final report on dissemination and liaison activities · semafour (316384) d6.8 final report on...

EU FP7 ICT STREP SEMAFOUR (316384)

INFSO-ICT-316384 SEMAFOUR D6.8

Final Report on Dissemination and Liaison Activities Contractual Date of Delivery to the EC: August 31st, 2015 Actual Date of Delivery to the EC: August 31st, 2015 Work Package WP6 - Dissemination and Exploitation Participants: NSN-D, ATE, EAB, iMinds, FT, TID, TNO, TUBS, NSN-DK Authors Kathleen SPAEY, Zwi ALTMAN, Sana BEN JEMAA, Luis Miguel

CAMPOY CERVERA, Andreas EISENBLÄTTER, Thomas KÜRNER, Daniela LASELVA, Remco LITJENS, Lars Christoph SCHMELZ, Kostas TRICHIAS, Colin WILLCOCK

Reviewers Andreas EISENBLÄTTER, Luis Miguel CAMPOY CERVERA Estimated Person Months: 12 Dissemination Level Public Nature Report Version 1.0 Total number of pages: 41

Abstract: This document reports on the dissemination and liaison activities of the SEMAFOUR project, covering the whole project duration. It discusses the most important dissemination instruments used for internal and external information spreading, how results and insights obtained in the project have been exchanged with the scientific community and the industry community, and the involvement of SEMAFOUR in standardisation, mainly focussing on 3GPP.

Keywords: SEMAFOUR, Dissemination, Scientific cooperation, Industry cooperation, Standardisation

Ref. Ares(2015)3569455 - 31/08/2015

SEMAFOUR (316384) D6.8 Final report on dissemination and liaison activities

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Executive Summary Dissemination activities are crucial for research projects like SEMAFOUR to increase the awareness of the relevant stakeholders about the results of the project. This document reports on the dissemination and liaison activities of the SEMAFOUR project, covering the whole project duration (01.09.2012 - 31.08.2015). It discusses the most important dissemination instruments used for internal and external information spreading, how results and insights obtained in the project have been exchanged with the scientific community and the industry community, and the involvement of SEMAFOUR in standardisation, mainly focussing on 3GPP. Dissemination to peers in research has been achieved through presentations and/or demonstrations at forty-five events and the publication of thirty-seven papers, of which two were rewarded with a conference best paper award. During the lifetime of the project, the SEMAFOUR demonstrator in its different versions has been showcased at several large events, like FIA 2013, ICT 2013, FIA 2014, the Orange Labs Research Exhibition 2014 and EuCNC 2015. Dissemination of project results has also been established via three workshops successfully organised by the SEMAFOUR project. The first workshop in July 2013 was organised jointly with the FP7 project UniverSelf and the CELTIC project COMMUNE and took place during two full sessions at the Future Networks and Mobile Summit 2013 conference in Lisbon. The two following workshops in September 2014 and August 2015, respectively, were full-day workshops. The first one was held in Braunschweig in conjunction with the annual VDE/ITG workshop on Future Networks, and the second one in Brussels was held as one of the workshops of the ISWCS 2015 conference. Both workshops focused on the dissemination of SEMAFOUR results, by way of presentations, a poster exhibition and live presentations using the SEMAFOUR demonstrator. At both events, the oral presentations alternated between project presentations and externally invited presentations. The SEMAFOUR project had an external advisory board consisting of seven European operators. Advisory board members have been informed about the status, progress and results of the project several times. They provided valuable input to the project, particularly during the requirements phase of the project and again later for the activities on Policy-based SON Management. For those activities, there were also contacts with the operational departments of the operators involved in SEMAFOUR. Furthermore, the industrial relevance of future SON in general and the SEMAFOUR project in particular has been widely recognised. This led already in an early stage of the project to the dissemination of the project’s vision for SON into the ‘Everything under the SON’ issue of the widely read industry publication Signals Ahead, published in April 2013. One of the key objectives of the SEMAFOUR project was impacting standardisation. SEMAFOUR has been actively involved in 3GPP standardisation in order to disseminate and standardise the ideas and technologies developed within the project. At relevant meetings a SEMAFOUR representative was always present to report back on the latest status and influence future work. These activities have resulted in five 3GPP contributions that are based on or directly refer to SEMAFOUR results. This is reflected in technical reports of 3GPP about the study and work items under which the contributions were made.


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List of Authors

Partner Name E-mail

NSN-D Lars Christoph Schmelz Colin Willcock

[email protected] [email protected]

ATE Andreas Eisenblätter [email protected]

iMinds Kathleen Spaey [email protected]

FT Zwi Altman Sana Ben Jemaa


TID Luis Miguel Campoy Cervera [email protected]

TNO Remco Litjens Konstantinos Trichias


TUBS Thomas Kürner [email protected]

NSN-DK Daniela Laselva [email protected]


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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project 5G PPP The 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership AAS Active Antenna System C-RAN Cloud Radio Access Networks CCO Coverage and Capacity Optimisation CT Core network and Terminals DSA Dynamic Spectrum Allocation DSS Decision Support System eNB enhanced NodeB E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN EC Executive Committee EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution EU European Union FDD Frequency Division Duplex FP7 Seventh Framework Programme FTP File Transfer Protocol GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network GSM Global System for Mobile communication HSPA High Speed Packet Access ID IDentification IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers KPI Key Performance Indicator LTE Long Term Evolution MD Monitoring and Diagnosis MDT Minimisation of Drive Testing MLB Mobility Load Balancing MRO Mobility Robustness Optimisation NGCOR Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements NGMN Next Generation Mobile Networks NM Network Manager OAM Operation, Administration and Maintenance OPE Operational Efficiency OSS Operations Support System PBSM Policy-Based SON Management PCI Physical Cell ID QoE Quality of Experience RAN Radio Access Network RAS Radio Access and Spectrum RAT Radio Access Technology RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator SA Service and System Aspects SC Standing Committee SDN Software Defined Networking SDO Standards Development Organisations SI Study Item SON Self-Organising Network TDD Time Division Duplex TG Task Group


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TR Technical Report TS Traffic Steering TSG Technical Specification Group UE User Equipment UMF Unified Management Framework UTRAN UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network VDE/ITG Verband der Elektrotechnik / Informationstechnische Gesellschaft WG Working Group Wi-Fi Any WLAN product based on the IEEE 802.11 standards WI Work Item WLAN Wireless Local Area Network WNG Wireless Next Generation WP Work Package XML Extensible Markup Language


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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 7 2 Dissemination Instruments ........................................................................... 8

2.1 SEMAFOUR Website ................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Internal Communication .............................................................................................. 9

2.2.1 SEMAFOUR Mailing Lists and Team Site ......................................................................... 9 2.2.2 Meetings and Phone Conferences ..................................................................................... 10

2.3 Dissemination of Scenario Data ................................................................................ 10 3 Dissemination to the Scientific Community .............................................. 14

3.1 List of Participations in Scientific Meetings, Conferences and Workshops ............ 14 3.2 List of Publications ..................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Contacts and Cooperation with Other Projects ......................................................... 21 3.4 Demonstrations ........................................................................................................... 23 3.5 SEMAFOUR Workshops ........................................................................................... 27

3.5.1 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2013 ........................................................................................... 27 3.5.2 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2014 ........................................................................................... 28 3.5.3 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2015 ........................................................................................... 28

4 Contacts and Cooperation with the Industrial Community .................... 30 4.1 Advisory Board ........................................................................................................... 30 4.2 Operational Departments of Operators ..................................................................... 31 4.3 Industrial Analysts ..................................................................................................... 32 4.4 Orange Research Lab Exhibition .............................................................................. 32

5 3GPP Standardisation and Related Activities .......................................... 33 5.1 3GPP ........................................................................................................................... 33

5.1.1 3GPP Activities relevant for SEMAFOUR ....................................................................... 33 5.1.2 3GPP Contributions with SEMAFOUR Input .................................................................. 34

5.2 NGMN ......................................................................................................................... 36 5.3 IEEE 802 .................................................................................................................... 36

6 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................... 38 7 References ..................................................................................................... 39 Appendix A Program of the SEMAFOUR Workshop 2015 ....................... 41


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1 Introduction Dissemination activities are crucial for research projects like SEMAFOUR to increase the awareness of the scientific community, the industrial community and standardisation bodies about the results of the project. Dissemination of insights and results also helps in obtaining feedback from the relevant stakeholders. The aim of the dissemination activities performed by the SEMAFOUR partners, together with their exploitation activities, is to maximise the impact of the SEMAFOUR results achieved in the technical and demonstration work packages WP2 (‘Requirements, use cases and methodologies’), WP3 (‘Demonstrator’), WP4 (‘SON for future networks’) and WP5 (‘Integrated SON management’). The dissemination activities within SEMAFOUR are coordinated by WP6 (‘Dissemination and Exploitation’), in particular in the activities 6.1 (‘Dissemination’) and 6.3 (‘Liaisons to standardisation and external fora’). In the beginning of the project, a dissemination plan has been developed (D6.3) [1], and at the end of the first and second year each time an overview of the dissemination activities of these years has been given in the deliverables D6.4 [2] and D6.5 [3] respectively. The current document D6.8 is a follow-up of these documents and covers the whole project duration (01.09.2012 - 31.08.2015). Where in D6.4 and D6.5 the dissemination and exploitation activities were covered together in the same document, they are now split over two documents. The current document covers the dissemination activities, while an exploitation roadmap is presented in D6.7 [4]. Needless to say that the border between dissemination and exploitation is not always clear. The approach taken is that the current document reports on activities that are mostly of a public nature (presentations at workshops and conferences, publications, organisation of workshops, standardisation activities, etc.) or of benefit to the overall project (cooperation with the advisory board or with the operational department of operators). D6.7, on the other hand, mainly focuses on how the specific results of the project are relevant and of value to each of the project partners individually, and on internal dissemination activities within the organisations of the partners. The structure of this deliverable D6.8 is as follows. Chapter 2 presents the most important dissemination instruments used for internal and external information spreading. It further also describes how the scenario data used in the SEMAFOUR simulation scenarios has been made accessible to all partners and how the growing complexity of the simulation set-ups has been mastered. Chapter 3 covers the dissemination to the scientific community. This chapter starts with giving an overview of the many scientific events at which SEMAFOUR members presented and demonstrated results, and of the SEMAFOUR publications. It also discusses the contacts and cooperation SEMAFOUR had with other projects, gives a high-level description of the content of the different demonstrations given and reports on the three workshops that were successfully organised by the project during the project lifetime. Chapter 4 discusses the contacts and cooperation with the industrial community. It first covers the cooperation with the SEMAFOUR advisory board consisting of seven European operators, and two activities that have been conducted with the operational departments of operators in order to gain insight into the processes behind the actual operation and management of today’s mobile networks. Furthermore, it discusses the contacts of SEMAFOUR with industry analysts and the presence of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator at the Orange Research Lab Exhibition of 2014. Chapter 5 presents the involvement of SEMAFOUR in standardisation and related fora, where the focus is mainly on 3GPP. It discusses the 3GPP, NGMN and IEEE 802.11 activities that were relevant for SEMAFOUR, and also presents the five 3GPPP contributions that were submitted during the course of the project based on SEMAFOUR results. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the document.


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2 Dissemination Instruments This chapter presents the most important dissemination instruments used by the SEMAFOUR project for external and internal information spreading: the SEMAFOUR website, mailing lists, team site, meetings and phone conferences. It further also describes how the scenario data used in the SEMAFOUR simulation scenarios has been made accessible to all partners. In the beginning of the project this has primarily been done using an FTP server, while later in the project scenario data has been made available primarily through the SONLAB platform.

