The ENVELOPE architecture is designed to address the diverse requirements of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) use cases through a modular and layered approach. This framework ensures flexibility, adaptability, and efficient mapping to system capabilities across trial sites.
The architecture consists of several key components:
ENVELOPE Enablers: ENVELOPE Enablers are the software components that make advanced 5G and Beyond-5G network capabilities accessible to CCAM applications through open, standards-based APIs. They interact with the network control plane through Northbound interfaces, including Linux Foundation CAMARA and ETSI MEC APIs, while relying on CAPIF-based exposure mechanisms for secure and trusted API access.
These enablers provide key capabilities for connected, cooperative and automated mobility, including dynamic network slicing, multi-connectivity through 3GPP ATSSS, predictive Quality of Service based on NWDAF analytics, ETSI MEC-based edge service coordination and migration, and zero-touch management. In this way, ENVELOPE packages complex network functions into reusable capabilities that can be exposed to vertical applications through the ENVELOPE API layer.
ENVELOPE APIs: The ENVELOPE API layer is positioned between the ENVELOPE Enablers and CCAM applications. It abstracts complex 5G System, MEC, and network-exposure interfaces into simplified, standards-aligned APIs that vertical applications can easily consume.
Through this layer, applications can securely discover, request, and use capabilities delivered by the ENVELOPE Enablers, such as QoS insights, location services, edge service management, multi-connectivity support, and dynamic network reconfiguration, without requiring direct integration with the underlying network functions.
CAM Applications: CCAM applications use the ENVELOPE APIs and Enablers to enhance existing mobility services or develop new ones. These applications can benefit from advanced network-awareness and programmability features, including predictive QoS, location information, edge service migration, and adaptive connectivity.
While ENVELOPE focuses on connected, cooperative and automated mobility, its architecture is designed to be reusable by other 5G-enabled vertical sectors that require secure access to network capabilities and edge resources.
Network and Infrastructure Layers: Divided into cloud, edge, and far-edge segments, these layers provide the physical and virtual resources necessary for application deployment.
The architecture also incorporates an Experimentation-as-a-Service module for systematic experiment creation, execution, and evaluation, managed by the orchestration layer.
