The Port of Barcelona, pioneer in the adoption of 5G technology

The Port of Barcelona has launched a pioneering project on an international scale that combines new 5G technology and artificial intelligence with the aim of optimizing ship entry and exit operations and improving the safety, sustainability, and competitiveness of a key infrastructure for the Catalan economy.

The pilot test, called 5G Maritime, it allows validating the location of ships in real time and with great precision and having a lot of information to facilitate docking and entry and exit operations from the terminals. Specifically, with the technological solution, the geoposicioning of the bow and stern of the vessels is obtained at all times, enabling remote navigation assistance. Thanks to 5G, the pilot, from the control tower, will be able to give precise indications of the speed, course and all the movements the ship must make for a correct docking or to move through the terminals with maximum safety.

To carry out this project, the Port of Barcelona has incorporated various cutting-edge technologies: a 5G network (which guarantees ultra-fast and low-latency communications), artificial intelligence, and cloud computing with edge computing technology, which consists of making computational processes happen at the edge of the network closest to the user to avoid sending massive data to distant servers or data centers.

IBM participates in the pilot, having developed the artificial intelligence model to recognize ships. For its part, Huawei has supplied high-performance cameras and 5G terminals to capture all ship movements in real time. Vodafone provides the commercial 5G network, which transmits the images to the server and which IBM's software subsequently recognizes and interprets.

"Having a network of cameras connected via 5G technology will represent a significant advance in terms of safety for maritime traffic in the Port of Barcelona," explained the president of the infrastructure, Mercè Conesa.

According to the Minister of Digital Policies, Jordi Puigneró, with this initiative, the Port of Barcelona "accelerates its digitalization and becomes a reference SmartPort."