Concept, objectives and approach
Describe the objectives and concept behind the proposed activity
Mobile edge technology is in flux. MEC, MCC, ETSI/Eclipse, Fog,
KubernetesEdge, Cloudlets, MobileEdgeX are vying for places within 5G
networks.
We will evaluate the proposals with respect to technology. An
assessment of competitors e.g. for back office support during
standards meetings, is essential. As the national research
organisation we see the alternative proposals in a neutral manner. A
holistic approach for large European OEMs is desirable as often they
are designing their own products, or participating in large projects.
Once strategic decisions have been made, the technical direction needs
to be adhered to satisfy the investment, political or business driven
cases. Technically, there are options in each which need to assessed
and adopted to be future proof.
Our approach is to utilise RI.SE SICS’s participation with Ericsson AB
(proposer 20+ years), access to ongoing projects (e.g. 5GCoral) as
well as working knowledge of the other proposals.
Explain the envisioned area and relevance of the targeted ICT standards development activity and/or the gap(s) addressed from a European perspective
Envisioned: 5G & cloud, extremely high development rate, including
standards proposals within 3GPP/ETSI. Adding AI at the edge, green
computing, plus interoperability with existing 3/4G systems (often
overlooked), therefore Edge/Cloud/5G is very timely.
Relevance: Competing proposals are being evaluated, however it is
difficult to find up-to-date precise comparisons, especially wrt.
software usability. For an OEM this is key, and arguably more critical
the vertical segments choosing an Edge technology. EvalEdge will
address will address this shortcoming, together with Ericsson AB (SE).
Gaps: Key software components are missing, some being developed by the
Cloud actors (e.g. Google) moving into Edge (KubernetesEdge). 5G has
been led by industry sectors, automative, mining, etc. Choices for
consortia is tricky (e.g. 5GCar, 5GSafe). Operating systems research
is fragmented in Europe often in H2020 projects, (e.g. LightKone) but
a system integrator, such as Ericsson is the perfect conduit.
Summarise your expertise in the chosen priority area your broader expertise in standardisation (e.g. previous contributions to standards developments, participation to other WGs, publications)
Chosen area: My Ph.D is in EE with a specialisation in
telecommunications. After 8 years of research, in conjunction with
Ericsson, I have developed a knowledge of systems and protocols (even
developed the “IPv5” called ST-II, a streaming protocol).
RI.SE (then SICS) has worked with 40+ years with Ericsson, and myself
20+ in developing new paradigms for them, ahead of the curve (IP, file
systems, VoIP (my thesis), Caching and now big data/AI). We are working
with Ericsson on HotCloud 3.0 to extend existing systems (Nefele) to
include Edge computing. A CELTIC+ proposal will be submitted in
Oct. 2019 on this topic.
Standards work: Our work on standards usually goes via Ericsson,
either in IETF drafts, 3GPP and implicit activities, ETSI-MEC is the
major forum, but as mentioned in the concept, others exist and can’t
be ignored, we will evaluate and document those activities.
Impact
Describe the expected impact of the proposed activity on the chosen priority of the call and on European interests in more general terms
Expected impact. On a slightly higher level it is as said to ensure
RISE and Ericsson are up to speed with Edge proposals and their
implementations (this has been stated earlier on in the proposal).
Proposed activity can be broken into 2 sub-activities:
1) We will summarise Edge technologies, including the technical
interesting aspects, and ensure these are fed to the back office
department of European actors (through ETSI) in general, in
pre-standards meetings these should be known.
2) Make “Edge native”, develop telecom systems that have edge has a
standard component of the system, essentially this is a distributed
systems research question. System properties are where i) cloud
services are fully distributed ii) all resources belong to a single
resource manager iii) there are different communication mechanisms for
different network latencies
Support from StandICT & the European Investment fund we will take
EvalEdge to the European level, from now, a Swedish one.
Which Standard Group(s) do you want to contribute to?
- ETSI
Other Standard Group(s)?
Work is ongoing within the IETF too.
Indicate what is the added value of the proposed activity to targeted SDO & ICT standardisation processes
The added value to the standards development organisations is to bring
in aspects of 5G systems not normally included in the SDO’s
remits. This is because telecommunications systems are increasingly
being cloudified or parts of software systems and not
telecommunications.
If one looks at MEC it is indeed a mixture of protocols, systems,
administrative domains, hardware and software components. NFV and SDN
illustrate this transition, but Edge will go one step further in this
evolution.
Furthermore, European actors are considering one distributed system to
manage 5G components. Nefele is one, being developed by Ericsson AB.
Implementation
Describe the workplan with the envisioned timeline: Please note that the timeline must not run beyond the 31st of December 2019
- Release state of the art on Edge computing (including software feasibility)
- Synchronise with standards department of Ericsson
- Propose CELTIC+ project with Ericsson research
Describe the operational mode of the hosting SDO, SSO, national bodies e.g., openness of the processes, the type of membership and foreseen contribution
Contribute to Ericssons charter for the upcoming MEC events
MEC#18: 1–4 July 2019, Sophia Antipolis, France
MEC#19: 10–13 September, China, tbc
MEC Tech F2F#4: 15–17 October, US, tbc
MEC#20: 12–15 November, Sophia Antipolis, France
Measurable KPIs
- Edge report release (Aug. 1st)
- Synchronise with standards department of Ericsson (for above meetings)
- Propose CELTIC+ project with Ericsson research (submitted Oct 15th)
Resources
Please detail the funding required and related estimated costs
1. For this short term support, the money will be used to attend 1-2 MEC events as an associate (invited by Ericsson). Cost 3000 Euro.
2. Attend https://conferences.computer.org/edge/2019/ (given it is July, might need post reimbursement from us). Cost 1500 Euro.