Cutting-edge online platform helps industry overcome 5G network challenges
5G will bring a wide variety of new and innovative services and applications to Europeans. Existing networks will struggle to meet future demands and their increasingly diverse set of services, users, applications and requirements. Consequently, network operators will need to make changes to accommodate these services. At the centre of this network transformation is the extensive deployment of technologies like network function virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking. The EU-funded 5GTANGO project addressed the flexible programmability of 5G networks by delivering an integrated NFV platform called SONATA. “Freely available for download and use, the platform covers the entire network service (NS) life cycle to be deployed over future 5G networks, from development to operations,” notes coordinator Josep Martrat. “It does so without forgetting the automatic testing, validation and verification of these services – one of the main innovations introduced by the project that will be key to 5G environments.”
Emerging challenges associated with 5G services and applications
SONATA consists of three main modules. A Service Development Kit (SDK) helps developers to create and test innovative NSs and applications before onboarding them for deployment. A Validation and Verification (V&V Platform) facilitates the automatic testing of the NSs in quasi-production environments before being deployed in a real network. It targets network operators and/or third-party organisations that offer services for certifying these new solutions. A Service Platform provides network operators with a novel management and orchestration solution that efficiently organises available infrastructure resources and controls the whole life cycle and expected performance of the NSs. Each module corresponds to one of the main stages of a service’s life cycle: development, testing and operation. “In this way, 5GTANGO allows the implementation of an extended development and operations model for telecom, enabling the agile management of the complete NS life cycle,” explains Martrat. “This will boost productivity, reduce the time to market of services and create an ecosystem that encourages collaboration and innovation.”
Paving the way for new scenarios, products and markets
5GTANGO’s SDK is an entry point into the telecom market, simplifying the creation of complex NSs and helping to lower the barrier to telecom market entry for new developers, including SMEs. The V&V Platform expands the market, opening the door to a wider variety of partners and guaranteeing the minimum level of quality required by network operators in the new and innovative 5G NSs. The project’s Service Platform allows service providers to fully exploit the available network resources in an efficient way and to meet vertical customer service requirements with ease. The 5GTANGO team successfully demonstrated the platform’s NS capabilities in a broad range of 5G scenarios, namely smart manufacturing, immersive media and real-time communications. Team members delivered SONATA’s latest open-source software release in early 2020. “5GTANGO provides an end-to-end ecosystem that helps to open the telecom market for new players, SMEs and new start-ups included, since it lowers the entry barrier for the creation of innovative 5G services over the new software networks,” concludes Martrat. “It has the potential to support and accommodate the diverse connectivity needs of any vertical industry.”
Keywords
5GTANGO, 5G, NS, network operator, telecom, 5G network, SONATA, NFV, software
