H2020–GANo.687860SoftFIREOpenCall2

Date:April21,2017 SoftFIRESecondOpenCall Page1of12

SoftwareDefinedNetworksandNetworkFunctionVirtualizationTestbedwithinFIRE+

GrantAgreementNº687860

SoftFIRESecondOpenCall(CallforExperiments,GuidelinesandRulesforParticipation)

H2020–GANo.687860SoftFIREOpenCall2

Date:April21,2017 SoftFIRESecondOpenCall Page2of12

TableofContents

TableofContents..........................................................................................................................2

1 AboutSoftFire.......................................................................................................................3

2 SecondCallObjectives..........................................................................................................3

3 SecondOpenCallinformation..............................................................................................4

4 HowtoSubmitaProposal.....................................................................................................6

4.1 Eligibilitycriteria............................................................................................................6

4.2 ResultsandDeliverables...............................................................................................6

4.3 Proposaltemplate.........................................................................................................6

4.4 Proposalparticipants....................................................................................................6

4.5 Proposallanguage.........................................................................................................7

4.6 Feasibilitycheck............................................................................................................7

4.7 Submissionofproposals...............................................................................................7

4.8 Acknowledgementofreceipt........................................................................................7

5 EvaluationProcess................................................................................................................7

5.1.1. ProposalEvaluationCriteria..................................................................................8

6 RelationshipswithSoftFIREconsortiumandfundingscheme..............................................9

6.1 AdministrativeDuties....................................................................................................9

6.2 Fundingscheme..........................................................................................................10

7 SupporttoExperimenters...................................................................................................10

7.1 CallHelpdesk...............................................................................................................10

7.2 UsefulDocuments.......................................................................................................10

7.3 Foregroundrights.......................................................................................................11

7.4 FederatedTestbedAvailability....................................................................................11

7.5 ConstrainsandLimitationsduringtheExperiments..................................................11

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1 AboutSoftFire

SoftFIREintegratesEuropeanindependenttestbedsthataremadeavailablewithasetofbasicfunctionalities related toNetwork FunctionVirtualization and SoftwareDefinedNetworking.TheprojectisaimingatassessingthreemajorcharacteristicsthatanNFV/SDNplatformshouldsupport: interoperability with various functional elements, programmability of the offeredfunctions and security of the entire framework. The federated infrastructure is devoted toexperimentation / development of services and applications. Services and applications arechosen inacompetitivewaybymeansofOpenCalls.TheSoftFIREProjectwillsupportthreewavesofOpenCalls.Thedifferentwaveswillbenefitfromtheincrementalempowermentandconsolidationofthesingletestbedsandthefederatedone.

MoreinformationaboutSoftFIREcanbefoundhere:www.softfire.eu

ThecurrentdocumentisabouttheSecondOpenCall.

2 SecondCallObjectives

The SoftFIRE Consortium invites applications to its Second Open Call for experiments to becarriedoutontheFederatedTestbed.

ThisSecondOpenCalloftheSoftFIREprojectfocusesoninterworkingandinteroperabilitytoassess the capabilities of the federated testbeds in providing a single environment forprogrammable experimentation. Based on the lesson learned of the first open call, theSoftFIRE consortium decided to further enhance the capabilities of its infrastructure, firstlyincreasing capacity provided by individual testbeds, second re-designing the architecture ofthe federated testbed exposed to experimenters via the SoftFIREMiddleware. This decisionhasbeen taken inorder tobetter supportexperimenters’ requirements.At themoment thetestbed is composed by five heterogeneous hardware infrastructures managed by thefollowingpartners:UniversityofSurrey,FraunhoferFOKUS,Ericsson,DeutscheTelekom.AllofthemaregoingtoprovideanOpenStackinstallation(>=Newton),andthetotalcapacityofthetestbedisnotlessthan258vCPUs,765GBofRAM,and3TBofstorage.5Gcapabilitieswillbeofferedon demand, likemobile core networks and IPmultimedia subsystem.However, it isimportanttoclarifythataccesstotheindividualOpenStackinstanceswillbegrantedonlyviathe SoftFIREmiddleware, and inmostof the casesOpenStackAPIswon’t be available tobedirectlyconsumedbyexperimenters.

