(TO BE PUBLISHED SOON) This paper introduces a new service and security orchestration solution designed to help operators and security providers establish a trust-based relationship in a multi-stakeholder environment.

The telecom sector continues its transition towards virtualizing infrastructure. The digitalization of assets and their commercialization in a marketplace is expected to play a central role in 6G networks.

In industrial environments, cloud services and the Internet of Things (IoT) converge, with the need to manage complex and diverse computing environments for service and infrastructure providers, a process called cloud continuum.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of IoT-Edge-Cloud continuum (IECC), effective management of computational tasks offloaded from mobile devices to edge nodes is crucial.

The term ‘Dynamic Heterogeneous Computing Sphere’ is used to describe a computing paradigm that is heterogeneous, volatile and highly dynamic.

The upcoming sixth-generation (6G) networks are expected to be more heterogeneous, scalable, reliable, secure and energy-efficient.

Telecommunication networks are undergoing a significant shift from closed and proprietary systems towards open and interoperable networks. This transition allows for greater flexibility and reduced dependence on single providers.

This is the last document of a series of 3 for designing a Reference Architecture for the continuum. The first document of the series presented an initial version of a common taxonomy, considering it as a unified language for all actors of the value chain.

This is the second document of a series of three defining a reference architecture for the continuum. In the previous one, different building blocks were identified setting the path for the different aspects to be taken into account while defining the architecture.

This perspective paper introduces a novel framework for container orchestration called CODECO.

The full deployment of sixth-generation (6G) networks is inextricably connected with a holistic network redesign able to deal with various emerging challenges, such as integration of heterogeneous technologies and devices, as well as support of latency and bandwidth demanding applications.

Cloud and edge computing are essential technologies in a computing continuum to ensure data is managed more efficiently – closer to the originating source rather than transmitting raw data to data centres. As recent studies suggest, data processing is moving closer to the edge.

Following the Industry 4.0 vision of a full digitization of the industry, time-critical services and applications, allowing network infrastructures to deliver information with determinism and reliability, are becoming more and more relevant for a set of vertical sectors.

A trend in future networks (i.e., beyond 5G and 6G) is the increasing virtualization and disaggregation of networks (i.e., Open Radio Access Network, network function virtulization/software-defined networking, or disaggregated optical networks, among others).