Deliverable D2.1 - Ecosystem analysis and 6G-SANDBOX facility design

This document provides a comprehensive overview of the core aspects of the 6G-SANDBOX project. It outlines the project's vision, objectives, and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Value Indicators (KVIs) targeted for achievement. The functional and non-functional requirements of the 6G-SANDBOX Facility are extensively presented, based on a proposed reference blueprint. A detailed description of the updated reference architecture of the facility is provided, considering the requirements outlined. The document explores the experimentation framework, including the lifecycle of experiments and the methodology for validating KPIs and KVIs. It presents the key technologies and use case enablers towards 6G that will be offered within the trial networks. Each of the platforms constituting the 6G-SANDBOX Facility is described, along with the necessary enhancements to align them with the project's vision in terms of hardware, software updates, and functional improvements

Understanding O-RAN: Architecture, Interfaces, Algorithms, Security, and Research Challenges

The Open Radio Access Network (RAN) and its embodiment through the O-RAN Alliance specifications are poised to revolutionize the telecom ecosystem. O-RAN promotes virtualized RANs where disaggregated components are connected via open interfaces and optimized by intelligent controllers. The result is a new paradigm for the RAN design, deployment, and operations: O-RAN networks can be built with multi-vendor, interoperable components, and can be programmatically optimized through a centralized abstraction layer and data-driven closed-loop control. Therefore, understanding O-RAN, its architecture, its interfaces, and workflows is key for researchers and practitioners in the wireless community. In this article, we present the first detailed tutorial on O-RAN. We also discuss the main research challenges and review early research results. We provide a deep dive of the O-RAN specifications, describing its architecture, design principles, and the O-RAN interfaces. We then describe how the O-RAN RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs) can be used to effectively control and manage 3GPP-defined RANs. Based on this, we discuss innovations and challenges of O-RAN networks, including the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workflows that the architecture and interfaces enable, security and standardization issues. Finally, we review experimental research platforms that can be used to design and test O-RAN networks, along with recent research results, and we outline future directions for O-RAN development.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables. Submitted for publication to the IEE

Comunicaciones Móviles de Misión Crítica sobre Redes LTE

Mission Critical Communications (MCC) have been typically provided by proprietary radio technologies, but, in the last years, the interest to use commercial-off-the-shelf mobile technologies has increased. In this thesis, we explore the use of LTE to support MCC. We analyse the feasibility of LTE networks employing an experimental platform, PerformNetworks. To do so, we extend the testbed to increase the number of possible scenarios and the tooling available. After exploring the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of LTE, we propose different architectures to support the performance and functional requirements demanded by MCC. We have identified latency as one of the KPI to improve, so we have done several proposals to reduce it. These proposals follow the Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) paradigm, locating the services in what we called the fog, close to the base station to avoid the backhaul and transport networks. Our first proposal is the Fog Gateway, which is a MEC solution fully compatible with standard LTE networks that analyses the traffic coming from the base station to decide whether it has to be routed to the fog of processed normally by the SGW. Our second proposal is its natural evolution, the GTP Gateway that requires modifications on the base station. With this proposal, the base station will only transport over GTP the traffic not going to the fog. Both proposals have been validated by providing emulated scenarios, and, in the case of the Fog Gateway, also with the implementation of different prototypes, proving its compatibility with standard LTE network and its performance. The gateways can reduce drastically the end-to-end latency, as they avoid the time consumed by the backhaul and transport networks, with a very low trade-off

Mission-Critical Communications from LMR to 5G: a Technology Assessment approach for Smart City scenarios

