Network Application Community Knowledge Center

Term	Abbreviation	Definition
5GASP Experimentation APIs service		The back-end service services expose standardized OpenAPIs for providing programmatic access to the lifecycle and the internal Network Application catalogue. This catalogue will contain various Network Applications versions and candidate Network Applications for publishing.
5GASP facilities		The 5GASP facilities, tailored to support the specificities of Network Applications and acting as their hosts for testing. Each facility will host the following services: i) Testcase Execution Engine; ii) Monitoring repository per facility.
5GASP Network Application marketplace		The 5GASP open marketplace which will contain validated and tested Network Applications for every specified vertical.
Blueprint		Flexible service templates.
Central Logging		A central logging service which gathers timestamped information from various services across the platform providing means of issue traceability.
Certification		The formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organisation.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment	CI/CD	Combined practices of continuous integration and either continuous delivery or continuous deployment.
Development and Operations	DevOps	A set of practices that works to automate and integrate the processes between software development and IT teams so they can build, test, and release software faster and more reliable.
Issue management	IM	A generic service that notifies all the related stakeholders (Network Application tenants, facility, and platform owners) for any issues during the operation and testing lifecycle.
Lifecycle management		The process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.
MANO Client API (SOL005) service		A service that interfaces the operation and experimentation services with the NFV orchestrators of the facilities. The service will implement the ETSI NFV SOL005 interface found in compliant NFVOs.
Monitoring repository per facility		A monitoring service in the facility, providing telemetry data from various resources of the facility (e.g. the NFVI, the NFVO, the 5G System, etc.).
Network Application		Any application running on one host providing communication to another application running on a different host.
Network Application model transformation service		This service will automatically translate and enhance the Network Application archive model and embedded entities for the target facility NFV Orchestrator, depending on the defined model (YANG or TOSCA).
Network Application onboarding and Experiment Management UI		The Experimenter facing services, in terms of a centralized Network Applications experimentation portal, that allows to manage tenant’s Network Applications, trigger and monitor the experimentation lifecycle.
Network Functions Virtualization Management and Orchestration	NFV-MANO	A framework developed by a working group of the same name within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group for NFV (ETSI ISG NFV).
NEtwork Slice Type	NEST	A GST filled with values.
OnBoard Unit	OBU	A communication device mounted on vehicles.
Onboarding		The process that occurs when new employees or users integrate software into their daily workflows.
Open Experimental Testing Platform		The platform that can be used for the duration of the project by 5G Network Applications developers (SME’s and non-SME’s) based on Open-Source Software tools.
Open Network Automation Platform	ONAP	A comprehensive platform for orchestration, management, and automation of network and edge computing services for network operators, cloud providers, and enterprises.
Open Platform for NFV	OPNFV	A collaborative project under the Linux Foundation that is transforming global networks through open-source Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
RoadSide Unit	RSU	A DSRC communication unit that is located aside the roads.
Software Testing		A method to check whether the actual software product matches expected requirements and to ensure that the software product is Defect free.
Testcase execution engine		An engine capable of performing automated test based on defined test scripts against the installed Network Application in the facility.
V-Model		A model which demonstrates the relationships between each phase of the development and onboarding life cycle and its associated phase of testing.

