A Management Data Analytics Function for ethical 6G networks

In order to satisfy the ethical requirements that are expected from upcoming 6G technologies, the knowledge of the power consumption ascribable to the applications and network functions is crucial to enforce a sense of responsibility and joint efforts towards value-driven sustainability. In this respect, this paper presents a modular, energy-focused prototype of the Management Data Analytics Function (MDAF), that represents the cornerstone of the Observability framework recently developed by the 6Green Project. Its main goal is to provide management data to upper layers (i.e., network and end-users/verticals). A 5G network was tested on both the User-Plane and Control-Plane; at the same time, said network was monitored by both the proposed MDAF and a common power monitoring solution: Scaphandre. Results show that the MDAF measures a higher power consumption than Scaphandre; the difference lies between 50% (when idle) and 4% (at the maximum offered load). This difference corresponds to the ”indirect” power consumption that the MDAF is able to ascribe to the containers/Virtual Machines (VMs) (i.e., the Network Functions (NFs)). The more accurate power consumption measurements of the single NFs is a first step towards the need to spread energy/carbon awareness to all the involved stakeholders.