Towards 5G – research activities in Europe (part 1 – FP7 projects)

According to the latest 3GPP approach, “5G will be delivered” in two phases: Phase I (to be completed by H2 2018, within Rel-15), in which 5G RAT will be provided as an add-on tightly integrated with evolved-LTE; Phase II (to be completed by December 2019, within Rel-16), with 5G RAT provided as a full-blown “standalone” solution[1]. To support that, 5G research is now going on a full speed. Therefore, I decided to share an overview of the past and recently ongoing activities in this area. The summary of EU-funded projects targeting 5G design is presented in two consecutive articles in this blog. This one outlines the projects being currently finalized under the umbrella of FP7 EU-funding.

Overview of the 5G related FP7 EU projects

The exploration of “5G-related” aspects has been already performed within the so called “Seventh Framework Program” (FP7) utilizing the EU investments from 2007 to 2013. The related projects addressed the architecture and functionalities needed for beyond 4G and are shortly summarized below:

• METIS – Mobile and Wireless Communications Enablers for the 2020 Information Society (http://www.metis2020.com/, 11.2012 – 04.2015): development of the overall system concept for mobile systems in 2020, addressing: spectrum access, multi-RAT/layer networks, multi-node/antenna transmission, flexible air interface and new waveforms for such technology components as: D2D communications, massive machine communications, moving networks, UDN, ultra-reliable communications. (Overall system design)

• 5GNOW – 5th Generation Non-Orthogonal Waveforms for Asynchronous Signaling (http://www.5gnow.eu/, 09.2012 – 02-2015): development of the novel PHY and MAC layers based on non-orthogonal multi-carrier waveforms (e.g. FBMC, GFDM, UFMC) for MTC, CoMP and fragmented spectrum access including the design of Unified Frame structure. (Waveform and PHY layer design)

• iJOIN – Interworking and Joint Design of an Open Access and Backhaul Network Architecture for Small Cells based on Cloud Networks (http://www.ict-ijoin.eu/, 11.2012 – 05.2015): introduction of RAN-as-a-Service (RANaaS) with a centralized RAN functionality deployed in the cloud infrastructure addressing the following aspects: joint design of access and backhaul, OAM algorithms and architectural elements, integration of Small Cells, heterogeneous backhaul and centralized processing. (RAN virtualization)

• Mobile Cloud Networking (MCN) – Mobile Cloud Networking: Mobile Network, Compute, and Storage as One Service On-Demand: design of the 3GPP-compliant end-to-end Mobile Cloud Network architecture exploiting and supporting Cloud Computing. (End-to-end networks)

• TROPIC – Distributed Computing, Storage, and Radio Resource Allocation Over Cooperative Small Cells (http://www.ict-freedom.eu/, 09.2012 – 02.2015): bringing Small Cells networking and Cloud Computing together under a common framework focusing on PHY and Radio/Computation Resource Management and energy efficiency. (Distributed cloud computing via Small Cells)

• COMBO – Convergence of Fixed and Mobile Broadband Access/Aggregation Networks (http://www.ict-combo.eu/, 01.2013 – 09.2016): development of optimized FMC (Fixed-Mobile Convergence) network architectures for different deployment scenarios and in a multi-operator environment. (Novel FMC)

• CROWD – Connectivity Management for Energy Optimized Wireless Dense Networks (http://www.ict-crowd.eu/, 01.2013 – 06.2015): development of novel framework for handling dense heterogeneous networks comprising of LTE macro- and small cells, and WiFi hotspots including the following aspects: energy efficiency, backhaul optimization, connectivity management, and LTE and WiFi MAC optimization. (Dense networks and backhaul management)

• MOTO – Mobile Opportunistic Traffic Offloading (http://www.fp7-moto.eu/, 11.2012 – 10.2015): development of traffic offloading framework to handle multitude of schemes including: offloading to WiFi and multi-hop device-to-device communications managed jointly from the cellular infrastructure perspective. (Offloading schemes)

• PHYLAWS – Physical Layer Wireless Security (http://www.phylaws-ict.org/, 11.2012 – 10.2015): design of the novel PHY layer privacy and security concepts exploiting radio-propagation phenomena. (PHY security)

Summary

The initial set of projects, presented above, targeting Next Generation networks set up the baseline for 5G research areas. They also served as input to the next stage of EU-funded initiatives under the umbrella of  Horizon-2020, which are described in a separate article: Towards 5G – research activities in Europe (part 2 – H2020 projects).

[1] RAN 5G Workshop