To meet the high throughput demands envisaged for 5G networks, with increased user densification and bandwidth-hungry applications, while at the same time reducing energy consumption, iCIRRUS proposes an intelligent Cloud-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) that brings together optical fibre technology, low-cost but highly flexible Ethernet networking, wireless resource management for device-to-device (D2D) communication (incl. the use of mm-wave spectrum) and the use of virtual mobiles in the cloud. The iCIRRUS C-RAN introduces the use of Ethernet in the fronthaul/midhaul (for radio signal transport), to minimise cost and make available pluggable and in-device monitoring, and intelligent processing to enable self-optimizing network functions which maximise both network resource utilisation and energy efficiency. To exemplify the attractiveness of the proposition, iCIRRUS focusses on D2D communication in the wireless domain, an important work area in current standardisation, where low latency is known to be a significant factor. The latency and jitter in the iCIRRUS Ethernet-based C-RAN will be an important focus of the research work in the project, with current 5G performance targets in mind; for D2D communications, the task will be to minimise control latency and overhead. A major obstacle for C-RANs is the bit-rate of the digitised radio signals that would be required for 5G – of the order of 100 Gb/s and iCIRRUS will examine the architectural and technological questions surrounding this requirement. Wireless resource management will be investigated, together with mobile device caching and mm-wave D2D mesh networks, to reduce latency as well as load on the infrastructure. Finally, the intelligent network functions in ICIRRUS can interact with mobile cloud processing, and further offloads of infrastructure communications can be realised through virtualising mobiles in the cloud as clones, and performing communication tasks between clones.

In the global race towards 5G, the establishment and implementation of the 5G-PPP programme in the EU has significantly strengthened the position of Europe, promoting both technological excellence and industrial leadership. So far, 5G-PPP Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects have been proven quite successful in developing focused solutions, targeting specific technical innovations. Now, the crucial next step in the “Genesis of 5G”, in Europe but also worldwide, is to integrate all these highly diverse results and technologies in order to “glue together” the 5G picture and unveil the potential of a truly full-stack, end-to-end 5G platform, able to meet the defined KPI targets. In this context, the main goal of 5GENESIS to validate 5G KPIs for various 5G use cases, in both controlled set-ups and large-scale events. This will be achieved by bringing together results from a considerable number of EU projects as well as the partners’ internal R&D activities in order to realise an integrated End-to-end 5G Facility, built on five diverse in terms of capabilities –yet fully interoperable- experimentation platforms distributed across Europe and interconnected with each other. The platforms will emerge as the evolution of existing testbeds, already owned and operated by the 5GENESIS partners, suitable for large-scale field experimentation. The 5GENESIS Facility, as a whole, will: - implement and verify all evolutions of the 5G standard, via an iterative integration and testing procedure; - engage a wide diversity of technologies and chain innovations that span over all domains, achieving full-stack coverage of the 5G landscape; - unify heterogeneous physical and virtual network elements under a common coordination and openness framework exposed to experimenters from the vertical industries and enabling end-to-end slicing and experiment automation; and - support further experimentation projects, in particular those focused on vertical markets.