Mission: Update to newer O-RAN specs (E2,A1,O2,O1) and related features.

Original primary goals: Update to E2APv1.1 (E2 Node configuration transfer in E2 Setup and E2 Configuration Update (even if likely changing again in E2APv2.0) and E2SM OID support in internal E2SM function query interfaces) // support for A1-EI (as per A1APv3.0) // support for O2 as per WG6 use cases // support for RIC-708 O1-CM to xApps // RIC-734 Include time series database into RIC platform (InfluxDB) for usage by xApps // RIC-421 O1 mediator graceful restart with O1 data being persisted over restarts // Concrete alarms from RIC platform (related to message overload): RIC-204, RIC-203 // SDK package, well documented interfaces to be used by xApps via xApp frameworks // Portability SDK (in xApp project) // REST interface for subscription management. 35 Epics planned: link and 11 items as stretch goals: link

Achieved D release highlights = high-level release notes (2021-06-28) below (note that the release image list is here: Near-RT RIC (D release))

• Some of the features are demoed here: 2021-06-08 Dawn. An extract of more fine-grained per component releases notes can be found in the attachement of [this page].
• REST interface for xApps towards E2 subscription manager. No need to encode E2AP subscription messages in the xApps anymore. The Xapp framework for Go already supports/uses this.
• Support for A1-EI (Enhancement information) to xApps. The A1 container now uses Ubuntu base image (like all others) and not Alpine anymore.
  
• SDL: multiple groups of SDL standalone or sentinel instances.
• SDL-py: Pack all the events in a channel to one DB notification to be in line with SDL Golang
• A lot of extra load/scalability testing (using a new bouncer xApp) and functionality testing (E2, ...) was done under RIC-150 using a "bouncer xApp".
• Wider scope of the xapp framework for python related to SDL, xapp registration, RNIB and E2AP handling.
• We added InfluxDB as optional platform service time series database (RIC-734)
  
• Support for O2 as per WG6 use case "Deploy xAPP in Near-RT RIC" in O-RAN Orchestration Use Cases v2.0. This also includes a change in how xApps register as part of their startup.
• libe2ap (asn1c-based) can be re-used by components to encode/decode E2AP ASN.1 PDUs (Protocol Data Unit)
• E2 statistics are now visible as VES metrics events
• RMR raises alarms using the RIC alarm system in temporary overload situations
• The Near-RT RIC can be deployed on Kubernetes 1.18 and helm 3. For the first time, this and all robot framework based "end-to-end" tests have also been verified in the O-RAN SC lab.
• The Near-RT RIC project now achieved the CII (Core Infrastructure Initiative) badge "passing": (link).

Status 2021-06-2430: Work is about to complete completed for the following 26 (20 epics and 6 "others") items link. 24 of these are already "done". The following 23 items (16 epics and 7 "others") we had to move out from Dawn content link. None of the stretch goals (link) has been worked on. See release highlights (above) for what has been achieved. Most notable items that were dropped are support for the E2APv1.1 capabilities "config transfer" and "OID support (i.e., we continue with E2APv1.0), RIC-708 O1-CM to xApps. Discussion on the portability SDK is still work in progress. We continue to support all the existing SDKs via the xapp Frameworks for C++, python and go.

Status 2021-03-03: Work started on many items. 31 Epics planned: link and 15 items as stretch goals: link. Start of release snapshot (MS Excel): link For CII compliance (link)we now do some checks every two weeks in the status meeting and have started a Release criteria checklist template that we go through before releasing, Note that we update to E2APv1.1

Primary Goals:

• updates of OAM related interface definitions based on
  • YANG from WG4 - O-RAN Management Plane Specification - YANG Models 5.0 - November 2020 (with dependencies to IETF data models)
    • status: done
  • YANG from WG5 - O-RAN O1 Interface for O-DU 1.0 - YANG Models - November 2020 (with dependencies to 3GPP data models) 
    • status: after feedback of WG5, related merge request was abandoned - instead a pipline will be establish with O-RAN bitbuckets.  
  • YANG from WG1 - O1-interface (November 2020 train)
    • status: not approved by O-RAN
  • VES from ONAP DCAE - VES 7.2
    • status: done
  • Notification syntax from 3GPP TS 28.532 V16.6.0
• support D-Release use case "O-RU recovery"
  • see Feature Scope below
• handover SMO artifacts to new SMO project

D Feature Scope: 

• Update to OpenDaylight Silicon
• Support of Callhome via TLS
• CallHome to VES:pnfRegistration 
• o-ran-fm.yang/alarm-notif to VES:fault