5G blueprint

SLICES-EUSKADI offers a wide range of equipment related to 5G communication technologies, all deployed in the experimental infrastructure called SmartNets4E. It includes several computing and communication resources that foster the research and innovation in communication technology, also applied to specific use cases such as Industry 4.0.

SmartNets4E is an NFV- and SDN-aware communication network that interconnects three locations: (1) the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao (EIB), (2) the main campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Leioa, and (3) the Aeronautics Advanced Manufacturing Centre (CFAA) in Zamudio.

Until now eMBB over NSA services is available. and a fully operative 5G URLLC over SA service is expected to (by the end of this year), available which will fulfill the low latency and critical data requirements of the Industrial IoT scenario. Additionally. a 5G Non-Public Network (NPN) with experimental gNodeB provides 5G connectivity in specific areas of the CFAA plant. This setup allows both the integration of 5G sensors and 5G routers in the machine tools to provide added value to the manufacturing processes. Another experimental eNodeb base station provides NB-IoT and LTE-M on-demand coverage for constrained device sensors.

In addition, a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been integrated into the SN4I architecture, enabling the deployment of several constrained device sensors in the CFAA in order to monitor different environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, or lightness. The interconnection between the WSN and the wired SN4I is performed through a 6LoWPAN Border Router, which is implemented by means of a Raspberry Pi running the necessary protocol translation and packet routing functions, and several Constrained Device Sensor (CDS) using the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. To mitigate security issues, the Hidra protocol is used, providing a strong and dynamic access control solution that can be implemented even in the most resource-constrained devices.

As additional material, we have the equipment to stress, measure (bandwidth, delay, BER, setup time and TCP throughput), and exercise the network at speeds up to 100 Gbps. We also have several P4-enabled 100 Gbps switches that enable the offloading of network functions to the data plane for latency-critical services.

Available material and resources

USRPs:

  • USRP Ettus B210
  • USRP Ettus N210

Base stations:

  • Amari Callbox Mini 4G/5G equipment
  • Amari Callbox Classic 4G/5G equipment

UEs:

  • Quectel RM510Q-GL modules
  • Quectel RM520N-GL modules
  • 2x Raspberry Pi 3B
  • 4x Raspberry Pi 4
  • 3x Raspberry Pi 5
  • DECT NR+ Evaluation Board
  • Ursalink UR75 router

Servers:

  • OpenStack/Kubernetes with capacity to deploy virtualised 5G resources
  • 5x SuperMicro SYS-E200-8D
  • 2x SuperMicro Super Servers

Others:

  • Keysight Nemo Handy
  • 2x Anritsu traffic generator MT7000A
  • 2x P4 switch STORDIS BF2556X-1T
  • 2x Agilio CX 2x10GbE smartNIC

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