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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 5G-PICTURE (5G Programmable Infrastructure Converging disaggregated neTwork and compUte REsources)

Teaser

Summary

The explosive growth of mobile internet traffic attributed to the rapidly increasing number of smart devices forces network providers to concurrently support a large variety of services that can be either stand alone or interact. This introduces the need to transform traditional closed, static and inelastic network infrastructures into open, scalable and elastic ecosystems that can support a large variety of dynamically varying applications and services. This transformation aims to bring new service capabilities to network operators in terms of: i) connectivity for a growing number of very diverse devices, ii) high mobility in heterogeneous environments and, iii) mission critical services currently handled by specific purpose networks, supporting highly variable performance attributes in a cost and energy-efficient manner. Typical examples include fronthaul (FH) networks used to provide operational services in mobile telecommunication networks, vertical industries such as train communication networks used by railway operators, and media services for big venues etc. These demanding and diverse requirements cannot be supported by current best effort internet connections or a smooth migration from existing network architectures and technology deployments to next generation solutions. Instead, it requires a paradigm shift to support the upcoming service requests following new service models such as cloud-based solutions, imposing enormous capacity requirements that exceed 1000 times current bandwidth needs, available to 10s of billions of end-devices. In this context, a future proof infrastructure needs to address a wide range of vertical industry services adopting a flexible
architecture offering converged services across heterogeneous technology domains deploying unified software control. In these environments, where ubiquitous access and user mobility play a key role, network heterogeneity involves integration of advanced wireless with high-capacity wired network domains interconnecting a large variety of end-devices with compute and storage resources in a flexible and scalable manner. In this context, optical network solutions can play a key role in facilitating interconnection of distributed data centres that can vary in scale, as they provide abundant capacity, long reach transmission capabilities, carrier-grade attributes and energy efficiency.

5G-PICTURE will design and develop a next generation converged infrastructure integrating a variety of advanced wireless access network technologies through novel wireless, optical and packet network solutions. This infrastructure will interconnect a large number of â€œdisaggregatedâ€ compute/storage and network elements and deploy the concepts of hardware programmability and network softwarisation to facilitate the Dis-Aggregated RAN approach. This will enable the provisioning of any service across the infrastructure by flexibly and efficiently mixing-and-matching network, compute and storage resources.

5G-PICTURE will design and implement a 5G platform offering: (a) support of 5G ICT and vertical operational and end-user services, (b) integration of heterogeneous network technologies (wireless and optical), (c) integration of communication and computation technologies, (d) softwarisation of network and vertical-specific components enabling a paradigm shift from network entities to network functions and (e) slicing for multi-tenancy and efficient resource sharing.

Work performed

During this period, the 5G-PICTURE Consortium has set the basis for the development and integration of the individual contributions that will take place in the second reporting period. This Periodic Report provides a global overview of the main achievements of this period, and brings forward the activities and demonstrations to be showcased towards the end of the project. This document summarises and refers to the work that has been reported in the deliverables generated by the Consortium and submitted to the European Commission (EC) during the first reporting period. More specifically, these include D1.1, D1.2, D2.1, D2.2, D3.1, D3.2, D4.1, D4.2, D5.1, D6.1, D7.1 and D7.3.

During the first reporting period, the work in WP2 focused on the definition of Verticalsâ€™ requirements and the identification of a high-level view of the 5G-PICTURE architecture, in terms of its functionalities, capabilities and features, as well as some initial evaluation of its performance. WP3 focuses on the development of programmable platforms as an enabler to deploy into the network different functionalities that can be specified using certain high-level descriptions and be deployed at run-time on specific platforms. The work carried out during the first reporting period includes the specification of the HW platform, the configuration interfaces, the programming models, and the HW abstractions. WP4 started by providing a common network concept that relates the RAN, Transport and Synchronisation functions developed in the WP. This vision puts forward a multi-tenant compute and transport network infrastructure able to provision RAN functions from different Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and to deliver synchronisation on demand. For WP5, we have described the components, interfaces and modes of interaction between 5G OS components that enable service management and network slicing over heterogeneous domains (administrative and/or technology-based). Some important interfaces are those between orchestrators and controller, as well as controllers and MANO systems. The work during this period in WP6 focused on the definition of the vertical use cases and the evaluation and demonstration procedures of the proposed 5G-PICTURE solutions. In WP7 we have identified a total of five (5) main domains for standardization. Regarding dissemination activities these include: press releases, authoring and presentation of publications in significant conferences and forums, demos at exhibitions, liaison activities with other projects, an award of Best Demo at ECOC 2018, lectures at Universities, active participation in 5G-PPP WGs, etc.

Final results

\"The 5G-PICTURE disaggregated network approach will be key for the creation of a 5G infrastructure able to support a large variety of 5G ICT and \"\"vertical\"\" services. According to the proposed solution, vertical service providers, currently relying on closed and proprietary infrastructures, will be able to deploy any service without having to own and install any HW or SW component. The 5G-PICTURE solution will allow end-users and third parties to access real or virtual equipment, services, systems and tools on demand regardless of their geographical location. This solution is expected to support any type of service ranging from delay sensitive services (e.g. Virtual Reality services), and from best effort to ultra-reliable applications. This will enable transformation of vertical sectors from closed inflexible environments into a pool of modular HW and SW components that can be combined on demand.

During the reporting period 5G-PICTURE has planned advanced field trial demonstrations including:
- The first 5G railway experimental testbed showcasing seamless service provisioning and mobility management in Barcelona, Spain.
- A stadium supporting media services for ultra-high density users in Bristol UK.
- A smart city demonstration involving VR and city safely end-user as well as fronthaul/backhaul services in Bristol UK.\"