| .. This file is licensed under the CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 INTERNATIONAL LICENSE |
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| |
| .. contents:: |
| :depth: 3 |
| .. |
| .. _docs_E2E_network_slicing: |
| |
| |
| E2E Network Slicing Use Case |
| ============================ |
| |
| Overall Blueprint |
| ----------------- |
| |
| The objective of this use case is to realize End-to-End 5G Network |
| Slicing using ONAP. An End-to-End Network Slice consists of RAN (Radio |
| Access Network), Transport Network (TN) and Core Network (CN) slice |
| sub-nets. This use case intends to demonstrate the modeling, |
| orchestration (life cycle and resources) and assurance of a network |
| slice which are implemented in alignment with relevant standards. The |
| key highlights of this use case include: |
| |
| - Modular architecture providing building blocks and flexibility under |
| various deployment scenarios |
| |
| - Functionality aligned with 3GPP and other relevant standards such as |
| ETSI and IETF |
| |
| - Interfaces and APIs aligned with relevant standards (3GPP, IETF, |
| ETSI, TM Forum, etc.) while enabling easy customization through use |
| of appropriate plug-ins. This would enable easier interoperability of |
| slice management functions realized within ONAP with 3\ :sup:`rd` |
| party slice management functions, as well as northbound and |
| southbound systems. |
| |
| - Taking a step-by-step approach to realizing different architectural |
| options in an extendable manner. |
| |
| - Providing flexibility in network slice selection by providing an |
| option of manual intervention, as well as abstracting the network |
| internals as needed. |
| |
| - The use case implementation team is composed of service providers, |
| software and hardware vendors, solution providers and system |
| integrators thereby taking into consideration different perspectives |
| and requirements. |
| |
| This use case is a multi-release effort in ONAP with the first steps |
| taken in Frankfurt release. It will continue to expand in scope both in |
| breadth and depth, and along the journey it shall also align with |
| updates to the relevant standards which are also currently evolving. |
| This use case shall also collaborate with other open initiatives such as |
| O-RAN to enable wider adoption and use. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Use+Case+Description+and+Blueprint |
| |
| |
| Abbreviations |
| ------------- |
| |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | Abbreviation | Meaning | |
| +===============+============================================+ |
| | CSMF | Communication Service Management Function | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | CSI | Communication Service Instance | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | CST | Communication Service Template | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NSI | Network Slice Instance | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NSMF | Network Slice Management Function | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NSSI | Network Slice Sub-net Instance | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NSSMF | Network Slice Sub-net Management Function | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NST | Network Slice Template | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| | NSST | Network Slice Sub-net Template | |
| +---------------+--------------------------------------------+ |
| |
| |
| Scope for Frankfurt |
| ------------------- |
| |
| To realize the three layers of the slice management function, we need to decide whether to implement CSMF, NSMF or NSMF within ONAP, or use the external CSMF, NSMF or NSSMF. This implies that for ONAP-based network slice management, we have different choices from an architectural perspective. For Frankfurt release, our scope is to implement CSMF and NSMF within ONAP, while connecting to an external Core NSSMF. |
| |
| From the NSI Life Cycle perspective, the scope for Frankfurt includes NSI design and pre-provision, NSI instantiation and configuration, and NSI activation and deactivation. In particular: |
| |
| - CSMF: Functions of slice service creation, slice service activation and deactivation are implemented. |
| |
| - NSMF: Functions of NSI instantiation, NSI activation and deactivation are |
| implemented. In addition, manual intervention is also provided in NSMF slice task |
| management portal to ensure the selected NSI/NSSI as well as ServiceProfile and |
| SliceProfile are fine or need adjustment. |
| |
| - Design of CST, NST and onboarding NSST that are required to support the run-time orchestration functions is also provided. |
| |
| - To connect to the external (core) NSSMF, an adaptor is implemented to provide |
| interface between ONAP and 3rd party core NSSMF. |
| |
| To support the above functions, code impacts in U-UI, SO, OOF and ExtAPI components, and schema change in A&AI are implemented. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Proposed+Functions+for+R6+and+Impacted+Modules |
