September 10, 2022
IIT researcher, Dr Harilaos Koumaras, of Media Networks Laboratory (MNL) participated in IEEE’s International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking that took place in Athens, Greece, from 5 to 8 September 2022. More specifically, Dr Koumaras had a presentation on 5 September during the session I, of the workshop: NetApp Platforms into Beyond 5G and 6G Networks, titled Experimentation and Validation Openness for Longterm evolution of VErtical inDustries in 5G era and beyond – EVOLVED 5G.
Abstract of the presentation: The intense research work on 5G experimentation in Europe has reached the point where the evolved 5G capabilities, provided through the Service-Based Architecture (SBA), are to be exploited by third party innovators. Key enabler for this openness is the realisation of network programmability through standard APIs. An endeavour that is expected to shape a new and dynamic ecosystem in mobile networks from both the technology and marketing perspectives. Indeed, SBA allows the exposure of network services and capabilities through the Network Exposure Function (NEF), a border function of the 5G core network.
Already, 3GPP has specified the procedures and the information flows for a common API framework (CAPIF) to address applicability, duplication and inconsistency aspects of the 5G northbound service APIs. In this context, vertical industries will be able to develop NetApps, i.e., to compose services by consuming 3GPP APIs (native APIs) as well as other telco assets (referring to business support system – BSS APIs, e.g. service orchestration APIs). For example, a NetApp could consume APIs that provide monitoring events and network slice configuration analysis to compose a service that guarantees quality of experience for latency-sensitive applications.
The background and motivation of Workshop 2 – NetApps into Beyond 5G and 6G Networks: As we move from the 5G era onwards to 5G-Advanced, and leading up to the 6G era, the communications fabric and the way the network services are consumed need to be architected differently. Technologies like Cloud-native, AI/ML, Software led, low touch operations and ultimately automation of every aspect of the network and the services it delivers, will be key and essential for this disruption. Previous 5G PPP phases demonstrated that software networks, the Service-Based Architecture (SBA) and network programmability through standard APIs, provide high flexibility to offer network services tailored to the vertical needs and the requirements of specific tenants.
As a response to this, last year a series of projects launched that offer experimentation facilities able to provide enhanced experimentation infrastructures on top of which third party experimenters SMEs or any service provider and target vertical users will have the opportunity to test their applications in an integrated, open, cooperative and fully featured network platform running across multiple domains where needed, and tailored to specific vertical use cases. Industry verticals, enterprises have different needs which the NetAppI ecosystem embraces with abstracted API sets and new business models. The aim of this workshop is to bring together all the NetApp stakeholders, discuss their experiences so far and pave the way for NetApps into 6G to span all domains RAN/CORE/Transport/Devices/Applications.