The selected innovation is for Efficient Resource Handover Prediction in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) that was designed and delivered by the Smart Internet Lab, University of Bristol, as a result of our participation in the EU-funded H2020 5GASP project (2021-2024). This award-winning innovation is classified within the “Exploring” category, which encompasses early phases of technological readiness.
The 5GASP’s aim was to create a European network-based application testing and certification environment for SMEs that is fully automated and self-service and foster rapid development and testing of new and innovative 5G Network Applications. The project focused on innovations related to the operation of experiments and tests across several domains as well as the incubation of a community of Network Application developers assisted with tools and services that can enable an early validation and/or certification of products and services for 5G. The project created an international testbed, which can be used to test and certify the network-based compatibility, availability, security and performance of applications that could be better used in a modular, distributed manner. By doing so, the project enabled companies to benefit from the newly developed configurability of Network Function Visualization (NFV) techniques, implemented on top of Software-Defined Networks (SDN) and the 5G network stack.
The Smart Internet Lab developed and implemented a novel Network(-based) Applications (nApps) for automation. Named "Efficient MEC Handover” (EMHO, for short), this nApp is designed to support the other compatible network applications to improve their performance in the Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) environment. The EMHO nApp is a Machine Learning based application that uses the radio monitoring data and predicts the probability of being handed over from one access point to another in a radio access environment within a few seconds. With the outcomes from this project, we can now extend the evolution of intelligence inside networks towards network-native AI and a dynamic reconfigurability and data-driven approach.
Dr Adrian-Cristian (Chris) Nicolaescu, Senior Research Associate at the Smart Internet Lab, University of Bristol, and the technical lead for Bristol for the 5GASP project says, “the project’s main outcome was to create the development environment and achieve the maturity of 5G and NetOps integration. This enabled applications like the one developed at the Smart Internet Lab to provide in-network intelligence and computation. This work takes large strides towards integrating intelligence with the network technologies of tomorrow. This important integration of intelligence with the 5G-enabled network fabric was mainly due to the development of the EMHO network application, by Dr Juan Parra Ullauri, and its initial definition, Dr Xenofon Vasilakos.”
Dr Juan Parra Ullauri, Senior Research Associate at the Smart Internet Lab, University of Bristol developed the main application and says, “By 2030, over 125 billion connected devices are anticipated, many operating in high-mobility scenarios such as moving vehicles. This future landscape presents significant challenges for 5G networks, including ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), zero service downtime, and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB). Within the 5GASP project, we explored handover predictions using a Network Application (NApp) that leverages real-time radio monitoring and Machine Learning (ML) models to predict cellular and edge service handovers. This approach enables seamless edge service migration by pre-allocating resources before handovers. Our nApp was successfully tested across various 5GASP partner sites, demonstrating its effectiveness in optimizing 5G network performance and enhancing user experience through AI-driven solutions.”
Diagram 1: Application for the 5GASP Project
The European Commission's Innovation Radar is an initiative that identifies high-potential innovations and innovators emerging from research and innovation projects funded by the European Union. Innovation Radar helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world applications. This initiative fosters a vibrant ecosystem of European innovators and entrepreneurs, ensuring that ground-breaking research translates into tangible benefits for society. Data underpinning the Innovation Radar stem from periodic survey developed by the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission.