Implementing a holistic approach to facilitate the onboarding, deployment and validation of Network Applications

The 5G system promises to deliver an environment for applications and markets that can easily capitalize on the new services and advanced interfaces that the 5G developments introduce. Recently, in the context of European research and innovation actions, the term Network Application was introduced. A Network Application, in the context of the 5G System, is defined as a set of services that provide certain functionalities to the verticals and their associated use cases. While there is no specific standard for describing the Network Application concept, the ETSI NFV model is adopted to describe the delivery and deployment of Network Applications. This work presents an approach for automating the deployment and testing of Network Applications in the context of the 5G system. The envisaged process focuses on innovations related to the operation of experiments and tests across several domains, providing software support tools for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) of Network Applications and their artifacts in a secure and trusted environment.