2.1 SEMAFOUR Website A project website has been created and launched at project kick-off. It is accessible at http://www.fp7-semafour.eu. The project website is the main dissemination channel towards the public. It serves as a source of information for external parties that are interested in the work, results and events of the SEMAFOUR project. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the main page of the SEMAFOUR website, on which the navigation structure can be seen on the right.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the main page of the SEMAFOUR website

The website is a dynamic environment to which information is added as it becomes available. All partners provide content to keep the information on the website up-to-date. In particular, the sections ‘Presentations & demonstrations’, ‘Publications’, ‘Deliverables’, ‘News’ and ‘Videos’ are updated frequently. Via the website, presentations given at public events, all publications and all public deliverables (including confidential deliverables for which the consortium decided to make them publicly available) are provided for download. The website is hosted by the University of Antwerp and maintained by iMinds. Statistics about its visitors are collected using Google Analytics [5]. These statistics reveal that between September 1, 2012 (start of the project) and Augustus 26, 2015, the website attracted 9211 visitors, of which 5394 are unique visitors. The average duration of a visit was 2:58 minutes, and all visits together correspond to 26377 page views. Considering only the period September 1, 2014 - Augustus 26, 2015 (Year 3), the statistics reveal 4322 visitors, of which 2850 unique visitors, an average visit duration of 2:37 minutes, and 10226 page views.


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More statistics for the period September 1, 2012 - June 30, 2015, are shown in Figure 2: (a) the top-10 countries of which visits originate; (b) the top-10 of most visited pages. Note the items ‘Presentations & demonstrations’ and ‘Presentations’, which appear as two items because the title of this page has been changed during the course of the project. In fact their corresponding page view numbers need to be added, with as a result that after the home page, the three most visited pages are these on which, respectively, the presentations, the deliverables and the publications are made available.

(a) Top-10 origin countries of visits

(b) Top-10 most visited pages

Figure 2: Statistics about visits of the website www.fp7-semafour.eu collected over the period 01.09.2012 until 30.06.2015

2.2 Internal Communication

2.2.1 SEMAFOUR Mailing Lists and Team Site For easy communication among all project members, closed-access email reflectors were created and maintained by TUBS. In total there are nine reflectors that forward e-mails to the subscribed members: • A general reflector which forwards e-mails to all SEMAFOUR members • A reflector for each of the SEMAFOUR work packages (WP1 - WP6) • A reflector for the SEMAFOUR project board • A reflector for the SEMAFOUR advisory board For safe and easy document sharing and collaboration, TUBS has also set up a team site for the project, using the Alfresco platform [6], which is an enterprise content cloud platform. Access to the team site is password protected and limited to SEMAFOUR members. The team site is the main


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dissemination channel among the project partners. It is used for collaboration on deliverables, reports, publications, etc. Besides this, the site is also used for management and financial reporting, and for building Wikis, e.g., a Wiki about calls for papers on SEMAFOUR topics, about the use of SONLAB, about the development progress of the demonstrator, etc. The team site is typically exploited in combination with the SEMAFOUR email reflectors: after a document has been uploaded, an email including a link to the document on the site is sent out using one of the e-mail reflectors. Applying this policy avoids sending around large documents, but also makes sure that at the same time all project documents and versions are properly archived.

2.2.2 Meetings and Phone Conferences Regular face to face meetings among all project partners were held roughly every three months. These meetings included plenary sessions, Work Package (WP) meetings, and a Project Board meeting. The possibility for all partners to be present was maximised by fixing dates and places of the meetings well ahead of time. An overview of the plenary meetings held during the course of the project is given in Table 1.

Date Organising partner Place

September 17-19, 2012 (project kick-off meeting)

Nokia-D Munich

December 10-12, 2012 TUBS Braunschweig

March 11-13, 2013 TID Madrid

June 17-19, 2013 EAB Linköping

September 16-18, 2013 iMinds Antwerp

December 11-13, 2013 Orange Paris

March 26-28, 2014 atesio Berlin

June 16-18, 2014 Nokia-DK Aalborg

September 22-24, 2014 (prior to the SEMAFOUR workshop 2014)

TUBS Braunschweig

December 17-19, 2014 Orange Paris

March 18-20, 2015 TNO The Hague

June 1-3, 2015 Nokia-D Munich

Table 1: Plenary meetings held during the project lifetime There were also intermediate phone conferences and physical meetings organised as the need arose. A Project Board meeting by phone was scheduled every month on the third Monday. Additionally, phone conferences were set up regularly for technical discussions at work package or activity level among all involved partners. For this purpose, Nokia provides a phone conference platform and, if required, a Cisco WebEx solution for screen sharing.

2.3 Dissemination of Scenario Data The SEMAFOUR simulation scenarios (used in WP3, WP4, and WP5) have been defined in WP2. The corresponding multi-RAT and multi-layer scenario data is highly complex. The data comprises, for example, high-resolution 3D path-loss predictions for 65 macro and 28 micro sites at several frequencies, mobility patterns for users in cars, on bicycles, or on foot, positions for static users, and traffic intensity maps as functions of location and time. Making such a complex environment description available to a simulator and updating the data with the progress of time as the simulation is running has required considerable effort.


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Primarily in the beginning of the project, and with focus on the static part of the data, an FTP server has been used for distributing the data. The FTP server contains XML files organised in folders and specifying the different data sets. The format of this data is described in an internal Wiki, and the definitions of the data agreed within Activity 2.4 (Definition of reference scenarios, modelling assumptions and methodologies) have served as a basis. The Wiki has allowed for easily keeping the relevant information on the scenarios and format up to date. As the project progressed many use cases have been implemented and integrated using the SONLAB platform. This platform developed by atesio provides infrastructure for scalable, distributed, multi-party simulations of realistic radio network scenarios. The platform is extensible through clients. As an example, Figure 3 schematically depicts how distinct simulation set-ups can be integrated into one comprehensive simulation. This figure also illustrates the role of clients and how they can be used to add features and capabilities to a simulation. More information on the SONLAB platform can be found in [6].

Figure 3: Integration of an LTE and a Wi-Fi simulation with SON functions into one simulation

All relevant scenario data have been made available through the SONLAB platform, either directly or via clients. This allows for simulating the environment and its changes over time. Further clients then add SON functions and SON management functions. In order to master the growing complexity of the simulation set-ups, a SONLAB Dashboard has been made available. The dashboard supports the user in administering simulations and keeping track of their progress. Among other things, the dashboard provides a graphical display of the simulation scenario including the cells of the various technologies, the users engaged in communication, and their serving cells. Figure 4 shows an example taken from one of the multi-layer LTE scenarios.


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Figure 4: SONLAB Dashboard showing parts of a simulation scenario in downtown Hannover

The dashboard also provides information on the various clients participating in the simulation, see Figure 5. Next to the names of clients, there’s information on how the clients are connected to the platform (local / remote), on the timing of state processing, as well as how many states have been processed.


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Figure 5: Overview of a simulation including data on the participating clients

The SONLAB platform has been used as the basis for several individual use case simulations in WP4 and WP5. Even more notably, it has been the basis of all integrated simulations, where, for example, SON functions are simulated in the presence of SON management functions. In retrospect, the sharing of scenario data via XML files on an FTP server has been a good starting point in the beginning of the project. Once the development of models and algorithms for SON and SON management functions reached a higher level of refinements, more scenario features (such as more complex modelling of user mobility and traffic demand) have been demanded. Establishing these features once and making them accessible to many use cases through one platform has proved very effective.


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3 Dissemination to the Scientific Community This chapter provides information about the dissemination activities of SEMAFOUR towards the scientific community. An overview of the active participations (presentations and/or demonstrations) in scientific meetings, conferences and workshops is given, the SEMAFOUR publications are listed and contacts and cooperation with other projects are discussed. Also a high-level description of the content of the different demonstrations given at several events is provided and the three SEMAFOUR workshops that were successfully organised during the project lifetime are reported on.

3.1 List of Participations in Scientific Meetings, Conferences and Workshops During the course of the project, SEMAFOUR members presented and demonstrated the project’s vision and results at several scientific meetings, conferences, and workshops. A list of the presentations and demonstrations given is presented in Table 2. On the SEMAFOUR website (www.fp7-semafour.eu/en/presentations), most of the presentations and links to the events at which the presentations were given are available. 1) 30.08.2015 - 02.09.2015 - IEEE 26th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and

Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) 2015, Hong Kong Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: SON conflict diagnosis in heterogeneous networks

2) 25.08.2015: ISWCS 2015 - SEMAFOUR workshop on Self-Management for Unified Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks, Brussels, Belgium • Presentation by Colin Willcock: Overview of the SEMAFOUR project • Presentation by Mehdi Amirijoo: SON for future networks: SEMAFOUR highlights and

results • Presentation by Yu Wang: Multi-layer LTE/Wi-Fi traffic steering: from load control to

throughput optimisation • Presentation by Bart Sas: Steering users based on their mobility behaviour in multi-RAT

networks • Presentation by Konstantinos Trichias: AAS evolution: SON solutions for vertical & virtual

sectorisation • Presentation by Nils Dreyer: Dynamic spectrum allocation for shared use of GSM and LTE • Presentation by Christoph Schmelz: Integrated SON management: SEMAFOUR highlights

and results • Presentation by Simon Lohmüller: Objective-driven adaptive SON management • Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: SON coordination: conflict detection and conflict

resolution • Presentation by Dario Götz: Decision support for operational network evolution • Presentation by Colin Willcock: SEMAFOUR view on future network management • Demonstration by Remco Litjens: Demonstration of the SEMAFOUR vision and

achievements • Demonstration by Sören Hahn and Simon Lohmüller: Policy-based SON management • Demonstration by Dario Götz: Decision support system • Demonstration by Nils Dreyer: Dynamic spectrum allocation • Demonstration by István Z. Kovács: LTE/WiFi traffic steering • Demonstration by Konstantinos Trichias: Active antenna systems

3) 29.06.2015 - 02.07.2015: European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2015), Paris, France


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• Presentation by Zwi Altman: Self-optimisation of vertical sectorisation in a realistic LTE network

• Presentation by Colin Willcock: SEMAFOUR project results. Radio Access and Spectrum Cluster Workshop

• Demonstration by Remco Litjens, Christoph Schmelz, Colin Willcock: Self-management for unified heterogeneous radio access

4) 27.06.2015: TU Night, Braunschweig, Germany Demonstration by Sören Hahn: Demonstrator für Mobilfunksysteme

5) 11.05.2015: VTC Spring 2015 - Fifth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2015), Glasgow, Scotland • Presentation by Bart Sas: A SON function for steering users in multi-layer LTE networks

based on their mobility behaviour • Presentation by Simon Lohmüller: Classification of cells based on mobile network context

information • Presentation by Zwi Altman: Virtual sectorization: design and self-optimisation • Demonstration by Christoph Frenzel: Policy-based SON management demonstrator

6) 05.05.2015 - 07.05.2015: COST IC1004 13th MC & Scientific Meeting, Valencia, Spain Presentation by Sören Hahn: User behaviour in the context of quality of experience in realistic mobile radio networks

7) 09.03.2015 - 12.03.2015: IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2015), New Orleans, LA USA Presentation by Abdoulaye Tall: Self-optimizing strategies for dynamic vertical sectorization in LTE-Advanced networks

