The 30th ITS World Congress, held from 16th to 20th September 2024 in Dubai, brought together leaders from across the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and mobility sectors to discuss the latest advancements and future directions for transportation technology. As the world’s leading event focused on ITS with over 25,000 participants from across the globe, the Congress showcased the latest developments in automated, connected, and sustainable transportation. With this year’s theme "ITS: Leading the Evolution," the event especially explored how cutting-edge technologies like 5G, AI, and IoT are transforming the mobility landscape across 200+ specialist sessions, 3 plenaries and 9 regional and international forums.
Trust-IT Services was honoured to participate in the Congress this year represented by Maria Giuffrida, who presented on the critical role of standardisation in shaping the future of 5G and beyond.
5G and Beyond: The Role of Standards in Emerging Business Models
Trust-IT’s participation at the Congress was focussed in the session titled "Beyond 5G System Modelling: Standards as Enablers" held on 17th September afternoon. The session offered an interesting perspective on the growing importance of standards in the evolving 5G/B5G ecosystem. The session was organised by Eusebiu Catana of ERTICO and featured three other panellists beyond Trust-IT, namely Harm Jan Arendshort from iLabs Technologies, You-Jun Choi from the Korea Automotive Technology Institute and Mihail Gaianu from Continental. The session focused on how emerging business models rely on the creation, delivery, and capture of value through standards, but also explored the complexities of standardisation in a rapidly advancing technological environment.
Maria Giuffrida presented Trust-IT’s ongoing contributions to European and international standardisation efforts, with a particular focus highlighting key initiatives where Trust-IT plays a central role:
- 5G/6G projects like 6G start, SNS-ICE and SNS-OPS. These initiatives have developed a vertical cartographyand various tools over the years: In particular, Trust-IT has developed a comprehensive platform that maps 5G use cases across various industrial sectors. This tool, alongside a Vertical Engagement Tracker, a Standards Tracker and a KPI Radar, help stakeholders monitor key industrial associations, standardisation efforts and have an overview of both technical and programme KPIs connected to these emerging technologies.
- StandICT.eu: This EU-funded project, active since 2018, provides financial support to European standardisation experts, enabling them to influence international ICT standards bodies. Trust-IT is the technical coordinator of StandICT, which is currently running its 6th Open Call, providing opportunities for experts to contribute to key standardisation efforts across ICT sectors.
- HSbooster.eu: As the coordinator of HSbooster, Trust-IT offers free support to EU-funded projects by matching them with paid experts who provide guidance on how to valorise their research and innovation results through contributions to standardisation. Shared success stories include the TRIANGLE Project, which submitted recommendations to the ITU (now approved), and the SIMPLY Project, whose findings were presented to the ISO/TC 204 on ITS.
Through HSbooster, Trust-IT has been addressing two major challenges faced by R&I projects contributing to standardisation: the knowledge gap, where many projects lack expertise in standards, and the timing issue, as the development of standards often exceeds the lifecycle of a typical project. HSbooster provides strategic support to ensure project results can contribute to standards well beyond the end of the initial project phase as the service is available also to concluded projects.
The Importance of Standards in 5G/B5G
Trust-IT presentation also underscored the critical role of standards in ensuring the success of 5G and future technologies in areas like:
- Interoperability: ensuring different systems and devices can work together seamlessly.
- Global Consistency: providing uniformity across international markets.
- Innovation Acceleration: facilitating the rapid development and deployment of new technologies.
- Economic Growth: reducing costs and stimulating economic development.
- Security and Reliability: enhancing the dependability and safety of networks.
- Regulatory Compliance: ensuring that technologies meet global legal and regulatory standards.
- Investment Facilitation: offering a stable environment that encourages investment in new technologies.
Through the flagship initiatives presented at the ITS World Congress, Trust-IT is making an impact on how research and innovation projects contribute to the evolving standardisation landscape.
Trust-IT’s Role at the ITS World Congress
Trust-IT was invited to participate in the ITS World Congress to present its involvement in 5G/6G standardisation projects. Trust-IT is the technical coordinator of StandICT.eu and the project coordinator of HSbooster.eu through its affiliated entity, COMMpla. These projects are reducing barriers for research projects to contribute to standards, fostering innovation, and supporting Europe’s leadership in the global ICT landscape. Additionally, as a member of UNI, the Italian National Standardisation Body, Trust-IT continues to directly support key standardisation efforts, helping shape the future of global technology.
