The ENI#17 meeting on 8-11 March 2021 was “online only” due to travel restrictions or delegates not allowed to travel.

• 26 were present, 29 were registered,
• Operators were present from: China Telecom, China Mobile, TIM, Deutsche Telekom, and Portugal Telecom, Also, NTT, Telefonica & Vodafone (messaging the Chair),
• 121 documents were handled.

The meeting was very productive and achieved significant progress. The meeting progressed the work-items to stable output on the deliverables Draft report ENI 009 on Data Processing mechanisms planned to be approved at the end of March 2021. Report ENI 008 Intent aware architecture is in publication, the Group Report on the evaluation of categories report ENI 010 is published as v1.1.1 describing measures of automation of the Classes published in 2019 in report ENI 007 v1.1.1.

An open area is approved, for all stable drafts and previously published deliverables are available.

 Progress work of ETSI ISG ENI in Release 2

The Use Cases ENI 001, Requirements ENI 002 are published as v3.1.1. Terminology ENI 004 and System Architecture ENI 005 are open for the completion of release two.

A Work-item on big data and its classification was declared stable and is in final approval ENI 009. The AI Network Categorization ENI 007 and a related report ENI 010 on the evaluation are both published a new work-item to further the evaluation in Automaticity is progressing is approved to start for Release 3.

Experiential Networked Intelligence (ENI) Release 2 specifications and reports are:

• ENI 001 Use Cases published as v3.1.1
• ENI 002 Requirements published as v3.1.1
• ENI 004 Terminology to be approved in April 2021
• ENI 005 System Architecture to be approved in April 2021
• ENI 008 Intent Aware Network Autonomicity in publication
• ENI 009 Data Mechanisms approved in March 2021
• ENI 010 Evaluation of categories for AI application to Networks published as v1.1.1

All of the Release 2 work-items were discussed and progressed.

Three new work-items to editorially complete Release 2 my moving informative material from ENI 005 version 2.0.23:

1. Draft report ENI 016 Functional Concepts for Modular System Operation.
2. Draft report ENI 017 Overview of Prominent Control Loop Architectures.
3. Draft report ENI 018 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Mechanisms for Modular Systems.

Release 3 is starting with the Approval of six new Work items and 3 progressing drafts

• ENI 011 Mapping between ENI architecture and operational systems to restart as part of release 3
• ENI 012 Reactive In-situ Flow Information Telemetry progressing within Release 3
• ENI 013 Intent Policy Model Gap analysis progressing within Release 3

Three new work-items within Release 3 were approved, in the meeting:

1. Draft report ENI 014 Evaluation of categories for AI application to Networks: this is a continuation of ENI-010 on Evaluation Method for Autonomicity, this is not a revision of the previous GR.
2. Draft report ENI 015 Processing and Management of Intent Policy.
3. Draft specification ENI 019 Representing, Inferring.

Status of Proofs of Concepts

The PoC description and presentation are available on the public ETSI ENI WiKi Pages (ENI Wiki) The Wiki pages are revised with the latest reports and demos, Progress reports were accepted from PoCs: 9, 11, 12 & 13. PoCs: 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 10 are completed. New PoC proposal are invited according to the process outlined in ENI 006 version 2.1.1 on the ETSI portal.

A 2nd ENI whitepaper for the future of the ENI work, is approved and published authored by a team comprising many member organisations: China Telecom, Huawei, Intel TIM, Samsung, Futurewei, AsiaInfo, Portugal Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, CEA, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, NTT, University of Carlos III in Madrid and CAICT.

The ISG will now focus on the next version of the work.

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 Feb 2017, today members come from operators, vendors and research institutes all over the world.

The next ENI plenary meeting (ENI#18) will be electronically on-line, travel restrictions caused by the covid-19 virus are the reason.