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Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Back-haul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs
D6.5 Impact report on 5G-XHaul
exploitation and dissemination
results
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Framework
Programme Horizon 2020 for research, technological development
and demonstration
Advanced 5G Network Infrastructure for the Future Internet
Project Start Date: July 1st, 2015 Duration: 36 months
H2020-ICT-2014-2 671551 31st July 2018 – Version 1.0
Project co-funded by the European Commission
Under the H2020 programme
Dissemination Level: Public
5G-XHaul Deliverable
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Grant Agreement Number: 671551
Project Name: Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs
Project Acronym: 5G-XHaul
Document Number: D6.5
Document Title: Impact report on 5G-XHaul exploitation and dis-semination results
Version: 1.0
Delivery Date: 30th June 2018 (31st July 2018)
Responsible: TES
Editor(s): Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP), Jordan Bozmarov (TES)
Authors:
Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP), Jordan Bozmarov (TES), Peter Legg (BWT), Jens Bartelt (AIR), Albrecht Fehske (AIR).
Keywords: Dissemination, standardisation, social media, ex-ploitation, impact.
Status: Final
Dissemination Level Public
Project URL: http://www.5g-xhaul-project.eu/
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Version History
Rev. N Description Author Date
0.1 First draft with ToC Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP) 08/02/18
0.2 Added initial dissemination content Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP) 08/05/18
0.3 Added initial standardization Peter Legg (BWT),
ALL partners 17/05/18
0.4 Added the exploitation part Jens Bartelt (AIR),
Albrecht Fehske (AIR), ALL partners
04/07/2018
0.5 Update of the dissemination part Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP) 19/07/2018
1.0 Version for submission to the EC Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP) 31/07/18
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 9
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 10
2. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................... 11
2.1 Dissemination activities within 5G-PPP ..........................................................................................................11 2.1.1 Working Groups ............................................................................................................................................ 11 2.1.2 Contributions to 5G-related Book(s) ............................................................................................................. 13 2.1.3 The European 5G Annual Journal (2016, 2017, 2018) .................................................................................. 14 2.1.4 ETSI White Paper .......................................................................................................................................... 15 2.1.5 White Paper Vision ....................................................................................................................................... 15
2.2 Participation of 5G-XHaul in events ................................................................................................................15 2.2.1 Year 2015 ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.2 Year 2016 ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.3 Year 2017 ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.4 Year 2018 ...................................................................................................................................................... 39
2.3 5G-XHaul Final Demo .....................................................................................................................................45
2.4 5G-XHaul video of the final demonstration event ..........................................................................................49
2.5 Impact ............................................................................................................................................................49 2.5.1 5G-XHaul Web Page ...................................................................................................................................... 50 2.5.2 Social Media - Twitter ................................................................................................................................... 50 2.5.3 Scientific Impacts .......................................................................................................................................... 51 2.5.4 Socio-economic impacts ............................................................................................................................... 60
3. EXPLOITATION ACTIVITIES....................................................................................................... 61
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................61
3.2 5G-XHaul Results ............................................................................................................................................61
3.3 Exploitation Plans per Partner ........................................................................................................................69 3.3.1 IHP ................................................................................................................................................................. 69 3.3.2 I2CAT ............................................................................................................................................................. 69 3.3.3 Telefonica...................................................................................................................................................... 70 3.3.4 University of Bristol ...................................................................................................................................... 70 3.3.5 University of Thessaly ................................................................................................................................... 71 3.3.6 Blu Wireless Technology ............................................................................................................................... 71 3.3.7 TES Electronic Solutions ................................................................................................................................ 71 3.3.8 COSMOTE ...................................................................................................................................................... 72 3.3.9 Technische Universität Dresden ................................................................................................................... 73 3.3.10 Airrays ........................................................................................................................................................... 74 3.3.11 Huawei .......................................................................................................................................................... 74 3.3.12 ADVA Optical Networking ............................................................................................................................. 75
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4. STANDARDISATION ACTIVITIES .............................................................................................. 77
5. 5G-XHAUL IMPACT ON SMES ..................................................................................................... 80
5.1 Impact on Airrays GmbH ................................................................................................................................80
5.2 Impact on BLU WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY LIMITED ...........................................................................................80
6. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................. 82
7. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 83
8. ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................................... 84
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List of Figures
Figure 2-1: Physical architecture of a converged fixed-mobile network for 5G [5]. ......................................... 12
Figure 2-2: a) 5G System Design book, b) Chapter driven by 5G-XHaul contributors. .................................. 14
Figure 2-3: 5G-XHaul leaflet (first version). ..................................................................................................... 17
Figure 2-4: 5G-XHaul leaflet at I2CAT’s booth (MWC 2017). ......................................................................... 18
Figure 2-5: Jens Bartelt (TUD) at the Networld2020 GA presenting 5G-XHaul work. .................................... 19
Figure 2-6: 5G-XHaul Poster at the 5G Summit in Brooklyn (middle). ............................................................ 19
Figure 2-7: 5G-XHaul poster at 5G Summit in Brooklyn. ................................................................................ 20
Figure 2-8: Panel at ISWCS 2016 in Poznan, Poland. .................................................................................... 22
Figure 2-9: Expert Workshop hosted by Huawei. ............................................................................................ 23
Figure 2-10. Snapshot from the Transport Slicing demo by UTH. .................................................................. 23
Figure 2-11. Poster showing the Transport Slicing demo by UTH. ................................................................. 24
Figure 2-12: Millimetre wave mesh demo arrangement. ................................................................................. 25
Figure 2-13: Photo of the demo booth and equipment. The orange boxes are the NPUs. ............................. 25
Figure 2-14: Photo of the WDM-PON exhibition at the 5G-XHaul booth. ....................................................... 26
Figure 2-15: Poster of general introduction of WDM-PON. ............................................................................. 27
Figure 2-16: BWT & i2CAT mmWave SDN demo at i2CAT's booth in MWC'17. ............................................ 28
Figure 2-17: MWC 2017 demo setup. ............................................................................................................. 29
Figure 2-18: AIR Massive MIMO Radio unit demo at MWC 2017. .................................................................. 29
Figure 2-19: 5G-XHaul poster at 5G Summit Brooklyn in 2017. ..................................................................... 31
Figure 2-20: Photos from the EuCNC 2017 Workshop nº 8. ........................................................................... 33
Figure 2-21: Demo setup of integrating BBU, WDM fronthaul and massive-MIMO RRH. .............................. 33
Figure 2-22: a) 5G-XHaul demonstration team, b) visit from EC Project Officers. .......................................... 34
Figure 2-23: Test configuration. ....................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 2-24: Video stream over mmWave link. ............................................................................................... 35
Figure 2-25: VNF migration Demo. .................................................................................................................. 36
Figure 2-26: Poster for the VNF migration Demo. ........................................................................................... 37
Figure 2-27: Poster of the 5G-XHaul transceiver solution. .............................................................................. 38
Figure 2-28: Koteswararao Kondepu (UNIVBRIS-HPN) introducing the next generation elastic networks proposed by 5G-XHaul. ............................................................................................................................ 39
Figure 2-29: 5G-XHaul Workshop organised in the 5G Lab Germany in Dresden. ........................................ 40
Figure 2-30: Potential 5G-XHaul demo to be showcased at MWC 2018. ....................................................... 40
Figure 2-31: 5G-XHaul technologies at MWC 2018. ....................................................................................... 41
Figure 2-32: 5G-XHaul colleagues explaining 5G-XHaul to RAN-related people. .......................................... 41
Figure 2-33: Dr. Paris Flegkas (UTH), WP6 leader, presenting the demo activities to be carried out in Bristol. .................................................................................................................................................................. 42
Figure 2-34: Dr. Daniel Camps (I2CAT), 5G-XHaul TM, presenting 5G-XHaul technologies. ........................ 42
Figure 2-35: 5G-XHaul leaflet at 5G-IA booth. ................................................................................................ 43
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Figure 2-36: 5G-XHaul Project in the 5G-PPP leaflet for MWC 2018. ............................................................ 44
Figure 2-37: Dr. Jim Zou (ADVA) guiding the visitors into 5G-XHaul experience and involvement of ADVA in the project. ................................................................................................................................................ 44
Figure 2-38: Dr. Peter Legg (BWT) presenting his paper on meshed backhauling. ....................................... 45
Figure 2-39: 5G-XHaul session @ Engineers’ House. .................................................................................... 46
Figure 2-40: Photo taken at the end of the morning session in Engineers’ House. ........................................ 47
Figure 2-41: 3D Overview of the deployment of 5G-XHaul technology across the city of Bristol. Courtesy: Google Earth. ........................................................................................................................................... 47
Figure 2-42: Example of Press release from University of Bristol. .................................................................. 48
Figure 2-43: Example of Press Release from IHP. ......................................................................................... 49
Figure 2-44: 5G-XHaul Website statistics (Sept 2015 – June 2018). .............................................................. 50
Figure 4-1. Standardisation lifecycle. .............................................................................................................. 77
Figure 4-2. Standardisation pyramid. .............................................................................................................. 77
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List of Tables
Table 2-1: Twitter performance over the duration of the project. .................................................................... 50
Table 2-2: 5G-XHaul presentations at conferences and workshops. .............................................................. 52
Table 2-3: Conference publications. ................................................................................................................ 54
Table 2-4: Published Journal Papers. ............................................................................................................. 58
Table 2-5: Summary of contributions per year. ............................................................................................... 60
Table 3-1: Types of exploitation [13]. .............................................................................................................. 61
Table 3-2: 5G-XHaul main technical results and exploitation by partner. ....................................................... 62
Table 4-1. Contribution count per SDO/domain. ............................................................................................. 78
Table 4-2. Impact per SDO/domain. ................................................................................................................ 78
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Executive Summary
This document summarises the dissemination, communication and standardisation activities carried out within
the framework of the project 5G-XHaul during its life span (July 2015 to July 2018).
The project has attempted to become one of the leading projects of the 5G-PPP both technically and from the
impact point of view. We present in this deliverable the activities carried out over the course of the project,
highlighting representative contributions and numbers mapping the involvement of the project.
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1. Introduction
The objective of the 8th framework programme funding research, technological development and innovation
(H2020 programme), implemented by the European Commission (EC), is to invest in research that will bring
Europe at the heart of research and innovation and drive its economic growth. The ongoing research within
the H2020 Programme and, more specifically, within the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-
PPP), will be incomplete if the results of the funded projects are not properly communicated to industry (and
the public in general), and these results are not captured in standardisation bodies. Therefore, a clear dissem-
ination, communication and standardisation plan is critical to ensure the required return on this huge invest-
ment.
For a 5G-PPP Phase 1 Project, dissemination is important to guarantee the visibility on 5G at European level,
as well making visible 5G-XHaul project activities and results. In addition, sustainability, communication, as
well as data and knowledge management are also essential measures to maximise the impact and ensure the
aforementioned expected impact is achieved. In this context, the main pillars of the required measures to
maximise the impact for the 5G-XHaul project results can be summarised as:
i. publications in top conferences and journals;
ii. standardisation through the communication and lighting standard development organisations; and
iii. industry events and demonstration activities where the applications enabled by the 5G-XHaul technol-
ogy are showcased.
The consortium has addressed high quality publications to present its work, accounting on the amount of
technical and development work which might lead to additional publications which will happen beyond the end
of the project.
Regarding standardisation, the project has planned a way forward on collaboration with standards from the
starting date, which has been properly addressed throughout its duration.
Finally, even though many activities within 5G-XHaul have targeted research areas, the project has set as one
of its primary goals to address longer term exploitation of the project results through standard contributions.
Nevertheless, the project has focused as well on shorter-term exploitation plans that are particular to each
partner.
Organisation of the document
After an initial introduction in Section 1, the project’s associated dissemination activities, including contribu-
tions to 5G-PPP, participation in 5G-related events, etc., are presented in Section 2.
Section 3 tackles the 5G-XHaul exploitation activities, aiming at a detailed information on what the outcomes
of 5G-XHaul impact further research/development activities in further 5G activities (including industry).
Section 3.3 provides an insight on the standardisation activities carried out during the project, making empha-
sis on the impact they bring along, and on the prospects the different partners envision for the future.
Section 5 aims at accounting on the impact 5G-XHaul has provided to each of the partners, concretely on
SME-related impact.
Finally, Section 6 puts forward the conclusions of the deliverable.
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2. Dissemination activities
The project 5G-XHaul has been involved in a wide plethora of dissemination activities, ranging from 5G-PPP
contributions to more industry-related contributions in worldwide events. This section summarises those con-
tributions and attempts to quantitative measure their impact.
2.1 Dissemination activities within 5G-PPP
One of the main targets of a collaborative work, such as the 5G-PPP framework, is for each of the projects
participating in it to be able to provide both project-related results, as well as to accomplish joint collaboration
activities towards the establishment of 5G in Europe. 5G-XHaul wanted to be one of the main instigators of
these activities, with more or less involvement based on the project targeted objectives, as will be shown
below.
2.1.1 Working Groups
5G-XHaul has actively contributed to several Working Groups (WGs), stemming from both 5G-IA and 5G-PPP.
Different partners in the consortium (other than the managers) have taken on additional roles as experts in the
Working Groups, serving as well as connections to key technical experts from other organisations/projects.
We have declared a strong involvement in some of the WGs, e.g. Architecture and SDN/NFV, as can be seen
below, keeping a more limited participation in others.
2.1.1.1 Architecture Working Group (WG)
The architectural design described in deliverable D2.2 [1] defines a transport network that is designed to
transport traffic from different types of RANs, including 4G and 5G RANs, possibly belonging to different oper-
ators. Given the central role (transport) of the project, we found suitable to incorporate our views regarding the
5G architecture to the Working Group.
To that end, 5G-XHaul has actively participated in the discussions held on the envisioned 5G Architecture,
whether they involve remote communication or physical presence to interact with the colleagues from other
projects. 5G-XHaul has therefore participated in all Architecture WG-related meetings:
April 4th – 5th 2016 in Brussels.
May 2th – 3rd 2016 in London.
May 16th – 17th 2017 in Munich.
As well, we have participated in all workshops, namely:
International Workshop on 5G Architecture at EuCNC 2016.
https://www.eucnc.eu/2016/www.eucnc.eu/indexe1e4.html?q=node/110
Workshop on 5G Architecture (5GArch) at ICC 2016.
http://icc2016.ieee-icc.org/content/workshops#W01
Regarding the contributions to the White Papers, 5G-XHaul has contributed to both 5G-PPP releases on 5G
Architecture, namely:
Release v1.0
https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5G-PPP-5G-Architecture-WP-July-2016.pdf
Contributions to section 3 “Overall Architecture”, section 4 “logical and Functional Architecture”, and
section 5 “Physical Architecture”.
Release v2.0
https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/5G-PPP-5G-Architecture-White-Paper-Jan-2018-
v2.0.pdf
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Contributions to section 4 “Physical Infrastructure and Deployment”, where we included the 5G
transport data requirements stemming from 5G RANs.
As an important achievement, the 5G-XHaul physical infrastructure has been adopted as part of the 5G-PPP
architecture, and is described in the relevant published White Paper [5], including both its functional structure
as well as its design and technology approach.
In addition, the physical transport infrastructure defined in 5G-XHaul has been included as one of the preferred
deployment options for 5G transport networks by the 5G-PPP Architecture Working Group, as reported in the
5G-PPP Views on 5G Architecture White Paper [5]
5G-XHaul has played a key role when defining the 5G architectural design principles claimed by 5G-PPP [5], which are:
1. implementing network slicing in cost efficient way,
2. addressing both end user and operational services,
3. supporting natively softwarisation,
4. integrating communication and computation, and
5. integrating heterogeneous technologies (incl. fixed and wireless technologies).
Figure 2-1: Physical architecture of a converged fixed-mobile network for 5G [5].
A preliminary evaluation of the mentioned physical architecture was also accepted for publication at the Inter-
national Conference on Communications (ICC 2016). A well-received presentation was given in W01-Third
Workshop on 5G Architecture (5GArch 2016) (http://icc2016.ieee-icc.org/content/workshops#W01).
2.1.1.2 SDN/NFV Working Group
5G-XHaul has actively participated in the SDN/NFV Working Group, by presenting the project solutions on the
SDN control plane and slicing capabilities over heterogeneous 5G data plane technologies contributing to the
5G-PPP White Paper on the relevant architecture and open source and standardisation activities.
https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5G-PPP_SoftNets_WG_whitepaper_v20.pdf
MP2MP
MP2MP
Elastic Frame-based WDM Metro
FlexGridROADM
FlexGridROADM
FlexGridROADM
FlexGridROADM
MP2MP
MP2MP
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2.1.1.3 KPIs Experts Team: Active contributors
Colleagues from METIS II, from the Workshop organized in Kista (Sweden) in 2015, triggered an excellent
initiative organising 5G-PPP cross-project discussions on use cases and performance evaluation models.
From this initiative there were a series of releases of the “Joint 5G-PPP document on use cases and evaluation
models”.
5G-XHaul contributed to the 5G-PPP White Paper on overview of the use cases and models that were devel-
oped for an early evaluation of different 5G radio access network concepts originating from various 5G-PPP
phase 1 projects.
https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5G-PPP-use-cases-and-performance-evaluation-model-ing_v1.0.pdf
It covers 5G scenarios defined from the service perspective, requirements, definitions of key performance
indicators (KPIs) and models (e.g., of channel, traffic or user’s mobility). Developed use case families are
mapped to a corresponding business cases identified in vertical industries. Additionally, performance evalua-
tion approaches are compared with the latest version of performance evaluation framework proposed in 3GPP.
Additionally, 5G-XHaul continued collaborating with this initiative with the 5G-XHaul assessment towards KPIs.
Our colleague Dr. Nikola Vucic, from Huawei, gave a presentation on the 5G-XHaul work on capacity and
energy efficiency KPIs to the 5G-PPP KPI Expert Group on August 24, 2016. 5G-XHaul contributed to the
living document with the 5G-XHaul views on use cases, KPIs and evaluation.
