Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MonB5G (Distributed management of Network Slices in beyond 5G)
Reporting period: 2019-11-01 to 2021-03-31
MonB5G aims at revolutionizing the network slicing ecosystem, by developing a zero-touch distributed network slicing management that yields the scalability and AI-driven automation to enable massive slices to run on top of the same infrastructure. This would enable to significantly maximize the return on investment (ROI) of the operators and paves the way for interesting business models that satisfy both the slices’ tenants and the final consumer, such as vertical industries. In this respect, MonB5G objectives are to devise:
• Distributed management plane to support massive deployment of network slices
• Definition of novel end-to-end (e2e) slice Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and development of AI-based mechanisms for their accurate prediction from multi-level metrics
• Data-driven management system based on federated learning
• Zero-touch network configuration
• DE decisions tailored to the RAN
• AI-driven slice security management via robust and efficient trust-based mechanisms
• AI-driven energy efficient network management
• Dissemination, standardization and exploitation of MonB5G
• Distributed management plane to support massive deployment of network slices
• Definition of novel end-to-end (e2e) slice Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and development of AI-based mechanisms for their accurate prediction from multi-level metrics
• Data-driven management system based on federated learning
• Zero-touch network configuration
• DE decisions tailored to the RAN
• AI-driven slice security management via robust and efficient trust-based mechanisms
• AI-driven energy efficient network management
• Dissemination, standardization and exploitation of MonB5G
• Organization, coordination, and reporting of 5 Consortium meetings, including Project Coordination Committee and Project Technical Committee.
• Finalization and signature of the Consortium Agreement of the project.
• Devising and release of MonB5G architecture.
• Definition of Trust model and trust management approaches.
• Refinement of use cases to better address potential market demands.
• Definition and mapping of the List of objectives, PoCs and AI KPIs.
• Design and testbed implementation of the Monitoring System (MS) based on Sampling Loops.
• Development of several Analytical Engines (AEs).
• Design of full end-to-end decision engine (DE) architecture and several DEs algorithms developed.
• Several security scenarios/attacks have been fully described.
• Energy-aware AE and DE devised.
• 2x press releases published.
• 2x newsletters published.
• 1x video presentation produced.
• 2x public talks.
• 34x accepted publications.
• Initial exploitation plan established.
• Finalization and signature of the Consortium Agreement of the project.
• Devising and release of MonB5G architecture.
• Definition of Trust model and trust management approaches.
• Refinement of use cases to better address potential market demands.
• Definition and mapping of the List of objectives, PoCs and AI KPIs.
• Design and testbed implementation of the Monitoring System (MS) based on Sampling Loops.
• Development of several Analytical Engines (AEs).
• Design of full end-to-end decision engine (DE) architecture and several DEs algorithms developed.
• Several security scenarios/attacks have been fully described.
• Energy-aware AE and DE devised.
• 2x press releases published.
• 2x newsletters published.
• 1x video presentation produced.
• 2x public talks.
• 34x accepted publications.
• Initial exploitation plan established.
• Evolution of networks towards OTT like platforms integrating connectivity, storage and computing resources opening for new service models to telecom/ISP providers: Being in line with the ETSI ZSM vision, MonB5G will demonstrate several use cases where computing, storage and networking resources of Tactile Internet applications will be hosted in different domains under the control of local NFVOs and Decision Engines while covering i) cross-domain end-to-end SLA and ii) elastic end-to-end slice lifecycle management.
• Network scalability towards high number of resource constrained devices, multiplicity of service requirements, and new connectivity paradigms (user controlled): MonB5G is developing i) a scalable monitoring system (MS) that enables to analyse a massive set of running slices while minimizing the measurement overhead ii) sophisticated data-driven methods for optimal slice configuration per device- and application-type for massive number of devices iii) Distributed architecture where local MS/AD/DE can be instantiated in edge domain reducing reaction times and thus improving device performance iv) local security orchestrator for autonomic threat identification and fast, local response.
• Characterisation and availability of secure and trusted environments for software based virtualised networks, enabling trusted multi-tenancy: MonB5G is developing a Trust Management and a Security Orchestrator by leveraging AI techniques and emerging virtualization technologies for enhancing the infrastructure and service management trust and creating a trustworthy environment for running different virtual services while ensuring isolation between different tenants and enhancing the timely identification/detection and mitigation of security threats.
