Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 5G-TRANSFORMER (5G-TRANSFORMER: 5G Mobile Transport Platform for Verticals)

Teaser

5G-TRANSFORMER (5GT) is a 30-month collaborative project. Its aim is to apply SDN/NFV to transform the currently rigid mobile transport networks into a 5G dynamic system able to offer network slices tailored to the specific needs of various vertical industries. To this aim...

Summary

5G-TRANSFORMER (5GT) is a 30-month collaborative project. Its aim is to apply SDN/NFV to transform the currently rigid mobile transport networks into a 5G dynamic system able to offer network slices tailored to the specific needs of various vertical industries. To this aim, 5GT defines 3 building blocks with the following innovations:

Vertical Slicer (5GT-VS) provides a front-end for verticals:
- 5GT-VS architecture, allowing verticals with no know-how on service orchestration to: (i) describe their services via Vertical Service Blueprints (VSBs) from a catalogue; (ii) customize VSBs into Vertical Service Descriptors (VSD); and (iii) control their lifecycle.
- Arbitration among vertical service instances based on their priority and resource budget.
- Slice management and VSD/NSD Translator.
- Per-instance vertical application-level configurations.

Service Orchestrator (5GT-SO) serves as the E2E service orchestration platform:
- 5GT-SO architecture aligned with ETSI and extended to support multi-domain orchestration, and automated service management.
- E2E service orchestration along with service life-cycle management across one or multiple administrative domains (federation).
- Support of network service decomposition.
- Automated SLA management and network service scaling.
- Advanced Placement Algorithms.
- A service-aware monitoring platform.

Mobile Transport and Computing Platform (5GT-MTP) replaces current “one-size-fits-all” deployments with a customizable SDN/NFV-based transport and computing platform:
- Resource abstractions and connectivity service composition.
- Integration of heterogeneous wireless, optical and Ethernet transport solutions.
- Integration of transport network with centralised and edge compute resources.
- Providing intra-PoP and inter-PoP connectivity including the support for multi- VIM and multi-site, and federation.
- Cross-optimization of radio, transport and compute resources.

Main objectives of the project are:
- To develop a reference architecture and implementation for the 5GT platform, encompassing a flexible Mobile Transport and Computing Platform, a Service Orchestration platform, and a network slicing platform for verticals.
- To develop scalable algorithms for efficient 5GT service/resource orchestration.
- To support orchestration of end-to-end services across federated domains.
- Validation of key concepts and PoCs.
- Communication, Dissemination, and exploitation (incl. standardization) of 5GT.

Work performed

The work in the project has been divided into 5 Technical Work Packages (WPs).

WP1 was in charge of defining vertical use cases and designing the baseline architecture of 5GT. In the first period, WP1 specified the set of use cases and designed the initial architecture, which was finally completed in the second period and presented in D1.4. In addition, in the second period, we performed a techno-economic analysis assessing, through simulations in realistic scenarios, the market and business implications of 5GT for operators and service providers.

WP2 was in charge of the design and development of 5GT-MTP. In the first period, WP2 delivered its initial architecture, providing abstraction of resources and connectivity services to 5GT-SO. In the second period, 5GT-MTP introduced new features and building blocks, namely (i) local Placement Algorithms; (ii) interfaces with the monitoring platform, and (iii) support of MEC and RAN.

WP3 was responsible for the design and development of 5GT-VS. During the first period, an initial design was provided, focusing on: (i) definition of VSBs and translation into VSDs/NSDs, and (ii) initial design of arbitration algorithms. In the second period, 5GT-VS was extended with enhanced vertical support enabling (i) policy management; (ii) feedback from vertical apps; (iii) service configurations by the verticals; and (iv) vertical-driven service scaling and composition.

WP4 was in charge of the design and implementation of 5GT-SO. In the first period, an initial design of 5GT-SO was released, providing resource and service orchestration, for local and also across administrative domains (federation). To make optimal orchestration decisions, a number of placement algorithms were developed. During the second period, 5GT-SO was extended with (i) automated network service scaling; (ii) service composition and service federation; (iii) enhanced placement algorithms; and (iv)service assurance and SLA Management. In addition, WP4 developed a service monitoring platform.

The main goal of WP5 is to integrate all WP2, WP3, WP4 components and to validate the 5GT architecture design experimentally with selected use cases. The main work during the first period was the design and setup of the interconnection of the different test sites and the elaboration of an initial integration plan. The actual integration efforts
were made during the second period. The final results from the demonstrated use cases are reported in D5.4, including results from automotive, entertainment, e-health, e-industry and MNO/MVNO trials.

As a result of WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP5, the final software implementation of the 5G-VS, 5GT-SO, 5GT-MTP, and 5GT-Monitoring Platform has been published as open source on github: https://github.com/5g-transformer/.

Final results

5GT targets innovations around three main components: (1) 5GT-VS: offering a powerful, yet simple and flexible, interface to verticals; (2) 5GT-SO: capable of instantiating and orchestrating network services, including federation mechanisms; and (3) 5GT-MTP, integrating compute, storage and networking resources. All these innovations are combined together into a framework that takes into account both technical and techno-economic requirements from the stakeholders of the value chain (operators, vendors, and service providers). In this way, 5GT creates a direct socio-economic impact, through lower cost and higher efficiency for the stakeholders, better service (quality and ubiquitous access) to the end users, and lower bills. The overall society will benefit from 5GT innovations through easier entry for verticals, more flexibility and cost-efficiency, whilst supporting the services envisioned in 5G and beyond.

The 5GT innovations are expected to give the industrial companies (large, medium, small) in the consortium and the extended European 5G-PPP community a privileged position and competitive advantage in the European and global markets. An exploitation plan was made to assess the possible impact on the products and services roadmaps of the vendors and operators in the consortium.

The final 5GT software platform was released as open source on github: https://github.com/5g-transformer, enabling its adoption in other European projects. Particularly relevant, 5GT has been selected as baseline for the development of network slicing and orchestration platforms in other 5G-PPP phase 2 & 3 projects.

Moreover, in order to ensure wide-reach of 5GT, the consortium has been very active in dissemination efforts. Specifically, 5GT has delivered:
- 95 scientific publications (34 journals and 61 international conferences/workshops).
- 17 organized (or co-organized) events (e.g., workshops).
- 28 demonstrations at flagship events.
- 24 adopted/agreed/accepted standard contributions.

Website & more info

More info: http://5g-transformer.eu/.