2.1.1.4 Spectrum Working Group
5G-XHaul has been monitoring the evolution of the Spectrum WG, contributing to set up the initial steps of the
WG, and taking part in the first 5G-PPP workshop covering the Spectrum topic which took place in in Kista in
September 2015. Dr. Jesús Gutiérrez (IHP), as the representative of the WG, presented in this workshop the
5G-XHaul contributions. 5G-XHaul raised in this small group the problematic of European regulations for 60
GHz.
2.1.1.5 Pre-Standardization Working Group
Our project limited the contribution to the Pre-Standardization WG to point out the 5G-XHaul contributions to
standards. The tool used for this was the 5G-PPP BSCW server, where our standardization leader, Peter Legg
(BWT), updated the 5G-XHaul contributions.
2.1.2 Contributions to 5G-related Book(s)
2.1.2.1 5G System Design Book
Our project has contributed to the book “5G System Design – Architectural and Functional considerations
and Long Term Research” (https://www.wiley.com/en-us/5G+System+Design%3A+Architectural+and+Func-
tional+Considerations+and+Long+Term+Research-p-9781119425113), which has been edited by colleagues
from the 5G-PPP Project Metis II (https://metis-ii.5g-ppp.eu/).
5G-XHaul has led one of the chapters, Chapter 7 on “Transport Network Architecture”. Our deputy Technical
Manager (TM), Dr. Anna Tzanakaki, from the University of Bristol, was the editor of the chapter and coordi-
nated the work among several transport-related projects such as iCIRRUS and 5G-CROSSHAUL. Moreover,
5G-XHaul has contributed to Chapter 8 of the book on Network slicing.
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a)
b)
Figure 2-2: a) 5G System Design book, b) Chapter driven by 5G-XHaul contributors.
2.1.2.2 5G Networks: an European Vision
The book “5G Networks: an European Vision”, to be published in August 2018, is an initiative from Prof. Rui
Luis Aguiar (Head of Networks and Multimedia, Universidade de Aveiro/Instituto de Telecomunicações), Jean-
Sébastien Bedo (Head of Networks Foresight and Strategy, Orange Labs Research), Mr. David M. Kennedy
(Director, Eurescom GmbH) and Mr. Bernard Barani (European Commission DG-Connect).
The objective is on one hand, to bring together in a single book a review of the technical concepts explored
inside the funded 5G-PPP Phase 1 projects. On the other hand, the aim is to make this book a reference for
the novel researchers that will be engaged in the next phase, and a simple-to-read overview of the work already
done.
The book is structured to present a snapshot of the future 5G networks, with a strong emphasis on the Euro-
pean Vision. The book contains an overall view of the multiple aspects that will be required for the realization
of the future networks, presenting state-of-the-art developments from different projects. The first part of the
book will set the stage for understanding the 5G ideas and concepts. The second part of the book will be a
comprehensive set of chapters addressing different technologies required for building 5G networks. Finally,
the third part of the book will contain some discussion on future paths for the 5G networks.
5G-XHaul has lead the chapter on “Converged wireless-optical metro networks for 5G mobile networks”. Our
TM, Dr. Daniel Camps-Mur (I2CAT), took the initiative of editing the chapter and to harmonise the contributions
stemming from our project. The chapter summarises the 5G-XHaul solution, highlighting the features and ben-
efits of using heterogeneous technologies under a common cognitive control plane.
2.1.3 The European 5G Annual Journal (2016, 2017, 2018)
5G-XHaul has actively contributed to the European 5G Annual Journal, journal that has been driven by the
Euro-5G project. The purpose of this journal is to obtain from the H2020 5G-PPP projects exceptional achieve-
ments and to present them in the best possible way for broad public. As well, it is of interest to present technical
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programme achievements on high-level for wide spectrum of researchers and managers. The different (3)
releases of the journal can be accessed via: https://5g-ppp.eu/annual-journal/.
2016
5G-XHaul, in the first edition of the journal, included a summary on the analysis on 5G transport network
requirements, which is part of the analysis captured in [7].
2017
In 2017 the second edition of the European 5G Annual Journal was released. 5G-XHaul presented its achieve-
ments during Year 2, when the project experimented a big leap in terms of architecture development. Con-
cretely, we presented a brief summary of the evaluation of the data and control plane transport architectures
defined during the first year, to then give a brief overview of the technological components required to imple-
ment that architecture, both in the wireless and the optical domains.
2018
Finally, in 2018, 5G-XHaul presented the integration of the different backhaul and fronthaul technologies and
a short overview on the plans for the final demonstrator.
2.1.4 ETSI White Paper
The Phase-1 Project 5G-CROSSHAUL invited 5G-XHaul to contribute to the definition of an ETSI White Paper
on the topic of XHauling. We found contributing to this opportunity as a good way to collaborate on a common
framework (transport network) we share with 5G-CROSSHAUL. The goal of this White Paper was to identify
remaining standardisation gaps in the area of fronthaul/backhaul integration.
2.1.5 White Paper Vision
5G-XHaul has contributed to the Vision WG White Paper with contributions on localisation and positioning, as
well as with contributions on WDM-PON.
https://bscw.5g-ppp.eu/sec/bscw.cgi/d145591/5GPPP-brochure-MWC17.pdf
2.2 Participation of 5G-XHaul in events
This section presents the different activities 5G-XHaul has taken part in. We present a yearly summary of the events, along with a description of the type of contribution the project has brought to the event.
2.2.1 Year 2015
5G-XHaul started in July 2015. After the kick-off meeting of all 5G-PPP Phase-1 projects at the EuCNC 2015
in Paris, France, our project was involved in different dissemination activities, which are listed below.
2.2.1.1 ITU Focus Group
On October 27th 2015, our Technical Manager, Daniel Camps-Mur (I2CAT), gave a presentation to the ITU
IMT-2020 Focus Group (https://www.itu.int/es/ITU-T/focusgroups/imt-2020/Pages/default.aspx). The goal of
this Focus Group is to identify gaps towards 5G systems on current ITU or other SDO working groups. They
are looking at many aspects of 5G, and in particular they have a Fronthaul/Backhaul activity that is the session
where we presented. I attach the current working document where you can see the gaps they have identified
for Fronthaul/Backhaul, and you will see that they are very well aligned with our activities in 5G-XHaul.
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/studygroups/2013-2016/15/Pages/q12.aspx
https://www.5g-xhaul-project.eu/news.html
2.2.1.2 5G-PPP cross-project Workshop on Use cases and performance evaluation models
On September 28th 2015, 5G-XHaul took part in the 5G-PPP cross-project Workshop held in Kista (Sweden).
Several contributions were made in form of presentations for both the Spectrum-related topic and the work on
SDN/NFV. More information on the event can be accessed via https://bscw.5g-
ppp.eu/sec/bscw.cgi/d181487/WS1%2028-29Sept2015.pdf.
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2.2.1.3 COMBO Workshop
Our 5G-XHaul colleague Dr. Emmanouil Pateromichelakis (HWDU) gave a presentation at the COMBO Project
Workshop on November 10th 2015. The workshop was held at CTTE (Conference of Telecommunication, Me-
dia and Internet Techno-Economics), which is the major international event for the presentation of original and
fundamental concepts and studies in the field of telecom, internet and media techno-economics.
http://www.ctte-conference.com/?q=node/231
The workshop was focused on aspects of new integrated approaches for Fixed / Mobile Converged (FMC)
broadband access/aggregation networks. Different presentations from ongoing HORIZON 2020 projects on
5G-PPP were held.
The title of the 5G-XHaul presentation was “5G-XHaul Project – Views on access/aggregation convergence
using heterogeneous (optical/wireless) network segments”.
2.2.1.4 Tweether Workshop
The EU project H2020-TWEETHER invited 5G-XHaul to give a talk in a Workshop they organised in Valencia
on November 20th 2015. Concretely, the event was a joint dissemination activity with other EU projects dealing
with millimetre wave technologies for wireless networks, with the objective to promote exchanges as well as
synergies between projects. The brochure of the event can be found in:
https://tweether.eu/workshop/documents/brochure-mmw-workshop.pdf
Our Technical Manager, Dr. Daniel Camps-Mur from I2CAT, gave a presentation on the relevant millimetre
wave work carried out by some of the partners in the consortium. The slides can be accessed via
https://tweether.eu/workshop/mmW2015-presentations/5G-XHaul_TWEETHER_Workshop_Valen-
cia_DCamps.pdf.
2.2.1.5 mmMagic Workshop
The Phase-1 project mmMagic organised a Workshop to strengthen collaboration with other projects, which
was co-located with its Technical Meeting in Munich on December 1st 2015
(https://huawei.eu/events/mmmagic-workshop).
5G-XHaul coordinator, Prof. Eckhard Grass (IHP), gave a presentation on the 5G-XHaul mmWave activities,
tailored to the IHP activities and on standardisation contributions.
2.2.1.6 GSMA Mobile 360
At the GSMA Mobile 360 event, 5G-XHaul presented the key technical features of a dynamic and reconfigu-
rable transport network, able to cope with the future 5G network demands. In the presentation, the technical
bases of the Project, as well as a set of demos and the final integration of 5G-XHaul components in the Bristol
is Open (BIO) testbed will be introduced.
2.2.1.7 GLOBECOM
5G-XHaul contributed to the Globecom Conference, held in San Diego (US) in December 2015, with a video
and a leaflet (see Figure 2-3). Concretely we participated in the 5G Architecture and 5G-PPP session orga-
nized by Dr. Simone Redana (Nokia) and Mr. Bernard Barani (DG-CONNECT). More details on this session
can be found via: http://globecom2015.ieee-globecom.org/content/demotemp. The video footage can be seen
in the following YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIMTka8QEMk).
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Figure 2-3: 5G-XHaul leaflet (first version).
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2.2.2 Year 2016
After a busy year 2015, when most of the decisions were taking place regarding the use cases, requirements and architecture definition, 5G-XHaul continued participating in events and contributing with preliminary results in 2016.
2.2.2.1 RAN Design workshop Valencia
5G-XHaul participated in the 5G-PPP Workshop on “5G RAN Design, Air Interface Design and Integration”,
organized by FANTASTIC 5G, METIS-II and mmMagic in Valencia on January 21-22 2016. Vaia Kalokidou
(UNIVBRIS-CSN) showed there our preliminary work in 5G RAN Requirements on Transport Networks and,
more concretely, on Millimetre Wave Signal Processing.
2.2.2.2 MWC 2016
Blu Wireless Technology attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Blu
Wireless will be demonstrating the latest version of its HYDRA System IP architecture for WiGig applications
and its third generation Lightning module. More details can be found in:
http://www.bluwirelesstechnology.com/blu-wireless-technology-brings-wigig-to-mwc-2016/
5G-XHaul was present as well I2CAT’s booth with a leaflet (see Figure 2-4).
Figure 2-4: 5G-XHaul leaflet at I2CAT’s booth (MWC 2017).
2.2.2.3 Networld 2020 GA
At the Networld2020 General Assembly on April 19th 2016 in Brussels, there was the opportunity of participat-ing in a Special Session on the progress of 5G-PPP projects’ activities (http://networld2020.eu/networld2020-annual-event-and-ga-2016/). 5G-XHaul took the opportunity to share the work of TUD and other partners from the consortium on the analysis of transport requirements of 5G networks.
Our colleague Jens Bartelt (TUD) gave a presentation entitled “Transport Requirements of 5G Networks”
(https://www.networld2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Networld2020-Event-2016_agenda_web_rev-
5.pdf), which dived in the analysis of the requirements of a transport network to cope with the different legacy
and new wireless technologies used in 5G.
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Figure 2-5: Jens Bartelt (TUD) at the Networld2020 GA presenting 5G-XHaul work.
2.2.2.4 5G Brooklyn Summit
5G-XHaul was present at the 5G Brooklyn Summit 2016 with one Poster presented by Prof. Mark Beach (UNIVBRIS-CSN) (see Figure 2-6). The poster is shown in Figure 2-7.
Figure 2-6: 5G-XHaul Poster at the 5G Summit in Brooklyn (middle).
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Figure 2-7: 5G-XHaul poster at 5G Summit in Brooklyn.
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2.2.2.5 ICC 2016
5G-XHaul, and, more concretely its Technical Manager, Dr. Daniel Camps-Mur (I2CAT), took part in the 5G-
Architecture workshop presenting the paper “Supporting End-User and Operational Services: The 5G-XHaul
Architectural Perspective" by University of Bristol [6] (very well received), as well as participating in a panel
discussion on the preparation of the 5G Architecture White Paper [5].
The second day 5G-XHaul participated on another panel discussion on 5G Architecture representing the transport views from 5G-XHaul. The panel was organized by Simone (Nokia) and had a quite large audience. It was also well received.
2.2.2.6 EuCNC 2016
One of the key events for every 5G-PPP project is the European Conference on Networks and Communica-
tions (EuCNC). In 2016, the EuCNC 2016 was held in Athens (Greece) from June 27th to June 30th.
We contributed with two publications:
A. Betzler, F. Quer, D. Camps-Mur, I. Demirkol and E. Garcia-Villegas, "On the benefits of wireless
SDN in networks of constrained edge devices," 2016 European Conference on Networks and
Communications (EuCNC), Athens, 2016, pp. 37-41.
A. Tzanakaki et al., "Optical transport for 5G in Bristol is Open", EuCNC 2016, Workshop Toward
Converged X-Haul for 5G Networks – A joint workshop of the iCirrus, 5G-XHaul and 5G Crosshaul
projects, Athens, Greece, June 2016.
5G-XHaul project coordinators and technical managers participated in a video interview carried out at the EuCNC Venue. The resulting footage is as well included in our YouTube channel, and can be accessed via:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auRiH1AOdRs
WS Towards convergence (5G-XHaul, 5G CROSSHAUL, iCIRRUS)
5G-XHaul co-organised a Workshop entitled “Towards Converged X-Haul for 5G Networks – A joint workshop
of the iCirrus, 5G-XHaul and 5G-Crosshaul projects”. The workshop brought speakers from the three Hori-
zon2020 projects iCirrus, 5G-XHaul and 5G-Crosshaul together, with the objective of building consensus and
exploring possibilities for future collaboration. The Workshop consisted of invited presentations from network
operators, mobile and optical equipment vendors, as well as academic institutions with subsequent Q&A pos-
sibilities.
The Workshop involved two sessions and a final Panel discussion
Session I: 14.00-15.30h (6 slots with 12mins presentations + 3mins Q&A)
1) Ralf Irmer, Vodafone: Trends in mobile networks (to be confirmed)
2) Zakaria Tayq, Orange: Fronthaul field trials and future trends
3) Chih-Lin I, China Mobile: Next-Generation Fronthaul Initiative (to be confirmed)
4) Thomas Deiss, Nokia: Fronthaul requirements of 5G mobile networks
5) Chenguang Lu, Ericsson: Time-Domain Fronthaul Compression
6) Daniel Münch, ADVA Optical Networking: Converged Ethernet for next-gen x-haul
Session II: 16.00h-17.30h (3 slots with 12mins presentations + 3mins Q&A, followed by a panel discussion)
7) NN, Viavi: SLA Assurance and SON Optimization in x-haul Networks
8) Anna Tzanakaki, Bristol University: Optical transport for 5G in Bristol is Open
9) Arturo Azcorra, IMDEA: Control Plane Approaches for 5G Crosshaul in the 5TONIC Testbed
Panel Discussion with previous speakers (45 mins)
Daniel Camps-Mur (i2CAT) gave as well a talk on 5G-XHaul at the workshop organized by 5G-Crosshaul
entitled: “Next generation fronthaul/backhaul integrated transport networks” – Ref W04a.
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2.2.2.7 ISWCS Poznan
The International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems took place on September 20th – 23rd 2016
at the Poznan University of Technology in Poznan, Poland. The conference covered areas like Space-time
coding and processing, interference alignment techniques, communication with feedback, Precoding and
scheduling, and many more.
5G-XHaul participated in a Panel session entitled "5G Design: From Radio to Architecture" (see Figure 2-8),
led by the 5G Infrastructure Association Chairperson, Dr. Werner Mohr from Nokia (http://iswcs2016.radi-
okomunikacja.edu.pl/welcome/menu/panel). Dr. Jesús Gutiérrez, from IHP, presented the overall 5G-XHaul
activities, focusing deeply into the functional splits analysis carried out in deliverable D2.1.
Figure 2-8: Panel at ISWCS 2016 in Poznan, Poland.
2.2.2.8 5G Summit Berlin
Our colleague from Huawei, Dr. Riccardo Trivisonno, presented at the 5G Summit Berlin (http://www.5gsum-
mit.org/berlin/) some 5G-XHaul results as part of the presentation "A Reality Check: What “Phase 1” 5G Will
Look Like – and What Will Be Next". The slides can be accessed via [slides].
2.2.2.9 Expert Workshop hosted by Huawei
5G-XHaul organised an Expert Workshop co-located with the 5G-XHaul Technical Meeting in Munich, at
Huawei premises (see Figure 2-9). The purpose of the workshop was to exchange information on technical
and economic aspects of future 5G networks and discuss possible implications for the development of 5G.
Hence, the title of the Workshop is: "Technical and Economic Aspects of 5G Network Deployment and Oper-
ation".
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Figure 2-9: Expert Workshop hosted by Huawei.
2.2.2.10 5G Global Event Rome
5G-XHaul presented different demonstrations at the 2nd Global 5G Event held in Rome, Italy, in November
2016 (https://5g-ppp.eu/event/second-global-5g-event-on-9-10-november-2016-in-rome-italy/).
The first demo [4] was targeted at showing the operation of network slicing at the edge of the transport network
and encapsulation of tenant traffic into transport specific tunnels. All the nodes of the network were controlled
by the 5G-XHaul Level-0 Area Controller. 4 VNFs were installed in the two nodes, Edge Transport Node (ETN)
ETN1 and ETN2, belonging to two different slices. In the implemented GUI the physical topology as well as
the virtual topology (tenant view) were shown while a change in the physical topology was demonstrated where
a path switch at the physical topology took without affecting at all the tenant view of the network as well as the
traffic between the Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). An example snapshot from the demo is depicted in
Figure 2-10.
