HT and FER Launch First 5G Campus Network in Croatia

Hrvatski Telekom and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb launched the first 5G campus network in Croatia. It allows the scientific and business community, students, and start-ups to work on development projects based on 5G technology in the field of Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence applications.

In cooperation with HT, FER will promote automation and computing projects, telecommunications and radio communications, medicine, energy, and agriculture, which rely on mobile networks. It will directly encourage further development of robotics, edge and fog computing, and distributed learning. HT has developed this project on the model of the campus networks launched by Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, aiming at developing and testing new communication technologies.

The FER's test campus network is implemented in a way that uses the 3.5GHz frequency band. The core and radio network resources are reserved exclusively for this purpose. They are logically and physically separated from the public 5G network. This makes possible the optimal network performance (speed, capacity, and latency) necessary for research projects.

"FER nurtures strong cooperation with the economy at the local and international level. With almost 250 active research projects, it is among the most sought-after partners for cooperation in the research and development of innovations. Through projects such as the Campus Network, FER prepares its students for a competitive labor market and enables them to play a proactive role in further developing the technologies of the future. At the same time, it provides the wider Croatian academic community with access to the latest technologies, which continuously contributes to increasing the number of experts in STEM", says Professor Gordan Gledec, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

“Campus networks are critical to the application of 5G technology in the industry 4.0 concept. They imply implementing a separate network infrastructure for individual industrial users, including base stations and all the necessary elements of the packet core network and their connection to the public 5G network. Cooperation with FER opens a unique technological polygon in this part of Europe for the development of solutions based on sensor technology, robotics, and the application of artificial intelligence in real-time. This opens up the possibility of new competence and technological breakthrough, both for students and researchers at FER, and for all economic entities in Croatia,“ said Boris Drilo, Member of the Management Board and CTIO of Hrvatski Telekom.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing cooperates with Hrvatski Telekom on two projects that will be presented to the public in 2021. The first project develops the possibility of drone management to modernize the monitoring, analysis, and traffic management on public roads. The second project focuses on gaming and the benefits that 5G provides in the experience of playing demanding games.