5G-TRANSFORMER meets Network Service Federation: design, implementation and evaluation

5G networks require flexibility, automation and programmability to satisfy the requirements of verticals industries. 5G-TRANSFORMER project proposes an SDN/NFV based network platform to enable this vision. Among its features, this platform allows the end-to-end deployment of parts of a network service (NS) in multiple administrative domains, which is known as network service federation (NSF). This feature increases network flexibility, opening the door to new business models. This paper complements our previous work by providing a detailed description of the 5G-TRANSFORMER NSF workflow, its interface and a profiling of the operations involved in the deployment of an NS between multiple administrative domains in a real experimental setup. Experimental results reveal i) that a federated NS can be deployed in the order of few minutes (less than 5 minutes), in line with the 5G target of reducing service setup to minutes, and ii) the impact of the NSF procedure in the deployment time is reduced when compared with the deployment of the same NS in a single administrative domain.