Identifying 5G system enhancements: enabling technologies for multi-service networks

Proceeding of: 2018 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)The fifth generation (5G) of mobile and wireless communications networks aims at addressing a diverse set of use cases, services, and applications with a particular focus on enabling new business cases via network slicing. The development of 5G has thus advanced quickly with research projects and standardization efforts resulting in the 5G baseline architecture. Nevertheless, for the realization of native end-to-end (E2E) network slicing, further features and optimizations shall still be introduced. In this paper, we provide a gap analysis of current 5G system (5GS) with respect to some specific enhancements and detail our insights on the enabling innovations that can fill the identified gaps. We will then discuss the essential building blocks and design principles of an evolved 5G baseline architecture capitalizing on the innovations that are being developed.This work has been performed in the framework of the H2020 project 5G-MoNArch co-funded by the EU

A flexible network architecture for 5G systems

In this paper, we define a flexible, adaptable, and programmable architecture for 5G mobile networks, taking into consideration the requirements, KPIs, and the current gaps in the literature, based on three design fundamentals: (i) split of user and control plane, (ii) service-based architecture within the core network (in line with recent industry and standard consensus), and (iii) fully flexible support of E2E slicing via per-domain and cross-domain optimisation, devising inter-slice control and management functions, and refining the behavioural models via experiment-driven optimisation. The proposed architecture model further facilitates the realisation of slices providing specific functionality, such as network resilience, security functions, and network elasticity. The proposed architecture consists of four different layers identified as network layer, controller layer, management and orchestration layer, and service layer. A key contribution of this paper is the definition of the role of each layer, the relationship between layers, and the identification of the required internal modules within each of the layers. In particular, the proposed architecture extends the reference architectures proposed in the Standards Developing Organisations like 3GPP and ETSI, by building on these while addressing several gaps identified within the corresponding baseline models. We additionally present findings, the design guidelines, and evaluation studies on a selected set of key concepts identified to enable flexible cloudification of the protocol stack, adaptive network slicing, and inter-slice control and management.This work has been performed in the framework of the H2020 project 5G-MoNArch co-funded by the E

End-to-End Data Analytics Framework for 5G Architecture

Data analytics can be seen as a powerful tool for the fifth-generation (5G) communication system to enable the transformation of the envisioned challenging 5G features into a reality. In the current 5G architecture, some first features toward this direction have been adopted by introducing new functions in core and management domains that can either run analytics on collected communication-related data or can enhance the already supported network functions with statistics collection and prediction capabilities. However, possible further enhancements on 5G architecture may be required, which strongly depend on the requirements as set by vertical customers and the network capabilities as offered by the operator. In addition, the architecture needs to be flexible in order to deal with network changes and service adaptations as requested by verticals. This paper explicitly describes the requirements for deploying data analytics in a 5G system and subsequently presents the current status of standardization activities. The main contribution of this paper is the investigation and design of an integrated data analytics framework as a key enabling technology for the service-based architectures (SBAs). This framework introduces new functional entities for application-level, data network, and access-related analytics to be integrated into the already existing analytics functionalities and examines their interactions in a service-oriented manner. Finally, to demonstrate predictive radio resource management, we showcase a particular implementation for application and radio access network analytics, based on a novel database for collecting and analyzing radio measurements

A mobile app for patients with Pompe disease and its possible clinical applications

In recent years, the potential of smart technology to provide innovative solutions for disease management has raised high expectations for patients’ and healthcare professionals’ community. We developed a mobile app, called AIGkit, specifically designed for adult patients with Pompe disease, with the aim to help them manage the burden of illness-related factors, and also to provide clinicians with continuous tracking of each patient in real-time and ambient conditions of everyday life. We present the AIGkit as an innovative approach exploiting cutting-edge technology to improve quality of care and research into neuromuscular disorders