Technical Charter for O-RAN Software Community

TOC Meeting Info

Technical Oversight Committee meetings are open to the public and held on Wednesdays at 8 AM Eastern Time USA.  World Time Zone Map

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2019 09 04

Agenda

1. Call for Scribe (minutes owner) Farheen Cefalu

2. Roll Call & Quorum Check 

   Company	Contact Name	Attendance	Alternate Contact	Attendance
   AT&T	Jack Murray Co-Chair	x
   China Mobile	Jinri Huang Co-Chair	x
   Deutsche Telekom	David Streibl
   NTT DOCOMO	Masafumi Masuda
   O-RANge	William Diego	x	Vincent Danno
   Verizon	Viswa Kumar	x

   *Quorum: 50% or more of total TSC voting members unless excluded due to attendance.  We have a quorum and can vote on activities.  

3. Review and Agree to Minutes of Previous Meeting
   1. The minutes of the prior meeting were reviewed, and there were no corrections. On motion made by Jinri Huang and seconded by William DIEGO  the minutes of the August 28, 2019 meeting were the approved by the TOC members. 
      1. VOTE: Vote taken, item passed.
4. Review of Today's Agenda
   1. Jinri - Claudia, new agenda item.  WG3 raised an issue and would like to add it to todays agenda.
5. Status of Open Action Items (Old Business)
   1. Action/ Thoralf Czichy read out the status of the issue with signing of the CLA and the open ticket. 2019-09-04: This is now resolved. Not sure where the problem was, but it's likely around companies where there are multiple CLA managers where multiple projects are managed. The whitelisting seems to work. I updated the instructions to properly also describe the case where there's only a CCLA and individual developers do not actually need to sign an additional ICLA. Also added some clarification in some of the steps: delta in "Signing Contributor License Agreement"
      
