G Release - Highlights:

Count of Epics (20 issues), User Stories, Tasks, and Issues:  (455 issues)

• R1 Service Exposure & Management

  • Continued work of Service execution platform extensions (K8s, Istio, Keycloak, OPA, Gateway) to enable and enforce service isolation & exposure
  • Released first version of 3GPP CAPIF-aligned Service Registration & Discovery service
  • Demonstration: "Enforcing Service Exposure for rApps"

• R1 Data Management & Exposure

  • Aligned with emerging proposals for R1-DME where possible
  • R1 DME Data Catalog support in NONRTRIC ICS 
  • R1 Data delivery & filtering (kafka & REST)
  • Demonstration: "PM Collection & Delivery to rApps"

• rApp Manager

  • Built on ONAP “Automation Composition” model & platform to implement rApp use cases
  • Demonstrate controlled on-boarding & LCM rApps with & without µService
  • Overlap with Service Exposure work to examine role of an rApp Manager to support controlled exposure & LCM of µService and non-µService parts of an rApp
  • Partly demonstrated: "Deploying & Running NONRTRIC platform and rApps"

• Continued A1-Policy & A1-Enrichment-Information evolution (& R1-A1)

  • A1 Spec evolution
  • Southbound: A1 Interface
  • Northbound: R1-A1(P) & R1-DME Interfaces
• Sample use cases (rApps)
  • Requirements Drivers for rApp/R1 development
  • High degree of cross-project integration activity
  • Partly demonstrated: "Deploying & Running NONRTRIC platform and rApps"

• Testing, Maintenance & Housekeeping

  • Function Test & Integration Test environment,
  • Support integration, deployment & configuration of SMO/Non-RT-RIC related functions & usecases in OSC Integration env.
    • Partly demonstrated: "Deploying & Running NONRTRIC platform and rApps"
  • Project coordination, Documentation, Delivery, Reporting, Cross-project alignment, Community demos, O-RAN Standardization support, etc.

Wiki: https://wiki.o-ran-sc.org/display/RICNR

Tasks / Backlog: https://jira.o-ran-sc.org/projects/NONRTRIC/issues

Gerrit / Code:

• nonrtric : https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric
• portal/nonrtric-controlpanel : https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/portal/nonrtric-controlpanel
• sim/a1-interface : https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/sim/a1-interface
• nonrtric-plt-a1policymanagementservice: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/a1policymanagementservice
  
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapadapter: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/dmaapadapter
  
• nonrtric-plt-helmmanager: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/helmmanager
• nonrtric-plt-informationcoordinatorservice: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/informationcoordinatorservice
• nonrtric-plt-rappcatalogue: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/rappcatalogue
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapmediatorproducer: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/dmaapmediatorproducer
• nonrtric-plt-sme: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/plt/sme
  
• nonrtric-rapp-healthcheck: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/rapp/healthcheck
• nonrtric-rapp-orufhrecovery: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/rapp/orufhrecovery 
• nonrtric-rapp-ransliceassurance: https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/admin/repos/nonrtric/rapp/ransliceassurance 

Sonar / Test Coverage Reports

• portal/nonrtric-controlpanel: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_portal-nonrtric-controlpanel
  
• sim/a1-interface: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_sim-a1-interface 
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapadapter: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-dmaapadapter
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapmediatorproducer: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-dmaapmediatorproducer
• nonrtric-plt-informationcoordinatorservice: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-informationcoordinatorservice
  
• nonrtric-plt-rappcatalogue: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-rappcatalogue
• nonrtric-plt-auth-token-fetch: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-auth-token-fetch 
  
• nonrtric-plt-sme: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-sme
  
• nonrtric-plt-capifcore: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=o-ran-sc_o-ran-sc_nonrtric-plt-sme-capifcore
  
• nonrtric use cases: https://sonarcloud.io/organizations/o-ran-sc/projects?search=nonrtric&sort=name
  • nonrtric-rapp-orufhrecovery-consumer: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=nonrtric-rapp-orufhrecovery-consumer 
    
  • nonrtric-rapp-ransliceassurance: https://sonarcloud.io/project/overview?id=nonrtric-rapp-ransliceassurance 
    

