Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 5G-INDUCE (Open cooperative 5G experimentation platforms for the industrial sector NetApps)
Période du rapport: 2021-01-01 au 2022-06-30
The success of 5G (and beyond) technologies depends closely on their ability to attract vertical stakeholders, seeking the move of their services from cloud to the edge, to meet unique KPIs. The 5G-INDUCE project is based on the belief that such attractiveness requires vertical stakeholders and NetApp developers to be able to smoothly deploy and manage applications in distributed 5G network environments, in a secure fashion and with strict KPI requirements. The successful implementation of this vision constitutes the main objective of 5G-INDUCE. The project focus is directed towards the Industry 4.0 service deployment environment, as a highly exploitable domain for the proposed NetApp porting and management 5G framework.
In this vision, 5G-INDUCE aims to provide an end-to-end orchestration platform over enabling experimentation infrastructures for advanced 5G NetApps that can be applied for the realisation of extensive 5G use cases in the broader Industry 4.0 sector, leading to technological and business validation of 5G technologies by multiple collaborating tenants (e.g. manufacturing, logistics, maintenance power management, security/surveillance and more). Focus is given on validation of the 5G-readiness of both telecom operators and applications providers (on behalf of the related collaborating industries), aiming to bridge identified gaps in their interaction through a solution that is going to facilitate smooth porting of NetApps in 5G Industry 4.0 ecosystems.
In this vision, 5G-INDUCE aims to provide an end-to-end orchestration platform over enabling experimentation infrastructures for advanced 5G NetApps that can be applied for the realisation of extensive 5G use cases in the broader Industry 4.0 sector, leading to technological and business validation of 5G technologies by multiple collaborating tenants (e.g. manufacturing, logistics, maintenance power management, security/surveillance and more). Focus is given on validation of the 5G-readiness of both telecom operators and applications providers (on behalf of the related collaborating industries), aiming to bridge identified gaps in their interaction through a solution that is going to facilitate smooth porting of NetApps in 5G Industry 4.0 ecosystems.
In the first reporting period up to M18, the the main achievements regarding the technical WPs of the project have been the following:
WP2: i) Identification of application and network requirements that guide the definition and development of the 5G-INDUCE end-to-end orchestration platform. ii) System requirements that guide the NetApp design and onboarding according to the 5G-INDUCE platform capabilities. iii) Targeted use cases description, providing the functional descriptions of the use case actions within the industrial environments, as well as the use cases requirements. Description of NetApp components as functions and NetApps design and validation process. Description of the 5G release roadmaps, the provision of new functionalities in the radio-access and core parts, their inclusion into the 5G-INDUCE facilities and their potential exploitation in the vertical industry use cases.
WP3: i) Consolidation of the full description of the 5G-Orchestration Platform architecture and technological foundations, together with the planned Platform overall features. ii) Extensive rework for technological updates, performance enhancements and feature extensions, so to fit 5G-INDUCE use case requirements of the Platform building blocks Network Application Orchestrator (NAO) and Operation Support System (OSS). iii) Integration and release of two subsequent versions of the Platform at M13, respectively supporting all the basic features for the on-boarding of NetApps over the project DevOps facility and enhancements related to the DevOps testbed capability and the monitoring of NetApp performances.
WP4: i) More concrete definition of 8 use cases with at least 1 NetApp per use case. ii) Revision of technical KPIs and further definition for each NetApp. iii) Determination of the major requirements and methodology for design and implementation of application graphs of each use case. iv) Definition of NetApp Application Graphs for each NetApp. v) Completion of NetApp VNFs’ design and prototyping of the main VNFs for most use cases. vi) Establishment of the required datasets for AI-based use cases. vii) Initial onboarding of selected VNFs and of the first functional and deployable version of the NetApps over the DevOps platform.
WP5: i) Detailed definition and planning of the Experimental Facility (ExFa) infrastructures (access and core) according to the platform needs and the targeted use cases. ii) Extraction of the updated implementation and testing workplan. ii) Deployments at ExFa-Spain, including the set-up of use cases at 5TONIC lab, the deployment of 5G RAN coverage, with identification of deployment sites of both indoor and outdoor antennas. iii) Deployments at ExFa-Greece, including the detailed design of the infrastructure architecture and identification of deployment and installation areas at partner PPC, installation of the required hardware and RAN equipment configuration and activation, of the packet core and of the transport network. iv) Deployments at ExFa-Italy, including the completion of the system infrastructure design and the definition of business requirements related to the 5G connectivity and NetApps, extraction of required coverage, signal quality, latency, bandwidth and availability requirements from use cases, and establishment of overall infrastructure with the User Equipment (UEs) data sent to the Multi-Access Edge Computer in WindTre, along with connectivity by WindTre between the Serving Gateway (S-GW), the CNIT S2N lab in Genoa and the Whirlpool infrastructure servers.
WP6: i) Enhancement of the DevOps testbed to enable further programmability and flexibility to 5G-INDUCE NetApps. ii) Special NFV blueprints and network services design to emulate traffic flows, in order to validate performance in a fully controlled environment. iii) Preliminary showcasing of NetApps over lab environments.
WP2: i) Identification of application and network requirements that guide the definition and development of the 5G-INDUCE end-to-end orchestration platform. ii) System requirements that guide the NetApp design and onboarding according to the 5G-INDUCE platform capabilities. iii) Targeted use cases description, providing the functional descriptions of the use case actions within the industrial environments, as well as the use cases requirements. Description of NetApp components as functions and NetApps design and validation process. Description of the 5G release roadmaps, the provision of new functionalities in the radio-access and core parts, their inclusion into the 5G-INDUCE facilities and their potential exploitation in the vertical industry use cases.