Figure 2-10. Snapshot from the Transport Slicing demo by UTH.
This demo has also been captured in a video available in the 5G-XHaul YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITBZH-1pDGY
A poster has also been presented in the booth describing the demo shown in Figure 2-11.
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Figure 2-11. Poster showing the Transport Slicing demo by UTH.
The second demo involved a millimetre wave communication mesh with SDN control. The configuration of the
demo is sketched in Figure 2-12. A photo of the booth setup is shown in Figure 2-13.
A laptop is connected to a video server over a single 60 GHz wireless link, “main path”, and video traffic is
streamed to the laptop (and displayed using VLC). A second redundant path is held on standby, using two
wireless links. The wireless links exploit BWT Lightning II modules, either vertically or horizontally polarised,
and using either IEEE 802.11ad channel 2 or 3. Monitoring information is captured by SDN agents running on
the Lightning units and passed to the remote Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller using OpenFlow
extensions developed by i2CAT.
When the wireless link of the normal path is broken, the traffic may be switched to the redundant path after
detection by the SDN controller.
Funding/Acknowledgment/ Partners/
Universityof Thessaly - 5G-XHaulEU5G-PPPProject
HierarchicalSDNControlPlaneandSlicingSupportoverHeterogeneousTechnologies
PointsofContact:ParisFlegkas(UniversityofThessaly),[email protected],http://nitlab.inf.uth.gr
ControlPlaneArchitecture
TheDemoTopologydeployedinNITOS
Challenges:
n Networkslicingoverheterogeneoustechnologies(2G/3G/4G,Wi-Fi,etc.).
n SDN-basedcontrolplane,hierarchical&distributedcontrollers.n NetworkFunctionVirtualisation(NFV)toexecutenetworkfunctionson
commodityhardware.n Tenantsareallowedtoconnecttoa5G-XHaulvirtualslicetheirstandard
workloads(VNFs)n DeploymentandexperimentationinNITOS
Global5GEvent,Rome
November09-10,2016
TheNITOStestbedfor 5Gexperimentation
Developmentof L0-Ctrlrn Developmentof L0-Ctrlrontopof aWiFi area.
n TheWiFi area is deployed inthe NITOStestbed.
n Thearea consists of two ETNshosting the VNFsand four TNsconnectingthe ETNs.
n TheETNs‘connection is virtually abstracted as astable link,while at thebottom layer the utilized wireless linksare changing seamlessly.
n Halfof the VNFsbelong to adifferentsliceof the other half,and thecommunication between the two slices is notallowed.
HierarchicalControlDesign
n Topcontrollerisresponsibleforprovisioningpertenantslices,andorchestratingtherequiredconnectivityacrossdifferent5G-XHaulareasanddomains.
n Level-1controller isinchargeofmaintainingconnectivitybetweentheunderlyingLevel-0areas,andmaintainsstateatthearealevel.Itdoesnotneedtobetechnologyspecificsinceitoperatesatahigherabstractionlevel.
n Level-0controllerisresponsiblefortheprovisioningandmaintenanceoftransporttunnelsbetweenETNsandIATNsofagiven5G- XHaul area.Itisassumedtobeinchargeofanareainstantiatingasingletypeoftransporttechnology,i.e.ammWave area,anEthernetarea,oranactiveopticalarea
Area-5
Area-2
Area-4
Area-3L0-Ctrlr
L1-Ctrlr
Top-Ctrlr
Area-1
NBI
EdgeTransport Node(ETN)
TransportNode(TN)
Inter-AreaTransportNode(IATN)
VNF fromtenant1 (slice1)
VNF fromtenant2 (slice2)
5G-XHaulHierarchicalControlPlaneArchitecture
5G-XHaul- DynamicallyReconfigurableOptical-WirelessBackhaul/FronthaulwithCognitiveControlPlanefor SmallCellsandCloud-RANs
TN TN TN TN TN
ETN
IA-TN
Area 1 Area 2
TAF
FIB
Local Ctrlr
Logical DP-
Tenant 1Logical DP-
Tenant N
ETN
External Per tenant
Hierarchical Cache
Slice 2
Slice 1
DetailedoverviewofETNandSlicingsupport
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Figure 2-12: Millimetre wave mesh demo arrangement.
Figure 2-13: Photo of the demo booth and equipment. The orange boxes are the NPUs.
The third demo presented the Optical Network Unit (ONU) prototype which is under development for the WDM-
PON system, which are the two white devices on the booth table as shown in Figure 2-14. The key component
in the ONU is a tuneable laser which can be remotely controlled via the out-of-band (OOB) communication
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channel, such that the expensive wavelength locker is no longer needed. It can be seen that the SFP+ module
is assembled on a sub-board with the control circuit.
The autonomous wavelength tuning of this prototyped ONU is illustrated in a video clip (available online in the
5G-XHaul YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9RaS1wjv-s). The video demonstrates that
the ONU under test could automatically adapted the emitting wavelength, when it is connected to a different
de-/multiplexer port.
In addition, a poster introducing the general concept and features of WDM-PON was also presented at the
booth, as shown in Figure 2-15 and Figure 2-15.
Figure 2-14: Photo of the WDM-PON exhibition at the 5G-XHaul booth.
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Figure 2-15: Poster of general introduction of WDM-PON.
2.2.2.11 IUCC 2016
5G-XHaul co-organised a Workshop within the 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and
Communications (IUCC 2016), on December 14th-16th, 2016, in Granada (Spain). The Workshop was entitled
“End-to-end service orchestration for 5G and beyond”, and covered a wide range of key aspects of end-to-end
service orchestration, spanning from architectural and technology challenges to network control and manage-
ment challenges, and the role of recent technology advancements in the areas of SDN and NFV.
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Dr. Daniel Camps, along with some other colleagues from the consortium, we published a paper entitled: “5G-
XHaul: Enabling scalable virtualization for future 5G Transport Networks”.
2.2.3 Year 2017
Year 2017 showed up as a key year for 5G-XHaul to start showcasing the technologies and the integration
activities between some of the partners. Simultaneously, the associated research and new results had to be
made available for the 5G community.
2.2.3.1 5G-XHaul @ 5G PPP cross project workshop
5G-XHaul participates in the 5G-PPP Meeting to be held in Athens on 06-07.02.2016 with two presentations
with titles "5G-XHaul Approach on Network Slicing" and "5G-XHaul Use Cases & KPIs (Focus on Capacity
and Energy Efficiency)".
https://5g-ppp.eu/event/5g-cross-project-workshop-february-6-7-2017-athens/
2.2.3.2 Mobile World Congress (MWC 2017)
The 5G-XHaul Project contributed to the White Paper “5G Innovations for new Business Opportuni-
ties“ (https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/5GPPP-brochure-final-web-MWC.pdf), released at Mo-
bile World Congress 2017 (MWC 2017).
The topics were in the area of Positioning/Localisation Techniques for Sub-6 GHz and mmWave communica-
tion systems, as well as on advance optical transmission technologies and a flexible high-speed low-cost
transmission using a passive wavelength division multiplexed network (WDM-PON)
At MWC’17 BWT and i2CAT demonstrated the integration of the SDN agent developed by i2CAT on the 60
GHz wireless devices developed by BWT. This technology has also been used within the framework of the
5G-XHaul Work Packages (WPs) WP3 and WP5. Figure 2-16 illustrates one of the BWT 60 GHz nodes, and
Figure 2-17 provides the detailed demo setup.
Figure 2-16: BWT & i2CAT mmWave SDN demo at i2CAT's booth in MWC'17.
The purpose of the demo was to demonstrate the integration of the SDN agent. For this purpose the 5G-XHaul
SDN controller, based on OpenDayLight, was installed in a laptop, and the SDN agent was deployed in two
60 GHz devices forming a point-to-point (P2P) link. The choice of the simplistic P2P topology was driven by
the limited space available in the booth.
The SDN feature that was demonstrated in the event was the automatic topology discovery. For this purpose
the controller dashboard depicted the P2P topology. However, when someone would wave his hand over the
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60 GHz link, the link was breaking due to the high penetration losses of the 60 GHz signal through the human
body and the controller was depicting a link break in the topology.
In addition, the demo also illustrated the performance of the BWT Lightning platform with throughput of around
1 Gb/s.
Figure 2-17: MWC 2017 demo setup.
The 5G-XHaul partner Airrays (AIR) attended the Mobile World Congress 2017 with a functional demo of a
massive MIMO radio unit prototype. The AIR radio unit on display featured 96 transceiver in a 12x4 cross-
polarised configuration. This proof-of-concept radio unit is designed for operation at 2.6 GHz in FDD (Band 7.
Conducted transmission of a 256 QAM downlink signal was shown on one of the 96 transmit paths.
The purpose of this activity was to present the proof-of-concept platform to potential customers and gather
feedback on key parameters such as transmit power, steering ranges, number of simultaneous beams, etc.
that are relevant for a perspective productisation.
The radio unit was showcased at the company Booth 7C17 of Amphenol Antenna Solutions, which is a co-
operation partner of AIR for development of this platform. Figure 2-18 shows the radio unit demonstration with
the acknowledgement of the Horizon 2020 program and the 5G-XHaul project.
Figure 2-18: AIR Massive MIMO Radio unit demo at MWC 2017.
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2.2.3.3 5G-XHaul @ OFC 2017
5G-XHaul contributes to OFC 2017 with a symposium organized by Dr. Anna Tzanakaki, University of Bristol,
UK, with title “What is Driving 5G, and How Can Optics Help?,” will be held in the framework of OFC 2017 on
Wednesday, March 21st 2017.
The symposium includes two talks related to the EU H2020 5G-PPP project 5G-XHaul, one to be given by
Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, University of Bristol, UK, on “Coordinated Fibre and 5G Technologies Transforming
Smart Cities”, and a second one, given by Dr Jim Zou, ADVA, Germany, on “Optical Fronthauling for 5G
Mobile: A Perspective of Passive Metro WDM Technology”. More information on the Symposium can be found
at: http://www.ofcconference.org/en-us/home/program-speakers/symposium/
2.2.3.4 mmMagic’s 5G RAN Architecture and Integration Workshop
The 5G-XHaul partner Airrays and, more concretely, its CTO Dr. Volker Aue, took part in the 5G RAN Archi-
tecture Workshop on March 30th 2017 in London, UK. The event was organised by the 5G-PPP Phase-1 project
mmMagic (link). Dr. Aue presented “RAN Architecture for Massive MIMO”. The presentation can be accessed
via https://bscw.5g-mmmagic.eu/pub/bscw.cgi/191166.
2.2.3.5 Eurocon 2017
Prof. Eckhard Grass (IHP) was a Plenary Speaker at the IEEE EUROCON 2017 Conference (http://euro-
con2017.org/) in Ohrid, Macedonia, with the presentation “5G Mobile Networks: Implications for Operators,
Verticals and End Users”. Eckhard and Jim Zou (ADVA) chaired as well the special thematic area STA-6, on
“Ultra High Speed Wireless and Optical Technologies for 5G” (link).
2.2.3.6 5G Summit Brooklyn
As it happened the year before, 5G-XHaul was present at the 5G Summit in Brooklyn with a poster. The poster
reflects the work carried out on the wireless/mmWave side up to 2017, focusing on measurements at 60 GHz.
The poster is shown in Figure 2-19.
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Figure 2-19: 5G-XHaul poster at 5G Summit Brooklyn in 2017.
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2.2.3.7 5G-XHaul @ EuCNC 2017
As every year, 5G-XHaul targeted one of the most important events on 5G across Europe. This year, EuCNC
took place in the city of Oulu (Finland). Given that the 5G-XHaul integration activities had already started and
some of the partners could bring joint demos, we thought about EuCNC as the best possible showcase. As
well, it was one of our main venues to submit publications. The project got accepted four (4) publications:
D. Giatsios, K. Choumas, P. Flegkas, T. Korakis and D. Camps-Mur, "SDN implementation of slicing
and fast failover in 5G transport networks," 2017 European Conference on Networks and
Communications (EuCNC), Oulu, 2017, pp. 1-6.
V. Kalokidou, T. Pelham, M. Beach, P. Legg and A. Lunness, "Link performance evaluation for mm-
Wave systems," 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Oulu,
2017, pp. 1-5.
Demirkol, D. Camps-Mur, J. Bartelt and Jim Zou, "5G transport network blueprint and dimensioning
for a dense urban scenario," 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications
(EuCNC), Oulu, 2017, pp. 1-6.
J. K. Chaudhary, J. Bartelt and G. Fettweis, "Statistical multiplexing in fronthaul-constrained massive
MIMO," 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Oulu, 2017, pp. 1-
6.
As happened the year before, and given the well-received comments from the previous edition, the 5G-XHaul
consortium teamed up once more with the projects iCIRRUS and 5G-CROSSHAUL on a new edition of the x-
haul workshop. This year the title was “New x-haul solutions for the 5G transport challenge – A joint Workshop
of the iCIRRUS, 5G-Crosshaul and 5G-XHaul projects”. In this workshop, we addressed the current issue of
future Radio Access Networks (RAN) being calling for transport networks with unprecedented flexibility and
performance. The stringent requirements on bandwidth, latency, and timing, as well as the mandatory support
of heterogeneous technologies and different functional splits, create the necessity for next-generation x-haul
solutions.
The workshop spanned for half a day and, as was already done the previous year, is a joint effort of the projects
iCIRRUS, 5G-Crosshaul and 5G-XHaul, and discussed 5G transport challenges and new solutions being cur-
rently developed by these Horizon 2020 projects. The Agenda of the workshop in is accessible via (link).
The workshop consisted of two sessions, entitled ‘Architectures and Implementation’ and ‘Testbeds and Trials’
respectively. The former explored different architectural solutions for specific layers. The topics encompassed
from infrastructure layer on optical and Ethernet technologies, to network virtualization and application-level
architectural aspects. The latter, focused on projects’ demonstration work, described the different testbeds
each project is developing, also including validation of the technologies and their implementations.
Part of these contributions were showcased remotely and/or live at the EuCNC booths of the three projects.
The photos below were taken during the workshop.
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Figure 2-20: Photos from the EuCNC 2017 Workshop nº 8.
5G-XHaul Exhibitor
5G-XHaul participated also as an exhibitor in EuCNC 2017, having a booth showcasing most of the technolo-
gies developed within the project [4]. More specifically three demos were shown: a) a fronthaul demo integrat-
ing a Massive MIMO RU and a BBU by AIR, WDM-PON by ADVA and a UE receiver by TUD, b) mmWave
nodes by BWT and c) a SDN control plane demo for supporting live VNF migration and slicing which has been
remotely executed at the NITOS testbed located in University of Thessaly. The demos are described in more
detail in the following subsection.
Fronthaul Demo – ADVA, AIR, TUD
The fronthaul link between the baseband unit (BBU) and the remote radio head (RRH) is based on the wave-
length-agnostic WDM-PON system from ADVA, and the BBU and RRH comes from TUD and AIR, respectively.
This live demo showcased a successful joint integration of BBU, WDM-PON and massive-MIMO RRH. The
setup is depicted in Figure 2-21.
Figure 2-21: Demo setup of integrating BBU, WDM fronthaul and massive-MIMO RRH.
The setup consisted of TUD’s BBU connected to the AIR’s massive-MIMO RRH over the ADVA’s WDM-PON
transport link, and TUD’s USRP served as a UE receiver after the RRH. We demonstrated a cellular downlink,
where the BBU generated I/Q samples from 64QAM constellation, which were then mapped onto the LTE
subcarriers spanning over a bandwidth of 20 MHz. These IQ samples were then forwarded via the WDM
fronthaul to the RRH by employing the CPRI protocol.
The transponder received the CPRI streams from the BBU at grey wavelength, and converted them onto the
DWDM wavelengths with 100 GHz spacing, which were later multiplexed into a single optical fibre. In the
demo. We used two C-band 10G SFP+s in the transponder to carry two independent CPRI streams at two
different wavelengths. After demultiplexing at the remote node, two ONUs received the individual CPRI stream
CPRI over WDMADVA
Baseband unit(I/Q samples)
AIR
RF cable
RRH
AIR
UE receiver
TUD
Colored
DWDM
Tra
nsp
on
der
λ-agnostic
DWDM
ONU
…
ONU
…
CPRI
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and converted the DWDM wavelength back to the grey one, feeding to one of the available optical ports of the
RRH. The RRH supports 8 x 8 antennas and incorporates Split A. For the uplink, each ONU used a tuneable
10G SFP+, of which the uplink wavelength differed from the downlink wavelength, yet still in the C-band.
Therefore, the upstreams were also transmitted over the same trunk fibre. As proof of concept, we used an-
other two spare paired ports of the transponder to emulate the ONU functionality.
The RRH recovered the LTE signal from the CPRI frames and performed antenna processing before up-con-
verting the signal to the carrier frequency 3.55 GHz. The radio signal was then sent to the antenna elements.
In reality, the radio signal is transmitted wirelessly to the UE; however, in this demo we refrained from radiating
the signal over the air due to licensing issues and hence we employed an RF cable to feed the signal to the
UE.
Figure 2-22 shows the 5G-XHaul demonstration team at the booth, and the visit of our EC Project Officer, Ari
Sorsaniemi, to our booth. More details including test results can be found in deliverable D5.2 [12].
The autonomous wavelength adaptation of remote ONUs was also demonstrated in a video clip (available
online in the 5G-XHaul YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4PC2rCcnc0). This was a lat-
est implementation by employing the VCSEL laser technology.
a)
b)
Figure 2-22: a) 5G-XHaul demonstration team, b) visit from EC Project Officers.
mmWave nodes demo – BWT
The following test configuration was used at EuCNC 2017 to demonstrate high speed data transfer over a
millimetre wave using BWT Lightning modules. Figure 2-23 sketches the setup for the demonstrations.
Figure 2-23: Test configuration.
