Michael Dieudonne
Keysight Technologies
Dimitris Tsolkas
Fogus Innovation
Introduction
Sustainability is one of the key requests for 6G. The 6G technologies shall be designed so that sustainability is guaranteed at economical, societal and environmental domains. A key principle towards sustainability in networks refers to optimizations around energy, including higher energy efficiency, increased energy savings, and use of renewable energy. Already, sustainability indicators are studied for data centers and the core network. A comprehensive overview can be found in the NextG Alliance report [1]. When it comes to the energy consumption part of sustainability, the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) issued a report nearly a year ago (February 2024) indicating that the core network and associated data centers consume around 19% of total energy in the operation of mobile networks [2]. This is a large amount where optimization can have a large impact. However, diving into the edge part of the network and especially the radio access part the energy aspects are becoming more complex, highlighting the critical role of experimental infrastructure (such as the one of 6G-SANDBOX) that can feed the research community with reliable energy-related results.
System design decisions
Let’s look at two concrete examples of how the system design impacts sustainability: Data center versus edge and the RIC in ORAN.
Data center versus edge: looking back at the early 5G concepts, we saw an industry movement to virtualize and centralize all services into the data center. This movement’s rationale was cost and efficiency. Shortly after that, a counter-swing movement happened where part or full centralized functions needed to be redistributed at the edge with the intention of improving system latency, among other things. Today, the fluidity of the dynamic migration of services from the central data center to the edge is a hot topic.
Another good example of a system design decision impacting sustainability can be found in Open Radio Access Network (ORAN). The ORAN alliance has introduced a functionality called the RIC (Ran Intelligent Controller). This entity will be in charge of controlling and applying policies at the RAN level. The decision can be to shut down or start additional ORUs (ORAN Radio Units) or to optimize traffic based on needs. All these decisions can be made based on multiple factors where sustainability can be one of the parameters taken into account, but for sure, sustainability won’t be the only one factor considered.
Both examples highlight technical decisions that have a large impact on the service as such and on the resources used to run the services, not just from an energy consumption perspective but also from a physical equipment perspective. Starting from these two examples, it becomes clear that experimental platforms can be critical to understanding the impact of such decisions and assessing the technology’s impact and how it is deployed.
What is 6G-SANDBOX?
6G-SANDBOX aims to create a comprehensive and modular trials facility for the European experimentation ecosystem, supporting the technology and research validation processes needed for the development of 6G over the next decade. This experimentation ecosystem can be used to validate concepts and ideas around sustainability, among other things.
The 6G-SANDBOX experimental facility is a set of experimentation platforms located at distributed locations across Athens, Berlin, Malaga, and Oulu, each of which provides the necessary network and compute resources for trial networks. This setup aims to streamline the process of 6G experimentation by providing modular, automated, and easily deployable components and infrastructure.
A methodology was developed as part of the project to ensure that any experiments would be conducted in a calibrated environment. This ensured that the assessment of the technology impact could be isolated from other elements. This is valid for physical measurements as well as virtual measurements.
Figure 1 : 6G-SANDBOX Facility Blueprint
Running experiments as a way to assess sustainability
To accomplish this, the project defined and realized the concept of Trial Networks, which are fully configurable, manageable, and controllable networks combining virtual, physical, and emulated resources. Trial networks are automatically deployed on the infrastructure based on user configuration. The purpose of trial networks is to enable experiments to validate 6G technologies and measure key performance indicators (KPIs).
A 6G Library contains software components that facilitate the modular and automatic deployment of Trial Networks. The 6G library follows the philosophy that each element in the library follows the “Everything as a Code” (EaC) approach, designed for easy deployment within the 6G-SANDBOX platform. The components in the 6G library include software and hardware descriptors like Mobile Core, RAN/ORAN options, UE devices, TSN infrastructure, Satellite backhaul, emulators, and traffic generators. These components are accessible through a common API framework for interaction with third-party components and applications. scenarios.
A Trial Network Life-Cycle Manager (TNLCM) manages the deployment and life cycle of trial networks, ensuring they are accessible and operational. The TNLCM orchestrates any actions needed to alter the state of a trial network. A set of predefined requirements and best practices ensures uniformity and seamless integration of components, which comply with tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Jenkins.
The concept of trial networks is realised through a blueprint, which is illustrated in Figure 1 above.
In other words, the trial Network defined by the experimenter which is composed of elements from the 6G Library is deployed by the TLNCM. This connects to the platforms infrastructure which have been highly equipped with measurement capabilities and solutions ranging from physical power measurement (from AC to DC) up to cloud measurements. And thanks to the methodology, the results can be calibrated.
Based on these technologies developed in 6G-SANDBOX, users can design experiments to validate e.g. the impact of fluid migration of cloud services from the central data centre to an edge node. Another example will be to assess the impact of RIC decisions on network optimization. More experimentation where validation of technology with a link to sustainability can be run on 6G-SANDBOX.
Conclusion
6G-SANDBOX will not solve the overall sustainability question. It can however be used to study and validate via proof of concepts technologies that do contribute to the sustainability objectives. We are open for running your experiments, please contact us via our website [3].
Acknowledgment
6G-SANDBOX has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101096328.
Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission (granting authority). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Further reading
[1] N. Alliance, “Evolution of Sustainable Indicatros for Data Centers and Next Generation Core Networks,” no. https://nextgalliance.org/white_papers/evolution-of-sustainability-indicators-for-next-generation-radio-network-technologies/.
[2] GSMA, “Going green: measuring the energy efficiency of mobile networks,” no. https://data.gsmaintelligence.com/api-web/v2/research-file-download?id=79791160&file=270224-Measuring-energy-efficiency-of-mobile-networks.pdf.
[3] 6G-SANDBOX. [Online]. Available: https://6g-sandbox.eu/experimenting/