Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ETHER (ETHER – sElf-evolving terrestrial/non-Terrestrial Hybrid nEtwoRks)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
"ETHER objectives are:
1) Provide solutions for a unified and sustainable radio access 3D terrestrial/non-terrestrial network ecosystem. Several challenges are: i) direct handheld device broadband access; ii) waveform design; iii) adjusting the resources of NTN nodes through flexible payloads; iv) enabling the NTN nodes to perform processing and storage of the information to be used; v) and horizontal and vertical handover processes
2) Provide an AI-based framework for the self-evolving network slicing management and orchestration of ETHER ecosystem
3) Architect a viable, highly energy- and cost-efficient, flexible integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial network
4) To demonstrate the effectiveness of ETHER solutions by experimentation activities that target practical applications
5) Identify the key benefits that will drive the investment in ETHER
In terms of pathway to impact, the RAN advancements of Objective 1 will enable the availability of viable solutions, both from a technological and cost perspectives, allowing to bring beyond 5G and 6G services to places where terrestrial solutions are not economically viable, hence maximizing coverage and access to them.
Regarding the scale and significance, 100% coverage, 7 9’s of service continuity and reliability, and an overall energy-efficiency gain and total cost of ownership reduction of 3 times more and 95% with respect to the sota-only infrastructure are targeted."
1) Provide solutions for a unified and sustainable radio access 3D terrestrial/non-terrestrial network ecosystem. Several challenges are: i) direct handheld device broadband access; ii) waveform design; iii) adjusting the resources of NTN nodes through flexible payloads; iv) enabling the NTN nodes to perform processing and storage of the information to be used; v) and horizontal and vertical handover processes
2) Provide an AI-based framework for the self-evolving network slicing management and orchestration of ETHER ecosystem
3) Architect a viable, highly energy- and cost-efficient, flexible integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial network
4) To demonstrate the effectiveness of ETHER solutions by experimentation activities that target practical applications
5) Identify the key benefits that will drive the investment in ETHER
In terms of pathway to impact, the RAN advancements of Objective 1 will enable the availability of viable solutions, both from a technological and cost perspectives, allowing to bring beyond 5G and 6G services to places where terrestrial solutions are not economically viable, hence maximizing coverage and access to them.
Regarding the scale and significance, 100% coverage, 7 9’s of service continuity and reliability, and an overall energy-efficiency gain and total cost of ownership reduction of 3 times more and 95% with respect to the sota-only infrastructure are targeted."
The activities and achievements performed per WP are the following:
WP2
T2.1: The 3 ETHER use cases, their functional/non-functional requirements, KPIs, and KVIs have been defined. In addition, D2.2 was submitted.
T2.2: ETHER architecture has almost been concluded and D2.1 was submitted.
T2.3: A techno-economic analysis of the ETHER architecture has been defined together with a market exploitation for the 3 use cases. Furthermore, D2.3 was submitted.
WP3
T3.1: Initial work on: i) path-loss modelling for 28GHz and direct access between LEO and user device; ii) distributed beamforming from LEO satellite swarms. In particular, for a uniform distribution of phase error synchronization for each of the satellites in the swarm, the CDF of the normalized main lobe gain has been derived; iii) The orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation in a LEO-satellite based communication scenario as an alternative of OFDM.
T3.2: Initial development of the flexible payload framework and its different flexibility levels:
T3.3:
-Metrics deployment to quantify and capture the semantics of information
-Holistic consideration of information handling to achieve a goal
-Proactively caching a data subset, leveraging predictive analytics techniques reducing the data that is generated, stored, and transmitted without affecting the conveyed information amount.
-Reduction of processed data leading to higher EE
T3.4: -Exploration of handover mechanisms between LEO to LEO in the context of Store and Forward (S&F) NB-IoT to offer continuous service to UEs from within NTN.
- The first version of the Satellite-enabled Omnet++ system-level simulation platform has been produced that will be used to test which vertical handover algorithms
WP4
T4.1:
For the NBC orchestrator development of:
-The observability stack/data lake to support aggregation, storage and retrieval of Infrastructure and service metrics
-An ML flow framework to facilitate storage, training, inference and lifecycle management of AI models of ETHER
-A North Bound Interface to facilitate communication between the Orchestration logic of zero-touch closed loop and NBC orchestrator.
In addition:
Successful extension of the ETSI OSM architecture to allow its use with satellites. Furthermore, integration of a geographical network information management tool into OSM.
T4.2: -Start of SDN-based solution to dynamically coordinate communication between ground and satellite layers.
