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10 E2E Network Slicing Use Case
11 ============================
15 The objective of this use case is to realize **End-to-End 5G Network
16 Slicing** using ONAP. An End-to-End Network Slice consists of RAN (Radio
17 Access Network), Transport Network (TN) and Core Network (CN) slice
18 sub-nets. This use case intends to demonstrate the modeling,
19 orchestration (life cycle and resources) and assurance of a network
20 slice which are implemented in alignment with relevant standards. The
21 key highlights of this use case include:
23 - Modular architecture providing building blocks and flexibility under
24 various deployment scenarios
26 - Functionality aligned with 3GPP and other relevant standards such as
29 - Interfaces and APIs aligned with relevant standards (3GPP, IETF,
30 ETSI, TM Forum, etc.) while enabling easy customization through use
31 of appropriate plug-ins. This would enable easier interoperability of
32 slice management functions realized within ONAP with 3\ :sup:`rd`
33 party slice management functions, as well as northbound and
36 - Taking a step-by-step approach to realizing different architectural
37 options in an extendable manner.
39 - Providing flexibility in network slice selection by providing an
40 option of manual intervention, as well as abstracting the network
43 - The use case implementation team is composed of service providers,
44 software and hardware vendors, solution providers and system
45 integrators thereby taking into consideration different perspectives
48 This use case is a multi-release effort in ONAP with the first steps
49 taken in Frankfurt release. It will continue to expand in scope both in
50 breadth and depth, and along the journey it shall also align with
51 updates to the relevant standards which are also currently evolving.
52 This use case shall also collaborate with SDOs such as
53 O-RAN and ETSI to enable wider adoption and use.
55 See the `Use Case Description and Blueprint wiki page <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Use+Case+Description+and+Blueprint>`_
61 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
62 | Abbreviation | Meaning |
63 +===============+============================================+
64 | CSMF | Communication Service Management Function |
65 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
66 | CSI | Communication Service Instance |
67 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
68 | CST | Communication Service Template |
69 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
70 | NSI | Network Slice Instance |
71 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
72 | NSMF | Network Slice Management Function |
73 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
74 | NSSI | Network Slice Sub-net Instance |
75 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
76 | NSSMF | Network Slice Sub-net Management Function |
77 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
78 | NST | Network Slice Template |
79 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
80 | NSST | Network Slice Sub-net Template |
81 +---------------+--------------------------------------------+
84 Recap of Frankfurt functionality
85 --------------------------------
86 In Frankfurt release, CSMF and NSMF within ONAP was implemented, while connecting to an external Core NSSMF.
87 From the NSI Life Cycle perspective, the scope for Frankfurt included NSI design and pre-provision, NSI instantiation
88 and configuration, and NSI activation and deactivation. In particular:
90 - CSMF: Functions of slice service creation, slice service activation and deactivation were implemented.
92 - NSMF: Functions of NSI instantiation, NSI activation and deactivation were implemented. In addition, manual
93 intervention is also provided in NSMF slice task management portal to ensure the selected NSI/NSSI as well as
94 Service Profile and Slice Profile are OK or need adjustment.
96 - Design of CST, NST and onboarding NSST that are required to support the run-time orchestration functions
98 - To connect to the external (core) NSSMF, an adaptor was implemented to provide interface between ONAP and 3rd party
101 To support the above functions, code impacts in U-UI, SO, OOF and ExtAPI components, and schema change in A&AI
102 were implemented. See the `Proposed Functions for R6 and Impacted Modules wiki page <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Proposed+Functions+for+R6+and+Impacted+Modules>`_ for details.
104 As part of Frankfurt release work, we supported the minimum-scope installation of ONAP to reduce the resource requirements.
105 From the module perspective, 5G E2E Slicing use case involves SDC, SO, A&AI, UUI, EXT-API, OOF and Policy modules of ONAP.
106 So we will configure these required modules along with the mandatory common modules such as DMaaP. Further, for each module,
107 the use case also does not use all of the charts,so we removed the not needed Charts under those modules to optimize the
108 resources required for setting up the use case. This approach will help to install a minimum-scope version ONAP for the
109 E2E Slicing use case.
111 Further details of the installation steps are available at: `Install Minimum Scope ONAP for 5G Network Slicing wiki page
112 <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Install+Minimum+Scope+ONAP+for+5G+Network+Slicing>`_
114 Recap of Guilin functionality
115 -----------------------------
116 From the architecture point of view, in Guilin release, besides the continuation of NSMF which was implemented in
117 Frankfurt release, the RAN NSSMF, TN NSSMF, CORE NSSMF have been implemented within ONAP, apart from interacting with
118 ezternal RAN NSSMF and external CORE NSSMF.