8) 20.01.2015 - 21.01.2015: RAN World, Dusseldorf, Germany. • Poster presentation (incl. extended abstract) by Andreas Eisenblätter: Decision support

system: operational network evolution • Poster presentation (incl. extended abstract) by Ulrich Türke: SONLab - multi-party

simulation platform • Poster presentation (incl. extended abstract) by Sören Hahn: Policy-based SON management

9) 13.01.2015: TeleSemana.com webinar Presentation by Luis Miguel Campoy (in Spanish): Proyecto SEMAFOUR: diseñando sistema de auto gestión para las redes HetNet móviles

10) 08.12.2014 - 12.12.2014: IEEE Globecom 2014, Austin, TX USA Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: Low complexity SON coordination using reinforcement learning

11) 25.11.2014 - 28.11.2014: Orange Labs Research Exhibition, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France Demonstration by Sana Ben Jemaa, Zwi Altman and Christoph Schmelz: Policy-based SON management

12) 11.11.2014 - 13.11.2014: Broadband Traffic Management (BBTM) 2014, Barcelona, Spain Presentation by Luis M. Campoy: New business opportunities through evolved OSS/BSS; SEMAFOUR vision on unified self-management

13) 29.09.2014 - 01.10.2014: U.R.S.I. Kleinheubacher Meeting 2014, Miltenberg, Germany Presentation by Hendrik Hoffmann: Potential of dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) in LTE macro networks

14) 25.09.2014 - 26.09.2014: VDE/ITG Future Networks Conference (ZdN 2014), Braunschweig, Germany Presentation by Colin Willcock: Highlights from SEMAFOUR

15) 25.09.2014: ZdN 2014 - SEMAFOUR Workshop on SON for Future Networks, Braunschweig, Germany


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• Presentation by Colin Willcock: Overview of the SEMAFOUR project • Presentation by Andreas Eisenblätter: SONLAB: framework for distributed simulation of

SON in realistic networks • Presentation by Bart Sas: Steering users based on their mobility behaviour in LTE networks • Presentation by Yu Wang: Self-optimisation for multi-layer LTE/Wi-Fi access selection • Presentation by Pradeepa Ramachandra: Active antenna systems: self-optimised (de)activation

of vertical sectorisation • Presentation by Sören Hahn: Policy-based SON management • Demonstration by Remco Litjens: Demonstrator of the SEMAFOUR vision and achievements;

demonstration on decision support system • Demonstration by Sören Hahn and Simon Lohmüller: Policy-based SON management • Demonstration by Thomas Kürner and Hendrik Hoffmann: Dynamic spectrum allocation • Demonstration by Daniela Laselva: Multi-layer LTE/WiFi access selection

16) 14.09.2014 - 17.09.2014: IEEE 80th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2014-Fall), Vancouver, Canada Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: Coordinating SON instances: a reinforcement learning framework

17) 02.09.2014 - 05.09.2014: IEEE 25th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) 2014, Washington DC, USA Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: Coordinating SON instances: reinforcement learning with distributed value function

18) 26.08.2014: ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), Barcelona, Spain • Presentation by Yu Wang: Performance of WLAN RSS-based SON for LTE/WLAN access

network selection • Presentation by István Z. Kovács: Performance of SON for RSRP-based LTE/WLAN access

network selection • Presentation by Fredrik Gunnarsson: On design principles for self-organizing network

functions • Presentation by Christoph Frenzel: SON management based on weighted objectives and

combined SON function models • Presentation by Konstantinos Trichias: Performance evaluation and SON aspects of vertical

sectorisation in a realistic LTE network environment • Presentation by Sören Hahn: Managing and altering mobile radio networks by using SON

function performance models • Demonstration by Christoph Schmelz and Sören Hahn: Demonstrator for objective driven

SON operation 19) 22.08.2014: ACM SIGCOMM - 4th Workshop on All Things Cellular: Operations, Applications

and Challenges 2014, Chicago, USA Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: SON conflict resolution using reinforcement learning with state aggregation

20) 23.06.2014 - 26.06.2014: European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2014), Bologna, Italy Presentation by Colin Willcock: Cognitive management for future radio access networks

21) 22.06.2014 - 26.06.2014: Tenth International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications (ICWMC 2014), Seville, Spain Presentation by Bart Sas: Classifying users based on their mobility behaviour in LTE networks

22) 01.06.2014 - 03.06.2014: World Telecommunications Congress (WTC 2014), Berlin, Germany


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Presentation by Andreas Eisenblätter: Small cell planning 23) 26.05.2014 - 28.05.2014: COST IC1004 10th MC & Scientific Meeting, Aalborg, Denmark

Presentation by Sören Hahn: Mobility load balancing - a case study: hexagon vs. realistic scenarios

24) 05.05.2014 - 09.05.2014: IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2014), Krakow, Poland • Presentation by Christoph Frenzel: Dynamic, context-specific SON management driven by

operator objectives • Presentation by Sören Hahn: SON management simulator - implementation and findings • Demonstration + poster presentation by Christoph Schmelz and Sören Hahn: SON

management demonstrator 25) 06.04.2014: WCNCW - IEEE International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (SONETS

2014), Istanbul, Turkey • Keynote presentation by Colin Willcock: Integrated self-management for future radio access

networks • Presentation by Ovidiu Iacoboaiea: SON coordination for parameter conflict resolution: a

reinforcement learning framework 26) 17.03.2014 - 20.03.2014: Future Internet Assembly (FIA) 2014, Athens, Greece

• Demonstration by Colin Willcock and Tanneke Ouboter: SEMAFOUR demonstration • Presentation by Colin Willcock: Perspectives of network management evolution towards 5G.

Workshop on Radio Access and Spectrum Innovations for 5G • Colin Willcock, member of panel session: What are the key RAN innovations to ignite 5G?

Workshop on Radio Access and Spectrum Innovations for 5G 27) 19.11.2013 - 20.11.2013: Mobile Network Optimisation 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands

• Presentation by Hans van den Berg: Overview of the European research project FP7 SEMAFOUR on self-management in HetNets

• Hans van den Berg, member of panel session: Will SON enable a future of the self-managing network?

28) 13.11.2013 - 15.11.2013: Wireless Days 2013, Valencia, Spain Poster presentation by J. Lorca and A.M. Sierra: A simple speed estimation algorithm for mobility-aware SON RRM strategies in LTE

29) 06.11.2013 - 08.11.2013: ICT 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania Demonstration by Sören Hahn, Tanneke Ouboter and Colin Willcock: Self-management and decision support in heterogeneous mobile radio networks

30) 22.10.2013 - 23.10.2013: Future Networks 12th FP7 Concertation meeting, Brussels, Belgium • Presentation by Colin Willcock: Update on 3GPP radio access networks standardisation and

opportunities for RAS cluster projects. RAS cluster workshop on Worldwide Perspectives in Flexible Spectrum Use and Opportunities for Standardisation

• Panel session chaired by Colin Willcock: C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Networks) concepts. 31) 01.10.2013 - 02.10.2013: 4th annual Self-Organising Networks Conference, Nice, France

Presentation by Ljupco Jorguseski: Outlook towards SON enhancements for HetNets 32) 30.09.2013 - 01.10.2013: Korea-EU Technical Workshop, Seoul, Korea

Presentation by Colin Willcock: Integrated self-management for future radio access networks 33) 25.09.2013 - 27.09.2013: COST IC1004 8th MC & Scientific Meeting, Ghent, Belgium

Presentation by Dennis M. Rose: The IC 1004 urban Hannover scenario - 3D pathloss predictions and realistic traffic and mobility patterns

34) 03.07.2013 - 05.07.2013: Future Network & Mobile Summit 2013, Lisbon, Portugal • Demonstration by Sören Hahn and Dennis M. Rose: SON management through high-level


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objectives • Presentation by Remco Litjens: Integrated self-management for future radio access networks:

vision and key challenges • Presentation by Colin Willcock: Challenges for SON functions and SON management

35) 27.06.2013: Conference call with the NGMN P-RANEV project Presentation by Thomas Kürner and Hendrik Hoffmann: Dynamic spectrum allocation & interference management use case

36) 02.06.2013: 3rd International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2013), Dresden, Germany • Demonstration by Sören Hahn and Christoph Schmelz: SON management through high-level

objectives • Presentation by Andreas Eisenblätter: Self-management for unified heterogeneous radio

access networks 37) 08.05.2013 - 10.05.2013: Future Internet Assembly (FIA) 2013, Dublin, Ireland

Demonstration + poster presentations by Sören Hahn and Christoph Schmelz: SON management through high-level objectives (demonstration + poster), SEMAFOUR (poster)

38) 23.04.2013 - 25.04.2013: Wireless World Research Forum Meeting 30, Oulu, Finland Presentation by Colin Willcock: Vision and key challenges for unified self-management of future radio access networks

39) 06.02.2013 - 08.02.2013: COST IC1004 6th MC & Scientific Meeting, Malaga, Spain Presentation by Remco Litjens: Self-management for unified heterogeneous radio access networks

40) 20.11.2012 - 21.11.2012: Mobile Network Optimisation 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands • Invited presentation by Hans van den Berg: Understanding why SON and the three key areas

in which SON operates offer benefits to the operator • Hans van den Berg, invited member of panel session: Next steps for self-organising networks

41) 16.11.2012: 19th IEEE Symposium on Communications and Vehicular Technology in the Benelux (SCVT 2012), Eindhoven, Netherlands Presentation by Remco Litjens: Self-management in cellular networks - Achievements and challenges

42) 10.10.2012 - 11.10.2012: Future Networks 10th FP7 Concertation meeting (RAS cluster), Brussels, Belgium Presentation by Christoph Schmelz: Self-management for unified heterogeneous radio access networks

43) 03.10.2012 - 04.10.2012: 3rd annual Self-Organising Networks Conference (SON 2012), Cannes, France • Presentation by Ljupco Jorguseski: Analysing SON from a deployment perspective - Why,

When and How • Presentation by Irina Balan: Handover parameter optimisation in LTE self-organising

networks 44) 03.09.2012: International Workshop on Self-managing and Autonomous Networks (SAN 2012),

Krakow, Poland Invited presentation by Hans van den Berg: Developments on self-organisation in mobile access networks

45) 28.08.2012: 2nd International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2012), Paris, France Poster presentation: SON laboratory: a multi-technology radio network simulation environment for the SON analysis

Table 2: SEMAFOUR presentations and demonstrations


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3.2 List of Publications In Table 3, all the SEMAFOUR publications are listed. Camera-ready copies of these publications can be downloaded from the SEMAFOUR website (www.fp7-semafour.eu/en/publications/). During the course of the project, thirty-seven publications have been published, twenty-nine of which were peer-reviewed (twenty-eight conference/workshop papers and one journal paper). One further journal paper has recently been accepted and one journal paper is under review at the time of writing this deliverable (these two papers are indicated in italic in Table 3). The technical papers ‘Classifying Users Based on Their Mobility Behaviour in LTE Networks‘ and ‘Self-Optimisation of Vertical Sectorisation in a Realistic LTE Network’ presented at respectively ICWMC 2014 and at EuCNC 2015 have been rewarded with a best paper award. 1) Kathleen Spaey, Bart Sas, Kristina Zetterberg, Chris Blondia. Opportunities for Self-Optimisation

in Nomadic Networks: Improving Handover Decisions when Users and Nomadic Node Move Apart. Submitted.

