IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting Special Issue on: 5G for Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting

[EN] The upcoming fifth-generation ( 5G ) of wireless communications technologies is expected to revolutionize society digital transformation thanks to its unprecedented wireless performance capabilities, providing speeds of several Gbps, very low latencies well below 5 ms, ultra-reliable transmissions with up to 99.999% success probability, while being able to handle a huge number of devices simultaneously connected to the network. The first version of the 3GPP specification (i.e., Release 15) has been recently completed and many 5G trials are under plan or carrying out worldwide, with the first commercial deployments happening in 2019."© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works."Gomez-Barquero, D.; Li, W.; Fuentes, M.; Xiong, J.; Araniti, G.; Akamine, C.; Wang, J. (2019). IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting Special Issue on: 5G for Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 65(2):351-355. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2019.2914866S35135565

Enhancing the 3GPP V2X architecture with information-centric networking

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications allow a vehicle to interact with other vehicles and with communication parties in its vicinity (e.g., road-side units, pedestrian users, etc.) with the primary goal of making the driving and traveling experience safer, smarter and more comfortable. A wide set of V2X-tailored specifications have been identified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) with focus on the design of architecture enhancements and a flexible air interface to ensure ultra-low latency, highly reliable and high-throughput connectivity as the ultimate aim. This paper discusses the potential of leveraging Information-Centric Networking (ICN) principles in the 3GPP architecture for V2X communications. We consider Named Data Networking (NDN) as reference ICN architecture and elaborate on the specific design aspects, required changes and enhancements in the 3GPP V2X architecture to enable NDN-based data exchange as an alternative/complementary solution to traditional IP networking, which barely matches the dynamics of vehicular environments. Results are provided to showcase the performance improvements of the NDN-based proposal in disseminating content requests over the cellular network against a traditional networking solution119sem informaçãosem informaçã

5G Radio Access Network Architecture for Terrestrial Broadcast Services

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined based on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) enhanced Multicast Broadcast Multimedia Service (eMBMS) a set of new features to support the distribution of Terrestrial Broadcast services in Release 14. On the other hand, a new 5th Generation (5G) system architecture and radio access technology, 5G New Radio (NR), are being standardised from Release 15 onwards, which so far have only focused on unicast connectivity. This may change in Release 17 given a new Work Item set to specify basic Radio Access Network (RAN) functionalities for the provision of multicast/broadcast communications for NR. This work initially excludes some of the functionalities originally supported for Terrestrial Broadcast services under LTE e.g. free to air, receive-only mode, large-area single frequency networks, etc. This paper proposes an enhanced Next Generation RAN architecture based on 3GPP Release 15 with a series of architectural and functional enhancements, to support an efficient, flexible and dynamic selection between unicast and multicast/broadcast transmission modes and also the delivery of Terrestrial Broadcast services. The paper elaborates on the Cloud-RAN based architecture and proposes new concepts such as the RAN Broadcast/Multicast Areas that allows a more flexible deployment in comparison to eMBMS. High-level assessment methodologies including complexity analysis and inspection are used to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed architecture design and compare it with the 3GPP architectural requirements.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, IEEE Trans. Broadcastin

On alleviating cell overload in vehicular scenarios

Fifth Generation (5G) networks will support countless new applications and new business models. One of the 5G paradigms is network slicing, which enables the integration of multiple logical networks each one tailored to the requirements of the different services that can be provided by both network operators and vertical industries. One of the services where 5G is expected to have a greatest impact is vehicular-to-everything (V2X) communications, which will have their stringent latency requirements now met. However, the mobility associated to vehicles can lead to cell overload compromising the required quality of service (QoS). To address this problem, in this paper we propose and evaluate the performance of three network overload alleviation techniques to control network congestion provoked by traffic jams using realistic vehicular traces in a network slicing environment. Firstly, we describe the architecture supporting V2X communications. Secondly, the network congestion control approaches are explained. Finally, after providing a complete description of the considered scenario, results will be detailed, showing that the network overload appearing during rush hour can be significantly reduced.This research was supported by the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under grant/project CER-20191015 / Open, Virtualized Technology Demonstrators for Smart Networks (Open-VERSO).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Point-to-Multipoint Services on Fifth-Generation Mobile Networks

