Laying the foundations for a 5G-enhanced future
5G networks are set to play a fundamental role in bringing important technologies to society, organisations and countries and transforming the way services are provided. This introduces the need to transform traditional closed, static and inelastic network infrastructures into open, scalable and elastic ecosystems accessible to a large variety of players and actors. The EU-funded 5G-PICTURE project set out to design and develop an open 5G transport infrastructure that can seamlessly integrate a variety of diverse systems with improved performance, energy efficiency, flexibility and density. The project followed the generic 5G design principles offering a variety of vertical operational and end-user services. These were enabled by a programmable transport data plane solution integrating wireless, optical and packet network technologies.
A paradigm shift with 5G
“5G-PICTURE proposed a paradigm shift from the traditional Distributed Radio Access Network (D-RAN) concept, and the recent Centralized RAN (C-RAN), to the Dis-Aggregated RAN (DA-RAN) approach,” says technical manager, Anna Tzanakaki. “This paradigm shift would enable migration from the traditional closed networking model, focusing on network entities, to an open reference platform instantiating a variety of network functions.” The 5G-PICTURE team successfully conducted a smart city demonstration in Bristol in the United Kingdom. There, they unveiled a system of highly configurable wired/wireless interfaces, integrated in a single transport solution for a smart city at Bristol’s Millennium Square. The team ran two end-user use cases with the support of 5G technologies that demonstrated synchronous communication as avatars in a hologram for virtual reality and a video system that can detect faces from multiple camera feeds, targeting public safety-related use cases. At Bristol’s Ashton Gate stadium, the team retrofitted the existing network infrastructure. The researchers upgraded the network into a 5G infrastructure and implemented a proprietary 5G operating system in the complex production network environment. “This use case addressed the 5G themes of a programmable network, differentiated treatment of applications using slices, and service resilience using slices such as in a multi-connectivity link scenario for Wi-Fi,” says Tzanakaki. The 5G-PICTURE project also demonstrated a multitenant 5G network model for the Future Railway Mobile Communication System in the live railways network of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona. In this demonstration, the team developed and integrated several technologies that include millimetre wave, passive optical networks and a mobility server. They evaluated a video stream of two surveillance cameras mounted on the front and rear roofs of the train to demonstrate moderate throughput sensitive to transmission latency during wireless link handovers.
A more versatile 5G
The researchers developed these novel networking systems to improve the functionality and flexibility of current infrastructure, while simplifying the management that comes with it. 5G-PICTURE has developed their system to be used in a variety of configurations by not requiring any specific hardware or software from systems managers. “5G-PICTURE has supported industrial development in Europe by involving big and small industries that have worked together to set up European partnerships and have led to relevant foundation,” remarks project coordinator, Eckhard Grass. “Individual and joint contributions to standardising authorities give an idea of the relevance of the project as it allows development of new products and services.”
Keywords
5G-PICTURE, 5G, infrastructure, wireless, smart city, radio access network, Dis-Aggregated RAN, Wi-Fi
