The 5GMETA interview series, where we speak with our partners to discuss their roles and ambitions regarding the project, is back with its first autumn issue!
This time we had the chance to speak with Gianluca Rizzi, Technology architect at Wind Tre, one of the main Italian telecommunications companies active in integrated mobile, fixed telephony and Internet services. Wind Tre was born in 2016 after Wind and H3G Italia merged in a single company.
- What prompted your organisation to join the 5GMETA consortium?
Wind Tre (W3) has been involved in various research projects connected to 5GMETA, such as ICT4CART, 5G CITY, 5G ESSENCE. For W3, 5GMETA is a project with great potential and with the means for creating business opportunities in the telco sector. Moreover, the 5G network plays a fundamental role in implementing smart mobility projects. As one of the main mobile operators in Italy active in the deployment of ultra-broadband connectivity services based on optical fibre, Wind Tre can provide great expertise on new services deployment and technologies development. Over the years, W3 has indeed developed a capillary and resilient network, consisting of around 20 thousand transmission sites in “5G-ready” technology. This structure supports W3’s work in the automotive sector and builds upon Network Slicing & Edge Computing as a service model for the automotive industry.
- How do the objectives of 5GMETA project fit in with the priorities and strategies of your company?
W3’s strategy revolves around analysing business opportunities of Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) deployment, while defining the best way to allow customers to manage applications in MEC servers and manage captured/collected data.
- Tell us about the role of your company in this project.
W3 is involved in various Work Packages having to do mainly with 5G-technology development, network designing, and 5G standardisation. W3 leads task T3.1, which is responsible for 5G infrastructure preparation and upgrade. Specifically, we are dealing with the implementation of the testbed in Turin.
Moreover, W3 will offer its network coverage on a “service and device driven” basis to employ the advantages coming from the MEC usage in the designed architecture. Wind Tre role is therefore fundamental for the setup of the 5G Platform.
- Can you give an update about the latest developments?
In this period, W3’s focus is mostly on the implementation aspects related to 5G architecture deployed on the testbed in Turin. We are defining how external servers can connect to MEC while guaranteeing telco security policies.
- What are your company’s next steps in the project?
The next step is to make the testbed developed in Turin available and functional for the connection between MEC and external servers. Furthermore, we will involve our Business Department in order to define our business opportunities and steer the project towards an economically viable path.
- What are your plans to build upon these results for future initiatives?
W3 will also build upon the experience gathered in the 5GMETA project to launch innovative services using the 5G network and MEC. We will try to involve partners that develop applications to monetise data.
- Would you like to add anything more?
The project is very interesting because the interaction with other partners gives us the opportunity to shape ideas for the launch of new services. We highly appreciate the opportunity of being present at face-to-face meetings: this helps solve the biggest obstacles in a faster and more efficient way. The technical collaboration with Unimore and Links is very profitable and will bring us to interesting results.