Radiocommunication networks are one of the main support tools of agencies that carry out actions in Public Protection & Disaster Relief (PPDR), and it is necessary to update these communications technologies from narrowband to broadband and integrated to information technologies to have an effective action before society. Understanding that this problem includes, besides the technical aspects, issues related to the social context to which these systems are inserted, this study aims to construct scenarios, using several sources of information, that helps the managers of the PPDR agencies in the technological decisionmaking process of the Digital Transformation of Mission-Critical Communication considering Smart City scenarios, guided by the methods and approaches of Technological Assessment (TA).As redes de radiocomunicações são uma das principais ferramentas de apoio dos órgãos que realizam ações de Proteção Pública e Socorro em desastres, sendo necessário atualizar essas tecnologias de comunicação de banda estreita para banda larga, e integra- las às tecnologias de informação, para se ter uma atuação efetiva perante a sociedade . Entendendo que esse problema inclui, além dos aspectos técnicos, questões relacionadas ao contexto social ao qual esses sistemas estão inseridos, este estudo tem por objetivo a construção de cenários, utilizando diversas fontes de informação que auxiliem os gestores destas agências na tomada de decisão tecnológica que envolve a transformação digital da Comunicação de Missão Crítica considerando cenários de Cidades Inteligentes, guiado pelos métodos e abordagens de Avaliação Tecnológica (TA)

Satellite Systems in the Era of 5G Internet of Things

In recent years, IoT applications have drawn a great deal of attention, both in academia and industry. A crucial requirement of any infrastructure serving the IoT market will be to guarantee ubiquitous connectivity to the low-cost, low-powered devices distributed all over the globe. It is widely accepted that this requirement will not be met by the terrestrial network alone. There will be, in fact, vast areas of the globe where the terrestrial infrastructure deployment will be unfeasible or not economically viable, thus leaving those areas un- or under-served. For this reason, several studies and projects are addressing the use of a Non-Terrestrial Network component to seamlessly complement and extend the terrestrial network coverage in future systems. The design of these extremely complex systems requires manifold analyses at different levels of abstraction, from satellite constellation and ground segment architecture aspects, to the evaluation of the air interface behaviour, in order to evaluate the system performance. The aim of this work is to perform a detailed analysis of the SatCom system aspects, trying to be as accurate as possible but without getting lost in unnecessary details, in order to provide a comprehensive set of tools, organised in a simulation platform, to support the design and performance evaluation of the system. Notably, simulation softwares play an important role in this framework; however, a full-featured simulation tool does not yet exist for the evaluation of the described emerging technologies. ESA M2M Simulator (ESiM2M) is a System-Level Simulator, developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, which is intended for closing this gap, as a tool for the design and analysis, from a system-level point of view, of Satellite-IoT systems. This work is primarily focused on the description of the ESiM2M simulation tool and the results derived with the latter from analyses on Satellite-IoT systems

End-to-end network service orchestration in heterogeneous domains for next-generation mobile networks

