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Goal

A planned list of 5G nodes are on-boarded into ONAP, and ONAP configures the nodes to the level that they are ready to handle traffic. ONAP begins to actively monitor and manage the nodes.

Assumptions

• The 5G nodes consist of both PNFs (DU) and VNFs (CU). A single CU may consist of several VNFs.
• Scope is limited to one PLMN without slicing.
• A single vendor delivers RAN equipment and software.
• A single service provider:
• Owns or leases data center equipment, cell sites, physical transport, and any new equipment installed on these sites
• Owns and operates the resulting RAN
• Is the single user of the entire ONAP based management system
• Use case covers only initial deployment of nodes. Thus, change management such as software upgrade is out of scope.

Preconditions

To clarify the limits of this use case for this release of ONAP the following preconditions are assumed:

• Requirements on RAN coverage is well defined and documented (frequencies, power levels, coverage, and capacity)
• Based on requirements network planning has been performed including:
  • Cell sites, equipment and cell structure
  • Transport network and fronthaul infrastructure
  • Data center usage
  • Other infrastructure components that may be needed such as CA/RA server
• Needed new hardware has already been delivered and installed, both outside the data center (new PNFs and their cabling) and inside the data center
• Additional infrastructure components have been deployed and configured
• The Core Network with its VNFs and transport network is operational and known to ONAP (is managed by the same ONAP instance or is known and can be addressed and connected to according to 3GPP defined methods)
• Software packages and licenses have been procured and provided by the RAN vendor

Postconditions

The 5G RAN is providing RAN service for the user equipment according to expectations:

• All planned services are on-line, providing FCAPS data through the relevant channels
• RAN NOC personnel have full access to the FCAPS data and ONAP automation framework
• Dashboard or other NOC tools configured to display relevant RAN data
• Calculation and monitoring of key performance indicators is activated, used to verify the capacity requirements
• A first automation use-case reacting on an incident or state change have been implemented

Steps

Step 1: Service design (design-time environment)

• Onboard SW packages and any other artefacts provided by the RAN vendor
• Onboard any planning data that is common across all nodes
• Design RAN-level templates, recipes and workflows covering common network elements, transport network, data collection and analytics, policies and corrective actions
• Design node-level templates, recipes and workflows covering network elements (PNFs and VNFs), transport network, placement or QoS constraints, data collection and analytics, policies and corrective actions

Step 2: Design verification (design-time/run-time)

• Verify templates and recipes from step 1, using dedicated test environment or limited trial following steps below. If necessary, make adjustments according to step 1.

Step 3: Deploy shared services (run-time environment)

• This step refers to deployment of any shared RAN services and functions defined by templates, recipes and workflows in step 1. Note that some of the functions below may be partially inactive until nodes are added in step 4.
  • On receiving request, SO and controllers will decompose the request, and allocate and connect the various resources.
  • DCAE will start fault, performance, and log data collection as described during design time.
  • DCAE will perform data analytics as configured in recipes, to monitor the environment and publish anomalous conditions.
  • Corrective/remedial action for network impairments and for violations of service levels as described by defined policies are initiated using the SO and/or controllers

Step 4: Add nodes (run-time environment)

• This step refers to deployment of services and functions defined by templates, recipes and workflows in step 1 for a new 5G node.
  • A sub-flow includes the onboarding process for related PNFs.
  • In this step node-specific data from planning is also inserted.
  • On receiving request, SO and controllers will decompose the request, and allocate and connect the various resources.
  • DCAE will start fault, performance, and log data collection as described during design time.
  • DCAE will perform data analytics as configured in recipes, to monitor the environment and publish anomalous conditions.
  • Corrective/remedial action for network impairments and for violations of service levels as described by defined policies are initiated using the SO and/or controllers
• This step is repeated for each added node. Bulk deployment should be possible to handle a larger number of nodes in an efficient way.

Step 5: Final verification (run-time including dashboard)

• Verify that service is provided and can be monitored through dashboards and northbound APIs using basic observability data and calculated KPIs.
• Verify that policy definitions and their corrective actions are active and has intended effect.