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Table of Contents

Summary

Primary Goals for Non-RealTime RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT-RIC)

:

  • The primary goal of Non-RT-RIC is to support intelligent RAN optimization by providing policy-based guidance, ML model management and enrichment information to the near-RT RIC function so that the RAN can optimize, e.g., RRM under certain conditions.
  • It can also perform intelligent radio resource management function in non-real-time interval (i.e., greater than 1 second).
  • Non-RT-RIC applications (rApps) can use data analytics and AI/ML training/inference to determine the RAN optimization actions for which it can leverage SMO services such as data collection and provisioning services of the O-RAN nodes.
  • Non-RT-RIC define and coordinates rApps (Non-RT-RIC applications) to perform Non-RT-RIC tasks.
  • Non-RT-RIC hosts the new R1 interface (between rApps and SMO/NONRTRIC services)

Overall objective for the E Release

:

In the E Release we focus mainly on studying and providing some building blocks to support the emerging Non-RT-RIC Apps ("rApps") and R1 interface concepts from O-RAN.
Support and improvement of functions for the O-RAN A1 interface continue.



E Release Priorities

  • ONAP Control Loop -> O-RAN rApp : “The rApp-ification of ONAP Control Loops”
    • Adopt ONAP CL work as a starting point, continue to identify gaps, then extend
    • Identify & motivate where an rApp is different from a CL
    • Types of rApps:
      • Microservice-based rApps
      • Non-Microservice-based rApps
  • NONRTRIC Service Exposure/Gateway -> O-RAN R1 : “The R1-ification of Service Exposure”
    • Service-independent aspects
    • Types of exposure support in R1:
      • Microservice-based rApps & Service
      • Non-Microservice-based rApps & Service
  • Use cases of rApps & Exposing specific Services via R1
    • Requirements drivers & demonstrators
    • O-RU FH recovery (multiple), O-DU Slice Assurance (multiple), Existing Function Tests, various other use cases in ONAP
  • Continued Evolution & Support for A1 functions

E Release Feature Scope

D Feature Scope:

  • NONRTRIC Functions:
    • Integrated A1 Adapter from ONAP (A1 Policy (A1-P) controller – mediation)
    • Integrated A1 Policy Management Service from ONAP (

controller – A1 policies
    • A1 Policy (A1-P) controller)
    • rApp/Control Loop Manager (ONAP & OSC)
    • OSC
A1 Enrichment
    • Information Coordinator (controller – Data Management & Exposure & A1 Enrichment Information (A1-EI) Job management)
    • OSC Non-RT-RIC Control Panel (GUI – for A1-P & A1-EI Job management)
    • OSC A1 Simulator (a stateful test stub to simulate near-RT-RIC end of A1 interface – A1-P & A1-EI)
    • Initial OSC
(initial)
    • APP catalog (for registering/querying APPs)
Initial
    • K8S Helm Chart LCM Manager - for APP µServices etc. (ONAP & OSC)
Initial Service
    • Exposure
Function functionalityIn E Release:
    • Gateway Functions
    • Coordinated service exposure for R1 interface
    • DMaaP → Information Producer Mediator/Adapter (multiple)
  • In E Release:
    • Deployment, Integration & Configuration–
  • Improved A1-PMS NBI (REST & DMaaP) (Rest style alignment)
  • Runtime configuration API (REST) for A1 Policy Management Service (e.g. add/remove adapters, near-rt-rics, security certs, etc)
    • Deployment –
      • Continued improvements for Docker & Kubernetes
      • Extended/Easier deployment options with OSC IT/DEP project (SMO/NONRTRIC deployment)
  • Improving CI/CD to support include A1 Policy controller dependencies from ONAP
    • Multi-version support (
      • O-RAN A1-AP
    v1.1, v2.0, v2.1,
      • evolution (v3.0
    & OSC pre-spec A1
      • )
    Improved status monitoring/notification of
      • Evolution of A1-EI functions to a more generic Information Coordination functions, moving beyond A1-EI
    Jobs
      • Further improvement in security
    cert
      • management
    (All interfaces can now be secured using TLS)
      • Re-architect & improve usability of Non-RT-RIC Control Panel (GUI)
      • Extend NONRTRIC Control Panel to sort and filter A1 Policies
      • Extend NONRTRIC Control Panel to sort and filter A1 Enrichment Types/Jobs
      • Extend NONRTRIC Control Panel to configure A1 Policy Management Service
      • Configurable Service Exposure function – Extends/Replaces static exposure gateway in OSC
    Cherry
      • D-release
      • K8S Helm Chart LCM function for App µServices
      • Update NONRTRIC demo/test environment (one-click tests/use-cases, docker & single/multi-node K8s env)
      • OSC e2e integration use case – O-RU-FH-HelloWorld recovery
        • App to instigate O-RU-FH connection recovery after failure – via O-DU
          • Multiple implementation options – standalone µService and/or deployable ONAP-PF policy script
    CII badging – Already achieved Bronze/Passing Grade
      • OSC e2e integration use case – O-DU-HelloWorld-SliceAssurance
        • Closed loop tuning of RRM policies to assure Slice performance - via O-DU
          • Multiple implementation options – standalone µService and/or deployable ONAP-PF policy script

