Evolved-5G is a EU H2020 ICT-41-2020 funded research 5G-PPP project realised by 21 partners. It aims at testing, validating and certifying Industry 4.0 NetApps.
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 endeavor 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.