[ES] Esta disertación cubre el estado del arte en LTE eMBMS Release 14, también conocido como Enhanced Television Services (ENTV). ENTV trajo un conjunto de mejoras, tanto a nivel radio como a nivel de núcleo, que transformó a eMBMS en un estándar de televisión terrestre completo. La última versión de esta tecnología se denomina LTE-based 5G Broadcast; pero no usa New Radio ni el núcleo 5G. Para proveer una solución nativa 5G de servicios punto-a-multipunto, hubo investigación en entornos acad\'emicos y colaboraciones público-privada. La iniciativa más notable en este aspecto fue el proyecto del Horizon 2020 5G-Xcast, que transcurrió de 2017 a 2019. 5G-Xcast produjo varias soluciones a nivel de arquitectura, desde la perspectiva de provisión de contenidos, nuevas funciones de red interoperables con el núcleo 5G, hasta modificaciones a la interfaz aire basada en New Radio. Los hallazgos del proyecto están descritos en esta tesis. La tesis incluye dos ejemplos de eMBMS aplicados a verticales diferentes, una para el uso de eMBMS en entornos industriales, y otra presentando eMBMS como un sistema SAP. Incluir servicios punto-a-multipunto como un modo adicional celular trae algunos desafíos, como ya mostró la estandarización de eMBMS: las redes de radiodifusión terrestre y las redes celulares son muy distintas entre ellas. Encontrar una forma de onda viable para ambas infraestructuras es complejo. Esta tesis ofrece un punto de vista distinto al problema: un escenario de colaboración entre cadenas televisivas y operadores móviles, donde la infraestructura de radiodifusión y móvil son compartidas. Este concepto se ha definido como Convergence of Terrestrial and Mobile Networks. Las tecnologías elegidas para converger son ATSC 3.0 y 5G, usando el Advanced Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS). ATSSS está compuesto de una serie de procedimientos, interfaces, funciones de red, para permitir el uso compartido de un acceso 3GPP con uno non-3GPP, como Wi-Fi. Sin embargo, el uso de ATSSS para juntar radiodifusión y celular no es trivial, ya que ATSSS no fue dise\~{n}ado para enlaces radio unidireccionales como ATSC 3.0. Estas limitaciones son descritas en detalle, y una propuesta para solventarlas tambi\'en está incluida. La solución se basa en Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC), y se usa como ejemplo para la provisión de Convergent Services (File Repair y Video Offloading). La tesis concluye con una descripción de Release 17 5MBS, con los nuevos conceptos introducidos. 5MBS es capaz de cambiar entre unicast, multicast y broadcast; dependiendo del servicio, la ubicación geográfica de los usuarios, y las capacidades de la infraestructura móvil involucradas. Para evaluar 5MBS, se ha realizado un estudio de prestaciones, basado en comunicaciones multicast dentro del núcleo de red 5G. Este prototipo 5MBS forma parte del laboratorio VLC Campus 5G, y utiliza el software comercial Open5GCore como base del desarrollo. El modelo de sistema para la experimentación esta formado por un servidor de vídeo, que se conecta al Open5GCore y a las funciones de red mejoradas con funcionalidades 5MBS. Estas funciones de red envían el contenido mediante punto-a-multipunto a un entorno radio y terminales simulados. Los resultados obtenidos resaltan el objetivo principal de la tesis: las comunicaciones punto-a-multipunto son una solución escalable para el envío de contenido multimedia en directo.[CA] Aquesta dissertació cobreix capdavanter en LTE eMBMS Release 14, també conegut com Enhanced Television Services (ENTV). ENTV va portar un conjunt de millores, tant a nivell de ràdio com a nivell de nucli, que va transformar el eMBMS en un estàndard de televisió terrestre complet. La última versió d'aquesta tecnologia es denomina LTE-based 5G Broadcast; però no fa servir New Ràdio ni el nucli 5G. Per a proveir una solució nativa 5G de serveis punt-a-multipunt, va haver-hi investigació en entorns acadèmics i col·laboracions pública i privada. La iniciativa més notable en aquest aspecte va ser el projecte del Horizon 2020 5G-Xcast, que va transcórrer del 2017 a 2019. 5G-Xcast va produir diverses solucions a nivell d'arquitectura, des de la perspectiva de provisió de continguts, noves funcions de xarxa interoperables amb el nucli 5G, fins a modificacions a la interfície aire basada en New Radio. Les troballes del projecte estan descrits en aquesta tesi. La tesi inclou dos exemples de eMBMS aplicats a verticals diferents, una per a l'ús de eMBMS en entorns industrials, i una altra presentant eMBMS com un sistema SAP. Incloure serveis punt-a-multipunt com una manera addicional cel·lular duu alguns desafiaments, com ja va mostrar l'estandardització de eMBMS: les xarxes de radiodifusió terrestre i les xarxes cel·lulars són molt diferents entre elles. Trobar una forma d'ona viable per a totes dues infraestructures és complex. Aquesta tesi ofereix un punt de vista diferent al problema: un escenari de col·laboració entre cadenes televisives i operadors mòbils, on la infraestructura de radiodifusió i mòbil són compartides. Aquest concepte s'ha definit com Convergence of Terrestrial and Mobile Networks. Les tecnologies triades per a convergir són ATSC 3.0 i 5G, usant el Advanced Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS). ATSSS està compost d'una sèrie de procediments, interfícies, funcions de xarxa, per a permetre l'ús compartit d'un accés 3GPP amb un non-3GPP, com a Wi-Fi. No obstant això, l'ús de ATSSS per a adjuntar radiodifusió i cel·lular no és trivial, ja que ATSSS no va ser dissenyada per a per a enllaços ràdio unidireccionals com ATSC 3.0. Aquestes limitacions són descrites detalladament, i una proposta per a solucionar-les també està inclosa. La solució es basa en Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC), i s'usa com a exemple per a la provisió de Convergent Services (File Repair i Vídeo Offloading). La tesi conclou amb una descripció de Release 17 5MBS, amb els nous conceptes introduïts. 