We present Plug'in: a 5G experimentation platform to develop and test 5G software components and VNF chains. Plug'in allows researchers to collaborate on a shared platform and make their developments and experiments reproducible. The key enablers to achieve such a platform are cloud computing, virtualization and automation. Plug’in provides a sandbox where researchers can experiment on existing software components (also called atoms), chain them, and develop new ones. Atoms are deployed leveraging standard virtualization technologies regardless of their programming language. Finally, we evaluate the compute component of Plug'in.
Following the convergence of the mobile communications and cloud computing industries, current 4G services evolve towards 5G cloud native ones. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) leverage cloud-computing paradigms for this shift. This approach should help MNOs reduce Operational Expenditures and propose a larger 5G usecases portfolio. To execute this vision, Virtualized Network Functions need to become cloudnative themselves. This paper introduces a cloud native platform allowing MNOs to expose their assets: networking resources, mobile services, and cloud computing to Over-The-Top (OTT) players such as entertainment and media companies, in an as a service fashion.