Page 219 - 5G Basics - Core Network Aspects

Core network aspects 1

In general, S-NICE orchestration functions provide open environment to the third party applications and self-
operated applications and support ''on demand'' configuration in order to provide ''dynamic'' resource
control, registration, authentication and authorization capabilities at the service level upon the request of
applications.

S-NICE orchestration functions connect with S-NICE controller functions, which may include multiple S-NICE
controllers, and provide the capabilities (such as route selection, network monitoring) to the third party and
self-operated applications. Moreover, S-NICE orchestration functions monitor the whole network status and
notify the applications if applicable.
S-NICE orchestration functions provide information provision to applications, such as provision of network
topology, route path setting and delivery node selection.
S-NICE orchestration functions also provide conflict management and negotiation mechanism to maintain
policy consistency among different S-NICE controllers.

7.2.1 Access control FE
The access control FE provides the functions including application programming interface (API) translation,
authentication and authorization, request and response relaying.
1) API translation

The access control FE parses the requests as received from different applications to perform different actions
include request authentication, authorization and resource invoking.
2) Authentication and authorization

The access control FE interacts with other functional entities (such as the service user profile FE) to achieve
end-user, application and service related identity information for authentication and authorization.

The request is authenticated to identify the application identity securely and further authorized (e.g., the
request needs to consume protected resource controlled by the resource provider which has the right of
granting application to access the resource) according to the approval of the resource provider and service
level agreements (SLAs).
3) Request and response relaying

The access control FE forwards the request and response between applications and target resource.
7.2.2 Service management FE

The service management FE provides service discovery, service registration and service governance
functionalities, the service management FE also maintains a catalogue of the registered service interacting
with the service repository FE.
The service management FE processes the service registration request from service providers. The service
information is stored in service catalogue. When one service needs to be registered or unregistered, the
service management FE adds or removes subscription of the service from the local catalogue as well as
notifies the service repository FE accordingly.

During service registration process, the service management FE sends service interface description and
service routing related information to the service repository FE, which stores the information for further
application development purpose.

The registered services are orchestrated by the service orchestration FE before providing them to the users
and applications.

The service management FE supports to utilize the abstracted network resource of the underlying physical
or virtualized infrastructure to perform service creation.

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