance is required appropriate support will be contacted immediately. The guaranteed QoS and latency of 5G Standalone means that immediate assistance can be provided if required.”
The partnership has been highly successful from Three’s perspective, according to McDermott. “A lot of our customers are looking to research uses for 5G Standalone and we can introduce them to TUS. We have the technology; TUS has the knowledge and research capability and is very good at working with start-ups and other companies. One of the great things about TUS is that it spans multiple regions. We can also bring our own engineering teams into the conversations between the companies and TUS. Very exciting to be at the leading edge of research into this technology.”
