diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 08d19200..56142666 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 .vscode
 .mypy_cache
-.env
\ No newline at end of file
+.env
+.key
+.crt
+capif_exposer_details.json
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 464646bc..1123f227 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,30 @@
 # Changelog
+## v1.6.1
+
+### UI changes
+
+ - Upgrade coreui bootstrat admin template to v.4.2.1
+
+
+### NEF APIs / backend
+
+- Change status code from `403` to `401` for invalid credentials
+- Create environment variable for MongoClient host 👉 ```MONGO_CLIENT```
+
+
+### Docker 🐳
+
+- Addition of ```services_default``` network in docker-compose. Individual services are now connected to services_default network. Environmental variable ```EXTERNAL_NET``` defines if this network is external or not (```true``` or ```false```)
+
+
+### Libraries
+
+- 🪛 Fix poetry installer - deprecated (different URL for poetry installation)
+- Import ```evolved5g ^0.8.3``` library
+- Change ```requests``` from ```^2.27.0``` 👉 ```^2.26.0```
+- Change ```pytest``` from ```^5.4.1``` 👉 ```>6```
+
+<br><br>
 
 ## v1.6.0
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3464a633..84997c96 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,13 @@
   <img src="./backend/app/app/static/NEF_logo_400x400_light.svg" />
 </p>
 
+## Contents
+
+- [Setup locally](#-setup-locally)
+  - [Try out your setup](#try-out-your-setup)
+- [How to work with a specific tag / release](#%EF%B8%8F-how-to-work-on-a-specific-tag--release)
+- [NetApp communication options](#%EF%B8%8F-netapp-communication-options)
+- [Integration with CAPIF](#integration-with-capif)
 
 ## ⚙ Setup locally
 
@@ -154,3 +161,30 @@ Three possible ways to achieve the above approach:
 3. with **docker network connect**, try adding your container to the bridge network:
 
        docker network connect BRIDGE_NAME NETAPP_NAME
+
+## Integration with CAPIF
+
+In order to integrate NEF Emulator with CAPIF you should perform the following steps:
+
+1. The first step is to ensure that all CAPIF services are up and running. After cloning the code from the official github repository https://github.com/EVOLVED-5G/CAPIF_API_Services you can execute:
+
+```
+cd services/
+
+sudo ./run.sh
+
+./check_services_are_running.sh
+```
+
+2. Then, in NEF Emulator project, change the `EXTERNAL_NET` environment variable to **true** in `.env` file. This will enable NEF containers to join CAPIF's pre-existing network (services_default)
+
+3. Start NEF services either using `make up` or `make debug-up` commands
+
+NEF should be successfully onboard to CAPIF Core Function. To ensure that, the following files should be created in `app/core/certificates/` folder:
+
+```
+ca.crt
+private.key
+test_nef01.crt
+capif_exposer_details.json
+```
diff --git a/backend/app/app/backend_pre_start.py b/backend/app/app/backend_pre_start.py
index 3363a415..ae608462 100644
--- a/backend/app/app/backend_pre_start.py
+++ b/backend/app/app/backend_pre_start.py
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 import logging
-
+from evolved5g.sdk import CAPIFExposerConnector
 from tenacity import after_log, before_log, retry, stop_after_attempt, wait_fixed
-
 from app.db.session import SessionLocal
+import requests
 
 logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-max_tries = 60 * 5  # 5 minutes
+max_tries = 60
 wait_seconds = 1
 
 
@@ -26,11 +26,42 @@ def init() -> None:
         logger.error(e)
         raise e
 
+def capif_nef_connector():
+    """
+
+    """
+    try:
+        capif_connector = CAPIFExposerConnector(certificates_folder="app/core/certificates",
+                                                capif_host="capifcore",
+                                                capif_http_port="8080",
+                                                capif_https_port="443",
+                                                capif_netapp_username="test_nef01",
+                                                capif_netapp_password="test_netapp_password",
+                                                description= "test_app_description"
+                                                )
+
+        capif_connector.register_and_onboard_exposer()
 