5MBS és capaç de canviar entre unicast, multicast i broadcast; depenent del servei, la ubicació geogràfica dels usuaris, i les capacitats de la infraestructura mòbil involucrades. Per a avaluar 5MBS, s'ha realitzat un estudi de prestacions, basat en comunicacions multicast dins del nucli de xarxa 5G. Aquest prototip 5MBS forma part del laboratori VLC Campus 5G, i utilitza el programari comercial Open5GCore com a base del desenvolupament. El model de sistema per a l'experimentació està format per un servidor de vídeo, que es connecta al Open5GCore i a les funcions de xarxa millorades amb funcionalitats 5MBS. Aquestes funcions de xarxa envien el contingut mitjançant punt-a-multipunt a un entorn ràdio i terminals simulats. Els resultats obtinguts ressalten l'objectiu principal de la tesi: les comunicacions punt-a-multipunt són una solució escalable per a l'enviament de contingut multimèdia en directe.[EN] This dissertation covers the state-of-the-art in LTE eMBMS Release 14, also known as Enhanced Television Services (ENTV). ENTV provided a suite of radio and core enhancements that made eMBMS into a viable terrestrial broadcast standard. The latest iteration of this technology is known as LTE-based 5G Broadcast; even though it is not New Radio or 5G Core based. To bridge this gap, research efforts by academia, public and private enterprises evaluated how to provide a 5G-based solution for point-to-multipoint services. The most notable effort in this regard is the Horizon 2020 project 5G-Xcast, which ran from 2017 to 2019. 5G-Xcast provided several architectural solutions, from the content delivery perspective down to air interface specifics; providing new waveforms based on New Radio and Network Functions interoperable with a Release 15 5G Core. The findings are summarized in this thesis. Two examples of eMBMS applied to different verticals are included in the thesis, one for the use of eMBMS in industrial environments, and the other using eMBMS as a PWS technology. Providing point-to-multipoint services as another cellular service poses some problems, as the standardization process of eMBMS showed: the broadcast infrastructure is different than the cellular one. Having a waveform that is suited for both scenarios is a difficult endeavour. The thesis provides a new perspective into this problem: Having existing Terrestrial Broadcast standards and infrastructure be the point-to-multipoint solution of 5G, where mobile operators and broadcasters collaborate together. This is defined in the dissertation as Convergence of Terrestrial and Mobile Networks. The technologies chosen to be converged together were ATSC 3.0 and 5G; using the existing Release 16 framework known as Advanced Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS). ATSSS is a series of procedures, interfaces, new Network Functions, to allow the joint use of a 3GPP Access Network alongside a non-3GPP one, like Wi-Fi. However, the use of ATSSS for cellular plus broadcast brings challenges, as the ATSSS technology was not designed to be used with a unidirectional access network like ATSC 3.0. These limitations are described in detail, and an architectural proposal that overcomes the limitations is proposed. This solution is based on Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC), and how to provide Convergent Services (i.e File Repair and Video Offloading) is shown. The thesis concludes with a description of Release 17 5MBS, including the new concepts introduced. 5MBS features the capacity of switching between unicast, multicast and broadcast; depending on the service addressed, the geographical location of the users, and the capability of the RAN infrastructure targeted. In order to evaluate 5MBS, a performance study of the use of multicast inside the 5G Core has been carried out. The 5MBS prototype was developed as part of the VLC Campus 5G laboratory, using the commercial software Open5GCore which provides the libraries and Network Functions to deploy your own 5G Private Network in testing environments. The system model of the experiment is formed by a video server, connected to the Open5GCore and the 5MBS enhanced functions; which will deliver the content to an emulated RAN environment hosting virtual gNBs and devices. The results obtained reinforce the objective of the thesis, positioning point-to-multipoint as a scalable way to deliver live content.Research projects: 5G-Xcast: Broadcast and Multicast Communication Enablers for the Fifth-Generation of Wireless Systems (H2020 No 761498); 5G-TOURS: SmarT mObility, media and e-health for toURists and citizenS (H2020 No 856950); FUDGE-5G: FUlly DisinteGrated private nEtworks for 5G verticals (H2020 No 957242).Barjau Estevan, CS. (2022). Point-to-Multipoint Services on Fifth-Generation Mobile Networks [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/19140

