scope:

The purpose of the present document is to provide recommendations on methodologies for end-to-end testing and validation of vertical applications over 5G and beyond networks. Such recommendations can be equally applicable to a wide range of industry verticals, application cases and beyond 5G scenarios.

By applying such standard end to end testing and validation methodologies, the vertical application provider would be able to experiment with the 5G and beyond network in a systematic and consistent manner and make informed business decisions upon about further development and commercialization of the features of its application under that rely on 5G technologies and beyond. In this context it is assumed that the subject under test is the application and that the 5G and beyond network set up and configurations considered in such experimentation have already been tested and qualified both from functionality and performance perspective.

Therefore, general (application-independent) testing and characterization of 5G network setups is not in the scope of analysis of the present document. Actually, special emphasis on making clear distinction between network testing and application validation concerns and distinct challenges is secured along the analysis since the processes, mechanisms, tools and strategies typically used for network testing can prove inadequate or misleading for vertical application validation purposes.

The present document provides a survey and review of the existing methodologies for testing and validating vertical applications, to identify existing gaps in such methodologies and propose solutions to cover them. The proposed methodology describes Capabilities, Processes and Mechanisms involved in the testing and validation of innovative vertical applications enabled by 5G and Beyond networks.

No assumptions are made on the specific business or nature of the vertical domain, with the intention to identify common methodologies applicable to as wide a range of vertical domains as possible. The analysis of specific methodologies for applicability limited to specific vertical domains is beyond the scope of the present document.