2) Hendrik Hoffmann, Pradeepa Ramachandra, István Z. Kovács, Ljupco Jorguseski, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Thomas Kürner. Potential of Dynamic Spectrum Allocation in LTE Macro Networks. Accepted for publication in Advances in Radio Science - An Open Access Journal of the U.R.S.I. Landesausschuss in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e.V., Special Issue: Kleinheubacher Berichte 2014.

3) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. SON Conflict Diagnosis in Heterogeneous Networks. IEEE 26th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), August 2015.

4) Konstantinus Trichias, Remco Litjens, Abdoulaye Tall, Zwi Altman, Pradeepa Ramachandra. Self-Optimisation of Vertical Sectorisation in a Realistic LTE Network. European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2015), June 2015.

5) Bart Sas, Kathleen Spaey, Chris Blondia. A SON Function for Steering Users in Multi-Layer LTE Networks Based on Their Mobility Behaviour. VTC Spring 2015 - 5th International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2015), May 2015.

6) Abdoulaye Tall, Zwi Altman, Eitan Altman. Virtual Sectorization: Design and Self-Optimisation. VTC Spring 2015 - 5th International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2015), May 2015.

7) Sören Hahn, Dario Götz, Simon Lohmüller, Lars Christoph Schmelz, Andreas Eisenblätter, Thomas Kürner. Classification of Cells Based on Mobile Network Context Information for the Management of SON Systems. VTC Spring 2015 - 5th International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2015), May 2015.

8) Simon Lohmüller, Andreas Eisenblätter, Christoph Frenzl, Dario Götz, Sören Hahn, Thomas Kürner, Remco Litjens, Andreas Lobinger, Bart Sas, Lars Christoph Schmelz, Ulrich Türke. Policy-Based SON Management Demonstrator. VTC Spring 2015 - 5th International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2015), May 2015.

9) Sören Hahn, Dennis M. Rose, Thomas Kürner. User Behaviour in the Context of Quality of Experience in Realistic Mobile Radio Networks. COST IC1004 TD(15)13030, May 2015.

10) Abdoulaye Tall, Zwi Altman, Eitan Altman. Self-Optimizing Strategies for Dynamic Vertical Sectorization in LTE Networks. IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2015), March 2015.

11) Thomas Kürner, Joachim Sachs, Christian Wietfeld. “Zukunft der Netze” zu Gast in Braunschweig (news article on the SEMAFOUR Workshop 2014). ITG News, January 2015.

12) Ljupco Jorguseski, Adrian Pais, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Angelo Centonza, Colin Willcock. Self-Organizing Networks in 3GPP: Standardization and Future Trends. IEEE Communications Magazine, December 2014.

13) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. Low Complexity SON Coordination using Reinforcement Learning. IEEE Globecom 2014, December 2014.


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14) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. Coordinating SON Instances: A Reinforcement Learning Framework. IEEE 80th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2014-Fall), September 2014.

15) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. Coordinating SON Instances: Reinforcement Learning With Distributed Value Function. IEEE 25th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), September 2014.

16) Sören Hahn, Thomas Kürner. Managing and Altering Mobile Radio Networks by Using SON Function Performance Models. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

17) Yu Wang, Relja Djapic, Andreas Bergström, István Z. Kovács, Daniela Laselva, Kathleen Spaey, Bart Sas. Performance of WLAN RSS-based SON for LTE/WLAN Access Network Selection. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

18) István Z. Kovács, Daniela Laselva, Per-Henrik Michaelsen, Yu Wang, Relja Djapic, Kathleen Spaey. Performance of SON for RSRP-based LTE/WLAN Access Network Selection. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

19) Zwi Altman, Mehdi Amirijoo, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Hendrik Hoffmann, István Z. Kovács, Daniela Laselva, Bart Sas, Kathleen Spaey, Abdoulaye Tall, Hans van den Berg, Kristina Zetterberg. On Design Principles for Self-Organizing Network Functions. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

20) Christoph Frenzel, Simon Lohmüller, Lars Christoph Schmelz. SON Management based on Weighted Objectives and Combined SON Function Models. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

21) Konstantinos Trichias, Remco Litjens, Abdoulaye Tall, Zwi Altman, Pradeepa Ramachandra. Performance Evaluation and SON Aspects of Vertical Sectorisation in a Realistic LTE Network Environment. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

22) Lars Christoph Schmelz, Andreas Eisenblätter, Sören Hahn, Thomas Kürner, Remco Litjens, Andreas Lobinger, Simon Lohmüller, Bart Sas, Ulrich Türke. Demonstrator for Objective Driven SON Operation. ISWCS 2014 - Fourth International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON 2014), August 2014.

23) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. SON Conflict Resolution using Reinforcement Learning with State Aggregation. ACM SIGCOMM - 4th Workshop on All Things Cellular: Operations, Applications and Challenges 2014, August 2014.

24) Bart Sas, Kathleen Spaey, Chris Blondia. Classifying Users Based on Their Mobility Behaviour in LTE Networks. Tenth International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications (ICWMC 2014), June 2014.

25) Sören Hahn, Dennis M. Rose, Thomas Kürner. Mobility Load Balancing - a Case Study: Hexagon vs. Realistic Scenarios. COST IC1004 TD(14)10030, May 2014.

26) Sören Hahn, Lars Christoph Schmelz, Andreas Eisenblätter, Thomas Kürner. SON Management Simulator - Implementation and Findings. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2014), May 2014.

27) Christoph Schmelz, Sören Hahn, Andreas Eisenblätter, Simon Lohmüller, Christoph Frenzel, Thomas Kürner. SON Management Demonstrator. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2014), May 2014.

28) Christoph Frenzel, Simon Lohmüller, Lars Christoph Schmelz. Dynamic, Context-Specific SON Management Driven by Operator Objectives. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2014), May 2014.

29) Ovidiu Iacoboaiea, Berna Sayrac, Sana Ben Jemaa, Pascal Bianchi. SON Coordination for Parameter Conflict Resolution: A Reinforcement Learning Framework. WCNCW - IEEE


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International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (SONETS 2014), April 2014. 30) RAS cluster white paper with input from SEMAFOUR. 5G Radio Network Architecture.

http://www.ict-ras.eu/, February 2014. 31) Jan van den Brink. Self-Managing Mobile Network / Mobiel netwerk redt zichzelf wel. TNO

TIME (article based on an interview with J.L. van den Berg and R. Litjens), Winter 2013. 32) J. Lorca, A. Sierra. A Simple Speed Estimation Algorithm for Mobility-Aware SON RRM

Strategies in LTE. Wireless Days 2013, November 2013. 33) Dennis M. Rose, Thomas Jansen, Thomas Werthmann, Ulrich Türke, Thomas Kürner. The IC

1004 Urban Hannover Scenario - 3D Pathloss Predictions and Realistic Traffic and Mobility Patterns. COST IC1004 TD(13)08054, September 2013.

34) Andreas Eisenblätter, Beatriz González Rodríguez, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Thomas Kürner, Remco Litjens, Bart Sas, Berna Sayrac, Lars Christoph Schmelz, Colin Willcock. Integrated Self-Management for Future Radio Access Networks: Vision and Key Challenges. Future Network & Mobile Summit 2013, July 2013.

35) Hans van den Berg, Remco Litjens. Mobiele netwerken onderhouden zichzelf. Automatiseringsgids, June 2013.

36) Remco Litjens, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Berna Sayrac, Kathleen Spaey, Colin Willcock, Andreas Eisenblätter, Beatriz González Rodríguez, Thomas Kürner. Self-Management for Unified Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks. VTC Spring 2013 - 3rd International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2013), June 2013.

37) Andreas Eisenblätter, Beatriz González Rodríguez, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Thomas Kürner, Remco Litjens, Bart Sas, Berna Sayrac, Lars Christoph Schmelz, Colin Willcock. Vision and Key Challenges for Unified Self-Management of Future Radio Access Networks. Wireless World Research Forum Meeting 30, April 2013.

38) Remco Litjens, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Berna Sayrac, Kathleen Spaey, Colin Willcock, Andreas Eisenblätter, Beatriz González Rodríguez, Thomas Kürner. Self-Management for Unified Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks. COST IC1004 TD(13)06022, February 2013.

39) Johannes Baumgarten, Andreas Eisenblätter, Thomas Jansen, Thomas Kürner, Dennis M. Rose, Ulrich Türke. SON Laboratory: A Multi-Technology Radio Network Simulation Environment for the SON Analysis. 2nd International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (IWSON 2012), August 2012.

Table 3: SEMAFOUR publications

3.3 Contacts and Cooperation with Other Projects In the SEMAFOUR dissemination plan (D6.3) [1], a number of European research projects considering topics relevant to the content of the SEMAFOUR project have been identified. The dissemination plan discussed what each of the identified projects is (was) about, how this relates to the SEMAFOUR targets and how the liaison between SEMAFOUR and the particular projects is ensured. In D6.4 [2] and D6.5 [3], the concrete interactions SEMAFOUR had with other projects during respectively its first and second year have been described. In the following paragraphs, a summary of the interactions covering the whole project duration is given. UniverSelf (Universal Self-management) was an FP7-ICT Integrated Project. It started in September 2010, with a duration of 36 months. The foundation of the liaising between UniverSelf and SEMAFOUR was set at the second IWSON workshop, which was held in August 2012, and organised by Orange, Alcatel-Lucent (UniverSelf partner), Nokia, EAB, TUBS and UPRC (UniverSelf partner). The UniverSelf project has developed a Unified Management Framework (UMF) capable of managing autonomic functions. There were interrelations to SEMAFOUR WP5 (Integrated SON Management), which considered the management and coordination of several individual SON functions. To enable SEMAFOUR WP5 contributors to understand the UniverSelf UMF approach, a conference call presentation has been given in February 2013 to explain the different parts of the UMF in detail. SEMAFOUR used results from the UniverSelf project in the WP4 task on SON Design Principles. It is


