Multi-access Core Network Startup CND Joins Three 5G Research Project for OpenEPC

Multi-access core network start-up Core Network Dynamics (CND) announced its participation in three new 5G research projects, bringing the total number of next-gen research projects to seven.

Much of the additional core network functionality developed for these projects will be incorporated into OpenEPC 8, which will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress. The three new research projects are Taktilus, 5G Berlin and 5GTRIAL; other projects already underway or completed include Microsoft Research’s Project Belgrade, AMMCOA and 5G Crosshaul.

5G Berlin is a new Berlin-based innovation cluster bringing together researchers and industry to test and promote 5G applications. The first project has just begun to create a 5G testbed that includes the deployment of 5G radio and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to manage the city’s street lamps on the mmWave spectrum. CND will contribute the 4G/5G core network and adapt it to advanced use cases – for example, multi-access connectivity with non-3GPP radio such as Li-Fi (Light Fidelity).

Taktilus, a €3m three-year research program part funded by the German government, kicked off in January 2018. It is focused on developing 5G ultra-low latency tactile communications network solutions for Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. The first project will include a showcase for an emergency stop button for industrial robots and machines using NB-IoT (the new LTE-based narrowband technology optimised for IoT/IIoT) and using an adapted version of OpenEPC. CND’s partners include Pilz, Cumulocity, Fraunhofer HHI and others.

5GTRIAL is a new European research project supported by over 40 partners that will create a network of 5G end-to-end facilities in Germany, the UK and Spain. CND is participating as a traversal partner (visiting each node in a tree data structure once), in Germany and Spain. CND will use an adapted OpenEPC as a 5G core, and also contribute to improving OpenBaton as the NFV management framework for 5G networks.

OpenEPC is a complete and resource-efficient implementation of a core mobile network in software. Featuring a multi-access core,OpenEPC can be used for resource-constrained embedded deployments as well as carrier-grade NFV-based deployments scaling to millions of users. OpenEPC provides support for MulteFire and CBRS Private LTE networks, distributed core networks with mobile mesh for public safety applications, and is 5G aligned and public cloud-native on Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.