Orange, in partnership with the CAMPUS Research Institute of the University Polytechnica of Bucharest (UPB), has opened the first 5G laboratory in Romania.
The 5G Lab is part of an international initiative by Orange that aims to support economic players and researchers in discovering the value, benefits and opportunities brought by 5G and to develop solutions that will make a difference in a digital economy.
The 5G Lab, hosted in the CAMPUS Research Institute, is equipped with technologies that will be available commercially in future, but can only be tested in a lab for now:
• 5G Standalone Private Mobile Radio – a core component of the 5G infrastructure;
• 5G New Radio
• Open RAN and Open core components that separate the software from the hardware, virtualising radio or the core networks, and can run the commercial off the shelf kit and open interfaces;
• Edge computing which guaranteed latencies and throughputs, as required by services and applications.
The architecture available in the 5G Lab supports the digitization of economic sectors such as agritech, smart cities, autonomous cars, transport and logistics, e-health, cyber security, green technology, and many others.
Several Romanian companies, startups and researchers are already carrying out 5G projects with a focus on the safety and health of citizens, remote coordinated river and maritime transport, urban mobility, precision agriculture and the future of collaboration in Industry 4.0.
On the laboratory's website, 5glab.orange.ro, several calls for projects and collaborations will be opened, encouraging all interested parties to take advantage of the open infrastructure and the expertise of the laboratory team. There will be 3 types of calls for projects: for companies, for startups and for research.
The launch in Romania of the 5G Lab is part of a bigger initiative developed by Orange Group, and involves launching 9 Orange 5G laboratories across Europe. These labs aim to help economic players to better understand the opportunities, value and benefits of 5G. Companies and start-ups are able to test their current solutions and services and think about new uses while taking advantage of an ecosystem to co-innovate and start changing their business model and processes.
Emmanuel Chautard, Chief Technology Officer Orange Romania, said, "Today, Orange offers the best commercial connectivity services, but we know that in order to maintain the highest standards we must be one step ahead. Through the 5G Lab, we are bringing to the present, in a laboratory environment, a network architecture unique in Romania, that is open for testing.
The innovation and research projects we carry out allow us to discover together with our customers and partners how the networks of the future can contribute to the creation of advanced digital services and enhanced user experience, the improvement of processes, a better management of resources and green efficiency.”
The Orange 5G network is available in Bucharest, with 100% 5G coverage, and in 14 other cities: Bragadiru, Brașov, Chitila, Cluj-Napoca, Constanța, Iași, Măgurele, Otopeni, Ovidiu, Pantelimon, Popești-Leordeni, Predeal, Timisoara and Voluntari.