For this reason, the testbed will be aligned with industry-oriented standardisation efforts:TOSCA is going tobeexposed toexperimenters fordeployingandprovisioning resourcesonthe federated infrastructure.For this reason, someof theFIRE tools (JFedandFITeagle)andinterfaces(SFAAPIs)willbemostprobablydepreciatedandnotavailableforthesecondopencall.ExperimenterscouldalreadystarttogetfamiliarwiththeTOSCAAPIsandfunctionalitiesoffered by the Open Baton framework (http://openbaton.github.io/documentation/).Although the final ones, which will be exposed by the SoftFIRE middleware will be slightlydifferent, the SoftFIRE consortiumwill try tomaintain compatibility with the functionalitiesprovidedbytheOpenBatonAPIs.SoftFIREwillmakeuseoftheOpenBaton4threleasewhichwillbe launchedbytheendofApril.TheOpenBaton installation inSoftFIREwillprovidethefollowing components: NFVO, Generic VNFM, Autoscaling Engine, Zabbix Plugin, andOpenStack driver. Experimenters could also consider to extend the set of components

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providedbytheOpenBatonframework.ForthistheycouldmakeuseoftheOpenBatonSDKandbuildeitheranewVIMdriver, Monitoringdriver,VNFManager,orexternalcomponent(using the event mechanism, please refer to the documentation). In this case, theexperimenter should host the additional developed components on their ownpremises andinterconnectthemtotheOpenBatonframeworkviatheRabbitMQmessagebus.

Monitoring functionalities will be implemented by the Zabbix monitoring system, and willprovidedasaservicetoexperimenters.AdditionalSecurityfeatureswillbeaddedinordertofurtherenrichthepotentialnumberofusecasestobedevelopedonthefederatedtestbeds.

InadditiontothechangesontheSoftFIREMiddleware,theSoftFIREconsortiumisworkingtoprovide SDN technologies either as virtualised or physical entities available in some of thetestbedsprovided.Currently,someoftheindividualtestbedsalreadyintegratedOpenDaylightcontroller (ODLBoronSR-2)underOpenStackNeutron tomanage thenetwork flowson thecomputenodesviatheOVSDB2.7.0south-boundplug-in.NetworkprogrammabilitycouldberealisedviaasetofOpenDaylightRESTCONFAPIsexposedbytheODLcontroller.However,theaccess to theODLAPIwill be subject tomechanisms to lower the risk of interfering amongvirtual object user dataconfiguration. Therefore, access to the SDN technologies may begrantedinsuchawaythateachexperimentcouldworkindependentlywithout interferencesfromotherrunningexperiments.

Please note that these specifications may change according to the progress and theenrichmentoftheTestbeds.

Moredetailsaboutthestatusofthedevelopmentandfulldocumentationwillbeprogressivelypublished byMidMay on theweb portal of the project (www.softfire.eu). Proponents andexperimentersareadvisedtocheckthewebsiteinordertoreceiveupdates.

SoftFIRE isputting inplaceaproductionenvironmentsupportingtheprovidedfunctionalitiesandwillgooperationalbyendofJune2017.

Rightbefore thestartof thesecondwaveofexperiments, theprojectwillprovideaTutorialdescribing the novelties and explaining how to properly use the new SoftFIRE productionfederated testbed. In this way, all the experimenters will be able to start experimentsconvenientlyandinduetime.

The proposed experiments and related work plans may address platform enhancements,servicesofferedbytheplatformorapplicationsrunningontheplatform.

Applicantsaresuggested to readcarefully thisdocumentand to referalso to thewebsiteoftheproject for timely information.Applicantscanalsorefer toopencall@softfire.eutoget incontactwiththeprojectincasetheyneedtoclarifyanyissueswiththeOpenCall.

