Deploying cloud-native experimental platforms for zero-touch management 5G and beyond networks

Abstract

An experimental framework for managing 5G and beyond networks through cloud-native deployments and end-to-end monitoring is presented. The framework uses containerised network functions in a Kubernetes cluster across a multi-domain network spanning cloud and edge hosts. End-to-end monitoring is demonstrated through Grafana dashboards that showcase both infrastructure resources and radio metrics in two scenarios involving UPF re-selection and user mobility. As a third scenario, the authors demonstrate how a decision engine interacts with the experimental platform to perform zero-touch containerised application relocation, highlighting the potential for enabling dynamic and intelligent management of 5G networks and beyond.