48
Telecommunications
REGGIO DI CALABRIA
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The 5G Systems course is designed to provide students with the theoretical and practical background to understand and assess the main paradigms, network architectures, protocols, interfaces, procedures, technologies of the emerging Fifth Generation (5G) networks and to speculate about the best way they could be integrated into existing and future networks towards next-generation networks (6G).
Future Internet technologies, e.g., software defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), cloud/fog/edge computing, as well as network slicing and New Radio access technologies will be presented.
Topics will be elaborated on through the analysis of projects, solutions into the market, field trials, scientific literature and standardization documents to better understand the challenges for the research community and ICT stakeholders.
The student will then learn the main methodologies for the analysis and evaluation of some of the technologies presented during the course. The student will also practice them by a series of programming exercises and experimental test-beds, mainly over open-source platforms.
Course Prerequisites
Specific pre-requirements are not foreseen. It is suggested to the students to attend the lectures of the course ‘Mobile Networks'.
Teaching Methods
Course delivery is structured as follows:
Lectures (36h): theoretical topics are presented in a traditional classroom setting, using a video projector for slides and the blackboard.
Classroom Tutorials (12h): students use software tools to test the performance of the technologies presented, either in the classroom or in the telecommunications laboratory to utilize specialized hardware equipment.
For the experimental lectures, to better follow the teaching, students are kindly requested to have a laptop where to perform the experiments.
Attending the lessons is not mandatory but strongly recommended.
Assessment Methods
Exams consist of:
- an oral test. Questions will verify the knowledge acquired about the technologies presented during the course.
- the implementation and discussion of a project (preferably a team project). The exam would show the skills and knowledge acquired about the tools and methodologies presented during the course.
The tests are held simultaneously.
The project examination requires presenting the task, implementation, and results via a presentation (e.g., PowerPoint). Additionally, all source code (e.g., Python or Bash scripts) must be shared with the professor at least 24 hours prior to the exam.
To pass the exam for each specific module, the following criteria apply based on the grade range:
- 18-20/30: Knowledge and skills regarding the course topics, as well as the ability to analyze and synthesize in the project execution and presentation, must be at least at an elementary level.
- 21-23/30: Knowledge, skills, and analytical/synthesis abilities in the project execution and presentation must be at least at a satisfactory level.
- 24-26/30: Knowledge, skills, and analytical/synthesis abilities in the project execution and presentation must be at least at a good level.
- 27-29/30: Knowledge, skills, and analytical/synthesis abilities in the project execution and presentation must be at least at a very good level.
- 30/30: Knowledge, skills, and analytical/synthesis abilities in the project execution and presentation, demonstrating significant capacity for analysis, synthesis, and a critical approach to the subject matter.
- 30/30 cum laude: Honors may be awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding skills with exceptional analytical and synthesis capabilities, a strong critical sense, and evidence of significant in-depth study.
Texts
- Scientific papers and books suggested by the teacher, when needed.
- Lecture slides.
- On line documents suggested by the teacher (3GPP, ETSI, IETF/IRTF, ITU specifications).
Contents
PROGRAM
The program of the complete course is the following one:
Network softwarization paradigms (10 h)
- Software defined networking (SDN): principles, solutions and open issues
- The OpenFlow protocol for the Southbound Interface
- Network function virtualization (NFV): ETSI architecture and service chaining
5G networks (10 h)
- Objectives, service categories (eMBB, URLLC, mMTC), enabling technologies (New Radio, Full-duplex, millimeter-wave), architectures
- 3GPP 5G architecture
- Evolution of 5G systems towards 6G
Cloud computing paradigms for 5G systems (12 h)
- NIST service models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
- Mobile/Multi-access Edge Computing
- Edge AI: artificial intelligence and edge computing
Network slicing in 5G (4 h)
- Core network virtualization
- RAN virtualization (Cloud-RAN)
- Network slicing in 5G networks: 3GPP specifications and main use cases
Tools and methodologies for implementation, analysis and evaluations of solutions for 5G systems (12 h)
- Network emulators (Mininet, Mininet-WiFi), Traffic generator (iperf), SDN controller, Virtualization tools (Docker containers)
The module of 'Network technologies for industrie 4.0' has the following program:
Basics of 5G networks (6 h)
Objectives, service categories (eMBB, URLLC, mMTC), enabling technologies to support URLLC (New Radio)
Cloud computing paradigms for 5G networks (12 h)
- NIST service models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
- Mobile/Multi-access Edge Computing
- Edge AI: artificial intelligence and edge computing
Tools and methodologies for evaluating edge computing solutions (6 h)
Virtual Machine VS. Container. Docker containers.
EXPECTED RESULTS
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: after passing the exam, the student knows the main technological solutions that will be leveraged by 5G systems and their evolutions towards 6G.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: after passing the exam, the student is able to analyze and design solutions based on the technologies presented during the course.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS: to pass the exam, the student must be able to autonomously answer to theoretical questions and plan measurement campaigns to study the performance of the presented technologies. Hence, she/he is led to develop independent judgement in critically analyzing achieved results.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS: the course and the exam help the student to improve her/his communication skills in discussing the technical and theoretical motivations at the foundations of the presented 5G and beyond 5G technologies.
LEARNING SKILLS: after passing the exam, the student is able to learn autonomously possible evolutions of the technologies presented during the course, to apply the presented evaluation methodologies to other technologies, to use different tools, based on the same methodology, for the performance evaluation.
More information
MS TEAMS Class code where to find the course materials and updates:
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