DyMoNet: Dynamic Mobile Networks

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The evolution of current wireless access networks towards 5G and beyond is characterized, among others, by the provisioning of high-bandwidth services and by the capability of serving traffic from a large number of heterogeneous devices. Among the key approaches for provisioning high capacity in such networks, a prominent role is played by network densification. However, dense deployments of many small cell base stations imply huge investments, increasing both CAPEX and OPEX for the mobile network. Additionally, densification increases the amount of over-provisioned network resources, due to variability in traffic demand over space and time.Following up recent research on connected cars, one of the most promising approaches to address these issues consists in exploiting vehicle-mounted small cell moving base stations. This allows taking advantage of the correlation between spatio-temporal patterns of users and of vehicles, in order to create a network that flexibly and naturally densifies whenever and wherever needed by many users, hence reducing the need for dense deployments of static base stations.The proposed concept constitutes a new paradigm for network design and operation, which seamlessly integrates static infrastructure with base stations operating on vehicles, with an unprecedented level of flexibility and adaptability. However, for such a moving network paradigm to effectively enable a dynamic and flexibly densified cellular network infrastructure, a number of key open research issues need to be addressed.The main goal of the DyMoNet project is to enable such moving network paradigm, by addressing some of the key open research challenges which stand in the way of its practical feasibility. Specifically, the project will aim at:(1) identifying those scenarios and use cases in which the moving network paradigm holds the highest potential to increase networking performance and resource efficiency with respect to traditional static deployments;(2) developing mechanisms for reliable wireless mobile backhaul, for the interconnection of moving base stations to the core of the network;(3) elaborating QoS-aware mechanisms for dynamic interference management, enabling an efficient provisioning of connectivity under tight QoS constraints; and (4) investigating dynamically resource allocation and slicing in order to satisfy specific QoS constraints, while accounting for the dynamics of service demand as well as of the moving network infrastructure.The outcomes of DyMoNet will advance the current state of the art in network planning and management, by providing new solutions for the design and the operation of future wireless access networks. Results will help assessing the potential of the moving network paradigm for enabling cost-effective and resource-efficient provisioning of communication services, offering technical inputs for economic evaluations, while removing some of the main technical obstacles to its implementation.