-System simulation model developed for connectivity performance analysis between aircraft and gNB in ETHER 3D network.
T4.3:
-Data analysis and visualisation on AVA dataset
-Developed, trained and evaluated several AI models for KPI forecasting leveraging AVA dataset
-Began the development of alternative AI model for KPI forecasting using frequential analysis
-Began the development of an AI model for Anomalies prediction that leverage as input the forecasting AI models developed previously
-Design and evaluation of aircraft traffic routing and handover methods and network performance optimization algorithms for the KPI using the developed simulation model.
WP5
T5.1: Several ongoing meetings for the testbed and configuration setup of each of the demonstration activities concerning each of the 3 ETHER use cases.
WP2
T2.1: The 3 ETHER use cases, their functional/non-functional requirements, KPIs, and KVIs have been defined. In addition, D2.2 was submitted.
T2.2: ETHER architecture has almost been concluded and D2.1 was submitted.
T2.3: A techno-economic analysis of the ETHER architecture has been defined together with a market exploitation for the 3 use cases. Furthermore, D2.3 was submitted.
WP3
T3.1: Initial work on: i) path-loss modelling for 28GHz and direct access between LEO and user device; ii) distributed beamforming from LEO satellite swarms. In particular, for a uniform distribution of phase error synchronization for each of the satellites in the swarm, the CDF of the normalized main lobe gain has been derived; iii) The orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation in a LEO-satellite based communication scenario as an alternative of OFDM.
T3.2: Initial development of the flexible payload framework and its different flexibility levels:
T3.3:
-Metrics deployment to quantify and capture the semantics of information
-Holistic consideration of information handling to achieve a goal
-Proactively caching a data subset, leveraging predictive analytics techniques reducing the data that is generated, stored, and transmitted without affecting the conveyed information amount.
-Reduction of processed data leading to higher EE
T3.4: -Exploration of handover mechanisms between LEO to LEO in the context of Store and Forward (S&F) NB-IoT to offer continuous service to UEs from within NTN.
- The first version of the Satellite-enabled Omnet++ system-level simulation platform has been produced that will be used to test which vertical handover algorithms
WP4
T4.1:
For the NBC orchestrator development of:
-The observability stack/data lake to support aggregation, storage and retrieval of Infrastructure and service metrics
-An ML flow framework to facilitate storage, training, inference and lifecycle management of AI models of ETHER
-A North Bound Interface to facilitate communication between the Orchestration logic of zero-touch closed loop and NBC orchestrator.
In addition:
Successful extension of the ETSI OSM architecture to allow its use with satellites. Furthermore, integration of a geographical network information management tool into OSM.
T4.2: -Start of SDN-based solution to dynamically coordinate communication between ground and satellite layers.
-System simulation model developed for connectivity performance analysis between aircraft and gNB in ETHER 3D network.
T4.3:
-Data analysis and visualisation on AVA dataset
-Developed, trained and evaluated several AI models for KPI forecasting leveraging AVA dataset
-Began the development of alternative AI model for KPI forecasting using frequential analysis
-Began the development of an AI model for Anomalies prediction that leverage as input the forecasting AI models developed previously
-Design and evaluation of aircraft traffic routing and handover methods and network performance optimization algorithms for the KPI using the developed simulation model.
WP5
T5.1: Several ongoing meetings for the testbed and configuration setup of each of the demonstration activities concerning each of the 3 ETHER use cases.
Key results:
1) Method for spectrum allocation in coordinated terrestrial-non terrestrial dynamic spectrum management scenario
2) Channel characteristics for the Direct access between LEO and user device at 28 GHz
3) Developed operational concept and methods for aircraft handover among gNBs, message routing, end-to-end network performance optimization, communication& service orchestrations.
4) Novel infrastructure mobility management model which extends the ETHER MANO framework
5) Definition of a distributed and hierarchical software-defined network controller system
6) Framework based on hardware and software that runs on FPGA based satellite payloads
7) Architectural design for a unified TN-NTN ecosystem
All the results have a high scientific potential.
1) Method for spectrum allocation in coordinated terrestrial-non terrestrial dynamic spectrum management scenario
2) Channel characteristics for the Direct access between LEO and user device at 28 GHz
3) Developed operational concept and methods for aircraft handover among gNBs, message routing, end-to-end network performance optimization, communication& service orchestrations.
4) Novel infrastructure mobility management model which extends the ETHER MANO framework
5) Definition of a distributed and hierarchical software-defined network controller system
6) Framework based on hardware and software that runs on FPGA based satellite payloads
7) Architectural design for a unified TN-NTN ecosystem
All the results have a high scientific potential.