Projects

TIMING project

TimingTowards a smart and efficiency telecom infrastructure meeting current and future industry needs

January 2022 – December 2024
TSI-063000-2021-145, TSI-063000-2021-148, TSI-063000-2021-149

Identifying Industry 4.0 as a key vertical, TIMING targets to design a solution to enable e2e reliable TSN services supported by operators’ infrastructures that are currently carrying on a best effort basis. TIMING consists of three subprojects: SP-1, SP-2, and SP-3.

TIMING-SP1 will analyze TSN support in the Ethernet and Wi-Fi segments and identify the enhancements to be made for supporting the sub-millisecond latency for TSN systems. Scheduling solutions to support these enhancements will be devised. In addition, solutions to automate the deployment of e2e TSN services with assured performance will be designed. Such service automation relies on a control plane, which will include a TSN controller able to control and monitor Ethernet and Wi-Fi TSN nodes, a TSN Connectivity Manager to provide e2e connectivity across TSN and non-TSN segments, and a QoS estimation tool that includes accurate TSN traffic models. Finally, TIMING SP-1 will maximize impact by influencing major vendors and service providers on the adoption of the developed principles through communication, dissemination, and standardization activities, while exploiting the results and knowledge obtained, and contributing to the digital transition of the industry and the green deal.

TIMING SP-2 will develop solutions to support TSN in the Ethernet and Wi-Fi segments ensuring the sub-millisecond latency. Scheduling solutions to support these enhancements will be developed and assessed. In addition, solutions to automate the deployment of e2e TSN services with assured performance will be developed and assessed. Such service automation relies on a control plane, which will include a TSN controller able to control and monitor Ethernet and Wi-Fi TSN nodes, a TSN Connectivity Manager to provide e2e connectivity across TSN and non-TSN segments, and a QoS estimation tool that includes accurate TSN traffic models. In TIMING SP-2 the different components will be integrated and to build to validate the whole architecture.

TIMING SP-3 will build PoC demonstrators validating the whole TIMING architecture. The POC will demonstrate: (1) at the modeling level, a tool that evaluates the performance of the new TSN service to be deployed and the impact on the existing services (TSN and/or BE traffic); (2) at the control plane, the capability to deploy reliable e2e TSN services with committed performance in terms of e2e delay; and (3) at the infrastructure level, the capability to transport TSN traffic between two TSN domains: one with Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) emulating a factory, and the other with the AGV’s controller, which requires bounded latency communications with the AVs; other services for loading the system will be also included.

TRAINER project

TrainerTowards fully AI-empowered networks

September 2021 – August 2024
PID2020-118011GB-C21

The huge effort of several worldwide R&D public and private initiatives towards the design of 5G networks and systems carried out in the last few years is significantly contributing to the digital transformation of economy and society. Currently, network operators are provisioning initial 5G services and continuing the long process of network evolution for future advanced 5G services. However, the digital transformation increased demands on the network side as well as its increased capacity. Moreover, the upcoming 6G services will dramatically increase requirements on many network Key Performance Indicators versus 5G, such as peak data rates, latencies and with ultra-high reliability.

5G and beyond networks have to support a combination of several types of workloads stemming from a variety of use cases/verticals. These workloads can come and go and may even change dynamically during services lifetime. As a result, the derived requirement from the networks may change often and these changes may be significant. Therefore, the networks must constantly adapt to and anticipate changes, increasing thus dramatically the network complexity. The observation that certain trends in network behavior can be predicted and actions taken in anticipation, leads to the introduction of AI/ML. Actually there is huge potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve management and performance of Beyond 5G networks which are expected to be developed in the years to come. Indeed, AI/ML technologies offer the potential to efficiently address the challenges of complex 5G and beyond networks.

Leveraging on the wide expertise of two multi-disciplinary research groups, The TRAINER project ambitiously aims at architecting and validating a converged an AI/ML empowered end-to-end network sustainable infrastructure towards the full deployment of beyond 5G networks towards 6G. In particular, the TRAINER solution will encompass different network segments (Core, optical Metro/Access, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) servers/central data centers and 5G-RAN), different network technologies and business roles. The ambitious innovation that TRAINER will bring reside on the concept of having AI/ML distributed at all levels of the future networks, including AI/ML-enabled end-to-end service orchestration, cognitive network management in SDN/NFV, LISP and RINA technology domains and even at optical data plane level for quality of transmission assurance and signal processing.

HEDY project

HEDY Life in the AI Era

November 2021 – November 2023
2021-1-HU01-KA220-HED-000029536

HEDY – Life in the AI era is a 2-year Erasmus+ project started in November 2021. In its own title, it provides tribute to Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian actress and inventor (1914-2000), co-creator of wireless communications technology, adopted to control torpedoes during World War II and currently still used in
mobile networks, Bluetooth devices and Wi-Fi.

Hedy stands for being a free and accessible source of information regarding the digital technologies of the 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), namely Artificial Intelligence (AI), by enlightening its possible positive future applications, whilst clarifying the possible impacts, including threats to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and democracy, being of “utmost importance that AI is discussed and that the public is informed if we are to embrace whatever opportunities it creates in a manner that is human-centred, ethical, secure, and true to European values” (EC, 2020). The main target (but not exclusive) of
this project is higher education audience.

Four specific objectives will be produced to reach this goal:

  • A Booklet – an essay defining the HEDY position on Life in the AI Era and the rationale for that position. It organizes the AI features and positive impacts, risks associated with certain uses and identifies challenges, opportunities and expected impacts with paradigmatic examples, offered in an engaging way to stimulate reflection and debate on knowledge society topics;
  • A Toolkit – a collection of influential audio-visual tools, showing how AI could tackle some of the world’s most challenging societal issues, as well as the risks to be mitigated if AI realizes its full potential, to be used flexibly to support learning and debate activities. It includes fictional and factual films & documentaries and expert speeches, of which five to be produced under Hedy;
  • A Massive Open Online Course(MOOC) – a course to promote extensive knowledge, critical reflection and debate on AI and its key impact on society. It will be free and open access for participants, with interactive forums. The course will be structured in 5 modules and authored by experts. Participants can share ideas and get deeply involved in AI subjects via a variety of online activities;
  • A Guideline – a concise and easy-to-read documentation explaining the nature of the HEDY learning resources, the best use of the assets produced and a glossary with key terms on AI related topics. It will help to create a solid foundation for ensuring the usability of the HEDY results by a wider community of practice network, even after the end of the project.

The first HEDY Multiplier Event was celebrated in Barcelona, May 16, 2022.

Video briefly presenting the HEDY project.

Video presenting the Booklet.

This workshop focused on validating the first result, namely the Booklet. It aimed at offering a comprehensive and shared view of how AI is affecting our lives and reshaping our socioeconomic, cultural, and human environments by promoting critical reflection, self-based learning and discussion on these issues. In this workshop, we presented the results of our two-fold approach to build our rationale about the challenges, opportunities and expected impact of AI on four topics: business, governance, skills/competencies, and people/lifestyle.

The workshop was located at Sala d’Actes del Vèrtex, Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona, Plaça d’Eusebi Gëull 6, Barcelona. Coordinates: 41.39063, 2.11392

Date: 05/16/2022
Hours: 9.30 – 13.30 (CET)