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recalled that the purpose of these principles is to ensure, already in the design phase, that undesired interactions between the different SON functions are avoided. Input from the UniverSelf project related to SON coordination and stability criterions of simultaneously operating SON functions has been used for developing some of the design principles. COMMUNE (COgnitive network ManageMent under UNcErtainty) was a research project under the CELTIC initiative, running from November 2011 until April 2014. The main objective of the project was to help avoiding and resolving uncertainty in network management and operation by the use of knowledge-based reasoning techniques and other cognitive networking methods, which can be seen as an evolution of SON by adding cognition (reasoning / learning). Also between COMMUNE and SEMAFOUR WP5 were interrelations, for example, regarding policy-based SON management (improving SON function policies) and SON coordination as well as with respect to a Decision Support System. Because of its interrelations with both the UniverSelf and COMMUNE projects, SEMAFOUR has organised its first workshop in 2013 together with these projects. The CELTIC-plus project SHARING (Self-organised Heterogeneous Advanced RadIo Networks Generation) started in December 2012 and will run until February 2016. Like SEMAFOUR, also the SHARING project performs research on self-organising networks. In April 2014, SHARING has organised the IEEE International Workshop on Self-Organising Networks (SONETS 2014), to which SEMAFOUR contributed with a keynote presentation and a paper on SON coordination. Further, the SHARING project has given an invited presentation at the SEMAFOUR 2014 workshop. COST IC1004 is a COST Action on Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments. The action started in May 2011 and ended in May 2015. WG3 (Radio Networks) of COST IC 1004 is also covering SON aspects. SEMAFOUR presentations have been given at the 6th (February 2013), 8th (September 2013), 10th (May 2014) and 13th (May 2015) MC & Scientific meetings of the COST IC1004 project. At the first meeting the concept and basic ideas of SEMAFOUR were presented. At the second meeting a reduced version of the SEMAFOUR ‘Hannover scenario’ has been presented, and at the third meeting a case study on the effect of mobility load balancing in different scenarios. At the fourth meeting, a presentation on user behaviour in the context of QoE was given. Two of the recently started H2020 projects, 5G-NORMA and METIS-II, have given a forward-looking presentation in the session on ‘Future Network Management in 5G’ of the SEMAFOUR 2015 workshop. Besides the interactions of SEMAFOUR with other European projects mentioned above, contacts with other projects also took place at events and conferences organised by or with the support of the European Commission, or within the context of the Radio Access and Spectrum FP7 Future Networks Cluster (RAS cluster) [8]. At the 10th Future Networks FP7 Concertation meeting in October 2012, an overview of the SEMAFOUR project was presented. At the 11th meeting in February 2013, a presentation on the project’s application scenarios, system requirements and standardisation objectives was given. At the 12th meeting in October 2013, a presentation ‘Update on 3GPP radio access networks standardisation and opportunities for RAS cluster projects’ has been given during the RAS cluster workshop on Worldwide Perspectives in Flexible Spectrum Use and Opportunities for Standardisation. During the plenary meeting of this 12th Future Networks FP7 Concertation meeting, a panel session on C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Networks) has been chaired. The SEMAFOUR project also provided input to the RAS cluster structure and organisation. RAS cluster projects are grouped into two working groups, where SEMAFOUR contributed to WG2 on ‘High Capacity Radio Network Architecture’. In this WG, a white paper on the view from the European research community on the architecture aspects of 5G mobile and wireless communication systems has been written. SEMAFOUR provided input to the structure of this paper and contributed with a section on Automated Network Organisation. At ICT 2013, which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, in November 2013, SEMAFOUR was present with an exhibition stand to showcase the SEMAFOUR demonstration on ‘Self-management and decision support in heterogeneous mobile radio networks’.


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Also at the Future Internet Assembly (FIA 2014) in March 2014, in Athens, Greece, the SEMAFOUR demonstration has been exhibited. At the pre-FIA workshop on Radio Access and Spectrum Innovations for 5G, a presentation ‘Perspectives on network management evolution towards 5G’ has been given, and a panel session about ‘What are the key RAN innovations to ignite 5G’ has been participated in. Further, SEMAFOUR organised its first workshop in July 2013 as two different sessions at the Future Networks and Mobile Summit 2013 conference. At EuCNC 2014 in June 2014, SEMAFOUR was represented with a presentation on cognitive management for future radio access networks. At EuCNC 2015 in June/July 2015, SEMAFOUR was present with an exhibition stand to showcase the SEMAFOUR demonstrator, a presentation in the RAS cluster workshop on RAS cluster innovations, and a technical paper and presentation on vertical sectorisation. Also at the Korea-EU Technical Workshop in September/October 2013, in Seoul, Korea, the SEMAFOUR project has been presented.

3.4 Demonstrations In this section the events at which SEMAFOUR demonstrations have been given are listed, including a high-level description of the content of these demonstrations and covering the entire project duration. Please refer to the different versions of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator (D3.2 ‘Initial (vision oriented) demonstrator’ [8], D3.3 ‘Demonstrator (intermediate version)’ [10], D3.5 ‘Demonstrator (full-fledged, results-oriented version)’ [11]) for more information on the scope, content and advancement of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator in its different stages. • Future Internet Assembly, FIA 2013, Dublin, Ireland, May 8-10, 2013.

At this event the demonstration scenario ‘SON management through high-level objectives’ was given, using a MATLAB-based demonstrator that predated the development of the ‘official’ SEMAFOUR demonstrator. This demonstration scenario showcased how changing control parameters for the Mobility Load Balancing SON function drive the behaviour and performance of an LTE network into different directions. The purpose was to illustrate, by means of specific examples, how a mobile network operator may control the network’s behaviour through enforcing different parameter settings and how those settings correspond to different high-level objectives. This is a first step into operating a network with the support of high-level objectives. The underlying system-level network simulations for this showcase employed a realistic network scenario for the German city of Hannover, which was used with, amongst others, high-resolution ray-tracing signal level predictions and realistic vehicular as well as pedestrian user mobility. This realistic environment has been used throughout the project, underlying all demonstration scenarios.

• International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks, IWSON 2013, Dresden, Germany, June 2, 2013. At this event essentially the same demonstration was given as at the FIA 2013 event.

• Future Network & Mobile Summit, FNMS 2013, Lisbon, Portugal, July 3-5, 2013. At this event essentially the same demonstration was given as at the FIA 2013 event. Figure 6 shows the SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at FNMS 2013.


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Figure 6: SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at FNMS 2013

• Information and Communication Technology conference, ICT 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania, November 6-8, 2013. The demonstration scenario ‘Self-management and decision support in heterogeneous mobile radio networks’, as showcased at the ICT 2013 event, covered two key elements of the SEMAFOUR self-management system for heterogeneous mobile radio networks. The ‘Policy-Based SON Management’ demonstration showed how an operator-selected general network-level objective automatically sets the control parameters of the Mobility Robustness Optimisation (MRO), Mobility Load Balancing (MLB) and Capacity and Coverage Optimisation (CCO) SON functions, and thereby drives the behaviour and performance of an LTE network in line with the selected objective. The ‘Decision Support System’ (DSS) demonstration showcased the timely detection of future performance bottlenecks, and the automatic generation and assessment of possible network upgrades to prevent the bottleneck from occurring. Considered upgrades included the addition of a new site of some type or the upgrade of an existing site from featuring three to six sectors. Figure 7 shows the SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at the ICT 2013 conference, while Figure 8 shows some screenshots of the demonstrated ‘Policy-Based SON Management’ (first row and lower left) and ‘Decision Support System’ (lower right) scenarios.

Figure 7: SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at ICT 2013

• Annual SEMAFOUR project review, Brussels, Belgium, November 14, 2013. At this event essentially the same demonstration was given as at the ICT 2013 event.


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• Demonstration at Orange Labs, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, December 13, 2013. At this event essentially the same demonstration was given as at the ICT 2013 event.

• Future Internet Assembly, FIA 2014, Athens, Greece, March 18-20, 2014. At this event essentially the same demonstration was given as at the ICT 2013 event.

Figure 8: Screenshots of the SEMAFOUR demonstration scenarios shown at, e.g., ICT 2013, the

second annual SEMAFOUR project review, Orange Labs and at FIA 2014

• Network Operations and Management Symposium, NOMS 2014, Krakow, Poland, May 5-9, 2014. At NOMS 2014, the ‘Policy-Based SON Management’ function was demonstrated using the same demonstrator as at ICT 2013, including a poster-based explanation of the use of the SON Policy System.

• International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks, IWSON 2014, Barcelona, Spain, August 26, 2014. At IWSON 2014, the demonstrations covered an extended version of the ‘Policy-Based SON Management’ scenario, including the SON Objective Manager and the corresponding SON Policy system, consisting of a Policy Decision Point and a Policy Execution Point.


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• SEMAFOUR workshop 2014 on SON for Future Networks, Braunschweig, Germany, September 25, 2014. The demonstrations given at the SEMAFOUR workshop 2014 covered enhanced versions of the Policy-Based SON Management and Decision Support System scenarios, as well as new demonstration scenarios on Dynamic Spectrum Allocation and Multi-Layer LTE/Wi-Fi Traffic Steering. In the (single-RAT) Dynamic Spectrum Allocation scenario it was demonstrated how a slight performance improvement could be achieved by dynamically switching off radio resources for interference reduction purposes, while the significance of the reduction of needed resources could be found in e.g., energy savings. The Multi-Layer LTE/Wi-Fi Traffic Steering scenario demonstrated (i) how Wi-Fi (LTE) resources may be over(under)utilised in a baseline scenario where terminals are connecting to Wi-Fi when Wi-Fi coverage is available, with a correspondingly poor service quality; and (ii) how a traffic steering SON function can suitable offload the congested Wi-Fi layer towards LTE macro/micro-cells and significantly enhance service quality.

• Annual SEMAFOUR project review, Brussels, Belgium, November 21, 2014. At this event essentially the same demonstrations were given as at the SEMAFOUR workshop 2014.

• Orange Labs Research Exhibition, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, November 25-28, 2014. At this event the demonstration focussed on the Policy-Based SON Management scenario as also shown at the SEMAFOUR workshop 2014.

• International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks, IWSON 2015, Glasgow, Scotland, May 11, 2015. At IWSON 2015, an enhanced version of the Policy-Based SON Management scenario was demonstrated, now also including the Multi-Layer LTE/Wi-Fi Traffic Steering SON function besides the already previously covered MLB and MRO SON functions.

• TU Night, Braunschweig, Germany, June 27, 2015. At the TU Night in Braunschweig, the demonstrations covered the same Policy-Based SON Management and Multi-Layer LTE/Wi-Fi Traffic Steering scenarios as shown at IWSON 2015 and the same Decision Support System scenario as shown at the SEMAFOUR workshop 2014. Further, a new (inter-RAT) Dynamic Spectrum Allocation scenario was shown, demonstrating how 2G spectrum may be beneficially reassigned from a GSM cell to a collocated LTE cell, in order to reduce LTE congestion and enhance LTE performance without worsening GSM performance.

• European Conference on Networks and Communications, EuCNC 2015, Paris, France, June 29-July 2, 2015. At EuCNC 2015, largely the same Policy-Based SON Management, Multi-Layer LTE/Wi-Fi traffic steering, Decision Support System and Dynamic Spectrum Allocation scenarios were demonstrated as also shown at the TU Night in Braunschweig. A new scenario was the Active Antenna Systems scenario, which demonstrates the dynamic (de)activation of a vertical sectorisation feature in LTE macro-cells. Figure 9 shows the SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at EuCNC 2015.

• SEMAFOUR workshop 2015 on Self-Management for Unified Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks, Brussels, Belgium, August 25, 2015. At the SEMAFOUR workshop 2015, essentially the same set of scenarios were demonstrated as shown at EuCNC 2015.

• Annual SEMAFOUR project review, Brussels, Belgium, to be held in November, 2015. At the third and final annual SEMAFOUR project review, essentially the same set of scenarios will be demonstrated as shown at EuCNC 2015.


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Figure 9: SEMAFOUR demonstration stand at EuCNC 2015

3.5 SEMAFOUR Workshops The SEMAFOUR project has organised three workshops to disseminate and demonstrate the project’s results towards different stakeholders.

3.5.1 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2013 The first SEMAFOUR workshop (see Figure 10) on ‘Management Frameworks for Future Mobile Communication Networks’ took place on July 4, 2013, as two different sessions at the Future Network and Mobile Summit 2013 conference in Lisbon, Portugal. It was organised jointly with the FP7 project UniverSelf and the CELTIC project COMMUNE, and had as target to give an overview of the main challenges of management frameworks for future mobile communication networks. It comprised presentations by members of the three organising projects on the viewpoints, approaches and results of each of the projects, two invited talks and a discussion panel. The presentations were well received and triggered lively and interesting discussions. Also during the panel discussion, different points of view on the management of future mobile networks were discussed. In both sessions there were approximately 30 participants, of which only a limited number belonging to the consortia of the organising projects. The program of this workshop can be found in Appendix B of D6.4 [2].

