Multiple visions of 6G networks elicit Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a central, native element. When 6G systems are deployed at a large scale, end-to-end AI-based solutions will necessarily have to encompass both the radio and the fiber-optical domain. This paper introduces the Decentralized Multi-Party, Multi-Network AI (DMMAI) framework for integrating AI into 6G networks deployed at scale. DMMAI harmonizes AI-driven controls across diverse network platforms and thus facilitates networks that autonomously configure, monitor, and repair themselves. This is particularly crucial at the network edge, where advanced applications meet heightened functionality and security demands. The radio/optical integration is vital due to the current compartmentalization of AI research within these domains, which lacks a comprehensive understanding of their interaction. Our approach explores multi-network orchestration and AI control integration, filling a critical gap in standardized frameworks for AI-driven coordination in 6G networks. The DMMAI framework is a step towards a global standard for AI in 6G, aiming to establish reference use cases, data and model management methods, and benchmarking platforms for future AI/ML solutions.

The diversity of Beyond 5G (B5G)/Sixth-Generation (6G) technologies and the increasing density of Internet-of-Things (IoT) clients are pushing the traditional MANagement and Orchestration (MANO) into more complex scenarios. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group (ISG) Zero-touch Network and Service Management (ZSM) has published several documents that present ZSM as a visionary concept, which promises to deliver benefits for BSG and 6G networks, such as increased efficiency in MANO and for tackling the challenges and limitations endured in the transition from human-intervention assisted network management to fully autonomous network management. This work-in-progress paper provides insights into the recent trends in defining and developing ZSM, the efforts towards standardization of its guidelines, coverage of existing solutions that apply the ZSM principles, a discussion about the imperative of its adoption in the domains of the evolving mobile generations and a proposal for its application in a vehicular use case of Smart Traffic Management (STM), where B5G/6G applications are enhanced by a robust ZSM capability of edge resources, to improve the effectiveness of STM.

In the rapidly evolving Industry 4.0 landscape, the integration of industrial robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the processes involved in storing and managing goods. While these advancements hold the promise of enhancing operational efficiency, they necessitate a robust and high-performing indoor network infrastructure. This demo paper introduces a dynamic network slicing mechanism tailored for Wi-Fi networks, capitalizing on readily available Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, and seamlessly incorporating In-Band Network Telemetry (INT) within a Software Defined Networking (SDN) framework. To effectively navigate the intricacies and uncertainties of network environments, we employ Fuzzy Logic to oversee queueing disciplines (qdisc), which directly influence air-time—the duration a device allocates to transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel. Through a series of experimental demonstrations, we highlight the effectiveness of our proposed mechanism in maintaining stringent Quality of Service (QoS) standards even in conditions of network saturation. Our solution guarantees uninterrupted and streamlined operations, even in high-demand scenarios

The paper demonstrates the VITAL-5G platform capabilities to improve the adoption and effectiveness of 5G and beyond solutions within the Transport & Logistic domain by bridging the knowledge gap between industry stakeholders, network experts, and service developers. Therefore, in this paper, we present four distinct capabilities the VITAL-5G platform offers i) Facilitating deployment of vertical service in the 5G network, ii) Real-time monitoring of network and service performance and iii) Advanced failure diagnostics. IV) Utilization of 5G slices. To enhance the adoption and effectiveness of 5G and beyond solutions within the T&L domain, we showcase how the VITAL-5G platform hides the operational complexity from the experimenters, allowing them to express their network, application, and hardware requirements in a human-readable format, while in turn deploying complex services on the 5G SA infrastructure.

In the public safety sector, 5G offers immense opportunities for enhancing mission-critical services by provisioning virtualized service functions at the network edge, which enables achieving high reliability and low-latency. One of these mission-critical services is Back Situation Awareness (BSA) that supports Emergency Vehicles (EmVs) by increasing awareness about them on the roads. In this article, we introduce an on-demand BSA application service, which has been developed for multi-domain Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) systems, enabling early notification for vehicles on the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of an approaching EmV. The state-of-the-art approaches inform civilian vehicles about EmVs only when they are in a close proximity (up to 300 m). However, in some situations (e.g., in congested areas), this may not be enough for the civilian vehicles to safely and timely maneuver out of the lane of an EmV. Our approach is, to the best of our knowledge, a unique way to significantly extend this awareness by creating an orchestrated 5G-based MEC deployment of BSA application service on optimally selected edges, thereby stretching over multiple edge domains and even countries. While consuming the real-time location, speed, and heading of an EmV, such application service affords the drivers with sufficient time to create a clear corridor, allowing the EmV to pass through unhindered in a safe manner thereby increasing the mission success. The detailed design and the performance analysis of the BSA application service that has been created following modern cloud-native principles based on Docker and Kubernetes, is presented in terms of the impact of emergency scale on the MEC system resources and service response time. Moreover, we also introduce a metric called panic indicator, which depicts how the proposed BSA service can potentially help in enabling drivers to calmly maneuver out of the path of an EmV, thereby increasing road safety.

Vehicular communication is a critical technology in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that aims to improve transportation safety and efficiency. However, traditional radio-based systems, such as Cellular V2X (C-V2X) and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), may suffer from performance degradation in dense traffic scenarios. To address this issue, Line of Sight (LoS) technologies such as Visible Light Communication (VLC) are being explored as complementary technologies to RF.VLC utilizes LEDs on vehicles to exchange information with preceding and subsequent vehicles, allowing ITS to create a safer and less congested transportation system. Recent studies have shown that combining DSRC and VLC can minimize the performance degradation experienced by RF communication technologies.This paper highlights the need to combine RF and LoS technologies to improve the stability and reliability of V2V communication. It discusses various LoS and RF technologies and presents combinations that can be used for communication. Finally, a hybrid strategy that combines the best properties of individual technologies is proposed, demonstrating the feasibility of such a solution.

The complexity of orchestrating Beyond 5G services, such as vehicular, demands novel approaches to remove limitations of existing techniques, as these might cause a large delay in orchestration operations, and thus, negatively impact the service performance. For instance, the human-in-the-loop approach is slow and prone to errors, and closed loop control using rule-based algorithms is difficult to design, as an abundant number of parameters need to be configured. Applying Artificial Intelligence (Al)/Machine Learning (ML), in combination with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN), seems a promising solution for enabling automation and intelligence that will optimize orchestration operations. In this article, we study the challenges in current ETSI NFV orchestration solutions for B5G C-V2X edge services; propose an Al/ML-based closed-loop orchestration framework; propose how and which Al/ML techniques can alleviate the identified challenges and what are the implications resulting from applying certain Al/ML techniques; and discuss A//ML-based system enablers for B5G C-V2X services.

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has led to exponential data growth that can be harnessed for personalized services, cost savings, and environmental benefits. However, collecting and sharing this data comes with significant risks, including hacking attacks, breaches of sensitive data, and non-compliance with privacy regulations. This paper proposes a comprehensive, end-to-end secure system, MOZAIK, for privacy-preserving data collection, analysis, and sharing to address these challenges. We perform a requirements analysis from the perspectives of security, privacy, legal, and functionality, highlighting the various mechanisms employed to safeguard sensitive data throughout the entire data cycle. This includes the use of lightweight encryption, distributed computation, and anonymous communication mechanisms to reduce security and privacy risks and to protect against single points of failure. MOZAIK provides a trusted and secure platform for data sharing and processing that can enable the creation of a data market and data economy.

The automotive industry requires ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity for its vehicles, and as such, it is one of the promising customers of 5G ecosystems and their orchestrated network infrastructure. In particular, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) provides moving vehicles with localized low-latency access to service instances. However, given the mobility of vehicles, and various resource demand patterns at the distributed MEC nodes, challenges such as fast reconfiguration of the distributed deployment according to mobility pattern and associated service and resource demand need to be mitigated. In this paper, we present the orchestrated edges platform, which is a solution for orchestrating distributed edges in complex cross-border network environments, tailored to Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) use cases within a 5G ecosystem. The proposed solution enables collaboration between orchestrators that belong to different tiers, and various federated edge domains, with the goal to enable service continuity for vehicles traversing cross-border corridors. The paper presents the prototype that we built for the H2020 5G-CARMEN trials, including the validation of the orchestration design choices, followed by the promising results that span both orchestration (orchestration latency) and application performance-related metrics (client-to-edge and edge-to-edge service data plane latencies).

5G Stand Alone (SA) networks are starting to be considered, designed and implemented in multiple countries in various forms (public, private, experimental). 5G SA networks mass adoption is expected to materialize by 2025. Mass deployment is anticipated at a large scale, due to the rich features and capabilities offered by 5G networks, including but not limited to slicing, service orchestration and automation, bringing the benefits of 5G among industry stakeholders and verticals. The concept of Network Applications is gaining momentum, as a way to ease the process of deploying industry-specific services and applications and to integrate them seamlessly with the new 5G networks and customer-specific application components. We target deploying and operating the novel 5G SA testbeds, Network Application and related capabilities in different T&L facilities across Europe. We envision the architectural advancement in terms of 5G features, such as orchestration, multi-slice implementation, Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of Experience (QoE) and an innovative end-to-end monitoring framework, for network and application KPIs. In this paper, 5G open testbed advancements (3GPP Rel. 16 compliant) and readiness for Network Application experiments in real-life scenarios are presented, integrated as a unitary whole within the ED-funded VITAL-5G project.

