To address the important emerging market of 5G and beyond 5G private networks
Vision
5G-CLARITY will develop and demonstrate a beyond 5G system for private networks integrating 5G, Wi-Fi, and LiFi technologies, and managed through AI based autonomic networking.
>5G-CLARITY aims to be instrumental in order to secure the leadership of Europe in the growing markets of private 5G networks, and 5G for factory automation.
5G-CLARITY brings forward the design of a system for beyond 5G private networks that addresses the challenges in spectrum flexibility, delivery of critical services, and autonomic network management.
The first pillar of our vision is a heterogeneous wireless access network that integrates three technologies: 5G beyond R16, Wi-Fi, and LiFi.
The second pillar of our vision is a novel management plane based on the principles of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, in order to enable network slicing for neutral hosts, and autonomic network management.
Concept
5G-CLARITY system architecture is distinguished by components such as:
- a private network with a deployment of multi-WAT;
- MNOs with 5G infrastructure (radio, transport, and compute) deployed outside the venue;
- a venue infrastructure operator that operates the heterogeneous infrastructure deployed in the venue;
- a variety of end-user devices inside the venue;
- multiple infrastructure and service slices.
5G-CLARITY envisioned system architecture will enable dynamic deployment of connectivity services inside the venue, addressed to the venue owner as well as to the MNOs serving customers inside the venue.
5G-CLARITY envisioned system architecture will enable dynamic deployment of connectivity services inside the venue, addressed to the venue owner as well as to the MNOs serving customers inside the venue. The provided services include evolutions of the eMBB and URLLC 5G services defined by 3GPP in R16, and additional value-added services like high precision positioning.
By supporting AI-driven management 5G-CLARITY will enable effective provision of slices, managing and optimizing their performance. This will support faster fulfilment of user and business intents while enabling optimal resource sharing during the entire lifetime of slices. AI-driven management also drives network automation by greatly reducing the need for human intervention.
Innovation
5G-CLARITY proposes an innovative set of technical enablers that will support the envisioned architecture:
- A high-speed LiFi technology supporting full-duplex operation, mobility, and extremely high area capacity.
- A framework for private 5G networks that will enable the coexistence between private and public networks using licensed spectrum, and across different technologies inside the venue using unlicensed spectrum.
- A multi-connectivity framework enabling an intelligent aggregation of the 5G/Wi-Fi/LiFi interfaces, resulting in eMBB and URLLC services, and in effective area capacities beyond 3GPP R16.
- A positioning and synchronization framework based on the combination of 5G/Wi-Fi/LiFi providing cm-level accuracy and real time tracking capabilities.
- An AI-driven autonomic network management system, which interacts with the network through an SDN/NFV framework that allows to retrieve network telemetry and provides a programmatic interface (API) for network configuration. The AI-driven engine offers an intent based interface to the Venue Infrastructure Operator.
Demonstrators
5G-CLARITY proposed 5G/Wi-Fi/LiFi infrastructure will be validated in two relevant use cases that will benefit from the developed connectivity services.
5G-CLARITY will leverage the 5GUK testbed facility already available in Bristol and maintained by University of Bristol. It is worth noting that this facility has already been used to support demonstrations in various 5GPPP projects, such as 5G-XHaul (Phase-1), 5G-PICTURE (Phase-2), and will also be used to support 5G-VICTORI (Phase-3), as well as several national 5G projects in the UK.
5G-CLARITY will extend the existing 5GUK facility with the novel technologies developed in the project.
5G-CLARITY will use a real BOSCH factory near Barcelona to demonstrate and validate the proposed infrastructure in Industry 4.0 services in two key functionalities: the ability to deliver guaranteed uRLLC services, and the ability to provide high precision positioning.
Impact
5G-CLARITY ambitious technical scope guarantees a long-lasting impact on multiple fronts. In terms of enabling economic growth, 5G-CLARITY addresses the important emerging market of 5G and beyond 5G private networks. Besides contributing to European growth in key economic sectors, the technologies proposed by 5G-CLARITY hold the potential of having a significant social impact.
5G-CLARITY will be instrumental in demonstrating how the multi-WAT infrastructure can be used to deliver novel experience in museum environments, including robot-human interactions.
5G-CLARITY will also be used in demonstrating how beyond 5G networks can disrupt factory automation, through the practical demonstration of the developed technologies in a real factory environment.