| |
| |
| Impacted Modules for Frankfurt |
| ------------------------------ |
| |
| SO |
| ~~ |
| |
| CSMF and NSMF are implemented using SO BPMN workflows to support 5G |
| network slicing use case. CSMF workflow will process the user input |
| (service request) that comes from CSMF portal (UUI) and save the order |
| information into a communication service instance in AAI. Then CSMF will |
| send network slice request to NSMF workflow, and NSMF will then create |
| service profile, NSI and NSSI. Service profile is a logical concept |
| which exists only in AAI - it contains two AAI instances, one is a |
| profile instance that will hold the slice parameters, and the other is a |
| service instance which will be used to organize the NSI. NSI is also a |
| service instance in AAI which will be used to organize NSSI. NSSI is the |
| actual entity which will be created by NSSMF and an AAI service instance |
| will also be created to represent NSSI in ONAP context. NSI and NSSI can |
| both be shared. |
| |
| SO queries OOF for slice template selection and then slice instance |
| selection. In response to slice instance selection query, OOF may return |
| an existing slice instance or may recommend SO to create a new slice |
| instance. A new process called Orchestration Task is created to manage |
| recalibration of NSI&NSSI selection with manual intervention from the |
| portal. A new SO adapter is created to be the adapter of NSSMF which |
| will interact with external NSSMF for NSSI management. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/SO%3A+Impacts+and+Interfaces |
| |
| U-UI |
| ~~~~ |
| |
| Usecase-UI (UUI) has added CSMF and NSMF portal components to ONAP to |
| support this use case. |
| |
| CSMF component includes the functions of creating network slicing, as |
| well as displaying and processing all the created network slices. The |
| customers need to fill the create communication service form to create a |
| network slice and then they can see the created network slice in the |
| list and execute operations of activating, deactivating or terminating |
| the network slice. |
| |
| NSMF component mainly includes two modules: slicing task management and |
| slice resource management which provides the functions of displaying and |
| processing all the slicing tasks and slice resources. In slicing task |
| management module, network operators can find all the slicing tasks |
| created by customers in CSMF component and executing proper operations |
| according to different task status. In slice resource management module, |
| there are three sub-modules which provide the functions of displaying |
| and processing the existing NS, NSI and NSSI. In addition, the NSMF |
| component provides the monitoring function so that users can check the |
| statistics of network slices. In this page, the statistics of slice |
| usage (traffic), online users and total bandwidth can be monitored and |
| displayed in the form of pi-charts and lines. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/UUI%3A+Impacts |
| |
| OOF |
| ~~~ |
| |
| For this use case OOF introduced two APIs which are used by SO, one for |
| slice template selection, and another for NSI/NSSI selection. Within |
| OOF, both the OSDF and HAS sub-components were enhanced for this use |
| case. OSDF maps the new API request contents to the appropriate format |
| for HAS to perform the optimization. After the optimization is done by |
| HAS, OSDF maps the response in the API response format as expected by |
| SO. Further, HAS always returns NSSI info (when existing NSSIs can be |
| reused) and OSDF then determines whether it refers to reuse of an |
| existing NSI or creation of a new NSI, and then prepares sends the |
| response to SO. |
| |
| HAS sub-component of OOF has been enhanced to use a couple of new policy |
| types, the AAI plug-in within HAS was enhanced to fetch the slice and |
| slice sub-net related details from AAI. Two new plug-ins were developed |
| in HAS – one for fetching slice templates and another for generating |
| slice profile candidates. Existing policies were reused and suitably |
| adapted for constraints and optimal selection of slice template and |
| slice instance. In case of new NSSI creation, HAS returns appropriate |
| slice profile for the sub-net for which a new NSSI has to be created. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/OOF%3A+Impacts+and+Interfaces |
| |
| EXT-API |
| ~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The EXT-API has undergone some minimal enhancements for this use case in |
| Frankfurt release. A new value “CST” for the serviceType attribute in |
| the Service Order API has been introduced. |
| |
| The CSMF Portal in UUI captures the values for the requested |
| serviceCharacteristics that are required as inputs to CST Service model. |
| The relatedParty attribute in the Service Order is set according to the |
| Customer, where relatedParty.id will map to the AAI "global-customer-id“ |
| in the “customer” object. The serviceSpecification.id is to be set to |
