D4.1: Initial report on the DESIRE6G unified programmable data plane layer

The deliverable describes the architecture design of the unified data plane layer, including the identified interfaces to access, configure and customize the data plane functions, the Infrastructure Management Layer (IML) that provides a unified abstraction of the Programmable Data Plane (PDP) targets, the network functions of the DESIRE6G infrastructure including the partial implementation of 6G network functions in PDPs. The deliverable also identifies the key concepts, use cases and procedures that need to be supported by the unified programmable data plane layer of DESIRE6G: multitenancy support and the deployment of customized network functions, securing their isolation, offloading computations, or accelerating infrastructure services, allowing customized and fine-grained pervasive monitoring over end-to-end paths across the entire DESIRE6G network domain.