al., et

Camps-Mur, Daniel

Yan, Shuangyi

English

This paper introduces 5G-CLARITY, a 5G-PPP project exploring beyond 5G private networks integrating heterogeneous wireless access including 5GNR, WiFi, and LiFi.The project targets enhancements to current 5GNR performance including multi-connectivity and indoor positioning accuracy. It also develops novel management enablers that allow to operate the private network with a high level intent interface, while being able to natively embed Machine Learning (ML) functions

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                          Camps-Mur, D., Yan, S., & al., E. (2020). 5G-CLARITY: Integrating5GNR, WiFi and LiFi in Private 5G Networks with Slicing Support. InEuropean Conference on Networks and CommunicationsPeer reviewed versionLink to publication record in Explore Bristol ResearchPDF-documentThis is the author accepted manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available onlinevia [insert publisher name] at [insert hyperlink] . Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.University of Bristol - Explore Bristol ResearchGeneral rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only thepublished version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/user-guides/explore-bristol-research/ebr-terms/5G-CLARITY: Integrating 5GNR, WiFi and LiFi inPrivate Networks with Slicing SupportDaniel Camps-Mur1, Mir Ghoraishi2, Jesus Gutierrez3, Jose Ordonez-Lucena4, Tezcan Cogalan5, Harald Haas5,Antonio Garcia6, Vladica Sark3, Erik Aumayr7, Sven van der Meer7, Shuangyi Yan8, Alain Mourad9,Oscar Adamuz-Hinojosa10, Jordi Pe´rez-Romero11, Miguel Granda12, and Rui Bian13Abstract—This paper introduces 5G-CLARITY, a 5G-PPPproject exploring beyond 5G private networks integrating het-erogeneous wireless access including 5GNR, WiFi, and LiFi.The project targets enhancements to current 5GNR performanceincluding multi-connectivity and indoor positioning accuracy. Italso develops novel management enablers that allow to operatethe private network with a high level intent interface, while beingable to natively embed Machine Learning (ML) functions.Index Terms—5G, ML, WiFi, LiFi, private networks, SDN,NFVI. INTRODUCTION5G-CLARITY project belongs to the third phase of theEuropean 5G-PPP initiative [1], which is investigating how theconcept of private 5G networks should evolve beyond 3GPPRelease 16 [2]. This project brings innovations in two mainpillars: First, novel user and control plane components willbe developed to deliver a private 5G network that integrates5G New Radio (5GNR), WiFi and Light Fidelity (LiFi) toenhance 5GNR capabilities in terms of peak data rates, areacapacity, low delay and precise localization. Second, manage-ment enablers that allow to slice the heterogeneous accessnetwork, integrate private and public networks, operate thenetwork using a high level intent language, and incorporateML models to support the operation of network functions.The 5G-CLARITY innovations will be applied to a robot-human interaction use case in a museum in Bristol, UK, andto two industry 4.0 use cases in an automotive factory inBarcelona, Spain.II. 5G-CLARITY ARCHITECTURE AND INNOVATIONS5G-CLARITY includes a novel SDN/NFV based archi-tecture for private networks (see Figure 1). It enables ad-vanced traffic switching, splitting and steering through the5GNR/WiFi/LiFi access nodes to increase capacity, enhancereliability or reduce delay. 5G-CLARITY management planeallows private networks operators to deploy E2E networksslices and interconnect them with public 5G network slices. Itsupports ML functions in the management/control plane andenables cm-level localization in indoor environments.1i2CAT Foundation, Spain (daniel.camps@i2cat.net). 2 Gigasys Solutions,UK. 3 IHP - Leibniz-Institut fuer innovative Mikroelektronik, Germany. 4Telefonica I+D, Spain. 5 University of Edinburg, UK. 6Accelleran, Belgium.7Ericsson, Ireland. 8University of Bristol, UK. 9InterDigital Europe Ltd,UK. 10University of Granada, Spain. 11Universitat Polite`cnica de Catalunya,Spain. 11BOSCH, Spain. 13PureLiFi, UK.5G-CLARITY adopts the design principles of the open radioaccess network (O-RAN) architecture [3], leveraging its openstandards features. Its four main buiding blocks are: (a) thephysical infrastructure, that consists of COTS servers dividedin RAN/edge compute servers, white box enterprise Ethernetswitches with SDN support, and a heterogeneous wirelessaccess network; (b) an Infrastructure Management Frame-work (IMF) that includes NFV MANO functionality and anSDN controller; (c) a Service Management and Orchestration(SMO) framework that manages isolated E2E slices; and (d)a set of dedicated control and user plane VNFs supporting thewireless access networks. The O-RAN reference architectureis also leveraged for the definition of interfaces between theSMO framework and the control/user plane RAN functionsfor typical Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance,Security (FCAPS) functionality and ML training/inferenceprocesses.A. Control and User PlaneThe intelligent integration of 3GPP and non-3GPP (e.g.,WiFi and LiFi) access networks provides effective solutions torelieve data congestion, and addresses capacity and coverageissues by enabling