Term	Abbreviation	Definition
The 5th generation of wireless networks	5G	The fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks.
5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership	5G PPP	The joint initiative between the European Commission and European ICT industry (ICT manufacturers, telecommunications operators, service providers, SMEs and researcher Institutions).
5G New Radio	5GNR	A new radio access technology (RAT) developed by 3GPP for the 5G (fifth generation) mobile network.
Application Programming Interface	API	An interface that defines interactions between multiple software applications or mixed hardware-software intermediaries.
Artificial Intelligence	AI	The simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.
Cloud-RAN	C-RAN	A centralized, cloud computing-based architecture for radio access networks that supports 2G, 3G, 4G and future wireless communication standards.
Control plane	CP	The part of a network that controls how data packets are forwarded – meaning how data is sent from one place to another.
Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems	C-ITS	The concept in which vehicles communicate with each other and/or with roadside infrastructure significantly increasing the quality and reliability of information available about the vehicles, their location and the road environment.
User plane	UP	The part of a network that carries user traffic.
Enhanced mobile broadband	eMMB	Promises to provide broadband capability to users with a peak data rate of 20 Mbps enabling services such as immersive video.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute	ETSI	An independent, not-for-profit, standardization organisation in the field of information and communications.
International Organisation for Standardization	ISO	An international non-governmental organisation made up of national standards bodies; it develops and publishes a wide range of proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards and comprises representatives from various national standards organisations.
Internet service provider	ISP	An organisation that provides a myriad of services for accessing, using, or participating on the Internet.
Key Performance Indicator	KPI	A set of quantifiable measurements used to gauge a product/technology overall long-term performance.
Long-Term Evolution	LTE	A standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies.
Machine Learning	ML	The study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience and by the use of data.
Multi-access Edge Computing	MEC	The concept which offers application developers and content providers cloud-computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the network.
Network Slicing		A method of creating multiple unique logical and virtualized networks over a common multi-domain infrastructure.
Network function virtualization	NFV	A network architecture concept that uses the technologies of IT virtualization to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect or chain together, to create communication services.
Open Source License	OSL	A type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions.
Open Source MANO	OSM	An open-source Management and Orchestration (MANO) stack aligned with ETSI NFV Information Models.
Open Source Software	OSS	A type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.
Open Network Edge Services Software	OpenNESS	A MEC software toolkit that enables highly optimized and performance edge platforms to on-board and manage applications and network functions with cloud-like agility across any type of network.
OpenSlice		A prototype open source, operations support system
Public Protection and Disaster Relief	PPDR	Radio communications refer to radio applications designed for public safety, security, and defence.
Quality of Service	QoS	The description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network.
Radio Access Network	RAN	A part of a mobile telecommunication system, which implements a radio access technology.
Software defined network	SDN	An approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.
Service orchestration		The execution of the operational and functional processes involved in designing, creating, and delivering an end-to-end service.
Small and medium-sized enterprises	SME	Businesses whose personnel numbers fall below certain limits.
Start Up		A company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable economic model.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project	3GPP	The unites [Seven] telecommunications standard development organisations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC), known as “Organisational Partners” and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies.
Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications	TOSCA	A modelling language for service designs in Telcos, Service Providers, Operators and more.
Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications for Remote Device	uRLLC	Guarantees sub millisecond response times enabling services such as industry 4.0, remote surgery, AR/VR, and rescue and smart car applications.
Vehicle-to-everything	V2X	Communication between a vehicle and any entity that may affect, or may be affected by, the vehicle.
Virtual Network Functions	VNFs	Virtualized network services running on open computing platforms formerly carried out by proprietary, dedicated hardware technology.
Virtual private Network	VPN	The opportunity to establish a protected network connection when using public networks.
Virtualization		The act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including virtual computer hardware platforms, storage devices, and computer network resources.
Virtual machine	VM	The virtualization/emulation of a computer system.
Yet Another Next Generation	YANG	A data modelling language used to model configuration and state data manipulated by the NETCONF protocol (RFC 6241), NETCONF remote procedure calls, and NETCONF notifications.

Management and Network Orchestration (MANO) systems permit simultaneous orchestration of compute and network resources. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the integration of Transport API based WIM with Open Source MANO (OSM), for NFV orchestration over optical networks.

https://doi.org/10.1364/OFC.2019.W1G.4

5G networks envisage to support a range of vertical industries, circumventing any potential barriers from converging various network technologies and administrative domains. Current solutions focus only on provisioning services within single administrative domains. There is also lack of standards for sustainable end-to-end multi-domain solutions that can use existing Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Management and Orchestration (MANO) systems. This is important to enable operators to collaborate and create innovative end-to-end services in a sustainable environment, where stakeholders can benefit without compromises. In this article, we present the 5GUK Exchange (5GUKEx), a novel hierarchical architecture to enable end-to-end orchestration with minimum overhead in complexity and performance while also allowing operators to maintain full control of their infrastructure. 5GUKEx allows operators to use their existing MANO systems for the single domain orchestration and build a multi-domain API based on standardized models exposed by service catalogues to coordinate the end-to-end service orchestration and interconnection. We built a prototype of the 5GUKEx and evaluated its performance through emulations showing that the 5GUKEx introduces minimum overhead. We also discuss the use-cases and trials using 5GUKEx in addition to the experiments focusing on the flexible nature of architecture, allowing us to use 5GUKEx to provide connectivity among multi domains over optical transport network.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107297

