WP1 Use cases, requirements and architecture definition

This WP comprises the definition of scenarios, use cases and the associated technical, functional and non-functional requirements that will serve as input to the CHARITY architecture. The analysis of the requirements will then drive the definition of the specifications aiming to accommodate the individual needs of the use cases and further to devise the architecture for CHARITY. The main objectives of this WP are:

• To define reference scenarios and to further refine the adopted use cases, taking into account the inputs from key stakeholders (e.g. end users, technology providers, service providers).
• To identify, refine and formally define the technical, functional and non-functional requirements. 
• To define and gradually refine the CHARITY architecture, along with the detailed specification of the various framework components, interfaces, information models and data schemas.
• To implement an overarching steering track on ethics, privacy and data management, to continuously run during the whole project in order to ensure all CHARITY activities and developments, from initial architectural decisions to final demonstrations, are fully compliant with all the EU standards and regulations.

This WP has direct interdependencies with WP2-WP4, as already discussed before. The requirements, architecture and specifications produced by WP1 will steer the work of WP2-WP4.

WP2 Edge and cloud infrastructure resource and computational continuum orchestration system

The main objective of WP2 is to enable a smooth and efficient life-cycle management of resources and computations at heterogeneous edges and clouds, as well as at the network domains that include both access and transport layers. This WP will leverage suitable network technologies and concepts, including microservices, AI techniques and ZSM concept, for building cloud cognitive and native environments. It will consider the features of different edges and clouds when orchestrating the services to meet the target requirements and KPIs. For this purpose, WP2 aims to provide: i) a unified application management framework that offers the possibility for designing customizable, highly collaborative and interactive network slice blueprints as well as supporting their auto generation and self-configuration by leveraging different machine learning techniques; ii) a complete CI/CD ecosystem that offers for the next generation developers the possibility to develop and integrate highly-interactive microservices within the CHARITY platform; and iii) end-to-end orchestration system that enables 1) the launch of network slices on top of heterogeneous cloud-edge continuum for supporting highly collaborative and interactive services, 2) inter-slice resource shifting and service relocation in order to achieve the desired KPIs during the runtime of network slices and that is while preventing over-provisioning, and 3) insurance of security and privacy protection for AR/VR and Holographic services over the underlying cloud-edge continuum.

WP3 Energy, data and computational-efficient mechanisms supporting dynamically adaptive and network-aware services

The main objective of this work package is to provide a comprehensive set of mechanisms, approaches and algorithms aimed at supporting the development of the energy, data, and computational-efficient services that will be provided by the CHARITY eco-system to application developers. To this end, this WP will deliver libraries, tools, and solutions able to guarantee the release of network and infrastructure-aware software components that will constitute the building blocks of dynamically adaptive and context aware CHARITY services. The ultimate goal is to provide state-of-the-art solutions able to maximize the exploitability of the resources available at the edge of the network and, consequently, limit to appeal to the cloud for executing the services. The achievement of such objectives will be contributed by this WP by providing: efficient libraries and programming patterns for multi-core CPUs, GPUs and accelerators embedded into the edge and devices; efficient data services and management approaches tailored to edge and constrained devices, supporting AR, VR, and Holographic applications; mechanisms for network awareness, enabling efficient adaptation of service behaviour and performances accordingly with actual availability of edge resources and applications performances; and state-of-the-art algorithms for adaptive rendering and data compression.

WP4 Integration, showcasing and validation

The main goal of WP4 is to perform the integration of the components and mechanisms to be developed in WP2 and WP3, according to the CHARITY architecture and specification defined in WP1, and to build a working proof-of-concept to validate, demonstrate and showcase the solutions and innovations of the project. The main objectives are: produce a functional proof-of-concept of the technological solutions of the CHARITY framework, integrating networking services, continuum orchestration and computing/rendering services; integrate the functional proof-of-concept from WP2 and WP3 according to the different use cases and reference scenarios set by WP1; setup experimentation testbeds that will be used for evaluation studies and demonstrations; provide feedback as input to WP2 and WP3 regarding the performance, reliability, and requirements fulfilment of developed solutions. These can be used for both improvements and to foster the exploitation of project results through WP5; the definition of functional tests and KPIs to permit a comprehensive assessment of success for the multiple project outcomes; to create demonstrations for each use case, which are then showcased to stakeholders in dissemination events (workshops, exhibitions, and other venues) in collaboration with WP5.

WP5 Dissemination, exploitation and standardization

The aim of this WP is to engage relevant stakeholder groups and provide visibility of the project goals and results, in order to carry out the various strategies for maximizing impact. In this scope, WP5 will ensure proper communication, dissemination, trust and acceptance of the project results to all relevant stakeholder communities, as well as investigate and foster different exploitation capabilities during and beyond the duration of the project, by developing and executing the CHARITY exploitation and innovation management plans. Finally, it will also encompass the activities related with standardization and knowledge transfer.

WP6 Project management

This work package oversees the project management, which includes project coordination, administrative project management, coordination of the technical work, quality assurance and organisation of Advisory Board (AdvB) activities, along the following objectives: coordinate the project according to approved plans related to progress, collaboration, finances administration and supervision of financial flows; communicating with the Commission, preparing reports and ensuring information flow to/within the consortium; implementing procedures for self-assessment, risk management, and conflict management; overall technical management of the project, technical coordination between work packages and local trial site management; quality assurance and timeliness of the project results, in particular deliverables; planning, arranging, and co-organising meetings for project co-ordination; implementing and administrating collaborative tools in order to ensure efficient and easy communication within the project; ensuring cooperation with the respective bodies including the project’s AdvB.