Abstract
Along with the adoption of 5G, the development of neutral host solutions provides a unique opportunity for mobile networks operators to accommodate the needs of emerging use-cases and in the consolidation of new business models. By exploiting the concept of network slicing, as one key enabler in the transition to 5G, infrastructure and service providers can logically split a shared physical network into multiple isolated and customized networks to flexibly address the specific demands of those tenant slices. Motivated by this reality, the H2020 5GCity project proposed a novel 5G-enabled neutral host framework for three European cities: Barcelona (ESP), Bristol (UK), and Lucca (IT). This article revises the main achievements and contributions of the 5GCity project, focusing on the deployment and validation of the proposed framework. The developed neutral host framework encompasses two main parts: the infrastructure and the software platform. A detailed description of the framework implementation, in terms of functional capabilities and practical implications of city-wide deployments, is provided in this article. This work also presents the performance evaluation of the proposed solution during the implementation of real vertical use cases. Obtained results validate the feasibility of the neutral host model and the proposed framework to be deployed in city-wide 5G infrastructures.
Highlights
In the apogee of a new digital era, communication technologies and businesses evolved towards 11 billion interconnected devices worldwide, triggering a rapid adoption of online and mobile digital services [1,2]
The neutral host infrastructure deployed in Barcelona comprises three city areas: (i) the core node hosted in OMEGA-Data Center (DC) at i2CAT Foundation; (ii) the edge computing nodes and on-street Radio Access Network (RAN) deployed in the super square 22@ area (Glòries); (iii) an additional
This DC hosts two compute servers configured as core Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), which are interconnected via fiber to the other two pilot locations in We-The-Curious (WTC-DC) and MShed Museum (M-DC)
Summary
In the apogee of a new digital era, communication technologies and businesses evolved towards 11 billion interconnected devices worldwide, triggering a rapid adoption of online and mobile digital services [1,2]. The 5G architecture combines emerging Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies with advances in Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) [4] Such enabling technologies unleash the potential of 5G in terms of service orchestration, infrastructure virtualization, cloud and edge computing, end-to-end network slicing, and mobile communication with higher throughput and lower latency. In this way, 5G copes with performance challenges by supporting a much larger and diverse number of services, including data-intensive and delay-sensitive applications (e.g., immersive reality, industry 4.0, smart city) [5].
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