Enhancing Network Management via NFV, MEC, Cloud Computing and Cognitive Features: The “5G ESSENCE” Modern Architectural Approach

The paper work presents the essential architectural approach that has been proposed in the framework of the modern “5G-ESSENCE” EU-funded project, intending to develop a suitable ecosystem for serving real-life use cases associated to vertical industries and built on the pillars of network functions virtualisation (NFV), mobile-edge computing (MEC) capabilities, cognitive network management and appropriate use of small cells. Apart from identifying innovative features and options for enabling service deployment, the work focuses on the fundamental 5G ESSENCE-based architecture with description of the corresponding modules and their capabilities. The current approach comes as a mature continuity of previous efforts and/or related findings in the 5G-PPP context (mainly from the SESAME research project), but it purely concentrates upon providing tools for a robust and agile network management.