Selectedapplicantswillbegrantedaccess to theSoftFIRE federated testbedandwill receivesupportfromtheconsortiumonhowtoaccesstotheproductionFederatedTestbedandwillreceivefulldocumentation.

3 SecondOpenCallinformation

Projectfullname:SoftFIRE-SoftwareDefinedNetworksandNetworkFunctionVirtualization

TestbedwithinFIRE+

Projectnumber:687860

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Callidentifier:SoftFIRE-OC2

Calltitle:SecondSoftFIREOpenCallforExperiments

TotalBudget:€750,000

MaximumFundingperproposal:€50,000

Typeofparticipants:Thetypicalprofileofparticipantsisacademics,industrialorSMEsactiveinthedomainofNFV/SDNand5Gresearchandapplicationsthatneedtorunexperimentstotest, evaluate and optimize their solutions and applications. The rules of participation areindicatedinSoftFIRESecondOpenCall:http://www.softfire.eu/open-calls/

Durationoftheexperiment:Themaximumalloweddurationofeachexperimentis3Months

Languageoftheproposal:English

Proposalsubmission:onlinesubmissionthroughtheportal

FeasibilityCheckdeadline:19May2017at17:00CET(Brusselstime)

Calldeadline:31May2017at17:00hCET(Brusselstime)

ProposalTemplate:Proposalsmustusetheprovidedtemplate(inWordformat)

DetailedCallInformation:SoftFIRESecondOpenCall

NotificationofAcceptance:21June2017

Contact:opencall@softfire.eu

Webaddressforfurtherinformation:http://www.softfire.eu/open-calls/

Forthefeasibilitycheck,itisessentialthatproposersgetincontactwiththeSoftFIREpartnersfortheproposedexperimenttodiscussitsfeasibilitywithintheSoftFIREfederatedtestbedandtherelatedspecific requirements.Eachproposermustsubmithisdraftproposal throughthesubmission portal latest by19May 2017, at 17.00 CEST (Brussels time). The draft proposalmustcontainatleastsectionsA,BandCfullycompleted.FeedbackbytheSoftFIREconsortiumwillbeprovided latestby26May2017andhas tobe indicated inSectionDof theproposaltemplate.

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4 HowtoSubmitaProposal

OrganisationswillingtosubmitaproposalmustdosobyusingtheProposalTemplateavailableonthewebsite.

Proposalsaresubmittedinatwostepsphase:firstacompletetechnicalproposal(containingSectionsA,BandCoftheproposaltemplate)hastobesubmittedforafeasibilitycheckandafter the feedback the final version of the proposal that encompasses the suggestions andhintsresultingfromthefeasibilitycheckhastobesubmittedformallybeforethedeadline.

All detailed Information about the SoftFIRE Second Open Call can be found also on theproject’swebsitehttp://www.softfire.eu/open-calls/giving indicationsonhowtostructureaproposal,howtheproposalshouldbesubmittedandthecriteriaforevaluation.

4.1 Eligibilitycriteria

Applicants:

• mustbeeligibleforparticipationintheECH2020projects:http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-a-countries-rules_en.pdf

• canonlybeselectedforfundingforoneproposal(eveniftheproposersubmittedmultipleproposalsthatarerankedhighenoughtobeselectedforfunding).

SoftFIREconsortiummemberscannotapplytothiscall.

4.2 ResultsandDeliverables

ApplicantsmustclearlyindicateintheirproposaltheresultstheyintendtoachieveandhowtomeasurethemprovidingasetofmeasurableKeyPerformanceIndicators(KPIs)tobevalidatedduringthecontractnegotiationphase.

Selectedapplicantswillalsoberequestedtoproduceafinalreport inwhichachievedresultsare clearly reported and documented against the original objectives. They will also berequestedtoreportabouttheirexperiencewiththefederatedtesbedsandprovidehintsandsuggestionsontheNFV/SDNtechnologiesmadeavailablebySoftFIRE.