+        capif_connector.publish_services(
+            service_api_description_json_full_path="app/core/capif_files/service_api_description.json")
+    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as err:
+        if err.response.status_code == 409:
+            logger.error(f'"Http Error:", {err.response.json()}')
+    except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError as err:
+        logger.error(f'"Error Connecting:", {err}')    
+    except requests.exceptions.Timeout as err:
+        logger.error(f'"Timeout Error:", {err}')
+    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as err:
+        logger.error(f'"Error:", {err}')
+    
+        
 def main() -> None:
     logger.info("Initializing service")
     init()
     logger.info("Service finished initializing")
+    logger.info("Trying to connect with CAPIF Core Function")
+    capif_nef_connector()
+    logger.info("Successfully onboard to CAPIF Core Function")
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/backend/app/app/core/capif_files/service_api_description.json b/backend/app/app/core/capif_files/service_api_description.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a859e892
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/app/core/capif_files/service_api_description.json
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+{
+    "apiName": "api_name_2",
+    "aefProfiles": [
+      {
+        "aefId": "UNIQUE_ID THAT IS SET AUTOMATICALLY BY THE SDK. Contains the API PROV DOM ID parameter",
+        "versions": [
+          {
+            "apiVersion": "v1",
+            "expiry": "2021-11-30T10:32:02.004Z",
+            "resources": [
+              {
+                "resourceName": "hello-endpoint",
+                "commType": "REQUEST_RESPONSE",
+                "uri": "/hello",
+                "custOpName": "string",
+                "operations": [
+                  "POST"
+                ],
+                "description": "string"
+              }
+            ],
+            "custOperations": [
+              {
+                "commType": "REQUEST_RESPONSE",
+                "custOpName": "string",
+                "operations": [
+                  "POST"
+                ],
+                "description": "string"
+              }
+            ]
+          }
+        ],
+        "protocol": "HTTP_1_1",
+        "dataFormat": "JSON",
+        "securityMethods": ["Oauth", "PSK"],
+        "interfaceDescriptions": [
+          {
+            "ipv4Addr": "the ip address where the exposer relies",
+            "port": 8086,
+            "securityMethods": ["Oauth"]
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    ],
+    "description": "API of dummy netapp to test",
+    "supportedFeatures": "fffff",
+    "shareableInfo": {
+      "isShareable": true,
+      "capifProvDoms": [
+        "string"
+      ]
+    },
+    "serviceAPICategory": "string",
+    "apiSuppFeats": "fffff",
+    "pubApiPath": {
+      "ccfIds": [
+        "string"
+      ]
+    },
+    "ccfId": "test"
+}
diff --git a/backend/app/pyproject.toml b/backend/app/pyproject.toml
index 03168a7d..40c9fa70 100644
--- a/backend/app/pyproject.toml
+++ b/backend/app/pyproject.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ fastapi = "^0.78.0"
 pymongo = "^4.1.0"
 python-multipart = "^0.0.5"
 email-validator = "^1.0.5"
-requests = "^2.27.0"
+requests = "^2.26.0"
 passlib = {extras = ["bcrypt"], version = "^1.7.2"}
 tenacity = "^6.1.0"
 pydantic = "^1.4"
@@ -21,9 +21,10 @@ gunicorn = "^20.1.0"
 jinja2 = "3.0.3"
 psycopg2-binary = "^2.8.5"
 sqlalchemy = "^1.3.16"
-pytest = "^5.4.1"
+pytest = ">6"
 python-jose = {extras = ["cryptography"], version = "^3.1.0"}
 aiofiles = "^0.6.0"
+evolved5g = "^0.8.3"
 
 
 [tool.poetry.dev-dependencies]
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ black = "^19.10b0"
 isort = "^4.3.21"
 autoflake = "^1.3.1"
 flake8 = "^3.7.9"
-pytest = "^5.4.1"
+pytest = ">6"
 sqlalchemy-stubs = "^0.3"
 pytest-cov = "^2.8.1"
 
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 5596dd25..184c1806 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ services:
       - .env
     environment:
       - PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
+    networks:
+      - services_default
 
 
 
@@ -26,6 +28,8 @@ services:
       - .env
     logging:
       driver: none
+    networks:
+      - services_default
 
   mongo:
     image: mongo:4.4.10
@@ -38,6 +42,8 @@ services:
     environment:
       MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: "${MONGO_USER}"
       MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${MONGO_PASSWORD}"
+    networks:
+      - services_default
 
   mongo-express:
     image: mongo-express:1.0.0-alpha.4
@@ -52,6 +58,8 @@ services:
       ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_ADMINPASSWORD: "${MONGO_PASSWORD}"
       ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_URL: mongodb://${MONGO_USER}:${MONGO_PASSWORD}@mongo:27017/
       ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_ENABLE_ADMIN: "${MONGO_EXPRESS_ENABLE_ADMIN}"
+    networks:
+      - services_default
 
   
   backend:
@@ -77,9 +85,13 @@ services:
         INSTALL_JUPYTER: ${INSTALL_JUPYTER-true}
     extra_hosts:
       - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
+    networks:
+      - services_default
 
 
-
+networks:
+    services_default:
+      external: ${EXTERNAL_NET}
 
 
 volumes:
diff --git a/env-file-for-local.dev b/env-file-for-local.dev
index f5dfc49d..70846491 100644
--- a/env-file-for-local.dev
+++ b/env-file-for-local.dev
@@ -37,7 +37,13 @@ PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD=pass
 # Mongo 
 MONGO_USER=root
 MONGO_PASSWORD=pass
-MONGO_CLIENT=mongodb://localhost:27017/
+MONGO_CLIENT=mongodb://mongo:27017/
 
 # MongoExpress
-MONGO_EXPRESS_ENABLE_ADMIN=true
\ No newline at end of file
+MONGO_EXPRESS_ENABLE_ADMIN=true
+
+# Compose Networking 
+# If CAPIF CORE FUNCTION is up and running set EXTERNAL_NET to true 
+# Else if NEF is used as a standalone service set EXTERNAL_NET to false
+
+EXTERNAL_NET=false
\ No newline at end of file