120 The following provides an overview of the enhancements done in Guilin release:
122 - **Enhancements in NSMF**: Service Profile decomposition into Slice Profiles for 3 domains, NSI selection enhancement,
123 E2E slice instance creation including RAN, TN and CN slice sub-net instance creation/reuse, activation/deactivation
124 of E2E slice, and deciding whether to terminate E2E slice or not.
126 - **RAN NSSMF, TN NSSMF, CN NSSMF within ONAP**: Basic logic for all 3 NSSMFs to support NSSI allocation, activation,
127 deactivation, deletion and modification (in case of reuse of NSSI).
129 - **Enable NSMF interaction with RAN NSSMF, TN NSSMF, CN NSSMF**: Implement generic NSSMF adaptor for three domain NSSMFs,
130 alignment with standard intefaces (3GPP, IETF), enable the connection to external RAN NSSMF.
132 - **Design of RAN NSST, TN NSST, CN NSST and Slice Profiles, TN information models**: Basic E2E Slicing model was provided
133 all the related templates designed from SDC, TN related information models.
135 - **TMF 641 support**: Extension of the TMF 641 based interface from NB of ExtAPI to support service activation,
136 deactivation and termination.
138 - **RAN and CN NFs set up and initial configurations**: CN NF simulators was developed: AMF, SMF, UPF and configure the
139 S-NSSAI on CN NFs; RAN NF Simulator was enhanced for PM data reporting, CU and Near-RT RIC configuration.
141 - **KPI monitoring**: Implementation to request details of a KPI via UUI to ONAP DCAE. Providing the requested data to UUI
142 by DCAE using a new microservice (Data Exposure Service - DES). Enhancements in PM-Mapper to do KPI computation is
143 in progress, and will be completed in Honolulu release.
145 - **Closed Loop**: First steps to realizing a simple Closed Loop in the RAN using PM data collected from the RAN was
146 implemented - update the allowed throughput for a S-NSSAI per Near-RT RIC coverage area based on DL/UL PRB for data
147 traffic that was reported from the RAN. The analysis of the PM data was done using a new Slice Analysis MS in DCAE,
148 and the Policy-based Control Loop framework was applied to trigger the updates in the RAN.
150 - **Intelligent Slicing**: First steps to realizing a simple ML-based Closed Loop action in the RAN using PM data collected
151 from the RAN was implemented - update the maxNumberofConns for a S-NSSAI in each cell based on PDU session related
152 PM data that was reported from the RAN (PDU sessions requested, successfully setup and failed to be set up). The
153 training was done offline, and the ML model is onboarded as a micro-service to ONAP for demo purpose alone (it is
154 not part of ONAP code/repos). The ML model provides updates to the Slice Analysis MS, which then uses the
155 Policy-based Control Loop framework to trigger the updates in the RAN.
157 - **Modeling enhancements**: Necessary modeling enhancements to support all the above functionalities.
159 The base use case page for Guilin release is `E2E Network Slicing Use Case in R7 Guilin <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/E2E+Network+Slicing+Use+Case+in+R7+Guilin>`_.
161 The child wiki pages of the above page contains details of the assumptions, flows and other relevant details.
163 Honolulu release updates
164 ------------------------
165 In Honolulu release, the following aspects were realized:
167 - **Modeling Enhancements** were made, details can be found at:
168 `Modeling enhancements in Honolulu <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Modeling+enhancements+in+Honolulu>`_.
170 - **Functional Enhancements**
172 (a) Minor enhancements in NSMF and NSSMFs including NST Selection, Shared slices, coverageArea to
173 coverageAreaTAList mapping, etc.
174 (b) Enhancements related to endpoints for stitching together an end-to-end network slice
175 (c) Use of CPS (instead of Config DB) to determine the list of Tracking Areas corresponding to a given
176 Coverage Area (input by user). For the remaining RAN configuration data, we continue to use Config DB.
177 (d) RRM Policy update by SDN-R to RAN NFs during RAN NSSI creation/reuse
179 - **Integration Testing**
180 Continuing with integration tests deferred in Guilin release, and associated bug-fixing
184 (a) 2 deployment scenarios for RAN NSSI are supported. In the first scenario, the RAN NSSI comprises also of
185 TN Fronthaul (FH) and TN Midhaul (FH) NSSIs, and RAN NSSMF shall trigger TN NSSMF for TN FH and MH NSSI
186 related actions. In the second scenario, the RAN NSSI comprises only of RAN NFs. TN NSSMF shall be triggered by
187 NSMF for TN FH and MH NSSI related actions. This part is not yet implemented in NSMF within ONAP.
189 (b) Details of the modeling aspects, flows and other relevant info about the use case are available in:
190 `R8 E2E Network Slicing Use Case <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/R8+E2E+Network+Slicing+use+case>`_ and its child wiki pages.
193 Impacted Modules for Honolulu
194 -----------------------------
195 The code-impacted modules of E2E Network Slicing in Honolulu release are:
197 - **UUI**: The enhancements done include:
199 (a) The coverageArea The coverageArea number param is added in CSMF creation UI. Users could input
200 the grid numbers to specify the area where they want the slicing service to cover.