As the shipping sector has been one of the major impact factors on economic growth over the past decades, its digitalization is expected to make unprecedented improvements in the safety and reliability of ship control, thereby ultimately enabling the autonomous operations of ships. The automated control of ships will not only mitigate the risks of human mistakes but will also improve the efficiency of operations by preventing unexpected delays while being environmentally sustainable. With the advent of the Internet of Ships (IoS) sector, well-known and mature concepts of the Internet of Things (IoT) are being applied to ships and ports, thereby making them more and more equipped with sensing and communication capabilities that set the ground for improved situational awareness and better decision-making. However, there are many challenges that need to be thoroughly studied, such as the communication between barges, ports, and services, as increased network latency and limitations on the bandwidth imposed by satellite communications could introduce significant risks for accident occurrence, ultimately affecting the overall automated operation/teleoperation of barges. In this paper, we present one of the first attempts to test the potential of 5G systems for automating barge operations, starting from teleoperation as an enabler of automation, thereby creating and validating a cellular-based automated barge control system in a real-life environment. In this system, the barge is sailing in a busy port area such as one of the Port of Antwerp Bruges, while being connected to the 5G network. We assess the quality of the 5G communication system and present and discuss our initial results on the enhancements that 5G could bring to teleoperation and automation of the barge control.

The proliferation of 5G technology is enabling vertical industries to improve their day-to-day operations by leveraging enhanced Quality of Service (QoS). One of the key enablers for such 5G performance is network slicing, which allows telco operators to logically split the network into various virtualized networks, whose configuration and thus performance can be tailored to verticals and their low-latency and high throughput requirements. However, given the end-to-end perspective of 5G ecosystems where slicing needs to be applied on all network segments, including radio, edge, transport, and core, managing the deployment of slices is becoming excessively demanding. There are also various verticals with strict requirements that need to be fulfilled. Thus, in this paper, we focus on the solution for dynamic and quality-aware network slice management and orchestration, which is simultaneously orchestrating network slices that are deployed on top of the three 5G testbeds built for transport and logistics use cases. The slice orchestration system is dynamically interacting with the testbeds, while at the same time monitoring the real-time performance of allocated slices, which is triggering decisions to either allocate new slices or reconfigure the existing ones. In this paper, we illustrate the scenarios where dynamic provisioning of slices is required in one of the testbeds while taking into account specific latency/throughput/location requirements coming from the verticals and their end users.

The Transport & Logistics (T&L) industry directly employs around 10 million people and accounts for 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the European Union (EU). Effective T&L systems are fundamental for the ability of European companies to compete in the world economy. With the advent of 5G with the data rates of up to 20Gbps, its end-to-end latencies down to 5ms, and its very high reliability (99,999%), there is a significant opportunity to bring innovations to the T&L vertical, and why the T&L sector is expected to be one of the key adopters of 5G technology. In this paper, we define a 5G testbed tailored to T&L vertical services, which are designed and developed using the concept of 5G-based Edge Network Applications defined within the European project VITAL-5G. In addition to the testbed, we also describe the interaction with the testbed and its accessibility via the VITAL-5G platform, which supports T&L actors to experiment and validate their services within the real-life 5G-based T&L environment (e.g., sea ports, river ports, and warehouses).

The 5G ecosystem is comprised of the cellular 5G System, as well as a managed and orchestrated infrastructure providing virtualized network and service functions. The automotive industry with its stringent requirements for connected vehicles is a promising and yet challenging consumer of such 5G ecosystem. Deployment of service instances at distributed cloud resources of cellular network infrastructure edges enables localized low-latency access to these services from moving vehicles but comes along with challenges, such as the need for fast reconfiguration of the distributed deployment according to mobility pattern and associated service and resource demand. In this paper, we investigate a solution for the collaborative orchestration of services for Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) within such 5G ecosystem. A key objective is the service continuity for a highly dynamic automotive scenario, achieved by the associated management and orchestration of these services in distributed edge clouds. The proposed solution leverages a multi-tier orchestration system as well as localized management and protocol operations for collaborative edge resources. By means of both analytical and experimental evaluations, the paper draws conclusions on the gain in accelerating orchestration decisions and enforcements, while balancing associated protocol and computational load over the highly distributed and multi-layered orchestration system.