Leveraging over 25 years of experience in EC-funded projects and long-standing relationships with key academic and industrial players, Martel further consolidates its position in the field of telecommunication and 5G/6G through participation in the 6G-NTN project. The participation in 6G-NTN, funded under the European Smart Networks and Services (SNS) Works Programme Phase 1 Stream B, which focuses on novel technologies for commercial networks, allows Martel to further integrate its expertise in cloud-native and microservices architectures, open-source infrastructure components, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Martel’s threefold role in 6G-NTN
Martel plays a critical role in the 6G-NTN project, encompassing three important functions: Media, Lab, and the Project Management Office (PMO). The Media team leads communication and dissemination efforts, guiding impact creation activities to ensure broad outreach and strategic positioning of the project within the overall SNS JU landscape. It also facilitates liaisons with relevant initiatives Martel and other project partners are involved in. The PMO ensures all project activities are aligned with the project objectives, schedules, and budget, while also facilitating communication among stakeholders and managing risks to ensure successful project delivery. The Lab contributes to dynamic monitoring and orchestration, with emphasis on AI forecasting of traffic and resource occupation to support orchestration. The Lab brings a unique combination of expertise in Cloud Native technologies, open-source infrastructure components, and Artificial Intelligence to the project. This know-how enables Martel to develop advanced solutions that enhance the efficiency of network resource management. More about Martel’s role in the project can be found on the project website, here.
Martel’s contribution to dynamic monitoring and orchestration
In 6G-NTN, network functions in the Core Network are virtualized and treated as Kubernetes pods. Therefore, CPU usage and memory usage for each pod that implements a network function can be used as target metrics to predict the overall resource usage of the network. Forecasting these metrics can assist the orchestrator in better allocating the appropriate amount of logical resources on the shared physical resources. To satisfy this objective, Martel proposes a novel AI-Powered Network Forecasting Platform, which leverages advanced AI algorithms to predict the utilization and demand for virtualized network resources, enabling proactive resource allocation and optimization.
This AI-Powered Network Forecasting Platform is essential for executing Machine Learning (ML) pipelines, enabling the automated training and retraining of ML models. ML and Deep Learning (DL) experiments are initiated by Prefect, a Machine Learning Function Orchestrator that orchestrates workflows utilizing a cloud-native infrastructure. The execution environment of Prefect flows can be managed either by Docker containers or Kubernetes.
In the picture below, you can see the system architecture of the AI-Powered Network Forecasting Platform developed by Martel.
Click here to get access to the open-source code developed for the AI-Powered Network Forecasting Platform.
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About 6G-NTN
6G-NTN is a 3-year project funded under the Horizon Europe framework. The project kicked-off in January 2023 with a vision of a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) component fully integrated into the future 6G infrastructure to better meet the vertical industries’ needs and consumer market expectations. The 6G-NTN consortium consists of 15 partners from eight European countries who were strategically chosen to ensure an effective contribution to the integration of NTN into 6G networks. The partners were selected for their research and technical excellence, proven track record in thought leadership, and extensive experience in ambitious projects of this nature.
