Development Roadmap
Purpose and Background Information
6G-SANDBOX is a HE funded research project (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2022-STREAM-C-01-01). The project brings a complete and modular facility for the European experimentation ecosystem (in line and under the directions set by SNS JU), which is expected to provide support for the next decade for technology and research validation processes needed in the pathway towards 6G. In scope of the proposed facility are technologies and research advances, that span over the entire service provisioning chain, and refer to user/data, control and management planes.
6G-SANDBOX provides the means for the generation of testbeds in the form of Trial Networks. A Trial Network (TN) is defined as a fully configurable, manageable, and controllable network that combines virtual, physical, and emulated resources to enable experiments for validating 6G technologies and measure 6G KPIs. Instances of Trial Networks might be offered targeting specific network domains and technologies, while within the 6G-SANDBOX project, end-to-end Trial Networks are offered by the four experimentation platforms (network and compute infrastructures) of the project.
The Trial Network software components are described in a common repository, called in the project framework as 6G Library1, which eases an experimenter to perform a modular and automatic deployment of a Trial Network by selecting on demand the required elements from the library. The 6G library’s objects are curated and designed to serve as the foundational building blocks for building the Trial Networks. For the library implementation 6G-SANDBOX Github2 serves as a version control system essential for monitoring changes within computer files, primarily employed in managing source code during software development. Every element in the library is described as a self-contained unit equipped with the necessary automation and scripts for deployment within a compute infrastructure. In this view, every element in the library complies with a specific predefined toolset (namely Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, and Ansible) and is hosted under a common folder structure.
The brain for the realization of the Trial Network Concept is the Trial Network Life-Cycle Manager (TNLCM). The TNLCM is the entity that establishes a Trial Network and ensures that every Trial Network in each platform is accessible and in working order, as well as orchestrates the necessary actions required for changing the state of a Trial Network when necessary.
To further assist any compute infrastructure to offer Trial Networks, a Toolkit3 has been designed and implemented. The Toolkit offers an easy and automated way to deploy fundamental software pieces (e.g., the 6G-Library and the TNLCM) of the 6G-SANDBOX in a compute infrastructure. To this end, key software pieces of the project have been added as appliances (KVM nodes) in a project-related marketplace4.
Building on top of the third-party engagement guide5 as well as the installation guide for the 6G-SANDBOX toolkit6 this document includes fundamental information on the development activity that takes place in the project, with major scope to provide any third party with a clear view on the available and the expected architectural components.
The structure of the document is as follows. Section 2 presents the architecture that represents the project’s concept and depicts the main Software components that are being developed and integrated in the project. Section 3 provides the current state of the development and integration process in a comprehensive roadmap.
1. https://github.com/6G-SANDBOX/6G-Library
2. https://github.com/6G-SANDBOX/
3. https://6g-sandbox.eu/6g-sandbox-toolkit/
4. https://marketplace.mobilesandbox.cloud:9443/appliance
5. https://zenodo.org/records/13594165
6. https://6g-sandbox.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/6G-SANDBOX-Toolkit_Installation-G-V1.0_F.pdf
Software Development and Integration Roadmap
The software components that are being developed and integrated in the 6G-SANDBOX project are depicted in Trial Network Life-Cycle Manager (TNLCM), fundamental modules that enable the 6G-Library, a common API framework for exposing API services to third parties, as well as auxiliary tools needed for each TN, e.g., a routing manager that manages the routing between physical components (e.g., an outdoor gNB) and virtual ones (e.g, a newly deployed core network). To better present the components we have organized them into four categories based on the functionality/services that they offer.
Figure 1: Architectural representation of the software components that are being developed and integrated in the 6G-SANDBOX project
Category A refers to software components that manage the compute infrastructure. All the other software components offered by the project are subject to the resource management and orchestration of Category A software which is provided through Opennebula services.
Category B refers to the group of components that realize the Trial Network concept, including the Trial Network Life-Cycle Manager (TNLCM), fundamental modules that enable the 6G-Library, a common API framework for exposing API services to third parties, as well as auxiliary tools needed for each TN, e.g., a routing manager that manages the routing between physical components (e.g., an outdoor gNB) and virtual ones (e.g, a newly deployed core network).
Category C includes network-related TN ingredients that can be used in a TN. In this category, there is a rich list of components that are represented as elements in the 6G-Library. This list is further enhanced with additions brought from Open Call projects. Components for all the network domains are available (either the code or a representation of them in the 6G-Library to be ready for use by a TN). At the network core, Open5GS, open5GCore and Athonet core are provided, while open and advanced implementations of specific Network Functions also available (e.g., a P4 based implementations of the UPF, and the Network Exposure Function (under the ONEmNEF Open Call project). At the Transport network, Satellite links are integrated, controllers for Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) are available, as well as a protocol for enabling multipath communications has been implemented. At the radio access domain, Open RAN, RIS, and JSAC approaches are developed, while gNBs established in the 4 project platforms can be used through TNs.
Category D includes experimentation-related TN ingredients that can be used in a TN. Similarly to Category C, Category D components are represented as elements in the 6G-Library. The 6G-SANDBOX project offers two alternatives regarding test automation and management of the experimentation process, namely: the ELCM and the Campaign manager. In category D, a network digital twin is included as well, which provides realistic experimentation potential, by using a digital representation of the University of Malaga/ ITIS campus. In addition, since the experimentation process may include vertical specific components, they can be hosted in the local compute infrastructure of a platform or in the central cloud. As an example, within the project, XR and Haptic solutions are available.
6G-SANDBOX Software Components Roadmap
Grant Agreement
6G-SANDBOX has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101096328
