Page 128 - 5G Basics - Core Network Aspects

1 Core network aspects

LINP operator may identify suitable administrative domains and select a specific one, when two or more
administrative domains can be used to provision a LINP. In such a case, it is the LINP operator's responsibility
to discover and select suitable virtual resources from multiple administrative domains.
6.1.3 Service developer

Service developers design, develop, test and maintain services by using service developer functions.
Developed services are deployed on a LINP, or else, on two or more LINPs when LINP federation is performed
(as in Figure 2 and Figure 3). Examples of services include data forwarding, data routing, or other kinds of
data processing like media transcoding.
Service deployment functions are used to deploy the services. The functions are implemented by network
operators (as shown in Figure 1) or by the service developer that programs the service. In the former case,
the service management interface (SMI) is provided by network operators. A figure describing the latter case
is presented in clause 13 (see Figure 9).

6.1.4 End-user
Once a service is deployed on a LINP, an end-user that has authority to access the LINP becomes ready to
utilize it.

User terminal functions deliver an end-user's request to gateway functions of a network operator in order to
get authorization to access a LINP. Once being authorized, user terminal functions can send and receive end-
user data through the UNI reference point.

6.1.5 LINP exchanger
Two or more LINPs belonging to different administrative domains may be federated so that a service can be
provisioned across multiple administrative domains. A LINP exchanger provides LINP federation functions to
complete LINP federation [b-VNode Federation].

Figure 2 shows an example of LINP federation where a LINP exchanger federates two LINPs from two different
administrative domains. In this example, the LINP operator providing a service on a LINP that belongs to one
of the two administrative domains may not have direct access to the LINP management functions residing in
the other administrative domain. Federation functions of the LINP exchanger intermediate the process in
which the two LINPs and the constituent virtual resources are coordinated to ensure defined connectivity,
thus eliminating the need for the LINP operator to have cross-administrative domain access to the LINP
management functions.

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