IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2016 - 87

the forwarding plane. In addition, the ME platform supports
configuring the local domain name system (DNS) proxy/
server, which can be used to direct the user traffic to desired
ME applications. The ME platform can communicate with
other ME platforms over an Mp3 reference point, which is
intended for control plane procedures. Using this interface,
several platforms may be grouped together and can form a
communications grid.
ME applications are running as virtual machines on top
of virtualization infrastructure provided by the ME host.
The applications interact with the ME platform over an
Mp1 reference point to consume the services offered by the
platform. Applications can also offer services to the platform that can further provide those to other applications.
The Mp1 reference point is also used for additional support
procedures such as to indicate the application availability
or to prepare to relocate the application state for the user in
case of handover events. ME applications may indicate
requirements on their needed resources or services and, in
addition, indicate their constraints on maximum allowed
latencies. These requirements are validated in the system
level, and the selection of target ME host(s) is performed
based on the requirements.
An ME platform manager (MEPM) is a host-level entity
that is further split into ME platform element management,
ME application lifecycle management, and ME application
rules and requirements management functions. The application lifecycle management consists of application instantiation and termination procedures as well as providing
indication to the ME orchestrator (MEO) on applicationrelated events. The rules and requirements management
includes authorizations, traffic rules, DNS configurations,
and resolving issues when a set of rules is in conflict. The
reference point between the ME platform and the MEPM is
used to configure the platform and the rules, to provision
the traffic filtering rules, to manage the application relocation, and to support the lifecycle procedures of applications.
The reference point toward the operations support system
(OSS) is used for the fault, configuration, and performance
management of the ME platform. The reference point
between the MEO and the MEPM provides support for
application lifecycle management and application-related
policies and to maintain up-to-date information on available
ME services in the ME system.
MEO is the central function in the ME system, as it has
visibility over the resources and capabilities of the entire
ME network. The MEO maintains information on the
whole ME system, as it knows all the deployed ME hosts,
the services and resources available in each host, the applications that are instantiated, and the topology of the network. The orchestrator is also responsible for managing the
ME applications and the related procedures by supporting
on-boarding the applications, checking the integrity and
authenticity of the application, validating the policies for
the applications, and maintaining a catalog of the applications
that are available. The MEO also prepares the instantiation

procedures by providing instructions to virtualization infrastructure managers on how to treat the applications. The
ME applications may indicate their requirements, e.g., for
the resources, services, location, and performance, such as
maximum allowed latency, and it is the MEO's responsibility to ensure that the requirements are met. The orchestrator
uses the requirements received from the applications in the
selection process for the target ME host. If the application
needs to be relocated, the MEO is the entity that triggers the
procedure. The orchestrator has a reference point with the
OSS that is intended for triggering the instantiation and termination of ME applications in the ME systems. The reference point toward the virtualization infrastructure manager
(VIM) is used to manage the virtualized resources of the
ME host and to manage the application images that are provided for instantiation. It is further used for maintaining status information on available resources. The OSS of an
operator is a function that is widely used to manage various
services and subsystems in the operators' network.
From the ME system point of view, the OSS is the highestlevel management system to assist in getting the ME applications running in the desired location of the network. The OSS
receives requests to instantiate and terminate the ME applications from the customer-facing service (CFS) portal and from
the clients in the user equipment (UE). Being on the boundary
between the external world and operators' network, the OSS
checks the integrity and authenticity of the application package and authorizes the request. The requests that are granted
by the OSS are forwarded to the MEO for further processing.
The OSS can also have the capabilities to relocate the applications between different cloud systems.
The CFS acts as an entry point for the third parties.
This portal can be used for operations to manage the provisioning, selection, and ordering of the ME applications.
Developer parties can use the portal to make their created
ME applications available in the operators' ME system.
Other customers such as enterprise clients may use the
portal to select the applications that are of interest for
them and to provide instructions when and where they
wish to use the selected application. The CFS portal can
also provide business-related information for customers,
for example, related to service-level agreement or billing.
The CFS is connected to the OSS over the reference point
between the entities.
The user application lifecycle management proxy (user
app LCM proxy) is a function that the ME-related clients
and applications use to request services related to on-boarding, instantiation, and termination of the applications. This
proxy can be used to request to relocate the application out
from the ME system to the external cloud or in to the ME
system from the external cloud. The access portal authorizes all the requests before proceeding with forwarding
actions toward the OSS or the MEO. The user app LCM
proxy can only be accessed from the mobile network. It
exposes a reference point toward the applications and the
clients in the UE.
OCTOBER 2016

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2016