    Architecture for Release E

    ...


    Image RemovedImage Added

    NONRTRIC components

    ...

    1. Non-RT-RIC Control Panel

    2. Non-RT-RIC (Spring Cloud) Service Gateway
    3. Non-RT-RIC (Kong) Service Exposure Prototyping
    4. A1 Policy Management Service
    5. Enrichment Information Coordinator Service
    6. DMaaP/Kafka Information Producer Adapters
    7. Initial Non-RT-RIC App Catalogue
    8. SDNC A1 Policy Controller / Adapter
    9. Near-RT RIC A1 Simulator
    10. Initial K8S Helm Chart LCM Manager
    11. Test Framework
    12. "Helloworld" O-RU Fronthaul Recovery use case
    13. "Helloworld" O-DU Slice Assurance use case

    The code base for "DE" Release is in the NONRTRIC, NONRTRIC-ControlPanel, and A1-Simulator,  source repositories (Gerrit) - E Branch: 'e-release' branch)

    Non-RT-RIC Control Panel

    Graphical user interface to interact with the NONNon-RT-RIC services.

    • View and Manage A1 policies in the RAN (near-RT-RICs)
    • Graphical A1 policy creation/editing is model-driven, based on policy type’s JSON schema
    • View and manage producers and jobs for the Enrichment coordinator serviceInformation Coordination Service
    • Configure A1 Policy Management Service (add/remove near-rt-rics)
    • Interacts with the A1-PolicyManagementService & A1-EI-Coordinator Policy Management Service & Information Coordination Service (REST NBIs) via Service Exposure gateway
    •  Implementation:

    Please refer this developer guide to set up in your local environment. More information about Non-RT-RIC control panel can be found here.

    Non-RT-RIC (Spring Cloud) Service Gateway

    ...

    Spring cloud Gateway provides the library to build the API Gateway for Micro-service architecture. In Non-RT-RIC we build the basic API gateway using spring cloud gateway which then exposes two Non-RT-RIC functions; Policy Management Service & Enrichment Coordinator Service. You can add predicates through code or yaml and in Non-RT-RIC we prefer to use yaml.

    NONRTRIC gateway code can be found at:

    More information on the Spring Cloud Gateway can be found in the documentation here.

    Non-RT-RIC (Kong) Service Exposure Prototyping

    Support Apps to use NONRTRIC, SMO and other App interfaces
    A building block for coming releases as the R1 Interface concept matures 

    ...

    Kong is a cloud-native, high performance, scalable & Open source API Gateway. Kong comes in 2 flavoursflavors

    • Without Database
    • With Database like PostgreSQL or Cassandra

    ...

    Kong installation done by nonrtric script is 'Without Database'.

    A1 Policy Management Service (from ONAP CCSDK –

    ...

    Istanbul)

    A1 Controller Service above A1 Adaptor Adapter that provides:

    • Unified REST & DMaaP APIs for managing A1 Policies in all near-RT-RICs
    • Operations:
      • Query A1 Policy Types in near-RT-RICs
      • Create/Query/Update/Delete A1 Policy Instances in near-RT-RICs
      • Query Status for A1 Policy Instances
    • Maintains (persistent) cache of RAN’s A1 Policy information
      • Support RAN-wide view of A1 Policy information
      • Streamline A1 traffic
      • Enable (optional) re-synchronization after inconsistencies / near-RT-RIC restarts
      • Added support for multiple near-RT-RICs (& multi-version support)
    • Unified REST & DMaaP NBI
    • Converged ONAP & O-RAN-SC A1 Adapter/Controller functions in ONAP SDNC/CCSDK
      • (Optionally deploy without A1 Adaptor Adapter to connect direct to near-RT-RICs)
    • Support for different Southbound connectors per near-RT-RIC - e.g. different A1 versions, different near-RT-RIC version, different A1 adapter/controllers supports different or proprietary A1 controllers/EMSs

    Documentation about the service can be found at:

    ...