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Two tests were run:
1. File transfer from the remote Lightning to the local Lightning. a. Result: data transfer approximately 1 Gb/s.
2. VLC video stream from remote Lightning to the local Lightning (see Figure 2-24). a. Result: video running on laptop (rate 30 Mb/s).
When the beam is interrupted by a hand, the file transfer or video playback stalls (there is a few second delay
because of the depth of the playout buffer). Removing the blocker leads to a restart of the file transfer or video
playback.
Figure 2-24: Video stream over mmWave link.
VNF migration and slicing – UTH, I2CAT
In this demo, we showcased the operation of the 5G-XHaul SDN control plane in order to support seamless
VNF migration and transport network slicing in order to satisfy the tenant and operator requirements. The demo
was remotely executed at the NITOS testbed [4] from the EuCNC booth.
Our demonstration started with two UDP streams, which are initiated from VNF :02 to VNF :04 and from VNF
:02 to VNF :05 as depicted in Figure 2-25. The two streams feature throughput requirements that are 5 Mb/s
and 30 Mb/s respectively. The tenant who owns the VNFs (the ‘blue’ tenant) is flexible on the location of the
VNFs, enabling their placement in the ETNs that are connected with the less loaded tunnels. Thus, the or-
chestrator decides to place VNF :02 at ETN1, VNF :04 at ETN2 and VNF :05 at ETN3, since ETN1 is connected
with ETN2 and ETN3 through tunnels that have capacities almost 10 Mbps and 50 Mb/s respectively.
Then, a new tenant (the ‘purple’ tenant) brings its VNFs, VNF :01 and VNF :03, and requires these VNFs to
be placed at ETN1 and ETN2 respectively. The purple tenant also requires the two VNFs to be able to stream
each other with throughput of 8 Mbps1. This new event forces the orchestrator to relocate some of the VNFs
of the blue tenant, in order to be able to satisfy both the blue and purple tenants. As it is obvious from the
network topology (Figure 2-25), the only solution is to live migrate the VNF :04 of the blue tenant from ETN2
to ETN3. Live migration means that VNF will be transferred from the one ETN to the other, with its state and
1 Notice that this traffic is scaled down to adapt to the capabilities of the testbed, since the main purpose of these experiments is to validate control plane functionalities. The interested reader is referred to D5.2 for an evaluation of the data-plane capabilities of the technologies developed in 5G-XHaul.
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all network connections. After the migration takes place the SDN area controller configures the forwarding
tables at ETN1so that traffic follows the path to the new location of VNF :04 at ETN3.
Figure 2-25: VNF migration Demo.
The demo has also been captured in a video available in the 5G-XHaul YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkLF-KXWN2w
A poster has also been shown at the booth that describes the demo, shown in Figure 2-26.
An additional poster on the 5G-XHaul transceiver solution was also part of the booth (see Figure 2-27).
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Figure 2-26: Poster for the VNF migration Demo.
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Figure 2-27: Poster of the 5G-XHaul transceiver solution.
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2.2.3.8 5G-XHaul @ IWCMC 2017
5G-XHaul took part in the International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC
2017), which took place in Valencia, Spain, on June 26-30 2017. Our Technical Manager, Daniel Camps-Mur
(i2CAT) gave an overview of the 5G-XHaul project, highlighting the results obtained in its second year. The
slides can be accessible via slides.
2.2.3.9 5G-XHaul @ ECOC 2017
5G-XHaul contributed to the 43rd European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), held in Gothen-
burg, Sweden on September 17th 2017 (http://ecoc2017.org/programme/invited-papers/).
With the advent of 5G new capacity trends are imposed on both the telecommunication and data communica-
tion networks. Many of the services that the 5G network delivers to user premises have stringent requirements.
Reconfigurability features, provided by WDM technologies, can further increase fronthaul transport efficiency.
Dr. Michael Eiselt (ADVA) gave a presentation on the wavelength-agnostic passive WDM technology which is
being extensively developed in our 5G-XHaul project.
As well, Koteswararao Kondepu (University of Bristol) showed the Next Generation Elastic BH/FH networks
(see Figure 2-28).
Figure 2-28: Koteswararao Kondepu (UNIVBRIS-HPN) introducing the next generation elastic net-works proposed by 5G-XHaul.
2.2.4 Year 2018
In the last year of 5G-XHaul we focus our attention on the dissemination activities within the first three months
of the project, given the amount of work to be carried out related to the final demonstration in June.
2.2.4.1 5G-XHaul Workshop in Dresden
5G-XHaul organised a Workshop at the Vodafone Chair premises in Dresden, Germany on February 8th (see
Figure 2-29). The consortium had the chance of visiting the 5G Lab Germany (https://5glab.de/). There were
different talks given by the Vodafone Chair colleagues and many interactions took place in topics such as
tactile internet, SDN/NFV and 5G mmWave prototyping, among others.
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Figure 2-29: 5G-XHaul Workshop organised in the 5G Lab Germany in Dresden.
2.2.4.2 Mobile World Congress 2018
5G-XHaul had an important presence in Mobile World Congress 2018. The project was selected by the 5G-PPP as the Phase-1 project which potentially could bring a demo to the MWCapital stand at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018.
5G-XHaul partners I2CAT and Blu Wireless Technology proposed the demo depicted in Figure 2-30.
Figure 2-30: Potential 5G-XHaul demo to be showcased at MWC 2018.
The 5G-XHaul partners Blu Wireless Technology (BWT) and i2CAT were named as "Key Innovators" within
the H2020 Programme. The innovation entitled "Millimeter wave wireless mesh networking 802.11ad technol-
ogy and wireless SDN", presented as a candidate for demonstration at Mobile World Congress 2018 has been
rewarded with this acknowledgment. Find more details in (http://www.bluwirelesstechnology.com/blu-wireless-
technology-named-key-innovators-european-commissions-innovation-radar-platform/) and in (https://www.in-
noradar.eu/innovation/19669).
5G-XHaul at MWCapital stand
5G-XHaul presented at the MWCapital Stand a video describing the 5G-XHaul concept, expected outcomes,
technologies, and demonstration activities to be finalised in 2018. The video can be accessed in YouTube via
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anoePN__otU
Additionally, 5G-XHaul gave a presentation at the stand informing the audience on the current status of the
project, the technologies being developed (some of them showcased at the MWC 2018, see Figure 2-31), and
the demonstration plans for 2018, including the final demonstration event to be held in Bristol.
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Figure 2-31: 5G-XHaul technologies at MWC 2018.
Figure 2-33 and Figure 2-34 show photos of the 5G-XHaul presentation at the MWCapital booth, given by our
WP6 leader, Dr. Paris Flegkas (UTH), and by our TM, Dr. Daniel Camps-Mur (i2CAT).
Figure 2-32: 5G-XHaul colleagues explaining 5G-XHaul to RAN-related people.
Wireless Technologies Optical Technologies
Massive MIMOarray
mmWave Wireless SDN node
Sub-6 WirelessSDN node
mmWave AnalogFront-End
WDM-PON OLT
WDM-PON ONU
TSON node
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Figure 2-33: Dr. Paris Flegkas (UTH), WP6 leader, presenting the demo activities to be carried out in Bristol.
Figure 2-34: Dr. Daniel Camps (I2CAT), 5G-XHaul TM, presenting 5G-XHaul technologies.
5G-XHaul was as well present in the 5G-IA booth with a leaflet, which is presented in Figure 2-35. As well, 5G-XHaul was included in the 5G-PPP leaflet for MWC 2018 (Figure 2-36).
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Figure 2-35: 5G-XHaul leaflet at 5G-IA booth.
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Figure 2-36: 5G-XHaul Project in the 5G-PPP leaflet for MWC 2018.
5G-XHaul was as well present in some individual stands from other partners. One example is the 5G-XHaul
interactive experience one could get at ADVA Optical Networking stand, which can be seen in Figure 2-37.
Figure 2-37: Dr. Jim Zou (ADVA) guiding the visitors into 5G-XHaul experience and involvement of ADVA in the project.
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2.2.4.3 ONDM 2018
5G-XHaul contributed to the Workshop "Optical technologies in the 5G era" at ONDM 2018 with a presen-tation entitled "Impact of 5G RAN Architecture in Transport Networks". Find more details in (https://ondm2018.scss.tcd.ie/optical-technologies-in-the-5g-era/). The slides can be accessed via Slides
2.2.4.4 EuCNC 2018
5G-XHaul will have a small contribution in EuCNC 2018 given the preparation of the Final Demo in Bristol. In 2018 5G-XHaul has published 2 papers:
Maja Curic, Zoran Despotovic, Artur Hecker, Georg Carle, “Transactional Network Updates in SDN”.
Peter Legg and Ray McConnell, “Meshed Backhauling of Small Cells Using IEEE802.11ad at
60GHz”.
Figure 2-38: Dr. Peter Legg (BWT) presenting his paper on meshed backhauling.
2.3 5G-XHaul Final Demo
On June 27th 2018, the 5G-XHaul consortium organized in Bristol, UK, the 5G-XHaul final demonstration event, hosted by the University of Bristol. The event was attended by around 35 people, including the 5G-XHaul European Commission Project Officer, Ari Sorsaniemi; three of the experts that monitor and evaluate the pro-ject’s outcomes and impact; part of the Phase-2 5G-PICTURE consortium; as well as additional invitees from other 5G-PPP Phase 2 projects and representatives from local industry.
5G-XHaul presented a converged optical and wireless network solution offering both fronthaul (FH) and back-haul (BH) services. This converged infrastructure is controlled by the flexible and scalable 5G-XHaul control
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plane. The combination of these technologies make the overall solution able to jointly support end-user and operational services.
To enable these novel concepts, the 5G-XHaul consortium developed:
1. A novel data plane architecture integrating together a variety of heterogeneous wireless and optical
technologies and the required data plane interfaces across domains.
2. High throughput and low-cost wireless BH technologies including mmWave and Sub-6 technologies.
3. A hybrid optical transport network integrating active and passive technologies. These include: the
Time Shared Optical Network, supporting elastic and fine bandwidth allocation, and Passive optical
networks adopting wavelength division multiplexing for increased capacity.
4. A flexible and scalable control plane relying on the software defined networking architectural model
that controls both wireless and optical technologies.
The event comprised two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The first session took place at Engineers’ House (Figure 2-39), involving a series of presentations from the consortium on:
1. 5G-XHaul introduction and Objectives.
2. Project Achievements.
3. Demonstration activities.
Figure 2-39: 5G-XHaul session @ Engineers’ House.
Right after the morning session finished, we wanted to capture the moment and the whole group took a photo (Figure 2-40):
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Figure 2-40: Photo taken at the end of the morning session in Engineers’ House.
After the morning session, we divided the whole group in two for taking part in the demo showcasing outdoors. The second session involved the visit of the different sites (2) where the 5G-XHaul equipment was incorporated to the existing Bristol is Open (BIO) network infrastructure. Figure 2-41 shows a 3D map where the 5G-XHaul technology has been deployed in the city of Bristol.
Our first visit was to MShed (lower part of Figure 2-41) to then continue across the city of Bristol contemplating the 5G-XHaul deployment, and finally arrive to the High Performance Networks (HPN) laboratory at the Mer-chant Venturers Building (top left of Figure 2-41).
Figure 2-41: 3D Overview of the deployment of 5G-XHaul technology across the city of Bristol. Courtesy: Google Earth.
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This final demonstration aims to showcase the overall 5G-XHaul architecture and perform integration of the novel optical and wireless technologies. In addition, it aims to verify the control plane features and evaluate the end-to-end performance in a real network environment. The specific functionalities that will be shown in-clude:
a converged infrastructure supporting jointly FH and BH services,
transport network slicing creating independent and isolated networks across the common
infrastructure, and
the use of SDN control to enable automatic recovery from failures.
More details on the demo will be provided in deliverable D5.3 [8].
Some of the partners within the consortium have echoed this final demonstration event in several press re-
leases (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/research/smart/news/2018/5gxhaulsmartlab.html) and
(https://www.ihp-microelectronics.com/en/infocenter/news-center/press-releases/article/three-years-re-
search-on-next-generation-of-mobile-communication-5g-sucessfully-finished.html).
Figure 2-42 and Figure 2-43 are graphical examples of these press releases.
Figure 2-42: Example of Press release from University of Bristol.
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Figure 2-43: Example of Press Release from IHP.
2.4 5G-XHaul video of the final demonstration event
Taking advantage of the presence of a considerable part of the 5G-XHaul consortium in the city of Bristol for
the 5G-XHaul Project Conclusion event, the host of the event, the University of Bristol, organised a video
footage where the coordination and technical coordination team would contribute, together with the people
involved in the demonstration activity. Two footages were generated, with different duration, where the main
5G-XHaul outcomes and benefits are captured.
The video(s) can be accessed via the 5G-XHaul YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAS2s-OsC4&t=4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BwoIpn9JJI&t=10s
2.5 Impact
5G-XHaul has achieved a relevant impact within the 5G-PPP and 5G community in Europe. In this section we
present some quantitative numbers which prove our commitment towards the 5G-PPP framework and the
European Commission itself.
One important achievement, which verifies that the direction the project has been guided to is the right one,
and that the developments are in line with 5G research and development in Europe, is the “continuation” of
the work in a 5G-PPP Phase-2 project. This project, 5G-PICTURE, currently builds up on the 5G-XHaul de-
velopments, and guarantees that these developments will be further extended to support extensive demon-
strations of various use cases for both the ICT, but also vertical industries in support of the long term 5G vision.
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2.5.1 5G-XHaul Web Page
The 5G-XHaul project website [10] has been one of the key dissemination and communication channels within
the project. It was set up on September 2015, and the statistics from then on are shown below, and represented
in Figure 2-44:
101108 visits.
199,981 page view (impressions).
Figure 2-44: 5G-XHaul Website statistics (Sept 2015 – June 2018).
We can observe from the figure that the number of visits in average is around 3000 visits per month, and the
number of page views is around 6000.
2.5.2 Social Media - Twitter
5G-XHaul set up a Twitter account on November 2015. The project has improved not only its presence in Twitter throughout the duration of the project, as shown in Table 2-1, but also in proactivity and quality of the content provided.
The 5G-XHaul Twitter has got almost 8,000 profile visits, more than 55,000 impressions, 93 tweets published,
and 409 followers.
Table 2-1: Twitter performance over the duration of the project.
Overall Results
Year 2015 2016 2017 2018
Followers 26 68 244 409
Total impressions 474 4268 16122 30431
Total Profile visits - - - 7634
02000400060008000
10000120001400016000
1800020000
Sep
-15
No
v-1
5
Jan
-16
Mar
-16
May
-16
Jul-
16
Sep
-16
No
v-1
6
Jan
-17
Mar
-17
May
-17
Jul-
17
Sep
-17
No
v-1
7
Jan
-18
Mar
-18
May
-18
Visits Page views
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2.5.3 Scientific Impacts
5G-XHaul, during the three years of duration of the project, has contributed with many presentations and pub-
lications, complying with what was targeted in the DoW.
The project has contributed with a total of:
44 presentations in 5G / 5G-related events (see Table 2-2 for more details).
47 publications in Conferences (see Table 2-3 for more details).
9 publications in Journals/Magazines (see Table 2-4 for more details).
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Table 2-2: 5G-XHaul presentations at conferences and workshops.