Figure 10: SEMAFOUR first workshop at the Future Network and Mobile Summit 2013


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3.5.2 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2014 The second SEMAFOUR workshop ‘SON for Future Networks’ took place on September 25, 2014 in Braunschweig, Germany, and was organised in conjunction with the annual VDE/ITG workshop on ‘Future Networks’ on September 26, 2014. The focus of the two days event, attended by 70 participants, has been on Self-Organising Networks (SON) and on Software Defined Networking (SDN). Talks were given by experts from both industry and academia. The SEMAFOUR workshop on the first day concentrated on ‘SON for future networks’ and included six presentations about the achievements of SEMAFOUR (see Table 2) and an accompanying exhibition consisting of posters and a live presentation of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator. The oral program was completed by overview presentations on the CELTIC SHARING project given by Berna Sayrac (Orange) and on the 5G PPP initiative by Colin Willcock (Nokia) as well as an invited talk from Christian Wietfeld (TU Dortmund/Germany) on ‘LTE for Cyber Physical Systems’. The day was closed with a panel session with the three mentioned speakers as panellist. The program of the second day focused more on SDN and the interrelation between SDN and SON. The day started with a keynote on ‘Network Virtualization and Cloud - Automation and Flow Control’ given by Christoph Meyer (Ericsson), followed by eight talks and a concluding panel discussion with representatives from industry and vendors yielding a controversial debate on the workshop’s focus topic ‘SDN and SON: Friends or Foes?’. One of the main conclusions was that at the interface of the both originally disjoint areas very interesting opportunities for research and development exist. The detailed program of the two days can be found in Appendix A of D6.5 [3]. The program of the SEMAFOUR workshop can also be found on the SEMAFOUR website, from which also all the presentations can be downloaded (http://www.fp7-semafour.eu/en/workshop2014/). A few pictures of the workshop are shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: SEMAFOUR second workshop on September 25, 2014 in Braunschweig

3.5.3 SEMAFOUR Workshop 2015 The third workshop of SEMAFOUR on ‘Self-Management for Unified Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks’ was the project’s final workshop. It was organised as a workshop of the ISWCS 2015 conference, on August 25, 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. Following the success of the 2014 workshop, a


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similar format was followed for the 2015 workshop: a full-day workshop with talks, posters and demonstrations on SEMAFOUR results, and invited external talks. The workshop started with an overview of the SEMAFOUR project and of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator. Then the final results of SEMAFOUR were presented with technical talks (see Table 2) and posters and demonstration sessions during the breaks. The workshop ended with a forward-looking session on ‘Future Network Management in 5G’ with contributions from the recently started H2020 projects 5G-NORMA and METIS-II. About 45 participants attended the workshop. The program of the final workshop can be found in Appendix A of this deliverable, and on the SEMAFOUR website (www.fp7-semafour.eu/en/workshop2015/) where also the presentations given at the workshop are available. A few pictures of the event are shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: SEMAFOUR final workshop at ISWCS 2015


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4 Contacts and Cooperation with the Industrial Community In this chapter the contacts and cooperation with the industrial community are addressed. First the cooperation with the SEMAFOUR advisory board consisting of seven European operators is covered. Then two activities are described that have been conducted with the operational departments of several operators in order to gain insight into the processes behind the actual operation and management of today’s mobile networks. Furthermore, the contacts of SEMAFOUR with industry analysts and the presence of the SEMAFOUR demonstrator at the Orange Research Lab Exhibition of 2014 are discussed.

4.1 Advisory Board The role of the SEMAFOUR Advisory Board was, according to the description in the Grant Agreement, to ensure a broad spectrum of opinions being taken into account in particular during the requirements phase of the project (WP2), and to furthermore establish a defined means of dialogue with European operators from outside the project during development and implementation phases (WP4 and WP5). The input from the Advisory Board as a voluntary group was thereby expected to be predominantly on a strategic direction rather than on technical details. In total seven European mobile radio network operators committed to participate in the Advisory Board, namely, Deutsche Telekom (Germany), KPN (The Netherlands), France Telecom / Orange (SEMAFOUR partner) (France), Telefónica (SEMAFOUR partner) (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), Telenor (Norway) and Vodafone (United Kingdom).

Cooperation during the Requirements Phase A questionnaire was sent to the Advisory Board members in October 2012. This questionnaire was asking for input on how radio network management should be done in future RANs on the one hand, and for feedback regarding the SEMAFOUR use cases that were identified in the first months of the project on the other hand. These use cases were also presented to the Advisory Board during a phone meeting on the 15th of October 2012. The following operators answered the questionnaire and therefore provided important input to the project: Deutsche Telekom, KPN, France Telecom / Orange, Telefónica, Telenor and Vodafone. The project’s analysis and interpretation of the results were included in the restricted deliverable D2.3 ‘State-of-the-art in Radio Network Management’ [12] and presented to the Advisory Board members during a phone conference on March 20, 2013.

Cooperation during Development and Implementation Phases After providing valuable input to the project in its starting phase with D2.3, the Advisory Board members were informed about the status and progress of the project in conference calls, including the presentation of selected results. Within those calls, the Advisory Board members were invited to provide feedback and ask questions on the project’s results and directions. Two phone conferences using web document sharing were held during the Development and Implementation Phases of the project: • On November 4, 2013, where a status update on the project’s progress was given to the Advisory

Board, with an overview about WP2, 3, 4, and 5. • On June 27, 2014, where the SEMAFOUR demonstrator was presented to the Advisory Board

members, using the demonstrator video D3.3 [10]. Furthermore, an overview about the status of the different WP4 and WP5 use cases has been presented, together with results on the activity on SON design principles as an interface activity between WP4 and WP5.

Before starting the multi-RAT investigations in the WP4 use case on Dynamic Spectrum Allocation, an explicit request for feedback was sent to the Advisory Board. An additional activity was started with the members of the Advisory Board as part of the work conducted within WP5, regarding the operational processes in radio network management at the different operators. This activity is described in Section 4.2. The Advisory Board members have furthermore been explicitly invited to participate in the intermediate project workshop in Braunschweig, Germany, on September 25, 2014, and to the final


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project workshop in Brussels, Belgium, on August 25, 2015. A final phone conference with the Advisory Board members is scheduled for September 21, 2015.

4.2 Operational Departments of Operators The Work Package 5 activities on Policy-based SON Management (PBSM) and Monitoring & Diagnosis (MD) are closely related to the network management processes and procedures within the operations departments of mobile network operators. This relationship is, on the one hand, expressed through the management of individual SON functions and the SON system as a whole (including SON function deployment, configuration, supervision, and SON coordination), and on the other hand through the definition of high-level goals (related to, e.g., operator strategy, service and network quality, or customer experience and loyalty) and the refinement and transformation of these goals into technical Key Performance Indicator (KPI, e.g., drop call rate, user throughput, handover performance, etc.) target values and the corresponding network configuration parameters. Both the SON management and the goals refinement were key objectives of WP5. During the runtime of WP5 two activities with mobile network operators have been conducted in order to gain insight into the processes behind the actual operation and management of today’s mobile radio networks.

Input on Network KPIs For the first activity, which took place from January till March 2014, the focus was on the definition, implementation, monitoring and adjustment of KPIs. The interest of the SEMAFOUR PBSM and MD use cases was thereby mainly to understand how high-level operator goals are transferred into targets for the technical network KPIs within the operators’ organisations. Furthermore, the interest from PBSM perspective was to understand the process how these KPI targets are transferred into dedicated configurations for the network, and in how far the PBSM concept of context-specific KPI targets (e.g., depending on the cell type or the cell location) and weighting between KPI targets is already implemented in today’s manually operated networks (cf. SEMAFOUR deliverables D5.2 [13] and D5.3 [14]). Another goal of the activity was to understand the main obstacles and challenges with the introduction of SON into the systems. This first activity, which was mainly conducted with the operators involved in SEMAFOUR, consisted of three main parts. First, a questionnaire including a set of question categories with respect to KPI (target) definitions, the corresponding network context, and the KPI deployment process was compiled within the WP5 team. This questionnaire was then used as the basis for interviews internally at the operators. The answers were summarised, and the results were discussed in a workshop at Orange in Paris in March 2014, including a discussion with people from Orange operations. As an outcome of the first activity, the initial scope of WP5 to perform SON management through high-level goals was shifted towards focussing on the KPI targets as the relevant input for the SON management system, due to the fact that the interrelation between high-level goals and KPI targets is very complex, involves many different organisational parties within the operator’s organisation, and is only to some extent available in form of a written process. However, such a manual process had been the necessary starting point for an automated process. The results of this first activity were, as agreed with the involved operators, kept confidential within the SEMAFOUR consortium.

High-Level Goals Linked with KPI Targets For the second activity, which took place from February till June 2015, the members of the SEMAFOUR Advisory Board (cf. Section 4.1) were asked for support. This activity mainly intended to confirm the results of the first activity by getting additional input from other operators on the transformation processes and procedures in between high-level goals and KPI targets (comparable to the first activity). However, the second activity also tackled several open issues that had not been considered or answered within the first activity, namely, the handling of high-level goals related to special campaigns or events and the supervision and review of high-level goals and KPIs achievement. In total, six different operators responded to the newly prepared questionnaire. Altogether, the results of the first activity could be confirmed, and the involved operators agreed that a summary of this


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activity aggregating values from different operators could be published within SEMAFOUR deliverable D5.4 [15].

4.3 Industrial Analysts The industrial relevance of future SON in general and the SEMAFOUR project in particular has been widely recognised. This has led to a number of requests for demonstrations at various events and indeed requests from telecommunications industry analysts for meetings to understand where this technology is going. The SEMAFOUR project has organised meetings with industry analysts to disseminate its vision for SON. The most notable of these meetings was with Michael W. Thelander, Founder and CEO of the Signals Research Group. This provided major input to the Signals Ahead, April 25, 2013, Vol. 9 No. 4 ‘Everything Under the SON’. In this widely read document there are dedicated sections on the SEMAFOUR project’s requirements and vision. In addition to Signals Ahead the SEMAFOUR project has had major influence on the Stratecast Executive Industry Positioning Paper ‘Self-Optimizing Networks: Removing Risk and Adding Value’ of February 2014 and on Telecoms.com, ‘The case for Self-Organizing Networks’, September 2014. A webinar on the SEMAFOUR vision for future SON technology was organised with TeleSemana multimedia publication on January 13, 2015. TeleSemana is a leading multimedia publication, with over sixteen thousand subscriptions, aiming to provide strategic insight and analysis about new technological developments, and how they apply to Latin American operators. The webinar ‘Proyecto SEMAFOUR: diseñando sistema de auto gestión para las redes HetNet móviles’ therefore was targeted at addressing specifically the Latin-American market, and is currently still available on demand from the TeleSemana website [16]. More than sixty people have attended the webinar, among which people from the professional telecommunications industry from Latin America, and some debate has been established with some of them.

4.4 Orange Research Lab Exhibition At Orange, the SEMAFOUR demonstrator was presented in the Orange Labs Research Exhibition (25th to 28th of November 2014). The Research Exhibition is organised at Orange Lab in Issy-les-Moulineaux, and its aim is to offer Orange Group personnel and its partners a condensed view of the recent innovations and a look at future service and technology trends. The 2014 session consisted of 45 demonstrations and more than 1500 visitors from the Orange Group and its partners. The SEMAFOUR demonstration was focused on the Policy-Based SON Management use case and attracted around 150 visitors: • Orange Group attendees were from R&D (with ‘VIP’ visits from Orange COMEX) and

operational teams (Orange France, Europe Region optimisation team, AMEA, and some African affiliates representatives).