offloading, utilizing unlicensed spectrumand deploying dense, smaller cell networks. Access to non-3GPP technologies is provided by the Non-3GPP Inter Work-ing Function (N3IWF) and the Trusted Non-3GPP GatewayFunction (TNGF) of the 5GC.5G-CLARITY proposes the integration of WiFi/LiFi net-works as a single SDN controlled Layer 2 network thatsupports seamless mobility between the two technologies,based on the SDN architecture introduced in [4].The near Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (RT RIC)function processes policy instructions from the non-RT RIC.It is also in charge of the near real-time control; and opti-mization of the Centralized Unit (CU) control/user plane, andDistributed Unit (DU) functions via data collection and actionsover the O-RAN E2 interface. It also hosts one or more xApps,that are applications designed to run on the near RT RIC.A key RAN optimization function is the combined use ofmulti-wireless access technologies in such a way that they canbe selected, aggregated and steered intelligently to optimizethe overall network performance while addressing the diverseper-User Equipment (UE) requirements. The Access TrafficSteering, Switching and Splitting (AT3S) framework [5] is thechosen technique to enable the intelligent integration of 3GPP		   	 !	!"   !!"#	$%&'(' 	#$#)*+,*)*+**+)**		* )*-,   !"#$ %   &   &  !.!.!)	Fig. 1. 5G-CLARITY high level architectureand non-3GPP access networks. 5G-CLARITY enhances theAT3S framework by running an instance of the AT3S controlplane functionality as an xApp that can be implemented usingML models.5G-CLARITY will also develop localization mechanismsleveraging the proposed 5GNR, WiFi, LiFi private multi-access network. The main challenge is to present the local-ization data given by the mentioned technologies on a unifiedinterface. To create this interface, an abstraction layer runningat the positioning server will be developed. This server willmerge the location data for a given UE from the availabletechnologies in order to obtain an improved position estimate.B. Management PlaneThe key pillars of 5G-CLARITY management plane are(a) the provision of services through E2E slices, (b) theadoption of an Intent Engine and an AI Engine to automatethe configuration and management of these services; and (c)the support of public services by the integration of private andpublic networks.A private E2E network slice is composed of a wireless,a transport and a compute service. A wireless service is inturn composed by a subset of physical devices radiating agiven Public Land Mobile Network Identity (PLMNID) inthe case of 5GNR, and a Service Set Identifier (SSID) in thecase of WiFi or LiFi. This service also delivers the incomingtraffic to a specific transport Virtual Local Area Network(VLAN), which would then bridge to the VNFs that constitutethe compute service. These network domains also include aresource quota, defined as a share of the resources that arereserved for each service.The Intent Engine function is introduced to enable aneasy interaction with the private network taking a high levelintent language, translating it into a technical configuration,analysing its feasibility, realizing the intent and then continu-ously monitoring if the intent is still valid or violated.5G-CLARITY also adopts the AI engine function with thegoal of hosting ML modules. These modules will process thedata received from the Telemetry Interface for their specificuse cases, e.g. to make predictions or detect anomalies. Self-training models will also use parts of the same data to retrainthemselves. After a model concludes its processing, it can thensend its output to the Intent Engine, which can act upon theprovided model output.Technical and business reasons could lead an industry ver-tical to deploy a private network with the support of a publicnetwork. To enable such interaction 5G-CLARITY envisionsa public-private orchestrator that orchestrates both networksdomains individually, by delegating resource orchestrations toeach one. Minimum functionalities will be implemented toachieve E2E orchestration. To this end, capability exposureand non-repudiation mechanisms must be defined.III. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis work is supported by the European Commission’sHorizon 2020 research and innovation program under grantagreement #871428, 5G-CLARITY project.REFERENCES[1] The 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership. Available at: https://5g-ppp.eu/.[2] 5G-CLARITY project. Available at: https://www.5gclarity.com/.[3] ORAN Alliance. Available at: https://www.o-ran.org/.[4] M. Grandi et al., “SWAM: SDN-Based Wi-Fi Small Cells with JointAccess-Backhaul and Multi-Tenant Capabilities,” in 2018 IEEE/ACM26th International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS), pp. 1–2,2018.[5] 3GPP TR 23.793, “Study on access traffic steering, switch and splittingsupport in the 5G System (5GS) architecture (Release 16),” V16.0.0, Dec.2018.

5G-CLARITY:Integrating 5GNR, WiFi and LiFi in Private 5G Networks with Slicing Support

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5G-CLARITY:Integrating 5GNR, WiFi and LiFi in Private 5G Networks with Slicing Support

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