ENI#19 meeting has taken place from 6 to 9 September 2021 and has been performed online because many countries were still affected by travel restrictions or delegates were not allowed to travel. In terms of most relevant figures that denote the heavy work carried out during the meeting, it should be taken into account that:

• 25 ISG members were present, and
• 96 documents were handled.

Let’s remind that the Industry Specification Group (ISG) is open to ETSI members and non-ETSI members alike. The different players in the value chain are welcome to join the ISG effort, contribute to the development of key specifications and demonstrate Proofs of Concepts (PoCs). To join, please contact: isgsupport@etsi.org.

The ETSI ISG was created in February 2017 and today members come from operators, vendors and research institutes all over the world.

Highlights of the meeting

The meeting was productive and progress was achieved in different areas. Deliverable GR ENI 012 on “Reactive In-situ Flow Information Telemetry” was reviewed and declared as stable and it will now proceed to ISG review and approval. It was also decided to re-open the Work Items for the Use cases GS ENI 001 V3.2.1 in release 3 as well as Requirements GS ENI 002 V3.2.1 in Release 3.

GS ENI 005 V2.1.1 on “System Architecture” (Release 2) has completed the Remote Consensus and will be published soon.

The Terminology report GR ENI 004 V2.2.1 is in Remote Consensus until 29 September 2021, after which it is expected to be ratified and published.

An open area where all stable drafts and previously published deliverables are available, was approved.

Published Work during ETSI ISG ENI Release 2

GR ENI 009 V1.1.1 on “Data Processing mechanisms”, GR ENI 016 V2.1.1 on “Functional Concepts”, GR ENI 017 V2.1.1 on “Overview of Prominent Control Loop Architectures” and GR ENI 018 V2.1.1 on “Artificial Intelligence Mechanisms”, all dropped in Release 2, were published over the last Summer.

Experiential Networked Intelligence (ENI) Release 2 specifications and reports published in the Release 2 timeframe include:

• GS ENI 001 Use Cases, published as V3.1.1
• GS ENI 002 Requirements, published as V3.1.1
• GR ENI 004 Terminology, in Remote Consensus until 29 September, to be published as V2.2.1
• GS ENI 005 System Architecture, in legal review after Remote Consensus, to be published as V2.1.1
• GR ENI 008 Intent Aware Network Autonomicity, published as V2.1.1
• GR ENI 009 Data Mechanisms, published as V1.1.1
• GR ENI 010 Evaluation of categories for AI application to Networks, published as V1.1.1
• GR ENI 016 Functional Concepts for Modular System Operation, published as V2.1.1
• GR ENI 017 Overview of Prominent Control Loop Architectures, published as V2.1.1
• GR ENI 018 Artificial Intelligence Mechanisms for Modular Systems, published as V2.1.1

Note: The links above point to the published documents or to the latest draft.

All of the active Release 2 work items were discussed and none remain in the ISG.

Work in progress is expected to be addressed in Release 3.

Release 3 will start by continuing the work on the following nine work items:

• GS ENI 001 Use Cases, to be progressed in release 3 timeframe and published as V3.2.1
• GS ENI 002 Requirements, to be progressed in release 3 timeframe and published as V3.2.1
• GR ENI 009 Data Mechanisms, to be progressed in release 3 timeframe and published as V1.2.1
• GR ENI 010 Evaluation Method for Autonomicity, to be progressed in release 3 timeframe and published as V1.2.1
• GS ENI 011 V3.1.1 Mapping between ENI architecture and operational systems, may be stopped
• GR ENI 012 Reactive In-situ Flow Information Telemetry, to be progressed in Release 3 and be published as V1.1.1
• GR ENI 013 Intent Policy Model Gap analysis, to be progressed in Release 3 and be published as V1.1.1
• GR ENI 015 Processing and Management of Intent Policy, to be progressed in Release 3 and published as V1.1.1
• GS ENI 019 ENI Models, to be progressed in Release 3 and published as V3.1.1

Note: The links above point to the public documents or to the corresponding work programme web page available in the ETSI portal. 

New work items approved

In addition to the above-mentioned work to be transposed to Release 3, there are still two new work items for this Release, which will probably be approved after this meeting:

1. New work item “Artificial Intelligence Mechanisms for Modular Systems”: this is a continuation of ENI 018 into Release 3, targeted to further specify different ways to use different types of transformers, as well as some types of natural languages used to describe and specify a selected number of AI algorithms. The final draft will be published in Release 3 as V3.1.1. There is in email confirmation as to whether this needs to be a Specification or a Report in Release 3.
2. New work item “System Architecture (Release 3)”: this discussion, though the logical next step, is on hold until after Release 2 is ratified for publication.

The ISG will now focus on Release 3 of the work.

Status of Proofs of Concepts

The status of ENI PoCs is provided in the ETSI Portal Wiki page and through links in the following list:

• PoC 01: Intelligent Network Slice Lifecycle Management
• PoC 02: Elastic Network Slice Management
• PoC 03: Securing against Intruders and other threats through a NFV-enabled Environment
• PoC 04: Predictive Fault management of E2E Multi-domain Network Slices
• PoC 05: Intelligent Traffic Profiling
• PoC 06: Intelligent caching based on prediction of content popularity
• PoC 07: Intelligent time synchronization of network
• PoC 08: Intent-based User Experience Optimization
• PoC 09: Autonomous Network Slice Management for 5G Vertical Services
• PoC 10: Intelligent Telecom Network Energy Optimization
• PoC 11: Intelligent Energy Management of DC
• PoC 12: Intelligent Transport Network Optimization
• PoC 13: Intelligent Coverage Optimization of 5G Massive MIMO BS
• PoC 14: Intent-based Cloud Management

The PoC descriptions and presentations during this meeting are available on the public ETSI ENI WiKi Pages (ENI Wiki), which have been revised with the latest reports and demos.

Progress reports were accepted from PoCs 11, 13 & 14, whereas PoCs 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10 & 12 are completed, see ENI Wiki. Further new PoC proposals are invited according to the process outlined in GS ENI 006 V2.1.1.

White Paper

A 2^nd ENI whitepaper expressing the strategy for the future of the ENI work, authored by a team of ENI members, is approved and published.

Next plenary meeting

The next ENI plenary meeting (ENI#20) will be on-line due to travel restrictions caused by Covid-19.