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) in scenarios : extending scenario description language for connected vehicle scenario descriptions

The move towards connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) has gained a strong focus in recent years due to the many benefits they provide. While the autonomous aspect has seen substantial advancement in both the development and testing methodologies, the connected aspect has lagged behind, especially in the verification & validation discussions. Integrating connectivity into the development and testing framework for CAVs is a necessity for ensuring the early deployment of cooperative driving systems. A key element within such a framework is a test scenario, which represents a set of scenery, environmental conditions, and dynamic conditions, that a system needs to be tested in. However, the connectivity element is not present in any of the current state of the art scenario description languages (SDLs) that are publicly available. This leaves a gap within the CAV development ecosystem. To accommodate for, and accelerate the development of, connected vehicle systems and their verification and validation methods, this paper proposes a novel V2X extension to the previously published two-level abstraction SDL. The extension enables communications between vehicles, infrastructures, and further additional entities to be specified as part of the scenario and be subsequently tested in virtual testing or real-world testing. Eight new V2X attributes have been added to the SDL. An example set of syntax and semantic definitions are presented in this paper targeting two different abstraction levels – level 1 aims at the abstract scenario level for non-technical end-users such as regulators, and level 2 aims at the logical and concrete scenario level for end-users such as simulation test engineers

Low-Latency Infrastructure-Based Cellular V2V Communications for Multi-Operator Environments With Regional Split

