p-NET 5G Facility delivers a carrier-grade and commercial-grade private 5G Standalone (SA) network. It serves as a dynamic testing and experimentation environment for pre-commercial verification, technological innovation and tailored vertical deployments. Operating under the Network as a Service (NaaS) model, p-NET offers a customizable and programmable network with slicing and exposure capabilities that address the unique demands of any verticals such as manufacturing, tourism, energy.
Network slicing enables comprehensive trials allowing the evaluation and documentation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under diverse traffic profiles and network conditions.
Resource allocation and lifecycle management is streamlined through Openslice, an open-source Operations Support System (OSS) that simplifies interaction with vertical applications via a user-friendly web portal or programmatic API. Key features include:
- Service Catalog: A comprehensive overview of available services and network capabilities.
- Standardized APIs: Integration with TMForum OpenAPIs enables seamless service orchestration, inventory management, user/partner management, and VNF (Virtual Network Function)/NS (Network Service) deployments through the OSM NBI.
- Telemetry & Monitoring: Powered by Prometheus and NetData, delivering real-time metrics on infrastructure performance, RAN, user equipment (UEs), and energy consumption sensors.
p-NET testbed spans three locations within the University of Patras (UoP) campus, featuring:
- Four Indoor Locations: Supporting seamless handover and mobility testing, based on various radio equipment (SDRs, ERICSSON, AMARISOFT and AW2S).
- Hybrid Indoor/Outdoor Setup: Utilizing AW2S and ERICSSON radio units, providing robust 5G connectivity across adjacent outdoor areas, including the campus parking facilities.
- Full RAN Flexibility: Utilizes 100MHz commercial spectrum in C-Band with support for full configurability of parameters (QoS flows, TDD frame structure, etc.), energy measurements and energy saving features enabling advanced test case execution.
Advanced Core and Edge Network Capabilities
p-NET supports core-to-edge distributed deployments through a powerful cloud platform and integration with commercial-grade 5G core components.
- Centralized 5G Core (Ericsson 5G Release-16 and beyond technology) infrastructure with support of slicing and cybersecurity configurations.
- Edge cloud platform hosts both NFV and MEC deployments with a computing power of 1082 CPUs and 4,5 TB of RAM and 100 TB of storage including GPU-enabled servers.
Dedicated local Edge User Plane Function (UPF) in Patras to support distributed deployments with low-latency breakout and traffic steering. It facilitates:
- 5G/6G Cloud-to-Edge Deployments.
- Low-latency processing and data offloading close to the UE, essential for applications such as XR and industrial automation.
- Non-Public Network Configurations, enabling advanced testing and scalability.
Designed to bridge the gap between new applications demand and network technical capabilities, p-NET infrastructure supports the integration of devices, vertical applications and external APIs, external services, physical equipment, and containerized workloads.
Support for standard logical and physical interfaces ensures scalability and operability, enabling diverse testing requirements and real-world application deployments.