Docs:

• nonrtric : https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric 
• portal/nonrtric-controlpanel : https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-portal-nonrtric-controlpanel
• sim/a1-interface : https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-sim-a1-interface
• nonrtric-plt-a1policymanagementservice: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric-plt-a1policymanagementservice
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapadapter: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric-plt-dmaapadapter
• nonrtric-plt-informationcoordinatorservice: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric-plt-informationcoordinatorservice
• nonrtric-plt-rappcatalogue: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric-plt-rappcatalogue
• nonrtric-plt-dmaapmediatorproducer: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-nonrtric-plt-dmaapmediatorproducer

Testing:

• Function Tests

Weekly Meetings:

• Meetings

Demos:

• G-Release: Demonstration: "Enforcing Service Exposure for rApps"
  
• G-Release: Demonstration: "PM Collection & Delivery to rApps"
  
• G-Release: Demonstration: "Deploying & Running NONRTRIC platform and rApps"

G release source code, container images and deployment instructions

• Release G
  • Release G - Technical spikes 
  • Release G - Build
  • Release G - Run in Docker 
    • Docker Images
    • Helm Charts

G release highlights/accomplishments (16-Dec-2022):

AD xApp :-

• Removal of pushing data into influxdb when xApp starts.

1. Either UE's KPIs should be continuously stored into influxDB from KPIMON OR
2. We will need to run script manually to populate influxDB from .csv separately 

• changes in AD xApp to read live data from influxDB for inference
• Addition of Python script to read static data and keep pushing into RICPLT lnfluxDB
• Addition of exception module to handle errors and exceptions
• Addition of configuration module to update
  • InfluxDB configuration (near RT RIC instance or external)
  • KPIs 
• parameter tuning and functionality addition for improvements

QP xApp :-

• Removal of pushing data into influxdb when xApp starts.

1. Either UE's KPIs should be continuously stored into influxDB from KPIMON OR
2. We will need to run script manually to populate influxDB from .csv separately 

• changes in QP xApp to read live data from influxDB for inference
• Addition of Python script to read static data from .csv and keep pushing into RICPLT lnfluxDB
• Addition of exception module to handle errors and exceptions
• Addition of configuration module to update
  • InfluxDB configuration (near RT RIC instance or external)
  • KPIs 
• Model validation, parameter tuning and functionality addition for improvements

Gerrit Reviews

KPIMON-GO xApp :-

• E2SM KPM version upgraded to 2.0
• Added a feature to build a RAN cell map. 

RC xApp:

• Upgrading the RC service model to 1.0.3.

Bugs fixes:→

• The E2SM RC control request structure was not properly set. (Ran parameter id 3 is missing in final Rc control structure)
• values in control request header and control request message are incorrectly set.

TS xApp:

• upgraded proto file in order to match with the proto file of latest RC xApp.
• modified - NodebHandler to build CELL-RAN map (cell_map) properly.

G release source code, container images and deployment instructions

The list of container images for the G release (link)

Code Coverage Reports : Latest reports can be found at the following Link: Projects - O-RAN Software Community (sonarcloud.io).

Original primary goals:

• E2T improvements: Support in simulator in in internal E2mgr model source code for E2 Reset procedure (from E2 node to RIC (RIC-386)) - full E2 reset procedure from RAN only in RIC-946 in H release; Correct handling of E2 node reconnects and multiple E2 Setups (RIC-932), Support split architecture (CU/DU) in E2T/E2M (RIC-933), test cases of remaining interface types in config update (RIC-911), MDC dynamic log level change in E2T and E2M (RIC-814, RIC-813), check existence of SCTP stack during startup (RIC-931)
  
• A1: finalize re-implementation of A1 in golang (from python) (RIC-849, RIC-914)
  
• Support for E2 subscriptions via REST from the xapp framwork for c++ (RIC-641)
• Remove support for RMR in E2 subscription interface and only continue with E2 REST subscription interface towards xApps (RIC-375)
  