201 (b) The relation link image of AN/TN/CN has been added. Users can see the links and related params
202 of the three domains.
203 (c) The TN’s connection link with AN/CN has been added in NS Task management GUI.
205 - **AAI**: Schema changes were introduced. We added some new parameters in 2 nodes:
207 (a) ‘Connectivity’ is used to store IETF/ACTN ETH service parameters. New attributes added in order
208 to support the CCVPN network configuration operations on multi-domain (2+) interconnections.
209 (b) ‘Vpn-binding’is used to store ACTN OTN Tunnel model’s parameters.
211 - **OOF**: Updates include:
213 (a) NST selection is enhanced by fetching the templates from SDC directly.
214 (b) coverageArea to coverageAreaTAList mapping is done by OOF (as part of Slice Profile generation)
218 - **SO**: Main updates include support of NSI shared scenarios by enhancing the interaction with OOF, AAI and
219 UUI. Apart from this some updates/fixes have been made in NSMF, RAN/Core/TN NSSMF functionality in SO, for
222 (a) *NSMF*: Update NSI selection process support shared NSI and add sst parameter
223 (b) *AN NSSMF*: Activation flow for SDN-R interactions, allocate flow & added timeDelay in QueryJobStatus,
224 support of Option 1 for topmost RAN NSSI
225 (c) *CN NSSMF*: Non-shared allocate flow
226 (d) *TN NSSMF*: Modify TN NSSI operation
228 - **CPS**: 2 APIs required for the use case are supported. The remaining yang models are also onboarded,
229 however, the API work as well as further enhancements to CPS Core, NF Proxy and Template-Based Data
230 Model Transformer Service shall continue beyond Honolulu.
232 - **SDN-R**: RRMP Policy updates, enhancements for updating the RAN configuration during slice reuse,
233 closed loop and intelligent slicing.
237 (a) *KPI Computation MS*: This MS was introduced newly for computation of slice related KPIs. In this release,
238 it supports basic KPI computation based on formula specified via Policy. Further details about this MS is
239 available at `KPI Computation MS <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/DCAE+R8+KPI-Computation+ms>`_
240 (b) *Slice Analysis MS*: Minor updates were done.
242 Apart from the above, Policy and SDC had test-only impact for this use case.
246 - **Config DB** was updated to handle bugs and gaps found during testing. This is not an official ONAP component, and
247 its functionality is expected to be performed fully by the Configuration Persistence Service (CPS) in future ONAP
248 release (beyond Honolulu).
250 - **Core NF simulator** and *ACTN simulator* were also updated and checked into ONAP simulator repo.
252 - **RAN-Sim** has been updated to fix bugs found during testing, and also checked into ONAP simulator repo.
255 Functional Test Cases
256 ---------------------
257 The functional testing of this use case shall cover CSMF/NSMF, the 3 NSSMFs and Closed Loop functionality. We classify the
258 test cases into 5 tracks: CSMF/NSMF, RAN NSSMF, Core NSSMF, TN NSSMF and Closed Loop.
259 Details of the test cases can be found at:
260 `Integration Test details for Honolulu <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Integration+Test+details+for+Honolulu>`_ and its child wiki pages.
265 The Honolulu release setup details for the E2E Network Slicing use case will be available at the following page and its
267 `User Operation Guide for Honolulu release <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/User+Operation+Guide+for+Honolulu+release>`_
270 Known Issues and Resolutions
271 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
272 Details of manual configurations, work-arounds and known issues will be documented in the child wiki pages of:
273 `User Operation Guide for Honolulu release <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/User+Operation+Guide+for+Honolulu+release>`_
275 The foll. integration tests are carried over to Istanbul release: see `REQ-721 <https://jira.onap.org/browse/REQ-721>`_
276 - NSMF: Option 2 testing, remaining regression testing and service termination testing for NSMF
277 - RAN NSSMF: RAN NSSI termination, interactions with TN NSSMF for FH/BH NSSI reuse and some minor aspects
278 related to SDN-R <-> RAN interaction
279 - TN NSSMF: Checking some minor aspects in SO for modifying TN NSSI.
280 - Core NSSMF: Modifying and deallocating a Core NSSI, reusing an existing Core NSSI
281 - KPI Computation, Closed Loop & Intelligent Slicing: Some minor aspects on SDN-R <-> RAN-Sim interface
282 needs to be addressed.
284 Further details of these test cases can be found in REQ jiras for integration testing for Honolulu, and in the
285 use case wiki. This means that the functionality associated with these test cases may require updated versions
286 of the relevant components - the User Operation Guide will also be updated with details of any bug fixes
287 beyond Honolulu as the testing is anyhow continuing as part of Istanbul release.