PLATFORM LEADER

Prof. Ari Pouttu

COUNTRY/COUNTRIES

Finland

Short Description

CWC research unit at Oulu has a campus wide 5G Test Network (5GTN) with small cell, macro-cell and distributed antenna based cellular network to be complemented by NFV based EPC and 5G backhauling solution (http://5gtn.fi/). 5GTN is a full-scale 5G test network with its own SIM cards, and it supports using 5G devices, higher frequency bands, cognitive management functionalities, and system testing tools for new solutions.

The key assets in the current infrastructure

The 5GTN feature evolution follows 5G research and standardisation progress, acting as testing, research and verification platform for theoretical and practical 5G research. The cellular devices part of the network is composed of several LTE small cells (700 MHz, 2.1, 2.3, 2.6) and 2 macro cells (2.3 and 2.6 GHz). The network has two 5GNR base stations (3.5 GHz) in NSA mode and one in SA mode, complemented with User Equipment (modems and routers) from several manufacturers that are easily integrated to almost any device, and tens of 5G enabled mobile phones from several vendors. The network has recently been complemented by mmW (24-28 GHz) 5GNR base stations as well as with 36 remote radio head (RRH) based cloud RAN 5G NR devices working in SA mode. For research purposes, we have also pre-standard 5G capable NOKIA proof-of-concept (PoC) devices at 26-28 GHz. The network is controlled by operator grade EPC (Evolved Packet Core), thus making OULU in practice a network operator with own SIM production for mobile devices. The current operational EPC version is 5G NSA compliant, and new commercial SA cores with new baseband and radio modules are currently being installed. For research purposes a 5G standalone (SA) Open-source core with macro base station is also available. The network within the campus is complemented by wireless sensor network (IoT, internet of things) extension with estimated 2000 different kinds of sensors with wireless connectivity through NB-IoT, LTE-M and LoRa. Addition to previously mentioned devices and services 5GTN has also a test car that has both 5G and Starlink connectivity capabilities.

Technology offering in details:

    • 1 webportal (5gtn.fi)
    • Frequency licences (in collaboration VTT – UOULU):  
        ◦ 700MHz (B28) BW=10MHz
        ◦ 2100MHz (B1) BW=10MHz
        ◦ 2300MHz (40) BW=20MHz
        ◦ 2600MHz (B7) BW=10MHz
        ◦ 2600MHz (B7) BW=5MHz
        ◦ 3.5GHz (n78) BW 60MHz
        ◦ 4.0GHz (n77) BW 200MHz
        ◦ 25GHz (n258) BW 850MHz
    • 2 Macros (B28) with NB-IoT and Cat-M
    • 2 Macro (B7)
    • 1 Macro (B40), LTE-TDD
    • 20+ Picos (B1+B7) on air (10+ picos available/in use for different tests)  
    • 3 pcs 5G NR  
    • 5G-PoC (26-28 GHz)
    • Hundreds of Sim-cards available
    • 1 EPC (4G NSA), 1 OpenEPC, 1 Cumucore (SA), 3 Open5GS and 1 commercial SA/NSA 5G core
    • 1 Bluetooth –based indoor positioning system, (700 beacons)  
    • 1 LoRa network with approx. 2000 sensors
    • 12 Multi Access Edge Computers (MEC) aka edge server
    • 36 5GNR remote radio heads (RRHs) and 3 baseband units (BBUs)
    • Several drones up to the very high-end device
    • 9 OpenEDGE servers
    • 4 OAIBOXes
    • Tens of 4G and 5G mobile phones. Some of them with mmW capability.
    • 5G routers from several manufacturers
    • 3D scanner and powerful GPUs available
    • Test car with 5G and Starlink capabilities

Services currently offered by the infrastructure

  • Sensor data is available for anyone to explore, free of charge.
  • big data computing servers for network data analytics purposes. Some of these servers are distributed within the network thus allowing multi-access edge computing (MEC) as well as caching services.
  • The NOKIA EPC has open application programming interfaces (virtualized EPC) that makes it possible to integrate new services to e.g., network management.

6G-SANDBOX extensions and new features

The Oulu Site will be enhanced with all the software components developed in 6G-SANDBOX to create the trial networks and network digital twins (i.e., the components that will be hosted in the 6G Library) and will integrate 6G components at the physical infrastructure layer that are related to:

  • Enhance the autonomous programmability features of the 5GTN, particularly incorporating within 5GTN AI-based closed loops that will be developed within the project and that can assist in autonomously optimizing the network configuration and the edge cloud resource allocations for both initial deployment and lifecycle management of virtual EPC and 5G core.
  • Incorporate within 5GTN an AI-based closed loop that can protect the network against Application-Layer (D)DoS Attack and protect the edge cloud against economic denial of sustainability attacks.
  • Expose APIs to some of its cloud nodes where external users can deploy their services to be delivered as an edge cloud service and tested over the 5GTN.