Small cEllS coordinAtion for Multi-tenancy and Edge services

Project Information

SESAME

Grant agreement ID: 671596

DOI

10.3030/671596

Project closed

EC signature date 10 June 2015

Start date 1 July 2015

End date 31 December 2017

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 8 266 932,76

EU contribution

€ 7 488 432,76

Coordinated by

ORGANISMOS TILEPIKOINONION TIS ELLADOS OTE AE
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SESAME (Small cEllS coordinAtion for Multi-tenancy and Edge services)

Reporting period: 2016-07-01 to 2017-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

One of the envisaged “key elements” of the 5G technological framework is the capability to deliver intelligence directly to network’s edge, in the form of virtual network appliances, jointly exploiting the emerging paradigms of Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Edge Cloud Computing.
5G network infrastructures need to offer rich virtualisation and multi-tenant capabilities, not only in term of partitioning network capacity among multiple tenants, but also offering dynamic processing capabilities on-demand, optimally deployed close to the user. Potential benefits trigger the interest of Communications Service Providers (CSPs) such as Mobile Network Operators, Mobile Virtual Network Operators and Over-The-Top content and service providers, allowing them to "gain" an extra share in the network market. To this aim, novel business cases will produce added-value from any kind of infrastructure or application that has the potential to be offered “as-a-Service”. While the virtualisation of the communications infrastructure (core/edge segments and access points/macro-cells) has been extensively studied, the applicability of this paradigm to Small Cell (SC) infrastructures has received so far very limited attention.

SESAME’s main goal is the development and demonstration of an innovative architecture, capable of providing SC coverage to multiple operators “as-a-Service”. SESAME envisages the logical partitioning of the localised SC network to multiple isolated slices as well as their provision to several tenants (Fig.1). Moreover, SESAME supports enhanced multi-tenant edge cloud services by enriching SCs with micro-servers.
This approach allows new stakeholders to dynamically enter the value chain by acting as "neutral host providers" in high-traffic areas where densification of multiple networks is not practical.

The essential aim of SESAME (being part of the 5G-PPP), is to introduce innovations around three central elements in 5G, via the identification of the corresponding "core objectives" of the related intended effort (as in Fig.2):
(i) Placement of network intelligence and applications in the network edge through NFV and Edge Cloud Computing;
(ii) Substantial evolution of the SC concept, already mainstream in 4G but expected to deliver its full potential in the challenging high dense 5G scenarios, and;
(iii) Consolidation of multi-tenancy in communications infrastructures, thus allowing several Network Operators/Service Providers to engage in new sharing models of both access capacity and edge computing capabilities.
SESAME addresses the needs of future 5G mobile networks from the perspective of a scalable and flexible system, rather than focusing in new 5G waveforms or protocol stacks.

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

The SESAME workplan has been tailored in 8 well-defined WPs.
Project Management has been in WP1.
The dissemination, standardisation, communication and exploitation activities also constituted a distinct work-package (WP8).
The first SESAME phase has been about the requirements analysis, use case definition, high-level and detailed specifications, technical characteristics of the system, as well as PoC integration inputs preparation. This has been in WP2 (Requirements, Specifications and Architecture).
WP3 (Small Cell Design and Implementation) and WP4 (Light DC Design and Implementation) have been dedicated in prototyping and implementing the CESC main components.
WP5 (Infrastructure Virtualisation and Management) has studied virtualisation strategies and developed the management plane components, including CESC Abstraction Model and VIM implementation. WP6 (Orchestration and Service Level Management) has realized the orchestration components, optimized the VNFs and provided the service management framework.
The outputs of WP3-WP6 have been integrated, in-lab tested, and validated within WP7 (Integration, PoC and Evaluation), where the entire SESAME platform has been integrated, deployed and validated as a complete system.

The main (conceptual) results achieved so far are as follows:
Definition and specification of the system architecture, interfaces and APIs for the provisioning of multi-operator SC networks, optimised for the most promising scenarios and use cases.
Extension of the concept of Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) as VNFs to enable Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing, among different mobile operators. Related progress has been made about:
- The definition of the CESC (Cloud-enabled Small Cell) Prototype design specifications.
- Realization of initial studies on Self-x and virtualization aspects.
Specification, design and implementation of a low-cost Light DC prototype as NFV Point-of-Presence providing support for intensive low latency applications, secure connections and high-quality of experience, while minimising space, infrastructure costs and energy consumption.
Launching of sample VNFs (Caching, Transcoding, etc.) for demonstration and assessment of the CESC platform – Small Cell virtualisation through providing MOCN as a VNF.
Design and implementation of CESCM (CESC Management), capable of chaining and orchestrating the different VNFs required to “cope with” the dynamic SLAs between the CESC provider and the network operators.
Communication/dissemination of Project results raised awareness and impact on stakeholders and the wider community.

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)

A fundamental component of SESAME has been the virtualisation of Small Cell and their utilisation and partitioning into logically isolated “slices”, offered to multiple operators/tenants. This significantly reduces the cost of deployed infrastructure.
With the advent of Cloud Computing, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), the idea to have general-purpose computing and storage assets at the edge of mobile networks has been matured, also via the modern concept of Mobile-Edge Computing (MEC). Thus, a micro-scale virtualised execution infrastructure has been proposed by SESAME, in the form of a “Light Data Centre” (Light DC), to build a clustered infrastructure with high-manageability and optimised to reduce power consumption, cabling, space and cost. This only optimises end-users’ experience as performance, but also, it provides an ecosystem with novel services residing inside the network infrastructure.
To realise SESAME’s vision, “Cloud-Enabled Small Cells” (CESCs) have been designed, developed and implemented, to offer access to network capacity coupled with MEC resources in a single device. These can be offered on-demand to Communications Service Providers (CSPs). Fig.3 illustrates a possible scenario of applicability.
Fig.4 presents the high-level architecture. The key innovations focus on the novel concepts of virtualising Small Cell networks by substantially evolving the SC concept under the paradigms of a multi-operator (multi-tenancy) - enabling framework and an edge-based, virtualised execution environment. In addition, cloud-based computation resources are provided through a virtualised execution platform (the Light DC). This platform is used to support the required VNFs implementing the features/capabilities of the SCs and the cognitive/”Self-x” management operations.

SESAME targets to contribute to the community societal challenge to “boost” the market opportunities for increased revenues and reduction of CAPEX/OPEX/TCO of telecom providers as well as the market positioning of equipment/solution vendors

Key Concepts of the SESAME Effort

SESAME Applicability

Independent Actors' Requirements addressed by SESAME

SESAME high-Level Architecture and CESC Components