At the start of the PolimiRUN Spring 2023, which took place on Sunday May 28, 2023 in Milan, two 360 cameras were present, allowing the preparation of the runners in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci and the passage under the start arch to be watched live via streaming on the Politecnico di Milano YouTube channel. The cameras were 5G-connected at a 26 GHz frequency via the infrastructure of the High Frequency Campus Lab (HFCLab) of the Politecnico di Milano, coordinated by Prof. Antonio Capone and Prof. Umberto Spagnolini of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between HFCLab and Sky Italia, which, together with other partners, are developing the application in a project supported by the Italian Ministry of Enterprise and Trade (MIMIT).
The High Frequency Campus Lab of the Politecnico di Milano was established with the aim of creating an open experimental platform in the spaces of the university's Leonardo campus dedicated to high-frequency radio access networks, such as the millimetre-wave frequencies licensed for 5G. The aim is to create an environment of mutual fertilisation between researchers from academia and industry, as well as an experimentation platform dedicated to the growth of skills and teaching, aimed at attracting students interested in telecommunications.
High-frequency access technologies represent a compulsory direction in the development of radio networks following the saturation of the lower frequency spectrum and the increasing bandwidth requirements of applications. A great deal has been invested in research in this field in recent years, and Italy has confirmed international levels of excellence, resulting from a long tradition both in academia and in the industrial background. However, the objective difficulties in implementing the technology in the field, due to the difficult propagation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves, require a renewed effort based on field experience and visions that extend from the single component to the entire system.
HFCLab has the institutional patronage of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (MIMIT) and collaborates with the Ugo Bordoni Foundation and the Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente (ARPA) Lombardia. The first nucleus of the laboratory's operating platform was established thanks to the joint efforts of Athonet, Fastweb and Huawei, founding members of the laboratory, and the research groups of the Telecommunications area of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano.