Deliverable 1.8 Initial specification of functional and technical requirements of 5G NPN implementations for pilots and beyond

This document is the deliverable D1.8 “Initial specification of functional and technical requirements of 5G NPN (Non-Public Networks) implementations for pilots and beyond” of the Horizon Europe Innovation Action project “5G-TIMBER: Secure 5G-Enabled Twin Transition for Europe's TIMBER Industry Sector” (hereinafter also referred to as “5G-TIMBER”, project reference: 101058505).  

This deliverable presents the status of the work that has been carried out primarily in the task “T1.5 Functional specifications and long-term strategies for full scale deployment of 5G NPN infrastructures in manufacturing and material tracking” that runs from M2 to M24.

The purpose of D1.8 is to detail the functional and technical requirements of a 5G Non-Public Network (NPN) that can address the Use Cases and KPIs defined in D1.1 (Initial Descriptions of Use Cases with Expected Outcomes and Impact Projections to 3 Target Domains) and D1.3 (Initial KPIs Definition Report), respectively. Chapter 10 of this Deliverable describes the initial SNPN deployment in Estonia.

A second version of this deliverable (D1.9) is scheduled for delivery in M24 of the project. This version of the deliverable reflects the status, recommendations and technical possibilities as of M7 (December 2022) of the project. It primarily focuses on an Standalone NPN network that can be deployed initially using equipment that is available to the project partners today. As such, the “beyond” aspect of the title of this deliverable is not yet significantly addressed. The D1.9 version of this deliverable will look beyond the initial imperatives of the project pilot trials to address more general requirements of deploying NPNs in industrial environments.

As this is the initial version of the deliverable, some background is provided and fundamental 5G concepts are introduced. An introduction to NPNs is provided and high level descriptions of the major components of a 5G NPN network and some key network interfaces are also presented.

Spectrum availability also has consequences on NPN deployment possibilities. The currently fragmented nature of spectrum allocated for NPN use in the EU is also covered in this deliverable.

The deliverable finishes with “Conclusions” chapter and an appendix detailing the equipment that will initially be deployed at the pilot sites.