Page 115 - ITU-T Focus Group IMT-2020 Deliverables

ITU-T Focus Group IMT-2020 Deliverables 3

• SDN-O: Oversees network connectivity and network virtualization over an SDN and/or legacy
infrastructure typically in conjunction with an SDN Controller (OpenDaylight, ONOS, etc.) and
Element Management System (EMS).
Moreover, a set of Common Services are provided for reuse across GS-O, NFV-O, and SDN-O, which includes
policy management, security, analytics, logging, and other management capabilities.
OPEN-O also uses YANG and TOSCA for service models, and common, intent-based REST northbound APIs
based on the industry standards. OPEN-O is envisioned to operate across diverse NFV Infrastructure, SDN
networks, network elements and technologies, and legacy technologies.
OPEN-O announces the first release 1.0, called “SUN”, on November 7, 2016 in only five months since the
initial formation of the project.
References

[6.2.3-1] OPEN-O: https://www.open-o.org/.

6.3 Prototyping activities for network softwarization

6.3.1 A generalized Operating Platform for Network softwarization
SDN and NFV are rapidly paving the way to the «softwarization» of network functions and services, which
are becoming essentially like «applications» executed on distributed logical resources (e.g., Virtual Machines,
Containers, etc.).
Network softwarization (which will find first concrete exploitations in the 5G) will deeply integrate IT and
Network heterogeneous resources and capabilities (e.g., processing, storage and networking), from the
Cloud up to the Edge-Fog computing nodes, devices and even the terminals (e.g., smart phone, but also
robots and “things”).
This evolution will bring in parallel the emergence of the X-as-a-Service paradigm: i.e., SDN Controllers,
Virtual Network Functions, management and control functions and end-Users’ applications will be all
modeled with a unified approach as “services” which are executed on top of logical resources.
In view of this, the new levels of complexity and dynamism of infrastructures subjected to softwarization will
require the introduction of proper levels of abstractions, APIs and, above all, automated processes for
orchestration and service provisioning.

Today there is a high level of fragmentation, in international fora, bodies, projects and initiatives developing
systems, platforms and solutions for management/control/orchestration of future 5G infrastructures.
Moreover, it is not predictable today which of said platform(s) will be widely accepted and deployed, and
how they will evolve. This context is creating the need for a generalised Operating Platform (OP), defined as
an “over-arching and agnostic orchestration space” running on top of currently available (and future) control
and orchestrations architectures (e.g., ONOS, ODL, OpenStack, MANO etc.) and capable of “hooking” all of
them by leveraging on standard universal set of abstractions (which are still under study).
The concept of a generalized Operating Platform for network softwarization is a lightweight distributed
software frameworks operating on top of diverse types of terminals (e.g., robots, machines, smart things
capable of executing services tasks and storing local data), through the Network (e.g., Edge Clouds), up to
the Cloud Computing (e.g., centralized Data Centers).

109