      1. Naming is still a little confusing.
      2. China Mobile has some questions on CLA.  We have two license.  For CLA does the CLA manager have to sign both?
         1. Yes. Both should be signed.
         2. It is OK to have two people sign two licenses.  
         3. The platform is still young and there were challenges signing the CLA.
            1. Action/ John Murray talk to Lusheng about the signing of names.
   2. Action/ Farheen Cefalu  add link to other upstream projects such as ONAP on the Release Planning page.
      1. Action/ John Murray will be working with Farheen Cefalu for the next weeks to coordinate the release schedule.
   3. Action/ Brian Freeman will send Architecture link to Jack Murray.
      1. Action/ John Murray will work with Farheen Cefalu
   4. Action/ Andrew Grimberg will check with the engineer of whether or not there is an automated process to auto-add the reviewers.
   5. Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide documentation and proposal.  
   6. Action/ Andrew Grimberg vet the TOC process with the TOC members.
   7. Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide clear instructions to TOC mail list on how TOC members can get a gerrit account and the process.
   8. Action/ Tracy Van Brakle  OSC Amber PoC ("Plugfest").  We need the TOC to decide how (or if) the Linux Foundation should (or should not) promote this particular LFN event.
      1. Slides are on the wiki
      2. China Mobile is sponsoring O-RAN "Plugfest" in parallel with a O-RAN-SC Amber PoC "Plugfest".  Do you want to promote the PoC Plugfest?  It will be December 2nd.  The readout would be December 4th.  It will take place as a parallel track with some overlap. 
         1. China Mobile is planning to host the Plugfest in December.  Is the PoC Plugfest the same thing?
            1. This is a proof of concept vs. a plugfest.  The O-RAN Alliance plugfest is featuring open fronthaul.  We want to compliment that with mPlane.
   9. O-RAN Alliance has a particular structure with LF.  There is no marketing activity from LF.  It is all budgeted to the O-RAN Alliance.  They have done some activities in the past.  It is conservative because of how it is funded.  It is not a simple activity to get the LF to promote or do work around LF activities.  Unlike ONAP that has a marketing activity funded around it.  We should look at how we can some activity as a promotion of a plugfest.  But give more attention to the Amber activities.  We should pick this discussion up and we should see where we can do plug and play activities.  Most on the A1O1 side and the xApp near Real time RIC.  Perhaps the simulator?  Does anyone know of an area that will have software at the end of release A? 
      1. We're trying to do a demo for NWC America around the December time frame. 
      2. Non real-time RIC?
         1. Demo ORAN 5G use cases with PNF Plug in Play.  another bulk management data that are 36PP aligned.  Show the hybrid architecture vs. heirarchical architecture using ONAP components.  One of the first things we did was to use the PoC Plugfest to promote the B release.
            1. LF and O-RAN Alliance will 
            2. Action/ Farheen Cefalu continue to keep the discussion open next week regarding Plugfest.
6. Standing Agenda Items (Brief Status of Ongoing Activities)
   1. Release Manager/Release Planning: Weekly TOC Scheduling
   2. Release planning link.
      1. Action/ PTLs update the email list of where they are at and what progress they have made.  Create a brief summary and then we will review the mail with the working groups.
   3. There is a WG review item.  Guidance on the review.
      1. We will have time between development sprints 1 and 2 to review what sections of software.
         1. We should put together a clear list of what has been done.  Any demos of what is working and a quick discussion on what is planned for the next few releases.  Then hand off to O-RAN.
         2. Written document from each PTL to show the progress that has been made as a review checkpoint.  In future releases the demos will be a natural part of the process.
         3. Next Friday will be our bi-weekly TSC call where each WG and software community TOC should present their progress.  It's good to provide a summary of the overall progress.  Every two months is when we can report out on significant progress.  The milestones of reporting to O-RAN are tied to milestones in the software efforts.  Action/ Farheen Cefalu send a message to the PTLs to provide a one page summary of their progress.
         4. Action/ Farheen Cefalu add B release naming to the Agenda.
7. Report out from PTL: Stand-Up & Report Out on Blockers
   1. Non real time RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) - John Keeney
      1. Ericsson has ramped up their commitments to 10 developers.  
      2. Difficult to see a clear line of working with ONAP working with O-SC.  Concerned about coordination of the 10 developers between ONAP and O-SC.  TOC set up a process for upstreaming and project alignment.  Becoming difficult to provide a clear description of work items to the developers as the PTL.
         1. 5G is popular and ONAP wants to contribute.  It drives people to participate but it does create confusion and overlap.  We need to continue to get clarification.  ONAP is not the only non-real time RIC platform that is supported.  There are options for others.  
         2. The general discussions have been around the fact that it's an upstream project that will be used in our releases.  Clarify what is the platform and what are the services that run on the platform.  Some platform evolution has to be related to 5G.  This should be a discussion on our October agenda on how we deal with our relationship on our upstream projects. 
            1. Using released versions where possible. We are going to acquire and contribute back to projects such as ONAP.  We are looking at a G release when we will be using it.  We don't want to sit idly by.  We should set up a formal way to approach.
               1. We need to keep discussing and evolving our relationship.
   2. RIC Applications - Matti Hiltunen
   3. RIC Platform - Thoralf Czichy
      1. 2019-09-04: Some legal issues currently prevent us from contributing further to some of the repos. Legal discussion takes time. Solution should come in anything between 1 to 4 weeks. This also affects some of the RIC xApps (MC and UE Manager).  Consequences are there will be delays to the RIC platform.
         1. All contributions or certain elements?
            1. Certain elements. 
   4. O-RAN Centralized Unit user-a934b
   5. O-RAN Distributed Unit High Sachin Srivastava
   6. O-RAN Distributed Unity Low Zhimin Yuan
   7. O-RAN Radio Unit (TBD)
   8. Operations and Maintenance - Martin Skorupski
   9. Simulations - Alex Stancu
   10. Infrastructure - Xiaohua Zhang
       1. Orange can not contribute to Release A.
          1. Linux Edge meetings discussed with Akraino project.  We need to put Akraino on the list of the upstream project that we want to have our relationship with.
   11. DOC - weichen ni
       1. I don't know how to test the docs structure.

