The overall work of 5G ESSENCE has been organised in eight WPs. Project management activities have been concentrated into a separate workpackage, WP1 (Project Management), which will run throughout the entire duration of the project. The dissemination, communication, and exploitation activities also constitute a distinct workpackage, WP8 (Dissemination, Communication & Exploitation of Results), which will also be active throughout the project. It can be assumed that WP1 and WP8 run in parallel and interact with the technical and demonstration phases at every stage of the project.
The categorisation of the work into WPs follows the natural progress of the project. The first phase will be a requirements analysis, use case elaboration, high-level and detailed specifications, architectural characteristics of the system and alignment with 5G-PPP Phase-1, as well as Proof-of-Concept integration inputs preparation. This work is concentrated in WP2 (Use Case Elaboration, Architecture and Technical Requirements). Following the definition and specification phase, the research and implementation of 5G ESSENCE components is carried out in two workpackages running in parallel: WP3 (Centralised 5G SD-RAN Controller & Network Embedded Cloud) and WP4 (Advanced Virtualisation, Distributed Service Management). WP3 and WP4 include most of the research development of the project, as well as the initial phase of integration of the 5G ESSENCE platform.
5G ESSENCE is also certainly oriented towards the actual demonstration of its results to real life and the vertical industries introduced by 5G-PPP. Hence, the project follows the approach of establishing three workpackages (WP5, WP6 and WP7), each one addressing one Use Case associated to these vertical industries. Each of these WPs includes the planning activities, the development of the specific network services, and the final integration per se and the realisation of the actual demonstration in the corresponding use case.
Interdependencies of project components – 5G ESSENCE Pert Diagram
Below, we briefly describe the list of the Work Packages:
WP1 Project Management: WP1 provides the overall support for both management and administration of the entire project and for all partners-members of 5G ESSENCE consortium, following the set of project management principles as contained in Project Management Institute’s (PMI), Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide. The overall objective of this WP is the implementation of a sound project and financial management plan including, reporting to the European Commission (EC), ensuring delivery of 5G ESSENCE results on time and within budget, and maintaining a high level of quality of the deliverables.
WP2 Use Case Elaboration, Architecture and Technical Requirements: WP2 will define the overall 5G ESSENCE system architecture as well as the technical specifications for the individual components. It will also specify and elaborate the specific scenarios for the demonstrations of 5G vertical industries that will follow in WP5-WP7. In addition, a key objective of WP2 is the alignment with 5G Phase-1 activities and the respective technology selection and evaluation according to the specified requirements of the project.
WP3 Centralised 5G SD-RAN Controller & Network Embedded Cloud: The main objective of WP3 is to provide the specification and framework design of a 5G centralised SD-RAN Controller capable of dynamically managing one or more CESCs, their interfaces, and associated functionality to ensure multi-RAT and multi-tenant procedures. The 5G cSD-RAN Controller must be capable of controlling for instance, SON, RRM, and CoMP procedures. Moreover, since a CESC will accommodate multiple operators in parallel, the cSD-RAN controller will include new network slicing mechanisms with the required functionalities to create the slices that will support the 5G ESSENCE use cases.
WP4 Advanced Virtualisation, Distributed Service Management: The aim of this work package is to optimise the different aspects of the network embedded cloud, from the performance of its building blocks up to the Management and Orchestration (MANO) level. By integrating the optimisation of the various virtualisation entities, a compound effect will be achieved and assessed accordingly.
WP5 5G Edge Network Acceleration at a Stadium: WP5 aims at implementing the setup of 5G edge network acceleration at a football stadium and actually to conduct the demonstration campaign. It will also collect and consolidate valuable feedback for the behaviour of the developed 5G ESSENCE prototype platform under real-life conditions. The integration and the trials will take place at the municipal football stadium “Stavros Mavrothalasitis” (MoE), at the centre of Egaleo town and ten minutes away from Athens city centre. The stadium is open, with capacity of about 8.000 spectators. It was built in 1968 and totally reconstructed in 2006. It is the home ground of the Greek club Egaleo F.C.
WP6 5G E2E Slicing for Mission Critical Applications: For cost-effective public safety services, the current trend is that public safety users are served by existing regular commercial mobile networks. However, mission critical communications have strict requirements, which are not easily fulfilled by traditional infrastructure sharing models. 5G ESSENCE UC2 will demonstrate the sharing of common 5G ESSENCE infrastructure in case of emergency for first responders and civilians. 5G ESSENCE UC2 will be demonstrated to the BAPCO annual national event, which has achieved international recognition both as a unique multi-agency forum for public safety professionals (circa 1000 attendees) and as a showcase for top-level systems and equipment (circa 70 exhibitors).
WP7 5G In-flight Communications and Entertainment System: The key objective of this WP is to deploy, validate and demonstrate the 5G ESSENCE use case on IFEC systems. The physical testbed for WP7 will be set up and hosted within the cabin mock-up laboratory facility of ZII (at Munich, Germany) and will integrate the 5G ESSENCE system elements into a single platform. The demonstration will highlight the capabilities of the 5G ESSENCE architecture to deliver multi-tenant, high-definition content on-board. The in-cabin setting can scale up to 400 individual IFE devices and additional user equipment (depending on availability, not less than two dozens) distributed in the testbed. An initial end-system integration and validation will be performed with the participating partners in the laboratory environment, involving the integration of the mobile communication payload with the 5G/LTE and multi-RAT Wi-Fi components and their respective controllers. It is expected that adaptation of the content server units will also be needed for running the service and network VNFs. With the lessons learnt and the adaptations/corrections applied, the whole system will be incorporated into the cabin mock-up platform to complete the system integration. Demonstration scenarios (reflecting all the requirements and KPIs established) will be piloted in a real environment (the flight data and aeronautical parameterisation will be applied to provide a realistic experimental platform).
WP8 Dissemination, Communication & Exploitation of Results: WP8 will focus on the development and execution of viable plans (that are reviewed and updated regularly) for the 5G ESSENCE communication, dissemination and exploitation activities. WP8 has the aim to achieve high measurable impact of the project results and to ultimately lead to a successful adoption of the 5G ESSENCE disruptive capabilities and innovative features into the 5G evolution ecosystem. Towards this direction, the business perspectives of the proposed solution will also be investigated.