The path towards 6G is underway as 5G matures and is deployed worldwide, both publicly and privately. While 5G brought a step up in many fields, such as performance and efficiency, more is always expected in terms of efficiency by the overall community and in terms of performance by industry and technology providers who want to increase their offerings and products further. Continuous demands for higher throughput, lower latency and more energy-efficient communications must be supported by relevant use cases (UC)s that can claim and demonstrate the needs for these requests. This paper discusses the SNS-JU 2023 6G-PATH project vision, which builds upon an extensive B5G/6G infrastructure where a set of core architectures and domain-specific capabilities are brought together and made available for integration of applications and use cases to conduct large-scale pilots and trials. 6G-PATH fosters the development and integration of new and improved tools and products from EU companies with 5G/6G while measuring relevant KPIs and KVIs. To achieve this, the project includes designing and developing an integrated experimentation platform integrating 7 testbeds and 10 use cases spread across 4 key verticals: Health, Education, Smart Cities and Farming. Moreover, to further involve the community and obtain more metrics and outcomes, it’s envisioned to integrate 2 new pilot sites and extend the testbeds with 10 additional technologies and 30 new use cases through Open Calls.

6G is a revolutionary technology that will transform many technologies and enhance applications by offering high QoS and QoE, especially due to the inclusion of AI and ML features. 6G will be able to satisfy communication demands going far beyond the 5G/B5G evolution. To achieve this goal it is essential to identify future communication needs, performance requirements, system challenges and major technical options that will influence progress of research. In this context, the involvement of verticals becomes a factor of critical influence, especially via newly proposed scenarios and use cases. The 6G-PATH project will build an extensive B5G/6G infrastructure where a set of core architectures and domain-specific capabilities will be brought together and made available for integration of applications and use cases of relevance within four addressed verticals (agriculture, education, health and smart cities) to conduct large-scale pilots and trials. Results will be collected and analyzed to generate appropriate lessons and requirements for future 6G communications and to refine leading-edge business models for the intended 6G commercialization and exploitation. In the present work we discuss and analyze in detail the ten fundamental use cases of the 6G-PATH project, together with proposed broader sets of KPIs and KVIs, per case, that will allow for a better defined and comprehensive number of requirements for the intended evolution towards 6G.

In this paper, a vision for beyond-5G systems is proposed where automation and intelligence in cloud-native infrastructures are in focus. Exploiting the convergence of cloud technologies at the edge and mobile communication networks, a set of technological solutions is discussed that will play a fundamental role on the path from 5G towards future 6G systems. Currently, a strong need is felt in the telecommunication world for greater automation to meet the extreme requirements expected for 6G applications. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining momentum as one of the main enabling technologies for beyond-5G networks. Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Federated Learning (FL) are here proposed as technologies to enhance automation and improve the intelligence of orchestration mechanisms of both network services and applications. These technologies are brought together in a comprehensive cloud-native architectural vision to fill the gap between current 5G systems and AI-powered systems of the future.

Several relevant research and innovation activities have recently investigated the technical and economic advantages of cloud computing for the provisioning of telco service infrastructures, in particular towards all-IP next generation 5G networks. In fact, the evolution of telco service infrastructures traditionally requires a significant upfront investment (and a long adoption process). Conversely, cloud exploitation significantly lowers investment risks by potentially providing elasticity in service provisioning via flexible Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) on top of a Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Infrastructure. In this context, the paper presents novel solutions that we have designed, implemented, and evaluated within the EU FP7 Mobile Cloud Networking project (MCN). Their aim is to achieve cost-effective elastic provisioning of telco services over heterogeneous and federated cloud providers, with the specific focus of supporting the extreme quality levels that are demanded by traditional, non-virtualized, and dedicated telco infrastructures. In particular, we concentrate on how to effectively and efficiently automate service state migration for coarse-grained telco service (cloudified) components by leveraging industry-mature orchestration technologies and cloud management frameworks. While our proposed state migration model and procedure are general, its implementation is experimented for MCN's Rating, Charging, and Billing as a Service (RCBaaS). This MCN functionality has been chosen by purpose due to its challenging reliability and uptime requirements. The reported experimental and simulation results show the technical feasibility of the proposed solution under different and realistic load conditions for next-generation and cloudified 5G services.

As systems get more complex testing has also increased not only in complexity but in the total IT cost, which is estimated to increase even more by 2020. Testing large complex distributed applications is hard, time consuming and lacks tooling. Given that the digitisation of business has proved to be a key aspect for improving the productivity of developers in the delivery of the service to end-users, in this paper we present early results showing how these capabilities can also be provided to testers of software and services, by adopting standard interfaces and leveraging the tools provided by an early research open-source platform, capable of efficiently testing large scale systems, ElasTest.

