Motivation & Scope
The fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is positioned to address the demands and business contexts of IMT 2020 and beyond . Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), industry fora and research projects have identified as common ground the need to i) enhance the network architecture, in view of emerging technologies and features , and ii) push the envelope of performance, from network and user perspective, towards ultimate capabilities far beyond 4G, in support of a wide range of innovative use cases for various types of verticals. In this direction, under the 5G PPP Programme, Phase 1 projects have mapped the 5G requirements to specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and formulated the overall 5G architecture that will achieve these KPIs. The ongoing 5G PPP Phase 2 projects are extending the work done in Phase 1 projects, by contributing to a selective experimentation of different technologies needed for the validation of the 5G architecture. With significant contribution from the research work of 5G PPP projects, 3GPP released recently early versions of the 5G standard incorporating end-to-end advances for the mobile network. In addition, the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA), has already defined the roadmap towards the 5G Pan-European trials .
Irrefutably, the “Genesis of 5G” has entered the crucial phase of experimentation, and currently faces the challenge to validate the 5G network KPIs and verify the 5G technologies with an end-to-end approach. Towards this objective, a key challenge is to integrate all the highly diverse results and technologies from EU, global as well as internal (corporate) R&D projects, to “glue together” the 5G picture and unveil the potential of a truly full-stack, end-to-end 5G platform, able to meet the defined KPI targets.
In this context, the main goal of 5GENESIS will be to validate 5G KPIs for various 5G use cases, in both controlled set-ups and large-scale events. This will be achieved by bringing together results from a considerable number of EU projects as well as the partners’ internal R&D activities in order to realise an integrated End-to-end 5G Facility.
The 5GENESIS Facility, as a whole, will:
- Implement and verify all evolutions of the 5G standard, via an iterative integration and testing procedure;
- Engage a wide diversity of technologies and chain innovations that span over all domains, achieving full-stack coverage of the 5G landscape;
- Unify heterogeneous physical and virtual network elements under a common coordination and openness framework exposed to experimenters from the vertical industries and enabling end-to-end slicing and experiment automation; and
- Support further experimentation projects, in particular those focused on vertical markets.
Adopting the early releases of the 5G Architecture , the 5GENESIS will define a 5G experimentation blueprint, that will serve as a common architectural reference. This blueprint will also include an openness framework, with APIs for exposing the facility to verticals for experimentation. By realising/instantiating this blueprint, 5GENESIS platforms will build its Facility on built on five diverse in terms of capabilities –yet fully interoperable- experimentation platforms distributed across Europe and interconnected (Figure 1). The platforms will emerge as the evolution of existing testbeds, already owned and operated by the 5GENESIS partners, suitable for large-scale field experimentation. Most of them are located in cities already identified by the 5G-PPP as “5G Trials Cities”.
The five platforms of the 5GENESIS Facility, and their main features/orientation, are:
- The Athens Platform. An edge-computing-enabled shared radio infrastructure (gNBs and small cells), with different ranges and overlapping coverage that are supported by an SDN/NFV enabled core, to showcase secure content delivery and low latency applications in large public-events.
- The Málaga Platform. Automated orchestration and management of different network slices over multiple domains, on top of the 5G NR and fully virtualised core network to showcase mission critical services in the lab and in outdoor deployments.
- The Limassol Platform. Radio interfaces of different characteristics and capabilities, combining terrestrial and satellite communications, integrated to showcase service continuity and ubiquitous access in underserved areas.
- The Surrey Platform. Multiple radio access technologies that can support massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), including 5G NR and NB-IoT, combined under a flexible Radio Resource Management (RRM) and spectrum sharing platform to showcase massive IoT services.
- The Berlin platform. Ultra dense areas covered by various network deployments, ranging from indoor nodes to nomadic outdoor clusters, coordinated via advanced backhauling technologies to showcase immersive service provisioning.
Key results and lessons learned from the experimentation in the platforms will be used in the project to develop and release a Portable 5G Demonstrator for live demonstration of the 5G PPP KPIs’ feasibility in multiple dissemination and communication events.
Figure 1:
The 5GENESIS End-to-End Facility
Specific Objectives
The overall vision of 5GENESIS, as highlighted in the previous section, can be decomposed to discrete specific measurable objectives, which are listed in the present section. Table 1 to follow summarises the associated metrics and target values to be reached in order to verify the fulfilment of each objective.
Objective 1:
Design and establish a 5G experimentation blueprint that unifies diverse 5G components to support verticals over an end-to-end virtualised and sliced network.
