University of Thessaly Mobility Management Demo
In the context of the 5G VICTORI WP4 work, the University of Thessaly (UTH) managed to achieve interconnection with the Patras University (UoP) cloud and test under controlled real settings the implementation of the mobility management solution that is under development and will be deployed in the eMBB Rail use case. The proposed mobility management solution is based on the P4 programming language, with the respective hardware/software switches, and will be used in order to control the handovers happening along the track-to-train communication path, for the Rail use case.
In the demo, the P4-based software switch is used in order to preserve already established connections during handovers, transparently from the applications that run on top. One end of the communication was located at Patras University (Cloud), and the other end (Train and services running on the train) was emulated in the UTH premises. WiFi Access Points were used in order to emulate the sub-6GHz and mmWave access links to the train. The handovers were happening by switching access at the client side (train). For managing the handover, SNMP traps on the WiFi APs were used for notifying the P4 controller of a change in the user association. The P4 controller in turn configured the appropriate flows at the transport network in order to manage these changes. As an offered service running on top, the OpenAirInterface (www.openairinterface.org) was used, establishing connections to the core network located at UoP.
The demonstration, as well as the software components used to reproduce the experiment are also available below:
[5G-VICTORI] P4 based handover management for session continuity in a heterogeneous environment
Full description of the work is published in “P. Karamichailidis, N. Makris, P. Flegkas, et al., Session Management across Heterogeneous Wireless Technologies in a Rail Transport Environment, Proceedings of IEEE 5G for Connected and Automated Mobility, IEEE 5G Virtual Summit 2021.”
Software Used:
P4 software switch: BMv2 – https://github.com/p4lang/behavioral-model
RAN and Core Network: OpenAirInterface – http://www.openairinterface.org
Visualization: Netdata – https://www.netdata.cloud/[+] Show More