• External visitors: DGA (the army), Thales, French regulator (ANFR), ‘CELTIC’ representatives, vendors (Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei), some engineering tools providers (SystemX, Astelia) and some research labs (Supelec, BCOM).


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5 3GPP Standardisation and Related Activities Standardisation impact is one of the objectives of the SEMAFOUR project. Within the lifetime of the project SEMAFOUR has been actively involved in a number of bodies to disseminate and standardise the ideas and technologies developed within the project. The details of these efforts are documented in this chapter. The focus is on the areas and groups where the project has really made a difference and had a direct impact on standardisation.

5.1 3GPP 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) is organised in four different Technical Specification Groups (TSGs), each focusing on standardisation within a given area (TSG GERAN - GSM EDGE Radio Access Network, TSG RAN - Radio Access Network, TSG SA - Service and Systems Aspects, TSG CT - Core Network and Terminals). Each TSG is organised into several working groups (WG), which cover different technical aspects, and a plenary, where the final approval of the work plan and results of the WGs takes place. The plenary can be considered the steering group for the working groups. As such it controls explicitly the scope of the work in the WGs though approval of the work items (WIs) and study items (SIs). The plenary also monitors the progress of each WI and SI and takes action in case of delays or conflicts. Finally, the plenary approves all standardisation proposals from the WGs. The work in 3GPP is organised as a series of releases. Currently, 3GPP is working on release 13. The TSGs relevant for SEMAFOUR are the TSG RAN and the TSG SA.

5.1.1 3GPP Activities relevant for SEMAFOUR Before considering the specific 3GPP contributions with SEMAFOUR input (see Section 5.1.2), first a more general overview of the 3GPP activities that were relevant for SEMAFOUR is given.

5.1.1.1 3GPP TSG RAN The 3GPP TSG RAN is responsible for the definition of the functions, requirements and interfaces of the HSPA and LTE network in its two modes, FDD and TDD. For the SEMAFOUR project the most relevant meetings are the RAN Plenary and the RAN WG 2 and 3 meetings.

3GPP RAN Plenary The timing, contents and completion of the releases are decided within the RAN plenary meetings. As any work within the associated RAN WGs is dictated by the RAN plenary it was important for SEMAFOUR to be aware of what was going on there and to influence the meeting if particular technical areas were wished to be standardised. There are four RAN plenary meetings per year, and a SEMAFOUR representative was always present to report back on the latest status and influence future work. From the project point of view the most important event in the first year was the approval of the release 12 SON study item at the 3GPP RAN plenary meeting #58 in December 2012. In the second year the release 12 SON study item was completed at the 3GPP RAN plenary meeting #64 in June 2014. The following associated SON work item was brought to the September 2014 RAN plenary #65 where it was approved. The work item focused on support for active antenna systems, which was one of the key use cases being investigated in the SEMAFOUR project. The SON work item was successfully completed at the June 2015 RAN plenary meeting #68 with significant input from the SEMAFOUR project partners.

3GPP RAN2 RAN WG2 is in charge of the Radio Interface architecture and protocols, the specification of the Radio Resource Control protocol, the strategies of Radio Resource Management and the services provided by the physical layer to the upper layers. For SEMAFOUR it was important to understand what is going on in this working group to understand how the future mobile communication network will function. SEMAFOUR monitored RAN WG2, especially the Minimization of Drive Testing (MDT), which can be seen as a monitoring part for the overall SON system. The release 12 MDT


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work item proposal did not get approval due to lack of support. However a release 13 work item has been started.

3GPP RAN3 RAN WG3 is responsible for the overall UTRAN/E-UTRAN architecture and the specification of protocols for the Iu, Iur, Iub, S1 and X2 interfaces. For SEMAFOUR the most important area was associated with the release 12 SON study item and release 13 SON work item, which were led by RAN3. It was this study item and associated work item where the SEMAFOUR project contributed the most. The SEMAFOUR project was closely coordinated with the ongoing SON work in RAN3 with the rapporteur in 3GPP being directly involved in the project. In addition to the SON work item during the second year and third year, the SEMAFOUR project has been active in the multi-RAT coordination study item. This has enabled the SEMAFOUR work on traffic steering between Wi-Fi and LTE to influence the standards. In addition the work on dynamic spectrum allocation has been fed into the work item and influenced the direction of the technical work.

5.1.1.2 3GPP TSG SA The TSG SA is responsible for the overall architecture and service capabilities of systems based on 3GPP specifications, and it has responsibility for cross TSG coordination. For SEMAFOUR the most relevant meetings are the SA WG5 meetings.

3GPP SA5 In SA WG5 (SA5), requirements, architecture and solutions for provisioning and management of the network and its services are specified, with focus on the interface Itf-N between the Network Manager (also referred to as OSS) and the Domain Manager. In release 12, the focus of SA5 is mainly on four different areas: enhanced multi-vendor plug and play of eNB, study of enhanced Network Manager (NM) centralised coverage and capacity optimisation, study on Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) aspects of network sharing, and describing the SA5 solutions fulfilling Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) top OPE recommendations. Although the SEMAFOUR project did not intend to contribute to SA5 work, it was relevant for the project because it may set specific requirements for our SON solutions / management framework. We therefore continuously tracked the progress and important milestones reached in SA5 through a liaison, who was participating in the SA5 meetings.

5.1.2 3GPP Contributions with SEMAFOUR Input Table 4 gives an overview of the 3GPP contributions that were submitted during the course of the SEMAFOUR project and that are based on or directly refer to SEMAFOUR results. More details on these contributions are given in the following subsections.

ID Title Meeting R3-140184 Multi-RAT Joint Coordination SI Use Cases 3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #83

Prague, Czech Republic February 10-14, 2014

R3-140904 LTE/GSM Dynamic Spectrum Reallocation for Mass Events

3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #83bis San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico March 31 - April 4, 2014

R3-150172 Analysis of SON for AAS Cell Splitting/Combining Scenarios

3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #87 Athens, Greece February 9-13, 2015

R3-150765 Analysis of SON for AAS Cell Splitting/Combining Scenarios

3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #87bis Tenerife, Spain April 20-24, 2015


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R3-151098 Quantifying the benefits of the 3GPP-WLAN Interface

3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #88 Fukuoka, Japan May 25-29, 2015

Table 4: Overview of 3GPP contributions with SEMAFOUR input

5.1.2.1 Multi-RAT Joint Coordination Study Item The Multi-RAT joint coordination study item was started to improve the performance of radio networks using multiple radio access technologies. The SEMAFOUR project was able to provide significant input to this work as outlined below and focus the study item results on the Wi-Fi/ LTE steering, which the project had identified as the most pressing use case in this area. At 3GPP RAN3 #83 meeting, a submission was made by NSN (R3-140184) on behalf of SEMAFOUR. The aim of this document was to inform the new 3GPP Multi-RAT Joint Coordination Study Item that the SEMAFOUR project has already been considering some of the areas mentioned in this study item. Two SEMAFOUR use cases (traffic steering and joint resource coordination), which might be useful input in this study item, were included in this document. This submission was presented, and it was agreed to use these use cases as the basis of this 3GPP work. At the 3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 meeting #83bis a submission was made by NSN and Ericsson (R3-140904) in the name of SEMAFOUR on LTE/GSM Dynamic Spectrum Reallocation for Mass Events. In this contribution LTE/GSM dynamic spectrum reallocation for mass events is discussed and the conclusion reached that more details about the use case are needed in order to understand the requirements and the benefits of potential solutions. SEMAFOUR also took part in 3GPP RAN3 working group meeting #88. For this meeting, SEMAFOUR prepared a contribution ‘Quantifying the benefits of the 3GPP-WLAN interface’ (R3-151098) based on some insights and results from the SEMAFOUR LTE/Wi-Fi traffic steering use case (see Section 5.1.2.3 for more details). This contribution was presented under the Multi-RAT joint coordination study item and resulted in two references to the SEMAFOUR project in the technical report TR37.870 [16].

5.1.2.2 SON for AAS The WP4 Active Antenna Systems (AAS) use case has made two contributions to the closely related ‘SON for AAS-based deployments’ work item in RAN3. The first contribution R3-150172 was presented in the RAN3#87 meeting which took place in Athens. This contribution focused on the time dynamicity aspects of the SON functionality and how they affect performance, the possible implications (in terms of signalling) that high SON time dynamicity may impose and on the need for a flexible PCI allocation scheme during cell split / merge procedure. The presentation aroused the interest of the RAN3 delegates, who requested more details and further results from the AAS use case of SEMAFOUR. The second contribution R3-150765 was presented in the next meeting RAN3#87bis that took place in Tenerife and focused exclusively on the use of different schemes for PCI allocation during cell split / merge procedure. More specifically, the document presented simulation results from the SEMAFOUR project for different PCI allocation schemes during cell split / merge procedure and concluded that it is essential that a flexible (not fixed) PCI allocation scheme is used that can adapt to varying network conditions. The ‘SON for AAS-based deployments’ WI was completed successfully in RAN#68 (June 2015). The observations and proposals of the AAS use case contributions, regarding the flexible allocation of PCI, were in line with the decisions taken in the work item, since it was decided to allow flexible PCI allocation schemes, as can be seen from the meeting minutes reports and the technical report of the WI, TR 37.822 [18].

5.1.2.3 3GPP-WLAN Traffic Steering Within the SEMAFOUR WP4 multi-layer LTE-WLAN Traffic Steering use case, the contribution R3-151098 with the title ‘Quantifying the benefits of the 3GPP-WLAN interface’ was submitted to


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3GPP RAN3. The contribution was presented in the context of the release 13 study item ‘Study on Multi-RAT Joint Coordination’, and it was related to the coordination made possible via the standardisation of a direct interface between the 3GPP and WLAN systems. The submitted document proves numerically large benefits of the information exchange between the LTE and WLAN when operating traffic steering (TS) between the two systems. It therefore promotes the above-mentioned standardised interface. The included results illustrate the case of adopting threshold-based TS SON functions to determine in which system the UE should be served. They show that significant gains can be achieved when the SON function controls the load of both systems (inter-RAT load control) instead of controlling the load of either system (single RAT load control). As the SON function is envisioned to reside at the eNB, it requires the retrieval of WLAN load metrics to operate and exploit the gain. The same results and further details are documented in D4.3 [19] as well. Additionally, D4.3 shows that throughput-based TS functions can achieve even larger gains compared to the inter-RAT load control TS SON function. In this case throughput estimates (or actual served throughput) in the two access networks are compared to determine in which system the UE should be served. Those functions are also envisioned to reside at the eNB and would need the retrieval of the required WLAN load metrics for the throughput estimate (additionally to Wi-Fi RSSI measurement reports). The submitted contribution was presented and well received in WG3. The paper was incorporated into the related 3GPP TR 37.870 [16] of the SI as annex titled ‘Example of parameter exchange from WLAN to 3GPP’ together with explicit reference to the SEMAFOUR project.

