Edge Computing Enhancements in an NFV-based Ecosystem for 5G Neutral Hosts

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) framework can increase the flexibility and reduce the cost of network functions deployment and operation, but needs to be tailored when this framework is pushed to the domain of edge computing, which is the typical scenario for a 5G neutral host. In such scenario, edge-heavy NFV systems need to address the pressing requirements that comes into play with regard to infrastructure management and multi-layer orchestration, which are typical in a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) framework. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) itself has identified a lot of open issues when trying to merge the orchestration life-cycles of NFV and MEC. In this paper we describe a solution that combines extensions in the orchestration and Virtual Infrastructure Management (VIM) layers, along with concrete solutions to the ETSI-identified open issues for NFV-MEC integration, in order to pave the way towards edge-aware NFV solutions for 5G neutral hosts.