5G technology used in Liverpool

Margot James, Minister for Digital and Culture, this week visited Europe’s first dedicated 5G health and social care pilot, helping people live independently at home.

Speaking about LJMU's contribution to the project, Head of the Department of Computer Science at the university, Dr Atif Waraich, added: "The Department of Computer Science is contributing to the project by developing simulation models of 5G network traffic to help to optimise the access and utilisation of the network. The lead academics for the project are Michael Mackay, Faycal Bouhafs and myself.

This optimisation is important when potentially, hundreds of IoT devices transmit their monitoring data with high volumes of network traffic (for example high definition video). By modelling and analysing network through flow more effective configurations of network infrastructure can be developed."

Minister for Digital and Culture, Margot James, has been in Liverpool to find out how 5G technology is helping to improve the delivery of health and social care services to people in Kensington living with long-term health conditions.

73 year old Catherine Miller has epilepsy, whilst her partner 57 year old Kenneth Farrag takes medication for diabetes. The couple welcomed the minister into their home in Kensington. They both have a mild learning disability and live semi-independently in their own home, run by Community Integrated Care in Kensington.

The minister said she had some great innovation and care whilst in Liverpool: "5G has the potential to revolutionise every aspect of our lives, from increasing productivity to improving quality of life.

“Our successful Liverpool testbed is key to delivering this progress, exploring how we can harness the power of 5G connectivity to transform health and social care.”

Catherine and Kenneth are taking part in a new pilot run by Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care that’s investigating how 5G technology can better support new health and social care technologies.

As part of the trial the couple have had a Safehouse Sensor installed in their home, which detects falls, changes in temperature and unusual behaviour patterns. The technology enables Catherine to live at home as she gets older by alerting care providers if they need to visit her - removing the need for unnecessary visits.