A common blueprint/reference architecture is considered crucial for the unification of the technologies brought in 5GENESIS under a common management and orchestration (MANO) umbrella. Lead partners of the 5GENESIS consortium, NCSRD, ATOS, LMI, and TID, have already developed management and orchestration components for SDN/NFV systems and will adapt them in a reference experimentation blueprint to suit the specific requirements of the 5G network. The 5GENESIS experimentation blueprint will:
- Provide an innovative yet feasible end-to-end chaining of 5G technologies, such as the SDN/NFV, infrastructure layer (5G NR, core, front haul and backhaul, etc.,) MEC, and features, such as the network management automation.
- Incorporate an openness framework with the required APIs for the verticals.
- Define the required interfaces for interworking with other instantiations of the blueprint, making the facility scalable and easy-to-cooperate with other platforms in the future.
- Address legal and regulatory implications that will facilitate tenancy of the facility from verticals.
Objective 2:
Develop a 5G Facility that instantiates the identified experimentation blueprint in 5 interoperable end-to-end platforms.
To realise the 5G Facility, the 5G experimentation blueprint will be instantiated in 5 platforms geographically distributed across Europe. The multiple instantiations of the facility, in a set of 5 interoperable and interconnected platforms, allows 5GENESIS to:
- Efficiently integrate innovations that span over the entire service provisioning chain. In this way the Surrey, Berlin and Limassol platforms will emphasise on innovative radio spectrum use and sharing, including licensed, unlicensed, and licensed-shared access, advanced backhauling and coexistence of multiple RAT technologies, while Málaga and Athens platforms will focus on advanced networking and management capabilities, including multi domain orchestration, network slicing and virtualisation as well as mobile edge computing.
- Address complementary 5G use cases and move beyond the current validations of the 5G PPP common list of KPIs in phase 1 and 2 projects, including an end-to-end validation process in events with involvement of multiple users.
- Exploit the interoperability gains with the realisation of the east-west interfaces, defined in the blueprint, to demonstrate inter-domain services that involve more than one platform. Interconnection will allow access to demos with all the 5GENESIS platforms in different locations in Europe.
Objective 3:
Qualitatively assess and quantitatively validate business, performance, and societal 5G PPP KPIs in representative 5G use cases.
The aim is to provide a clear view on the 5G performance, by a qualitatively and quantitatively assessment of the well-defined, yet quite long and heterogeneous list of 5G PPP KPIs for a meaningful set of 5G use cases. To this end, 5GENESIS has carefully assigned the targeted 5G PPP KPIs to the platforms of the 5GENESIS facility. In this framework, the targeted use cases will cover the major 5G scenarios, including mission critical communications, secure content delivery, maritime and rural area communications, IoT services, and provisioning of immersive user experiences.
Objective 4:
Continuously align with –and contribute to- the evolution of 5G standards, by adopting an iterative integration and upgrade development methodology.
Since the 5G realisation process is in the experimentation phase, and pre-commercial prototypes are needed for an end-to-end validation, the methodology that will be adopted for this endeavour has to align with the potential of enabling a continuous evolution pattern, in which, new technologies and features from all the network domains can be integrated smoothly. In line with this approach, an agile development and integration plan is foreseen for the 5GENESIS facility. Toward accomplishing this objective, the development of the facility will:
- Abide by the current 5G specification and align with the 5G standardisation time-plan. Following the proposed methodology, TID, INT, LMI, ATOS, ADS, and AVA will lead the activities for standardisation tracking and contribution.
- Build upon results of ongoing 5G PPP phase 1 and 2 projects (many of them led by the consortium partners) and testbed equipment owned by key partners in the consortium.
Objective 5:
Release a portable 5G Demonstrator to maximise visibility and facilitate dissemination and communication activities.
Towards maximizing the visibility and the impact, the project will be accompanied by a wide range of well-planed dissemination and communication activities. Beyond that, 5GENESIS targets to facilitate the penetration of the 5G vision to the society and plans the live demonstration of the 5G performance due to a portable demo, which will take advantage of all the advances in the 5 main platforms, cumulatively. NCSRD, ECM, and ATH will lead this activity.
Table 1.