Testing large-scale distributed systems (also known as testing in the large) is a challenge that spreads across different technical domains and areas of expertise. Current methods and tools provide some minimal guarantees in relation to the correctness of their functional properties and have serious limitations when evaluating their extra-functional properties in realistic conditions, such as scalability, availability and performance efficiency. Cloud Testing and more specifically "testing in the cloud'' has arisen to tackle those challenges. In this new paradigm, cloud-based environment and infrastructure are used to run realistic end-to-end and/or system-level tests, collect test data and analyse them. In this paper we present a set of cloud-native services to take from the tester the responsibility of managing the resources and complementary services required to simulate realistic operational conditions and production environments. Specifically, they provide cloud testing capabilities such as logs and measurements collection from both testing jobs and system under test; test data analytics and visualization; provisioning and operation of additional services and processes to replicate realistic production ecosystems; support to scalability and diversity of underlying testing infrastructure; and replication of the operational conditions of the software under test through its instrumentation. We present the architecture of the cloud testing solution and the detailed design of each of the services; we also evaluate their relative contribution to satisfy different needs in the context of test execution.

Quality and high speed is the new mantra: everyone wants the best products delivered as fast as possible. On the one side, managers aim at “ ​the fastest time to market”​; on the opposite side, the cliché recurs that “ ​a good user experience is the key to a successful product​”. Compounding both sides, developers know well that before they can release their software, ​testing is a must​. Notwithstanding, it is often ignored or given low priority, why? Are the integrated systems tested enough at their ends to meet the user-demanded functionalities? Software code is written, transformed, and updated, then it is checked-in and verified before a new product is finally launched. But not always this translates into the best software solution or the best experience for users. Is it all about continuous integration process or are there more reasons? With the increasing need of distributed and more interconnected software systems, are developers ready to satisfy this demand?

Edge environments offer a number of advantages for software developers including the ability to create services which can offer lower latency, better privacy, and reduced operational costs than traditional cloud hosted services. However large technical challenges exist, which prevent developers from utilising the Edge; complexities related to the heterogeneous nature of the Edge environment, issues with orchestration and application management and lastly, the inherent issues in creating decentralised distributed applications which operate at a large geographic scale. In this conceptual and architectural paper we envision a solution, Blip, which offers an easy to use programming and operational environment which addresses the these issues. It aims to remove the technical barriers which will inhibit the wider adoption Edge application development. This paper validates the Blip concept by demonstrating how it will deliver on the advantages of the Edge for a familiar scenario.

There is no doubt that the delivery of services to end-users is and has been a huge productivity gain for developers. This is a key aspect when one talks about digitisation of business today. The same should also be provided to testers of software and services. In this paper we present early results that show how service delivery and composition of multiple service instances is achieved for testers. This is made possible through the adoption of standard interfaces and an early research platform, ElasTest.

In the last years we have experienced a growing industrial interest in Mobile Cloud Networking (MCN) as the opportunity to exploit the cloud computing paradigm through Network Function Virtualization (NFV), primarily with the goal to reduce CAPEX/OPEX for future mobile networks deployment and operation. The gain from the point of view of infrastructure costs reduction is almost clear and recognized, while many technical challenges are still to be solved, especially with industry-mature solutions, due to the complexity of managing such type of infrastructures. In particular, the dynamicity and flexibility introduced by the virtualization of network functions add novel requirements on the service management and orchestration layers. In this perspective, this paper originally presents the architecture and primary implementation guidelines of the Mobile Cloud Networking framework developed within a large EU FP7 project. More specifically, it focuses on the innovative technical elements of our solution for service management and orchestration, namely i) orchestration strategies based on resource unit affinity and ii) compliance with emerging Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) standards. To practically demonstrate the suitability of the proposed approach, a specific real use case has been implemented, i.e., the cloudification of the 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), by reporting and analyzing the related performance results.

In this position paper, we describe the current status and plans for a Swiss national research infrastructure. Swiss academic and research institutions are very autonomous. While being loosely coupled, they do not rely on any centralized management entities. A coordinated national research infrastructure can only be established by federating the local resources of the individual institutions. We discuss current efforts and business models for a federated infrastructure.

