Page 179 - 5G Basics - Core Network Aspects

Core network aspects 1

The RL-MS functional component also provides lifecycle management of all RL software-based components,
including the RL-CS functional component.

7.4 Multi-layer management functions

The MMF provides functionalities for managing the functionalities of SDN layers, i.e., SDN-AL, SDN-CL and
SDN-RL. MMF interacts with these layers using MMFA, MMFC, and MMFR reference points. MMF
interoperates with 3rd party management systems, for example for billing, customer care, statistics
collection or dynamic service provisioning, therefore a reference point to the operator management systems
also exists (e.g., the MMF OSS/BSS (MMFO) reference point in Figure 7-1). MMF is also responsible for the
orchestration of dynamically deployed MMF services and coordinated (orchestrated) reconfiguration of SDN-
RL resources.
MMF includes functionalities for supporting FCAPS as described in [ITU-T M.3400]. Examples of such
functionalities are equipment inventory, fault isolation, performance optimization, and initial configuration
of the SDN-RL, SDN-CL and SDN-AL. MMF is also responsible for the lifecycle management of software-based
components contained in the SDN layers. By considering energy and environmental constraints, MMF
provides energy efficient operations of virtual and physical resources used for the implementation of all
layers. The functionality can be realized by energy-aware algorithms supported by resource status monitoring
and analytics.

MMF interacts with the developers' environment to support the development of the SDN software
components by building a ready-to-deploy software package. The software package consists of both the
service implementation software and also the configuration metadata and scripts. The test management
produces reports of the executed tests and these can be communicated to the SDN operator.
As shown in Figure 7-5, MMF functions include RLM, control layer management (CLM), application layer
management (ALM), multi-layer management orchestration (MMO) and external relationship management
(ERM) functional components. The internal lines of the MMF block do not represent reference points. They
simply show relationships among functional components.

MMF can delegate some management operations, specifically those which require intensive exchange of
data with the SDN-CL to be performed directly by the SDN-CL (e.g., so-called autonomous management
operations). Delegated operations are performed by the AL-MSO, CL-MSO and RL-MS functional
components.
NOTE – Details of MMF functional components are provided in Annex A.

Figure 7-5 – MMF internal structure and reference points

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