• Dynamic scalability of network capabilities through availability of managed and enhanced resources: MonB5G is proposing a zero-touch slicing design featuring autonomic, cognitive (data- and AI-driven), and closed-loop management and orchestration distributing monitoring, analytics and decisions. Slice-level resources are automatically assigned, scaled, migrated while simultaneously optimizing (i) slice operation, (ii) managerial overhead, and (iii) slice coexistence with performance guarantees.
• Network energy consumption reduction, a factor of at least 10 is targeted: MonB5G will leverage the aforementioned developments and achieve the ambitious goal of 10-times reduction in the network power consumption by extending and developing new energy-aware AI-based techniques for end-to-end slice-level resource allocation as well as VNF placement so that to enable the deactivation of the non-utilized network elements.
• Impact on the telecommunications industry: MonB5G will help keep the telecom industry at the forefront of this strategic technology by providing research which will support partners who have products and services in the network management, SDN and NFV market.
• Impact on European economy: MonB5G impact on the European economy will be to contribute to accelerate 5G and beyond deployment in Europe, through its capabilities to provision new innovative services that demand 5G capabilities in a faster and a more secure way.
• Reducing the financial costs of cyber-attacks - impact on enterprises and SMEs: By effectively protecting 5G infrastructures, networks and network management systems and increasing their resilience to cyber threats, MonB5G will contribute to reducing and preventing the financial consequences of cyber-attacks and data breaches, achieving a high impact on telecom and service providers.
• Impact on consumers and society: MonB5G will go beyond traditional monolithic approaches that focus only on the radio spectrum optimisation, orchestrating a multitude of network components and resources across different domains. The decentralized autonomic network management and orchestration proposed by MonB5G, will enable telecom and service providers to optimize their resource usage thus reducing both CAPEX and OPEX paves the way to offer new innovative 5G services at lower costs to consumers.
• Network scalability towards high number of resource constrained devices, multiplicity of service requirements, and new connectivity paradigms (user controlled): MonB5G is developing i) a scalable monitoring system (MS) that enables to analyse a massive set of running slices while minimizing the measurement overhead ii) sophisticated data-driven methods for optimal slice configuration per device- and application-type for massive number of devices iii) Distributed architecture where local MS/AD/DE can be instantiated in edge domain reducing reaction times and thus improving device performance iv) local security orchestrator for autonomic threat identification and fast, local response.
• Characterisation and availability of secure and trusted environments for software based virtualised networks, enabling trusted multi-tenancy: MonB5G is developing a Trust Management and a Security Orchestrator by leveraging AI techniques and emerging virtualization technologies for enhancing the infrastructure and service management trust and creating a trustworthy environment for running different virtual services while ensuring isolation between different tenants and enhancing the timely identification/detection and mitigation of security threats.
• Dynamic scalability of network capabilities through availability of managed and enhanced resources: MonB5G is proposing a zero-touch slicing design featuring autonomic, cognitive (data- and AI-driven), and closed-loop management and orchestration distributing monitoring, analytics and decisions. Slice-level resources are automatically assigned, scaled, migrated while simultaneously optimizing (i) slice operation, (ii) managerial overhead, and (iii) slice coexistence with performance guarantees.
• Network energy consumption reduction, a factor of at least 10 is targeted: MonB5G will leverage the aforementioned developments and achieve the ambitious goal of 10-times reduction in the network power consumption by extending and developing new energy-aware AI-based techniques for end-to-end slice-level resource allocation as well as VNF placement so that to enable the deactivation of the non-utilized network elements.
• Impact on the telecommunications industry: MonB5G will help keep the telecom industry at the forefront of this strategic technology by providing research which will support partners who have products and services in the network management, SDN and NFV market.
• Impact on European economy: MonB5G impact on the European economy will be to contribute to accelerate 5G and beyond deployment in Europe, through its capabilities to provision new innovative services that demand 5G capabilities in a faster and a more secure way.
• Reducing the financial costs of cyber-attacks - impact on enterprises and SMEs: By effectively protecting 5G infrastructures, networks and network management systems and increasing their resilience to cyber threats, MonB5G will contribute to reducing and preventing the financial consequences of cyber-attacks and data breaches, achieving a high impact on telecom and service providers.
• Impact on consumers and society: MonB5G will go beyond traditional monolithic approaches that focus only on the radio spectrum optimisation, orchestrating a multitude of network components and resources across different domains. The decentralized autonomic network management and orchestration proposed by MonB5G, will enable telecom and service providers to optimize their resource usage thus reducing both CAPEX and OPEX paves the way to offer new innovative 5G services at lower costs to consumers.