The 1st International Conference on 5G for Ubiquitous Connectivity which took place on November 26–27, 2014 Levi, Finland, has successfully came to the end. Endorsed by EAI and technically sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, the event was motivated by the exponentially growing demand for finding solutions to the increasing capacity of wireless networks.
The conference was a real point of convergence between academicians and practitioners: while regular tracks focused more on academicians’ perspective, the four featured keynote lectures and panels have been delivered by the practitioners from the well-known multinational corporations such as Nokia, Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Huawei, Keysight Technologies, and EE ltd. Commenting on the importance of cross-sector collaboration in the field of 5G, the conference General Chair Prof. Matti Latva-aho, Chair of the Department of Communications Engineering and Professor of Digital Transmission Techniques at the University of Oulu, highlighted that there are several issues on which industry and academia can liaise in terms of the future development of 5G technologies. According to Prof. Latva-aho, at the moment there are several cross-sector projects both at European and national levels. However, the important point is that both sectors understand well the major targets and challenges and head toward experimenting the new systems. Commenting on the same topic, Johan Torsner, Research Manager at Ericsson Finland, highlighted that while the industry has painted a big picture of the requirements posed by 5G, the academia has an important role of elaborating solutions to meet these requirements . Therefore, the synergy between the two sectors is simply natural.
The two-day conference covered various topics such as spectrum regulation, transceiver technologies, future access networks, and many more. 5G technologies in the context of these areas are expected to have an enormous impact on our everyday lives. As noted by Keynote Speaker Kari Leppänen, 5G Director at Huawei Technologies, among the novelties 5G is going to bring into our lives are faster speed, new services, and hugely improved experience with entertainment technologies. In particular, 5G could enhance positioning services and generate revenue streams for operators, and, perhaps lead to the dissemination of self-driving cars. A lot of things would become possible, Mr. Leppänen notes.
Summing up, the conference was an opportunity to recap the state-of-art of 5G and share ideas on its evolvement. The 5G conference was only a point of departure for the long journey into the realm of advanced computing: the second edition of the conference is to take place on November 25–27, 2015 in London, UK.
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