  • We will do this only as first step in the next release because the last missing xapp-framework changes were done very late in the G release (xapp-frame-cpp) supports REST (RIC-641, RIC-705) . Go and python already support E2 REST subscriptions
• Subscription delete callback to xApps and subscription cleanup after xApp removal (RIC-928, RIC-929)
  
• Support for DMS via REST in addition to command line tool DMSCLI (RIC-714)
  
• First version of the xApp framework for Rust (RIC-924)
• missing test cases for xapp-frame-py (RIC-917),
• xapp-frame (go) support readiness and liveness state with appmgr/rtmgr (RIC-930)
• First version of a RIC CLI (RIC-445)
  
• ric-dep cleanup (RIC-918)
• E2 check, validate and define how various overload and disconnect case are handled (RIC-704)
  
• Enhancments in A1 mediator testing and in E2 subscription testing via nanobot (RIC-878, RIC-860)
• Update of influxDB from 1.8→2.2, incl. adaptations in stslgo module (RIC-919)
• Take go version 1.18 into use in base image (RIC-937)
  
• bug fixes: RIC-945 e2term crashes occasionally when gNB is disconnected,RIC-944 PlmnId to mnc conversion wrong, RIC-943 alarm-go rmr routing table init failure, RIC-936 reference to gcr -> ghcr, RIC-935 kube-flannel changed namespace, RIC-934 Upgrade sdlgo Golang version to fix CVE-2022-32189 vulnerability,RIC-920 fix translation of 21/22/23 bit gnb ids to hex in E2T, RIC-939 race condition and out of bounds check in RMR
  

Achieved G release highlights = high-level release notes (2022-12-14) below (note that the release image list is here: link)

• We finalized work on a new functionally-equivalent A1 mediator implementation in Golang that now replaces the previous python based implementation. The optional usage of stslgo (shared timeseries layer) and InfluxDB got a major version upgrade (1.8→2.2). A new REST interface for the DMS (deployment management service) provides similar functionality as the existing DMS command line tool, but via a REST interface.
  
• We implemented the first version of the xApp framework in Rust.
• We implemented support for E2 subscriptions via REST in the xapp framework for C++. This allows us to deprecated the old RMR based interface early in the next release.

• bug fixes: RIC-945 e2term crashes occasionally when gNB is disconnected,RIC-944 PlmnId to mnc conversion wrong, RIC-943 alarm-go rmr routing table init failure, RIC-936 reference to gcr -> ghcr, RIC-935 kube-flannel changed namespace, RIC-934 Upgrade sdlgo Golang version to fix CVE-2022-32189 vulnerability,RIC-920 fix translation of 21/22/23 bit gnb ids to hex in E2T, RIC-939 race condition and out of bounds check in RMR
  
• security-related bug fixes: RIC-942

For the G release of the near-RT RIC we do only limited integration testing: only the use cases: deploy RIC, deploy xApp, make E2 connection, get list of A1 policies has been tested.

Filled in end-of-release checklist: Release criteria checklist

Status 2022-12-14: From the 28 epics planned (link) we implemented 10 (link). 18 items have been moved out of the G release, e.g, because of implementation delays (link). Incomplete items: 0 (link). Additionally we fixed 7 bugs and small implementation tasks (link)

G release source code, container images and deployment instructions

The list of container images for the G release (link). A demo video for the F release still applies to the G release (but with updated references). It shows

• how to deploy the near-RT RIC platform,
• compile connect the E2 (e2 node) simulator from the OSC simulator project and
• compile the hw-go xapp from the xapp project and use the dms_cli to deploy it.

Code coverage: Code coverage reports (current coverage and list of components that need to set up Jenkins job for auto-generation of the reports as part of CI)

Primary Goals:

According to the O-RAN-SC-OAM-Architecture document, all ManagedElements (near-real-time-RIC, O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU and O-RU) implement the O1-interface.

