**5.3 FNs federation**

This deployment model involves multiple FN operators collaborating to share the workload. This would imply a federation between FNs within a particular geographical area to sustain potential revenue. There would be a preferred cost for sharing the workload with other providers, enabling revenue sharing between providers. It is necessary to identify how workload "units" can be characterized to enable such an exchange. This is equivalent to alliances between airline companies, where specialist capability (and capacity) available along a particular route can be shared across multiple operators. In the same way, if an operator deploys specialist GPUs or video analytics capability within an FN at a particular location, other operators could also seamlessly make use of this and similarly share other capabilities in other locations. This type of geographic-centric specialization could enable localized investment within particular areas by operators.