4.3 Proposaltemplate

Applicantsmustusetheproposaltemplateavailableatwww.softfire.eu/open-calls/.Inthedocument,applicantswillfindinstructionsspecifyingthetypeofinformationexpectedpersection.Eachsectionhasindicatedalimitednumberofpages.Theapplicantsaresoleresponsibleforcompletingallrequiredfieldsinthetemplateaccordingtotheinstructions.

4.4 Proposalparticipants

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Theproposal canbe submittedbyone legal entity. In case theproposalwill be successfullyselected,theselegalentitieswillbecomeSubgranteesofSoftFIREasdescribedinsection6.

4.5 Proposallanguage

TheproposalmustbepreparedinEnglish.

4.6 Feasibilitycheck

Inordertocheckthefeasibilityoftheproposedexperiment,theSoftFIREprojectrequeststohavedraftproposal(withSectionsA,BandCoftheproposaltemplatefullycompleted)by9May 2017, 17.00 CET Brussels Time to be submitted via the submission portal. The draftproposalwillbeevaluatedforitsrealimplementabilityonthecurrentversionoftheSoftFIREFederated Testbed. By 19 May 2017, proposing parties will receive a feedback on thefeasibility.Theywillhavetimeuptothecalldeadline,23May2017,17.00CET(Brusselstime),to adapt their proposal accordingly in order tomake it aligned with the capabilities of theplatform indicating in Section D of the proposal template the feedback received in thefeasibilitycheck..

4.7 Submissionofproposals

Proposals must be submitted electronically in PDF format ONLY at www.softfire.eu/open-calls/.

Ifyoudiscoveranerrorinyourproposal,andprovidedthatthecalldeadlinehasnotpassed,youmaysubmitanewversion.Onlythelastversionreceivedbeforethecalldeadlinewillbeconsideredintheevaluation.

Proposals must be received by the closing time and date of the call. Late proposals, orproposals submitted in anyotherway than through theonline submission form,will not beevaluated.

4.8 Acknowledgementofreceipt

Assoonaspossibleafterthecloseofcall,anAcknowledgmentofreceiptwillbeemailedtoyoubySoftFIRE.ThesendingofanAcknowledgementofreceiptdoesnotimplythatyourproposalhasbeenacceptedaseligibleforevaluation.

5 EvaluationProcess

The evaluation will be performed by mixed “internal / external” expert panel. “Internal”expertsarefrommembersoftheSoftFIREconsortiumhavingthetechnicalknowhow,specialknowledge of SoftFIRE testbeds and/or relevant business expertise; external experts areselectedaccordingtotheirspecificknowledgeoftheSDN/NFVand5Gdomains.

PleaserefertothewebsiteforOpenCallCalendaratwww.softfire.eu.

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Theevaluationwillgothroughthreesteps,summarizedinFigure1:

Figure1:EvaluationProcess

5.1.1. ProposalEvaluationCriteria

Asageneralrule,thelevelofinnovationandnovelty,thequalityoftheproposedexperimentandoftheexecutingteamwillplayamajorroleintheselectionprocess.

Allproposalswillberankedbasedongeneralcriteria:

• Excellence• Impact• Implementation

ThosegeneralcriteriaarefurtherelaboratedinTable1.

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Table1:evaluationCriteriaThe proposals submitted by partieswhohave not yet beenor are not participating in FIRE-projectsorOpenCalls fromFIRE-projectswill receiveanextra1pointon topon thecriteria“ContributiontothecreationofaSoftFIRE-basedEcosystem”.Thismeasure is introducedtopositivelydiscriminatesuchnewplayersandopentheSoftFIRE federatedtestbedtoawidercommunity.

Basedonthereceivedscores,proposalswillberankedandshortlisted.Shortlistedproposalswillbe invitedtonegotiatethefinaltermsoftheagreement, includingtheworkplan,budgetandrelevantresults/achievements.