G release Feature Scope: 

• • support of O-RAN WG10 VES message bodies
  • update of OAM-Controller to ODL version Sulfur
    • Note: team decided to go with Java11 - Java 17 would be possible but is pushed out to next release.
  • update to keycloak version 18
  • even more secure keycloak configuration
  • there is a request for a "bare-metal" deployment which is not in scope of O-RAN, but still useful - also for development and module test
  • support of AI/ML based on RSAC and other input.
  • support of Tacker team

Please see also project wiki for further details: G-Release

Sprint Demos:

• Sprint #1 (at ht-cloud)
• Sprint #2 (at ht-cloud)

Primary Goals:

• In the absence of O-CU, Radisys commercial CU image to be used for E2E testing

G release Feature Scope: 

G Release Feature Scope: 

• Radisys Commercial CU is being used as a test fixture for E2E testing
• This is containerized CU image with following
  • Release version 2.5.3
  • NG interface with SOCKET mode and veth type
  • F1 interface with SOCKET mode and veth type
  • E2 interface support
  • Software Crypto

Primary Goals:

O-DU New Feature Development

1. Implementation of Discontinuous Reception (DRX)

2. Aligning all modules and interfaces to the latest specification

3. Mobility mode Support (Inter-CU handover)

Feature verification

1. Closed-Loop Automation

2.16QAM and 64 QAM (Spillover from D release)

End to End Integration support

1.TDD/Mu1/100MHz

2.FDD/Mu0/20MHz * (Spillover from D/E release)

G release Feature Scope: 

• DRX support

• Mobility (Inter-CU handover) support 
• code clean-up and coverage
• latest specification support for all modules and interfaces (AAD WG8)
• End to end integration support

Primary Goals:

Implementation of the O-DU Low Physical Layer functions for a 5G Open Access Radio Network allowing the flexibility of a software implementation coupled with the ability of incorporating hardware accelerators on a selective basis and meets the O-RAN architecture goals of scalablity, mix and match multi-vendor modules that are interoperable and that can be upgraded as the standards evolve by software updates.

The O-DU Low physical layer functions follow the 3GPP TS 38 series recommendations for 5G and the 3GPP TS 36 series recommendations for LTE with the 3GPP 7.2 functional split between O-DU Low and O-RU. In 3GPP terms the O-DU Low is referred to HIGH-PHY in the functional split for 5G.

Implementation of the Open Front Haul interface to the O-RU per O-RAN WG4 CUS specifications.

Integration of this component with multi-vendor implementations of O-DU High and O-RU modules for end to end interoperability and compatibility verification.

G release Feature Scope: 

The O-DU Low G release is the same as the F Release that added support for Massive MIMO, URLLC and it is based on the commercial FlexRan 21.11 release. 

The O-DU Low G and F Release code is an Intel contribution in collaboration with Tieto Poland for the source code releases in the O-RAN gerrit and for the binary blobs contributed via GitHub.

For the documentation preparation of the F and G release Intel worked with collaboration from Fransiscus Bimo and Professor Ray-Guang Cheng from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST).  

The G and F release are being used for end to end testing and it is based on the E maintenance release that was used for the 2021 November US O-RAN Plugfest and tested in conjuction with 2 stack partners and 2 different Test equipment vendors. The Front Haul Interface was also tested for compliance using Keysight's Front Haul Test equipment.

Container images and deployment instructions are to be provided later

Primary Goals:

• Keep alignment with latest O-RAN specifications (O1, E2)

G Feature Scope / Achievements:

• keep alignment of the O1 Simulator with latest YANG models
• E2 Simulator improvements (especially to the deployment/build procedures)
• NS3-E2 Simulator integration in Gerrit

Sprint Demos:

• Sprint #2 (at ht-cloud)

Primary Goals:

The SMO acts as an uber identity that overlooks the different aspects of the O-RAN deployment. Starting with how solutions are deployed, to how they interact with each other, to how they are managed.

G release Feature Scope: 

The focus for the G release in SMO is interoperability. Every sub-project within SMO has at least one item that focuses on interoperating with one other entity outside of SMO. For example,

• On the O1 interface, the focus is on trying to bring-up O-DU using NETCONF and YANG models defined for O-DU.
• On the O1/VES interface, it is ability to generate network slicing PM events in the O-DU, and the ability to receive them in SMO dashboard, and store them in InfluxdB.
• On the O2 interface, it will be the ability to instantiate an instance of a Network Function (NF) like the O-DU in the O-Cloud.

