Utilizing the VITAL-5G platform to advance 5G standalone integration with vertical industries

(2025) 2025:27 Charpentier et al. J Wireless Com Network https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-025-02456-x RESEARCH EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking Open Access Utilizing the VITAL‑5G platform to advance 5G standalone integration with vertical industries Vincent Charpentier1* , Giada Landi2 , Eleni Giannopoulou3 , Juan Brenes2 , Ronan Frizzell4 , Marius Iordache5 , Cristian Patachia5 , Panagiotis Demestichas3 , Gabriele Baldoni6 , Andrea Caruso7 , Christian Grasso7 , Giovanni Schembra7 , Luka Korsic8 , Johann M. Marquez‑Barja1    and Nina Slamnik‑Kriještorac1    *Correspondence: vincent. 1 University of Antwerp-imec, IDLab-Faculty of Applied Engineering, Sint‑Pietersvliet 7, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium 2 Nextworks, Via Livornese 1027, San Piero A Grado, 56122 Pisa, PI, Italy 3 Wings, Siggrou Avenue 189, 17121 Athens, Greece 4 Inlecom Commercial Pathways, Room 12, Gateway Business Suites, The Reeks Gateway, Killarney, Co Kerry V93 PPA0, Ireland 5 Orange Romania, Bucharest, Romania 6 ZettaScale Technologies, Paris, France 7 University of Catania, CNIT Research Unit, Catania, Italy 8 Internet Institute (ININ), Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract The advent of advanced mobile communication systems like 5G and beyond holds promise for vertical sectors, particularly in transport & logistics (T&L), by enhancing network performance and ensuring high levels of quality of service (QoS), crucial for automating and optimizing T&L processes. However, assessing the impact of 5G requires investments in network infrastructure, posing time, and return on investment uncertainties. To address this, the European project VITAL-5G offers an open, virtualized, and flexible experimentation platform that provides 3rd party vertical stakeholders the opportunity to test and validate 5G-enabled services under realistic conditions. This paper explores the VITAL-5G platform’s capabilities, detailing the infrastructure that sup‑ ports 5G standalone (SA) testing across multiple trial sites, including port and logistics environments. We highlight a subset of performed activities and experimentation campaigns, technical and operational challenges faced by 3rd party experimenters, and the potential business opportunities that emerge from 5G-enhanced services in the T&L sector. Finally, we present insights into future developments and opportuni‑ ties for extending these capabilities to other vertical sectors. Keywords: 5G SA, 5G trials, 3rd party experimentation, Vertical industries, Business opportunities in 5G 1 Introduction The transport & logistics (T&L) sector plays a pivotal role in modern production and distributed systems, significantly impacting people’s lives. However, this industry segment faces challenges with low automation and process optimization, directly affecting the efficiency and safety of T&L operations. To address these issues, pilot trials utilizing 5G mobile communication systems, edge cloud, software-defined networking (SDN)/ network function virtualization (NFV), network applications [1, 2], and OpenAPIs are being created in various European initiatives. These trials aim to develop and test various © The Author(s) 2025. 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To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Charpentier et al. J Wireless Com Network (2025) 2025:27 T&L vertical services in realistic conditions, making a substantial impact on the testing and validation of 5G-enhanced T&L applications. To this end, one of the key strategic goals of the VITAL-5G project is the establishment of an open, virtualized, and flexible experimentation facility, as illustrated in Fig. 1. This facility comprises an intelligent virtual platform, three distributed 5G testbeds, and corresponding vertical infrastructure [1, 3]. The primary objective is to facilitate testing and validation of T&L network applications under authentic conditions, leveraging 5G connectivity. VITAL-5G has identified three trial sites, namely Antwerp, Galati, and Athens, strategically chosen to replicate real-life 5G-enhanced T&L experimentation environments in bustling ports (river and sea) and warehouse settings. Each trial site incorporates 5G testbeds, comprising a 5G network and virtualized and orchestrated infrastructure designed for deploying vertical services, in conjunction with T&L infrastructure. The involvement of 3rd party experimenters who are not members of the VITAL-5G consortium (e.g., entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs), research centers, and larger companies) in the experimentation and/or the network application development, is a key aspect of the H2020 ICT-41 call [4] and hence of the VITAL5G project. VITAL-5G has the objective of engaging with diverse stakeholders, with the main focus being SMEs and entrepreneurs, but also research centers and larger industries, interested in developing vertical services and/or network applications. In the context of fostering digital inclusion for entrepreneurs, SMEs, and research centers that may lack access to digital T&L services, as well as large companies, VITAL5G offers access to diverse experimentation assets for 3rd party experimentation across its three pilot sites. This includes features of the VITAL-5G platform provided to 3rd party experimenters, enabling them to test and validate their services straightforwardly, without necessarily understanding the network. They can utilize either the vertical services developed within the project or combine them with their own, creating more complex services. In particular, VITAL-5G offers tailored and virtualized access to the network and T&L infrastructure resources via a user-friendly interface. Fig. 1 VITAL-5G system with platform and underlying network and T&L infrastructure. This figure illustrates the VITAL-5G system architecture, which integrates a central platform that is connected to three 5G infrastructures (Belgium, Romania, and Greece) to facilitate the deployment and validation of 5G-enabled applications in the T&L vertical. The VITAL-5G platform (...truncated)