{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T07:14:01Z","timestamp":1780384441549,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,8]],"date-time":"2021-03-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1615161600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"H2020 5G-RANGE","award":["777137"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["777137"]}]},{"name":"TRUE5G","award":["PID2019-108713RB-C52\/AEI\/10.13039\/501100011033"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2019-108713RB-C52\/AEI\/10.13039\/501100011033"]}]},{"name":"CNPq Brazil","award":["305085\/2018-2"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["305085\/2018-2"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Presently, a significant part of the world population does not have Internet access. The fifth-generation cellular network technology evolution (5G) is focused on reducing latency, increasing the available bandwidth, and enhancing network performance. However, researchers and companies have not invested enough effort into the deployment of the Internet in remote\/rural\/undeveloped areas for different techno-economic reasons. This article presents the result of a collaboration between Brazil and the European Union, introducing the steps designed to create a fully operational experimentation scenario with the main purpose of integrating the different achievements of the H2020 5G-RANGE project so that they can be trialed together into a 5G networking use case. The scenario encompasses (i) a novel radio access network that targets a bandwidth of 100 Mb\/s in a cell radius of 50 km, and (ii) a network of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAV). This set of SUAVs is NFV-enabled, on top of which Virtual Network Functions (VNF) can be automatically deployed to support occasional network communications beyond the boundaries of the 5G-RANGE radio cells. The whole deployment implies the use of a virtual private overlay network enabling the preliminary validation of the scenario components from their respective remote locations, and simplifying their subsequent integration into a single local demonstrator, the configuration of the required GRE\/IPSec tunnels, the integration of the new 5G-RANGE physical, MAC and network layer components and the overall validation with voice and data services.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21051897","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,8]],"date-time":"2021-03-08T12:12:18Z","timestamp":1615205538000},"page":"1897","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Deploying an NFV-Based Experimentation Scenario for 5G Solutions in Underserved Areas"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3079-736X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victor","family":"Sanchez-Aguero","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"IMDEA Networks Institute, Avda. del Mar Mediterr\u00e1neo, 22, 28918 Madrid, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Telematic Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganes, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7381-971X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivan","family":"Vidal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telematic Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganes, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5056-0573","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francisco","family":"Valera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telematic Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganes, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5508-5414","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Borja","family":"Nogales","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telematic Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganes, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1996-7292","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luciano Leonel","family":"Mendes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Nacional de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, Santa Rita do Sapuca\u00ed 37540-000, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wheberth","family":"Damascena Dias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Nacional de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, Santa Rita do Sapuca\u00ed 37540-000, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6755-0590","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexandre","family":"Carvalho Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Nacional de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, Santa Rita do Sapuca\u00ed 37540-000, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2021, March 05). 3rd Generation Partnership Project. System Architecture for the 5G System; Stage 2. Available online: https:\/\/www.etsi.org\/deliver\/etsi_ts\/123500_123599\/123501\/15.03.00_60\/ts_123501v150300p.pdf."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127639","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2939938","article-title":"5G evolution: A view on 5G cellular technology beyond 3GPP release 15","volume":"7","author":"Ghosh","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.2018.8329617","article-title":"5G for ultra-reliable low-latency communications","volume":"32","author":"Soldani","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64891","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2878424","article-title":"Cluster-Based Group Paging for Massive Machine Type Communications Under 5G Networks","volume":"6","author":"Pan","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"90","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOMSTD.2018.1800002","article-title":"3GPP release 15 early data transmission","volume":"2","author":"Hoglund","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Stand. Mag."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Inoue, T. (2020, January 26\u201329). 5G NR Release 16 and Millimeter Wave Integrated Access and Backhaul. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), San Antonio, TX, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/RWS45077.2020.9050108"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Flynn, K. (2021, March 05). A Global Partnership, Release 17. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/release-17."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Union, I.T. (2021, March 05). UN Broadband Commission Sets Global Broadband Targets to Bring Online the World\u2019s 3.8 Billion not Connected to the Internet. Available online: https:\/\/www.itu.int\/en\/mediacentre\/Pages\/2018-PR01.aspx."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"5GPPP (2021, March 05). KPIs. Available online: https:\/\/5g-ppp.eu\/kpis\/."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kalogiros, C., Zois, G., Darzanos, G., Hallingby, H.K., L\u00f8nsethagen, H., Weiss, M.B., and Gavras, A. (October, January 30). The potential of 5G experimentation-as-a-service paradigm for operators and vertical industries: The case of 5G-VINNI facility. