MAnagEment of Slices in The Radio access Of 5G networks – MAESTRO5G

MAESTRO-5G is expected to deliver :
A resource allocation framework for slices, integrating heterogeneous QoS requirements and spanning on multiple resources including radio, backhauling/fronthauling and processing resources in the RAN.
A complete slice orchestration architecture including strategic provisioning and dynamic reoptimizations algorithms and their integration with NFV and SDN strata.
· A business layer for slicing in 5G, enabling win-win situations between players from the
telecommunications industry and the verticals, ensuring that the 5G services are commercially viable and gain acceptance in the market.
· A demonstrator showing the practical feasibility as well as integration of the major functions and mechanisms proposed by the project, on a 5G Cloud RAN platform. The enhanced platform is expected to support the different 5G services (eMBB and IoT) and to demonstrate
key aspects of slicing, such as:
o Ability to create and operate in parallel multiple slices, on the same infrastructure and sharing the same radio (spectrum), network (link) and computing (service functions) resources, each having different service requirements.
o Ability to create and operate in parallel and independently different slices, sharing the same infrastructure/spectrum, belonging to different business actors, such as different mobile access and virtualization infrastructure operators.
o Demonstrate inter-slice control ensuring respect of SLAs and a fair resource sharing

During the first 6 months the partners worked on a common definition of the basic architecture, then on the implementation of two use-cases that will be developed during the project: Smart Factory and Smart City. These two use cases are described in the first deliverable of the project (D1.1, Slicing use cases, requirements and baseline architecture), as well as the challenges to be addressed in the project.
The technical Work-Packages WP2, WP3 and WP4 progressed in parallel during the following months, addressing the different technical challenges previously described. They led to numerous scientific publications. The results are summarized and presented in the deliverables:
- D2.1: Intermediate resource allocation schemes, which deals with the mechanisms for allocating resources to different types of slices according to their requirements in terms of quality of service.
- D3.1 Virtual network orchestration framework and algorithms, which deals with optimization models and algorithms for end-to-end slice orchestration.
- D4.1 First report on business layer development, in which several business models are developed, in particular transparent and collaborative models, which will allow new entrants to identify and analyze potential win-win strategies.
The last WP focuses on the development of a prototype and a demonstrator for the project. According to the initial plan this WP will be mainly developed in the second phase of the project. Nevertheless, each partner has put its own contributions in terms of simulators and studied the possible mutualizations and integrations within different platforms of the algorithms developed in WP 2, 3 and 4. This work has been aggregated in deliverable D5.1: Platform description and APIs.

All planned activities will be continued and strengthened.

All the scientific publications are listed in the report and edited on the project website.

5G networks are expected to revolution our living environments, our cities and our industry by connecting everything. 5G design has, thus, to meet the requirements of two “new” mobile services: massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), and Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC). Slicing concept facilitates serving these services with very heterogeneous requirements on a unique infrastructure. Indeed, slicing allows logically-isolated network partitioning with a slice representing a unit of programmable resources such as networking, computation and storage. Slicing was originally proposed for core networks, but is now being discussed for the Radio Access Network (RAN) owing to the evolution of technologies which now enable its implementation. These technologies include mainly the tendency for virtualizing the RAN equipment and its programmable control, the advent of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and the flexible design of 5G on the physical and MAC layers.
However, the complete implementation of slicing in the RAN faces several challenges, in particular to manage the slices and associated control and data planes and for scheduling and resources allocation mechanisms.
MAESTRO-5G project develops enablers for implementing and managing slices in the 5G radio access network, not only for the purpose of serving heterogeneous services, but also for dynamic sharing of infrastructure between operators. For this aim the project puts together exerts on performance evaluation, queuing theory, network economy, game theory and operations research. MAESTRO-5G is expected to provide:
•A resource allocation framework for slices, integrating heterogeneous QoS requirements and spanning on multiple resources including radio, backhauling/fronthauling and processing resources in the RAN.
•A complete slice management architecture including provisioning and re-optimization modules and their integration with NFV and SDN strata.
•A business layer for slicing in 5G, enabling win-win situations between players from the telecommunications industry and the verticals, ensuring that the 5G services are commercially viable and gain acceptance in the market.
•A demonstrator showing the practical feasibility as well as integration of the major functions and mechanisms proposed by the project, on a 5G Cloud RAN platform. The enhanced platform is expected to support the different 5G services (eMBB and IoT) and to demonstrate key aspects of slicing, such as:
- Ability to create and operate in parallel multiple slices, on the same infrastructure and sharing the same radio resources (e.g. spectrum), each having different service requirements.
- Ability to create and operate in parallel and independently different slices, sharing the same infrastructure/spectrum, belonging to different business actors, such as different operators.
- Demonstrate inter-slice control ensuring respect of SLAs and a fair resource sharing.