Separate from this, each sub-project within SMO has other features/capabilities it will address as part of the G-release. For details please refer to the minutes of the SMO meeting here.

Primary Goals: 

• Implement the O-Cloud reference design, provide the real time performance to allow the O-DU and other components running on top of it.
• Provide interaction capabilities with other components.

G release Feature Scope:  

• Extend MultiOS support: add Debian as the base OS
• Enable the multiple deployment scenarios for Debian based image:
  • AIO-SX, AIO-DX, AIO-DX + workers,  standard, Distributed Cloud
• Align INF O2 implementation to the latest O2 spec.

Test status:

Code coverage:

• INF platform
  •  Code coverage report: o-ran-pti-rtp - (sonarcloud.io)
  • INF is a downstream project of StarlingX and Yocto Project, the above coverage report may not reflect the real code coverage, so we also need to refer to the status from upstream projects.
• O2
  • Total coverage: 54%
  • Detail report: cov-report_20220609.txt

Release Note:

• Release-notes — pti-rtp g-release documentation (o-ran-sc.org)

G release source code, images and deployment instructions

• Each repository has a branch named "g-release" that can be accessed using git:
  • For pti/rtp repo[gitweb]: git clone --branch g-release "https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/pti/rtp" 
  • For pti/o2 repo[gitweb]: git clone --branch g-release "https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/pti/o2"
• Images for INF project
  • ISO image for INF: 
    • Yocto Based image: inf-image-yocto-aio-x86-64.iso
    • CentOS based image: inf-image-centos-all-x86-64.iso
    • Debian Based image: inf-image-debian-all-x86-64.iso
  • Container image for o2:
    • nexus3.o-ran-sc.org:10002/o-ran-sc/pti-o2imsdms:2.0.0
    • nexus3.o-ran-sc.org:10004/o-ran-sc/pti-o2imsdms:2.0.0
• Deployment instruction: 
  • INF: INF Installation Guide
  • O2: O-RAN O2 Application

Primary Goals: To support OSC project CI pipeline. To test and validate the components and use cases

G Feature Scope / Achievements:

• To set up test automation with the XTesting framework that can run at release time to verify features and integration (an XTesting work flow demo can be found here)
• Work with OSC open labs (US east coast, US west coast, Asia Pacific) to facilitate community testing. Latest status on the 3 labs are available here
• Explore the POWDER testbed for OSC integration test needs: a POWDER account was created that serves as an umbrella project for the OSC community. Multiple profiles were added for automated RIC platform deployment and automated testing.

G release highlights/accomplishments (December 14, 2022):

Established and demonstrated a XTesting workflow in RIC platform deployment and can further run test cases against the deployed software module(s).  Existing Robot test cases can be re-used in the XTesting framework with minimal work.

Created multiple POWDER profiles for automated RIC platform deployment and XTesting setup.

G release source code, container images and deployment instructions

gerrit (look for the latest changes for G release from the following repositories):

https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/it/dep

https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/it/dev

https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/it/test

Primary Goals:

• Stand alone installation (separated from existing platform deployment) and initial AIML workflow modules

G Feature Scope / Achievements:

• Stand alone installation with Kubeflow as a Training host backend and Kserve as a Inference host backend
• Initial Training Job Management ( Data extraction / feature management)
• Sample ML pipeline and ML xApp : QoE Prediction model using LSTM with data from ricapp/qp

Wiki: https://wiki.o-ran-sc.org/display/AIMLFEW

Tasks / Backlog: https://jira.o-ran-sc.org/projects/AIMLFW/issues

Gerrit / Code:

aiml-fw/awmf/tm:  Training Manager : Training job and model management

aiml-fw/athp/tps/kubeflow-adapter: Adapter for Kubeflow

aiml-fw/athp/sdk/model-storage: Sdk for accessing Model storage

aiml-fw/athp/sdk/feature-store: Sdk for accessing Feature store

aiml-fw/athp/data-extraction: Retrieving features for training from Data lake

aiml-fw/aimlfw-dep: Deployment scripts aiml workflow 

portal/aiml-dashboard: GUI for AIML Workflow

ric-app/qp-aimlfw: Sample ML Assist xApp for QoE prediction