[EN] Mobile network operators are interested in providing Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication services using their cellular infrastructure. Regional split of operators is one possible approach to support multi-operator infrastructure-based cellular V2V communication. In this approach, a geographical area is divided into non-overlapping regions, each one served by a unique operator. Its main drawback is the communication interruption motivated by the inter-operator handover in border areas, which prevents the fulfillment of the maximum end-to-end (E2E) latency requirements of fifth generation (5G) V2V services related to autonomous driving. In this work, we enable a fast inter-operator handover based on the pre-registration of the users on multiple operators, which substantially reduces the handover time to guarantee maximum E2E latency values of 100 ms in non-congested scenarios. To further reduce the latency of time-critical services to always less than 70 ms, even with the handover interruption time, while providing a latency around 20 ms in the majority of locations, we propose to complement the former technique with a mobile edge computing approach. Our proposal consists in the localization of application servers and broadcasting entities in all the base stations, to avoid the communication through the core network, together with the use of a new set of nodes in the base stations of cross-border areas called inter-operator relays, to minimize the communication latency between operators. Based on analytic and simulation results, it is demonstrated that the proposed techniques are effective to support low-latency infrastructure-based cellular V2V communications in multi-operator environments with regional split.The work of S. Roger was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through grant number RYC-2017-22101.Martín-Sacristán, D.; Roger, S.; Garcia-Roger, D.; Monserrat Del Río, JF.; Spapis, P.; Zhou, C.; Kaloxylos, A. (2021). Low-Latency Infrastructure-Based Cellular V2V Communications for Multi-Operator Environments With Regional Split. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. 22(2):1052-1067. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2019.29620971052106722

Demonstrating Immersive Media Delivery on 5G Broadcast and Multicast Testing Networks

This work presents eight demonstrators and one showcase developed within the 5G-Xcast project. They experimentally demonstrate and validate key technical enablers for the future of media delivery, associated with multicast and broadcast communication capabilities in 5th Generation (5G). In 5G-Xcast, three existing testbeds: IRT in Munich (Germany), 5GIC in Surrey (UK), and TUAS in Turku (Finland), have been developed into 5G broadcast and multicast testing networks, which enables us to demonstrate our vision of a converged 5G infrastructure with fixed and mobile accesses and terrestrial broadcast, delivering immersive audio-visual media content. Built upon the improved testing networks, the demonstrators and showcase developed in 5G-Xcast show the impact of the technology developed in the project. Our demonstrations predominantly cover use cases belonging to two verticals: Media & Entertainment and Public Warning, which are future 5G scenarios relevant to multicast and broadcast delivery. In this paper, we present the development of these demonstrators, the showcase, and the testbeds. We also provide key findings from the experiments and demonstrations, which not only validate the technical solutions developed in the project, but also illustrate the potential technical impact of these solutions for broadcasters, content providers, operators, and other industries interested in the future immersive media delivery.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, IEEE Trans. Broadcastin

Slicing on the road: enabling the automotive vertical through 5G network softwarization

The demanding requirements of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications, such as ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth, highly-reliable communication, intensive computation and near-real time data processing, raise outstanding challenges and opportunities for fifth generation (5G) systems. By allowing an operator to flexibly provide dedicated logical networks with (virtualized) functionalities over a common physical infrastructure, network slicing candidates itself as a prominent solution to support V2X over upcoming programmable and softwarized 5G systems in a business-agile manner. In this paper, a network slicing framework is proposed along with relevant building blocks and mechanisms to support V2X applications by flexibly orchestrating multi-access and edge-dominated 5G network infrastructures, especially with reference to roaming scenarios. Proof of concept experiments using the Mininet emulator showcase the viability and potential benefits of the proposed framework for cooperative driving use cases1812não temMinistério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações - MCTICThe research of Prof. Christian Esteve Rothenberg was partially supported by the H2020 4th EUBR Collaborative Call, under the grant agreement number 777067 (NECOS - Novel Enablers for Cloud Slicing), funded by the European Commission and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communication (MCTIC) through RNP and CTI