Accessibility statement

Design of innovative access protocols for 5G cell-less architectures

5Gaura

5Gaura aims to provide user-centric programmable multi-tenant network framework for 5G. The 5Gaura project will focus on exploiting Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) to simplify network management and meet the 5G requirements. The focus of this research, as part of the 5Gaura project, will be to develop a user-centric access approach that is envisioned to provide efficient and seamless access across multiple radio access technologies (multi-RAT). A novel access communication protocol will be designed for 5G cell-less architectures to allow devices to access multi-RAT technologies through radio programmability and offer the possibility of switching smartly between different medium access protocols (eg, scheduled, random or hybrid) and transmission modes (eg, peer-to peer, multicast, etc). The SDN architecture will play an essential role in achieving the coordination and coexistence of the multi-RAT.

Key objectives

  • Define the different functionalities with respect to access mechanisms that should be supported in future 5G networks (supported RATs and corresponding MAC protocols, MA schemes, transmission modes, etc).
  • Develop innovative mechanisms that can smartly switch between different radio access technologies. 
  • Exploit SDN to provide a programmable access protocol.

Expected outputs

  • Design a unified programmable access protocol that will allow users to connect to multi-tier 5G networks. 
  • Propose and evaluate algorithms that can effectively switch between different RATs.

 

5G Aura

Members

  • Tareq Al-Shami
  • David Grace
  • Alister Burr

 Funding

  • European Commission: EU H2020 MARIE SKĊODOWSKA-CURIE INNOVATIVE TRAINING NETWORKS

Dates

  • July 2016 to
    June 2019