5G ESSENCE: End-to-End Slicing for Mission Critical Applications

5G ESSENCE (Embedded Network Services for 5G Experiences) has focused on fully enabling cloud-integrated multi-tenant small cell networking: Using centralised small cell functions as scale grows through an edge cloud environment based on a two-tier architecture. A distributed tier offers low latency services. A second centralised tier is used for providing high processing power for computing-intensive network applications. This allows decoupling the control and user planes of the Radio Access Network (RAN) and achieving the benefits of Cloud-RAN without the enormous fronthaul latency restrictions.

End-to-end network slicing mechanisms allows the sharing of the 5G ESSENCE infrastructure across multiple operators/industry verticals, customising its capabilities on a per-tenant basis. The versatility of the architecture is enhanced by high-performance virtualisation techniques for data isolation, latency reduction and resource efficiency, and by orchestrating lightweight virtual resources enabling efficient Virtualised Network Function placement and live migration.

Keywords: End-to-end network slicing, service level agreements (SLAs), first responders, Mission-Critical-Push-To-Talk (MCPTT), cloud-enabled small cell manager (CESCM)

About the Demonstration

The demonstration took place in November 2019 during the B-APCO event at the St Jame's Football Club in Newcastle, with the 5G ESSENCE platform giving prioritised access to first responders to guarantee safety in a crowded city scenario.

The demonstration focused on two different types of mission critical services: a Mission-Critical-Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) and a Chat-and-Localization application, coping with three diverse situations, that is, no emergency, an emergency in a specific areas, an emergency in that area with damage to the ICT infrastructure. 

The first situation is a baseline with the 5G ESSENCE platform providing the required network slices in terms of radio frequencies, data rate, cloud resources and Quality of Service (QoS). In the second situation, the cloud-enabled small cell manager (CESCM) reacts to the new emergency service requirements, supporting the first responders in terms of the necessary capacity and computation resources, including mission-critical video transmissions. In the third situation, e.g. damaged ICT infrastructure during a natural disaster or terrorist attack. 5G ESSENCE steps in to extend radio coverage, by deploying a system to mitigate damage to the infrastructure and offering 5G connectivity to first responders. 

Location: Newcastle, UK

Date: November 2019

Vertical partners involved: Thales Communications & Security SAS

Also involved: IS-WIRELESS, ORION Innovations, Universidad del Pais Vasco

Other partners: OTE - Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (Coordinator), ATOS Spain S.A., Athonet S.R.L., British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), Catalonia University of Technology, Casa Communications Technology SLU, CyberLens Ltd, Eight Bells Ltd., Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Fundacio i2CAT, INTEL R&D Ireland Ltd., Italtel SpA, Municipality of Egaleo, NEC Europe Ltd., WIND TRE S.p.A., Zodiac Inflight Innovations

5G-ESSENCE Website | @5GPPP_5GESSENCE