The iJoin-Project is organizing an 5G-Winter-School, hosted by the University of Bremen. As part of the very distinct and representative program, the ICCLab is invited to present the latest results of the Mobile-Cloud-Networking (MCN) project.
Some impressions and take-aways from the event.
Simone Redana, Nokia, Germany, 5G RAN Architecture for virtualization RAN
- 5G not only about radio interface (in 6GHz, etc)
- New architecture needed, generally “Multi-Radio-Cloud, Core-Cloud, using SDN-xHaul and offering API-GWs
- 5G-RAN-Cloud-Features: multi-connectivity, central radio-resource-mgt, application aware resource scheduling
- Core-Cloud-Features: NFV-enabled
- 5G features network slicing, e.g. a virtual overlay over the physical infrastructure for particular services/tenants
Clare Somerville, Intel, UK, Small Cell Forum, Small Cell Forum Advances within Network Virtualization
- Small Cell Forum (SCF) is a non-for-profit organisation fouunded in 2007, with 150+ members, current specification release is #5 (Release-5)
- Base-line: Two BIG innovations driving mobile networks, these are HetNets and NFV
- Can “virtualization” be applied to small cell architectures? SCF believes yes it can
- Small Cells to out-pace Cloud-RAN (RAN virtualization) deployments by 2019
- Major challenge is the split between the physical and virtual part of the small cell RAN
- The functional split poses requirements on the front haul technology, currently incompatible with the Ethernet-based standard deployed currently
Prof. Dr. Hans Schotten, University of Kaiserslautern, METIS
- Connected Car and Traffic Control Systems (ITS) an important 5G-Use-Case
- Human-controlled Robots 5G use case too
Ralf Irmer, Vodafone, UK
- 5G Services for Industrial Control Systems seem to bear great potential
- 5G Research Challenge, Reliability of 5G services not yet ready to support Industrial Control
- 5G Use Case Tactile Internet, requires in particular very low delay
- Software Defined Architecture (TMB: Is this something new?)
Ignacio Berberana, Telefónica I+D, Spain, iJOIN, Telefónica’s view on virtualized mobile networks
- Telco innovation largely influenced by HW
- While many mobile network architectures look simplified, in reality they need many supporting functions which make real networks much more complex
- Many new technologies never tested nor evaluated in close-to-real environments
- A combination of SDN and NFV may bring virtualization into the network/telco
- A virtualized network will require a deep transformation of company-internal structures, which was traditionally more leaning toward silos