The adoption of 5G solutions in the industry vertical passes through the empowering of 5G-based Network Applications (NetApps) in the SMEs. This will unleash their potential with respect to the use of 5G technologies, while preparing them for beyond 5G. H2020-5GASP project aims to create an open, and inter-domain 5G NFV-based reference ecosystem of 5G European experimental facilities for SMEs, fully automated and self-service, in order to foster rapid development and testing of new and innovative NetApps, which will be built using the proposed 5G reference architecture. Besides, in the Open5G-NFV ecosystem proposed by 5GASP, the NetApps will be deployed on their own network slices, and, consequently, the traffic flows of the network will be effectively separated from each other. By doing so, the access control capabilities are greatly increased, as the network isolation eases the management of who can access a certain segment of the network. In this way, it will provide security and trust of 3rd party IPR running in the deployed testbed.

How to cite: Jorge Gallego-Madrid, Ana Hermosilla, Antonio F. Skarmeta, “5GASP: Security and Trust in NetApp Deployment and Operation”, 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit): Workshop 8 – From 5G to 6G Automated and Intelligent SecuriTy: FAST, June 2021.

Telecommunication communities are striving to adopt Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) in Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) orchestration. Recent efforts to adopt Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have caused an upsurge in ZSM applications in the VNF space. While ML and AI complement the ZSM goals for building an intelligent NFV orchestration, a deep knowledge on resource consumption by Network Services (NSs) and its constituent Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) is required, as it can enable AI and ML models to manage the available resources better as well as to enhance user experience.

We propose a Novel Autonomous Profiling (NAP) method that predicts the optimum network load a VNF can support. At the same time, NAP can also estimate the required resources in terms of CPU, Memory, and Network to meet the performance targets and workload by utilising ML techniques. Our performance evaluation results on real datasets show that using NAP’s output in the next generation of NFV orchestration is feasible.

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How to cite: S. Moazzeni, Pratchaya Jaisudthi, Anderson Bravalheri, Navdeep Uniyal, Xenofon Vasilakos, Reza Nejabati and Dimitra Simeonidou, “A Novel Autonomous Profiling Method for the Next-Generation NFV Orchestrators,” in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 642-655, March 2021, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2020.3044707.

Today, legacy PMRs continue to be the only group of tested, verified and certified technologies for the Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) sector. For the fifth generation (5G) to follow suit, substantial hands-on experimentation with functional, architectural and deployment aspects is required, and further test trials need to take place in order to inform and enable future verification and certification procedures for 5G to become a proven PPDR technology. This paper studies 5G PPDR experimentation associated with novel virtualized and cloud-native 5G technologies, architectures and deployment options, as well as feasibility studies and field performance and verifications trials involving vertical-specific 5G infrastructures and applications. Key enabling technologies, such as massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), device-to-device (D2D), network slicing and multi-access edge computing (MEC) are discussed and 5G PPDR architecture and deployment options are investigated. A dedicated 5G PPDR experimentation facility is presented, and a case study of hands-on experimentation is provided. Two distinct scenarios are discussed, i.e., emergency augmentation of the terrestrial 5G PPDR network with rapidly deployable on-site capacities in the area of a public safety incident, and availability and reliability of decision-support PPDR applications on the field. Experience with the deployment and verification insights are accompanied by the results of quality of service (QoS) and non-functional key performance indicators (KPI) assessment that were exhibited during the experiment. The experimentation outcomes confirm the ability of the facility to support emulated laboratory experimentation specifically designed to tackle 5G challenges for this particular vertical as well as field studies recreating realistic public safety operations.

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How to cite: M. Volk and J. Sterle, “5G Experimentation for Public Safety: Technologies, Facilities and Use Cases,” in IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 41184-41217, 2021, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3064405.

The paper is focused on 5G architectures adaptation for future NetApps and verticals and begins with a short introduction on 5G current and future environment, then continues with the 5G-PPP projects that contributed to early deployment of 5G testbed in Romania.

Authors: Cristian Patachia-Sultanoiu et al.
IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, Bucharest, Romania, 2021.

