Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications

A large number of new consumer and industrial applications are likely to change the classic operator's business models and provide a wide range of new markets to enter. This article analyses the most relevant 5G use cases that require ultra-low latency, from both technical and business perspectives. Low latency services pose challenging requirements to the network, and to fulfill them operators need to invest in costly changes in their network. In this sense, it is not clear whether such investments are going to be amortized with these new business models. In light of this, specific applications and requirements are described and the potential market benefits for operators are analysed. Conclusions show that operators have clear opportunities to add value and position themselves strongly with the increasing number of services to be provided by 5G.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

A network application approach towards 5G and beyond critical communications use cases.

Low latency and high bandwidth heralded with 5G networks will allow transmission of large amounts of Mission-Critical data over a short time period. 5G hence unlocks several capabilities for novel Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) applications, developed to support first responders in making faster and more accurate decisions during times of crisis. As various research initiatives are giving shape to the Network Application ecosystem as an interaction layer between vertical applications and the network control plane, in this article we explore how this concept can unlock finer network service management capabilities that can be leveraged by PPDR solution developers. In particular, we elaborate on the role of Network Applications as means for developers to assure prioritization of specific emergency flows of data, such as high-definition video transmission from PPDR field users to remote operators. To demonstrate this potential in future PPDR-over-5G services, we delve into the transfer of network-intensive PPDR solutions to the Network Application model. We then explore novelties in Network Application experimentation platforms, aiming to streamline development and deployment of such integrated systems across existing 5G infrastructures, by providing the reliability and multi-cluster environments they requireThe author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 innovation action program under Grant agreement No 101016521 (5G-EPICENTRE)

Challenges of Multi-Factor Authentication for Securing Advanced IoT (A-IoT) Applications

The unprecedented proliferation of smart devices together with novel communication, computing, and control technologies have paved the way for the Advanced Internet of Things~(A-IoT). This development involves new categories of capable devices, such as high-end wearables, smart vehicles, and consumer drones aiming to enable efficient and collaborative utilization within the Smart City paradigm. While massive deployments of these objects may enrich people's lives, unauthorized access to the said equipment is potentially dangerous. Hence, highly-secure human authentication mechanisms have to be designed. At the same time, human beings desire comfortable interaction with their owned devices on a daily basis, thus demanding the authentication procedures to be seamless and user-friendly, mindful of the contemporary urban dynamics. In response to these unique challenges, this work advocates for the adoption of multi-factor authentication for A-IoT, such that multiple heterogeneous methods - both well-established and emerging - are combined intelligently to grant or deny access reliably. We thus discuss the pros and cons of various solutions as well as introduce tools to combine the authentication factors, with an emphasis on challenging Smart City environments. We finally outline the open questions to shape future research efforts in this emerging field.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. The work has been accepted for publication in IEEE Network, 2019. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

5G-PPP Software Network Working Group:Network Applications: Opening up 5G and beyond networks 5G-PPP projects analysis

As part of the 5G-PPP Initiative, the Software Network Working Group prepared this white paper to demystify the concept of the Network Applications. In fact, the Network Application ecosystem is more than the introduction of new vertical applications that have interaction capabilities. It refers to the need for a separate middleware layer to simplify the implementation and deployment of vertical systems on a large scale. Specifically, third parties or network operators can contribute to Network Applications, depending on the level of interaction and trust. Different implementations have been conducted by the different projects considering different API types and different level of trust between the verticals and the owner of 5G platforms. In this paper, the different approaches considered by the projects are summarized. By analysing them, it appears three options of interaction between the verticals and the 5G platform owner: - aaS Model: it is the model where the vertical application consumes the Network Applications as a service. The vertical application deployed in the vertical service provider domain. It connects with the 3GPP network systems (EPS, 5GS) in one or more PLMN operator domain. - Hybrid: it is the model where the vertical instantiates a part of its Vertical App in the operator domain like the EDGE. The other part remains in the vertical domain. A similar approach has been followed in TS 23.286 related to the deployment of V2X server. - Coupled/Delegated: it is the model where the vertical delegates its app to the operator. The Network Applications will be composed and managed by the operator. This approach is the one followed in the platforms like 5G-EVE. In addition, the paper brings an analysis of the different API type deployed. It appears that the abstraction from network APIs to service APIs is necessary to hide the telco complexity making APIs easy to consume for verticals with no telco expertise and to adress data privacy requirements

ARTIST - a reAl-time low-effoRt mulTi-entity Interaction System for creaTing reusable and optimized MR experiences

ARTIST is a research approach introducing novel methods for real-time multi-entity interaction between human and non-human entities, to create reusable and optimized Mixed Reality (MR) experiences with low-effort, towards a Shared MR Experiences Ecosystem (SMRE2). As a result, ARTIST delivers high quality MR experiences, facilitating the interaction between a variety of entities which interact in a virtual and symbiotic way within a mega, virtual and fully-experiential world. Specifically, ARTIST aims to develop novel methods for low-effort (code-free) implementation and deployment of open and reusable MR content, applications and tools, introducing the novel concept of an Experience as a Trajectory (EaaT). In addition, ARTIST will provide tools for the tracking, monitoring and analysis of user behaviour and their interaction with the environment and with other users, towards optimizing MR experiences by recommending their reconfiguration, dynamically (at run-time) or statically (at development time). Finally, it will provide tools for synthesizing experiences into new mega and still reconfigurable EaaTs, enhancing them at the same time using semantically integrated related data/information available in disparate and heterogeneous resources