| the UUID of the CST from SDC (i.e., this is the template for the Service |
| we are ordering from CSMF). The action field will be set to “add” to |
| indicate creation of a new service instance. CSMF Portal in UUI then |
| sends POST with the JSON body to /{api_url}/nbi/api/v4/serviceOrder/. |
| ExtAPI will generate a Service Order ID and send it in the response – |
| this ID can be used to track the order. ExtAPI will then invoke SO’s API |
| for creating the service. |
| |
| As can be seen from above explanation, the existing constructs of ExtAPI |
| has been reused with minor enhancements. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/ExtAPI%3A+Impacts+and+Interfaces |
| |
| A&AI |
| ~~~~ |
| |
| To support this use case,A&AI module has added 3 new nodes |
| (Communication-service-profile, Service-profile and |
| Slice-profile),modified service-instance nodes, added 3 new nodes as |
| new attributes of service-instance node. To map to SDC templates |
| (Communication Service Template/Service Profile |
| Template/NST/NSST),run-time instances of this use case have |
| Communication Service Instance/Service Profile Instance/NSI/NSSI. To |
| align with ONAP’s model-driven approach, this use case reuses |
| "service-instance" for all run-time instances. The relationship between |
| service-instances use the existing attribute "relationship-list" or |
| "allotted-resources". Communication-service-profile means the original |
| requirement of Communication-service-instance, such as latency, |
| data-rate, mobility-level and so on. Service-profile means the slice |
| parameter info of Service-profile-instance. Slice-profile holds the |
| slice sub-net parameter info of different network domain NSSIs, such as |
| (Radio) Access Network (AN), Transport Network (TN) and Core Network |
| (CN) NSSI. |
| |
| A&AI provides query APIs to CSMF and NSMF, such as: |
| |
| - Query |
| Communication-service-instances/Service-profile-instances/NSI/NSSI |
| |
| - Query Service-profile-instance by specified |
| Communication-service-instance |
| |
| - Query NSI by specified Service-profile-instance, query NSSI by |
| specified NSSI. |
| |
| A&AI also supply creation APIs to SO, such as: |
| |
| - Create Communication-service-profile/Service-profile/Slice-profile, |
| and |
| |
| - Create relationship between service-instances. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=76875989 |
| |
| |
| Functional Test Cases |
| --------------------- |
| |
| The functional testing of this use case shall cover creation and |
| activation of a service with an E2E Network Slice Instance which |
| contains a Core Slice Sub-net instance. It also addresses the |
| termination of an E2E Network Slice Instance. It covers the following |
| aspects: |
| |
| - Creation of a new customer service via CSMF portal in UUI resulting |
| in creation of a new NSI |
| |
| - Creation of a new customer service via CSMF portal in UUI resulting |
| in re-use of an existing NSI |
| |
| - Activation of a customer service via CSMF portal in UUI |
| |
| - Creation of a new customer service via postman request to EXT-API |
| resulting in creation of a new NSI |
| |
| - Creation of a new customer service via via postman request to ExtAPI |
| resulting in re-use of an existing NSI |
| |
| - Manual intervention via NSMF portal during NSI selection (NSI |
| selection adjustment) |
| |
| - Termination of a NSI and associated NSSI |
| |
| - Interaction between ONAP and external NSSMF for new core NSSI |
| creation |
| |
| - Checking inventory updates in AAI for NSIs, service and slice |
| profiles and NSSIs. |
| |
| Further details can be obtained from: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Functional+Test+Cases |
| |
| |
| Operation Guidance |
| ------------------ |
| |
| How to install 5G E2E Slicing Minimum Scope |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| For 5G E2E Slicing use case, we support the minimum-scope installation |
| of ONAP to reduce the resource requirements. From the module |
| perspective, 5G E2E Slicing use case involves SDC, SO, A&AI, UUI, |
| EXT-API, OOF and Policy modules of ONAP. So we will configure these |
| required modules along with the mandatory common modules such as DMaaP. |
| Further, for each module, the use case also does not use all of the |
| charts,so we removed the not needed Charts under those modules to |
| optimize the resources required for setting up the use case. This |
| approach will help to install a minimum-scope version ONAP for 5G E2E |
| Slicing use case. |
| |
| Further details of the installation steps are available at: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Install+Minimum+Scope+ONAP+for+5G+Network+Slicing |
| |
| |
| Configuration aspects |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The template design, UI configuration, as well as manual configurations for some |
| of the components are all described in the following wiki page and its sub-pages: |
| https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Operation+Guidance+for+5G+Network+Slicing+Use+Case |