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Joint paper between project participants Orange Romania and Neobility.
Paper written as a result of the work performed on the european research projects projects 5GASP, Vital 5G and ICT-41.
The paper aims to describe the 5G architecture and the testbeds for NetApps. A proposal for a Vehicle Route Optimizer NetApp, from the field of automotive, is presented. This can be tested and deployed following an iterative testing methodology and we introduce a paradigm focused on a fully automated toolchain that caters to the production of any NetApps with very little human interaction through open source software automation tools. In the context of the 5G-PPP project 5GASP we review the testing, integration and deployment of NetApps for improved ease of access and distribution.

Authors: Andreea Bonea et al.
International Symposium on Signals, Circuits and Systems – ISSCS Iasi, 2021

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In the context of the future development of the 5G (fifth generation) network, this paper focuses on assessing the level of exposure to electromagnetic field generated by mobile telephony stations installed inside buildings. A number of 60 broadband measurements of the power density of the ambient electromagnetic field were performed and the maximum exposure coefficient was calculated as a percentage value in shops belonging to Orange Romania.

Authors: Marius Nedelcu, Victor Nițu, Teodor Petrescu
International Symposium on Signals, Circuits and Systems – ISSCS Iasi, 2021

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The present paper aims to assess the level of exposure to ambient electromagnetic field, generated especially by mobile phone stations. In a first phase, before the implementation of 5G (fifth generation), the power density was measured in the vicinity of 1750 base stations of Orange Romania SA, distributed throughout the country, and was reported at the lowest reference value provided of the national legislation for the general public in the case of the mobile telephony systems in which Orange Romania’s stations operate.

Authors: Marius Nedelcu, VIctor Nițu, Teodor Petrescu
IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, Bucharest, Romania, 2021

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As 5G standards have largely matured, further enabling the radical development of 5G networks, the pressure for mobile operators to keep up with widening range of industry and contemporary use cases increases. Consequently, many approaches are emerged from the perspective of the vertical’s interaction with the 5G system especially while onboarding specific vertical Network Applications (or NetApps). This work discusses an approach which reduces the complexity of this interaction by introducing a novel yet standard based vertical onboarding model. Our approach focuses on preserving interoperability and reproducibility with other systems through the exclusive utilization of data models derived by embracing well-known industry standards. Being also pragmatic, the mechanisms presented in this paper are implemented and applied in a large distributed 5G infrastructure.

Authors: Kostis Trantzas, Christos Tranoris, Spyros Denazis, Rafael Direito, Diogo Gomes, Jorge Gallego-Madrid, Ana Hermosilla, Antonio F. Skarmeta
2021 IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom)

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To ensure the European leadership in the direction of the development and deployment of 5G networks 5G PPP in close collaboration with EC supports different related activities. There were already launched the 5G PPP project of three phases. It was shown that they are closely linked. This aims to present and analyze the links between 5G-Xcast, 5GTOURS, and 5GASP projects, the continuity of the conducted research activities, and new directions of future research.

Authors: Roman Odarchenko, Giorgi Labadze
Scientific and Practical Cyber Security Journal (SPCSJ) 5(2): 45-50
Download the paper: https://journal.scsa.ge/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6-links-between-5g-ppp-projects-the-road-from-the-past-to-the-future-1.pdf

European H2020-funded project 5GASP is developing an unified methodology to define the design, development, and onboarding of Network Applications (NetApps) within the scope of different vertical services. The principal aim of this work is to present such methodology as well as the main objectives of the project. The presented workflow allows a meticulous evaluation and certification of novel NetApps prior to their deployment in functional 5G systems.

Authors: Jorge Gallego-Madrid, Ramon Sanchez-Iborra, Antonio F. Skarmeta
MobiSec 2021. The 5th International Symposium on Mobile Internet Security

As the 5G ecosystem continues its consolidation, the testing and validation of the innovations achieved by integrators and verticals service providers is of preponderant importance. In this line, 5GASP is a European H2020-funded project that aims at easing the idea-to-market process through the creation of an European testbed that is fully automated and self-service, in order to foster rapid development and testing of new and innovative 5G Network Applications (NetApps). The main objective of this paper is to present the 5GASP’s unified methodology to design, develop and onboard NetApps within the scope of different vertical services, letting them use specific 5G facilities. Besides, we examine the whole 5GASP process in a tutorial fashion by adopting a specific use case focusing on the integration of a virtual On-Board Unit (vOBU) service that permits offloading processing from the attached vehicle and serving data-access requests. As demonstrated, the presented workflow permits the agile, rigorous, and safe development, testing and certification of NetApps, which will enable valuable in-network services for 5G and beyond infrastructures.