8. Test & Integration Planning - Lusheng

   1. Every company should have one person who participates in the test and integration planning.  Companies should designate a representative.
9. Requirements Software Architecture Committee - Rittwik

10. New Agenda Items (New Business): New Items Submitted (+speaker) & Open Call to TOC For Additional Items

    1. Action/Claudio Coletti WG3 raising a concern of prospect of  E2 release by OSC.
       1. We decided to postpone our first release.  Release A targets November which is not aligned with O-RAN perspective with WG3.  It is important to guarantee WG3 is captured in the E2 implementation release.  We are not cross checking the progress. 
          1. Challenges with moving the software forward because we are early in the process.  Agree that we should come up with terminology and activity but we should not slow down the progress.
             1. There will be something that looks like E2 before O-RAN Alliance publishes.
          2. We're thinking of having an O-RAN Alliance demo and not sure how to take care of this issue.  It is coming from O-RAN Alliance.
             1. I am concerned about the November release and what it will look like to E2 specs.  Will we have public MACD and pre-spec.
             2. Action/ Claudio Coletti raise the issue with O-RAN Alliance.
             3. Jun Hyuk Song we don't know about message types and what kind of information elements it carries.  It is a serious problem.  I hope WG3 can look at the pre E2 spec to get feedback.
                
                1. Each project has its own documentation.
                   1. They don't have documentation
                      1. There is document floating around but it is not in public repos yet because of legal issues.
                      2. Eventually when the document is public it will elaborate the details
                2. We have to trust that WG3 is going to work through the issues.
             4. KPI monitor xApp.  We need to know E2 message.  We are making up our own.  We need to have a pre-spec which is the only way to minimize issues between WG3. 
                1. Action/ Farheen Cefalu add this to our agenda but this is a part of the software architecture issue.  
                2. Action/ Jun Hyuk Song start the dialogue on the email list.
    2. Action/ John Murray 3GPP discussion
11. Any Other Business (AOB)
12. Meeting Summary (resolutions, new action items, etc.)

2019 08 28

Zoom meeting: 2019-08-28-toc.mp4

Agenda

1. Call for Scribe (minutes owner) Farheen Cefalu (AT&T)

2. Roll Call & Quorum Check 

   Company	Contact Name	Attendance	Alternate Contact	Attendance
   AT&T	Jack Murray Co-Chair
   China Mobile	Jinri Huang Co-Chair	x
   Deutsche Telekom	David Streibl	x
   NTT DOCOMO	Masafumi Masuda	x
   O-RANge	William Diego	x	Vincent Danno
   Verizon	Viswa Kumar	x

   *Quorum: 50% or more of total TSC voting members unless excluded due to attendance.  We have a quorum and can vote on activities.  

