What is the purpose of this workshop?
The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together telecommunications operators, network equipment providers, content delivery networks, browser vendors, and application developers to evaluate and prepare for the impact of 5G and other network-layer technologies on Web standards.
We won't just be listening to presentations, but we will be actively participating in breakout sessions and working discussions covering topics identified as relevant to the participants.
The workshop will cover 5G New Radio (5G-NR), new network topologies resulting from the split of session control from mobility management, and the increasing importance of Network Function Virtualisation, Software Defined Networks and Multi-Access Edge Computing. It will aim to cut through the 5G hype and instead address what is new in 5G, what was going to happen anyway and where new opportunities lie, putting acronyms and ‘G’s’ to one side.
Why the Web is critical to 5G deployment?
Fifth generation networks (5G) are intended provide higher bandwidth, lower latency and better coverage than today’s 4G networks. Improvements to both the physical network and its control plane are expected to make the network more reactive, flexible, and with better performances, and enable better cooperation among its end points.
In setting the direction for 5G, the ITU envisioned ambitious use cases. But while network capabilities are necessary to their realization, the application layer must also be up to the task. Equally the changes in 5G architecture offer the potential for the application layer to interface directly into policy and control functions in the 5G network.
There are many application platforms to choose from, but the most ubiquitous and scalable is the Open Web Platform — the collection of technologies that enables the Web. The Web plays a predominant role in the distribution of content and services: there are a billion Web sites, most connected devices feature browsers, and software developers identify as “Web developers” far more often than other roles.
Why 5G matters to the Web?
A number of recent advances in Web technology have led to significant increases in network traffic, underlining why it is so important to consider the evolution of the Web and network in tandem. Users will appreciate 5G improvements for network-hungry applications, including:
- Real-time audio and video
- The Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) protocol enables real-time video and audio in both browsers and native mobile applications, without plug-ins. Analysts predict that 2 billion people will be making use of this technology by 2019 , revolutionizing telecommunications.
- Video
- In the past few years, video consumption has led to dramatic increases in network traffic, accelerated by the adoption of the HTML5 Web standard. It is easy to imagine the demand skyrocketing as the Web expands to accommodate UHD, HDR, and 360° videos.
- Virtual Reality
- Though not yet common, there is a lot of excitement about adding immersive virtual reality experiences to the Web for commerce, communication, entertainment, and much more. A WebVR API would make virtual reality a first class citizen of the Web.
- Web of Things
- The Internet had existed for years when the Web was invented in 1989, but it took the harmonized application platform of the Web to usher in the Internet economy. W3C holds a similar view of the “Web of Things” as a uniform application layer that will make it much easier to develop Internet of Things applications that leverage 5G’s low latency and wide coverage.
- Automotive
- Connectivity is driving automotive industry interest in platform enhancements for in-vehicle, inter-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure services. APIs from W3C that provide access to external sensors will benefit from 5G’s low latency.
- QUIC and protocol innovation
- With QUIC expected to bring new performance characteristics to HTTP, and with ongoing discussions to bring QUIC as a primitive in the Web Platform, plenty of network innovation and exploration can be expected via browsers in the years to come.
Although different industries emphasize different use cases, in many cases the required capabilities are common to multiple industries. W3C’s diverse, international community of stakeholders helps build the Web for converging requirements across industries.
Furthermore, many of the expected network evolutions require interactions between the networking and application layer that be at odd with the security and privacy architecture of the Web: it is thus critical that these inconsistencies be understood, mapped, and if possible, corrected.
What is needed to make the Web 5G ready?
For many years, the telecommunications industry and other stakeholders at W3C have sought to improve integration of the network protocol layer with Web applications, to improve monitoring of network performance, control of network transport characteristics, and discovery of and interaction with of network services.
We expect that 5G-enabled applications (e.g., automotive, e-health, augmented reality) will require even more fine-grain network customization. We also expect that as more and more network traffic is encrypted, approaches to optimization based on monitoring will lose their effectiveness. These changes call for a more ambitious evolution of the Open Web Platform architecture to address the needs of 5G.
To ensure that Web improvements for 5G applications scale globally, a flexible architecture ready for customization around monitoring, control and service discovery is likely needed.
Examples of network/application integration
A number of recent projects have adopted similar approaches to brokering, suggesting such a “Web5G” architecture can be achieved:
Are there lessons from these examples and others that could be usefully generalized to bring greater beneficial integration between networks and the apps they support?
Which topics will be covered?
We will cover important issues and architectural aspects of the intersection of next generation network and Web technologies.
The tentative list of topics is as follows:
- Performance bottlenecks of Web apps on ultra-fast networks
- Designing and costing 5G Networks for supporting existing and future Web technologies (VR/AR, automotive, WebRTC, IoT)
- Architectural evolutions of the Web to enable greater network/application collaboration, in particular for long tail applications developers
- Connecting network management and network metrics from Web applications
- Case studies of existing network/application integration and their extension to the Web
- Features provided by new networking technologies and their applicability to current and future network-intensive Web applications
- Bringing edge-computing capabilities to Web applications
- Impact of integrating QUIC in the Web Platform
Suggestions for further workshop topics? Submit a pull request on GitHub or
email Dominique Hazael-Massieux <dom@w3.org>.
How can I attend?
Attendance is free for all invited participants and is open to the public, whether or not W3C members.
If you wish to express interest in attending, please fill out the registration form. We want to fill the room with people with insights on the intersections of next generation network technologies and Web technologies, either from practice experience in deploying solutions in that space, or from their involvement in relevant standardization activities.
Because the venue can accommodate at most 80 attendees, you must receive an acceptance email in order to attend. Also, be sure to keep an eye on these important dates.
As an alternative to the registration form, you are encouraged to
submit a topic in the form of a position statement.
Our aim is to get a diversity of attendees from a variety of industries and communities, including:
- Telecommunication operators,
- Network equipment providers,
- Edge Computing providers,
- Service and application providers with high network requirements,
- Browser vendors,
- SDOs involved in related standard setting.
This workshop, as other W3C meetings, operates under its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
How can I suggest a presentation?
This is a workshop, not a conference, and any presentations will be short, with topics suggested by submissions and decided by the chairs and program committee. Our goal is to actively discuss topics, not to watch presentations.
In order to best facilitate informed discussion, we encourage attendees to read the accepted topics prior to attending the workshop.
If you wish to present on a topic, you can send us a position statement to the Program Committee at <team-web5g-submission@w3.org> by the deadline (see important dates). Our program committee will review the input provided, and select the most relevant topics and perspectives.
A good position statement should be a few paragraphs long and should include:
- Your background on network and Web technologies,
- Which topic you would like to lead discussion on,
- Links to related supporting resources.
- Any other topics you think the workshop should cover in order to be effective.
- Position statements must be in English, preferably in HTML or plain-text format; images should be included inline in HTML using base64-encoded data URIs. You may include multiple topics, but we ask that each person submit only a single coherent position statement. The input provided at registration time (e.g., bio, goals, interests) will be published and linked to from this workshop page.