Event Date Location Type of
contribution Title
Author(s) / Presenter
Partner Status Related WP(s)
1 EuCNC July 1, 2015 Paris (France) Project Presentation Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless
Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs
E. Grass, J. Gutiérrez, [ALL] /
E. Grass
IHP - [ALL] Presented 1
2 TOUCAN SDN Workshop Sept 10,
2015 Bristol (UK) Project Presentation
Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane
for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs D. Camps I2CAT Presented 1
3
METIS II Workshop on “Scenarios, Requirements, Perfor-mance Evaluation, Spectrum and
RAN Design Assumptions”
Sept 28, 2015
Stockholm (Sweden)
Presentation 5G-XHaul Overview, Scenarios and Use Cases D. Camps I2CAT Presented 2
4
METIS II Workshop on “Scenarios, Requirements, Perfor-mance Evaluation, Spectrum and
RAN Design Assumptions”
Sept 28, 2015
Stockholm (Sweden)
Presentation 5G-XHaul Spectrum Assumptions J. Gutiérrez IHP Presented 2
5 Combo Workshop at CTTE 2015 Nov 11, 2015 Munich
(Germany) Presentation
Views on Access/Aggregation Convergence using Heterogeneous (Optical/Wireless) Network Seg-
ments
E. Pateromichelakis
HWDU Presented 2
6 Tweether Project Workshop Nov 20, 2015 Valencia (Spain)
Presentation 5G-XHaul - Introduction and mmWave work D. Camps I2CAT Presented 2
7 mmMagic Project Technical
Meeting Dec 1, 2015
Munich (Germany)
Presentation 5G-XHaul - Introduction and mmWave work E. Grass IHP Presented 2
8 RAN Design Valencia Jan 21-22,
2016 Valencia (Spain)
Presentation Data rate and timing requirements on 5G
Transport networks V. Kalokidou UNIVBRIS-CSN Presented 2, 4
9 RAN Design Valencia Jan 21-22,
2016 Valencia (Spain)
Presentation Millimeter-Wave Signal Processing V. Kalokidou UNIVBRIS-CSN Presented 2, 4
10 Networld2020 General Assembly Apr 19, 2016 Brussels (Belgium)
Presentation Transport Requirements of 5G Networks J. Bartelt TUD Presented 2
11 ICC 2016 May, 25 Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia) Presentation
5G Infrastructures Supporting End-User and Op-erational Services: The 5G-XHaul Architectural
Perspective D. Camps i2CAT Presented 2
12 ICC 2016 May 25, 2016 Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia) Panel
5G Architecture Panel (organized by 5G-PPP)
D. Camps i2CAT Presented 2
13 ICC 2016 May 25, 2016 Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia) Panel
5G Architecture Workshop (organized by 5G NORMA)
D. Camps i2CAT Presented 2
14 EuCNC 2016 June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) Presentation
5G-XHaul: Flexible Functional Splits and Network Virtualization for 5G Transport
D. Camps i2CAT Presented 2
15 EuCNC 2016 June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) Presentation Optical transport for 5G in Bristol is Open A. Tzanakaki UNIVBRIS-HPN Presented 2, 4
16 EuCNC 2016 June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) Panel Towards Converged X-Haul for 5G Networks A. Tzanakaki UNIVBRIS-HPN Presented 2, 4
17 EuCNC 2016 June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) Presentation 5G-XHaul: Trends in mobile networks K. Filis COS Presented 2
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18 ISWCS 2016 Sept. 22,
2016 Poznan (Po-
land) Panel
Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane
for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs J. Gutiérrez IHP Presented 1, 2, 4
19 European Microwave Week 2016 Oct. 2016 London (UK) Presentation Modular 60-GHz Beamforming Transceiver in
130-nm BiCMOS for Scalable 5G Backhaul Solu-tions
A. Malignaggi. IHP Presented 4
20 INFOCOM 2016 Nov-2016 Athens
(Greece) Presentation
5G-XHaul – Dynamic Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul / Fronthaul for 5G Small Cells
and Cloud-RANs K. Filis COS Presented 2
21 IEEE Berlin 5G Summit Nov 2, 2016 Berlin (Ger-
many) Presentation
A Reality Check: What “Phase 1” 5G Will Look Like – and What Will Be Next
R. Trivisonno HWDU Presented 2
22 IUCC 2016 (En2ESO Workshop) Dec-16 Granada (Spain)
Presentation 5G-XHaul: Enabling scalable virtualisation for fu-
ture 5G Transport Networks D. Camps-Mur I2CAT Presented 3
23 3rd Cross 5G PPP Workshop Feb 6th-7th,
2017 Athens
(Greece) Presentation Use cases, models & performance K. Filis COS Presented 2
24 3rd Cross 5G PPP Workshop Feb 6th-7th,
2017 Athens
(Greece) Presentation 5G-XHaul approach on Network Slicing P. Flegkas UTH Presented 3
25 OFC 2017 March 11-15,
2017 San Diego, CA
(US) Symposium Organi-
sation What is Driving 5G, and How Can Optics Help? A. Tzanakaki UNIVBRIS-HPN Organised 2, 4
26 OFC 2017 March 11-15,
2017 San Diego, CA
(US) Presentation
Coordinated Fibre and 5G Technologies Trans-forming Smart Cities
D. Simeonidou UNIVBRIS-HPN Presented 2, 4, 5
27 OFC 2017 March 11-15,
2017 San Diego, CA
(US) Presentation
Optical fronthauling for 5G mobile: A perspective of passive metro WDM technology
J. Zou ADVA Presented 4
28 5G PPP Workshop on 5G Archi-
tecture and RAN Integration March 30-31,
2017 London (UK) Presentation 5G RAN Architecture for MMIMO V. Aue AIR Presented 4
29 The Brooklyn 5G Summit April 19-21 Brooklyn – NY
(US) Poster
Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane
for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs M. Beach UNIVBRIS-CSN Presented 2, 4
30 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Workshop Organi-
sation
New x-haul solutions for the 5G transport chal-lenge – A joint workshop of the iCIRRUS, 5G-
Crosshaul and 5G-XHaul projects J.-P. Elbers ADVA Organised 2, 3, 4, 5
31 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Presentation 5G Transport Network Blueprint and Dimension-
ing for a Dense Urban Scenario D. Camps-Mur I2CAT Presented 2, 4
32 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Presentation Statistical Multiplexing in Fronthaul-Constrained
Massive MIMO J. K. Chaudhary TUD Presented 4
33 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Presentation Link Performance Evaluation for mmWave Sys-
tems P. Legg BWT Presented 4
34 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Presentation SDN Implementation of Slicing and Fast Failover
in 5G Transport Networks P. Flegkas UTH Presented 3
35 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15 Oulu (Finland) Presentation Innovative 5G Transport Network Technologies
and Architectures K. Filis COS Presented 2
36 IEEE5G Summit July 11, 2017 Thessaloniki,
Greece Presentation
5G-XHaul: A wireless-optical transport network with SDN control for converged fronthaul and
backhaul services in 5G A. Tzanakaki UNIVBRIS-HPN Presented 2, 4
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37 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15,
2017 Oulu (Finland)
Workshop Presenta-tion
Low-Cost Passive WDM Technology for High-Ca-pacity Mobile Fronthaul
Jim Zou ADVA Presented 4
38 EuCNC 2017 June 12-15,
2017 Oulu (Finland)
Workshop Presenta-tion
Demonstrating 5G-XHaul in the BIO testbed D. Camps I2CAT Presented 5
39 Breitbandversorgung in Deutsch-
land March 29-30,
2017 Berlin (Ger-
many) Presentation
Full C-band Tunable MEMS-VCSEL for Mobile Front- and Backhaul
J. Zou ADVA Presented 4
40 ITG Fachtagung Photonische
Netze
May 11-12,
2017
Leipzig (Ger-
many) Presentation
Direct Digital Modulated Message Channel for
Passive Metro WDM Systems M. Lawin ADVA Presented 4
41 NetFPGA Developer Summit
2017 April 20-21
Cambridge (UK)
Presentation Programmable Optical Backhaul and Fronthaul
Networks K. Kondepu UNIVBRIS-HPN Presented 4, 5
42 OSA Advanced Photonic Con-
gress July 24-27,
2017 New Orleans
(US) Presentation Optical Technologies in support of 5G M. Eiselt ADVA Presented 4
43 IWCMC 2017 Jun-17 Valencia (Spain)
Presentation 5G-Xhaul D. Camps i2CAT Presented 2
44 ONDM 2018 May-18 Dublin (Ireland) Presentation Impact of 5G RAN Architecture in Transport Net-
works D. Camps i2CAT Presented 3
Table 2-3: Conference publications.
Event Date Location Title Author(s) Partner Related
WP
1 EuCNC July 1st,
2015 Paris
(France) EuCNC [all] Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul
with Cognitive Control Plane for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs Eckhard Grass et al.
IHP [ALL]
1
2 ICC 2016 March 13-14, 2016
Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia)
5G Infrastructures Supporting End-User and Operational Services: The 5G-XHaul Architectural Perspective
Anna Tzanakaki et al. UNIVBRIS-
HPN 2
3 Infocom2016 April 10-15,
2016
San Francisco
(USA) Caching and Operator Cooperation Policies for Layered Video Content Delivery ..., Iordanis Koutsopoulos, ... UTH 3
4 EuCNC June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) On the benefits of wireless SDN in networks of constrained edge devices ..., ..., Daniel Camps i2CAT 3
5 EuCNC June 27,
2016 Athens
(Greece) Optical transport for 5G in Bristol is Open Anna Tzanakaki, et. al
UNIVBRIS-HPN
2
6 EWSDN
2016
October 10th-11th,
2016
The Hague (Nederlands)
Dynamic Flow Rules in Software Defined Networks Qing Wei et al. HWDU 3
5G-XHaul Deliverable
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7 IUCC-2016 En2ESO
Workshop
December 14, 2016
Granada (Spain)
5G-XHaul: Enabling scalable virtualization for future 5G Transport Networks Daniel Camps et al. i2CAT 3
8 IUCC-2016 Dec. 14-16,
2016 Granada (Spain)
5G-XHaul: Enabling scalable virtualisation for future 5G Transport Networks D. Camps-Mur I2CAT 3
9 VTC spring June 4-7,
2017 Sydney (Aus-
tralia) Application of Non-orthogonal Multiplexing to mmWave Multi-user Systems
We. Yuan, V. Kalokidou, … , A. Doufexi
UNIVBRIS-CSN
4
10 OFC 2017 March 19-23, 2017
Los Angeles (USA)
Full C-band Tunable MEMS-VCSEL for Next Generation G.metro Mobile Front- and Backhauling
..., Jim Zou, ... , Michael Eiselt, ...
ADVA 4
11 ICC 2017 May 21-25,
2017 Paris
(France) Slice-Adaptive Local Routing and Scheduling in millimeter-Wave Backhaul / Ac-
cess Networks E. Pateromichelakis, Q. Wei,
P. Spapis HWDU 3,4
12 ICC 2017 May 21-25,
2017 Paris
(France) Optimal Functional Split Selection and Scheduling I. Koutsopoulos UTH 2, 4
13 ICC 2017 May 21-25,
2017 Paris
(France) Joint Optimisation of Path Selection and Link Scheduling for Millimeter Wave
Transport Networks D. Huerfano, I. Demirkol, P.
Legg I2CAT-UPC 3
14 COST Meet-
ing 2017 Feb 2017
Lisbon (Por-tugal)
Link Performance Evaluation and Channel Propagation for mmWave Systems V. Kalokidou UNIVBRIS-
CSN
15 WSA 2017 Mar-17 Berlin (Ger-
many) On Shortening the Effective mmWave MIMO Channel Impulse Response
N. Vucic, M. Iwanow, M. H. Castañeda, J. Luo, and W.
Xu HWDU 4
16 EuCNC 2017 12-15 June
2017 Oulu (Fin-
land) 5G Transport Network Blueprint and Its Requirement Analysis for Dense Urban
Scenarios I. Demirkol, D.Camps-Mur, J.
Bartelt, J. Zou I2CAT-UPC 2
17 EuCNC 2017 12-15 June
2017 Oulu (Fin-
land) Statistical Multiplexing in Fronthaul-Constrained Massive MIMO
J. K. Chaudhary, J. Bartelt and G. Fettweis
TUD 4
18 EuCNC 2017 12-15 June
2017 Oulu (Fin-
land) Link Performance Evaluation for mmWave Systems
V. Kalokidou, T. Pelham, M. Beach, P. Legg and A. Lun-
ness
UNIVBRIS-CSN, BWT
4
19 EuCNC 2017 12-15 June
2017 Oulu (Fin-
land) SDN Implementation of Slicing and Fast Failover in 5G Transport Networks
D. Giatsios, K. Choumas, P. Flegkas, T. Korakis,
D. Camps-Mur UTH 3
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20
ITG Fachtagung Photonische
Netze
11,12-05-2017
Leipzig (Ger-many)
Direct Digital Modulated Message Channel for Passive Metro WDM Systems M. Lawin, C. Wagner,
M. Eiselt ADVA 4
21
Breit-bandver-
sorgung in Deutschland
29-30-03-2017
Berlin (Ger-many)
Full C-band Tunable MEMS-VCSEL for Mobile Front- and Backhaul J. Zou et al. ADVA 4
22 IWCMC'17 26-30-06-
2017 Valencia (Spain)
SENSEFUL: an SDN-based Joint Access and Backhaul Coordination for Dense Wi-Fi Small Cells
E. García, … , D. Camps-Mur I2CAT-UPC 3
23 OFC 2017 March 19-23, 2017
Los Angeles (USA)
Optical Fronthauling for 5G Mobile: A Perspective of Passive Metro WDM Tech-nology
Jim Zou, Christoph Wagner, Michael Eiselt
ADVA 2, 4
24 Globecom
2017
December 04-08, 2017
Singapore Slice-tailored Joint Path Selection & Scheduling in mm-Wave Small Cell Dense
Networks E. Pateromichelakis HWDU 3
25 ECOC 2017 17-21 Sep-
tember 2017
Gothenburg Optical Transceivers for Mobile Front-Haul and PON Applications M. Eiselt, J. Zou, M. Lawin,
C. Wagner ADVA 4
26
OSA Ad-vanced Pho-tonic Con-
gress
24-27 July 2017
New Orleans Optical Technologies in support of 5G M. Eiselt, J. Zou, M. Lawin, J-
P. Elbers ADVA 4
27 SPAWC
2017 24-27 July
2017 Hokkaido (Japan)
Data Rate Bound for mmWave Hybrid Beamforming Systems with Subarrays M. Iwanow HWDU 4
28 SPAWC
2017 July 03-06
July Hokkaido (Japan)
On PAPR Characteristics of DFT-s-OFDM with Geometric and Probabilistic Con-stellation Shaping
M Castañeda HWDU 4
29 EuCNC 2017 12-15 June
2017 Oulu (Fin-
land) Innovative 5G Transport Network Technologies and Architectures
G. Lyberopoulos, E. The-odoropoulou, I. Mesogiti and
K. G. Filis COS 2
30 ONDM 2017 May 15-17,
2017 Budapest, Hungary
Optical Networking Interconnecting Disaggregated Compute Resources: An ena-bler of the 5G Vision
A. Tzanakaki, M. P. Anasta-sopoulos, and D. Simeonidou
UNIVBRIS-HPN
2, 4
31 ECOC 2017 September
18-21, 2017
Gothenburgh, Sweden
Optical networking: An important enabler for 5G A. Tzanakaki, M. P. Anasta-
sopoulos, and D. Simeonidou UNIVBRIS-
HPN 2, 4
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32 ECOC 2017 September
18-21, 2017
Gothenburgh, Sweden
Performance Evaluation of Next-Generation Elastic Backhaul with Flexible VCSEL-based WDM Fronthaul
K. Kondepu, J. Zou, A. Beldachi, H. K. Chen, C. Chase, M. Huang, E. Hu-
gues-Salas, J. G. Espin, A. Tzanakaki, R. Nejabati, M.
Eiselt, D. Simeonidou
UNIVBRIS-HPN, ADVA,
BIO 4,5
33 NetFPGA Developer
Summit 2017
April 20-21, 2017
Cambridge, UK
Programmable Optical Backhaul and Fronthaul Networks K. Kondepu UNIVBRIS-
HPN 4, 5
34 OFC 2018 March 11-15, 2018
San Diego, California,
USA Converged Access/Metro Infrastructures for 5G services
A. Tzanakaki, M. P. Anasta-sopoulos, and D. Simeonidou
UNIVBRIS-HPN
2, 4
35 OFC 2018 March 11-15, 2018
San Diego, California,
USA Demonstration of X-Haul Architecture for 5G over Converged SDN Fiber Network
J. Zou, A. Magee, M. Eiselt, A. Straw, T. Edwards, P.
Wright, and A. Lord,
ADVA 5
36 ICC 2018 May 20-24,
2018 Kansas City,
MO, USA Meshed Backhauling of Small Cells Using IEEE802.11ad at 60GHz P. Legg and R. McConnell BWT 4
37 OFC 2018 Mar 11-15,
2018
San Diego, California,
USA Transactional Network Updates in SDN
M. Curic, Z. Despotovic, A. Hecker, G. Carle
HWDU 3
38 EuCNC 2018 June 18-21,
2018 Ljubljana, Slovenia
A Comparison of Shaping Techniques for Wireless Backhaul Channel N. Ul-Hassan, W. Xu, A.
Kakkavas HWDU 4
39 EuCNC 2019 June 18-21,
2018 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Cost Saving Analysis in Capacity-Constrained C-RAN Fronthaul J.K. Chaudhary, J. Zou, G.
Fettweiss TUD, ADVA 4
40 EuCNC 2020 June 18-21,
2018 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Device Localization using mmWave Ranging with Sub-6-assisted Angle of Arrival Estimation
N. Maletic, V. Sark, J. Gutiér-rez, E. Grass
IHP 3, 5
41 PIMRC 2018 Experimental Demonstration of 5G Fronthaul and Backhaul Convergence based
on FPGA-based Active Optical Transport
Beldachi, AF, Salas, EH, Tzanakaki, A, Yan, Y, Nejab-
ati, R and Simeonidou, D.
UNIVBRIS-HPN
5
42 BMSB 2018 June 8-11,
2018 Valencia,
Spain Blind Interference Alignment in multi-cell mmWave access and fronthaul
V. Kalokidou, A. Doufexi, M.Beach
UNIVBRIS-CSN
5
43 ECOC 2018 September
23-27, 2018
Rome, Italy Softwarized LTE Self-Backhauling Solution and Its Evaluation J. Gamboa, I. Demirkol, I2CAT-UPC 4
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44 IEEE VTC FALL 2018
27-29 Aug. 2018
Chicago Software-based Implementation of LTE/Wi-Fi Aggregation and Its Impact on
Higher Layer Protocols D. Ibarra, N. Desai, I.
Demirkol I2CAT-UPC 4
45 WCNC 2018 15-18 Apr,
2018 Barcelona,
Spain Demonstration of X-Haul Architecture for 5G over Converged SDN Fiber Network
J. Zou, A. Magee, M. Eiselt, A. Straw, T. Edwards, P.
Wright, and A. Lord, ADVA 5
46 ICC 2018 May 20-24,
2018 Kansas City,
MO, USA Meshed Backhauling of Small Cells Using IEEE802.11ad at 60GHz P. Legg and R. McConnell BWT 4
47 IEEE
CAMAD 2018
Sept. 17-19, 2018
Barcelona (Spain)
Network Services SLAs over 5G Infrastructure Converging Disaggregated Net-work and Compute Resources
I. Mesogiti, G. Lyberopoulos, E. The-
odoropoulou, K. Filis, R. Cantó Palancar, N. A.
Serrano, D. Camps-Mur, J. Gutiérrez
COS 2
Table 2-4: Published Journal Papers.
Publication Title Author(s) Partner Related WP
1
Transactions on Emerging
Telecommunications Technologies (ETT)
5G-XHaul: A Converged Optical and Wireless Solution for 5G Transport
Networks
Jesus Gutiérrez, Nebojsa Maletic, Daniel Camps-Mur, Eduard García, Ignacio Berberana, Markos Anastasopoulos, Anna Tzanakaki, Vaia
Kalokidou, Paris Flegkas, Dimitris Syrivelis, Thanasis Korakis, Peter Legg, Dusan Markovic, George Limperopoulos, Jens Bartelt, Jay Kant
Chaudhary, Michael Grieger, Nikola Vucic, Jim Zou and Eckhard Grass
IHP WP2
2 EURASIP 5G Transport Network Requirements for the Next Generation Fronthaul Interface
J. Bartelt, N. Vucic, D. Camps-Mur, E. Garcia-Villegas, I. Demirkol, A. Fehske, M. Grieger, A. Tzanakaki, J. Gutiérrez, E. Grass, G. Lyberopou-
los and G. Fettweis TUD WP2
3 IEEE Communications
Magazine
Wireless-Optical Network Convergence Enabling the 5G Architecture to Support
Operational and End-User Services
A. Tzanakaki, M. Anastasopoulos, I. Berberana, D. Syrivelis, P. Flegkas, T. Korakis, D. Camps Mur, I. Demirkol, J. Gutiérrez, E. Grass, Q. Wei, E.