3. Review and Agree to Minutes of Previous Meeting
   1. The minutes of the prior meeting were reviewed, and there were no corrections. On motion made by user-2057e  and seconded by William DIEGO  the minutes of the August 21, 2019 meeting were the approved by the TOC members. 
      1. VOTE: Vote taken, item passed.
4. Review of Today's Agenda
5. Status of Open Action Items (Old Business)
   1. Action/ Farheen Cefalu correct audio recording of previous minutes.
   2. Action/ Thoralf Czichy  open a ticket with LF regarding your issues with CLA instructions.  Or email Trishan de Lanerolle directly.
      1. Issues are related to CLA.  Lusheng - Companies are having problems signing the O-RAN CLA.  When our contributors try to sign they see their company already listed due to previous signing of ONAP CLA.  Most companies have already gone thru the process with ONAP. They see their company already listed because of previous signing of ONAP.  When a CLA manager who has already signed the document for ONAP uses the CLA tool they get a message that their company has not signed with O-RAN. This can be resolved by having the company sign both O-RAN and ONAP CLAs by the same legal entity or have LF support the process to accept a signature that has previously signed the ONAP CLA.
         1. Trishan - We have been working the issue.
         2. Thoralf - We had discussion with Jacob.  Seems to work to the extent that the CLA manager can add individual emails to the white list.  Issue is progress.  White list requirement is signing of CLA.  Keeping the ticket open until we confirm it works.
         3. Jinri - Lusheng has written a tutorial on the CLA but it is only for a sunny day scenario.
         4. Action/ Thoralf Czichy read out the status of the issue with signing of the CLA and the open ticket.
   3. Action/ Farheen Cefalu  add link to other upstream projects such as ONAP on the Release Planning page.
   4. Action/ Brian Freeman will send Architecture link to Jack Murray.
   5. Action/ Farheen Cefalu update the navigation bar and the TOC page.
   6. Action/ user-d3360 post the recorded test and integration team meetings on the wiki.
   7. Action/ Farheen Cefalu  take a look at email from yesterday to main@list regarding the Events page. Encouraged to register.
      1. Will the meetings in Costa Rica be available remotely?
         1. Yes.
   8. Action/ user-d3360 discuss new Linux Foundation process for repo/committer management using an INFO.yaml file at TOC.
      1. LF is stream lining the process by updating the INFO.yml file added to the root of each repo.  We need TOC support to switch to the new operating procedure.  Trishan and Andy can support us with the new automated procedure.
         • Andrew Grimberg - Info.yml is how to see who the committers on the project are.  Current schema was worked on for six months.  The initial schema was built out last year long before O-RAN.  Info.yml is simple file that defines the repo who the committers are and regular meeting info and mailing lists.  Well defined schema.  Automation - self automation for committers.  Committers can vote amongst themselves and notify the TOC and can allow committers to self commit and add the governing body as well.  We have a job on jenkins that checks if there are enough people to vote such as plus 1 and plus 2 and quorum before it can be merged.  Back end gives committer rites.  Not quite ready with the automation yet.
           • Thoralf - How can TOC approval be done?
             • committer voting is plus one and plus two.
             • repo creation will hold the initial seed info.yml files and the TOC will be able to vote.
             • How will the TOC approval for committers be done?
               • The TOC approvers will be able to do the plus one in gerrit.  This is in beta.  
             • What about multiple sub-repos?
               • Each repo will have to have this info.yml file. Heirarchical inheritance is not viable in github so add a info.yml file at the root of every repo including sub-repos.
             • Lets say verify job passes do we need to explicitly add the committers or will the system auto-add the reviewers?
               • Action/ Andrew Grimberg will check with the engineer of whether or not the automated process to auto-add the reviewers.
             • When will it be ready?
               • Technically it is being used now.  Chris Lott made a push to get most of the info.yml files but there is no documentation.  Documentation has to be added.
               • Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide documentation and proposal.  
               • Action/ Andrew Grimberg vet the TOC process with the TOC members.
                 • Issue with TOC members who don't log into gerrit.  Not difficult but the TOC have logged in at least once.
                 • Martin Skorupski  - Having issues with invalid info.yml file.  
                   • Send it directly to Andrew Grimberg
               • Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide clear instructions on how TOC members how to get a gerrit account and the process through email list.
   9. Action/ user-59b16 discuss MWC americas 2019 demo plan
      1. Demo got gate 1 approval. 
      2. Pending booth approval.
      3. Thoralf check with Ramsey for approval.
         1. Thoralf - I sent him a reminder.
         2. Rittwik - it is an urgent request.
         3. Jinri - next meeting is September 9.  Paul will bring this.

