Towards Zero Touch Configuration of 5G Non-Public Networks for Time Sensitive Networking

This preprint has not undergone peer review or any post-submission improvements or corrections. The Version of Record of this contribution is published in F. Luque-Schempp, L. Panizo, M. -d. -M. Gallardo, P. Merino and J. Rivas, "Toward Zero Touch Configuration of 5G Non-Public Networks for Time Sensitive Networking," in IEEE Network, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 50-56, March/April 2022, doi: 10.1109/MNET.006.2100442.mission improvements or corrections. The Version of Record of this contribution is published inThe need to increase mobility and to remove cables in industrial environments is pushing 5G as a valuable communication system to connect traditional deterministic Ethernet-based devices. One alternative is the adoption of Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards over 5G Non-Public Networks (5G NPN) deployed in the company premises. This scenario presents several challenges, being the configuration of the 5G part the most relevant to provide latency, reliability and throughput balance suitable to ensure that all the TSN traffic can be delivered in time. Our research work addresses this problem from the perspective of the learning automata. Our aim is to learn from the live network to build a smart controller that can dynamically predict and apply a suitable configuration of the 5G NPN that can satisfy the requirements of the current TSN traffic. The article presents the main ideas of this novel approach.European Union Horizon 2020 under grant agreements No.101016608 (EVOLVED5G) and No.957317 (AFFORDABLE5G). Spanish Government grant agreement RTI-2018-099777-B-I00 (RFOG

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

AutomAdapt: Zero Touch Configuration of 5G QoS Flows Extended for Time-Sensitive Networking

The aim of IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards is to grant deterministic communication in traditional Ethernet networks for Industry 4.0. Insofar as the use cases in the Factory need some mobility, the extension of the TSN capabilities over the fifth-generation (5G) cellular network is the next step. Some challenges in TSN over 5G, such as TSN translators time synchronization functionality, are well defined in the standards, even if they have not yet been addressed in the market. However other challenges, such as the dynamic configuration of the entire network (or part of the it) based on quality requirements of the current TSN traffic pattern, are defined at a very high level and delegated to vendors for implementation. This paper addresses this challenge, using an Automata Learning approach to monitor and reconfigure the end-to-end 5G QoS flow to keep the quality of a TSN session within the required values. Additionally, algorithms are provided to build the automata from network data and predict potential deviations of the requirements to meet the expected quality. Moreover, this work presents a functional TSN over a 5G testbed where the algorithms have been tested, demonstrating that the proposed solution achieves an improvement of around 40% compared to the usual operation of the network