Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 5G-INDUCE (Open cooperative 5G experimentation platforms for the industrial sector Network Applications)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-07-01 do 2024-06-30
5G-INDUCE provided an end-to-end orchestration platform over enabling experimentation infrastructures for advanced 5G Network Applications (nApps) that can be applied for the realisation of extensive 5G Use Cases (UCs) in the broader Industry 4.0 sector, leading to technological and business validation of 5G technologies by multiple collaborating tenants. Focus has been given on validation of the 5G-readiness of both telecom operators and application providers, aiming to bridge identified gaps in their interaction through a solution that is going to facilitate smooth porting of nApps in 5G Industry 4.0 ecosystems. In line with the principle of separation of concerns between the cloud-native vertical applications’ domain and the networking domain, the complete 5G-INDUCE platform, which provides the end-user driven nApp onboarding and lifecycle management of the nApps over the southbound 5G infrastructures, is composed of two parts: the Network Applications Orchestrator (NAO) and the Operations Support System (OSS) modules. The NAO deals with nApp onboarding and deployment requests, allowing nApps to negotiate and obtain from the OSS both the needed computing resources at the edge facilities where to run nApp components, and connectivity among such resources and User Equipment (UE). The OSS deals with the tasks of analysing operational and performance (soft and hard) constraints expressed by the NAO slice request and consequently selecting the most suitable computing facilities and network services complying with the requirements. Key innovative features of the platform include:
- the automated translation of nApp micro-services into deployment requests for the OSS, annotated with QoS and operational requirements,
- the generation of end user- or policy-based requests by the NAO to the OSS for reconfiguration of the deployed resources at run-time,
- the capability of the OSS to select/deselect proper resources at edge facilities updating/creating/deleting network services,
- the dynamic reconfiguration of network slices to transparently/smoothly redirect UE-incoming/outgoing traffic during the reconfiguration phases,
- the introduction of the NFV Convergence Layer (NFVCL), for driving NFV service orchestration in all the lifecycle phases over external network orchestrators (e.g. ETSI MANO) and through standard interfaces, adaptively exploiting the programmability level offered by the underlying network infrastructure(s).
To demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the platform, as well as to provide quantitative evaluations of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the project has chosen eight UCs from the industrial sector, whose constituent nApps have been implemented as chains of micro-services, deployed by means of the NAO, and enabled to create the needed network slices and allocate corresponding network resources by the OSS. All UCs have been experimentally evaluated and demonstrated over 3 available Experimentation Facilities (ExFas) that were created by the project in Spain, Greece and Italy, respectively, allowing the measurement of significant KPIs.
- the automated translation of nApp micro-services into deployment requests for the OSS, annotated with QoS and operational requirements,
- the generation of end user- or policy-based requests by the NAO to the OSS for reconfiguration of the deployed resources at run-time,
- the capability of the OSS to select/deselect proper resources at edge facilities updating/creating/deleting network services,
- the dynamic reconfiguration of network slices to transparently/smoothly redirect UE-incoming/outgoing traffic during the reconfiguration phases,
- the introduction of the NFV Convergence Layer (NFVCL), for driving NFV service orchestration in all the lifecycle phases over external network orchestrators (e.g. ETSI MANO) and through standard interfaces, adaptively exploiting the programmability level offered by the underlying network infrastructure(s).
To demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the platform, as well as to provide quantitative evaluations of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the project has chosen eight UCs from the industrial sector, whose constituent nApps have been implemented as chains of micro-services, deployed by means of the NAO, and enabled to create the needed network slices and allocate corresponding network resources by the OSS. All UCs have been experimentally evaluated and demonstrated over 3 available Experimentation Facilities (ExFas) that were created by the project in Spain, Greece and Italy, respectively, allowing the measurement of significant KPIs.
The main achievements per WP have been the following:
WP2 - Identification of application and network requirements that guide the definition and development of the 5G-INDUCE end-to-end orchestration platform; System requirements to guide the nApp design and onboarding according to the platform capabilities; Targeted use cases description, providing the functional descriptions of the use case requirements and actions within the industrial environments; description of nApp components as functions and nApps design and validation process; description of the 5G release roadmaps.
WP3: Full description of the 5G-Orchestration Platform architecture and technological foundations; extensive rework for technological updates, performance enhancements and feature extensions, so to fit 5G-INDUCE use case requirements, of NAO and OSS, initially inherited from the 5GPPP MATILDA project; incremental extensions of the platform produced in 3 successive releases.
