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Usage and event management BSSs can be created as applications on top of the DCAE environment as well as applications outside DCAE. These applications can collect customer events and perform mediation of the usage and events to downstream BSSs or OSSs (Operational Support Systems).  BSSs can also collect network events such as bill-impacting configuration changes, consumption or any new bill-impacting network product or service which can in turn be used for various purposes such as rating, balance management, and charge calculations.

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The primary functions of the DCAE subsystem are to

• Collect, ingest, transform and store data as necessary for analysis
• Provide a framework for development of analytics, and to
• Enable closed-loop response by various OpenECOMP components.

The closed-loop responses are enabled by DCAE, in conjunction with other OpenECOMP components, by providing the ability to detect anomalous conditions in the network. Such conditions, might be, for example,  fault conditions that need healing or capacity conditions that require resource scaling. DCAE gathers performance, usage, and configuration data about the managed environment, such as about virtual network functions and their underlying infrastructure. This data is then distributed to various analytic micro-services, and if anomalies or significant events are detected, the results trigger appropriate actions by other OpenECOMP components such as Policy, MSO or other orchestration components, or Controllers. In addition, the micro-services might persist the data (or some transformations of the data) in the storage lake. In addition to supporting closed-loop control, DCAE also makes the data and events available for higher-level correlation by business and operations activities, including business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS).

Usage and other event processing applications can be created in the DCAE environment. In addition to real-time processing of events, these applications can perform mediation of the usage and other events to external BSSs or OSSs. For example, events about bill-impacting configuration changes or consumption of any new product or service can be subscribed to by external BSS applications for various purposes such as rating, balance management and charge calculations.

The following figure provides a functional view of the DCAE platform architecture.

DCAE Platform Components

The DCAE Platform consists of several functional components: Collection Framework, Data Movement, Storage Lakes, Analytic Framework, and Analytic Applications.  

In large scale deployments, DCAE components are generally distributed in multiple sites that are organized hierarchically.  For example, to provide DCAE function for a large scale OpenECOMP system that covers multiple sites spanning across a large geographical area, there will be edge DCAE sites, central DCAE sites, and so on.   Edge sites are physically close to the network functions under collection, for reasons such as processing latency, data transport, and security, but often have limited computing and communications resources.  On the other hand, central sites generally have more processing capacity and better connectivity to the rest of the OpenECOMP system.  This hierarchical organization offers better flexibility, performance, resilience, and security.  

The following figure shows the DCAE architecture:

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A key subset of the DCAE architecture is the DCAE Platform.  The DCAE platform consists of the capabilities that help define how data is collected, moved, stored and analyzed within DCAE.

DCAE Platform Components

The DCAE Platform consists of several functional components: Common Collection Framework, Data Movement, Storage Lakes, Analytic Framework, and Analytic Applications.  

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