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5G Use Case(s) for Nephio

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Contributors

—--

Prakash Ramachandran smsprakash@gmail.com

Ravi Ravindran r.ravindran@f5.com

Sundar Nadathur (ns1.sundar@gmail.com)

Sukhdev Kapur

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General Requirements GR-001….

The level 1 scoping

ID

Topic

Description

GR-001

Use Cases

Nephio will support different 5G use cases

GR-002

Slice

Nephio will support Standard Slicing based on GSMAA and 3GPP

GR-003

Slice

Nephio will support E-2-E Slicing

GR-004

API

It will support Northbound and Southbound APIs for E-2-E orchestration and automation

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Technical Requirements TR-001…

The level 1 scoping

ID

Topic

Description

TR-001

Architecture

Nephio will support or use 3GPP Release 16 or higher with O-RAN Enhancements.

TR-002

Components

Nephio will support multi-vendor RU, DU & CUs

TR-003

Cloud

Nephio will manage the Distributed Edge/Cloud Infrastructure (Compute, Storage & Network) to support RAN and Core Workloads.

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Disaggregated RAN deployment with Slicing scenarios

  • Network Slicing
  • Core+Transport+RAN
  • Regional + Edge + Cell Site
  • CUPs architecture
  • Backhaul-Midhaul-Fronthaul
  • Use cases for 5G must consider component distribution besides core on RAN front

​

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5G RAN (Small Cell Radio for eMBB slicing based on O-RAN)

SMO - Service Management & Orchestration (e.g. ONAP/EMCO)

NSSMF - Network Slicing Selection Management Function

Non-RT RIC and Near-RT RIC are required for Slice Assurance

O2 is for Infrastructure Cloud Management(IMS) & Deployment Management Service(DMS) and O1 for RAN NFs Configuration

https://www.o-ran.org/

NSSMF

End-to-End SO

Nephio Cluster (RAN)

Cloud Infra + Cluster LCM

NF LCM

NF Configuration

(open API)

Edge Cluster-1

(O-Cloud)

Edge Cluster-N

(O-Cloud)

…

Operator

Operator

Operator

O2-I

O2-D

O1

K8S-API

K8S-API

SMO

Near-RT RIC

A1

Non-RT RIC

Transport SO.

5GC SO.

(Open API)

NSSMF

O1/O2

(TBD)

(TBD)

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Components of 5G RAN (MVP for eMBB Slice)

Component#

Name

Specs/Standard

Logical-Interfaces

Location

1

RU

O-RAN

O-FH 7.2(C,U,S,M), RF

Cell Site

2

DU

O-RAN/3GPP

F1C,F1U,E2

Cell Site/Edge*

3

CU-CP

3GPP/O-RAN

F1C,Xn-c,E1,E2,A1

Regional Edge/Central

4

CU-UP

3GPP/O-RAN

F1U,Xn-u,E1,E2,A1

Edge/ Regional Edge / Central

5

Near-RT-RIC

O-RAN

E2,A1,O1

Regional/Central

6

Non-RT-RIC

O-RAN

A1,O1

Central

7

O-Cloud

CNCF/K8s/

Nephio Cluster

LAN,WAN,O2

Cell Site /Edge/Regional /Central

* The quantification of Edge/Regional Edge/Central Cloud distance from the O-RU can be referred from O-RAN-CAD document.

* In the absence of an Edge build out, O-Cloud instance can be present at the Cell Site where the DU is hosted.

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Small Cell Deployment Considerations

  • C-RAN versus D-RAN
    • Edge cloud instances could vary between 10k-100k or more depending on the Operator, Region, Coverage and Capacity
  • Demography
    • Rural/Urban/Dense-Urban/Private
  • Indoor or Outdoor Deployments
    • Private Enterprise or Managed, Commercial deployments
  • Mobility
    • Fixed or Mobile UEs
  • Based on the 5G Service
    • Embb/URLLC/MMTC
    • RAN+Core at Site to Multi-cloud deployment model
    • MORAN/MOCN and RU Sharing among Slices
  • FR1/FR2 Spectrum
    • Integrated DU+RU versus based on O-FH
  • Incremental versus Greenfield
    • NSA versus SA mode

→ These factors shall be part of the Systems, Networking, Security, Management Environment Blueprint in the OpenAPI

