The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the benchmark global mobile technology and communications event which brings together companies, institutions and experts in the sector to present the latest innovations. In this edition, MWC welcomed more than 100,000 attendees from all over the world, solidifying it as a unmissable meeting point for the tech industry. As the host city, Barcelona took advantage of this edition to demonstrate its commitment to digitalisation and the improvement of public services via the implementation advanced technologies.

This year, the IMI participated with three talks on smart security applied to urban infrastructures with the IRIS project, the digitalisation of social benefits via a chatbot and the rollout of 5G networks for more efficient, accessible connectivity. They were all unveiled at Barcelona City Council’s space at MWC25, ‘Beat Barcelona’.

Smart security with the IRIS project

The IRIS project, an initiative funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, was presented on Monday 3 March. The goal of this project is to guarantee cybersecurity in smart cities via the integration of IoT and OT environments with computer networks. Barcelona was one of the pilot cities which implemented a platform capable of preventing accidents between pedestrians and personal mobility vehicles in high-traffic areas, especially at tram stops.

The system uses Cisco Cyber Vision to detect threats in real time to guarantee the protection of critical infrastructures and apply the concept of Zero Trust to avoid vulnerabilities. Plus, the implementation of the project in Barcelona also includes sensors and artificial intelligence to anticipate and mitigate risks in public spaces to improve urban security.

Kevin Sangüesa, Renee Serral and Mariano Lamarc all participated in presenting the IRIS project, solidifying Barcelona’s leadership in managing cybersecurity applied to smart cities.

Rollout of 5G in Barcelona

The talk on the rollout of very high capacity (5G) networks in city-owned infrastructures was held on 5 March. The participants included our colleagues Paco Rodríguez, Virginia Espinosa and Olga Díaz, along with representatives of three operators: Jaime Abril, head of Business Development and Products at Vantage Towers; Rafael Cano, Head of Infrastructure Engineering at Totem Towerco; and Ignasi Ballarín, Head of Engineering at Cellnex Telecom.

During the session, the speakers outlined the rollout of these networks as part of the European Gigabit Infrastructure Act and the implications of this act for cities and operators. The limitations of the act, such as the restrictions in the size and power of small cells, and how they affect the rollout of 5G infrastructure were debated. Likewise, the Barcelona City Council’s initiatives to comply with this European regulation and facilitate the rollout were also outlined,

stressing the key role played by Barcelona City Council in this process, especially in the America’s Cup, where new infrastructure models were explored to boost coverage on the waterfront. This rollout used innovative techniques, such as the implementation of distributed systems of small antennas on urban furniture to guarantee the quality of the service and establish a model that can be replicated in other cities.

With these talks, Barcelona demonstrated its commitment to technological innovation on different fronts. In both urban security and cybersecurity with the IRIS project, and socially with the chatbot for economic benefits and the rollout of 5G networks, the city is gaining ground as a European benchmark in the digital transformation and the improvement in public services.