Enabling an MEC application marketplace over a 5G hybrid network

This Catalyst aims to help communication service providers (CSPs) find practical business models to support applications that need edge compute. The CSP may be a supplier to the application provider, providing connectivity everywhere combined with edge compute in an easy to consume way, or it might play an aggregator or channel role and provide the applications along with connectivity and compute to the customer.

The Catalyst team proposes using software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology as an alternative to a network slice, in order to deliver multi-access edge computing (MEC) applications for a 5G network and beyond and solve the 5G edge compute business problem. It offers a service catalogue to manage SD-WAN service provision, edge compute and partner-provided applications.

This project builds on the dynamic architecture Catalyst of 2020, which pushed dynamic and catalogue-driven concepts to the limit in the implementation of SD-WAN. The SD-WAN components have been enhanced, and the same dynamic architecture principles have been applied to the edge compute components in order to support edge application marketplaces.

Agnostic approach

In phase 2, the dynamic edge project pushes boundaries to deliver a network and cloud-agnostic solution for edge applications, while also providing a public cloud experience to application developers. Being agnostic to the network allows for the combination of 5G, fixed and partner networks.

The distributed edge cloud solution provides a central public cloud experience to the applications and then manages distribution through multi-edge technologies including public cloud, private cloud, on-premise or even an Internet of Things (IoT) device.

The outcome is a complete turn-key solution which can overlay on most CSP network and cloud infrastructures.

The CSP challenge

The companies participating in the Catalyst are Cisco Systems, DGIT Systems, Itential and IBM, with champion Vodafone Group driving the requirements.

Vodafone is seeking an edge compute solution that can span multiple networks, including networks from the different Vodafone operating companies, 5G networks and fiber networks. Applications used in manufacturing in particular can be sensitive to any delay, and the low latency offered by edge compute provides Vodafone customers with an alternative to on-premise IT.

DGIT Systems is providing the customer self-service quote-order-bill experience driven by a rich visual catalogue, which allows the CSP to combine their own compute and connectivity services with partner connectivity and partner applications. These offers are then consumable directly by customer through a self-service user interface or TM Forum Open APIs.

Itential orchestrates compute services provided by IBM along with SD-WAN overlay and SD-WAN underlay services provided through Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO), presenting them northbound through TM Forum NaaS APIs. This means that the same API set is used to present all services and that the network and compute models can be discovered through TM Forum catalogue APIs by the DGIT Catalog. Itential visual tools provide a dynamic way to consume raw resource APIs and make services available to catalogue-driven business systems.

IBM uses its Red Hat Openshift product, which enhances Kubernetes so that a centralised public cloud pushes its workloads out to the edge based on policies that can include the latency and availability requirements of the applications they are supporting.

Greg Tilton, CEO of DGIT Systems, said: “We have proven yet again the flexibility of the TM Forum Open APIs when driven by a catalogue. Combining all sorts of connectivity, compute and application services dynamically is a real enabler of marketplaces.”

All in one

While this Catalyst takes a fundamentally different approach to orchestrating network, compute resources and applications to enable CSPs to monetise their 5G network investments, the really big achievement here is that dynamic “design time” is inclusive of all the resources in the model — connectivity, compute and applications — and immediately produces ready-to-consume offerings for a customer, presented through a self-service interface.

The project uses various TM Forum product and service APIs, pushing them to the limit of their potential by driving them with a meta-data catalogue. The TMF NaaS concepts are extended beyond connectivity into compute and the overall design aligns nicely with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA).

With these capabilities, it remains to be seen whether CSPs will choose to empower application providers, provide a turn-key compute-connectivity solution to enterprises, or create marketplaces for edge applications.