5G networks provide higher flexibility and improved performance compared to previous cellular technologies. This has raised expectations on the possibility to support advanced Vehicle to Everything (V2X) services using the cellular network via Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) and Vehicle-to-Network-to-Vehicle (V2N2V) connections. The possibility to support critical V2X services using 5G V2N2V or V2N connections depends on their end-to-end (E2E) latency. The E2E latency of V2N2V or V2N connections depends on the particular 5G network deployment, dimensioning and configuration, in addition to the network load. To date, few studies have analyzed the capabilities of V2N2V or V2N connections to support critical V2X services, and most of them focus on the 5G radio access network or consider dedicated 5G pilot deployments under controlled conditions. This paper progresses the state-of-the-art by introducing a novel E2E latency model to quantify the latency of 5G V2N and V2N2V communications. The model includes the latency introduced at the radio, transport, core, Internet, peering points and application server (AS) when vehicles are supported by a single mobile network operator (MNO) and when they are supported by multiple MNOs. The model can quantify the latency experienced when the V2X AS is deployed from the edge of the network (using MEC platforms) to the cloud. Using this model, this study estimates the E2E latency of 5G V2N2V connections for a large variety of possible 5G network deployments and configurations. The analysis helps identify which 5G network deployments and configurations are more suitable to meet V2X latency requirements. To this aim, we consider as case study the cooperative lane change service. The conducted analysis highlights the challenge for centralized network deployments that locate the V2X AS at the cloud to meet the latency requirements of advanced V2X services. Locating the V2X AS closer to the cell edge reduces the latency. However, it requires a higher number of ASs and also a careful dimensioning of the network and its configuration to ensure sufficient network and AS resources are dedicated to serve the V2X traffic.

Network slicing is a novel 5G paradigm that exploits the virtualization and softwarization of networks to create different logical network instances over a common network infrastructure. Each instance is tailored for specific Quality of Service (QoS) profiles so that network slicing can simultaneously support several services with diverse requirements. Network slicing can be applied at the Core Network or at the Radio Access Network (RAN). RAN slicing is particularly relevant to support latency-sensitive or timecritical applications since the RAN accounts for a significant part of the end-to-end transmission latency. In this context, this study proposes a novel latency-sensitive 5G RAN slicing solution. The proposal includes schemes to design slices and partition (or allocate) radio resources among slices. These schemes are designed with the objective to satisfy both the rate and latency demands of diverse applications. In particular, this study considers applications with deterministic aperiodic, deterministic periodic and nondeterministic traffic. The latency-sensitive 5G RAN slicing proposal is evaluated in Industry 4.0 scenarios where stringent and/or deterministic latency requirements are common. However, it can be evolved to support other verticals with latency-sensitive or time-critical applications.

5G has been designed to support applications such as connected and automated driving. To this aim, 5G includes a highly flexible New Radio (NR) interface that can be configured to utilize different subcarrier spacings (SCS), slot durations, scheduling, and retransmissions mechanisms. This flexibility can be exploited to support advanced V2X services with strict latency and reliability requirements using V2N2V (Vehicle-to-Network-to-Vehicles) communications instead of direct or sidelink V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle). To analyze this possibility, this paper presents a novel analytical model that estimates the latency of 5G at the radio network level. The model accounts for the use of different numerologies (SCS, slot durations and Cyclic Prefixes), modulation and coding schemes, full-slots or mini-slots, semi-static and dynamic scheduling, different retransmission mechanisms, and broadcast/multicast or unicast transmissions. The model has been used to first analyze the impact of different 5G NR radio configurations on the latency. We then identify which radio configurations and scenarios can 5G NR satisfy the latency and reliability requirements of V2X services using V2N2V communications. This paper considers cooperative lane changes as a case study. The results show that 5G can support advanced V2X services at the radio network level using V2N2V communications under certain conditions that depend on the radio configuration, bandwidth, service requirements and cell traffic load.

With the fast-paced realization of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, completely centralized networking solutions will no longer be sufficient to meet the stringent requirements of the related industrial applications. Besides requiring fast response time and increased reliability, they will necessitate computational resources at the edge of the network, which demands advanced communication and data management techniques. In this paper, we provide an overview of the network communications and data management aspects for the Industry 4.0. Our global perspective is to understand the key communication and data management challenges and peculiarities for the effective realization of the fourth industrial revolution. To address these challenges, this paper proposes hybrid communications management and decentralized data distribution solutions supported by a hierarchical and multi-tier network architecture. The proposed solutions combine local and decentralized management with centralized decisions to efficiently use the available network resources and meet the requirements of Industry 4.0 applications. To this end, the distributed management entities interact in order to coordinate their decisions and ensure the correct operation of the whole network. Finally, the use of Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing is proposed to achieve the required flexibility to efficiently meet the stringent and varying communication and data management requirements of industrial applications.

5G and beyond networks should efficiently support services with stringent and diverse QoS requirements. This includes services for verticals that demand Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC). Scheduling strongly impacts the communication latency, and 5G NR introduces grant-free scheduling to reduce the latency at the radio level. Grant-free scheduling can use shared resources and the transmission of K replicas per packet to increase the packet delivery ratio and efficiently utilize the spectrum. Previous studies have shown that existing 5G NR grant-free scheduling has limitations to sustain URLLC requirements for aperiodic (or uncertain) and deterministic traffic that is characteristic of verticals such as Industry 4.0 or manufacturing. In this context, this paper proposes and evaluates a novel grant-free scheduling scheme that can efficiently support deterministic and aperiodic uplink traffic. The scheme avoids packet collisions among UEs sharing resources using a priority-based contention resolution process that relies on the transmission of announcement messages in minislots and a local channel sensing process. This study demonstrates that the proposed sensing-based grant-free scheduling scheme outperforms current 5G NR grant-free scheduling implementations, and can support a higher number of UEs with URLLC and deterministic requirements with a considerably lower number of radio resources.