WP3: i) Consolidation of the full description of the 5G-Orchestration Platform architecture and technological foundations, together with the planned Platform overall features. ii) Extensive rework for technological updates, performance enhancements and feature extensions, so to fit 5G-INDUCE use case requirements of the Platform building blocks Network Application Orchestrator (NAO) and Operation Support System (OSS). iii) Integration and release of two subsequent versions of the Platform at M13, respectively supporting all the basic features for the on-boarding of NetApps over the project DevOps facility and enhancements related to the DevOps testbed capability and the monitoring of NetApp performances.
WP4: i) More concrete definition of 8 use cases with at least 1 NetApp per use case. ii) Revision of technical KPIs and further definition for each NetApp. iii) Determination of the major requirements and methodology for design and implementation of application graphs of each use case. iv) Definition of NetApp Application Graphs for each NetApp. v) Completion of NetApp VNFs’ design and prototyping of the main VNFs for most use cases. vi) Establishment of the required datasets for AI-based use cases. vii) Initial onboarding of selected VNFs and of the first functional and deployable version of the NetApps over the DevOps platform.
WP5: i) Detailed definition and planning of the Experimental Facility (ExFa) infrastructures (access and core) according to the platform needs and the targeted use cases. ii) Extraction of the updated implementation and testing workplan. ii) Deployments at ExFa-Spain, including the set-up of use cases at 5TONIC lab, the deployment of 5G RAN coverage, with identification of deployment sites of both indoor and outdoor antennas. iii) Deployments at ExFa-Greece, including the detailed design of the infrastructure architecture and identification of deployment and installation areas at partner PPC, installation of the required hardware and RAN equipment configuration and activation, of the packet core and of the transport network. iv) Deployments at ExFa-Italy, including the completion of the system infrastructure design and the definition of business requirements related to the 5G connectivity and NetApps, extraction of required coverage, signal quality, latency, bandwidth and availability requirements from use cases, and establishment of overall infrastructure with the User Equipment (UEs) data sent to the Multi-Access Edge Computer in WindTre, along with connectivity by WindTre between the Serving Gateway (S-GW), the CNIT S2N lab in Genoa and the Whirlpool infrastructure servers.
WP6: i) Enhancement of the DevOps testbed to enable further programmability and flexibility to 5G-INDUCE NetApps. ii) Special NFV blueprints and network services design to emulate traffic flows, in order to validate performance in a fully controlled environment. iii) Preliminary showcasing of NetApps over lab environments.
Regarding the architectural framework and the characteristics of the NAO and OSS, several enhancement have been realised, in order to:
- improve the usability of the end-user GUI (the NAO dashboard);
- revise the implementation of the two key software modules of the Platform, according to the technological evolution and the specific requirements of the project, as follows:
o The NAO is completely broken down into microservices and new microservices have been added (Application Slice Manager).
o The NAO includes the capability to support K8s deployments.
o The OSS is made more modular to support various underlying network/computing infrastructures with different programmability levels, such as the DevOps and Experimentation Facilities.
o The OSS has been enhanced as regards the operation for the day-1 and day-2 management of VNFs.
The first version of the orchestration platform has been followed by further releases, with enriched features, mainly with respect to the capability to support the modification of NetApp deployment at run time (to provide vertical and horizontal scalability); full integration with all planned ExFas will be achieved.
The potential impact of the project is mainly in terms of the capability of enabling the use of 5G and beyond network services on the part of vertical application stakeholders – particularly SMEs – and simplifying the task of application developers in designing and deploying vertical applications that are not only cloud-native but also 5G-ready, offering a clear orchestration platform with enhanced capabilities with respect to the one already proposed by the MATILDA project. At the same time, the domain of network operators – especially small ones – is also targeted, by offering an OSS framework with real-time adaptation capabilities of network slices, through a clear interaction with the application and the infrastructure domain. Finally, the demonstration of 8 Industry 4.0 use cases complements the activity, by showing the practical benefits of of the developed framework.
- improve the usability of the end-user GUI (the NAO dashboard);
- revise the implementation of the two key software modules of the Platform, according to the technological evolution and the specific requirements of the project, as follows:
o The NAO is completely broken down into microservices and new microservices have been added (Application Slice Manager).
o The NAO includes the capability to support K8s deployments.
o The OSS is made more modular to support various underlying network/computing infrastructures with different programmability levels, such as the DevOps and Experimentation Facilities.
o The OSS has been enhanced as regards the operation for the day-1 and day-2 management of VNFs.
The first version of the orchestration platform has been followed by further releases, with enriched features, mainly with respect to the capability to support the modification of NetApp deployment at run time (to provide vertical and horizontal scalability); full integration with all planned ExFas will be achieved.
The potential impact of the project is mainly in terms of the capability of enabling the use of 5G and beyond network services on the part of vertical application stakeholders – particularly SMEs – and simplifying the task of application developers in designing and deploying vertical applications that are not only cloud-native but also 5G-ready, offering a clear orchestration platform with enhanced capabilities with respect to the one already proposed by the MATILDA project. At the same time, the domain of network operators – especially small ones – is also targeted, by offering an OSS framework with real-time adaptation capabilities of network slices, through a clear interaction with the application and the infrastructure domain. Finally, the demonstration of 8 Industry 4.0 use cases complements the activity, by showing the practical benefits of of the developed framework.