The NetApps Certification Environment for 5G and beyond Vertical Ecosystems: The EVOLVED-5G Approach

Certification is the means to promote excellence through adherence to best practices, and ensure the appropriate security and transparency, in alignment to regulations set by the market and (various levels of) administrations. In the mobile telecommunications domain, certification for the radio equipment and user terminals has been a fundamental practice. With the 3GPP5G specifications, a novel core network (5GC) model comes to promote dynamic, open 5G services and enable network programmability through standard APIs unlocking the network intelligence to the vertical application needs. A consequence of this “openness” is the mandate for supplements in the established practices of the mobile network operators (MNOs) to include beyond device also software conformance and quality assessment certification. This study describes the work carried out by EU Horizon 2020 EVOLVED-5G project, to define the relevant certification framework for the NetApps, a novel concept introduced as an enabler for the 5G adoption from the vertical industries. The paper goes beyond the definition of the key constructs for the appropriate certification creation process, and explores the technical characteristics of the execution environment to support the certification auditing in an effective, automated and repeatable manner.

I. Introduction

The NetApp concept has emerged as an enabling service layer for vertical stakeholders in the 5G ecosystem. The EU-funded Horizon 2020 project EVOLVED-5G has introduced NetApp to be a separate middleware interacting with 5GC NEF (5G Core Network Exposure Function) with the purpose of masking the complexity of the network APIs and simplifying the implementation and deployment of vertical applications by providing the necessary adaptations. In this definition, the NetApp is a software typically implemented by business-native Third Parties to bridge the application logic with the network operation. In current practice, the components of the 5G technology that relate to equipment (either end-user devices or network products) have a firm background on interoperability and compliance, through mature certification standards and regulations. With the advent of NetApps, and the virtualization/softwarisation openness of the 5G network, there is an evident gap; the established certification practice in the mobile network business needs to extend beyond the current practice and include supplementary software specification conformance and quality assessments for the NetApps. The purpose of the EVOLVED-5G certification study is to bridge this gap by building upon the existing status quo in the telecommunications and ICT domains and increment the certification process with the capabilities seen necessary for the incorporation and interoperability of the NetApps in a 5G Standalone (SA) network. The study extends beyond the recommended methodology towards the technical characteristics of the execution environment and tools-chain in order to support the certification auditing in an effective, automated and repeatable manner.