Pateromichelakis, N. Vucic, A. Fehske, M. Grieger, M. Eiselt, J. Bartelt, G. Fettweis, G. Lyberopoulos, E. Theodoropoulou and D. Simeonidou
UNIVBRIS-HPN WP2
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4 IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communica-
tions
Joint Uplink Radio Access and Fronthaul Reception Using MMSE Estimation
Jens Bartelt, Dan Zhang, and Gerhard Fettweis TUD WP4
5 Journal of Lightwave
Technology Impairment Analysis of WDM-PON Based
on Low-Cost Tunable Lasers Christoph Wagner, Michael H. Eiselt, Mirko Lawin, Shihuan Jim Zou, Klaus Grobe, Juan José Vegas Olmos, and Idelfonso Tafur Monroy
ADVA WP4
6 IEEE Communications
Magazine
Some Radio Resource Management As-pects for 5G Millimeter Wave Radio Access
Networks
Yilin Li, Emmanouil Pateromichelakis, Nikola Vucic, Jian Luo, Wen Xu, Giussepe Caire
HWDU WP4
7 IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Video aware Multicast Opportunistic Rout-ing over 802.11 two-hop mesh networks
K. Choumas, I. Syrigos, T. Korakis, L. Tassiulas UTH WP3
8 IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters
26-Gb/s DMT Transmission Using Full C-Band Tunable VCSEL for Converged
PONs
Christoph Wagner, Annika Dochhan, Michael H. Eiselt, Klaus Grobe, Markus Ortsiefer, Christoph Gréus, Christian Neumeyr, Sujoy Paul, Julijan Cesar, Franko Küppers, Juan José Vegas Olmos, Idelfonso Tafur Monroy
ADVA WP4
9 IEEE Journal of
Selected Topics in Signal Processing
Hybrid Beamforming Based on Implicit Channel State Information for Millimeter
Wave Links H-L. Chiang, W. Rave, T. Kadur and G. Fettweis TUD WP4
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Table 2-5 presents a summary of the publications:
Table 2-5: Summary of contributions per year.
5G-XHaul Publications
Year 2015 2016 2017 2018
Conferences 1 6 28 12
Journals 0 1 7 1
Overall Presentations 8 12 23 1
2.5.4 Socio-economic impacts
The goal of the project is to serve future 5G Radio Access Networks, where the increasing demand for mobile
connectivity in hyper-populated cities has to be catered by a large amount of base stations, ranging from those
present at street level (small cells) as well as those placed at rooftop level (macro-cells). To date, the CApital
EXpenditures (CAPEX) and OPerational EXpenditures (OPEX) required to deploy and manage networks in
these scenarios are not manageable by mobile operators. The aim of 5G-XHaul is to reduce the CAPEX/OPEX
in future 5G networks using a combination of novel wireless and optical technologies, which are autonomously
managed by a software defined control plane.
On this economic impact, 5G-XHaul in deliverable D6.4 [9], presents a fully parameterised Techno-economic
analysis Tool to assist 5G-XHaul Operators in modelling their transport network based on the 5G-XHaul tech-
nologies and various architectural/deployment options introduced by the 5G-XHaul project. The Tool will help
them analysing various deployment cost structures. In practice, for a specific geographical area (Dense Urban,
Urban, Suburban and/or Rural), the Tool provides the capability to investigate various mobile/fixed access
network rollout scenarios, in terms of BH/FH dimensioning and cost analysis so as to lead to the most realistic
and cost-efficient deployment option.
The Tool has been applied for a typical dense area (Barcelona city) taking into account realistic network plan-
ning and traffic forecast information (provided by TID) for various deployment options/scenarios (complete
optical Greenfield or Brownfield networks, various hybrid optical-wireless network deployments, various con-
verged BH/FH deployments, different access network SISO/MIMO schemes).
The outcome of the study shows interesting results, such as:
The deployment cost of a new fibre network is considerably high compared to the equipment cost and
affects the total cost significantly.
The most cost-efficient deployment option is the one requiring the minimum fibre deployment.
Among the various hybrid optical-wireless deployment options, marginal differences appear in terms
of cost irrespectively of the degree to which each type of technology is utilised, while the cost almost
doubles in the case of a pure wireless brownfield deployment due to the significant increase in the
equipment cost.
Deployment shall be based primarily on optical technologies especially for the MSs BH/FH,
complemented with wireless links where fibre deployment is not in place along with a mix of optical
and wireless links for SCs BH.
Marginal are the differences that appear between the various converged FH/BH mixes, mainly
because all FH traffic has been assumed to be transmitted over optical connections.
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3. Exploitation activities
3.1 Introduction
During the course of the project 5G-XHaul monitored the generation of main technical results as well as their exploitation. The term “results” thereby means any (tangible or intangible) output of 5G-XHaul such as data, knowledge or information (whatever its form or nature, whether it can be protected or not) that is generated in 5G-XHaul, as well as any rights attached to it, including intellectual property rights. The exploitation or use of results is structured into nine categories as outlined in Table 3-1 below.
Table 3-1: Types of exploitation [13].
Further internal research These research activities must be beyond the project. Relevant for research organisations and research intensive companies.
Collaborative research The results used as background of future collaborative research pro-jects. Relevant for reserach organisations and research intensive companies.
Internal product development Results used in developing, creating, and marketing a product or process. Relevant for companies.
Internal service creation Results use in creating and providing a service.
Licensing Results exploited by other organisations throughout-licensing. Rele-vant for all participants but care should be taken to comply with H2020 rules.
Assignment Results exploited by other organizations through transfer of owner-ship. Relevant for all participants but care should be taken to comply with H2020 rules.
Joint venture Results used as background of a joint venture. Relevant for all par-ticipants but care should be taken to comply with H2020 rules.
Spin-off A separate company established in order to bring project results to market. Relevant for all participants but care should be taken to comply with H2020 rules.
Standardization activities Results used either to develop new standardization activities or to contribute to on-going standardization work. Relevant for all partici-pants but care should be taken to comply with H2020 rules.
3.2 5G-XHaul Results
Table 3-2 lists all project results and their corresponding exploitation by partner. There is a total of 45 results reported. The exploitation is focused around “Standardization activities” (11), “Internal product development” (14), Further Internal Research (6), “Collaborative research” (10) and “Licensing” (4). The numbers indicate a strong industrial and standards impact of 5G-Xhaul with a moderate impact in research.
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Table 3-2: 5G-XHaul main technical results and exploitation by partner.
# Result description Related
deliverables
Exploitation/
Use Explanation of Use
Generated by
partner
1 Analysis: Impact of massive MIMO access
technology on the transport network. D2.1
Collaborative
research
Basis for architecture & technology develop-
ment in 5G-XHaul AIR, other partners
2
Architecture & specification of massive
MIMO radio unit with integrated beam pro-
cessing
D4.12 Internal product
development
Basis for internal development of massive
MIMO radio unit proof-of-concept and prod-
uct
AIR
3 Input to IEEE 1914 WG D2.1 Standardization
activities
Presentation during IEEE914 WG f2f meet-
ing TUD et al.
4 Analysis of advanced RAN/FH receivers,
contribution to PhD thesis N/A
Further internal
research
Contribution to ongoing PhD thesis: J. Bar-
telt: "Joint Design of Access and Fronthaul
Uplinks in Cloud Radio Access Networks"
TUD
5
SDN agent with OpenFlow extensions to de-
liver information about wireless link layer pa-
rameters to SDN controller
D3.1, D3.2,
D5.1
Further internal
research
I2CAT intends to exploit and further develop
this asset into follow-up R&D projects such
as 5G-PICTURE. BWT is currently investi-
gating the use of the developed SDN agent
for their mm-Wave bachaul product develop-
ment.
i2CAT
6
SDN controller based on OpenDayLight Bo-
ron for managing backhaul traffic. Able to
program end to end backhaul paths, includ-
ing manual provision and autonomous com-
putation. Able to retrieve telemetry from net-
work nodes and provide it to a visualization
framework (Grafana)
D3.1, D3.2,
D5.1
Further internal
research
I2CAT intends to exploit and further develop
this asset into follow-up R&D projects such
as 5G-PICTURE. The end goal is to transfer
this controller to a vendor developing back-
haul products.
i2CAT
7
Evaluation of trade-offs between V-Band an-
tenna and front-end specifications needed
for a 5G BH/FH system and realization/inte-
gration possibilities
D4.9 Internal product
development
Basis for further internal development of V-
Band antenna + front-end customized solu-
tion for 5G mobile communications.
TES
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8 Anonymized real mobile network traffic sta-
tistics and performance related information D2.1
Collaborative
research
Input from real mobile network that could
lead to useful exploitation results (simula-
tions, research, etc.)
COS
9
Evaluation of different 2 stage precoding and
channel estimation schemes for mmWave
communication
D4.4 Internal product
development
The investigated algorithms are used to de-
termine the promising MIMO concepts for
high frequency transmission in 5G RA and
BH scenarios.
HWDU
10 Input to ITU FG IMT 2020 D2.2 Standardization
activities
Contribution to the Network Softwarization
document on the overall 5G-Xhaul transport
network concept
HWDU, all
11 Presentation and discussion at ITU-T
SG15/Q.6 G.metro meeting D2.2
Standardization
activities
Attending the ITU-T G.metro standardization
meeting to get involved in the system imple-
mentation of WDM-PON for fronthaul
ADVA
12
Contribution to 3GPP on transport infrastruc-
ture vision on Next Generation Radio Access
Technology (NGRAT) architecture, promot-
ing the vision of the convergence of back-
haul and fronthaul.
D2.1 Standardization
activities
Contribution RP-160255 to 3GPP RAN ple-
nary in Gotheborg to incorporate in TR
38.913 the concept of multiple NGRAT func-
tional splits, and TRP Transport Network,
with different Transport classes associated to
functional splits.
TID, I2CAT, TUD,
et al.
13
First version of a 60 GHz beamforming front
end chip successfully measured and charac-
terized for application in 5G-XHaul mmWave
links
D4.9 Further internal
research
Basis for development of mmWave demon-
strator jointly with BWT and TES IHP
14
A method for localization in dense multiuser
scenarios, which aim is to minimize the wire-
less medium usage.
D4.13 Standardization
activities
Planned for contribution to IEEE 802.11
TGaz in Warsaw (Poland) on September
2016
IHP
15 Massive MIMO radio unit proof-of-concept
hardware platform. D4.12
Internal product
development
Prototype platform used for trial and demo
activities.
Products development planned for different
bands such as Band 7, Band 41, Band 42,
Band 43, Band 48.
AIR
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16 Generation and application of OFDM and
GFDM waveform for 5G-XHaul demo D4.12
Internal product
development
Generation of OFDM and GFDM IQ samples
for transmission from AIR BBU emulator; de-
velopment of FPGA GUI for demodulation of
received signals
TUD
17 Presentation and discussion at ITG work-
shop, Erlangen N/A
Collaborative
research
Contribution for statistical multiplexing results
for C-RAN TUD
18 MAC Simulator
D2.2, D3.1,
and will be
used in D4.3
Internal product
development
Commercial exploitation of MAC Simulator
as off-line meshed network evaluation tool –
under development.
May 2018: exploitation on hold, awaiting a
second customer (one customer took deliv-
ery of prototype simulator)
BWT
19 Patent GB 1619557
Used in
MAC simula-
tor
Licensing
Patent is under examination by the GB pa-
tent office.
Written Opinion received March 2018, re-
sponse under consideration.
BWT
20 Patent EU 17177424.3 D4.13, D3.2 Licensing Patent is under examination by the EU pa-
tent office IHP
21 Patent DE 102016123794.9 D4.13, D3.2 Licensing Patent is under examination by the DE pa-
tent office IHP
22 Demonstration of G.metro WDM fronthaul D6.3 Internal product
development
Prototype of WDM fronthaul developed in the
project was demonstrated to two major mo-
bile network operators, and in the exhibitions
as well
ADVA
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23 Contributions to ITU-T SG15/Q.6 G.metro
standardization D6.2
Standardization
activities
11 contributions based on the work per-
formed in the project, especially on the wave-
length control interaction and system param-
eters.
ADVA
24 Contributions to final channel model docu-
ment of 802.11ay D4.4
Standardization
activities
Two contributions have been made (1) Sec-
tion 8.1.3: Large indoor scenario (entrance
hall) (2) Section 8.2.2 Street canyon scenario
HWDU
25
Contribution to 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meet-
ing #86 R1-167198
Gothenburg, Sweden, August 22-26, 2016
Agenda Item: 8.1.5
Source: Huawei, HiSilicon
D4.4 Standardization
activities
Title: Discussion on transmission schemes
for NR DL MIMO HWDU
26
Contribution to 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meet-
ing #88 R1-1701713
Athens, Greece, 13-17 Feb 2017
Agenda Item: 8.1.5
Source: Huawei, HiSilicon
D4.4 Standardization
activities
Simulation results on PSCM for 256- and
1024QAM (which is reasonable for backhaul)
Title:Signal Shaping for QAM Constellations
HWDU
27
Development of Sub6 wireless backhaul pro-
totype based on COTS hardware and cus-
tom software stack.
D4.11 Collaborative
research
The device will be used in the 5G-Xhaul final
demo, deployed in Bristol, and also in
demonstrations from other EU projects
(FLAME and 5G-City)
i2CAT
28
Contribution to 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #75
RP- 170435
New Orleans, US, 6th – 9th March, 2017
Title: Justification & vision of NR low layer
split
Agenda Item: 9.1
Source: Telefónica
D2.1 Standardization
activities
Presentation of 5G XHaul results of analysis
of functional split and recommendation to in-
clude a low layer functional split as proposed
by 5G XHaul in Rel-15 standardization
TID
29 Single radio millimetre-wave distribution
node (Typhoon) D5.2
Internal product
development DN101LC unit with Sibeam radio developed
and assembled at BWT. Deployed in BIO BWT
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test bed.
30 Contributions to ITU-T SG15/Q.6 G.metro
standardization N/A
Standardization
activities
8 contributions based on the work performed
in the project. In Feb. 2018, G.metro was offi-
cially consented by SG15/Q.6. It received a
new ITU-T number G.698.4.
ADVA
31 Demonstration of G.metro WDM fronthaul at
MWC 2018 N/A
Internal product
development
Joint demo with British Telecommunications
on 5G multi-layer network slicing, in which
the prototyped G.metro transceivers enabled
the WDM transport link. Disseminated the
project achievements on the ADVA stand.
ADVA
32 Beamsteering Analogue Front-End D4.10
Further internal
research /
Internal
Product
Development
The Analogue Front-End will be leveraged in running and forthcoming EU projects towards the implementation of high data rate point-to-
multipoint networks
IHP/TES
33 Integrated Circuits developed in the project
(up- /down converter and Beamforming IC) D4.10
Internal
Product
Development
The ICs have raised interest in the commu-nity and might be exploited further
IHP
34 Analysis of 5G RATs on C-RAN, contribution
to ongoing PhD thesis N/A
Further internal
research
Contribution to ongoing PhD thesis: JK.Chaudhary: "Impacts of 5G RATs on fron-
thaul-limited C-RAN"
TUD
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35 Look up table based for shaping scheme N/A Internal product
development
The look-up-tables were generated for easy encoding and decoding purpose for a
shaping scheme
HWDU
36 5G-XHaul SDN Sub-6 backhaul devices D5.3 Collaborative
research
TRL 6. Device used in the final demo achiev-ing link data rates of around 200 Mbps, and
SDN control.
i2CAT
37 5G-XHaul Level 1 controller D3.3 Collaborative
research
TRL 5. Controller integrated with a wireless L0 controller and an optical L0 controller.
Validated in the controlled environment re-ported in deliverable D3.3.
i2CAT
38 5G-XHaul Level 0 wireless controller D3.3, D5.3 Licensing
TRL 6. Controller validated in final demo, provisioning and monitoring main and
backup paths for mmWave and Sub6 de-vices. Our long term intention is to license
this development to vendors of SDN wireless transport devices
i2CAT
39 SLAs definition for NFV/SDN services D3.3 Collaborative
Research
Definition of SLAs associated to NFV/SDN services, in an on-demand bandwidth and
platform allocation scheme, to be utilized as a SLA reference for other EU 5G-PPP
projects and/or future 5G commercial offer-ings.
COS/TID
40 Techno-economic study/tool D6.4 Internal product
development
a) Conduction of a study on the deployment cost of FH/BH/BB networks as they have
been considered/developed in the context of 5G-XHaul project, and b) Development of a fully parameterized techno-economic tool.
Both will be utilized as the basis (expanded and customized accordingly) for the needs of
other 5G R&D projects.
COS
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41 5G-XHaul ETN controller D3.3 Collaborative
research
The SDN agent used in the ETN for the con-
trol of the virtual switch connecting the VNFs
located at this ETN. Validated in the three re-
view's demonstrations deployed in the NI-
TOS and BIO testbeds.
UTH
42 5G-XHaul IATN controller D3.3 Collaborative
research
The SDN agent used in the IATN for the con-
trol of the virtual switch interconnecting the
adjacent domains. Validated in the controlled
environment reported in D3.3.
UTH
43 TSON Extensions D4.1 Further Internal
research
The TSON solution was extended to handle
CPRI flows and allow multiplexing of multiple
Ethernet flows into a single flow.
UNIVBRIS-HPN
44 TSON Integration with PON and CPRI D5.2/D5.3 Collaborative
research
The TSON soloution was integrated with
ADVA WDM PON, AIRRAYS RRH, and BBU
emulator; and suceessfully tested and vali-
dated for both BH and FH services.
