UBITECH officially initiates its involvement and contribution in the CONFIG (COntrol Networks in FIve G) initiative, by participating in the Heidelberg meeting (held at February 10-11, 2016, in the offices of Eurescom) and positioning itself in the consortium for brining expertise related to security, context-aware authorization and resource access policy models, components certification. The CONFIG 5G project is running without public EU funding, based on the ideas and consortium built during the preparation of the first phase of the research and innovation projects of the European 5G Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) within the Horizon2020 framework, at Deutsche Telekom’s initiative.
The CONFIG project aims at defining next-generation convergent network architecture from a holistic perspective. A group of 14 leading players within the 5G-PPP, including world class network operators (Deutsche Telekom, the Project Coordinator, Orange and Telenor), vendors (Huawei, the Technical Manager, Thales Communications and NEC), SMEs (UBITECH and B-com), as well as academic and research institutes (Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Eurescom, IMinds, I2Cat), are joining forces in an ambitious research project aiming at defining next-generation convergent network architecture. Focusing on Core Network, and leveraging on consolidating SDN and NFV technologies, the CONFIG project targets the definition and design of a clean slate 5G Control Plane, allowing the integration of heterogeneous access networks and the support of services and applications for next generation devices. The project is being developed in three phases. Starting from the analysis of 5G Use Cases and System Requirements, CONFIG will conceive 5G Convergent System Concepts and Intelligent Connectivity solutions. The project will be completed with the development of Proof of Concepts and 5G Control Plane Prototypes. Notably, one of the key goals of CONFIG is to Lead Standardisation Future Paths, delivering concepts and results, and trying to influence SDOs active on 5G technologies. UBITECH is contributing towards the definition of use cases and system requirements for a 5G Control Plane, the design of the 5G Control Plane System Architecture along with the set of northbound interfaces/APIs for the 5G convergent system and the definition of 5G context awareness framework. Focus is also given on the design of the CONFIG authorization and trusted execution framework, based on the usage of the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) and running engine, the STRIDE model for assessing cyber security threats and a set of continuous risk assessment mechanisms.
