Theme: Make the platform more robust in handling E2AP, conflicts and A1

Original primary goals based on contributions from Nokia, Samsung, Capgemini, HCL Alexandre Huff (UTFPR), GS Lab and Abhijit G:

• Additional messages: modify src code to be more lenient in ordering of IEs in ASN.1 (RIC-1030, GS)
• tests with mock replies for subscriptions, registrations and alarms in xapp framework for Rust (RIC-1028, AG)
• Handling of E2 Error Indication from E2 node at E2M and Sub manager (RIC-1024, N)
• Graceful Handling of Unsupported E2AP Procedure at E2T (RIC-1023, N)
• Handling of SCTP Abort message from E2 Node (RIC-1022, N)  
• remove leading zeros in gnb, cu, du ID , MCC and MNC (RIC-1021, N)
• Abnormal signaling process cause E2Term crash (Bug RIC-1002, N)
• Handling of RIC Error indication _during_ E2 setup (RIC-997, N)
• E2 Conflict management between xApps (RIC-993, CG)
• implement test cases for xapp-frame-cpp (RIC-950, H)
• Support Startup/Health script demonstrating release capabilities (RIC-926, H)
• A1 mediator testing in nanobot (RIC-926, H)
• xapp testing nanobot enhancements: wider coverage of functionality, e.g., Subscription deletion (RIC-860, H)
• scale-in and scale out using K8S operators (details still open) (RIC-1048, S)

Link to planned Jira work items: link

Completed Items:

• Graceful Handling of Unsupported E2AP Procedure at E2T (RIC-1023, N)
• Handling of SCTP Abort message from E2 Node (RIC-1022, N)  
• Abnormal signaling process cause E2Term crash (Bug RIC-1002, N)
• Handling of RIC Error indication _during_ E2 setup (RIC-997, N)

Achieved J release highlights = high-level release notes (23-06-2024) below (note that the release image list is here: TODO)

• Robustness in E2 AP procedure handling by means of handling unsupported E2AP Procedures, RIC Error Indication and SCTP abort messages.
• Then near real times installation now uses newer k8s version 1.28.x.
• Upgraded kong to newer version 2.38.0

The J release has 7 bugs fixed.

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

Status 23-06-2024: From the 13 epics planned (link) we implemented 3 (link). 10 items have been moved out of the J release, e.g, because of implementation delays (link). Additionally, we fixed 7 bugs (link). One security issue is pending RIC-1001(CVE-2023-41627) to be resolved and will be attempted in next release. 

J release source code, container images and deployment instructions

The list of container images for the release (link). A demo video for the J release deployment is available at the top of the demo page - TODO  and 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 and check the E2 subscriptions the xApp created.

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

Mapping of new features to O-RAN Spec

RIC-1024, RIC-997 relate to correct implementation of ErrorIndication as defined in E2AP in addition to other failure cases that are defined in E2AP.

RIC-993 is an implementation of E2 guidance for conflict mitigation (see RICHARCH 6.0 draft). As WG3 is still in the process of specifying this we may have to adapt later.