The 5th ETSI Plugtests validated NETCONF/YANG-based Southbound Interface implementations for microwave and millimetre wave equipment, achieving a 91% success rate across nearly 200 interoperability tests. The event demonstrated key automation use cases including network auto-discovery, service provisioning, performance analysis, and smart alarm prediction to support 5G and future 6G transport architectures. These results provide high confidence in multi-vendor environments while refining IETF and IEEE YANG models for standardized SDN profiles. A reusable test library was also established to facilitate future testing and extend the ecosystem toward AI-assisted operations and real-time orchestration.
Keywords: SDN, NFV, NETCONF/YANG, interoperability, automated workflows