5.2 NGMN Two activities within NGMN completed during the lifetime of the SEMAFOUR project have been of interest for SEMAFOUR. The NGMN activity on SON was done through the work named ‘NGMN / NGCOR project Implementation Guide, from requirements to products & solutions’. The main purpose of this activity was to track how Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) and NGMN partners (vendors) are translating or mapping the ‘NGMN Top OPE requirements’ deliverable released in 2010 [20] during the implementation phase. This work was done in the framework of 3GPP SA5 work item No. 560034 [21], started in January 2013 and completed in September 2013. The NGCOR Project aimed also to provide further enhancements (with more details) to the existing NGMN Top OPE recommendations, and especially to define converged O&M requirements since NGMN Top OPE Requirements are mainly dealing with wireless requirements. The NGCOR project published in July 2013 a final deliverable containing the main project results ‘NGMN Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements’ [22]. The other activity was the NGMN project ‘RAN evolution’ (P-RANEV), which contains also Dynamic Spectrum Allocation (DSA). Members of the SEMAFOUR DSA use case team have actively participated in this NGMN activity. Since this activity was of interest for SEMAFOUR, the project had sent a liaison statement to NGMN, see Appendix B of D6.5 [3]. Unfortunately the deliverable generated by NGMN was too late for the DSA activity within SEMAFOUR to make full use of it within SEMAFOUR as an input document for the inter-RAT DSA activities.

5.3 IEEE 802 SEMAFOUR was mainly following the developments within IEEE 802.11 and the EC Task Group Omniran. SEMAFOUR was attending the relevant meetings through partner TUBS. Two activities were relevant to the SEMAFOUR use case on Traffic Steering and the SEMAFOUR activity on SON for future networks. The EC Task Group Group Omniran targets at providing an abstraction of access networks based on IEEE 802 technologies [23]. Within this activity interfacing to 3GPP networks [24], [25] and SON in the context of Wi-Fi offloading [26] is discussed. The second activity is the launching of the IEEE 802.11ax Task Group (TGax) on High Efficiency WLAN during the March 2014 plenary meeting. Results from the Traffic Steering use case have been presented to IEEE 802.11 SC WNG (Standing Committee Wireless Next Generation) at the July 2015 Plenary [28], which is relevant to both of the


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activities followed by SEMAFOUR. The content of the presentation was well received and fits into current discussions of IEEE 802.11 on interfacing IEEE 802.11 with 3GPPP standards [29].


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6 Concluding Remarks The SEMAFOUR project has developed and validated new concepts, methods and algorithms for multi-RAT / multi-layer SON functions, as well as for an integrated SON management system. To demonstrate their benefits for the management and operation of complex networks, these results have been integrated into a demonstrator. Dissemination, liaison and exploitation activities have been implemented with the objective of raising the awareness of different stakeholders on the SEMAFOUR project results and of maximising their impact. This deliverable has provided insight into the dissemination and liaison activities of the project, covering the whole project duration. The achievements pointed out in the document show that the project has successfully disseminated its results, actively pursued liaison activities, and reached a high visibility within the scientific and the industry community. Key outcomes of the SEMAFOUR dissemination and liaison activities were: • The publication of thirty-seven articles, of which twenty-nine were peer reviewed and two were

rewarded with a conference best paper award, and the delivery of seventy presentations at several scientific meetings, conferences and workshops.

• The demonstration of the project’s vision and achievements using the SEMAFOUR demonstrator at several large events, like FIA 2013, ICT 2013, FIA 2014, the Orange Labs Research Exhibition 2014 and EuCNC 2015.

• The organisation of three successful workshops during the project’s lifetime, two of which were full-day workshops specifically dedicated to the dissemination of SEMAFOUR results.

• The good contacts and cooperation with the SEMAFOUR advisory board, resulting in valuable feedback and input for the SEMAFOUR work.

• The dedicated sections on the SEMAFOUR project’s requirements and future vision in the Signals Ahead issue of April 2013, ‘Everything under the SON’, resulting from a meeting with industry analyst Michael Thelander, founder and CEO of the Signals Research Group.

• The close coordination of SEMAFOUR with 3GPP, in particular RAN3, and the submission of five 3GPP contributions on SEMAFOUR work.

The project has repeatedly been approached and perceived as an opinion leader regarding the development of multi-RAT / multi-layer SON functions and corresponding integrated SON management system. Furthermore, it has had a noticeable impact on standardisation with multiple contributions and direct influence in several areas of 3GPP RAN standardisation.


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7 References [1] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 6.3: ‘Dissemination Plan’, December 2013.

[2] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 6.4: ‘Report on Dissemination, Exploitation and Liaison Activities during Year 1’, August 2013.

[3] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 6.5: ‘Report on Dissemination, Exploitation and Liaison Activities during Year 2’, August 2014.

[4] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 6.7: ‘Exploitation Roadmap’, August 2015.

[5] http://www.google.com/analytics/

[6] http://www.alfresco.com

[7] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 6.6: ‘Final Report on a Unified Management System for Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks’, August 2015.

[8] http://www.ict-ras.eu

[9] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 3.2: ‘Initial (Vision-Oriented) Demonstrator’, June 2013.

[10] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 3.3: ‘Demonstrator (Intermediate Version)’, May 2014.

[11] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 3.5: ‘Demonstrator (Full-Fledged, Results-Oriented Version)’, July 2015.

[12] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 2.3: ‘State-of-the-art in Radio Network Management: Feedback from the Advisory Board Members’, March 2013.

[13] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 5.2: ‘Integrated SON Management - Policy Transformation and Operational SON Coordination (First Results)’, June 2014.

[14] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 5.3: ‘Integrated SON Management - Policy Transformation and Operational SON Coordination (Final Results)’, February 2015.

[15] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 5.4: ‘Integrated SON Management - Implementation Recommendations’, August 2015.

[16] http://www.telesemana.com/webinars/2015/01/13/proyecto-semafour-disenando-sistema-de-auto-gestion-para-las-redes-hetnet-moviles/

[17] 3GPP TR 37.870, ‘Study on Multiple Radio Access Technology (Multi-RAT) Joint Coordination (Release 13)’, June 2015.

[18] 3GPP TR 37.822, ‘Study on Next Generation Self-Optimizing Networks (SON) for UTRAN and E-UTRAN (Release 12)’, March 2015.

[19] EU FP7 SEMAFOUR, Deliverable 4.3: ‘SON functions for integrated multi-layer and multi-RAT networks, May 2015.

[20] NGMN Alliance, ‘NGMN TOP OPE Recommendations’, Version 1.0, September 2010.

[21] 3GPP SA5 Work Item No. 560034, ‘Compliance of 3GPP SA5 Specifications to the NGMN Top OPE Recommendations’, OAM-NGMN_OPE.

[22] NGMN Alliance, ‘Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements’, Version 1.4, July 2013.

[23] IEEE 802 Scope of OmniRAN, omniran-13-0032-05-0000, https://mentor.ieee.org/omniran/dcn/13/omniran-13-0032-05-0000-ieee-802-scope-of-omniran.pptx


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[24] 3GPP Trusted WLAN Access to EPC Use Case Analysis, omniran-13-0040-00-0000, https://mentor.ieee.org/omniran/dcn/13/omniran-13-0040-00-0000-3gpp-trusted-wlan-use-case-analysis.pptx

[25] Wi-Fi Hotspot Roaming Use Case, omniran-13-0019-03-0000, https://mentor.ieee.org/omniran/dcn/13/omniran-13-0019-02-0000-omniran-wi-fi-hotspot-use-case.pptx

[26] Orchestration of SON Features for WiFi Offloading using Network Empowerment Mechanisms, omniran-13-0042-00-0000, https://mentor.ieee.org/omniran/dcn/13/omniran-13-0042-00-0000-orchestration-of-son-features-for-wifi-offloading-using-network-empowerment-mechanisms.pptx

[27] OmniRAN Network Reference Model with Heterogeneous, omniran-14-0052-00-CF00 https://mentor.ieee.org/omniran/dcn/14/omniran-14-0052-00-CF00-omniran-network-reference-model-with-heterogeneous-link-aggregation.pdf

[28] Multi-Layer LTE/ Wi-Fi Access Network Selection - Results from the SEMAFOUR Project, IEEE 802.11-15/0847r1 https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/15/11-15-0847-01-0wng-multi-layer-lte-wi-fi-access-network-selection-results-from-the-semafour-project.pdf

[29] IEEE 802.11 as a “Component”, IEEE 802.11-15/757r0 http://www.ieee802.org/802_tutorials/2015-07/11-15-0757-00-0000-802.11-as-a-component.pptx


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Appendix A Program of the SEMAFOUR Workshop 2015 This appendix shows the program of the final SEMAFOUR workshop (see Section 3.5.3).

SELF-MANAGEMENT FOR UNIFIED HETEROGENEOUS RADIO ACCESS NETWORKS

Final Project Workshop on August 25th, 2015, Brussels

©"SEMAFOUR"Consor0um"2015"

The"SEMAFOUR"workshop"on"Self%Management,for,Unified,Heterogeneous,Radio,Access,Networks,

will"be"organised"in"Brussels,,Belgium,on"August,25,,2015,"in"conjunc0on"with"ISWCS’15""Workshop,Program:,

09:00, Welcome''Kathleen"Spaey"L"iMinds,"Belgium"

09:10,–,

10:20,

Session'1'Orange'vision'on'SON'deployment''Vincent"Diascorn"L"Orange,"France"Overview'of'the'SEMAFOUR'project''Colin"Willcock"(SEMAFOUR"Project"Coordinator)"L"Nokia,"Germany"DemonstraAon'of'the'SEMAFOUR'vision'and'achievements''Remco"Litjens"L"TNO,"The"Netherlands"

10:20,–,

10:50,

Coffee'Break'Posters'and'Demonstrator'Session'

10:50,–,

12:30,

Session'2'SON'for'future'networks:'SEMAFOUR'highlights'and'results''Mehdi"Amirijoo"L"Ericsson,"Sweden"MulAFlayer'LTE/WiFFi'traffic'steering:'from'load'control'to'throughput'opAmisaAon''Yu"Wang"L"Ericsson,"Sweden"Steering'users'based'on'their'mobility'behaviour'in'mulAFRAT'networks''Bart"Sas"L"iMinds,"Belgium"AAS'evoluAon:'SON'soluAons'for'verAcal'&'virtual'sectorisaAon''Konstan0nos"Trichias"L"TNO,"The"Netherlands"Dynamic'spectrum'allocaAon'for'shared'use'of'GSM'and'LTE''Nils"Dreyer"L"Technische"Universität"Braunschweig,"Germany"

12:30,–,

14:00,

Lunch'Break'Posters'and'Demonstrator'Session'

14:00,–,

15:15,

Session'3'Integrated'SON'management:'SEMAFOUR'highlights'and'results''Christoph"Schmelz"L"Nokia,"Germany"ObjecAveFdriven'adapAve'SON'management''Simon"Lohmüller"L"University"of"Augsburg"/"Nokia,"Germany"SON'coordinaAon:'conflict'detecAon'and'conflict'resoluAon''Ovidiu"Iacoboaiea"L"Orange,"France"Decision'support'for'operaAonal'network'evoluAon''Dario"Götz"L"atesio,"Germany"

15:15,–,

16:00,

Coffee"Break"Posters'and'Demonstrator'Session'

16:00,–,

17:30,

Session'4'5G'architecture'F'challenges'and'opportuniAes''Icaro"Leonardo"Da"Silva"L"Ericsson,"Sweden"Architecture'in'the'5G'era:'5G'NORMA'approach'and'Nokia'view''Simone"Redana"L"Nokia,"Germany"SEMAFOUR'view'on'future'network'management''Colin"Willcock"L"Nokia,"Germany"

For"the"most"recent"informa0on"about"the"workshop,"please"check"the"SEMAFOUR"website"at"www.fp7Lsemafour.eu/en/workshop2015"For"registra0on"to"the"workshop,"please"visit"the"ISWCS‘15"website"at"hbp://www.iswcs2015.org/index.php/registra0on""

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