Nec Corporation

Nec Laboratories Europe Gmbh

Fabio Giust

Vincenzo Sciancalepore

Lanfranco Zanzi

Konstantinos Samdanis

Faqir Zarrar Yousaf

Marco Liebsch

Xavier Costa Perez

Xi Li

A method is provided for operating an edge computing system in which edge application servers (EASs) are provided by application service providers (ASPs) for deployment in edge data network (EDNs). The method includes receiving, from each of a plurality of the ASPs, a respective deployment request for a respective EAS, each respective deployment request including software image information for the respective EAS. The method further includes assigning, to each of the plurality of the ASPs from which a respective deployment request is received, a set of at least one application management privilege, and receiving EAS lifecycle management requests issued by one or more of the ASPs from which a respective deployment request is received. The EAS lifecycle management requests specify lifecycle management operations to be performed for respective EASs. The method additionally includes performing the lifecycle management operations for the respective EASs in response to the EAS lifecycle management requests.

System and method to support network slicing in an MEC system providing automatic conflict resolution arising from multiple tenancy in the MEC environment

A method for operating a multi-access edge computing (MEC) system in which tenant applications are provided by MEC tenants for deployment on MEC hosts of the MEC system. The method includes receiving, from each of a plurality of MEC tenants, an application package, the application package including application software be installed at one or more of the MEC hosts of the MEC system, the application software corresponding to a tenant application of the tenant applications. The method further includes assigning, to each of the plurality of MEC tenants, a set of at least one application management privilege, and receiving application operation requests issued by MEC tenants. The application operation requests specify operations to be performed for the tenant applications. The method additionally includes pre-validating, using the sets of at least one application management privilege assigned to the plurality of MEC tenants, the application operation requests.

A method for operating an SDN-based mobile communication system is provided. The system provides a control plane function that possesses information from an access network about location and/or proximity of devices and information about rules and/or policies for setting up sessions for the devices. The system includes a mobile network having a control plane and a data plane, with a network controller being implemented therebetween. The method includes: upon a particular device's request for session establishment, receiving, via signaling and at the control plane, device related information; based on the device related information that is received via the signaling, performing, at the control plane, selection of an abstract data plane node or a group of abstract data plane nodes; and providing, at the control plane, the selected abstract data plane node or the selected group of abstract data plane nodes to the network controller.

SDN-based mobile communication system and method for operating such system

A method for operating a multi-access edge computing (MEC) system includes establishing, between two or more MEC providers, an agreement that defines mutual access policies that specify which MEC platforms and which MEC applications and/or services running on the MEC platforms are allowed to be exposed among each other and/or to other tenants. The MEC platforms are provisioned with appropriate configurations in accordance with the access policies of the agreement. A discovery process is executed for discovering a MEC platform within a MEC stack of another tenant and a communication link is established with the other tenant's MEC platform.

Multi-access edge computing, MEC, system and method for operating the same

A method provides location information within a mobile network with beamforming characteristics. The mobile network includes at least one access point or base station that includes a beamforming module. The method includes tracing and maintaining user terminals' location information in a location service deployed in the mobile network, providing the location information of a user's terminal from the location service to the beamforming module of the at least one access point or base station in order to assist beamforming and association between the user's terminal and the at least one access point or base station, and providing the location information of the user's terminal from the at least one access point or base station to the location service in order to populate, update, and/or refine a location information base of the location service.

Service location method and system for mmWave cellular environments

A method for enabling (virtualized) application functions ((V)AFs) to associate to underlying (virtualized) network functions ((V)NFs) is provided in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) environment in which a lifecycle management (LCM) of the (V)AFs and its associations with the underlying (V)NFs and resources are managed by the NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) system. A service request is validated by an NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) parsing an (V)AF Descriptor ((V)AFD) file within an (V)AF catalogue. An (V)AF Record ((V)AFR) instance is created having information useable to maintain a state and one or more associations of the respective (V)AF. The NFVO, in cooperation with a Virtualized Network Function Manager (VNFM), Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) and an underlying network controller of the NFV MANO system, establishes the association between the respective (V)AF and the respective underlying (V)NF(s) using the (V)AFD.

Application function management using NFV MANO system framework

A method for managing and orchestrating virtual application functions jointly with virtual network functions is done through a single management and orchestration (MANO) framework within a network. The method includes creating, by a system for (virtual) application function and virtual network function management and orchestration, at least one service or service chain that considers or comprises at least one (virtual) network application and/or at least one virtual network function. A virtual application function (VAF) entity is provided as a container for network applications together with a VAF manager (VAFM) for the VAF.

Method and network for managing and orchestrating virtual network functions and network applications

A method for operating an SDN-based mobile communication system, which includes a mobile network having a control plane and a data plane, with a network controller being implemented therebetween, includes: providing a control plane function that possesses information from an access network about location and/or proximity of devices and information about rules and/or policies for setting up sessions for the devices; and the network controller, by collaborative operations with the control plane function, selecting one or multiple data plane nodes that are, based on a particular device's request for session establishment, suitable to act as policy enforcement points for enforcing rules in the data plane that are for enabling connectivity for the particular device.

A method for operating, by an MEC operator, a multi-access edge computing (MEC) system in which applications are provided by MEC tenants for deployment on MEC hosts of the MEC system and in which various levels of privileges are provided by the MEC operator to the MEC tenants. The method includes assigning, by an MEC broker, privileges to the MEC tenants; initiating, by the MEC broker via interactions with one or more of an MEC Orchestrator, an MEC platform manager, and a user app LCM proxy, operations. The operations can include one or more of application package on-boarding, application instance installation on selected MEC hosts, application provisioning, through configuration of appropriate parameters, and application life-cycle management operations including one or more of bootstrapping, termination, migration, scaling. The method further includes pre-validating, using the privileges provided to the MEC tenants, operation requests issued by the MEC tenants.

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Heidelberg, Germany

Fabio Giust