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE 2nd 5G World Forum (5GWF), Dresden, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/5GWF.2019.8911696"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101895","DOI":"10.1016\/j.adhoc.2019.101895","article-title":"5GinFIRE: An end-to-end open5G vertical network function ecosystem","volume":"93","author":"Silva","year":"2019","journal-title":"Ad Hoc Netw."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"1","article-title":"5Growth: An End-to-End Service Platform for Automated Deployment and Management of Vertical Services over 5G Networks","volume":"1","author":"Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Guimar\u00e3es, C., Oliva Delgado, A.D.L., and Azcorra Salo\u00f1a, A. (2019, January 7\u20138). 5G-DIVE: Edge Intelligence for Vertical Experimentation 2019. Proceedings of the Global Experimentation for Future Internet (GEFI) 2019 Workshop, Coimbra, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moggio, F., Boldi, M., Canale, S., Suraci, V., Casetti, C., Bernini, G., Landi, G., and Giaccone, P. (2020, January 21). 5G EVE a European platform for 5G Application deployment. Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation & Characterization, London, UK.","DOI":"10.1145\/3411276.3414696"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ferreira, A., Mendes, L., Dias, W., Marins, T., Gaspar, D., Matos, A., Silva, C., and Sokal, B. (2019, January 18\u201321). 5G-RANGE Project Field Trial. Proceedings of the 2019 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Valencia, Spain.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuCNC.2019.8802021"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"5TONIC (2021, March 05). The 5TONIC Laboratory. Available online: https:\/\/www.5tonic.org."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111522","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3001985","article-title":"A Multi-Site NFV Testbed for Experimentation With SUAV-Based 5G Vertical Services","volume":"8","author":"Vidal","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dias, W., Ferreira, A., Kagami, R., Ferreira, J.S., Silva, D., and Mendes, L. (2020, January 15\u201318). 5G-RANGE: A transceiver for remote areas based on software-defined radio. Proceedings of the 2020 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Dubrovnik, Croatia.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuCNC48522.2020.9200925"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yan, X., Qijun, S., Hongshun, Z., and Lulu, S. (2009, January 16\u201320). Dynamic spectrum allocation based on cognitive radio. Proceedings of the 2009 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Environmental Electromagnetics, Xi\u2019an, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/CEEM.2009.5303943"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50344","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2868448","article-title":"Radio resource allocation in collaborative cognitive radio networks based on primary sensing profile","volume":"6","author":"Deepak","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Akhoundi, F., Sharifi-Malvajerdi, S., Poursaeed, O., and Salehi, J.A. (2016, January 20\u201322). Analytical studies of fragmented-spectrum multi-level OFDM-CDMA technique in cognitive radio networks. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE 7th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/UEMCON.2016.7777801"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hu, M., Li, J., and Lv, Y. (2017, January 3\u20135). A comparative study of polar code decoding algorithms. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE 3rd Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering Conference (ITOEC), Chongqing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ITOEC.2017.8122551"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tu, H.H., Lee, C.W., and Lai, I.W. (2019, January 3\u20136). Low-Complexity Maximum Likelihood (ML) Decoder for Space-Time Block Coded Spatial Permutation Modulation (STBC-SPM). Proceedings of the 2019 International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing and Communication Systems (ISPACS), Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISPACS48206.2019.8986394"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kalachikov, A.A., and Shelkunov, N.S. (2018, January 2\u20136). Performance evaluation of the detection algorithms for MIMO spatial multiplexing based on analytical wireless MIMO channel models. Proceedings of the 2018 XIV International Scientific-Technical Conference on Actual Problems of Electronics Instrument Engineering (APEIE), Novosibirsk, Russia.","DOI":"10.1109\/APEIE.2018.8545229"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vartiainen, J., Karvonen, H., Matinmikko-Blue, M., Mendes, L., Saarnisaari, H., and Matos, A. (2020). Energy Detection Based Spectrum Sensing for Rural Area Networks. EAI Endorsed Trans. Wirel. Spectr., 4.","DOI":"10.4108\/eai.7-4-2020.163923"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Farinacci, D., Li, T., Hanks, S., Meyer, D., and Traina, P. (2021, March 05). RFC2784: Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE). Available online: https:\/\/tools.ietf.org\/html\/rfc2784."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hoffman, P. (2005). Cryptographic suites for IPsec. RFC 4308 (Propos. Stand.), Available online: https:\/\/tools.ietf.org\/html\/rfc4308.","DOI":"10.17487\/rfc4308"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nogales, B., Vidal, I., Sanchez-Aguero, V., Valera, F., Gonzalez, L.F., and Azcorra, A. (2019). Automated Deployment of an Internet Protocol Telephony Service on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Network Functions Virtualization. JoVE (J. Vis. Exp.), e60425.","DOI":"10.3791\/60425-v"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanchez-Aguero, V., Valera, F., Vidal, I., Tipantu\u00f1a, C., and Hesselbach, X. (2020). Energy-Aware Management in Multi-UAV Deployments: Modelling and Strategies. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20102791"},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"(2021, March 05). 5G-RANGE Repository: Open Source NFV Packages and Descriptors. Available online: http:\/\/vm-images.netcom.it.uc3m.es\/5GRANGE\/."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Wu, C., and Vyncke, E. (2021, March 05). Resolve IPv4 Fragmentation, MTU, MSS, and PMTUD Issues with GRE and IPsec. Available online: https:\/\/www.cisco.com\/c\/en\/us\/support\/docs\/ip\/generic-routing-encapsulation-gre\/25885-pmtud-ipfrag.html."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and Schooler, E. (2021, March 05). RFC3261: SIP: Session Initiation Protocol. Available online: https:\/\/tools.ietf.org\/html\/rfc3261."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/5\/1897\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:35:03Z","timestamp":1760160903000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/21\/5\/1897"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,8]]},"references-count":32,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]}},"alternative-id":["s21051897"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s21051897","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,8]]}}}