UNIVBRIS-HPN/
ADVA/AIR
45 Shaping based on Look-up-tables for easy
implementation N/A
Internal product
development
The look-up-tables were generated for easy encoding and decoding purpose for a shap-
ing scheme suitable for high throughout applications.
HWDU
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3.3 Exploitation Plans per Partner
In the following, it will be explained, how 5G-XHaul prepares the exploitation of the project’s results. Especially
the industrial partners’ market experience will be exploited towards the identification of market/business chal-
lenges to be faced, emerging opportunities and business models deriving from 5G-XHaul’s adoption. For this,
individual partner’s exploitation plans of 5G-XHaul are detailed below.
3.3.1 IHP
IHP has generated within 5G-XHaul three main results:
The up- /down converter chip to 60 GHz.
The integrated RF Front-End solution for communications at 60 GHz.
Methods for localisation that have been proposed to standards.
The up- /down converter chip to 60 GHz: This chip, as part of the 5G-XHaul transceiver solution, will be further
developed and used in the Phase-2 project 5G-PICTURE to become an essential part of the integral mmWave
backhaul system to be deployed in one of the sites of demonstration activities in this phase 2 project.
An integrated RF Front-End solution has been developed in the context of 5G-XHaul, and its functionality has
been demonstrated in Bristol in June 2018. This solution might be utilized in the Phase-2 project 5G-PICTURE
as the RF part of the deployed 60 GHz small cells. Different revisions of the board and chips are being devel-
oped in parallel to satisfy the requirements of these deployments. Additionally, IHP exploits this result via its
spin-off company, IHP Solutions, who is currently commercializing the solution. Furthermore, IHP works to-
gether with TES, providing the mmWave ICs of a solution for a customer of TES.
Methods for localization: IHP has developed methods for precise positioning using Time of Arrival, who have
been put forward in two patents. These methods are suitable for dense user scenarios and are relevant to the
community for providing location-based services. A lightweight version of the methods has been utilized for
demonstrating their feasibility as part of the Project reporting, and they will be further developed and integrated
in the Wireless nodes IHP is currently building, combining concurrently high data rate transmission and local-
isation.
3.3.2 I2CAT
I2CAT has generated three main results within 5G-XHaul: i) the Sub6 SDN nodes, ii) the Level 0 wireless
controller, and iii) the 5G-XHaul Level 1 controller. The following exploitation plans are considered for each of
these results:
Sub-6 SDN nodes: These devices consist of an embedded platform featuring and ARM processor, and up to
three COTS IEEE 802.11ac modems. The platform is mounted on an outdoor enclosure, and a typical config-
uration has one of the modems connected to two omnidirectional antennas to provide Wi-Fi access, while the
other two modems are connected to two bac-to-back 2x2 directive antennas providing backhaul connectivity.
Each of the backhaul links achieves up to 200 Mb/s. The Sub-6 SDN node features a customized driver,
developed within 5G-XHaul, which allows controlling forwarding between Sub-6 devices using an SDN con-
troller, and a fast recovery agent that redirects traffic through a backup path if a link fails. These nodes have
been included in the 5G-XHaul final demonstration in Bristol, reported in deliverable D5.3. Our current plan is
to continue exploiting these devices through collaborative research. In particular, extensions of these devices
are already planned to be used in the projects H2020 FLAME, and H2020 5GPICTURE.
Level 0 wireless controller. It is an SDN controller based on OpenDayLight Boron, which features a set of
custom bundles developed in 5G-XHaul allowing to provision end-to-end paths in an OpenFlow network
through a high level REST API. The API also allows to automatically provision back up paths associated to
each path. The controller can control any type of device that exposes an OpenFlow interface, and it has been
integrated in the final 5G-XHaul demonstration in Bristol, controlling the mm-Wave devices from BWT, and the
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Sub-6 nodes from i2CAT. In addition to continue using this development in collaborative research, our long
term goal would be to license this technology to vendors of wireless backhaul equipment.
Level 1 controller. It is a controller that exposes COP interfaces towards Level 0 and Top controllers, and offers
two main services: i) aggregate topologies coming from different domains, and ii) provision an end-to-end
connectivity service spanning various domains. This development has been demonstrated in deliverable D3.3.
Our plans are to continue exploiting this result through collaborative research in the H2020 5G-PICTURE
project.
3.3.3 Telefonica
Telefonica has generated the following results to which 5G-XHAUL project has provided a substantial input to
i) 5G Transport Guidelines ii) Transport SDN Guidelines.
i) 5G Transport Guidelines. Reference implementation guidelines that determine the technologies
awarded in competitive processes and deployed in Transport, backhaul and IP networks, from 2018
in the whole Telefonica group. In particular, the contribution from 5G-XHaul has been especially rele-
vant in the determination of the last mile technologies (wireless and optical) to be considered as can-
didates for a convergent backhaul/fronthaul/midhaul deployment based on bandwidth, latency, syn-
chronization and slicing capabilities requirements, and on its position within 3GPP with regards to RAN
functional split partitioning.
ii) Transport SDN Guidelines. Reference implementation guidelines for a hierarchical convergent mul-
tidomain SDN control plane that span wireless, optical, and IP transport and backhaul networks to be
awarded and deployed in the Telefonica Group from 2018. The selected control plane SDN architec-
ture to be deployed in TEF footprint is based in the same hierarchical principles for joint control of
optical/wireless front/backhaul networks proposed by 5G-XHaul. The requirements of scalability and
resilience present in 5G-XHaul SDN architecture are also part of TEF Transport SDN internal archi-
tecture definition.
These guidelines define not only the technologies or architectures to be deployed in TEF networks, but they
also shape the requirements incorporated into RFQs (Request for Quotation) formal purchase processes com-
municated to the Industry.
Additionally, Telefonica has used 5G-XHaul results in several areas:
Two contributions to 3GPP submitted based of WP2 results.
Exploring opportunities, through Telefonica Open Future, for venture capital initiatives in start-ups ex-
ploring the xhaul concept. In particular, one start-up optimising the use of last mile fiber deployments
was analyzed, after presentation of main results from 5G-XHaul and other H2020 projects to Open
Future board.
Internal dissemination of 5GX-Haul results to Telefonica technical teams in TTDC (Telefonica
Transport Design Council), an internal Telefonica forum with presence of the 14 countries in which
TEF is running an operation.
Dissemination of 5G-XHaul concepts to NGMN, for their studies on functional split and x-haul definition
3.3.4 University of Bristol
The HPN group of the University of Bristol will leverage on the architectural designs it has developed in the
framework of 5G-XHaul and the TSON extensions in order to further enhance TSON’s suitability, performance
and efficiency as a 5G transport solution. The architectural work will be continue including also computa-
tion/storage requirements in the context of 5G. TSON that was extended in the framework of 5G-XHaul in
order to handle CPRI flows and allow multiplexing of multiple Ethernet flows into a single flow will be extended
to support also multiple functional split options according to current standards such as e-CPRI.
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Beyond the TSON data plane further work will be performed on the TSON control plane and higher layers. The
TSON node is controlled by an SDN controller which together with an OpenFlow agent make it programmable.
In addition, TSON is able to classify the data traffic according VLAN tags allowing TSON slicing. The SDN
controller programs the TSON node in order to provide end to end network slicing traffic. This capability will
be further extended in order to be provided as a function that can be exposed and combined together with
other function in support of a variety of services.
Finally, the HPN group was involved in a variety of integration activities including integration of heterogeneous
optical technologies but also optical and wireless networking solutions as well as field trials in the framework
of 5G-XHaul. The relevant knowledge and experience will be exploited as integration and demonstration ac-
tivities have become one of the main competences of the group that is currently leading and is involved in
several other but relevant national and EU integration/demonstration activities involving advanced lab test-
beds and field demonstrators.
3.3.5 University of Thessaly
University of Thessaly will continue to support the development and utilization of the software created for the
purpose of 5G-XHaul. This software includes two SDN/OpenFlow controllers, based on the Ryu framework,
which are responsible for the control of the ETNs and IATNs.
The ETN agent is responsible for interconnecting the VNFs located at the various ETNs.
The IATN agent is responsible for interconnecting the various technology domains used by the
transport network.
These agents have been included in the 5G-XHaul final demonstration in Bristol, reported in D5.3, as well as
the demonstration reported in deliverable D3.3.
Our current plan is to continue exploiting this software through collaborative research. This software will be the
basis for the software development required by H2020 5G-PICTURE. Having in mind that 5G-PICTURE ex-
tends its focus to the control and management of the computing resources, except for the networking resources
that was the main focus of 5G-XHaul, the corresponding ETN/IATN agents should be extended to reflect the
new requirements. We have uploaded the code to repositories, which are shared with the research community
of University of Thessaly and are accessible to the students, who can use it for their Master and PhD thesis.
3.3.6 Blu Wireless Technology
Blu Wireless will continue to develop the following technologies after the end of 5G-XHaul:
Typhoon millimetre-wave modem: the Typhoon platform was deployed successfully in the Bristol is
Open (BiO) deployment and the end of project demonstration. Moving forward the unit will be improved
and the family extended to include devices developed for backhaul and transport applications.
BiO: we will continue to test and evaluate our Typhoons deployed in BiO, and to deploy additional
units to enlarge the millimetre-wave mesh.
SDN: Blu Wireless began working on SDN thanks to 5G-XHaul and further work is likely using Open-
Flow and Netconf.
5G-PICTURE: in the continuation project Blu Wireless is working on synchronisation of transport
nodes and the use of millimetre-wave technology for track to train backhauling.
3.3.7 TES Electronic Solutions
TES has generated within 5G-XHaul the following main results:
Wideband V band scanning planar phased antenna array, based on linear-fed arrays of wideband
dipoles.
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With the antenna architecture based on balanced line fed wideband dipoles, arrange in a hexagonal
structure, TES minimise the mutual coupling and achieve wide angle 2D scanning (+/-45 deg) in the
whole V band, without blindness effect.
Multilayer PCB, Integrated the antenna module, beamforming chip from IHP, IHP up/down converter
and precise clock generator and distribution circuit, in order to provide system test with the Blu Wire-
less high speed modem.
As a high-Tech company, TES is using the gained experience and knowledge from the 5G XHaul project in the following directions:
Developed 3D wide angle scanning phased array in the 60 GHz band, for the japan telecommunication
market.
Development of 60 GHz Beamforming chip with 16 channels T/R modules.
Development of the V band MMIC Booster.
Development of FPGA and ASIC modem based on WiGig LDPC core.
3.3.8 COSMOTE
COSMOTE, as leading mobile operator in Greece, is interested in solutions that could offer significant com-
petitive advantage in short term while being proactively prepared to address and further investigate future
technical challenges (network architecture evolution, network planning, CAPEX/OPEX savings, etc.). Actually,
5G-XHaul has been well aligned with the mobile operators’ strategies by: i) connecting the dense SC layer
using wireless technologies (V-Band and Sub6), ii) enabling a reduction of the number of Central Offices
through the use of long reach optical technologies (e.g. WDM-PON, TSON), and iii) enabling the convergence
of fixed and mobile traffic through the 5G-XHaul optical technologies. Therefore, COSMOTE has benefited
significantly from the participation in the 5G-XHaul project and the contribution to the outcomes of the project
and plans to further exploit the know-how how acquired.
First of all, with its participation in the 5G-PICTURE project that is building on 5G-XHaul, COSMOTE will con-
tinue the research efforts towards 5G, while ensuring additional funding. In this context, further exploitation of
the following three (3) outcomes is envisaged, since COSMOTE provided major contribution to them:
1. A fully parameterized techno-economic tool to assist 5G Transport Operators (e.g. 5G-XHaul Op-
erators to assess the technologies developed in 5G-XHaul (dimensioning aspects, cost structures,
critical parameters affecting investment, etc.). In the context of the project, a typical Barcelona area
was selected to showcase the capabilities of the tool, via a complete techno-economic study incl.
various deployment scenarios of 5G-XHaul based on realistic network planning and traffic forecast
assumptions. Although the tool has been developed in the scope of 5G-XHaul (concept, technologies,
architectural and deployment options), it is customizable and thus can be further extended beyond the
project end for other 5G-PPP projects. Potential enhancements could include: incorporation of addi-
tional deployment options (such as the placement of vBBU pools), the adoption of edge-computing,
cloud-computing for specific services’ hosting, other wireless/optical technologies, and so on.
2. SLAs/SLA templates for future 5G services: Based on the 5G-XHaul capabilities and leveraging on
existing connectivity and cloud services SLAs provided by network operators, new SLAs/SLA tem-
plates were investigated reflecting the versatility of future 5G services and the dynamic (spatio-tem-
poral) character of resources provisioning and QoS. Three (3) types of SLAs were specified (namely
Transport Network Services, Transport Network and Cloud Services, End-to-End Telecommunication
Services and Cloud Services) while the inclusion of auxiliary Services in SLAs (such as synchronisa-
tion over the 5G-XHaul transport network) was considered for specific use cases (e.g. financial,
electric power, media and broadcasting sectors, Industry 4.0). These SLA templates could be utilized
as a reference for other EU 5G-PPP projects and/or for future 5G commercial offerings (taking into
account the specific service related KPIs).
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3. Anonymized real mobile network traffic statistics and QoE related information: To assist the
development of spatio-temporal demand prediction models, traffic and mobility-related information for
a certain geographical area (center of Athens) was provided by COSMOTE in 5G-XHaul, including:
Traffic statistics at BS level for all RAT supported and for all cells/sectors (e.g. UL/DL data
traffic, max/average UL/DL throughput per user, traffic distribution per data rate, average/to-
tal number of UEs per eNB, number of simultaneous UEs)
Mobility-related information at terminal level (e.g. handover, cell reselections), combined
with location related information
Network performance/ QoE related information at terminal level (e.g. max UL/DL bitrate, la-
tency) combined with location related information
Other (network) information, such as RRC Drop ratio, Drop Call Rate for voice, video and
data sessions, RRC Setup Failure Rate, E-RAB Failure Rate, Intra eNB Handovers Failure
Rate, Inter eNB Handovers over X2/S1 interface, number of CS Fallback attempts in idle
and connected mode, average CQI.
Such information could be exploited by future 5G-PPP project for same or similar purposes (e.g. traffic predic-
tion for 5G).
Concerning the commercialization of the 5G-XHaul solution/technologies, COSMOTE plans to:
Investigate the performance and the impact of the solutions/products offered by specific 5G-XHaul
partners (AIR, BWT, TES, ADVA, HWDU) onto its network through lab tests and/or field trials.
Further investigate market/business challenges and opportunities of the potential 5G-XHaul like busi-
ness models towards the development of a holistic e2e business model for 5G.
Further communicate the project concept/objectives to COSMOTE’s major infrastructure vendors
(e.g. ERICSSON, NOKIA, HUAWEI) in order to potentially consider the 5G-XHaul advancements in
their product portfolio/roadmap.
Further communicate the project concept/objectives internally to the company, the OTE Group and
the Deutsche Telecom Group responsible teams so as the experience and results derived from the
5G-XHaul project to be further exploited by the internal (to DT Group) 5G program.
3.3.9 Technische Universität Dresden
As a leading research institute, TUD significantly advanced its research on next-generation radio access tech-
nologies (RATs) through 5G-XHaul project. This included the research on transport requirements for C-RAN,
joint design of access network and transport network, particularly, for massive MIMO, and demonstrating the
feasibility of generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) waveform as an alternative to state-of-the-art
OFDM. Some key advancements through the 5G-XHaul project are as follows:
Contributions towards PhD theses: The research results from the project contributed towards the PhD
degree of Dr. Jens Bartelt, whose thesis was titled ‘Joint Design of Access and Fronthaul Uplinks in
Cloud Radio Access Networks’. In addition, the research results from the project will also be a part of
the PhD theses of Jay-Kant Chaudhary, Tobias Kadur, and Hsiao-Lan Chiang, who are at various
stages of completing their PhD.
Development of GFDM transceiver: GFDM is considered one of the potential candidate waveforms for
5G. The GFDM transceiver, which was successfully integrated with the final demonstrator in Bristol,
will be developed further. The next version of the GFDM transceiver would have additional flexibility
of supporting different combinations of sub-symbols and subcarriers as well as provision of supporting
a variety of new use cases. Further, it will be developed to be compatible for higher order MIMO.
Continuing research works in 5G-Picture: The research works on the joint design of access and
transport network for massive MIMO will be continued in 5G-PICTURE. These works could lead to
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internal product development. Further, we plan to jointly work together AIR for intended demo for 5G-
Picture and support their research activity.
3.3.10 Airrays
Two main results were produced by Airrays within 5G-XHaul: the development of new functional split concepts,
to support remote radio units featuring massive MIMO, and the implementation of such a split in a proof-of-
concept prototype. As a commercial company, the goal is to carry the momentum gained by the 5G-XHaul
activities into the market, by
Engaging with further potential customers and partners: the proof-of-concept platform developed by
Airrays within 5G-XHaul has already proven to be a valuable instrument to attract attention and engage
with operators and other vendors (see Sec. 5.1.1) and will continue to do so. Airrays plans to partici-
pate in further Requests for Products (RFPs) and Requests for Information (RFIs), and based on those,
enter into further field trials with operators with the goal of being selected as a radio unit vendor in
large scale deployments.
Maturing the proof-of-concept platform into a commercial product: the concept of new functional splits
has been successfully proven within 5G-XHaul, both as a technical concept an in yielding considerable
benefits in terms of transport capacity reduction. Accordingly, Airrays plans to include this concept into
a full commercial product in the form of an active massive MIMO radio unit.
Attract valuable human resources: as a small startup company, human resources are the core asset
of Airrays. With the planned step of commercializing the concepts developed in 5G-Xhaul, Airrays will
have to grow its team considerably, which however requires highly specialized engineers. With the
additional visibility gained in 5G-XHaul, Airrays considers itself to be in an excellent position to attract
required personal (see also Sec. 5.1.1).
