# A Modular Experimentation Methodology for 5G Deployments: The 5 GENESIS Approach
## 3 Overview of 5 GENESIS Approach to KPI Testing and Validation
### 5 GENESIS Reference Architecture  
The 5 GENESIS approach to the analysis of KPIs for new 5G services developed by vertical industries relies on the construction of experimental platforms with a common architecture, as represented in Figure 1.  
The 5 GENESIS architecture is structured in three main layers: Coordination, Management and Orchestration (MANO), and Infrastructure Layers. It is an abstraction of the 5G network architecture proposed by 5G-PPP Architecture Working Group in [43], focusing on the experimentation for demonstrating 5G KPIs. Hence, additional components and interactions have been included to introduce an experimentation control plane in the architecture. The 5 GENESIS architecture includes the common components for Management and Orchestration (MANO) of services, network slicing, and infrastructure layer. On top of them, the Coordination Layer has been added in order to introduce the experimentation control plane and expose testing and automation features towards the verticals.  
Thus, the Coordination Layer includes all of the components related to the control of the experiment execution. Moreover, it also provides the Northbound Interfaces (NBI) towards the 5 GENESIS Portal, for sending the description of an experiment and retrieving the results after the execution. More details are provided in [44]. During the experimentation, the ELCM is responsible for the sequencing of experiment lifecycle stages, while maintaining the experiment status and providing feedback on the experiment execution. M&A-related components sitting in the Coordination Layer are responsible for the complete collection and analysis of the heterogeneous monitoring data that are produced during the use of the testbed. In particular, in order to collect the monitoring information from all of the elements of the testbed, the Analytics component retrieves the measurements from a unified database, in which the various measurement probes ingest, either in real-time or at the end of each experiment session, the measurements for long-term storage and data post-processing.  
In the MANO Layer, the Slice Manager is in charge of the configuration and deployment of the slices. For doing this, it relies on the Network Function Virtualization Management and Orchestration (NFV MANO), which is responsible for the orchestration and lifecycle management of Network Services and Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), and on the Network Management System (NMS), which is in charge of the management of Physical Network Functions (PNFs).  
The Infrastructure Layer implements the E2E 5G network, including UEs, RAN, core network, main data center, and mobile edge. The main data center and mobile edge refer to the Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) located at the core and at the edge of the network, respectively. Section 4 provides more details on how to relate this architecture with the experimentation methodology and how a sample experiment is run.  
Figure 1: 5 GENESIS Reference Architecture and Experimentation Flow.