Challenges and Objectives
The initial 5G deployment phase (2020) is already underway where 5G services are being rolled-out throughout Europe where Swisscom became the first carrier to launch 5G followed suit by the UKs EE and Vodafone. However, looking towards the future telephony landscape, so called Beyond 5G (B5G), future markets are targeting tactile speed applications such as remote surgery and automated production lines. This will require Terabit speeds, that can only be accomplished with even smaller cell sizes and resorting to larger Terahertz (THz) bandwidths. Beyond 5G depicts an ultra-dense network of THz-based small cells, that go beyond legacy 2D (two dimensional) deployment and aims to provide beyond 5G services to skyrise buildings. This will require mobile stakeholders to review the way current mobile networks are modelled and deployed for optimising mobile coverage.
In this context, the project objectives include:
• New 3D Models for THz Mobile Systems: Typical models are based on Poisson Point Processes (PPP) to evaluate coverage probability in cellular networks, that assumes homogeneous base stations and users in the 2D plane. They offer mathematical tractability, but are not completely representative of practical networking scenarios. Going beyond the initial 5G launch, richer deployment scenarios are envisaged, including 3D urban environments and THz-based small cells. This will require us to revisit current stochastic geometry modelling tools for characterising small cell deployment within a 3D setting.
• Characterizing Novel B5G Scenarios for Experimentation: Simulations are pivotal for the research and standardization. At this stage, although prototypes naturally deliver the most reliable results, they are typically not available and testing different candidate features would be too expensive. In this context, we build on system level simulation methodologies and platform to emulate and validate the analytical 3D network models for THz-based small cells.
What is the intended of this knowledge ?
The beyond 5G landscape aims to build on the initial 5G deployment phase (2020) envisaging an ultra-dense network of THz-based small cells, that go beyond legacy 2D (two dimensional) deployment and aims to provide 5G services to skyrise buildings and high altitude platforms. To transform this vision into a living reality, requires dedicated research and innovation enabled through modelling the mobile landscape exploiting analytical and experimental approaches prior to prototype development. This creates a gap for novel experimental tools that allow mobile stakeholders to evaluate radio protocols within a B5G ecosystem prior to practical field trials.
5GACE aims to develop new network modelling approaches for THz based mobile communication platforms to allow mobile stakeholders to evaluate advanced radio communication protocols within a self-contained analytical and system level simulation environment. This will enable validation studies on research concepts before migrating the technology to the prototyping phase where experimentation through field trials can pose significant risk.
Who will benefit and how ?
Mobile operators, vendors and the academic research community are likely to benefit from this new technology.
• Operators and vendors will have an experimentation platform where to evaluate advanced 5G radio protocols and network deployments for proof-of-concept, whose results can impact the standardization community.
• Research community will have an analytical multi-tier networking tool that can be used to provide new know how for advancing research on the topic of wireless communications, and provide new teaching material for the academic classroom.
Contribution to EU policy ?
5G-ACE roadmap targets an innovative product for the 5G landscape, being as such the vehicle to increase the competitiveness of the European mobile operators by enabling new insights into energy efficient protocol design thus taking a step towards reducing the energy and cost per transmitted bit in future emerging mobile systems. This is aligned with a key societal issue in Europe, where the Europe 2020 vision aims to become smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. 5G-ACE is foreseen as enabling technology towards autonomous smart green mobile network, which will inevitably lead to a reduction in the CO2 footprint of mobile networks.
