Beyond 5G – OPtical nEtwork coNtinuum

Project Information

B5G-OPEN

Grant agreement ID: 101016663

DOI

10.3030/101016663

Project closed

EC signature date 8 October 2021

Start date 1 November 2021

End date 31 October 2024

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 5 465 068,75

EU contribution

€ 5 465 068,75

Coordinated by

TELEFONICA INNOVACION DIGITAL SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - B5G-OPEN (Beyond 5G – OPtical nEtwork coNtinuum)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

B5G-OPEN targets the design, prototyping and demonstration of a novel end-to-end integrated packet-optical transport architecture based on MultiBand (MB) optical transmission and switching networks. MB expands the available capacity of optical fibres, by enabling transmission within S, E, and O bands, in addition to commercial C and/or C+L bands, which translates into a potential 10x capacity increase and low-latency for services beyond 5G. To realize multiband networks, technology advances are required, both in data, control and management planes.
B5G-OPEN will explore a wide range of transport solutions that will co-exist to provide a novel high-bandwidth and cost-effective infrastructure ranging from front/mid-haul to data-centre interconnection and metro/core. This objective drives R&D on: MB technology beyond C+L, enabling spectrum usage of up to 53 THz; (ii) Optical MB subsystems (iii) per-band filter-less solutions; (iv) Packet-opto white box supporting flexible pluggable coherent modules as well as (v) PtMP systems applied beyond access scope (e.g. metro), across network segments, and in MB; Towards this prime objective, B5G-OPEN will design and develop MB switching, amplification and transmission solutions. The innovative prototypes will (switching nodes, amplifiers, transmission) will operate at multiple bands, beyond the conventional C or C+L bands.

B5G-OPEN will also design and validate a novel MB optical access and X-haul infrastructure enabling massive small cell deployments based on: (i) MB (> 4 optical bands); (ii) heterogeneous PtP and PtMP services; (iii) power-efficient pluggable-based multi-technology; and (iv) an X-haul infrastructure that will enable the deployment of a massive WDM channel fixed-line connectivity, with technology-agnostic hybrid connectivity schemes in the last-drop, and supporting QoS-guaranteed services over both 5G and innovative Li-Fi access.
The above MB solutions will be complemented with novel massive monitoring techniques. Towards this, B5G-OPEN will develop new monitoring methods to monitor physical layer transmission parameters (e.g. chromatic dispersion, OSNR), device parameters (e.g. temperature, current) while at the same time minimizing their cost using HW-accelerated performance/impairment models, low-cost devices, and AI-algorithm;
With respect the control plane, B5G-OPEN will design and development a Node Operating System, which will combine P4 packet switching and forwarding with flexible optical transmission. Flow adaptation/control/monitoring capabilities in the ms time scale, will be enabled leveraing AI prediction and wire-speed P4 operations. A 50% CAPEX reduction is foresen by avoiding node solutions designed for the telecom market. In addition control-loops will be implemented at various levels, from device, to demonstrate autonomous cognitive networking for collecting, analysing, making decisions, and acting on the network devices.

B5G-OPEN will have a clear impact on the society showing the evolution towards a world with increased needs of connectivity and higher capacity in support of new B5G services and new traffic patterns.

The consortium includes partners from 8 countries: three major telecom operators, three vendors, three SMEs and five research centres and academia.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP2: WP2 provided innovative architectural design and requirements, reported in D2.1. This deliverable provides definition of use cases, service requirements, high level multi-band network architecture, reference network topologies, and architecture to be used in the project for experimentation and performance evaluation. D2.1 also includes a preliminary traffic analysis study on a realistic operator network example.

WP3: During the first period, first specifications for the B5G-OPEN data plane infrastructure were identified and a list of prototypes and their initial design performed. In the 2nd period, WP3 continued and concluded the work started, focusing to the following three areas: 1) the definition of the architectural solution for the data plane with the identification of the specific solutions that fit and enable such architecture, 2) the development of specific subjects through the study of aspects considered of particular interest and 3) the completion of the prototypes of the systems developed in the project.

WP4: During the first period, WP4 has developed Open Packet/Optical nodes with pluggable interfaces, consolidated their architecture and protocols in view of their integration with the control plane, and made available prototypes for research, testing and validation. In the 2nd period, the work carried out was clearly focused on two axes: First, the development, partial integration and evaluation of the different components that constitute the control plane and their characterization. Secondly, with the definition of AI/ML tools in support of network operation, covering, notably DRL for function placement within the architecture of autonomous and Zero-Touch Networking in the MB context, which includes a telemetry system, and an optical network digital twin.

WP5: During the first period, preliminary techno-economic studies have been performed within T5.1. Lab setup (T5.2) has been successfully achieved and data set generation (T5.2) is progressing well. First integration activities (T5.3) are in progress.
In the 2nd period, the work carried out was focused to a dedicated techno-economic evaluation to identify the concrete benefits of these platforms and the actual experimental demonstrations. In particular, an experimental validation of the optimized MB S-BVT prototype in lab environment has been performed as well as the layout of the experimentation for the field trial “Transparent Multi-band Multi-domain Disaggregated IPoWDM Networks”, the setup of the OLS network with three ROADMs connected in a ring fashion operating in the C-Band and finally the setup of the “Filter-less Metro-access Network demo”.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Definition of requirements and constraints for multi-band optical data plane. Design and preliminary development of multi-band optical subsystems, switching and amplification systems. Design and development of innovative optical access and X-haul for massive 5G and Li-fi small cell deployment. Design and first implementation of AI-empowered packet and optical monitoring. Control of optical multiband network exploiting multiband capabilities of optical devices (transmission and switching). Definition of Physical layer impairments of multiband optical networks, where the increasing number of non-linear effects need to be considered. Packet/optical integration, with the gradual introduction of pluggable interfaces directly in the switches. Access/Metro integration, with control of different access technologies (PON, LiFi). Telemetry, where the ability to continuously monitor the network, critical as a first step to diagnose its behavior and take decisions in case of malfunctioning. The enabling and usage of external planning tools, so multiple algorithms can be defined to optimise network behaviour and operations, making use of quality data at different levels (optical and packet level).
Introduction of network automation, Which ultimately implies autonomous operations of the network to further reduce human intervention, leading to a self-managed network based on telemetry data and historical experience, along with AI/ML techniques for closing the observe-decide-act loop.

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