# SLICES-RI: a blueprints-based research infrastructure

Damien Saucez

► To cite this version:

Damien Saucez. SLICES-RI: a blueprints-based research infrastructure. FABRIC Community Workshop, KNIT10, Mar 2025, Chapel Hill, NC, United States. hal-05477250

HAL Id: hal-05477250

https://inria.hal.science/hal-05477250v1

Submitted on 26 Jan 2026

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

slices

# SLICES-RI: a
blueprints-based
research infrastructure

on behalf of the SLICES community

03/13/2025

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

core

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

edge

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

RAN
# The blueprint concept in a nutshell

* Help collaboration between engineers and non-engineers to work together on developing applications.

* Define a common terminology that doesn't require in-depth, technical knowledge

* to produce consistent vision on the application with a focus on the future objective.

* Pick up the right resources, be iterative, review and validate, and keep it as a baseline.

* Adapted from [0a, 0b] slices

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>
# A Post-5G research infrastructure?

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>

slices
What for?

* Vertical service integration and testing (e.g., LiDAR)

* Software Defined Networking (e.g., xAPP)

* Radio/network development software (e.g., custom PHY)

* Low-level access to radio resources (e.g., THz)

* Joint use of post-5G infrastructure and HPC resources (e.g., digital twin, code generation, fuzzing)

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>
What for?

* Vertical service integration and testing (e.g., LiDAR)

Repeatability (Same team, same experimental setup)

Reproducibility (Different team, same experimental setup)

Replicability (Different team, different experimental setup)

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

slices

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>
Experiment at the center

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

slices

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>
Experiment at the center

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

slices
# Experiment at the center

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>

slices
Experiment at the center

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_20.png" /></figure>

slices
Experiment at the center

<figure><img src="image_21.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

slices
# Documented and with reference implementation

* Concepts fully documented

* Reference implementation:

* Terraform (AWS/GCP/OpenStack) + Ansible for deployments

* k8s

* OAI

* Software and/or hardware

* USRP/AW2S

* Tofino/Tofino2 with SD-Fabric

* Complete documentation and SLICES academy integration
slices

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /></figure>
# Documents and with reference

<figure><img src="image_24.png" /></figure>
# Equipment offered at SLICES-sites

* Radios at different sites (indoor, outdoor, anechoic chambers)

* Benetel RAN550 indoor n77 O-RU, Benetel RAN650 outdoor n78 O-RU

* LITEON FR1, band N78, 4x4 MIMO, 100MHz bandwidth

* LITEON Flexfi FR2

* AW2S jaguar and panther

* Multiple UEs at all the sites (Quectel (eMBB, RedCap) and Smartphones)

* Programmable radios in most sites: USRP b210, n300, n320, x410

* GPU and DPU-enabled baremetal access to last generation (performance oriented) AMD and Intel servers

* General compute resources k8s clusters, VM hosting (> 1,000 cores)

* Most sites offer PTP G.8275.1 and G.8275.2 Telecom Profiles (10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 100 Gbps)

* Cisco Nexus N9K & Fibrolan Falcon

* NAS Storage (~500TB): persistent + scratch

<figure><img src="image_25.png" /></figure>

slices

<figure><img src="image_26.png" /></figure>
# Roadmap (->2025)

* Seed ->| 06/2022

* PoC ->| 06/2023

* First deployments ->| 12/2023

* First deployment with non-SLICES member 04/2024

* 1st hackathon ->| (06/03/2024 at IFIP Networking)

* 1st code sprint ->| (06/24-28/2024 @ Sophia)

* Pre-operation ->| 11/11/2024

* 2nd code sprint ->| (01/27-02/07/2025 @ Volos)

* 2nd hackathon ->| (06/26/2025 at IFIP Networking)

* BP v3 ->| 06/2025

* Mange with natural language (LLM based), support for day 1 and day 2 operations, support for multiple implementations types, energy consumption monitoring.

<figure><img src="image_27.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_28.png" /></figure>

slices
# Roadmap (->2025)

* Seed ->| 06/2022

* PoC ->| 06/2023

* First deployments ->| 12/2023

* First deployment with non-SLICES member 04/2024

* 1st hackathon ->| (06/03/2024 at IFIP Networking)

* 1st code sprint ->| (06/24-28/2024 @ Sophia)

* Pre-operation ->| 11/11/2024

* 2nd code sprint ->| (01/27-02/07/2025 @ Volos)

* 2nd hackathon ->| (06/26/2025 at IFIP Networking)

* BP v3 ->| 06/2025

* Mange with natural language (LLM based), support for day 1 and day 2 operations, support for multiple implementations types, energy consumption monitoring.

<figure><img src="image_29.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_30.png" /></figure>

slices
# Not only Post-5G!

* Already in Pre-op:

* Post-5G blueprint

* https://doc.slices-ri.eu/BlueprintServices/beyond5G/beyond5G.html

* Federated Learning Blueprint

* https://doc.slices-ri.eu/BlueprintServices/FederatedLearning/federatedlearning.html

* Work in progress

* Cloud-edge continuum, quantum networking... slices

<figure><img src="image_31.png" /></figure>
5G key principles [1]

* Separate the User Plane functions from the Control Plane functions

* Modularize the function design

* Define the set of interactions between network functions as services

* Enable direct interactions between network functions

* Minimize dependencies between the Access Network and the Core Network

* Support "stateless" NFs (i.e., compute decoupled from storage)

* Support capability exposure

<figure><img src="image_32.png" /></figure>

slices
# Lessons learned – HW is a real constraint

* O-RAN Open FHI in OpenAirInterface

* Optimized for Intel-based x86-64 (e.g., AVX512)

* How to move to AMD and ARM?

* Complexity in network infrastructure

* Raw Ethernet

* Usually 3 VLAN (need sr-iov): management, control/user plane

* PTP distribution and PTP HW time stamping on NICs

* ... software too, doomed by dependencies!

<figure><img src="image_33.png" /></figure>

slices
# Lessons learned – Diversity (1/2)

* On-prem

* Full: Eurecom; Inria Sophia; UTH

* Core/RAN split

* Dedicated fiber: Inria/Eurecom (200Gbps)

* International dedicated VLAN 1Gbps/10ms: Inria / imec

* Commercial Internet: Sorbonne / UTH; Sorbonne / Inria Sophia

* Public cloud aided

* GCP + Eurecom; Inria + GCP + UTH; Inria + GCP + CNR

* In testbeds

* Summer school in TUM testbed, Virtual Wall

* With non-SLICES member: Amarisoft RAN @ Telecom Paris

<figure><img src="image_34.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_35.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_36.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_37.png" /></figure>

slices
Lessons learned – Diversity (2/2)

* Network interconnect

* Commercial Internet accessible

* Dedicated links

* VPN service

* Identification / Authentication

* Users based on the light federation from SLICES (OIDC) is ok

* PKIs... how to unify certificates

* People test first in virtual environments (must support VM)

<figure><img src="image_38.png" /></figure>

slices