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5G Mobile Network Orchestration and Management Using Open-Source
... Here, the additional modules are being tested on ONAP and OSM due to the acceptance by the technical-scientific community, good documentation of these solutions, and the adoption by major players in the market. The comparison between these platforms is outside the scope of this work but can be obtained from [83,99,100]. ...
... These modules together implement the reference architecture and provide the necessary virtualization technologies for implementing the orchestration service. In addition to the NFV MANO specification module, the block integrates the connectivity verification and provisioning network resources using the SDN Controller module, responsible for managing and executing the necessary controls to establish the transport layer of the service slice requested [100,101]. ...
Network segregation is the solution adopted in the IMT-2020 standardization of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), better known as 5G networks (Fifth Generation Mobile Networks), under development to meet the requirements of performance, reliability, energy, and economic efficiency required by applications in the various verticals of current and near-future economic activities. The philosophy adopted for the IMT-2020 standardization relies on the use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and Software-Defined Radio (SDR), i.e., the softwarization of the network. Softwarization allows network segregation through its slicing, which is discussed herein this work. Network slicing is performed by a novel Orchestrator, as provided in IMT-2020, which maintains the end-to-end network slices independent of each other and performs horizontal handover when the possibility of a loss of Quality of Service (QoS) is predictively detected by monitoring quality parameters during operation. Therefore, the Orchestrator is dynamic, operates in uptime, and allows horizontal handover. Hence, it chooses the most appropriate telecommunication infrastructure provider and network operator to guarantee QoS and Quality of Experience (QoE) to end-users in each network segment. These features make this work modern and keep it aligned with the actions being carried out by ITU. Based on this objective, as the main result of this paper, we propose an effective architecture for implementing the Orchestrator, not only to contribute to the state of the art for 5G and beyond communication systems but also to generate economic, technological, and social impacts.
... In a previously published paper [8] in 2019, the 5G ecosystem intended to be developed within 5G-EVE was presented. The work from this paper is evolutionary and it is depicting practical guidelines for orchestrating VNFs and end to end slices using ONAP. ...
... The work from this paper is evolutionary and it is depicting practical guidelines for orchestrating VNFs and end to end slices using ONAP. The related work from standards, working groups, and other 5G-PPP European projects is exhaustively presented in [8] and will not be repeated here as, from our knowledge, no major change took place. ...
Telco operators are currently reinventing their operational model by adopting agile principles and making the shift from hardware-centric towards software-centric networks. 5G is not coming only with a very advanced radio layer, but also with the evolutionary concept in which the network is programmable and accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This stands as a game-changer and it will allow verticals (e.g., transport, media, energy) to seamlessly integrate their applications within the 5G ecosystem. This paper presents a programmable infrastructure leveraging ONAP capabilities developed within two European projects 5G-EVE and 5G-VICTORI. The focus is on presenting the work performed for Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) onboarding, deployment, and in life management together with the 5G slicing capabilities for Radio Access and Core networks.
... On the other hand, the Application Plane has a mapping that connects each RAN runtime module with the Software Development Kit (SDK). The Application Plane monitors, controls, and coordinates the state of each module that represents the RAN infrastructure (Yala et al., 2019;Costanzo et al., 2018). All RAN and API data generated are open for processing using other applications outside the OAI environment. ...
... This thesis is composed of five chapters. In Chapter One, the work was introduced, and at a reduced cost (Haavisto et al., 2019); (Yala et al., 2019); (Dreibholz, 2020). ...
The growth of the telecommunication industry is fast paced with ground-breaking engineering achievements. Despite this, portable mobile handheld devices have very low computational, storage and energy carrying capacity occasioned by the needs to satisfy portability, very small form factor, ergonomics, style and trends. Proposals such as cloudlets, cyber foraging, mobile cloud computing (MCC), and more recently but most applicable, multi-access edge computing (MEC) have been proffered. New and emerging use cases, especially the deployments of 5G will bring up a lot of latency-sensitive and resource-intensive applications. To address these challenges, this work introduced the use of secure containerization for MEC applications and location of MEC host at the 5G centralized unit within the radio access network (RAN) aiding offloading of computational, storage and analytics requirements close to UE at the fringe of the network where the data are being generated and results being applied. The major contribution of this thesis is the use of secured containerization technology to replace virtual machines, making it possible to use containers for MEC applications, reducing application overhead while satisfying the isolation of MEC infrastructure as required by the European Technology Standard Institute (ETSI) to ensure MEC application security. 5G end-to-end transport specifications were evaluated for the vantage location of MEC server within the radio access network and achieved theoretical values between 4.1ms and 14.1ms end-to-end latency. These figures satisfy requirements of VR/AR (7-12ms); tactile Internet (<10ms); Vehicle-to-Vehicle (< 10ms); Manufacturing & Robotic Control/Safety Systems (1-10ms). The results confirmed that edge computing has lower user plane latency figures and reduced backhaul traffic with lower application failure rate. Secured containerised Multi-access computing infrastructures have many advantages of mobile cloud computing for mobile wireless device computational power and energy carrying capacity deficiencies to cater asymmetric UE applications. Applications hosted within the RAN have better support for new and emerging application requirements in terms of high amount of computational, storage and analytics capabilities while at low latency figures. Edge deployments will reduce the pressure on network operators backhaul link saving end-to-end ecosystem from collapse due to heavy backhaul traffic that might result from billions of 5G UEs. No matter how fast 5G network will be, MEC will ensure the need not to transport huge data for processing in the cloud and returning the results to the UE. This will enhance privacy and security while also conserving bandwidth.
