VEO 5G

VEO 5G

Project Objective: The VEO 5G project is an R&D initiative funded by the Technological and Industrial Development Center (CDTI) with the reference number IDI-20170296 under the COOPERATION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT format. The project’s primary objective is to create a proof of concept for the virtualization of multi-tenancy mobile networks, where an infrastructure provider will be responsible for installing and maintaining the physical infrastructure used by multiple operators to deploy virtual instances of network elements. The project involves Cellnex (leader), Optare Solutions, and University of Vigo as the research body.

Context and Challenge: Mobile communication networks have become essential in our society, as users demand high-quality internet access anywhere and anytime. Furthermore, new applications requiring global wireless coverage are emerging.

The growing need for communication increases the required infrastructure and costs related to specialized hardware and high-availability support, making service deployment more expensive. Additionally, operators face increasing pressure to maintain a sustainable network while keeping up with the agility and diverse needs of market actors. The rise of SDN (Software Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) provides new ways to deploy infrastructure in a more cost-effective and agile manner, contributing to sustainable management. Initial steps have focused on converting hardware functionality to software, and technologies like DevOps and microservices help simplify deployment and maintenance of network components.

Project Approach: In this context, the VEO5G project will lay the foundations for a neutral operator or infrastructure provider (InP) to offer infrastructure (access network, core network, management, etc.) to third parties. With the proper permissions and radio spectrum licenses, these third parties can create new instances of virtualized services on the neutral operator’s equipment.

Carrying this approach to its extreme, operators could deploy a new mobile network from scratch in moments, using the InP’s physical infrastructure. This scenario will not only allow operators to virtually eliminate CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) but also minimize OPEX (Operational Expenses), thereby facilitating the introduction of 5G technologies. Ultimately, VEO5G will address two critical aspects for any communication network deployment:

• Cost Reduction: Resource sharing directly reduces deployment costs.
• Support for New Business Models: Operators can create “network-as-a-service” models (even dynamically), catering to specific verticals (e.g., a dedicated network for connected vehicles for a car manufacturer, a network for monitoring the health of insurance subscribers, etc.).

Expected Results: The project aims to:

1. Analyze the feasibility of having a single physical infrastructure shared by multiple virtual operators.
2. Determine alternative ways to implement resource-sharing mechanisms (e.g., temporal, spatial, frequency-based), reinforcing existing proposals where they are incomplete.
3. Identify limitations and critical points in the implementation.
4. Define an architecture covering both user planes and control planes.
5. Create a platform to deploy multiple virtual operators sharing the same physical resources, serving as a foundation for future work on new possibilities opened by this model. This may include future studies on improving QoS/QoE control (e.g., SLAs with content providers, different SLAs for IoT communications), moving certain services to the edge of the network to ensure low latencies (Mobile Edge Computing), etc.

Funding: For the realization of the project “VEO 5G – Efficient Virtualization of 5G Operators”, Optare Solutions S.L. has been granted funding from CDTI as a Research and Development Cooperation Project with FEDER funds through technological funding.

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