WP4: provision of requirements and methodology for the design and implementation of the application graphs for 8 use cases; definition of 51 technical KPIs for the use case nApps to be used for validation verification; development of 11 use case specific nApps, including 31 required network functions; provision of the final validated ntApps to the 5G platform experimentation facilities; support of the deployment of nApps from 3rd party developers, including a total of 4 diverse nApps from 2 ICT-41 projects and 2 commercial companies.
WP5: Development of a Unified Framework for Testing and Validation; Dedicated Continuous Integration Pipelines for testing software developments: Automated testing, code reviews, and Kubernetes-based integration tests; Successful development of the Multi-Site Experimentation Framework; Successful set-up and deployment over 3 industrial sites; Integration of 5G-INDUCE platform and UC nApps over ExFas; Monitoring of integration process for early identification of potential experimentation issues.
WP6: Onboarding of nApps via 5G-INDUCE platform achieved in all ExFas; Demos of the use cases successfully run on ExFas with extraction of KPIs.
WP7: 49 representations of 5G-INDUCE in form of press releases, webinars, workshops and exhibitions in major events hosted across Europe; 11 publications in conference/workshop proceedings; 11 journal articles; Booth at the IEEE International Conference on Communications in Rome, Italy, in June 2023; Special Session organized at IEEE Co-sponsored 7th International Balkan Conference on Communications and Networking (BalkanCom 2024), Ljubljana, Slovenia, in June 2024; Contribution to 2 Whitepapers of the 5G-PPP organization; Contributions to 3GPP standardization activities by partner Ericsson; Leading coordination activities with other ICT-41 projects, which led to a common Whitepaper; Identification of Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and related business analysis; Comprehensive market analysis.
WP2 - Identification of application and network requirements that guide the definition and development of the 5G-INDUCE end-to-end orchestration platform; System requirements to guide the nApp design and onboarding according to the platform capabilities; Targeted use cases description, providing the functional descriptions of the use case requirements and actions within the industrial environments; description of nApp components as functions and nApps design and validation process; description of the 5G release roadmaps.
WP3: Full description of the 5G-Orchestration Platform architecture and technological foundations; extensive rework for technological updates, performance enhancements and feature extensions, so to fit 5G-INDUCE use case requirements, of NAO and OSS, initially inherited from the 5GPPP MATILDA project; incremental extensions of the platform produced in 3 successive releases.
WP4: provision of requirements and methodology for the design and implementation of the application graphs for 8 use cases; definition of 51 technical KPIs for the use case nApps to be used for validation verification; development of 11 use case specific nApps, including 31 required network functions; provision of the final validated ntApps to the 5G platform experimentation facilities; support of the deployment of nApps from 3rd party developers, including a total of 4 diverse nApps from 2 ICT-41 projects and 2 commercial companies.
WP5: Development of a Unified Framework for Testing and Validation; Dedicated Continuous Integration Pipelines for testing software developments: Automated testing, code reviews, and Kubernetes-based integration tests; Successful development of the Multi-Site Experimentation Framework; Successful set-up and deployment over 3 industrial sites; Integration of 5G-INDUCE platform and UC nApps over ExFas; Monitoring of integration process for early identification of potential experimentation issues.
WP6: Onboarding of nApps via 5G-INDUCE platform achieved in all ExFas; Demos of the use cases successfully run on ExFas with extraction of KPIs.
WP7: 49 representations of 5G-INDUCE in form of press releases, webinars, workshops and exhibitions in major events hosted across Europe; 11 publications in conference/workshop proceedings; 11 journal articles; Booth at the IEEE International Conference on Communications in Rome, Italy, in June 2023; Special Session organized at IEEE Co-sponsored 7th International Balkan Conference on Communications and Networking (BalkanCom 2024), Ljubljana, Slovenia, in June 2024; Contribution to 2 Whitepapers of the 5G-PPP organization; Contributions to 3GPP standardization activities by partner Ericsson; Leading coordination activities with other ICT-41 projects, which led to a common Whitepaper; Identification of Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and related business analysis; Comprehensive market analysis.
Complete orchestration platform with NAO and OSS featuring enhanced runtime functionalities, improved telemetry, runtime policy support, and enenhanced platform's front-end, with support for the modification of nApp deployment at run time (to provide vertical and horizontal scalability) and full integration with all ExFas. Experimentation of 8 significant Industry 4.0 Use Cases and collection of relevant KPIs.
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. The demonstration of 8 Industry 4.0 use cases complements the activity, by showing the practical benefits of of the developed framework.
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. The demonstration of 8 Industry 4.0 use cases complements the activity, by showing the practical benefits of of the developed framework.