Powering the Smart City Revolution: ASTRI

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) is developing a series of 5G-enabling hardware and software solutions in partnership with its ecosystem partners. ASTRI  showcased a series of its latest 5G innovations at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019 last week (26 to 28 June 2019).

ASTRI’s innovations have been developed in partnership with leading industry players such as Intel, HKT, QCT, China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI), and China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK). Its tools, platforms and applications help develop world-class smart cities.

ASTRI was set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2000 with the mission of enhancing Hong Kong’s competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research. It is Hong Kong’s largest R&D Institute and its strategic focus covers five areas of applications: Financial Technologies, Intelligent Manufacturing, Health Technologies, Smart City, and Application Specific Integrated Circuits through its mandate as the Hong Kong branch of the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre (CNERC).

ASTRI also showcased some of the following technologies and solutions at the show with its partners:

• 5G end-to-end system (5G C-RAN base station and 5G Core)

ASTRI demonstrated a live 5G connection on a commercial 5G-enabled smartphone, using its end-to-end 5G C-RAN and Mobile Core system. The solution has been adopted by a series of 5G network equipment manufacturers based in the Mainland and overseas. The solution also enables public and private network builders to introduce 5G-powered Smart City applications for smart living, smart manufacturing and smart mobility.

• Edge Computing and AI for road safety (jointly with Intel)

a smart roadside infrastructure with artificial intelligence and visual sensing capabilities. ASTRI’s C-V2X Edge Software, deployed on Intel’s Smart Roadside Computing Unit, can recognise vehicles, people and objects in real time. By issuing real time alerts, this solution will minimise accidents and greatly improve road safety.

• Biometrics Optical See Through (OST) Head Mount Display (HMD)

ASTRI’s Biometrics OST HMD is the world’s first turnkey solution to integrate extremely high image quality, smooth human machine interaction and security identification features. Its iris recognition feature performs high security biometric authentication, and eye-gazing tracking capability provides accurate focus point detection and user flexibility.

• Virtual Mobile Core Network auto scaling with ONAP DataLake (jointly with QCT and CMRI)

This architecture enables auto scaling by using the ONAP DataLake with analytics, which can provide intelligent scale-in and scale-out mechanisms for virtual mobile core network operations.

• Intelligent Blockchain-based IoT Platform (jointly with CMHK at GSMA Innovation City)

ASTRI collaborates with China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) to bring the Blockchain IoT to the live network with CMHK’s latest IoT management system – OneNET. The platform uses secured data exchange for the data provider to share IoT data with integrity. Through connecting the data providers and consumers, the platform can monetize and strategically exploit the potentially enormous value of the vast amount of IoT data. The platform can help companies and individuals to unleash huge business potential by acting as a trusted intermediary to offer data exchange with integrity among third parties.

Source: Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)