Nokia, UTS Unveil 5G Futures Lab in Sydney

Nokia has announced the opening of its state-of-the-art 5G Futures Lab, officiated by the Hon. Paul Fletcher, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Tech Lab campus in Sydney, Australia.

Equipped with the latest 5G products from the award-winning Nokia AirScale radio portfolio and optical and IP technologies, the 5G Futures Lab powers campus-wide 5G coverage to allow for the development, testing and demonstration of potential 5G use cases both in the lab, and in the field.

During a tour of the UTS Tech Lab facilities, guests were able to experience the first of these joint Nokia UTS research collaborations - the ‘5G Connected Cobot’ project, one of 19 recipients of the Federal Government’s 5G Innovation Initiative grants announced in August 2021.

Here, researchers will explore how 5G and Edge Computing can be used to offload the processing power of a Collaborative Robot (Cobot) into the Nokia Edge Cloud, demonstrating power and cost savings to the Cobot operation through an extended battery life, as well as access to a much more powerful processor at the Edge to increase its capabilities.

Guests were also shown through the 5G Futures Lab by a 5G connected ProxyTwin™ of Nokia Oceania’s CTO Dr. Robert Joyce running on a Temi Telepresence Robot. Using the 5G and Edge Compute capabilities seen in the Cobot project, the ProxyTwin™ engaged in live conversation with the Minister and guests, responding to questions about the facilities and 5G in real-time. It was created for Nokia by Sydney start-up ProxyTwin to demonstrate the exciting potential of 5G-powered artificial intelligence applications. When combined with 5G, the ProxyTwin™ application can offer new use cases for industries such as remote health, education, call centre, aged care, tourism and hospitality, and emergency management.

The 5G Futures Lab is equipped to showcase the best of 5G technology available today, providing insight into the future of 5G. Featuring the largest permanent collection of Nokia Radio, IP and Optical equipment in Oceania, the lab is also directly connected to UTS’ large Antenna Chamber, where Nokia can test the potential of its latest 5G radio technologies such as the Nokia 5G Smart Node, recently launched into the Australian market.

The Hon. Paul Fletcher, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, said: “I congratulate everyone at Nokia and UTS involved in this wonderful example of collaboration between business and academia. I’m very pleased this joint initiative is now officially open and I look forward to seeing what will come out of it in the future.”

Professor Glenn Wightwick, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Innovation and Enterprise, said: “UTS is delighted to be working with Nokia on the 5G Futures Lab. Industry collaborations such as these allow our academics and students to work with state-of-the-art technology and real industry problems, in turn inspiring the creation of new applications and businesses.”

Dr. Robert Joyce, Chief Technology Officer at Nokia Oceania, said: “We’re excited about this partnership with UTS and what we can achieve together. Here at the 5G Futures Lab we can push the boundaries of 5G, developing new 5G use cases for industry and consumers as well as testing the latest innovative Nokia products for our customers.”