Unlocking the Future of Telco Infrastructures: Distributed Marketplaces Powering Remote VR Experiences

As the telecommunications industry rapidly transitions into the era of Beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G, the concept of distributed marketplaces is emerging as a cornerstone of next-generation network operations. These marketplaces promise to enable seamless resource sharing, transparent trading, and automated management across diverse stakeholders. The 6GENABLERS Marketplace exemplifies this transformative approach, integrating advanced distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) with smart contract systems, Zero Touch orchestration, and SLA monitoring.

A recent breakthrough showcased the marketplace’s capabilities through a live demonstration featuring a VR experience powered by a Remote Renderer. This service, seamlessly instantiated through the marketplace, highlights the successful collaboration between the project’s software systems and two cutting-edge B5G experimentation testbeds at i2CAT and Vicomtech.

A video demo has been recorded showcasing:

• • The Smart Contracts as the Backbone of Trusted Transactions: At the heart of the 6GENABLERS Marketplace is its TM Forum-formatted Smart Contract system, enabling streamlined and transparent trading processes. A JSON-based toolkit empowers providers to create detailed contracts defining every aspect of an offer, from service-level agreements (SLAs) to pricing and resource specifications (powered by ATOS). For this demonstration, the Smart Contract defined a Remote Renderer service for VR applications, specifying compute requirements, location preferences, and SLA metrics.
  • The Smart Discovery as the Intent-based selection: This system was then employed by the orderer to find the most suitable offer among those published. This discovery mechanism ensures the efficient and accurate selection of resources, significantly reducing manual overhead and improving decision-making for network stakeholders.
  • Trading APIs as Seamless Resource Negotiation and Provisioning: The Trading APIs, operating atop the marketplace’s distributed architecture, handled the intricate interactions between the offerer and orderer. The offerer node (at i2CAT) published the Remote Renderer service, while the orderer node (at Vicomtech) discovered and requested it. The APIs facilitated the negotiation process, enabling the order to be placed, validated, and instantiated with complete transparency.
  • From Offer to VR Experience Providing a Seamless Integration: The real-world integration of the marketplace software across two B5G testbeds demonstrated the platform’s robustness and scalability. At i2CAT, the marketplace node handled the publishing of the Remote Renderer offer, while at Vicomtech, another node acted as the orderer. This multi-domain setup showcased the marketplace’s ability to manage and control complex, distributed resources.
  • SLA monitoring empowering Automation with Zero Touch Systems: Once the service is operational, SLA monitoring came into play, ensuring the agreed metrics—such as latency, throughput, and resource availability—were maintained. Proactive monitoring tools detected and addressed any deviations, enhancing the reliability of the VR experience for the end users. Once the Remote Renderer service was instantiated in the selected infrastructure, two users connected via VR headsets. The SLA monitoring tools continuously assessed the service’s performance, ensuring that the VR experience was immersive and responsive.

This end-to-end setup—from publishing and discovery to deployment and monitoring—highlighted the operational maturity of the 6GENABLERS Marketplace. The marketplace’s seamless operation was powered by Zero Touch Systems, automating the setup, operation, and monitoring of network resources. By leveraging the data bus and orchestrators, the marketplace enabled a level of automation that reduces manual intervention and enhances efficiency. This Zero Touch approach is critical for the future of telco, where dynamic and automated resource management will be key to meeting the demands of 6G environments.

This video underscores the potential of distributed marketplaces to transform telecommunications. By integrating advanced software systems with next-generation testbeds, the 6GENABLERS Marketplace has paved the way for transparent trading, automated management, and SLA-driven operations.

The results of the project are further detailed in a comprehensive white paper titled “6GENABLERS-DLT: DLT-based Marketplace for Decentralized Trading of 6G Telco Resources,” now available on ArXiv. The white paper encapsulates the project’s vision, architecture, key building blocks, and validation results, providing stakeholders with an in-depth roadmap to adopt distributed marketplaces in their future strategies.

As industries prepare for 6G, platforms like the 6GENABLERS Marketplace will play a pivotal role in enabling innovative services, fostering collaboration, and delivering exceptional user experiences. Whether it’s a VR/XR experience or another emerging application, the future of telco is here—and it’s powered by distributed marketplaces.

Author: Angel Martin, Senior Researcher at Vicomtech