Prototyping nfv-based multi-access edge computing in 5G ready networks with open baton

With the increasing acceptance of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, a radical transformation is currently occurring inside network providers infrastructures. The trend of Software-based networks foreseen with the 5th Generation of Mobile Network (5G) is drastically changing requirements in terms of how networks are deployed and managed. One of the major changes requires the transaction towards a distributed infrastructure, in which nodes are built with standard commodity hardware. This rapid deployment of datacenters is paving the way towards a different type of environment in which the computational resources are deployed up to the edge of the network, referred to as Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) nodes. However, MEC nodes do not usually provide enough resources for executing standard virtualization technologies typically used in large datacenters. For this reason, software containerization represents a lightweight and viable virtualization alternative for such scenarios. This paper presents an architecture based on the Open Baton Management and Orchestration (MANO) framework combining different infrastructural technologies supporting the deployment of container-based network services even at the edge of the network.