We are at the “eve” of a fundamental transition in 5G, and the aspiration of 5G-EVE is to create the foundations for a pervasive roll-out of end-to-end 5G networks in Europe. 5G-EVE supports this fundamental transition by offering to vertical industries and to all 5GPPP Phase3 projects facilities to validate their network KPIs and their services. Important representatives of these vertical industries are directly involved as partners of 5G-EVE exactly to influence the design of the end-to-end 5G services, and to provide an early assessment. The 5G-EVE end-to-end facility consists of the interconnection of four 5G-site-facilities (France, Spain, Italy, Greece), which have been selected because of their considerable previous work with vertical industries and standardisation bodies, on top of their 5G technology competences. 5G-EVE aims at creating synergies between a significant number of facilities that will ensure sustainability and impact in terms of exploitation. The 5G-EVE facility will enable experiments with: (a) heterogeneous access, including NR, licensed/unlicensed spectrum, advanced spectrum management; (b) Mobile Edge Computing, backhaul, core/service technologies; (c) means for site-interworking and multi-site/domain/technology slicing/orchestration. 5G-EVE will be initially compliant with 3GPP Rel. 15 and, later on, with Rel. 16. Industrial verticals will be facilitated in the specification/analysis of experiments through: (a) intent-based, and other high-level, interfaces; (b) means for advanced 5G testing, i.e., for KPI analysis, technology benchmarking, performance diagnosis. A VNF pool, including open source and proprietary, radio/network/service, components will be developed and made available. 5G-EVE will impact standards, and has the potential and strategy for ensuring the sustainability of the facility beyond the project lifetime, therefore becoming a cornerstone of the 5G PPP programme and beyond.

Abstract: 5G-DIVE targets end-to-end 5G trials aimed at proving the technical merits and business value proposition of 5G technologies in two vertical pilots, namely (i) Industry 4.0 and (ii) Autonomous Drone Scout. These trials will put in action a bespoke end-to-end 5G design tailored to the requirements of the applications targeted in each vertical pilot, such as digital twinning and drone fleet navigation applications. 5G-DIVE’s bespoke design is built around two main pillars, namely (1) end-to-end 5G connectivity including 5G New Radio, Crosshaul transport and 5G Core, and (2) distributed edge and fog computing integrating intelligence located closely to the user. The latter pillar extends significantly beyond the EU- TW-Phase-I 5G-CORAL solution framework by adding support for automation based on artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technologies. The targeted intelligent tailored design is envisioned to achieve optimized performance and thus boost significantly the business value proposition of 5G in each targeted vertical application. 5G-DIVE trials target pilots running for several weeks on the premises of the vertical applications in real-life testbeds in Europe and Taiwan, leveraging noticeably the European 5G end- to-end facilities from ICT-17 call and Taiwan’s testbed facilities.

The vision of the 5Growth project is to empower verticals industries such as Industry 4.0, Transportation, and Energy with an AI-driven Automated and Sharable 5G End-to-End Solution that will allow these industries to achieve simultaneously their respective key performance targets. Towards this vision, 5Growth will automate the process for supporting diverse industry verticals through (i) a vertical portal in charge of interfacing verticals with the 5G End-to-End platforms, receiving their service requests and building the respective network slices on top, (ii) closed-loop automation and SLA control for vertical services lifecycle management and (iii) AI-driven end-to-end network solutions to jointly optimize Access, Transport, Core and Cloud, Edge and Fog resources, across multiple technologies and domains. The main objective of 5Growth is the technical and business validation of 5G technologies from the verticals’ points of view, following a field-trial-based approach on vertical sites (TRL 6-7). Multiple use cases of vertical industries (Comau, Efacec_S, Efacec_E, Innovalia) will be field-trialed on four vertical-owned sites in close collaboration with the vendors (Ericsson, Interdigital, NEC, Nokia) and the operators (Altice, Telecom Italia, Telefonica) in the project. 5Growth will leverage on the results of 5G-PPP Phase 2 projects where slicing, virtualization and multi-domain solutions for the creation and provisioning of vertical services are being developed and validated, e.g. 5G-TRANSFORMER and 5G-MONARCH. Two ICT-17-2018 5G End-to-End platforms, 5G EVE and 5G-VINNI, have been selected for the Trials to demonstrate the 5Growth specific vertical use cases. In addition to the impact on vertical-oriented standards (e.g., EN50126 (IEC62278) for railway signaling), the verticals in the consortium will be offered an opportunity to influence ongoing 5G standardization by leveraging the involvement of leading experts in the various relevant SDOs.

The 5G-CORAL project leverages on the pervasiveness of edge and fog computing in the Radio Access Network (RAN) to create a unique opportunity for access convergence. This is envisioned by the means of an integrated and virtualised networking and computing solution where virtualised functions, context-aware services, and user and third-party applications are blended together to offer enhanced connectivity and better quality of experience. The proposed solution contemplates two major building blocks, namely (i) the Edge and Fog computing System (EFS) subsuming all the edge and fog computing substrate offered as a shared hosting environment for virtualised functions, services, and applications; and (ii) the Orchestration and Control System (OCS) responsible for managing and controlling the EFS, including its interworking with other (non-EFS) domains (e.g., transport and core networks, distant clouds, etc.). Through the 5G-CORAL solution, several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be achieved, notably an ultra-low end-to-end latency in the order of milliseconds. Moreover, new business prospects arise with new stakeholders in the value chain, notably small players owning computing and networking assets in the local service area, such as in shopping malls, airports, trains and cars. These environments will be used to validate the system in three complementary end-to-end large-scale testbeds in Taiwan, supporting innovative applications such as augmented reality, car safety, and IoT gateway.