Workpackages

In order to fully satisfy the project objectives, the E2R II workpackages structure has been devised as depicted in the following figure, based on a clear matricial organisation of the E2R II in challenges (“horizontal WPs”) and domains skills (“verticals WPs). The intention in building the new structure of E2R II was to develop a tighter integration of the various research tracks (WPs) and a stronger interoperation between the different technical and technological facilitators under investigation in E2R.

E²R II Project Structure

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The proposed structure will enable the achievements of the following objectives of E2R II:

1. Enabling sustainable business development of reconfigurable systems in a multi-access / multi-owner environment,
2. Enabling end-to-end reconfiguration management and control architecture and devising optimal split of intelligence between network elements and end-user equipment,
3. Enabling efficiency enhancements for radio resource and spectrum management,
4. Enabling unified stable, secure and reliable reconfigurable connectivity in a multi-access / multi-owner situation,
5. Building the European reference prototyping environment for end-to-end reconfigurable systems and solutions.

The main challenges of E2R II will be to develop and demonstrate solutions for interoperability, scalability and flexibility, enabling efficient support of ubiquitous access, pervasive services and dynamic resources management in the radio environment of the future. These research areas will drive the definition of system reference models and the distributed demonstration of resource management across multiple wireless/wireline access networks and multiple operators, with support of legacy architectures, thereby enabling seamless and transparent communication across these heterogeneous environments. Each of the eight technical workpackages is briefly described in the following paragraphs.

E2R Sustainable Business Development and Project Exploitation

WP1 will develop and analyse business models and roadmaps for end-to-end reconfigurable systems. It will aim to match these with a clear understanding of the different stakeholders including the user at the centre, as well as the business value of reconfigurability solutions. Regulatory enablers and constraints will be analysed and the E2R I regulatory framework proposal will be furthered to be capable of supporting reconfigurable systems and to allow their deployment as well as to allow a more flexible use of spectrum to gain higher efficiency. The WP1 will set the parameters for the validation of the E2R business models. Next to elaborating exploitation and dissemination plans, the WP1 will also further build and implement coordinated standardisation and regulation plans.

E²R II WP1 Technical Scope

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End-to-End Reconfiguration Management and Control Architecture

WP2 aims at devising end-to-end reconfiguration management and control architecture together with optimal split of intelligence and functionalities between cognitive network elements and reconfigurable end-user equipment. Building on the work of E2R I, WP2 will define and validate the end-to-end system architecture, evolving the system capabilities and designating logical entities responsible for accomplishing such capabilities. The derived system architecture will be mapped to legacy as well as to evolved physical configurations, yielding the network architecture that presents optimal split of intelligence and functionalities between network elements and end-user equipment. Specific end-to-end mobility and Quality of Service (QoS) protocols and mechanisms will be explored for achieving software downloads and flexible traffic exchange, as well as component-based techniques on the reconfigurable equipment side. The developed protocols and mechanisms will exploit emerging concepts of autonomous systems as an evolutionary step from reconfigurable towards cognitive communications, characterised by self-learning, self-configuring, and self-managing attributes.

E²R II WP1 Technical Scope

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Efficiency Enhancements for Radio Resource and Spectrum

WP3 aims for further enabling and broadening the range of mechanisms available to increase the efficiency of radio resource usage. The theoretical tools, algorithms and mechanisms that will be investigated include the whole range from reconfigurability enabled service independent allocation of spectrum to joint radio resource management in single and multi-operator scenarios with heterogeneous access systems. This contribution will be made in varying forms as one of the drivers for the development of sensing and detection mechanisms for cognitive resource allocation. A spectrum occupancy measurements campaign at different sites of the 2006 FIFA World Cup GermanyTM will be undertaken before, during and after events. The findings and analysis of measurements will form the basis for algorithms development.

E²R II WP1 Technical Scope

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Unified Robust Reconfigurable Connectivity

WP4 enables robust (stable, secure, reliable) end-to-end connectivity in a multi-access/multi-owner environment. The key for accomplishing this objective is a unified management and control framework, which takes into account the interworking with distributed functionalities across the complete system emphasizing support for cognitive networks. Trade-offs amongst power efficiency, timing constraints and resource sharing have to be determined, which result in a cost function optimisation of the mentioned factors. Dependencies for sequencing the reconfiguration process across various system layers will be determined and synchronized in order to enable vertical and horizontal handover. Implementation aspects of reconfigurable equipment management and control will be demonstrated on a local prototyping platform. Validated reconfiguration processes and interfaces will be prepared for standardisation.

E²R II WP1 Technical Scope

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E2R European Reference Prototyping Environment

WP5 will build a reference prototyping environment for end-to-end reconfigurable systems and solutions, thus enabling the validation of the reconfigurability vision developed in the overall E2R project. The reference prototyping environment will consist of terminal systems and a powerful all-IP network infrastructure, where different radio access technologies are available including both heterogeneous and multi-mode aspects. The prototype network infrastructure will consist of GSM/GPRS, UMTS, WLAN (IEEE 802.11x), DVB, WMAN (WiMax) segments. The network infrastructure enables the emulation of reconfigurable elements. The prototype terminal systems will include reconfigurable hardware necessary to demonstrate the E2R scenarios. Terminals will be multi-mode and capable of multi-homing. WP5 will have the responsibility for the adaptations of RATs to the needs of E2R II, including the convergence to a common IP layer.

E²R II WP1 Technical Scope

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Cognitive Networks

WP6 aims to establish a common framework in the European R&D area of cognitive radios and networks, contributing to their definition and future role. The far future self-healing network could be able to perceive radio, service, location and user contexts by interpreting the radio environment and reacting to its changes. The involved functional entities could be distributed over the architecture of the future telecommunication network, e.g. over radio, switching and O&M sub-systems. In this context, reconfigurable and adaptive evolved network nodes, and reconfigurable and self-adaptive resources and related algorithms on the basis of dynamic evolution of radio channel conditions and usage, traffic conditions, are fundamental for the realization of the above concepts. WP6 will study and analyse architecture and network mechanisms for reconfigurable and cognitive network components and assess reconfigurable and self-adaptive resources (both radio and core network ones) and related algorithms on the basis of dynamic evolution of radio channel, traffic conditions and usage.

Reconfigurable Equipment

WP7 aims to develop a detailed knowledge about how reconfigurable equipment, both in the network and in the terminal, can be used in a commercially viable end-to-end reconfigurable system. Business models will be developed, that will support the introduction of reconfigurable equipment given the constraints of power consumption, cost and reliability. The work will then focus on demonstrating how, through the use of a proof of concept environment, equipment can be configured at all levels of the protocol stack and application layer. Novel mechanisms and algorithms will be developed to support configuration management techniques and hardware resource allocation. Through this work, WP7 will identify and highlight interfaces and methods, associated with reconfigurable equipment, that can be standardized and then initiate the standardization process.

Proof-of-concept

WP8 is targeted to the validation of business models, system architecture, mechanisms for radio resource and spectrum efficiency, and platform for dynamic and robust reconfigurable connectivity. More specifically, WP8 aims at defining criteria for the validation of the aforementioned work areas. Furthermore, WP8 is targeted to the definition of test-cases (scenarios) that will ensure the realization of comprehensive studies of all the features of the E2R II Challenges (horizontal WPs), which will be demonstrated through the reference prototyping environment. WP8 will also address the integration of these features with the reference prototyping environment. Finally, an important goal of WP8 is to realize demonstrations and trials, according to the specified test cases, and to assess the degree of compliance with respect to the validation criteria. Corresponding results will be exploited for the refinement and fine-tuning of the E2R components, as well as for dissemination purposes.