The identified scenarios were firstly revised considering associated actors, enabling technologies and analyzing the requirements from a technical, business and functional perspective (D2.2). Based on this and a close collaboration with WP3 and WP4, the infrastructure and management elements were identified arriving at the definition of the VITAL architecture and its components (Figure 1).
The virtualization aspects of the SatCom ground segment was investigated developing the Sat-Cloud-RAN concept. The investigation on the decomposition of satellite GW elements between physical and virtual components shown that the isolation between network functions, access gateway and hub appears to be a promising trade-off in terms of performance, cost effectiveness and feasibility (Figure 2). The outcomes highlighted that NFV application to SatCom is not only a transition trend but will bring real benefits. The development of the NFV manager, a specialized entity to manage and orchestrate the SatCom NFV infrastructure, was carried out and provided for WP5 activity.
A framework for hybrid satellite/terrestrial resource management was studied (Figure 3) focusing also on the workflows for different management procedures. This clarified the formulation/assessment of algorithmic solutions and allowed to better define the VSN concept delineating the management components and how they relate to the Sat-Cloud RAN concept (Figure 4). Finally, the algorithmic solutions were assessed covering the areas of capacity, traffic, mobility, resilience and end-to-end service management (D4.5). The design of the FNRM have been carried out considering technical and administrative constraints due to the heterogeneity of the involved domains. FNRM design has been evolved following IAB feedbacks to capture business requirements that were not considered initially and the implementation of the FNRM was provided for WP5 activity.
A continuous consolidation of the physical and emulated testbeds was carried out discussing the software architecture and interfaces specification. The main elements of the physical testbed (Figure 5), are the cloud infrastructure for virtualized components, the LTE network consisting in the eNB and the LTE core network and the satellite physical network. A configuration with OpenSAND emulator was exploited to validate the emulation platform. The emulated testbed (Figure 6) is the composition of two single domains one running at CNET premises and the other one at NCSRD premises emulating a SatCom domain. A notable achievement was the release of a new version of OpenSAND including new features exploited in the experimentation. All the VITAL use cases were covered in the experimentation demonstrating the SDN/NFV advantages in terms of performance and agility, achieving fast deployment of Network Services and integrated coordination of both satellite and terrestrial segment (D5.5).
The project has identified three main components that are critical to the development of the federated VITAL system which has the potential to be exploited from a commercial as well as technological incubation perspective: the Sat-Cloud-RAN, the NFV Manager and the FNRM. The details on the exploitation of the results can be found in the D6.7 presenting also the contributions to the ETSI SES TC recognized as the most adequate place to exploit the VITAL results to contribute to SatCom standards. The project results were disseminated in 16 conference papers and 4 journals achieving the dissemination plan targets. To maximize the outreach of the projects outcomes, partners presented VITAL results at several venues. Three workshops were organised in collaboration with the SANSA project and 20 events were exploited to present VITAL results. Further dissemination activity details can be found in D6.5.
