The main objective of 5GCONTACT is to explore and increment a set of mechanisms currently under discussion in 5G standardisation, towards the development of a flexible and optimized control solution for data transmission in health scenarios. These scenarios consider the continuous sending of vital data between people and health services, while the person moves through different kinds of networks (i.e., mobile and Wi-Fi).

5GCONTACT will focus on the combination of three key 5G concepts:

First, network resources virtualization by presenting them as securely isolated network slices towards services, representing an instantiation of specific network elements configuration.

Second, the usage of network context information about the link, its status, involved devices and data, to optimize the network.

Lastly, convergent mechanisms allowing the network to be controlled independently of the type of access technology.

5GCONTACT will combine these concepts by providing convergent-enabled network slices able to operate in different types of access network, dynamically configuring the network operations using context information from both the physical and virtual network, to optimize services and network operation, with security and privacy support. This combination will be realized through the development of a single framework, exploiting the current state of the art by focusing on interfaces and standards still under discussion, complementing them with the necessary mechanisms. 5GCONTACT will have the support of stakeholders, namely Altice Labs and Altran, supporting the solution characterization and relevance, and scenario feasibility. Both represent inovation solution providers to telco operators, with whom IT has an enormous collaboration history. To ensure its coherence and integrity, 5GCONTACT will focus to ensure the relevance and innovation of the achieved technical solution. Towards that, IT will leverage its CONFIG membership, where operators and manufacturers discuss contributions to different 5G standardisation bodies, by presenting 5GCONTACT for discussion. In addition, the project will develop a proof of concept to validate and improve the technological solution, as well as to disseminate it. In scope of 5G, the technological foundations of this project, namely network slicing, context and network convergence, are still under isolated standardisation development, with evident integration gaps. 5GCONTACT will distinguish itself through a multilateral technological approach that combines these three aspects, applying them in a health communications scenario. This way, the project aims to provide evidences, complements and extensions to functional elements and their interfaces, under scope of 5G, with the objective of providing new communication scenarios for health data, with an application potential in other areas as well.