Italian ENVELOPE Trial Site in Turin Ready for Use-Case Testing and Demonstrations

The ENVELOPE Italian trial site in Turin is pleased to announce that the B5G system is fully operational. Recent tests verified the integration of all system components and ENVELOPE innovations.

The B5G system provides coverage along Corso Castelfidardo, near Politecnico di Torino, including the nearby lateral service roads. The picture below shows the experimentation area from the gNB antenna perspective. The urban environment within the coverage area is challenging: trees, buildings and metallic poles make the quality of experience perceived by end-user devices highly variable, providing a realistic representation of real-world urban scenarios.

Besides the B5G system, the ENVELOPE technological enablers have been deployed and successfully tested. The QoD API provides tailored QoS to end-user devices, while the Edge Cloud API can dynamically instantiate applications at the edge and far-edge on request. The location of end-user devices is made available through the Devices in Area API and can be exploited by experimenters for advanced applications.

The Italian trial site includes two prototypal vehicles provided by Teoresi Group used as primary trial platforms. These autonomous vehicles are equipped with LiDAR, front and lateral cameras, and GNSS, and act as mobile experimental nodes for testing connected, cooperative and automated driving functionalities under real urban mobility conditions. Each vehicle is equipped with an Onboard Unit (OBU) provided by Fondazione LINKS, a research-driven proof-of-concept device based on COTS components integrated by LINKS and providing 5G connectivity. In one scenario, data collected by vehicle sensors are sent to the edge through the OBU to reconstruct the scene in 3D. In another scenario, data received through the 5G network are used to reconfigure vehicle routing.

In the coming months, the Italian trial site will continue testing the Italian use cases in preparation for the planned demonstrations. Further activities will include KPI measurements to support evaluation and validation.