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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EuWireless (Design of the European mobile network operator for research)

Teaser

Summary

The needs of the research community in the area of mobile communication networks are not sufficiently covered by current medium-scale testbeds, usually deployed in research centers as indoor deployments isolated from the commercial Mobile Network Operators (MNO) resources. In Europe, most field trials are carried out by commercial mobile network operators, which usually do not provides access to the results nor their infrastructure. Another important barrier is the heterogeneous regulation across Europe to use licensed spectrum, which generally restricts the access of researchers to licensed spectrum.
The EuWireless project aims to design a pan-European research infrastructure to connect the Mobile Network Operators and the researchers in order to offer quick creation of specific testbeds adapted to the researchers\' requirements. Such infrastructure will be managed by a European level Operator and could have some integration with other existing infrastructures in the communication networks domain like GÃ‰ANT. In addition, EuWireless will support research in multiple research areas. Thus, EuWireless will contribute to keeping Europe\'s leadership in mobile communication networks. In addition, EuWireless mobile operator will support research in other areas, for example providing global connectivity services to researchers in locations where EuWireless coverage or agreements with commercial operators are available.
The project not only addresses the technical design of the pan-European research infrastructure (identification of requirements and design of the architecture) but also the analysis of the radio spectrum regulation in Europe, in order to identify the procedures to access spectrum and detect legal barriers in the implantation of EuWireless as a Mobile Network Operator for research.

Work performed

The result of EuWireless will be a complete report of the technical and legal aspects to implement such infrastructure. In addition, the project will validate the proposal with the implementation of prototypes for three cases studies: connected cars, interconnection of indoor testbeds to licensed spectrum, and extension of the GÃ‰ANT Testbed Service (GTS) with mobile network resources.
In the first 18 months, the EuWireless consortium has identified and collected a list of requirements for the pan-European mobile network for research and the underlying infrastructure. The technical requirements have been obtained from an analysis of the current state of the art (related projects, standards, technical papers, etc.), the experience of the project consortium, the study of the case studies included in the project, especially the connected cars case study, and interviews with different stakeholders. The complete list of requirements is included in deliverable D1.1. In addition, the consortium analysed the regulation of spectrum in Europe and in the different EU Member States to identify the current procedures to access spectrum and to identify the main barriers faced by researchers. The analysis is reported in deliverable D2.2
The consortium has also identified different enabling technologies that will support the implementation of the infrastructure. Of special relevance are the technologies that support sharing the licensed spectrum and the network elements with a mobile network operator or external testbed. This work is reported in deliverable D1.3.
Based on these analyses and reports, the consortium has defined the EuWireless concept and initial architecture (presented in deliverable D2.1). Some enabling technologies have been evaluated to determine their suitability to span the EuWireless capabilities in terms of radio access, core network, security, orchestration, and interoperability. The initial architecture and some of the enabling technologies have been validated in a first demo deployed at UMA facilities. The demo consists of a customized GTS (EuW-GTS) node that acts as manager of the underlying infrastructure. The EuW-GTS is extended to manage new resources, such as a base station or a mobile core network. Over this infrastructure, the consortium has defined a EuWireless slice/testbed that runs a connected car application. The demo has been presented in EuCNC19.
Currently, the consortium is working on the final architecture that will be more specific and detailed than the initial one, and the validation with more elaborated demos. In particular, the consortium is defining and implementing new prototypes that address network sharing, spectrum sharing and management and orchestration of network slices for experimentation.

Final results

The main ambition of EuWireless project is to design, and implement in upcoming projects, the pan-European infrastructure so that researchers of different areas can benefit from the use of regulated radio spectrum. To this end, the consortium has to advance the current state of the art in several lines:
- Design the EuWireless infrastructure and the legal entity that can complement the services provided by GEANT.
- Analysis and validation of different technological solutions to share spectrum and network infrastructure with commercial operators, while maintaining the required level of privacy and security for commercial operators and researchers.
- Produce the first analysis report on the regulation of the radio spectrum in Europe.