Metrics to evaluate the achievements of the 5GENESIS objectives
| Specific 5GENESIS Objective | Metric to evaluate the achievement of the objective | Targeted values & other means of verification |
|---|---|---|
| Obj1: Design and establish a 5G experimentation blueprint that unifies diverse 5G components to support verticals over an end-to-end virtualised and sliced network. | • Number and quality of related scientific papers on the system design • Validation of the APIs | • ≥ 15 high quality publications on the facility architecture, components and algorithms |
| Obj2: Develop a 5G Facility that instantiates the identified experimentation blueprint in 5 interoperable end-to-end platforms | • Number of on site and remote demonstrations • Number and quality of related scientific papers • Number of interaction events/ collaboration meetings with vendors and verticals | • ≥ 3 on site public demonstrations per platform, including users when applicable (at least Police in Málaga, and Festival of Light in Berlin) • ≥ 2 distributed public demonstrations of the interconnected facility involving at least 2 platforms per demo • ≥ 10 targeted meetings with vendors and verticals to promote the facility |
| Obj3: Qualitatively assess and quantitatively validate business, performance, and societal 5G PPP KPIs in representative 5G use cases | • Measured values of the KPIs selected and comparison with references values in 5G PPP, NGMN and other standardisation bodies • Number and quality of related scientific papers | • Specific values for the facility as listed in Table 2 • ≥ 5 papers in relevant journals or conferences related to the actual KPIs and the experimentation methods |
| Obj4: Continuously align with –and contribute to- the evolution of 5G standards, by adopting an iterative integration and upgrade development methodology consisting of three phases/cycles | • Quality and validity of the reported content related to the integration of enhanced 5G NR, 5G core, slicing, orchestration, and management automation of experiments • Number of impactful contributions to related standards • Submitted contributions to 5G PPP | • Deliverables 4.X in WP 4 • Open source (OAI, MANOs, etc.) and proprietary solutions by partners integrated in the system • Clear portfolios of features available in each integration cycle per platform public in the project website • ≥ 3 Contributions to 5G PPP Roadmaps and white papers • ≥ 10 impactful inputs to standards • Compatibility of the 5GENESIS Facility with standards-compliant third-party products |
| Obj5: Release a portable 5G Demonstrator to maximise visibility and facilitate dissemination and communication activities | • Number of demonstrations • Number and quality of related scientific papers | • ≥ 5 demonstrations of the portable 5G Demonstrator, at least one in EuCNC (2020) • ≥ 2 papers related to the portable demo |
Targeted 5G PPP KPIs and expected output
A set of well-defined 5G-PPP KPIs, referring to network performance, depicted in measurements of metrics such as capacity, ubiquity, speed, latency, reliability, density of users, location accuracy, energy efficiency, service creation time, and network management CAPEX/OPEX, will be validated by the 5GENESIS Facility. The goal is to clearly show the 5G superiority against previous systems and quantitively prove how 5G moves beyond the current state of play. More precisely, the measurable KPIs and the target values which 5GENESIS commits to meet are listed in Table 2. One step beyond that, the 5G PPP KPIs have been categorised and assigned to each one of the five platforms, as depicted in Table 3.
Table 2.
Target KPIs to be demonstrated in 5GENESIS facility
| Capacity |
|
| Ubiquity |
|
| Speed |
|
| Latency |
|
| Reliability |
|
| Density of users |
|
| Location accuracy |
|
| Energy efficiency |
|
| Service creation time |
|
| Network management CAPEX/OPEX |
|
Table 3.
The complementarity of the 5GENESIS platforms in terms of target KPIs
- ▼KPIs / PLATFORM ►
- Capacity
- Ubiquity
- Speed
- Latency
- Reliability
- Density of Users
- Location accuracy
- Energy efficiency
- Service creation time
- Network management CAPEX/OPEX
- Málaga
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- Athens
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- Limassol
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- Surrey
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- Berlin
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
- ✓
In addition to the above-mentioned network-level 5G-PPP KPIs, the project will also assess the overall service improvement, by measuring application-level indicators, such as i) the user-perceived quality of experience (QoE), ii) the impact to the end-to-end security guarantees, and iii) the performance of the network lifecycle functions.
QoE assessment will be studied in the Athens, Málaga and Berlin platforms, where Human Type Communications (HTC) are foreseen. The validation concept will involve real end-users in the assessment process and combines also objective QoE estimation methods. The leading role in this assessment will be on SRL and FOG. The Berlin platform will evaluate the provided network quality over a heterogeneous set of backhauling nodes, using mmWave and fibre optic links. The Málaga platform will evaluate QoE with the Police department in the context of Mission Critical services.
Regarding the security-related assessment, security guarantees that can be promised in a dense urban environment for demanding video services will be examined in the Athens platform. The goal here is provide a content delivery framework by taking advantage of the SDN/NFV technologies without sacrificing security or violating privacy.
From the network lifecycle perspective, performance metrics such as the slice establishment time, the VNF relocation and instantiation times, and the computational resource usage of the cloudified protocol stack, are relevant. Such metrics will be quantified in the Surrey and Málaga platforms. The goal here is to exemplify in an and-to-end fashion the trade-off between the flexibility required in the 5G networking and the constraints and limitations of the virtualization and MANO frameworks to be used.
5GENESIS
“5th Generation End-to-end Network, Experimentation, System Integration, and Showcasing”
Horizon 2020 – Call: H2020-ICT-2017
Topic: ICT-17-2017
Type of action: R&I
Duration: 42 Months
Start date: 1/7/2018
THIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE 5G PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
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