NTT Laboratories wins MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Showcase Innovation Award

NTT Information Network Laboratories Group is proud to announce that it received the "Innovation Award" during the MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Showcase event held online from February 15 to 26.

The showcase was organized by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), a global telecom industry alliance with more than 220 members. NTT Information Network Laboratories Group attended the showcase to introduce its end-to-end network slicing service proof of concept (PoC), joining other telecom carriers and manufacturers that presented their own initiatives for judging.

The award-winning PoC named "E2E Slicing for Extreme Services" jointly exhibited by NTT Communications Corporation and Okinawa Open Laboratory demonstrates end-to-end services by interconnecting network slices across local 5G and transport domains, advanced use cases working over slices, and automatic control through coordination between controllers of multiple networks. The adherence to MEF standards, compelling use cases, and innovative technologies were highly evaluated.

In the PoC showcase, automated provisioning and activation of end-end network slices for private 5G, enterprise customers' demand for which is expected to grow in the future, are demonstrated. Besides, end-to-end slice use cases were also demonstrated with the high-capacity, low-latency, and low-jitter characteristics required for various communication services, such as artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of video in edge computing, remote control of machine tools and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in smart factories, xHaul^*1, and communications between next-generation data centers.

These end-to-end slices and their innovative use cases are enabled by NTT Information Network Laboratory Group's technologies, which are an automated cloud-native network function provisioning engine (ACPE^*2,3), multi-layer transport network provisioning engine^*4, and high-accuracy network monitoring and control technology (HANMOC^*5,6). In addition, slice gateways^*7 connecting and monitoring various types of communication paths manage end-to-end services by stitching network slices of 5G and transport. By using the MEF specifications^*8, end-to-end slice provision is automated even in a cross-operator environment. With the use of private 5G, 5G technology is expected to be used by not only telecommunication carriers but also enterprises and local governments. By using technologies above, network operators can provide a transport network that connects not only the 5G segment from 5G radio access network to 5G core network (5GC) but also the edge and cloud on demand and efficiently build an entire network.

NTT Information Network Laboratory Group will continue to research and develop　6G/IOWN function dedicated networks as well as 5G network slices by enhancing the multi-domain and multi-layer control and management technologies.

xHaul is a general term for a transport network between 5G base stations and 5GCs and can refer to either mobile front haul (MFH), mobile mid haul (MMH), or mobile back haul (MBH).
The technology that automatically designs computation resource allocation and deployment locations of cloud-native network functions (CNFs) using machine-learning based performance estimation for required service level agreements (SLAs) and also that provisions and activates the 5GCs in accordance with the optimization results in both the design and operation phases.
Automated CNF Provisioning Engine
Integrated software defined network (SDN) controller supporting IP based network, such as Segment Routing and optical transport. This technology enables optimal transport network performance assurance based on SLA requirements by automated optimal path provisioning of IP, carrier Ethernet, and optical transport paths.
This technology aims at enhancing the maintenance operations necessary for the 5G networks and its quality assurance, in determining the routes for telecommunication services, etc.
High-Accuracy Network MOnitoring and Control,
NTT Technical Review, Service-partner-oriented Network Slicing, Jun. 2019,
MEF Lifecycle Service Orchestration Framework: a reference architecture and framework for enabling end-to-end automation and orchestration across multiple provider networks,