Flex5Gware

Motivation

The exponential growth in mobile data traffic, anticipated to reach a 1000 fold increase over the next decade, together with the large diversity of applications ranging from low bit-rate and low power machine-to-machine (M2M) applications to highly interactive and high resolution entertainment applications, impose to significantly reconsider a number of distinct technical requirements on hardware (HW) and software (SW) platforms, on top of which all mobile communication-related functionalities are implemented and executed. Among the most prominent requirements, the following must be highlighted: the further improvement of quality of experience (e.g., capacity, latency, resilience) and the energy efficiency, as well as the scalability, modularity, and reconfigurability when multiple Radio Access Technologies (RAT) are considered. To achieve these requirements, highly reconfigurable HW platforms and HW-agnostic SW platforms are needed.

Objective

The overall objective of Flex5Gware is to deliver highly reconfigurable HW platforms together with HW-agnostic SW platforms targeting both network elements and devices and taking into account increased capacity, reduced energy footprint, as well as scalability and modularity, to enable a smooth transition from 4G mobile wireless systems to 5G. In order to fulfil the above overall objective, Flex5Gware addresses the following specific objectives:

• Objective #1: Increasing the HW versatility and reconfigurability
• Objective #2: Designing and developing HW-agnostic, flexible and cost-effective SW platforms
• Objective #3: Increasing the overall achievable capacity provided by 5G communication platforms
• Objective #4: Decreasing the overall energy consumed by 5G communication platforms
• Objective #5: Identifying and prototyping key HW and SW building blocks and providing a proof of concept for all developments in Flex5Gware

Use cases/verticals

In Flex5Gware, three use case families have been identified, which combined, capture fundamental aspects of the 5G system:

• Broadband access in dense areas
• Broadband access everywhere
• Massive internet of things

For each use case family, use cases have been selected as a means to validate the project's Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) within a context of 5G:

• Crowded venues
• Dynamic hotspots
• Smart cities
• Performance equipment
• 50+ Mbps everywhere
• Connected vehicles (including Mobile broadband in vehicles and V2X communication for enhanced driving)

WINGS involvement

In the context of Flex5Gware, WINGS develops a platform that identifies and proactively/reactively responds to a Dynamic Hotspot situation through the dynamic reconfiguration of 5G HW/SW systems, taking advantage of Smart City monitoring services. This platform consists of the following software modules:

• Performance-aware Resource Management: for policy-based and context-aware decision on (individual/multiple) resources reconfiguration
• Monitoring Library: for load prediction in time and space based on highly heterogeneous data (sensory environmental and traffic data, user data, area, day and time access, etc.)
• Dynamic Functional Re-composition: for cognitive dynamic HW/SW partitioning and function placement
• Monitoring Agent: for gathering sensors measurements and performing an initial processing/filtering

WINGS prospects/ exploitation 

WINGS pursues products in the areas of smart wireless access including 5G systems, device management, IoT-cloud-embedded systems based services, and SW networks management. Its main competence is the attribution of networks and devices with management intelligence. To that respect, WINGS traditionally delivers software-intensive services and products, and has also started collaborations which include also the development of hardware. Therefore, WINGS puts in the core of its activities developments that rely on software and hardware co-design and integration for the benefit of a number of vertical application areas. In this respect, the involvement in Flex5Gware will help WINGS, leveraging on its background, to design and develop intelligent solutions for building flexible and cost-effective SW platforms that can exploit the HW versatility and reconfigurability.

The advanced 5G network infrastructure needs to be highly flexible in order to meet identified but dynamic, as well as unforeseen diverse requirements imposed by new cutting-edge applications, i.e., augmented reality, connected cars, tactile Internet, to name three main ones. Dynamic reconfiguration of future 5G HW/SW systems is the answer to this challenge, as it allows system's adaptation to the very demanding and changing contexts of operation, while guaranteeing Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). The driver of WINGS contribution to Flex5Gware is a context-aware, dynamic and cognitive HW/SW partitioning mechanism for 5G network elements and devices. The mechanism generates and exploits knowledge (e.g. prediction of a hotspot) derived by network and sensor measurements and decides upon the HW or SW execution of functions (e.g. LTE, 3GPP based PHY/MAC functions), in order to fulfill and maintain the application goals. This solution leads to high flexibility, configurability, performance and energy efficiency.

The achievement above will enhance the management/control solutions portfolio of WINGS. WINGS will also expand its activities in the direction of developing certain of its intelligence, directly in HW. This will give further exploitable competences. Moreover, there will be effort focused on scalable management solutions that will enable the optimal deployment of novel sensor based applications in a 5G context. This area will also enhance the current activities of WINGS in IoT/Cloud areas.

Awards & demonstration video.

Demonstration video: “Dynamic reconfiguration of future 5G HW/SW systems”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGhy6B_ZqE

Website: http://www.flex5gware.eu/

Framework: H2020 5GPPP

Duration: 07.2015-06.2017