The figure below illustrates Application Service Descriptor (ASD) is used within SMO to deploy CNF application via utilizing O2-DMS-K8S interface (K8S native). For completeness, the O2-IMS interface is shown in the figure. It is not involved in the ASD deployment.

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Overview LCM of K8S applications

An overview of lifecycle management of K8S applications with ASD and packaging concept.

Note: The figure is not intent to shown the on-boarding concept or cataloging the artifacts (images, charts, etc.).  It is out of scope of the ASD and packaging proposal.

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1. Onboarding: The Application Package is consumed by the orchestrator, that provisions all required artifacts in the repository.

2. Orchestrator provisions the artifact repository. 

3. Helm client pulls the requested application’s chart from the repository.

4. Helm client creates, from the chart, configuration resources for K8S.

5. Kubernetes will pull required container images from the artifact repository.

6. When performing updates / upgrades / termination, Helm client is used to modify the application resources.

O-RAN OAM Architecture Info Model with ASD

O-RAN delivery package with ASD

The proposal for packaging is to continue to rely on CSAR. The packaging of the containerized applications, the ASD itself, and the usage of ASD as a top-level artifact for a CSAR.  The use of Helm as the cloud-native artifact for describing (pieces of) the application. It is recommended to adopt ETSI NFV SOL004, by adding the possibility to include an ASD instead of a VNFD as a top-level artifact.