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Small Cell Deployment Requirements

  • O-Cloud Infrastructure Requirements
    • Inventory/Cluster Management
      • HW/SW Management
    • CAAS/PAAS Requirements for NFs
      • OS/Compute/Memory/Accelerator/Networking/Storage requirements
      • Monitoring/Logging/Tracing/Load Balancing/Certificate Mgmt/Service Discovery/Service Mesh/CI-CD etc.
  • CU/DU Requirements
    • Functional Requirements
      • F1/E1/XN/E2/O1/O2
      • Mobility Requirements
        • Inter-DU/Intra-DU/Inter-CU/Intra-CU
    • Non-functional Requirements
      • Scale In/Out
      • Cardinality - CU:DU, DU:RU
      • HA
      • Security (Midhaul, Fronthaul, Backhaul)
      • Timing and Synchronization
      • FM/PM
      • Hardware Acceleration
  • O-RU Requirements
    • FR1 Indoor Pico Cell Configuration
    • FR1 Outdoor Microcell Configuration
    • FR2 Outdoor Microcell Configuration

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Small Cell Deployment Requirements

  • O-FH C/U/S/M Requirements
    • Control Plane Requirements
      • Relevant Section Types (0-7)
    • User Plane Requirements
      • E-Cpri flow configuration (eAxC)
      • Transport flow prioritization (C/U/S/M)
      • U plane Compression method
      • Separation of C/U (Ethernet) and S/M (IP) flows
    • Sync Plane Requirements
      • C1-C4 Synchronization Topology Support
        • C3 is the most common Sync configuration for Small Cell Indoors
      • PTP/SyncE Requirements
      • Sync Profile - ITU-T 8275.1/8275.2
    • M-Plane Requirements
      • Hierarchical/Hybrid Model
      • Startup/installation
      • SW Management
      • CM/PM/FM
      • File Management
      • C/U/S Interface Management
      • Synchronization Management

​

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Small Cell Deployment Requirements

  • RAN Configuration
    • Support for Embb Service/Support for SA Mode (Option 2)
    • Dual Connectivity in SA Mode/Carrier Aggregation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • QoS/5QI/QCI Support for Embb service at the infrastructure level
    • DL/UL MIMO/M-MIMO Support and Configurations
    • Support for SON , Non-RT and Near-RT RIC Optimization frameworks
    • Mobility - Intra/Inter frequency, intra/Inter-DU, inter-CU
    • Security - PDCP/RRC Signaling Ciphering
    • Services (AR/VR, Realtime Video/Voice, VoD etc..)
    • Protocols - OFH/FI-U/FI-C/N3/N2/O1/O2/E1/E2
  • Timing and Synchronization Requirements
    • TAE requirements

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Small Cell Deployment Requirements

  • RIC Requirements
    • Near-RT RIC and Non-RT RIC
  • RAN Slicing Requirements
    • RAN Slice Provisioning and Monitoring
    • RAN Slice Modification and Deletion
    • RAN Slice SLA Assurance
    • Slice Assurance through non-RT and Near-RT RIC
  • FH/MH/BH Requirements
    • Slicing/QoS/Security Requirements
  • Security Requirements
    • HW/SW Security
    • Cluster Security
    • Interface Security

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Components of 5GC

Component#

Name

Specs/Standard

Logical-Interfaces

Location

1

AMF

5GC Standard,SCP

N1,N2,Namf,O2

Central

2

SMF

5GC-eMBB,SCP

N2,Nsmf,O2

Regional/Central

3

UPF

5GC-eMBB,SCP

N3,N4,N6,N9,O2

Edge/Regional/Central

4

AUSF

5GC-NAS,SCP

Nausf,O2

Central

5

SMSF

5GC-SMSF,SCP

Nsmsf,O2

Central

6

UDSF

5GC-NUDSF,SCP

Nudsf,O2

Central

7

NSSAF

5GC-NSSAF,SCP

Nssaf,O2

Central

8

NSSF

5GC-NSSF,SCP

Nnssf,O2

Central

9

NRF

5GC-NRF,SCP

Nnrf, O2

Central

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Components of 5GC

Component#

Name

Specs/Standard

Logical-Interfaces

Location

10

UDR

5GC-UDR,SCP

Nudr,O2

Central

11

UDM

5GC-UDM,SCP

Nudm,O2

Central

12

PCF

5GC-PCF,SCP

Npcf,O2

Central

13

NEF

5GC-NEF,SCP

Nnef,O2

Central

14

AF

5GC-AF,SCP

Naf,O2

Central

15

DN

5GC-DN,SCP

Ndn,O2

Central

16

UE

excluded

X

​

17

( R)AN

excludes

X

​

18

CSR

excluded

x

​

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5GC SA (Components from OAI / Magma / NEPs)

