Teldat and Vicomtech Drive the Future of Smart Power Grids with the 5G Industrial IoT Gateway Solution

Teldat, a leading Spanish company in connectivity and cybersecurity solutions, and Vicomtech, a technology centre specialising in applied innovation in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, are collaborating on 5G Pasarela, part of the project “Research and Development of a 5G Industrial IoT Gateway for Electricity Distribution Networks.” This initiative aims to develop a secure communications solution based on the 5G ecosystem, capable of meeting the automation and control requirements of different scenarios within future electricity distribution networks, integrating both new and existing devices, and providing edge computing capabilities to run applications closer to the end user, with lower latency and more efficient network usage.

Within 5G Pasarela, Vicomtech has contributed in three key areas: network monitoring and analytics, distributed artificial intelligence, and computing resource orchestration.

In the field of monitoring, an architecture based on the NWDAF (Network Data Analytics Function) standard has been developed to capture metrics from various components of the 5G network and expose them in a standardised way. This solution, validated in an open-source experimental 5G environment, lays the foundation for automatic network adaptation based on resource availability and facilitates real-time analytics exposure.

In the area of distributed artificial intelligence, Vicomtech has worked on deploying AI functionalities in decentralised environments that combine cloud and edge. Thanks to this approach, real-time video analytics have been executed on telecommunications devices without the need for dedicated hardware, reducing latency, costs and energy consumption. In addition, MLOps methodologies have been implemented to ensure the continuous improvement of AI models.

Finally, in the field of orchestration, an orchestration architecture has been developed for the dynamic management of distributed resources across different network layers (UE, MEC and Cloud). This architecture includes mechanisms for container deployment, migration and scaling, along with automatic load-balancing policies that ensure service continuity. The solution is supported by a virtualisation platform based on KubeEdge, complemented by an orchestration API and a web interface for comprehensive lifecycle management of applications.

“At Teldat, we firmly believe that advanced connectivity and edge intelligence are essential pillars for the digital transformation of critical infrastructures. Our collaboration with Vicomtech on the 5G Pasarela project allows us to demonstrate how 5G technology, combined with orchestration and artificial intelligence capabilities, can deliver secure, efficient and sustainable solutions for the power grids of the future. This work reinforces our commitment to innovation and to developing an ecosystem that enhances the competitiveness and modernisation of Spain’s energy sector,” says Francisco Guerrero Tur, Chief Business Officer IoT at Teldat.

“At Vicomtech, as an Applied Research Technology Centre, we have worked on transferring technology to Teldat with the goal of strengthening their competitiveness in advanced connectivity and edge intelligence. Within the 5G Pasarela framework, Vicomtech has contributed its knowledge and technology in wireless network telemetry and monitoring, as well as in the orchestration and migration of computing across different elements of the network, following the Edge-Cloud Continuum concept. This has been especially relevant in environments where compute-intensive artificial-intelligence-based processing is particularly important,” highlights Dr. Mikel Zorrilla, Director of Digital Media & Communications at Vicomtech.

The joint work carried out in 5G Pasarela has demonstrated the effective integration of 5G analytics with advanced orchestration mechanisms and artificial intelligence at the network edge, bringing computation closer to devices and improving the efficiency of smart power grids. The results have been disseminated in two international scientific publications: “Beyond NWDAF Services for Comprehensive 5G Network Analytics and Orchestration” and “Semi-automatic continuous adjustment of person detectors for public transport applications.”

With 5G Pasarela, Teldat and Vicomtech consolidate a tangible example of the impact that technological collaboration can generate in the transition towards smarter, safer and more sustainable energy infrastructures.

The project is funded through the call for proposals of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, under the 2022 Unico Sectorial 5G Programme, financed by the European Union’s Recovery Fund – NextGenerationEU, highlighting its technological relevance and the commitment to the modernisation and sustainability of Spain’s electrical infrastructures.