Nowadays, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a growing and powerful technology in the research community and IT world. Traditional computer networks consist of hardware appliances such as firewalls and load balancers, called middleboxes. The implementation of these hardware devices is a difficult task due to their proprietary nature. NFV proposes an alternative way to design and deploy network functions called Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) on top of the commercial hardware by leveraging virtualization technology. NFV offers many advantages such as flexibility, agility, reduced capital and operational expenditure over the traditional network architecture. With the emergence of VNF, NFV needs to add new features regarding life-cycle management and end-to-end orchestration of VNFs. To fulfill this demand, NFV introduced the NFV-MANO framework for the management and orchestration of VNFs and provide network services to users. The NFV-MANO consists of NFV Orchestrator (NFVO), VNF Manager (VNFM), and Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM). This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Virtualized Infrastructure Managers with NFV orchestration and VNF Management for implementing Service Function Chain (SFC) in NFV architecture. Further, this study critically analyzes relevant research articles and proposes a taxonomy to select an appropriate VIM based on Emulation, Virtualization, Containerization, and Hybrid environment for reliable SFC provisioning. Finally, various use cases have been identified for selecting particular VIM according to the requirements of the application.
This paper presents a functional solution for the management and orchestration (MANO) of the Network Function Virtualization (NFV), based on Open Source MANO (OSM). Two different Virtual Infrastructure Managers (VIMs) were tested: OpenVIM and OpenStack. Following the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) requirements two experimental scenarios were devised: (1) with OpenVIM in test mode: two Ubuntu 16.04.6 virtual machines (VMs), hosted by different physical computers, acted as two virtual infrastructure managers (VIMs); one of them was collocated with Open Source MANO (OSM); (2) with OpenStack as a VIM and OSM running on an Ubuntu 18.04 virtual machine. The experimental results helped us defined some best practices for integrating OSM with both VIMs. In the future, we plan on extending the infrastructure orchestrated by OSM to include an SDN controller and several clouds acting as VIMs.
Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is a novel mobile network architecture which can address a number of challenges the operators face while trying to support growing end-user's needs. The main idea behind C-RAN is to pool the Baseband Units (BBUs) from multiple base stations into centralized BBU Pool for statistical multiplexing gain, while shifting the burden to the high-speed wireline transmission of In-phase and Quadrature (IQ) data. C-RAN enables energy efficient network operation and possible cost savings on baseband resources. Furthermore, it improves network capacity by performing load balancing and cooperative processing of signals originating from several base stations. This paper surveys the state-of-the-art literature on C-RAN. It can serve as a starting point for anyone willing to understand C-RAN architecture and advance the research on C-RAN.
What will 5G be? What it will not be is an incremental advance on 4G. The
previous four generations of cellular technology have each been a major
paradigm shift that has broken backwards compatibility. And indeed, 5G will
need to be a paradigm shift that includes very high carrier frequencies with
massive bandwidths, extreme base station and device densities and unprecedented
numbers of antennas. But unlike the previous four generations, it will also be
highly integrative: tying any new 5G air interface and spectrum together with
LTE and WiFi to provide universal high-rate coverage and a seamless user
experience. To support this, the core network will also have to reach
unprecedented levels of flexibility and intelligence, spectrum regulation will
need to be rethought and improved, and energy and cost efficiencies will become
even more critical considerations. This paper discusses all of these topics,
identifying key challenges for future research and preliminary 5G
standardization activities, while providing a comprehensive overview of the
current literature, and in particular of the papers appearing in this special
issue.
Management and orchestration of virtual resources and functions, commonly referred to as MANO, are key functionalities of NFV environments. This article describes the design and deployment of the NFV MANO platform of 5TONIC, the open research and innovation laboratory on 5G technologies founded by Telefonica and IMDEA Networks. This NFV MANO platform provides 5TONIC trials and experiments with access to a functional production-like NFV environment, enabling experimentation with novel NFV products and services. As a relevant feature, the platform is capable of incorporating external sites to complement the portfolio of software and hardware resources that can be made available for experimentation activities. The 5TONIC MANO platform has been designed and built using open source technologies. The research carried out during its design and deployment has resulted in a contribution already made to its upstream projects regarding the automated configuration of virtualized network functions. Finally, we explore the scalability properties of the 5TONIC MANO platform, and we experimentally validate its functional capacity to orchestrate multi-site experiments.
Driven by the need to cope with exponentially growing mobile data traffic and to support new traffic types from massive numbers of machine-type devices, academia and industry are thinking beyond the current generation of mobile cellular networks to chalk a path towards fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. Several new approaches and technologies are being considered as potential elements making up such a future mobile network, including cloud RANs, application of SDN principles, exploiting new and unused portions of spectrum, use of massive MIMO and full-duplex communications. Research on these technologies requires realistic and flexible experimentation platforms that offer a wide range of experimentation modes from real-world experimentation to controlled and scalable evaluations while at the same time retaining backward compatibility with current generation systems. Towards this end, we present OpenAirInterface (OAI) as a suitably flexible platform. In addition, we discuss the use of OAI in the context of several widely mentioned 5G research directions.
Openairinterface: A flexible platform for 5g research
- N Nikaein