How to cite: J. Gallego-Madrid, R. Sanchez-Iborra and A. Skarmeta, “From network functions to NetApps: the 5GASP methodology,” Computers, Materials & Continua, vol. 71, no.2, pp. 4115–4134, 2022.

Download the paper: https://www.techscience.com/cmc/v71n2/45796

Current orchestration frameworks lack intelligence and handle resources by neglecting service-level and system-wide performance. Towards addressing this gap, we propose a Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) design targeting Virtual Network Function (VNF) placement comprised of (i) a local level prediction module deployed at system nodes; and (ii) a global Reinforcement Learning (RL) module topping the hierarchy, utilising live local predictions and adapting placement to system-wide dynamics. Besides Global, the local level integrates an RL module that continuously and accurately predicts end-to-end (e2e) service latency after VNF placements, and a node-local CPU load prediction model. HRL’s is designed to stand fully autonomously or to complement and augment existing orchestrators lacking intelligence with a previously unexplored distributed multi-RL approach. Our performance evaluation over an actual 5G testbed implementation and use case shows that HRL can significantly outperform both Open Source Mano and heuristic-based VNF placement while reflecting a more complex trade-off between load and e2e delay, particularly under CPU overloading conditions.

How to cite: X. Vasilakos, M. Bunyakitanon, R. Nejabati and D. Simeonidou, “Towards Low-latent & Load-balanced VNF Placement with Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning,” 2021 IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom), 2021, pp. 162-167, doi: 10.1109/MeditCom49071.2021.9647532.

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HELICON is a novel hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (RL) approach for orchestrating the dynamic placement of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) in Cloud and Edge 5G environments. It proves capable of addressing an NP-Hard decision-making problem with adopted RL while augmenting the current state of the art in orchestrators with a previously unexplored lightweight distributed and hierarchical RL approach. HELICON can run as a fully autonomous solution or complement orchestrators, thus bridging a significant gap in existing orchestrators, which generally lack intelligent and dynamic adaptation capabilities. Finally, our performance evaluation results over an actual 5G city testbed and use case validate that HELICON outperforms traditional policy-based Open Source MANO and other heuristic policies concerning single or multi-objective optimisation goals. What is more, HELICON’s performance meets with that of node-specific custom supervised learning models, whereas it clearly outperforms supervised learning under dynamic conditions.

How to cite: M. Bunyakitanon, X. Vasilakos, R. Nejabati and D. Simeonidou, “HELICON: Orchestrating low-latent & load-balanced Virtual Network Functions,” ICC 2022 – IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2022, pp. 353-358, doi: 10.1109/ICC45855.2022.9839199.

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5G technologies provide several advancements regarding low latency and high bandwidth network scenarios, thus enabling new vertical use cases. Nonetheless, the lack of testing and validation mechanisms for NFV-based services poses a severe challenge in reducing their time to market. In this work we showcase a service to automate the validation of 5G NetApps, thus striving towards reducing the time to market of these applications, and introducing a new layer of trust in their reliability and availability.

How to cite: R. Direito, D. Gomes and R. L. Aguiar, “Towards a Fully Automated System for Testing and Validating NetApps,” 2022 IEEE 8th International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft), 2022, pp. 231-233, doi: 10.1109/NetSoft54395.2022.9844037.

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Authors: Kostis Trantzas, Christos Tranoris, Spyros Denazis, Rafael Direito, Diogo Gomes, Jorge Gallego-Madrid, Ana Hermosilla, Antonio F. Skarmeta
IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom), 2022

Authors: Rafael Direito, Diogo Gomes, Kostis Trantzas, Christos Tranoris
IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom), 2022

Capitalizing on the 5G Public-Private-Partnership (5G PPP) Phase 3 projects and the join efforts between the Architecture Working Group and the flagship Hexa-X project, this book delves into the critical challenges and enablers of the 6G system, including new network architectures and novel enhancements as well as the role of regulators, network operators, industry players, application developers, and end-users.
Accordingly, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the current research activities on 6G and sets a solid cornerstone towards a more connected, intelligent, and sustainable world.
The book is available free of charge from 6 June 2023 at https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/BookDetails/9781638282389