    Information Coordinator Service

    Coordinate/Register Information Types, Producers, Consumers, and Jobs.
    Coordinate/Register A1-EI Types, Producers    , Consumers, and Jobs (A1 Enrichment Information Job Coordination).

    • Maintains a registry of:
      • A1-EI Data Information Types / schemasA1-EI
      • Information Producers
      • A1-EI Information ConsumersA1-EI
      • Information Jobs
    • A1-EI Information Query API (e.g. per producer, per consumer, per types)
    • Query status of A1-EI jobsMonitors all near-RT-RICs and recovers from inconsistenciesInformation jobs
    • After EIInformation-type/Producer/Consumer/Job is successfully registered delivery/flow can happen directly between Information Producers and Information Consumers
    • The Information Coordinator Service natively supports the O-RAN A1 Enrichment Information (A1-EI Producers (in SMO/NONRTRIC domain) and ) interface, supporting coordination A1-EI consumers (Jobs where information (A1-EI)flow from the SMO/Non-RT-RIC/rApps to near-RT-RICs in RAN domain)Being extended to coordinate non-A1 Enrichment Information exchange between NONRTRIC Appsover the A1 interface.

    Documentation about the service can be found at:

    DMaaP/Kafka Information Producer Adapters

    Configurable mediators to take information from DMaaP (& Kafka) and present it as a coordinated Information Producer

    Two alternative implementations to allow Information Consumers to consume DMaaP or Kafka events as coordinated Information Jobs.
    These configurable adapters/mediators act producers of Information Coordinator Service (ICS) jobs by polling topics in DMaaP Message Router (MR) or Kafka and pushing the messages to a consumer.

    (Initial) Non-RT-RIC APP catalog

    Register for NONRTRIC APPs

    ...

    A1

    ...

    Policy Controller /

    ...

    Adapter (from ONAP CCSDK –

    ...

    Istanbul)

    ...

    Mediation point for A1 interface termination in SMO/NONRTRIC

    • Implemented as CCSDK OSGI Feature/Bundles
    • A1 REST southbound
    • RESTCONF Northbound
    • NETCONF YANG > RESTCONF adapter
    • Mapping logic / Provider
    • Can be included in an any controller based on ONAP CCSDK
    • OSC Dawn will continue to support both a dedicated A1-controller persona (NONRTRIC) and an SDNC/SDNR persona (IT/DEP, OAM/SMO)

    Documentation about the adaptor adapter / controller can be found at:

    Documentation about the service can be found at:

    Near-RT-RIC Simulator

    ...

    Stateful A1 test stub

    • Used to create multiple stateful A1 providers (simulated near-rt-rics)
    • Supports A1-Policy (A1-P) and A1-Enrichment Information (A1-EnrichmentInformationEI)
    • Implemented as a Python application
    • Swagger-based northbound interface, so easy to change the A1 profile exposed (e.g. A1 version, A1 Policy Types, A1-E1 EI consumers, etc)
    • All A1-AP versions supported

    Documentation about the simulator can be found at:

    Initial K8S Helm Chart LCM Manager

    ...

    A building block for coming releases as the R-APP rApp concept matures

    • Interfaces that accepts Non-RT-RIC App µServices Helm Charts
    • Support basic LCM operations
    • Onboard, Start, Stop, Modify, Monitor
    • Initial version co-developed with v. similar functions in ONAP
    • Limited functionality/integration for now

    ...

    Use Cases

    "Helloworld" O-RU Fronthaul Recovery use case

    A very simplified closed-loop rApp use case to re-establish front-haul connections between  O-DUs and O-RUs if they fail. Not intended to to be 'real-world'

    Information about the use case can be found at:

    Code for the use case can be found at:

    "Helloworld" O-DU Slice Assurance use case

    A very simplified closed-loop rApp use case to re-prioritize a RAN slice's radio resource allocation priority if sufficient throughput cannot be maintained. Not intended to to be 'real-world'

    Information about the use case can be found at:

    Code for the use case can be found at: