5G Technology Testbed

5G Technology Testbed is an open innovation platform for university researchers, startups, and solution providers to explore, experiment and develop 5G use cases.

What is 5G?

With the world evolving to keep up with digital transformation and emerging trends in digital technologies from artificial intelligence, internet of things to automation and robotics, to as yet undreamt technologies, all the things we hope will make our lives easier, safer, and healthier will require high-speed always-on internet connections.

To keep up with the explosion of new connected gadgets, vehicles and machines, the mobile industry has introduced something called 5G—so named because it’s the fifth generation of wireless networking technology. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together.

Evolution of Networking Topology

5G at SDEC Openlab

Centre of Excellence for Digital Economy Openlab (Openlab) launched in August 2020 by the Honorable Chief Minister of Sarawak housed the first 5G testbed in the nation as an avenue to promote and coordinate test and research into the deployment of 5G. During the ceremony SDEC, CENTEXS, Huawei Technologies, Maxis, Sacofa and Valsa signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the establishment of the 5G testbed. The 5G testbed is leveraging on pilot network allocated by MCMC through SMA using MAXIS wireless radio network and 5G Sacofa backhaul structure.

5G Showcase and Use Case at our Openlab

Airgro Smart Farming - Utilisation of 5G in Smart Farming

One of SDEC’s start-up in Smart Farming is utilizing 5G for its integrated cloud farming for data mining of climate parameters and plant parameters to monitor the plants growth and factors affecting its growth.

AirGro Smart Farming is a climate cloner for plants that require certain condition of climate to grow, such as Cherry Tomatoes & Pink Lettuces, which require precise parameter of temperature, luminence and humidity. These parameters are control using IoT module, for monitoring & data collection.

5G Smart Pole

5G smart poles situated all over the Openlab’s compound plays the important role in maintaining the safety of the campus and not forget to mention it also track the environmental status, energy usage & savings, broadcasting feature and etc.

5G Smart Street Poles is one of infrastructure that represent Smart City’s vision. These smart poles situated all over the Openlab’s compound plays the important role in maintaining the safety of the campus and not forget to mention it features which support this Smart City’s vision, such as keep track the environmental and atmospheric status & conditions, energy usage & savings and broadcasting & multimedia features.

Robotic Arm

With seamless and fast 5G connectivity, 5G can support the absolutely most demanding ones, such as cloud robotics in cases where the cloud’s processing is relevant for the immediate motion of the robot. To make industry 4.0 a reality essentially in the manufacturing line, most industrial robots and robotic supplies have to be equipped with 4G and/or 5G communication modules as cellular communication technology is becoming an essential part of modern factories.

Our miniature of robotic arm displays in Openlab is connected to 5G wifi network and is able to demonstrate the potential use of a robotic arm in other industry than manufacturing i.e remote controlling of a robotic arm and in design industry via its ability to write, draw, grabbing things, enabling 3D printing, laser engraving and vacuum pumping.