To pave the way towards disclosing the full potential of 5G networking, emerging Mobile Edge Computing techniques are gaining momentum in both academic and industrial research as a means to enhance infrastructure scalability and reliability by moving control functions close to the edge of the network. After the promising results under achievement within the EU Mobile Cloud Networking project, we claim the suitability of deploying Evolved Packet Core (EPC) support solutions as a Service (EPCaaS) over a uniform edge cloud infrastructure of Edge Nodes, by following the concepts of Network Function Virtualization (NFV). This paper originally focuses on the support needed for efficient elasticity provisioning of EPCaaS stateful components, by proposing novel solutions for effective subscribers' state management in quality-constrained 5G scenarios. In particular, to favor flexibility and high-availability against network function failures, we have developed a state sharing mechanism across different data centers even in presence of firewall/network encapsulation. In addition, our solution can dynamically select which state portions should be shared and to which Edge Nodes. The reported experimental results, measured over the widely recognized Open5GCore testbed, demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach, as well as its capability to satisfy "carrier-grade" quality requirements while ensuring good elasticity and scalability.

Dana Petcu, West University of Timisoara, Romania Lara López and F. Javier Nieto, Atos Spain SA, Spain Iakovos Mavroidis, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece Roberto Bruschi, CNIT, Italy Zhiming Zhao, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Constantinos Vassilakis, Panagiotis Gouvas, UBITECH, Greece Isabel Matranga and Daniele Pavia, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica SpA, Italy Andy Edmonds and Thomas M. Bohnert, Zürich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Maria Fazio, University of Messina, Italy Philipp Leitner, University of Zurich Eliot Salant, IBM Research Haifa Daniel Vladušič, XLAB d.o.o., Slovenia Radu Prodan, University of Innsbruck, Austria Stylianos Georgoulas, University of Surrey, UK

In this paper we focus on the problem of multidomain orchestration for Network Function Virtualization (NFV), over multi-technology environments. In order to facilitate service deployment in end-to-end setups, new orchestration designs are required that exploit and advance existing methodologies. We examine in detail the challenges on multi-domain NFV orchestration for the general case and we provide the current landscape and existing technologies. We also describe a reference architecture for the problem of multi-domain NFV orchestration, that also supports the concept of Network Slicing. Finally, we present a realization of the architecture proposed for the LTE network and we describe a use case with LTE-specific considerations.

Cloud computing enables the on-demand delivery of resources for a multitude of services and gives the opportunity for small agile companies to compete with large industries. In the telco world, cloud computing is currently mostly used by mobile network operators (MNO) for hosting non-critical support services and selling cloud services such as applications and data storage. MNOs are investigating the use of cloud computing to deliver key telecommunication services in the access and core networks. Without this, MNOs lose the opportunities of both combining this with over-the-top (OTT) and value-added services to their fundamental service offerings and leveraging cost-effective commodity hardware. Being able to leverage cloud computing technology effectively for the telco world is the focus of mobile cloud networking (MCN). This paper presents the key results of MCN integrated project that includes its architecture advancements, prototype implementation, and evaluation. Results show the efficiency and the simplicity that a MNO can deploy and manage the complete service lifecycle of fully cloudified, composed services that combine OTT/IT- and mobile-network-based services running on commodity hardware. The extensive performance evaluation of MCN using two key proof-of-concept scenarios that compose together many services to deliver novel converged elastic, on-demand mobile-based but innovative OTT services proves the feasibility of such fully virtualized deployments. Results show that it is beneficial to extend cloud computing to telco usage and run fully cloudified mobile-network-based systems with clear advantages and new service opportunities for MNOs and end-users.

This demonstration paper details the cloud based service enablement platform developed in the EU FP7 Mobile Cloud Networking project. This demonstration shows on a mobile core network can be instantiated on demand on top of a standard cloud infrastructure.

Virtualisation of cellular networks can be seen as a way to significantly reduce the complexity of processes, required nowadays to provide reliable cellular networks. The Future Communication Architecture for Mobile Cloud Services: Mobile Cloud Networking (MCN) is a EU FP7 Large-scale Integrating Project (IP) funded by the European Commission that is focusing on how cloud computing and network function virtualisation concepts are applied to achieve virtualisation of cellular networks. It aims at the development of a fully cloud-based mobile communication and application platform, or more specifically, it aims to investigate, implement and evaluate the technological foundations for the mobile communication system of Long Term Evolution (LTE), based on Mobile Network plus Decentralized Computing plus Smart Storage offered as one atomic service: On-Demand, Elastic and Pay-As-You-Go. This paper provides a brief overview of the MCN project and discusses the challenges that need to be solved.