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).

For the D release of the near-RT RIC we did only limited integration testing: only the use case: deploy RIC, deploy xApp and make E2 connection were tested.

Status 2021-07-05: Work is completed for the following 25 (19 epics and 6 "others") items link. All of these are already "done". The following 24 items (17 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

D release source code, container images and deployment instructionsTODO

Each repository has a branch named "dawn" that can be accessed using git: "git clone --branch dawn "https://gerrit.o-ran-sc.org/r/ric-plt/e2". Make sure to replace the URL with correct repositories. Note that this branch is in maintenance and all new development is done in branch "master". The complete list of repositories belonging to  the RIC platform is defined here: Scope of the near-RT RIC platform and its components (summary).

In order to deploy the D release of the near-RT RIC platform you can re-use the pre-created container images as defined here. The same instructions as always apply, i.e., follow the general latest instructions: https://docs.o-ran-sc.org/projects/o-ran-sc-ric-plt-ric-dep/en/latest/ → Installing Near Realtime RIC in RIC Cluster, but make sure to use "git clone --branch dawn ..." instead of "git clone ..." when cloning it/dep and ric-plt/ric-dep.