Page 1407 - 5G Basics - Core Network Aspects

Signalling aspects 3

Figure 6-2 – SBAN model

SBAN significantly contributes to reducing operating expense (OPEX) by 1) elimination of both constant
maintenance and upgrades to the network equipment; 2) easy deployment of new services; and
3) improvement of the service provisioning.
In SBAN, SBAN nodes perform the actions made by the SDN controller. The SDN controller provides SBAN
capabilities to applications and controls SBAN nodes to meet SDN applications' requirements.
The southbound interface is the interface between the SBAN nodes and the SDN controller, which carry
messages from the SBAN nodes to the SDN controller (e.g., the link status message) and messages from the
SDN controller to the SBAN nodes (e.g., the quality of service (QoS) policy).

The northbound interface is the interface between the SDN controller and the SDN applications, which carries
messages from the SDN controller to the SDN application (e.g., the network status message) and messages
from the SDN application to the SDN controller (e.g., the network service query).

7 Procedures

7.1 SBAN node initialization

First, the access nodes and the aggregate nodes are initialized without the SDN controller. The access nodes
send their information to the aggregate nodes through the internal interface, such as: manufacturer
identification, equipment models, media access control (MAC) address, access ports, internal ports. The
aggregate nodes collect the information from the access nodes or the other aggregate nodes in the same
network.

Then the aggregate nodes negotiate with each other to elect the master aggregate node and the slave
aggregate nodes. The master aggregate node communicates on behalf of the SBAN node with the SDN
controller, as depicted in Figure 7-1.

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