5G marks the beginning of a deep revolution in the mobile network ecosystem, transitioning to a network of services to satisfy the demands of new players, the vertical industries. This revolution implies a redesign of the overall mobile network architecture where complexity, heterogeneity, dynamicity, and flexibility will be the rule. Under such context, automation and programmability are essential to support this vision and overcome current rigid network operation processes. Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Network slicing are key enabling techniques to provide such capabilities. They are complementary, but they are still in its infancy and the synergies between them must be exploited to realise the mentioned vision. The aim of this thesis is to further contribute to its development and integration in next generation mobile networks by designing an end-to-end (E2E) network service orchestration (NSO) architecture, which aligned with some guidelines and specifications provided by main standardization bodies, goes beyond current management and orchestration (MANO) platforms to fulfil network service lifetime requirements in heterogeneous multi-technology/administrative network infrastructures shared by concurrent instances of diverse network services. Following a bottom-up approach, we start studying some SDN aspects related to the management of wireless network elements and its integration into hierarchical control architectures orchestrating networking resources in a multi-technology (wireless, optical, packet) infrastructure. Then, this work is integrated in an infrastructure manager module executing the joint resource abstraction and allocation of network and compute resources in distributed points of presence (PoPs) connected by a transport network, aspect which is not (or lightly) handled by current MANO platforms. This is the module where the integration between NFV and SDN techniques is executed. This integration is commanded by a Service Orchestrator module, in charge of automating the E2E lifecycle management of network services implementing network slices (NS) based on the vertical requirements, the available infrastructure resources, and, while fulfilling service level agreement (SLA) also during run-time operation. This architecture, focused on single administrative domain (AD) scenarios, constitutes the first group of contributions of this thesis. The second group of contributions evolves this initial architecture to deal with the orchestration and sharing of NS and its network slice subnet instances (NSSIs) involving multiple ADs. The main differential aspect with current state-of-the-art solutions is the consideration of resource orchestration aspects during the whole orchestration process. This is fundamental to achieve the interconnection of NSSIs, hence making the E2E multi-domain orchestration and network slicing a reality in practice. Additionally, this work also considers SLA management aspects by means of scaling actions during run-time operation in such complex scenarios. The third group of contributions demonstrate the validity and applicability of the resulting architectures, workflows, and interfaces by implementing and evaluating them in real experimental infrastructures featuring multiple ADs and transport technologies interconnecting distributed computing PoPs. The performed experimentation considers network service definitions close to real vertical use cases, namely automotive and eHealth, which help bridging the gap between network providers and vertical industries stakeholders. Experimental results show that network service creation and scaling times in the order of minutes can be achieved for single and multi-AD scenarios, in line with 5G network targets. Moreover, these measurements serve as a reference for benchmarking the different operations involved during the network service deployment. Such analysis are limited in current literature.5G marca el inicio de una gran revolución en las redes móviles, convirtiéndose en redes orientadas a servicios para satisfacer las demandas de nuevos actores, las industrias verticales. Esta revolución supone un rediseño total de la arquitectura de red donde la complejidad, heterogeneidad, dinamicidad y flexibilidad serán la norma. En este contexto, la automatización y programabilidad serán esenciales para superar los rígidos procesos actuales de operación de red. Las redes definidas por software (SDN), la virtualización de funciones de red (NFV) y el particionamiento de redes son técnicas clave para proporcionar dichas capacidades. Éstas son complementarias, pero aún recientes y sus sinergias se deben explotar para realizar la nueva visión. El objetivo de esta tesis es contribuir a su desarrollo e integración en la nuevas generaciones de redes móviles mediante el diseño de una arquitectura de orquestación de servicios de red (NSO) extremo a extremo (E2E), que alineada con algunas pautas y especificaciones de los principales organismos de estandarización, va más allá de los actuales sistemas de gestión y orquestación (MANO) para instanciar y garantizar los requisitos de los diversos servicios de red desplegados concurrentemente en infraestructuras heterogéneas compartidas que combinan múltiples tecnologías y dominios administrativos (AD). Siguiendo un enfoque ascendente, comenzamos a estudiar aspectos de SDN relacionados con la gestión de elementos de red inalámbricos y su integración en arquitecturas jerárquicas de orquestación de recursos de red en infraestructuras multi tecnología (inalámbrica, óptica, paquetes). Luego, este trabajo se integra en un módulo de administración de infraestructura que ejecuta de forma conjunta la abstracción y la asignación de recursos de red y computación en múltiples puntos de presencia (PoP) distribuidos conectados por una red de transporte, aspecto que no está (o ligeramente) considerado por los actuales sistemas MANO. Este módulo ejecuta la integración de las técnicas NFV y SDN. Esta integración está dirigida por el módulo Orquestador de Servicios, que automatiza la gestión E2E del ciclo de vida de los servicios de red implementando las diferentes particiones de red en base a los requisitos de los verticales, los recursos de infraestructura disponibles y mientras cumple los acuerdos de nivel de servicio (SLA) durante la operación del servicio. Esta arquitectura, centrada en escenarios con un único AD, forma el primer grupo de contribuciones de esta tesis. El segundo grupo de contribuciones evoluciona esta arquitectura abordando la orquestación y compartición de particiones de red y sus componentes (NSSIs) en escenarios con múltiples AD. La consideración detallada de aspectos de orquestación de recursos es el principal aspecto diferencial con la literatura. Esto es fundamental para la interconexión de NSSIs, haciendo realidad la orquestación E2E y el particionamiento de red en escenarios con múltiples AD. Además, se considera la gestión de SLA mediante acciones de escalado durante la operación del servicio en los escenarios mencionados. El tercer grupo de contribuciones valida las arquitecturas, procedimientos e interfaces resultantes pues se han implementado y evaluado sobre infraestructuras experimentales reales que presentan múltiples AD y tecnologías de transporte interconectando PoP distribuidos. Esta experimentación considera definiciones de servicios de red cercanos a casos de uso de verticales reales, como automoción y eHealth, ayudando a cubrir la brecha entre los proveedores de red y los verticales. Los resultados experimentales muestran que la creación y el escalado de servicios de red se pueden realizar en pocos minutos en escenarios con un único o múltiples ADs, en línea con los indicadores de red objetivos de 5G. Estas medidas, escasas en la literatura actual, sirven como referencia para caracterizar las diferentes operaciones involucradas durante el despliegue de servicios.Postprint (published version

