SK Telecom today announced that it will participate in the 2017 GSMA Mobile World Congress to be held from February 27 to March 2, at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. The company has set this year's theme as "Connect Everything" and will be showcasing a wide variety of innovative technologies and services that will transform people’s lives in the future.

 

At its booth located in Hall 3 (3H10), SK Telecom will display ‘5G Connected Car,’ a vehicle with 5G connectivity and services; artificial intelligence (AI) platform NUGU and NUGU-powered devices; technologies and services for IoT-dedicated networks; and immersive media based on virtual reality technologies

 

■ 5G Connected Car

 

SK Telecom will display ‘T5,’ which is the world’s first 5G connected car the company has successfully demonstrated in Korea in November 2016. Connected car, realized through a combined set of key 5G technologies, dramatically enhances driving safety and provides immersive in-vehicle entertainment services via the 5G network that supports ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency transmission of massive data. In November 2016, SK Telecom has built the world’s largest 5G testbed at BMW driving center located in Yeongjong Island and demonstrated interworking between the end-to-end 5G system and the 5G Connected Car.

 

Moreover, on February 6, 2017, SK Telecom has achieved 3.6Gbps transmission speed at 28GHz band for a connected vehicle moving at 170 kilometers per hour. The 3.6Gbps of data rate enhances the stability of connected car services by improving image recognition and V2X (Vehicle to Everything Communication) technologies. That is, a vehicle can communicate, in real time, with other vehicles, traffic lights and surveillance cameras to understand and respond to unexpected situations and obstacles in a much shorter time.

 

Besides the 5G Connected Car, SK Telecom will also showcase federated network slicing, a technology the company has successfully demonstrated jointly with Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson, for the first time in the world, on February 14, 2017. In 5G, network slicing will allow the operator to configure an end-to-end network that provides the desired overall functionality and service parameters. Federated network slicing extends this concept to a visited network, meaning that customers will be able to enjoy the same quality service while travelling to a different country. At SK Telecom’s booth, visitors will be able to witness how federated network slices can be created, managed, and terminated in the form of NS-as-a-Service (Network Slice as a Service). The created slices can be used in various applications, including V2X and connected cars. 

 

Meanwhile, SK Telecom will also participate in the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) forum - to be held in Barcelona from February 21 to 23 - to engage in discussions on 5G-based autonomous driving services and platform.

 

Furthermore, Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom, will take part in the MWC Conference titled “5G Beyond the Hype: Value and Building Blocks.” Park will share SK Telecom’s vision and roadmap for 5G commercialization and talk about differentiated values 5G is expected to bring to customers. He will also discuss 5G cooperation with CTOs of global ICT companies including Nokia and Ericsson.

 

■ Artificial Intelligence & Smart Home

 

At MWC 2017, SK Telecom will showcase NUGU, a voice-activated AI platform that understands and processes the Korean language, as well as intelligent devices powered by NUGU. The company will also demonstrate interworking between NUGU speaker and Aibril, a Watson-based AI service.

 

In September 2016, SK Telecom has launched an intelligent personal assistant speaker based on NUGU. Since then, the company has been constantly upgrading the platform, while carrying out studies on the generation AI devices powered by NUGU.

 

Visitors will be able to gain a first-hand experience of the NUGU speaker, including its ‘smart IoT hub’ feature that enables voice control of diverse smart home* devices such as IPTV, air purifier and gas valve.

 

*Since launching its first smart home compatible device in May 2015, SK Telecom has so far launched over 70 different smart home products under partnerships with 60 companies throughout the globe. As the leader of the smart home market in Korea, the company is also working closely with construction companies to develop its presence in the enterprise market.  

 

The company will showcase a desktop type AI device by adding image recognition and hand posture recognition technologies to voice recognition engine/technology. Unlike other AI devices, it has a head embedded with a camera and a screen, and can be easily controlled via hand/finger postures. Going forward, the device will be able to generate rich information and emotional expressions by utilizing head movements and screen graphics.

 

Through the application of its own intelligent image recognition solution, SK Telecom plans to build a personalization system based on facial recognition. Once built, the system will offer a tailored service for each and every member of a family.

 

SK Telecom will also display Toy Bot, a robot for kids. Applied with the Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) solution, Toy Bot offers a calling feature.