1. Standing Agenda Items (Brief Status of Ongoing Activities)
   1. Release Manager/Release Planning: Weekly TOC Scheduling
   2. Release planning link.
      1. Ganesh (Radisys) - assistance with Jira access for Sachin?
         1. Lusheng - I can assist. 
2. Report out from PTL: Stand-Up & Report Out on Blockers
   1. Non real time RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) - John Keeney
      1. We are struggling with multiple java versions.  Such as ONAP is running with java 8 and O-RAN is running with java 7.  This may be an issue for the test and integration planning.
         1. Lusheng - Let's discuss at test meeting.  We will try to provide base doc image layers to unify the platform but not prepared to do this in release Amber.
   2. RIC Applications - Matti Hiltunen
   3. RIC Platform - Thoralf Czichy
      1. Add committer request for Hila Anina  ric-plt/nodeb-rnib. On motion made by Thoralf Czichy and seconded by user-2057e
         1. VOTE: Vote taken, item passed.
   4. O-RAN Centralized Unit user-a934b
   5. O-RAN Distributed Unit High Sachin Srivastava
   6. O-RAN Distributed Unity Low Zhimin Yuan
   7. O-RAN Radio Unit (TBD)
   8. Operations and Maintenance - Martin Skorupski
   9. Simulations - Alex Stancu
   10. Infrastructure - Xiaohua Zhang
   11. DOC - weichen ni

3. Test & Integration Planning - Lusheng

   1. Sonar reporting issue.  No longer blocked.  
      1. Thoralf - We are blocked for two weeks but it is complicated.
         1. Andrew is OK with getting the repo in pieces.  Include Thoralf.
4. Requirements Software Architecture Committee - Rittwik

5. New Agenda Items (New Business): New Items Submitted (+speaker) & Open Call to TOC For Additional Items

   1. An AP from Executive Committee: to evaluate & identify any content during our SW development requiring 3GPP's permission and, to estimate when it needs interaction with 3GPP;
   2. Jinri - 3GPP copyrite issue.  during software development for O-CU some content such as a table from 3GPP specs. Table is from 3GPP spec.  Before implementing this code it needs to be approved by 3GPP.  Jack brought this to EC.  Two ways.  Treat this issue case by case.  EC to EGPP.  O-RAN Alliance is seeking an umbrella agreement with 3GPP that will cover all the cases.
      1. Development focus member will have a general discussion.  Evaluate and identify content that requires 3GPP conditions.  We do have a lot.  If so we have issues.  
         1. What does 3GPP permission mean?
            1. Lets say we have modulation scheme index (table) will be defined in 3GPP.  We need to implement something with this table then we need the copy-rite permission from 3GPP to permission.
            2. This is pre-spec.  Concerned that we will have to get permission from every table on a case by case basis.
               1. Team is investigating an umbrella agreement to simplify the process.
6. Any Other Business (AOB)
   1. Jinri will talk to Jack about covering progress as well as blockers from the PTLs.  Suggestion to make it monthly or use release milestones.
7. Meeting Summary (resolutions, new action items, etc.)
   1. Votes
      1. The minutes of the prior meeting were reviewed, and there were no corrections. On motion made by user-2057e  and seconded by William DIEGO  the minutes of the August 21, 2019 meeting were the approved by the TOC members. 
         1. VOTE: Vote taken, item passed.
      2. Add committer request for Hila Anina  ric-plt/nodeb-rnib. On motion made by Thoralf Czichy and seconded by user-2057e
         1. VOTE: Vote taken, item passed.
   2. Actions
      1. Action/ Thoralf Czichy read out the status of the issue with signing of the CLA and the open ticket.
      2. Action/ Farheen Cefalu  add link to other upstream projects such as ONAP on the Release Planning page.
      3. Action/ Brian Freeman will send Architecture link to Jack Murray.
      4. Action/ Andrew Grimberg will check with the engineer of whether or not the automated process to auto-add the reviewers.
      5. Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide documentation and proposal.  
      6. Action/ Andrew Grimberg vet the TOC process with the TOC members.
      7. Action/ Andrew Grimberg provide clear instructions to TOC mail list on how TOC members can get a gerrit account and the process.