3.3.11 Huawei
As a leading global information and communication technology solution provider, HWDU focuses on continu-
ously expanding its knowledge space by research and collaboration in order to bring state-of-the-art technol-
ogies into the on-going and future product development. In this project, in particular, HWDU’s contribution in
5G-Xhaul can be partitioned into the following areas,
mmWave Communications and MIMO: This provides a promising technology to achieve increasing
throughput requirements of future transport and access network. Outdoor V-band channel modelling
is carried out based on channel measurements for new usage scenario considered in IEEE 802.11ay.
It was concluded that while the overall channel impulse response can be relatively long for the meas-
ured V-band outdoor scenario, the cluster delay spreads are significantly shorter. This gives guidance
for designing the corresponding signal processing schemes. These channel measurements were re-
ported in the final channel model document of IEEE 802.11ay [15].
Regarding signal processing, one IPR was filled by HWDU which targets spectral efficiency improve-
ments of multi-stream communication system [14]. Additionally, the investigations were carried out on
a different 2 stage precoding and channel estimation schemes for mm-Wave communication. The
evaluations are used to determine the promising MIMO concepts for high frequency transmission in
BH scenario.
Modulation and Coding Schemes: In order to improve the data rates of access and transport links,
probabilistically shaped coded modulation (PSCM) was proposed in 3GPP [16][17]. The proposed
technique outperforms other methods and renders significant gains even in relatively unfavourable
scenarios derived from IEEE 802.11 ad/ay. SNR gains of 0.5-1dB can be obtained only by inserting a
shaping encoder/decoder module, and keeping all other system components standard compliant.
These investigations are utilized for internal product development.
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Resilient Control Plane: The resilient auto-organized self-maintaining control plane suggested in this
project has paved way to a major internal research axis under research at HWDU, in Munich, since
several years, occupying 5 researchers. The results are under investigation as an internal candidate
technology for the realization of end-to-end slicing, a major topic in 5G. Besides, a bilateral university
collaboration agreement on the main technical issues of such a dynamically built and self-adjustable
interconnection grids has been signed and is currently being executed with an academic partner. Sev-
eral prototypes have been developed so far, providing an interesting new and holistic view on SDN
and NFV types of environments.
Transactional Updates for SDN: The work on transactional updates, resulted in several publications
at major academic conferences is a promising internal research topic at Huawei research center in
Munich. Besides the publications, an open source implementation of this idea on top of OpenvSwitch
has been produced and made available to the community. The transactional support for SDN network
updates is a promising candidate technology to achieve hard guarantees, as they might be required
in 5G mobile networks, specifically in URLLC type of services.
Joint Routing and Scheduling for multi-hop mm-Wave Backhaul/Access networks: HWDU developed
solutions for the dynamic optimization of wireless transport and access resources in a dense small cell
network assuming multi-hop mesh transport network. HWDU also provided extended solutions for
slicing architecture; and in particular different routing and scheduling policies were described, taking
into account URLLC and eMBB Slice types. This particular study takes into account some key 5G use
cases, which require the optimization of resources assuming different KPIs (latency vs throughput) as
required by the vertical customer. Finally, on top of the previous studies, a context-aware / predictive
resource management mechanism was proposed to minimize signalling and complexity, by enabling
adaptive hopping and local caching at intermediate transport nodes to ensure meeting the delay re-
quirement for mixed service KPIs. It is planned to promote solutions to 3GPP RAN2/RAN3 recently
agreed Rel.16 Study Item (RP-181349) on Integrated Access & Backhaul (IAB); and particularly on
the multi-hop routing, backhaul scheduling and topology management.
Scalable Control Plane: 5G-XHaul leverages on SDN technology for joint control of optical/wireless
front/backhaul networks. This work designs a flexible and scalable control plane solution (Dynamic
Flow Rules) which paves the way for the programmability of large scale, high dynamic mobile network.
The solution is widely recognized in the SDN industry via the dissemination in the international con-
ference and industry forums. HW has examined different implementation options of this technology in
different scenarios. The potential realization in HW products is under the investigation.
3.3.12 ADVA Optical Networking
ADVA Optical Networking SE (ADVA) is a global provider of telecommunications equipment. With innovative
Optical, Ethernet and Control transport solutions, ADVA builds the foundation for high-speed, next generation
networks. The company’s FSP product family adds scalability and intelligence to customers’ networks while
removing complexity and cost. With a flexible and fast-moving organization, ADVA forges close partnerships
with its customers to meet growing demand for data, storage, voice and video services and has become a
trusted partner for more than 200 carriers and 10,000 enterprises across the globe.
In the 5G-XHaul project, ADVA is responsible for developing a wavelength-agnostic DWDM-PON technology,
which is in line with the newly-consented ITU-T G.698.4 (ex “G.metro”). On the other hand, ADVA has been
making significant contributions into this new ITU-T standard based on the results from 5G-XHaul. Within
ADVA, productizing the WDM-PON is already under discussion for quite some time. Meanwhile, we endeavour
to promote and present the proof of concept (PoC) of WDM-PON and the prototype to prospective opera-
tors/customers, in order to seek any commercial success. In light of the exploitation of ADVA’s contributions
in 5G-XHaul, we have carried out the following activities:
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Promoting the WDM-PON PoC to potential customers: we have successfully engaged with two world-
leading mobile operators, China Mobile and British Telecom, demonstrating our WDM-PON prototype
in the customers’ premises, followed by two press releases [8][9]. We have received very positive
feedbacks from customers that they believe this new solution will dramatically improve the fronthaul
capacity and bring down the entire cost. Currently we are discussing with these customers on the
large-scale field trials and future roadmaps.
Participating in major conferences and exhibitions: at EuCNC 2017 and MWC 2018, together with
other partners, we demonstrated the capability and advance of WDM-PON in an end-to-end 5G net-
work. Such a disruptive solution drew a lot of attentions at the events, increasing the visibility and
impact in the market.
Internal WDM-PON product development: from the beginning of the project, we have been keeping the product
line development (PLM) team posted with the project results, in order to define the business cases and bring
the developed prototype as a commercial module into the ADVA FSP3000 portfolio. Specifically, the integra-
tion demo on the BIO testbed help us identify the practical requirements in a real environment.
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4. Standardisation activities
5G-XHaul has pursued a wide ranging and coordinated strategy to influence standardisation bodies within the
research focus of the project. Different SDOs (Standards Development Organisation) have been addressed at
different points within the standardisation lifecycle, Figure 4-1. In some cases, such as the G.metro work in
ITU-T SG15 contributions have been in both the study and normative phases. Further details on the optical
standardisation work can be found in deliverable D6.2 [11].
Figure 4-1. Standardisation lifecycle.
The standardisation bodies targeted by the project, and the partners assigned are shown in Figure 4-2. The
pyramid reflects a foundation of enabling technologies, supporting 5G telecoms architectures.
Figure 4-2. Standardisation pyramid.
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A summary of the number of contributions made per area is captured in Table 4-1. In total the project made
47 contributions.
Table 4-1. Contribution count per SDO/domain.
Table 4-2 summarises the main impact per SDO from the project.
Table 4-2. Impact per SDO/domain.
SDO Relevance to 5G-XHaul Main Contribution
Wireless Technologies
ETSI / ETSI mWT ISG
Regulation and licensing schemes for mmWave spec-trum in EU (including V-band 57-66 GHz)
There has been a major advance to enable the deployment of small phased array antennae for backhaul applications during the project. Such antennae are used in the project (on BWT equip-ment). ETSI has recommended licensing rules aligned with those in the USA, which permit such devices, to CEPT SE19. This was driven by BWT and HWDU. See also deliverable D6.1 [3].
CEPT ECC Working Group Spectrum En-
gineering SE 19
Fixed microwave wireless ac-tivities
The project has not contributed directly here but see results from ETSI work above.
OFCOM / Tech UK
OFCOM is the UK telecoms regulator, and Tech-UK repre-sents the tech industry in the UK
Contributions by BWT helped build momentum for the recommendation by ETSI to CEPT SE 19, see above.
ITU-R
ITU-R is in charge of organizing world radio communication conferences (WRCs) that will govern spectrum usage for 5G
Work here will take place after the conclusion of the project: partners plan to contribute to prepar-atory work (e.g. group 5D) for the WRC 2019
IEEE 802.11ay Defining next generation of 60 GHz IEEE 802.11ad which may be used for FH / BH
HWDU made 2 contributions on channel model-ling here. BWT and IHP have also attended.
IEEE 802.11az Advanced positioning tech-niques have been studied in WP4
IHP made 2 contributions on positioning methods US 10015632 B2, EU 17177424.3
Future Fronthaul
IEEE 1914.1 Working on the Next Genera-tion Fronthaul Interface
TUD presented results on fronthaul in August 2016
2015 2016 2017 2018
H1 H1 H2 H1 H2 H1 total
mmWave 1 5 6
sub-6 GHz 0
optical 3 5 5 7 8 3 31
ITU-T IMT2020 1 1 2
IEEE 802.11az 1 1 2
3GPP 1 1 2 4
NGMN 1 1
IEEE P1914.1 1 1
total 5 6 14 9 9 4 47
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Optical
ITU-T SG15
WDM-PON (NG-PON2, espe-cially the PtP WDM PON vari-ant) and Passive WDM (in G.metro, Q6)
An outstanding 31 input documents on commu-nication channel, application code and pilot tones for G.metro. See also deliverable D6.2[11]
Functional Architecture
3GPP Defining 5G NR (new radio) and RAN architecture
There have been contributions on DL MIMO and signal shaping in RAN1 & functional splits in RAN Plenary
ITU-T IMT2020 This focus group should flag up gaps in 5G research, including fronthaul and backhaul control
There have been two overview presentations
NGMN Writing an end-to-end 5G archi-tecture contribution
One contribution was made towards the architec-ture white paper
No contributions have been made on SDN. This is because no partners were active in the relevant SDOs and it was felt that the software developed did not warrant the protracted process to make it open source.
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5. 5G-XHaul impact on SMEs
5.1 Impact on Airrays GmbH
Airrays GmbH is an SME from Dresden Germany, founded in 2013. The participation in 5G-XHaul has had a
major impact on both Airrays future products as well as on the company as a whole. Airrays main focus is on
massive MIMO active antenna units, i.e. remote radio heads but with active signal processing. Airrays typical
customers are network operators, while the companies partners both with other equipment vendors such as
ADVA, and research institutes such as TUD.
While classical remote radio heads feature a CPRI split, Airrays has focussed on massive MIMO radio unit,
which require a new functional split due to the large number of antennas used in massive MIMO. The analysis
and development of these new functional splits was a core focus of 5G-XHaul as documented in deliverables
D2.1 and D2.2. These new functional splits pose a considerable technical ad-vantage to legacy products, as
they require an up to factor 32 lower transport capacity and can save operators significant costs. The project
hence provided valuable input to define the system concept of the Airrays radio unit and was directly included
into Airrays first proof-of-concept plat-form, showcased during 5G-XHaul’s final demonstration event (see de-
liverable D5.3 [8]. Especially the cooperation with TUD, ADVA, and UNIVBRIS and the corresponding integra-
tion efforts with their respective hardware platforms provided valuable experience to Airrays for later product
integration with commercial partners. In total, 5G-XHaul hence has helped to shape Airray’s future product
concept and provide a competitive advantage.
During the duration of 5G-XHaul, Airrays has already answered several Request for Information and Requests
for Product by large operators and vendors, for which the insights and concepts of 5G-XHaul provide a valuable
asset. Airrays further engaged into two field trails with tier 1 operators in North America, which were also
partially based on the experience gained with the proof-of-concept platform developed in 5G-XHaul. Within the
scope of 5G-XHaul, Airrays hosted demos at Mobile World Congress 2017 and the EuCNC 2017 conferences,
both which helped to increase visibility of Airrays as a startup company. In general the participation in to project
has greatly helped to gain attention, be it from potential customers, partners, investors, or employees. In No-
vember 2015, Airrays successfully completed a Series A financing round, and since the beginning of the project
Airrays was able to increase its staff more than 6-fold. In fact, at least one employee was directly hired after
his graduation from TUD, another 5G-XHaul partner. This also shows the considerable benefit of the cooper-
ation and visibility gained in projects like 5G-XHaul.
5.2 Impact on Blu Wireless Technology Limited
Blu Wireless Technology (BWT) is a System IP SME based in Bristol UK. It develops 60 GHz WiFi mmWave
technology for consumer and telecom backhaul applications. The HYDRA technology is initially targeted at the
IEEE 802.11ad wireless standard, which is the basis of the WiGig gigabit technology from the WiFi Alliance.
HYDRA comprises PHY and MAC functions and is designed to support up to 4.6 Gb/s.
Participation in the project has supported the development of HYDRA and the new development platform called
Typhoon, that has been used in a number of public demos and the Bristol is Open test-bed.
The outdoor demos have increased our knowledge on deployment issues, such as link budget and shadowing,
and has helped in the identification of new applications such as in the transport domain. The application to
train backhaul is being followed in the 5G-PICTURE project.
Another benefit from the project has been the introduction to SDN, including OpenFlow and NETCONF. This
is outside the mainstream work in the company but is seen as one of the best candidates for control and
management of the millimetre wave nodes that we develop. Consequently, we are much better placed as the
company grows into the networking domain.
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Finally, the project has supported work in the millimetre-wave spectrum standardisation arena. This has been
successful in that the CEPT is in the process of revising the rules for operation in the unlicensed V-band to
align with the USA. This enables the use of phased-array patch antennae that Blu Wireless uses in its units.
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6. Conclusions
This deliverable describes the dissemination, standardisation and exploitation activities carried out by the
5G-XHaul project throughout its 3-Year duration.
As reported in the deliverable, publications have been one of the key dissemination channel.
During the three years, 5G-XHaul has taken part in more than 30 events, Workshops, international conferences,
where we have communicated the 5G-XHaul solution and, as part of our collaborative work, the position of
5G-XHaul within 5G-PPP and the 5G research across Europe. 5G-PPP collaboration activities have been one
of our strong points, achieving an excellent impact within the 5G community and raising much interest in our
work. More concretely, our involvement in the Architecture WG, where our 5G-XHaul architecture was selected
as a reference for 5G, represents one of our highlights.
5G-XHaul has got more and more presence on the Internet and via our social media channels (Website and
Twitter), reaching good statistics.
5G-XHaul has strongly contributed to standardisation, where we have achieved a significant impact in several
standards. An outstanding performance with 31 input documents to ITU-T SG15 has been delivered by ADVA.
All these achievements show the good commitment of the project with regard to dissemination, standardisation
and exploitation activities. We have accomplished our goals set at the project preparation phase.
5G-XHaul will not finish here. An important outcome of the project, by exploiting the work and networking
developed within 5G-XHaul, is the fact that we have been able to setup a new consortium to pursue the work
triggered in 5G-XHaul in a 5G-PPP Phase-2 project. This project, 5G-PICTURE, is currently building on the
expertise already developed and exploits the technical developments of 5G-XHaul as a baseline technology.
This achievement guarantees that these developments will be further developed and advanced to support
extensive demonstrations of various use cases for both the ICT but also vertical industries in support of the
long term 5G vision.
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7. References
[1] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D2.2, “System Architecture Definition”, July 2016.
[2] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D6.2, “Contribution on Optical Communications Standardisation”, April 2017.
[3] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D6.1, “Contribution to ETSI and CEPT on mm-Wave regulatory issues”, March
2017.
[4] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D6.3, “Smart wireless/optical testbed demonstrations via on line and workshop
demonstrations”, June 2017.
[5] 5G-PPP View on 5G Architecture – (White Paper), accessed on August 15, https://5g-
ppp.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2014/02/5G-PPP-5G-Architecture-WP-For-public-consultation.pdf
[6] A. Tzanakaki et al. "5G Infrastructures Supporting End-User and Operational Services: The 5G-XHaul
Architectural Perspective", IEEE ICC 2016, Workshop on 5G Architecture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May
2016.
[7] Jens Bartelt, Nikola Vucic, Daniel Camps-Mur, Eduard Garcia Villegas, Ilker Demirkol, Albrecht J. Fehske,
Michael Grieger, Anna Tzanakaki, Jesus Gutierrez Teran, Eckhard Grass, George L. Lyberopoulos,
Gerhard P. Fettweis: 5G transport network requirements for the next generation fronthaul interface.
EURASIP J. Wireless Comm. and Networking 2017: 89 (2017).
[8] 5G-XHaul deliverable D5.3, “Demonstration and Evaluation of the 5G-XHaul Integrated Prototype”, June
2018.
[9] 5G-XHaul deliverable D6.4, “5G-XHaul Techno-economic Study”, June 2018.
[10] 5G-XHaul Web Page, https://www.5g-xhaul-project.eu.
[11] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D6.2, “Contribution on Optical Communications standardisation”, July 2016.
[12] 5G-XHaul Deliverable D5.2, “Evaluation of wireless-optical converged functionalities at UNIVBRIS
testbed”, June 2016.
[13] European IPR Helpdesk, "Fact Sheet IP Management in Horizon2020: proposal stage."
[14] N. Vucic, J. Luo, M. Castaneda, M. Iwanow, “Spectrally Efficient Multistream Communication Device and
Method”, patent applications PCT/EP2016/073738 (filled on 05.10.2016).
[15] A. Maltsev et al. “Channel Models for IEEE 802.11ay,” IEEE doc. 802.11-15/1150r6, Sept., 2015.
[16] R1-167198, “Discussion on transmission schemes for NR DL MIMO,” Huawei, HiSilicon, Gothenburg,
Sweden, Aug. 22-26, 2016.
[17] R1-1701713, “Signal Shaping for QAM Constellations,” Huawei, HiSilicon, Athens, Greece, Feb. 13-17,
2017.
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8. Acronyms
Acronym Description
5G 5th Generation Mobile Network
BBU Baseband Unit
BH Backhaul
BIO Bristol is Open
EC European Commission
ETN Edge Transport Node
FH Fronthaul
FMC Fixed / Mobile Converged
MWC Mobile World Congress
OLT Optical Line Terminal
ONU Optical Network Unit
RRH Remote Radio Head
SDN Software Defined Networking
SDO Standards Development Organisation
VNF Virtual Network Function
WG Working Group
