Does the telecommunications industry need Open Core surgery?
In February, the Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP) Industry Forum announced the establishment of the "Open Core Network Project Team". The group’s website stated that the group is developing a cloud-native mobile core network that supports 4G, 5G and WiFi access technologies for deployment “in licensed, unlicensed or shared spectrum and in private networks”.
In recent years, some attempts to open the telecom cloud ecosystem and value chain have not produced the expected results:
1) Most telecom clouds based on VNF and Openstack-like virtualization layers cannot reach the critical level of deployment and availability.
2) Orchestration work based on open source projects defined by ETSI (for example, open source MANO (OSM) and Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP)) is in progress, and so far, it has not become an automated telco web application store either .
3) TIP has been successfully defined, and Open RAN has been launched and deployed. Recently, I saw some claimed applications of Altiostar, Nokia and Cisco, and Mavenir in Idea and DISH networks in Rakuten's network.
The key to achieving the above scenario is an architecture that will be accepted by everyone and has clearly defined software element functions. More importantly, an open, standard, and rigid interface can ensure that one supplier can be supplied by another. Business, without having to do too much integration work. 5G is considered the first telecom cloud network with local virtualization, software definition, elasticity and large-scale automation. Today, this can be achieved by deploying a single-vendor solution from one of the major telecom operators. If you want to deploy a multi-vendor network, things will become very complicated. Since the standards have not yet been finalized on certain elements and behaviors of 5G networks, and operators are still announcing and launching 5G networks, vendors must use proprietary implementations to fill in the gaps and extend the standards to make them end-to-end and finally resolved The solution is automated, software-defined and flexible.
TIP’s Open Core project team is trying to create a core network for 4G and 5G to be opened up. The network consists of software elements provided by independent vendors. All elements use the same open interface to achieve low-touch integration and increase rate innovation. If the team adopts the same approach as Open RAN, it could be a major disruption to the telecommunications network. Of course, its claims will also bring benefits: to synchronize the pace of innovation with that seen from the hyperscale Internet world, and for the first time in decades. The deployment of a complete telecommunications network that enriches the supplier ecosystem becomes possible.
For example, a reporter from LR asked: Does the telecommunications industry need Open Core surgery? The answer is no based on past experience, but it is necessary for us to learn more about this project, so as to know ourselves and the enemy, and be vigilant at all times.
So, let's take a look at the OCN (Open Core Network) project outline:
First, the network diagram is as follows:
Second, the project team composition:
It can be seen that with the exception of BT, Telenor and VDF, the traditional mainstream telecommunications players are not included. The rest are IT manufacturers and Internet manufacturers, especially Rakuten and Facebook are the main leaders. Amdocs and Mirantis also hope to take the opportunity to get a share of the pie, which is clearly the camp of disruptors.
Third: Situation of sub-project team:
1) Applied to the service group, led by Facebook’s Phillip Ritter: The goal of this workflow is to design, develop and deliver a set of production-level microservices to achieve 3GPP 4G/LTE, 5G, shared spectrum (such as CBRS) and Wi- The Fi core network functions and the API between these functions are between these functions and the RAN element or the network management system.
2) Coordinator group: jointly led by Iain Wilkinson and Alla Goldner (Amdocs) of Vodafone, the goal of this workflow is to design, develop and provide a business process framework to integrate, deploy and manage OCN microservices, including FCAPS, indicators, Analysis and monitoring.
3) Automation Group: Led by Boris Renski of Facebook, the goal of this workflow is to design, develop and provide infrastructure and test automation, that is, the CI/CD framework for testing OCN microservices.
Fourth, the project roadmap: The team will actively promote the adoption of the following activities by MNOs and ISPs, including but not limited to:
• Plugfests,
• Laboratory tests
• Field tests
The tentative timetable for these activities is planned for 2020 (the plan below only shows the activities of the first twelve months, and we expect the project to span three years: 2020-22). Plugfest will plan production or contribute microservices, orchestration and automation components between developers, OEMs and SI. MNO and ISP will plan to conduct laboratory tests, especially the products in the laboratory from the initial project champion group who expressed interest in trying this project. MNOs and ISPs also usually plan field trials after successfully completing laboratory tests in their networks. Field trials are expected to begin in early to mid-2021.
