ACROSS at the ETSI SNS4SNS Conference – Press Release

December 11, 2024

27 November 2024

About ETSI SNS4SNS

The ETSI SNS4SNS conference brought together leaders in open source, standardization, and research to foster resilient and sustainable network innovations. Hosted by ETSI, this 1.5-day conference and 3 half-day Hackfests highlighted pioneering developments through Software Development Groups and early-stage standardization, creating close synergies with 3GPP. This event aimed at advancing communication infrastructure and services for the next generation.

About Demo and Poster “Open Source for Telco-Cloud: An ETSI SDG-based solution to facilitate zero-touch, multi-slice 5G deployments across the cloud-edge continuum”

The increasing demand for network services has prompted telecommunications companies (telcos) to modernize their legacy and unadaptable infrastructure and adopt modular and scalable software-defined systems running on common off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. This software-defined cloud infrastructure, known as “telco cloud”, allows telcos to swiftly deploy services, adapt to changes in the network demand and manage resources across the cloud-edge continuum. While Network Function Virtualization (NFV) marked the initial shift to cloud-based operations, telcos now seek the transition towards cloud-native infrastructure to support the potential of microservices architectures brought by 5G.

The proposed demonstration illustrated a zero-touch delivery of a distributed 5G network across a cloud-edge continuum over multiple cloud providers, by integrating three open-source solutions of ETSI Software Development Groups (SDGs) – OSM, TFS, and OSL. To that extent, the demonstration involved the logical interconnection of public and private resources providing an adjustable and seamless network fabric over numerous network devices.

Over this zero-touch created network substrate, the adopted open-source solution orchestrates the deployment of disaggregated cloud-native 5G resources, composing a multi-slice setup while also addressing access control on domain resources. In addition, the solution employs stratum-based, programmable P4 switches to not only carry out the routing but also perform in-band network monitoring for deep visibility into the network state. In principle, the demonstrated solution relies on widely utilized, standard interfaces and data models such as TMF APIs, IETF L2/L3 VPN Service Delivery, and ETSI SOL005 to achieve those objectives.

The demo was presented by Kostis Trantzas from the University of Patras. The poster and demo were the result of collaboration among the project’s partners: the U niversity of Patras (UoP), Centre Tecnologic De Telecomunicacions De Catalunya (CTTC), UBITECH and the Warsaw University of Technology, with contributions from the following authors: Kostis Trantzas, Lluís Gifre Renom, Georgios P. Katsikas, Pantelis Malekas, Christos Tranoris, Ricard Vilalta, Jakub Górczyński, and Tomasz Osiński.

ACROSS at TeraFlowSDN Hackfest

The ACROSS project, represented by partner organization Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), made a strong impact at the 5th TeraFlowSDN Hackfest during the ETSI-hosted SNS4SNS event. Led by Lluís Gifre Renom, CTTC’s interactive demo, “Getting Started with TeraFlowSDN and ContainerLab,” captivated attendees with essential topics for Smart Networks and Services, including initial TeraFlowSDN deployment, ContainerLab setup, L3VPN configuration, and network monitoring. This beginner-friendly hands-on tutorial provided valuable insights into TeraFlowSDN’s network automation capabilities, giving participants a solid foundation in deploying, managing, and monitoring programmable routers and white boxes. The session also fostered dialogue on advancements within the TeraFlowSDN (TFS) community, offering opportunities for developers to contribute to the growing ecosystem of next-generation network solutions. ACROSS, is proud to be part of these vital discussions and skills-building initiatives in the pursuit of smarter, more connected networks.

1st OpenSlice Tutorial/Hackfest: Delivering Network as a Service (NaaS)

The ACROSS project was represented at the 1st OpenSlice Hackfest, introducing participants to the potential of OpenSlice for delivering Network as a Service (NaaS). Guided by Kostis Trantzas from the University of Patras, this hands-on session offered a comprehensive walkthrough of network service design, orchestration, and zero-touch operation. Attendees gained practical insights into crafting flexible NaaS solutions tailored to the dynamic demands of modern industries and research domains. The tutorial emphasized sophisticated orchestration processes that ensure seamless integration and management of network services, equipping participants with tools and knowledge to address evolving connectivity challenges. This event highlights ACROSS’s commitment to fostering innovation in network automation and delivering cutting-edge, user-centric solutions.

About ACROSS

ACROSS is a HORIZON-JU-SNS-2022 funded research project that designs and implements an end-to-end service deployment and management platform for next generation networks and services, aiming at unprecedented levels of automation, performance, scalability, and energy efficiency. The platform is further enhanced with a) deep end-to-end telemetry to unlock visibility of the intertwined network and compute system states, b) AI-driven intelligence that leverages both the vast number of events originating from the dense IoT ecosystem and detailed monitoring data originating from the ACROSS telemetry sub-system, to generate new insights, c) full-stack cross-domain zero-touch provisioning via programmable “hooks” that exploit events originating from raw telemetry and AI processed events, and d) secure and trusted orchestration mechanisms for trusted computing technologies over large and heterogeneous cloud-edge deployments, as well as orchestration and monitoring of the security VNF.

Learn more and be part of the ACROSS community!

https://across-he.eu/