ENI#11 and a CCSA TC 610/SNAI workshop of network artificial intelligence
The ENI#11 meeting was hosted by China Telecommunications in the research & development labs in Beijing on 24-26 September 2019.
- 31 people were registered, emails were received from ISG members not able to be in Beijing, their views were considered
- Operators were present: TIM, China Telecom, China Mobile, NTT and Portugal Telecom
- 3 Government Ministry Institutes are members, China, Japan and South Korea
- 131 documents were handled
The following day, 27 September, was the opportunity to hold an open Network AI workshop with CCSA. More than 100 people were present including 11 ETSI participants. This has become an annual event of ETSI and CCSA.
The meeting was very productive, significant progress was made. To sum it up, we finalized and approved the work on the ENI Terminology and Network Categorization. As a result, the final drafts of these approved specifications are now available for approval, and their publication is expected to take place in November. We opened revision work items for the next versions and started the work on ENI use cases, requirements and system architecture for release 2. In addition, we advanced the work on the Intent aware networks, and started a work item on definition of data processing mechanisms, for AI processing.
ISG ENI has now completed and published Release 1 and is progressing Release 2 as the ETSI Board approved the extension of the ISG this year. The ISG mandate had been extended by two years, and at this meeting the Release 1 timeframe was completed, and Release 2 has started.
Final approvals in Release 1
The Use Cases ENI 001 V2.1.1; Requirements ENI 002 V2.1.1, and System Architecture ENI 005 V1.1.1 were published a week or two before the ENI#11 meeting. The Terminology ENI 004 was approved in this meeting and will be published soon. The AI Network Categorization ENI 007 was approved in this meeting and sent to remote consensus, after which it is expected to be published.
Work “in progress” of ETSI ISG ENI in Release 2
Three new work items were approved and started:
- Use Cases ENI 001 is open for the next release
- Requirements ENI 002 is open for the next release, and
- System Architecture ENI 005 is open for the next release
These discussions happened in the ENI#11 meeting. The Terminology ENI 004 was approved as a new work item to be opened for revision after publication. A work item on data mechanisms was approved to start. A follow-up on the work item for the AI Network Categorization ENI 007 will be discussed, a revision is ongoing.
Experiential Networked Intelligence (ENI) Release 2 specifications and reports are:
- ENI 001 (WI RGS/ENI-0014) Use Cases
- ENI 002 (WI RGS/ENI-0015) Requirements
- ENI 004 (WI RGR/ENI-0010) Terminology
- ENI 005 (WI RGS/ENI-0016) System Architecture
- ENI 006 (WI RGS/ENI-0012) PoC Framework
- ENI 008 (WI DGR/ENI-0013) Intent Aware network Autonomicity
- ENI 00? (WI DGR/ENI-0017) Definition of data processing mechanisms
Data was also a topic discussed and a new work item was approved: data is the lifeblood of AI processing, requiring rapid and efficient access to current, real-time configuration and optimization.
Noteworthy is the kick-off of a new series of release 2 work-items on AI processing. A special attention will be paid to the specification of the AI control loop-system architecture and its related security within networks.
Status of Proofs of Concepts
| Title | PoC Team Members | Main Contact | Start Time | Current Status (Oct-2019) |
| PoC #1: Intelligent Network Slice Lifecycle Management | China Telecom | Haining Wang | Jun-2018 | Completed |
| PoC #2: Elastic Network Slice Management | Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Telecom Italia S.p.A., CEA-Leti, Samsung R&D Institute UK, Huawei | Marco Gramaglia | Nov-2018 | Competed |
| PoC #3: SHIELD, security through NFV | Telefonica Space Hellas, ORION, Demokritos (NCSR) | Diego R. Lopez | Jan-2019 | Completed |
| PoC #4: Predictive Fault management of E2E Multi-domain Network Slices | Portugal Telecom/Altice Labs SliceNet Consortium | António Gamelas Rui Calé | Mar-2019 | Ongoing |
| PoC #5: AI Enabled Network Traffic Classification | China Mobile | Weiyuan Li | Jun-2019 | Started |
| PoC #6: Intelligent caching based on prediction of content popularity | China Unicom | Bingmin Huang | Aug-2019 | Accepted |
| PoC #7: Intelligent time synchronization of network | China Unicom | Bingmin Huang | Aug-2019 | Accepted |
The PoC description and presentation are available on the public ETSI ENI WiKi Pages (ENI Wiki).
Some of the PoCs were also demonstrated during the open Network AI workshop in September.
The ISG will now focus on the upcoming Release 2.
Let’s remind our readers that the 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 these key specifications and demonstrate Proofs of Concepts (PoCs). To join, please contact: isgsupport@etsi.org
The ETSI ENI Industry Specification Group was created in February 2017. Today members come from operators, vendors and research institutes all over the world.
The next ENI plenary meeting (ENI#12) will be hosted by ETSI in the ETSI headquarters in Sophia Antipolis France on 9-12 December 2019. There will be PoC demos during coffee and lunch breaks in the public areas of the ETSI Building. This Meeting is co-located with ETSI ISG ZSM.
On 27 September there was a ETSI/CCSA workshop SNAI on network artificial intelligence
The workshop is the third Network Intelligent Forum hosted by China Telecom. The workshop introduced the progress of international standards, including ENI, in the area of network AI in the past year. Solutions and visions of major operators and vendors in network AI were also presented. There is a particular focus on AI application for intelligent operation and maintenance scenarios, as well as the AI enabling platform.
