Hexa-X-II work package 2 has released its second deliverable “D2.2 laying the foundation of overall 6G system design and providing preliminary evaluation results”. This report is building upon the design guidelines provided in D2.1 and is further upgrading the system blueprint, aiming at a sustainable, inclusive, and trustworthy 6G platform, and to provide the end-to-end (E2E) system validation.
Overall radio design and two novel frameworks for 6G end-to-end system
The report provides some key assets developed by the WP2 to complement the 6G platform capabilities.
- The ambition is set for the overall radio interface and protocols design considering lessons learned in 5G and support of new expanded scope and capabilities. Selected topics within the RAN user plane and the RAN control plane have been analysed in depth, and new mechanisms are proposed.
- A framework for E2E intent-based service management automation is established along with specific enablers and expanding the relationship between the customers and the 6G service providers beyond communications services. It also proposes a preliminary intent-based digital service management architecture and enablers for intent-based service management automation.
- A validation framework is proposed for security, privacy and resilience assessment in the 6G E2E system. It provides the analysis of threats and specific enablers required to be validated in the early stages of design, applying the secure-by-design principle. Specific enablers have been identified and classified, according to the characteristics of the 6G delta (the direct implications of 6G technology evolution) and the new threats and enhancements it implies. Specific validation methods based on simulation and network digital twin are proposed providing evidence on security, privacy and resilience properties.
Updating the 6G E2E system blueprint and first system PoC result
The work presented in this deliverable set up the foundation for the further iterations of the system design in a top-down approach and for the refinement of the enablers under development in the project in a bottom-up approach. As the 6G E2E system blueprint provides the holistic view of the system, it is complemented by different views whose purpose is to provide more specific details for the pervasive functionalities and the different layers of the blueprint. This deliverable reports an early Management and Orchestration (M&O) view of the system architecture.
As part of the comprehensive E2E validation process, this report also describes the design, implementation, and the preliminary evaluation results of the first system Proof of Concept (named as system-PoC A), which is being developed with mobile collaborative robots and extended reality related use cases. The first results of system-PoC A provides indications on key values and key performances to ensure the trustworthiness and the sustainability aspects as well as the performance of the management and orchestration mechanisms of the 6G E2E system.
Future work
The on-going work on enablers related to radio interface and protocols, intent-based service management automation, and for enhancing E2E security, privacy and resilience will be considered with other selected components from other Hexa-X-II work packages for refining the system blueprint design and for the validation in the second iteration of the System-PoC (B). The next iteration of the 6G system blueprint will gather technical enablers and components developed from other SNS Stream B projects, which are relevant to E2E system in addition to those developed in Hexa-X-II.
For more details, please read the full deliverable here and check out the accompanying presentation here.