OAI 5G Core Refer : https://openairinterface.org/

Magma 5G Core Refer : https://github.com/magma/magma/

Free5gC - Refer :https://github.com/free5gc

Firecell - Refer : https://firecell.io/

NEPs (Others may be Mavenier, F5, Free5Gcore… many more)

Refer : Nokia

Refer Ericsson

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Summary - Recommendations

  • 5G RAN System Functions should be part of Nephio Roadmap.
  • Focus on mapping vRAN requirements to OpenAPI CRDs (Scope & Status)
  • Need a document describing the Architecture, Use Cases and Requirements.
  • Operator should declare mandatory versus optional requirements considering a specific Small cell deployment scenario (an initial set is offered in the use case document) working with Vendors.
  • Vendors should offer their CNFs to be tested and validated against Nephio cluster functions as part of conformance or interoperability performance testing
  • Need a document bridging 5G Open Source to NSP’s commercial RAN deployments

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Glossary

​

​

​

GSMAA

GSM Association of America

eMBB

Enhance Mobile Broadband

BH

Backhaul

3GPP

3rd Gen project Proposal

MEC

Muti Edge Cloud Computing

5GC

5G Core

E-2-E

End to End

NF

Network Functions

NSA

Non Stand Alone (5G)

AN/CN

Access/Core Network

v*

Virtual*

SA

Stand Alone (5G)

RAN

Radio AN

CP

Control Plane

F1

FH Interface

RU

Radio Unit

UP

User Plane

O1/O2

O-Cloud / NF I/D Mgnt I/F

DU

Distributed Unit

SP

Synch Plane

E1

Ethernet internal I/F

CU

Central Unit

MP

Management Plane

Xn

3GPP RAN I/F

O-*

Open *

FH

Fronthaul

CPRI

Common Public radio i/f

SMO

Service Mgmt Object

MH

Mid Haul

eCPRI

Ethernet CPRI i/f

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Q&A

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RU 7.2

Radio Unit (RU)

stack

(LowPhy + RF)

C

U

RF

S

M

O-FH (7.2)

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RU 7.2

Radio Unit (RU)

stack

(LowPhy + RF)

RF

O-FH (7.2) (C/U/S/M)

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DU

DU

(RLC +MAC + Hi-PHY)

FI-c

FI-u

E2

O-FH (7.2)

O1

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CU-CP

CU-CP

(RRC + PDCP)

E1

FI-c

Xn-c

N2

E2

O1

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CU-UP

CU-UP

(SDAP+ PDCP)

E1

FI-u

E2

Xn-u

N3

O1

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Near-RT-RIC

Near-RT Platform

(Platform Functions + XApps)

A1

E2

O1

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Non-RT-RIC

Non-RT Platform

(Platform Functions + RApps)

R1

A1

SMO

O1

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O-Cloud

​

​

For RU/DU/CU

O-Cloud

​

O2(IMS/DMS)

WAN

IPMI

LAN

For RU/DU/CU/Near-RT RIC

O-Cloud

​

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Backup

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OAI Non-roaming 5GC Architecture

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5G Core Architecture (Courtesy Nokia)

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Appendix

A1:

  • O-RAN-wg
  • NWDAF (AIML)
  • Mavenier O-RAN Architecture
  • CSR

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A1: O-RAN-wg

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O-RAN-Architecture (Courtesy Mavenier)

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CSR

​

​

Radio Unit (RU)

stack

LowPhy + RF

C

U

RF

S

M

This i feel is specific to a cloud deployment and inter-connection to the transport orthogonal to the Embb service itself..

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Logic O-RAN Architecture including UE & O-eNB

https://openairinterface.org/oai-5g-ran-project/ can replace eNB by gNB)