Network Applications (NetApps) as a 5G booster for Transport & Logistics (T&L) Services: The VITAL-5G approach

Abstract

By delivering end-to-end latencies down to 5ms, data rates of up to 20Gbps, and ultra-high reliability of 99.999%, 5G is extending the capabilities of numerous industry verticals, including the Transport & Logistics (T&L). As the T&L industry has a pivotal role in modern production and distribution systems, it is expected to leverage 5G technology to significantly increase efficiency and safety in the T&L operations, through automating and optimizing processes and resource usage. However, to be able to truly benefit from 5G, the design, the development, as well as the management, of T&L services need to specify and include 5G connectivity requirements, and the features that are tailored to the specific T&L use cases. To this end, in this paper we introduce the concept of Network Applications (NetApps), as the fundamental building blocks of T&L services in 5G, which simplify the composition of complex services, abstracting the underlying complexity and bridging the knowledge gap between the vertical stakeholders, the network experts, and the application/service providers, while specifying service-level information (vertical specific) and 5G requirements (5G slices and 5G Core services). In this paper, we exemplify the concept of NetApps leveraging one of the VITAL-5G use cases, which provides faster and safer operations of vessels in the port of Galati, the largest port on the Danube River.

A network application approach towards 5G and beyond critical communications use cases

“…Through Service Function Chaining, network traffic can be directed to flow through one or more NFs, thus, forming more complex end-toend network services out of NF chains. Network Applications harness these chains, either as standalone, or as building blocks of integrated software, to unlock more complex network services for vertical systems (Apostolakis et al, 2021;Arampatzis et al, 2021;Gallego-Madrid et al, 2022;Grigoriou et al, 2022;Martinez-Alpiste et al, 2022;Moscatelli et al, 2022;Porcu et al, 2022;Slamnik-Kriještorac et al, 2022). But beyond chaining VNFs, Network Applications are meant to enable verticals to exploit 5G network capabilities exposed through common Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which in turn, simplifies largescale deployment of their services.…”

Advanced 5G Open Testbed for Network Applications Experiments

“…As explained in [6], Network Applications are defined as one of the key pillars of VITAL-5G since they are the building blocks of the T&L service chains on top of 5G-enabled infrastructures. The Network Applications aim to abstract the complexity of 5G systems and assist in building complex T&L services that leverage on 5G.…”

Dynamic and Quality-aware Network Slice Management in 5G Testbeds

“…This is made possible since 5G-networks can achieve ultra-reliable (99.999%) low-latency (5 ms) network connectivity, including ultra-fast data rates that are 100x larger than in previous generations (4G) and with the density of 1 million connections/km 2 . Taking into account Ericsson's projection that 45% of all global internet traffic will go over a 5G connection, thereby covering 65% of the world population [1], it is reasonable to expect that 5G systems will gain a prevailing role in modern production and distribution systems in the T&L sector [2] toward improving the efficiency and safety of T&L operations by automating and optimizing processes and resource usage [2]. Thus, to help accelerate this growth, adoption, and economic benefits, for verticals and in particular, for the T&L sector, the European Commission has co-financed the VITAL-5G project.…”

“…Thus, to help accelerate this growth, adoption, and economic benefits, for verticals and in particular, for the T&L sector, the European Commission has co-financed the VITAL-5G project. The VITAL-5G project provides an enhanced 5G-empowered experimentation facility, with a portfolio of corresponding Network Applications, which enables T&L application developers to test and validate their T&L use cases within 5G ecosystems, in a user-friendly and intuitive manner, thus significantly reducing operational inefficiency and reducing market entry barriers prior to deploying their T&L service to live 5G networks [2].…”

“…To achieve the aforementioned benefits, i.e., to incentivize innovation and improve operational efficiency for verticals with the help of 5G and beyond technologies, vertical industries need to understand the behavior of the 5G systems and their potential, but there is a need to abstract the network complexity. One way to do it is through adopting the design and deployment of Edge Network Applications (EdgeApps) because they abstract the complexity of the underlying 5G infrastructure to T&L application developers [2], and allow them to define their requirements on a high-level. Thus, in this paper, we focus on the VITAL-5G solution for network slice management and orchestration, which is the main feature of the Slice inventory component within the VITAL-5G platform.…”