5G and next generation mobile performance compliance testing assurance
Antonio Cuadra-Sánchez
Indra Minsait
The 5G-PERFECTA project has developed a 5G performance compliance testing assurance solution that measures the KPIs to show the real behavior of 5G network and services.
The challenge of CELTIC-NEXT project 5G-PERFECTA has been to develop the technology to assure the 5G service quality based on data processing, that is, to guarantee that the quality of 5G networks is aligned with the expectations of bandwidth, latency and other key performance indicators. A series of innovation activities have been settled in order to establish a reference architecture for supervising 5G networks by means of monitoring techniques that measure 5G performance indicators to evaluate the real performance of 5G networks. The consortium, led by Indra Minsait, gathers 16 partners from Industry & Telco, Research Centers, Academia and SMEs of Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey.
Motivation
The 5G infrastructure will deliver solutions, architectures, technologies and standards for the ubiquitous 5G communication infrastructures of the next decade. The following parameters are indicative of the new network characteristics to be achieved at an operational level: 10 times to 100 times higher typical user data rate and End-to-End latency of < 1ms. This new high-performance network needs to be effectively tested to assure that 5G technology is actually offered with high quality levels. For this purpose, we have developed a 5G performance compliance testing assurance solution that calculates KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to show the real behavior of 5G network and services. In addition, we have developed automated processes, tools and mechanisms ensuring 5G service quality, based on data processing and analytics approaches.
Scenarios and use cases
We have defined two main project scenarios and six use cases. The 5G Network Performance scenario provides the performance monitoring information and includes the testbed and measurement scope for 5G network performance analysis. The 5G Quality Assurance scenario provides the quality of service monitoring information, including the time-sensitive networking mechanisms, the deployment of critical services with performance guarantees, and the QoS observability for 5G. See in figure 1 the project scenarios and use cases.
5G-PERFECTA scenarios and use cases
Impact
The 5G performance compliance testing assurance solution will help the digital providers (operators, service providers, applications providers, etc.) to evaluate how next generation services are performed on the 5G networks for different purposes: measuring of 5G network performance, validating the services on 5G networks, monitoring the QoS and QoE, launching of new applications, etc. In addition, there is a very strong focus on end users in 5G PERFECTA, since they are the ones who really benefit from the correct behaviour of the 5G network. For this purpose, we have considered the end-user perspective in the analysis of the performance of services on 5G networks.
Conclusion
The project will provide capabilities that improve efficiency in content delivery by means of user-oriented quality assurance capabilities, which will be able to impact a significant part of the 5G revenues expected for the following years. The outcomes of this project will allow network and service providers to deploy the right 5G infrastructure to run the most advanced video technology business cases before final 5G standardization is complete.
5G-PERFECTA will provide a monitoring platform that delivers real measurements of several new feasible services over the new generation networks, including beyond 4G and the 5G network, tested on a real infrastructure. These performance indicators will allow to determine the suitability of new mobile infrastructures, including 5G to support next generation applications in mobility, such as remote driving, medical care, logistics, retail, Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, etc.
You can find more information on 5G-PERFECTA at https://www.celticnext.eu/project-5g-perfecta/.
Public Authorities
This project has been co-funded in Spain by the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI), in Sweden by Vinnova, in Portugal by Portugal 2020, in Poland by Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju and in Turkey by Tübitak.