Diseño, especificación, implementación y validación de habilitadores digitales para la interoperabilidad de plataformas de Internet de las cosas (IoT)

[ES] Internet de las Cosas (IoT) es un paradigma tecnológico que está transformando y revolucionando el mundo en el cual vivimos, liderando la transformación digital y generando enormes posibilidades desde el punto de vista tecnológico que pueden solucionar grandes problemas y retos en nuestra sociedad y efectuar cambios profundos en nuestra economía e industria, y transformar nuestra vida cotidiana . Sin embargo, para poder obtener estos grandes beneficios y explotar todo su potencial todavía hace falta abordar y resolver grandes retos tecnológicos asociados. La interoperabilidad es el mayor reto tecnológico del paradigma IoT, conjuntamente con la seguridad, a causa de la vasta heterogeneidad inherente del universo IoT a todos los niveles y la falta de una estandarización global aceptada de facto capaz de alinear sus diferentes elementos y aspectos, que actualmente no se considera viable conseguir. La capacidad de elementos y sistemas de comunicarse y compartir información de manera efectiva entre ellos habilita intercambios de información relevante, coordinación o cooperación entre sí y sinergias. La fragmentación de la información de sistemas IoT y falta inherente de interoperabilidad en este paradigma causa graves problemas económicos y tecnológicos, e impide las sinergias entre sistemas. Se considera que la carencia de interoperabilidad es el mayor obstáculo para la formación de un ecosistema global de IoT, un hito en la transformación digital, puesto que impide la integración horizontal de mercados verticales y deja una gran fragmentación entre los sistemas basados en información obtenida con la tecnología IoT. IoT, uno de los paradigmas o habilitadores clave de la transformación digital, está enormemente limitada por carencias de interoperabilidad, que impiden su crecimiento, evolución y despliegue de todo su potencial. Es absolutamente crítico resolver el problema de falta intrínseca de interoperabilidad entre plataformas IoT para poder avanzar tecnológicamente hacia el Internet del Futuro, la Nueva Generación de IoT y la digitalización del mundo. La habilitación de la interoperabilidad entre sistemas y a lo largo de los sistemas, para conseguir un ecosistema interconexionado global, es un reto complejo y de múltiples facetas. Entre ellas, la interoperabilidad semántica, que implica el entendimiento completo, automático y sin ambigüedades de la información compartida entre sistemas, es singularmente compleja de obtener entre plataformas IoT a causa de la alta heterogeneidad entre sus modelos de información. En esta tesis se abarca el estudio, diseño, especificación, implementación y validación de habilitadores digitales (herramientas tecnológicas que promueven la digitalización del mundo) para establecer interoperabilidad en IoT en diferentes niveles (técnico, sintáctico, semántico) con especial enfoque en la interoperabilidad semántica entre plataformas heterogéneas, uno de los retos técnicos más complejos actualmente en IoT. También se abordan en el estudio y construcción de estos habilitadores temas a resolver de Internet del Futuro y la Nueva Generación de Internet de las Cosas.[CA] Internet de les Coses (IoT) és un paradigma tecnològic que està transformant i revolucionant el món en el qual vivim, liderant la transformació digital i generant enormes possibilitats des del punt de vista tecnològic que poden solucionar grans problemes i reptes en la nostra societat i efectuar canvis profunds en la nostra economia i indústria, i transformar la nostra vida quotidiana. No obstant això, per a poder obtindre aquests grans beneficis i explotar tot el seu potencial encara fa falta abordar i resoldre grans reptes tecnològics associats. La interoperabilitat és el major repte tecnològic del paradigma IoT, conjuntament amb la seguretat, a causa de la vasta heterogeneïtat inherent de l'univers IoT a tots els nivells i la falta d'una estandardització global acceptada de facto capaç d'alinear els seus diferents elements i aspectes, que actualment no es considera viable aconseguir. La capacitat d'elements i sistemes de comunicar-se i compartir informació de manera efectiva entre ells habilita intercanvis d'informació rellevant, coordinació o cooperació entre si i sinergies. La fragmentació de la informació de sistemes IoT i falta inherent d'interoperabilitat en aquest paradigma causa greus problemes econòmics i tecnològics, i impedeix les sinergies entre sistemes. Es considera que la manca d'interoperabilitat és el major obstacle per a la formació d'un ecosistema global de IoT, una