6 Relationships with SoftFIRE consortium and fundingscheme

6.1 AdministrativeDuties

SelectedorganizationswillbecomeaThirdPartyoftheconsortiumusingCascadeFunding(alsoknownassub-granting).Intheremainderofthisdocumenta’ThirdPartyusingCascade

Excellence

CriteriaTechnicaland

InnovationMerit

ContributiontothecreationofaSoftFIRE-basedEcosystem

BusinessImpactandconsiderations

PracticalFeasibilityonSoftFIREtestbeds

TechnicalSoundness

Threshold 7 6 6 Y|N(*) 7Weight 0,35 0,15 0,20 0,30

RelevanceoftheproposalforSoftFirefederatedtestbes

PotentialtoincreaseknowledgeattheEuropeanlevelanddifferentiatetheproposition

Desirability/needoftheproposedservice/functionandmarketperspective

ImplementabilityontheSoftFIREinfrastructure

Clarityandqualityoftheproposal

Appropriatenessoftechnicalandmethodologicalapproach(interoperability,programmabilityandsecurity)

ClarityandQualityoftheTechnologicalbenefitsforanEuropeanEcosystem

AlignementoftheProjectwithrespecttoSoftFIREconstraints

Qualityoftheproposinggroup

Contributiontostandardsoropeninterfaces

Potentialofexploitaiton/inclusioninSoftFireof[proposedfunctionalitiesandfeatures(includinglegal/adminaspects)]

Qulityoftheteam

(*)Thisisabinarycriteria:theproposalisfeasibleornotonSofFIREplatform

Properties

Originalityandinnovativevalueoftheproposedfeatures/testsandtheirrelationtothestatusoftheart

QualityoftheworkplanCompliancetothefeasibilitychecksuggestions

Impact Implementation

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Funding’isreferredtoasSubgrantee.

ContractswiththeSubgranteewillbedonebySoftFIRE’scoordinator,EITDigitalIVZW.

Any legally binding commitment from the side of EIT Digital IVZW shall be subject to theenteringintoawrittencontractualagreementbetweenEITDigitalIVZWandtheSubgrantee TheadministrativetasksfortheSubgrantee,includingcostandactivityreportingobligationsandrelateddocumentswillbeprovidedduringthenegotiationandcontractingphase.AttheendoftheprojecttheSubgranteewillsubmita“FinalReport”consistingof:

- AnActivityReportcontainingananalysisoftheachievedresultsagainstthosenegotiatedinthecontract.TheSubgranteeshallalsoreportaboutitsexperiencewiththefederatedtesbedsandprovidehintsandsuggestionsontheNFV/SDNtechnologiesmadeavailablebySoftFIRE.

- costreportdetailingalleligiblecostsincurred.

Eligible costs consist of personnel costs, direct costs (such as travel, equipment, etc.) andindirect costs. Subgrantees have to comply with the rules and the principles mentioned inSection I,Article6 (Eligibleand ineligiblecosts)of theH2020AGA–AnnotatedModelGrantAgreement (seehttp://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/amga/h2020-amga_en.pdf), in the samewayas thebeneficiaries. The rules concerningeligibilityof costs,identificationofdirectand indirect costsandupper funding limits canbe found inSection I,Article22oftheH2020AGA.

6.2 Fundingscheme

Thefollowingpaymentschemewillapply:

- 25%oftheagreeduponfundingwillbeprovidedatthetimethecontractissigned.- Basedontheevaluationofthefinalreport,apaymentofupto50%oftherequested

fundingwillbecarriedoutbytheprojectcoordinator.- Theremaining25%willbepaidfollowingtheformalapprovalofthefinalreportand

correspondingworkbytheEuropeanCommission(EC).

7 SupporttoExperimenters

7.1 CallHelpdesk

Forfurtherinformationonthecall,contact:opencall@softfire.eu;

Formoregeneralinformation,pleaserefertoinfo@softfire.eu

7.2 UsefulDocuments

• SoftFIRESecondOpenCall(thisdocument)

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• SoftFIREHandbook(D2.3SoftFIRE(v2)usagemanualforNFV/SDN/MECand5GexperimentersWP2InfrastructureProgrammability,SecurityandExperimentationEnablement)

• SoftFIRETemplateforExperimentProposal

Pleaserefertohttp://www.softfire.eu/open-calls/forthecompletedocumentation.

