Join-Me: A Framework for integrating Service Providers and Mobile Network Operators

Abstract

With mobile networks becoming one of the main means of accessing the Internet, Service Providers (SPs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have been investing considerable effort on service delivery mechanisms to improve end users' Quality of Experience (QoE). However, despite some advances, a lack of integration between SPs and MNOs is noticeable, which otherwise would allow for on-demand use of core and edge resources resulting in greater impact on users' QoE. This work presents Join-Me, a framework that allows SPs to transfer service modules into MNOs' infrastructure. Join-Me provides MNOs with the needed components to autonomously manage SPs' service modules, protecting mobile users' privacy and dynamically allocating the appropriate resources. Besides a framework that can be adapted to MNOs' deployed technologies, Join-Me provides SPs with an API for parameterizing the resource options to be used by their modules. An interactive UHD telemedicine service is evaluated as a proof of concept.