A London Met lecturer organised a conference on 5G mobile technology, in conjunction with the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Date: 20 April 2018
Professor Bal Virdee, who lectures in wireless communications technology at London Met, organised conference on 5G mobile technology at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) on 24 January.
The conference featured a panel of industry experts, academics, policy makers, CTOs and regulators (see list below) involved in developing this pioneering mobile technology. It gave participants an insight into the future of mobile technology and the impact that 5G will have on the UK’s digital economy.
Bal is currently facilitating the dissemination of the latest technological developments on 5G. He said: “We are now on the cusp of a 5G revolution. This technology will be strikingly different from its predecessors. Earlier evolutions improved the speeds of connections and previous generations of mobile technology were mainly focussed on voice, data and video. However, the move to 5G will mean much more.”
The one-day event focused on systems, standards and policies required to bring 5G to market. It included informative talks by industry professionals, UK government, CTOs and professors, who covered a range of topics, including 5G network architecture, 5G for transport, 5G for automotive, and UK Government support for the 5G revolution.
Bal said: “The UK Government is taking a keen interest in the development of 5G mobile networks, to ensure the UK takes the lead, and remains a leader.”
Adding, “In last Spring’s budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer awarded a £16m grant to three British universities – UCL, Surrey and Bristol - who were represented at this conference.”
This is the fourth conference in conjunction with the IET on 5G that Bal has organised and chaired over the past four years. The presentations were filmed and are available at IET.tv website.
Prof Mike Short CBE
Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Trade, Consultant for Telefonica, UK
Prof Mischa Dohle
Head of Centre for Telecommunications Research, King's College London
Dr Hamid Karimi
Director, Corporate Strategy, Huawei Technologies
Scott Bailey
Telecoms Directorate, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Bob Driver
Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Wireless Limited
Prof Maziar Nekovee
Professor of Telecommunication and Mobile Technologies, Head of Department of Engineering and Design, University of Sussex
Andy Sutton
Principal Network Architect, EE
Dimitra Simeonidou
Professor of High Performance Networks, University of Bristol, CTO Bristol is Open
Philippe Thouvenin
CTO Thales
Tim Lane
Principal Strategy and Innovation Manager, Network Rail Telecom and Chairman
Klaus Moessner
Professor in Cognitive Networks, University of Surrey
Ray McConnell
CTO Blu Wireless Technology
5G is the coming fifth-generation wireless broadband technology based on the IEEE802.11ac standard. An important goal of 5G is to erase the differences between wireline and wireless networking to accommodate the growing mobility of network users.
5G will provide better speeds and coverage than the current 4G.