7.3 Foregroundrights

The IP of the experiment's resultsgenerated by the Subgrantee will be owned by it if theSoftFIREconsortiumanditspartnersaregrantedaccesstoitforthepursuanceoftheprojectobjectivesand theexploitationof its results, inaccordance towhat is specified in theGrantAgreement.Detailswillbedefinedduringthenegotiationphase.

7.4 FederatedTestbedAvailability

ThePlatformwillbeoperationalduringthesetimeframes:

Workinghours: 10:00a.m.to5:00p.m.CEST

MondaytoFridayGMT

Outsidethistimeframe:issues/requestswillbeemailedandmanagedatbesteffort.

Pleasecheckyourlocaltimecorrespondence(http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/).

7.5 ConstrainsandLimitationsduringtheExperiments

The SoftFIRE infrastructure is composed by loosely integrated platforms under differentadministrative domains. In addition, the different platforms are built for experimentalpurposesandtheyarenotyetconsideredamassproductiontool.Thismeansthatbugsandissues in the platform behaviour can occur and will occur. Actually, the scope of theexperimentsisalsotosupportthetuneupandtheassessmentoftheplatformasawhole.

ThePlatformisstillunderdevelopmentandithasabasicsetoffunctionalitiesthathavetobetunedupanditismissinganumberoffeaturesthatwillbeprogressivelyaddedinthefuture.SoftFIRE is by nomeans to be considered a product and so the usual support for softwaredevelopmentcannotbegranted.

Even if SoftFIRE aims at programmers, not all the features to allow for a fast programmingapproachareprovided.This isduetodifferences in thecomponent testbedsandtosecuritycontrols imposedbydifferentadministrativedomains.Theprogrammingphasescould resultcumbersomeandnotparticularlyattractive;however,theymayimprovealongthelifetimeoftheproject.

Service level agreement (SLA) agreements do not apply during the experimentation phases.Because this is a period to test and explore SoftFIRE, the experimenters should not runproductionapplicationsontheinfrastructurePlatformduringthetrial.

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TheSoftFIREprojectreservestherighttodiscontinueatanytimetheserviceiftheuseisnotconsistentwiththepurposeofSDN/NFVand/orviolateanyaspectsof infrastructuresecurityorshallconflictsanyon-goingexperimentation.

Duringtherunningperiodoftheexperiments,theSoftFIREprojectwillputinplaceateamthatwillsupporttheexperimentsintheirworkontheplatform.It isnotofferedasaprofessionalserviceanditsoperationswillbeonthebasisofbesteffort.Theentireinfrastructureisα-testplatform.Possibledowntimecouldoccurwithoutnoticeorduetooverloadcausedbyparallelexperiments.

SoftFIRE will offer expertise available by email (with possible follow-up by phone) and twohours per day during the experimentation phase in order to collect issues and provideresponses.Wewilltrytoprovidemostoftheanswersby24hours(typicallynextmorningorafternoon).Someissuescouldbenotsolvableduetotheshorttimeoftheexperimentperiodor due to the need to intervene on the platform. The supporting team will work withexperimenterstocircumventtheproblems.

Theprojectwillalsoissuelimitsandconstraintsontheallocationofavailableresources.Thisisduetotheneedtosupportandallowparallelexperimentations.Theselimitationsdependonthe total capabilitiesof the federatedplatformaswell as thenumberof experimenters andtheirrequestsintermsofresources.TypicallimitationscouldberelatedtothemaxnumberofVMstobeinstanced,thenumberofphysicalresourcesusableorthemaxmemoryusableperexperimenters. Other limitations could apply, or be notified during the course of theexperimentations.

Additional information for the experimenters will be updated in the SoftFIRE portal athttp://www.softfire.eu

ThisprojecthasreceivedfundingfromtheEuropeanUnion’sHorizon2020researchandinnovationprogrammeundergrantagreementno.

687860.