 

Moreover, under cooperation with SK C&C, the information technology arm of the SK Group, SK Telecom will also demonstrate interworking between NUGU speaker and SK C&C’s Aibril, a Watson-based AI service, to enable the speaker to recognize English as well. Building on this, SK Telecom will continue to cooperate with SK C&C in the area of artificial intelligence to further strengthen its competitiveness.

 

Going forward, SK Telecom will not only expand its NUGU-compatible smart home product line-up, but will also develop and offer an intelligent smart home service that automatically suggests/implements personalized service for each individual. This will be made possible through the application of machine learning technology, which conducts comprehensive analysis of a wide range of information including device use history, lifestyle pattern and indoor/outdoor environment.

 

“While making aggressive efforts to develop innovative AI technologies, SK Telecom will continue to make efforts to expand the AI ecosystem by joining hands with diverse companies across the world,” said Park Myung-soon, Senior Vice President and Head of Future Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom.

 

Meanwhile, on February 27, 2017, SK Telecom’s CTO Alex Jinsung Choi will participate in the MWC’s AI-related conference titled “Artificial Intelligence – Chatbots and Virtual Assistants” to discuss the future of the AI industry with CTOs of global AI firms including Google and IBM. Choi will give a presentation on SK Telecom’s AI platform ‘NUGU’.

 

■ IoT

 

In June 2016, SK Telecom completed the nationwide deployment of LoRa network in Korea. Since then, the company has been focusing on providing IoT platforms while presenting various real-life applications of IoT technology based on its nationwide LoRa network.

 

At MWC 2017, SK Telecom will showcase LoRa gateway and module, and demonstrate various adaptable IoT services centered on metering, tracking and monitoring.

proposing standards for LoRa roaming interworking

 

SK Telecom is also playing an active role in the establishment of international standards for LoRa roaming. At MWC 2017, the company will demonstrate a location-tracking service enabled via LoRa roaming between Korea and Spain using candidate technologies for standardization currently being discussed within the LoRa Alliance.

 

In addition, ThingPlug, an integrated IoT platform based on OneM2M standard will also be on the show. ThingPlug allows people to easily develop IoT services and apply them to their real lives. The strength of ThingPlug lies in its ability to establish connections with any device and application based on global IoT standards.

 

■ Media Platform

 

SK Telecom will unveil its 360-degree live broadcast platform named ‘360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming Platform (or 360 VR Live)’ at the MWC.

 

360 VR Live is an innovative end-to-end broadcast system that enables users to produce and livestream ultra-high-definition (UHD) 360-degree virtual reality (VR) video with low latency using a 360-degree camera. The platform produces UHD VR content through its differentiated stitching technology. When it comes to creating 360-degree visuals, it is important to seamlessly stitch multiple videos or images taken by the 360 camera. Based on multi-band blending algorithm, the platform stitches images in multi layers to produce a seamless 360 VR content without any distortion. In terms of _frame rate, it supports 60 _frames per second (FPS), which is translated into two times higher image quality than that of its competitors.

 

Moreover, 360 Live VR has significantly reduced the bandwidth required for transmitting 360 video data. Generally, live streaming of 360 VR video requires up to six times greater bandwidth than traditional broadcasting. However with the platform, the size of the 360 VR video file is reduced by 35 percent, while not compromising the image quality thanks to dynamic tiling.

 

In addition, applied with ‘T Live Streaming,' an innovative real-time streaming technology developed by SK Telecom, 360 VR Live creates a better environment for live broadcasting of 360-degree VR video by dramatically reducing latency from over 20 seconds to less than five seconds.

 

■ T.um Mobile

 

SK Telecom brings T.um Mobile, a travelling ICT museum, to Barcelona to provide Spanish children with the chance to experience cutting-edge technologies.

 

T.um Mobile will be opened as part of the Youth Mobile Festival (YoMo) Barcelona at Fira Montjuic, from February 27 to March 2, 2017. The GSMA and Mobile World Capital Barcelona launched YoMo as part of Mobile World Congress to inspire young people to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, art/design, and math (STEAM) disciplines.

 

T.um Mobile will offer smart robot-based coding classes at different levels of difficulty. Moreover, it will feature three different ICT experience zones designed to enable children to easily understand technologies that will become mainstream in the upcoming era of 5G such as virtual reality, augmented reality and holograms.