fita en la transformació digital, ja que impedeix la integració horitzontal de mercats verticals i deixa una gran fragmentació entre els sistemes basats en informació obtinguda amb la tecnologia IoT. La IoT, un dels paradigmes o habilitadors clau de la transformació digital, està enormement limitada per manques d'interoperabilitat, que impedeixen el seu creixement, evolució i desplegament de tot el seu potencial. És absolutament crític resoldre el problema de falta intrínseca d'interoperabilitat entre plataformes IoT per a poder avançar tecnològicament cap a la Internet del Futur, la Nova Generació de IoT i la digitalització del món. L'habilitació de la interoperabilitat entre sistemes i al llarg dels sistemes, per a aconseguir un ecosistema interconnectat global, és un repte complex i de múltiples facetes. Entre elles, la interoperabilitat semàntica, que implica l'enteniment complet, automàtic i sense ambigüitats de la informació compartida entre sistemes, és singularment complexa d'obtindre entre plataformes IoT a causa de l'alta heterogeneïtat entre els seus models d'informació. En aquesta tesi s'abasta l'estudi, disseny, especificació, implementació i validació d'habilitadors digitals (eines tecnològiques que promouen la digitalització del món) per a establir interoperabilitat en IoT en diferents nivells (tècnic, sintàctic, semàntic) amb especial enfocament en la interoperabilitat semàntica entre plataformes heterogènies, un dels reptes tècnics més complexos actualment en IoT. També s'aborden en l'estudi i construcció d'aquests habilitadors temes a resoldre d'Internet del Futur i la Nova Generació d'Internet de les Coses.[EN] The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological paradigm that is transforming and revolutionising the world we live in, leading the digital transformation and generating enormous technological possibilities that could solve major challenges in our society, effect profound changes in our economy and industry and transform our daily lives. However, in order to realise these great benefits and exploit IoT's full potential, there are major associated technological challenges to be addressed and solved. Interoperability is the biggest technological challenge of the IoT paradigm, together with security, because of the vast inherent heterogeneity in IoT at all levels and the lack of a de facto global standard capable of aligning its different elements and aspects, which is currently not considered feasible to achieve. The ability of elements and systems to communicate and share information effectively with each other enables exchanges of relevant information, coordination or cooperation with each other and synergies. The fragmentation of information in IoT systems and inherent lack of interoperability in this paradigm causes serious economic and technological problems, and prevents synergies between systems. The lack of interoperability is considered to be the biggest obstacle to the formation of a global IoT ecosystem, a milestone in the digital transformation, as it prevents horizontal integration of vertical markets and leaves a large fragmentation between systems based on IoT-derived information. IoT, one of the key paradigms or enablers of digital transformation, is severely constrained by interoperability gaps, which impede its growth, evolution and deployment of its full potential. It is absolutely critical to solve the problem of intrinsic lack of interoperability between IoT platforms in order to move technologically towards the Future Internet, the Next Generation IoT and the digitisation of the world. The enablement of interoperability between and across systems to achieve a globally interconnected ecosystem is a complex and multi-faceted challenge. Among them, semantic interoperability, which implies an automatic unambiguous understanding of the information shared between systems, is hardly feasible between IoT platforms due to the high heterogeneity of information models. This thesis covers the study, design, specification, implementation and validation of digital enablers to establish IoT interoperability at different levels (technical, syntactic, semantic) with special focus on semantic interoperability between heterogeneous platforms, one of the most complex technical challenges currently in IoT. The study and construction of these enablers also address issues to solve in the Future Internet and the Next Generation of the Internet of Things.González Usach, R. (2022). Diseño, especificación, implementación y validación de habilitadores digitales para la interoperabilidad de plataformas de Internet de las cosas (IoT) [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/181643TESI