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Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -08001Aether 2.0 Release
2==================
3
4Aether Highlights
5-----------------
6
7This release of Aether, the first to `fully embrace open
8source <https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onfs-leading-private-5g-connected-edge-platform-aether-now-released-to-open-source-301487587.html>`__,
9adds two exciting new capabilities. The first is support for 5G
10deployments, enabling greatly increased bandwidth compared to 4G-based
11deployments. Complementing 5G is our P4 based mobile-core User Plane
12Function (UPF), which offers a high performance hardware-accelerated
13datapath that does not need to be routed through compute-based software
14UPFs. Aether maintains backward compatibility with 4G, and both 4G and
155G slices may make use of both software and hardware based UPFs. P4
16hardware and BESS software UPFs can be deployed side-by-side in a hybrid
17deployment.
18
19As part of this release, several edge applications have been showcased
20on the Aether platform. We demonstrated the first Aether-interactive
21smart application, an OpenVINO based AI/ML person-detection application
22that dynamically increases network-bandwidth for video recording
23purposes when a person is detected, and then dynamically reduces the
24same when people are no longer detected. In partnership with Intel,
25we have also deployed an anomaly detection application on the Aether
26platform that runs as an edge application, monitors a manufacturing or
27packaging line of product samples, and then uses an AI/ML algorithm to
28detect anomalies in real time. These applications were demonstrated at
29Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona last week.
30
31The transition to open source will further increase the pace of Aether
32development, putting it within the reach of the 5G and edge developer
33community that ONF has been cultivating and encouraging. Developer
34contributions are welcome, and increased access will allow increased
35adoption of this technology.
36
37Features & Improvements
38-----------------------
39
40New 5G features
41"""""""""""""""
42
43This release of Aether incorporates SD-Core 1.1, which includes
44integration with 5G gNB small-cells from T&W running 5G-SA RAN stack
45from Radisys, 5G slices with Application filtering, and a policy
46framework that supports QoS at multiple levels - subscribers,
47applications and slices. For more details, please refer to the SD-Core
481.1 Release notes.
49
50SD-Fabric Integration
51"""""""""""""""""""""
52
53This release of Aether incorporates SD-Fabric 1.1. While previous
54releases of Aether supported SD-Fabric as a Beta feature, this release
55officially supports the P4 UPF and other SD-Fabric features like paired
56leaf-switches with dual UPFs for High Availability.
57
58The P4 UPF may now be added to Aether as an available UPF. In addition
59to a single P4 UPF, Aether continues to allow multiple BESS UPFs to be
60deployed alongside the P4 UPF. The user can decide at slice provisioning
61time whether a slice should use the P4 UPF or a BESS UPF. UPFs may only
62be bound to one slice at a time. The P4 UPF and the BESS UPF both
63support application filtering and QoS metering. The BESS UPF has been
64enhanced to include additional per-flow metrics.
65
66For more details, please refer to the SD-Fabric 1.1 Release notes.
67
68Sim-Card and Device Modeling
69""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
70
71The Aether configuration model has been enhanced to include support for
72*SIM card* and *device* modeling. The lifecycle of a device is now
73decoupled from the lifecycle of the SIM card that is attached to that
74device. Devices can be created in the modeling before their SIM cards
75are created, and devices may continue to exist after their SIM cards
76have been removed. A removed SIM card can be associated with a different
77device.
78
79Aether may be configured to automatically learn of provisioned SIM cards
80and add them to the enterprise configuration. An administrator may then
81see the list of available SIM cards and choose which one to add to a
82device.
83
84The model tree has been revised to be more hierarchical. For example,
85Slices are now contained within Sites, and Sites are contained within
86Enterprises. This eliminated many of the boilerplate Slice and
87Enterprise links that used to be present in the Aether-1.6 models, and
88it provides automatic enforcement of objects to the appropriate scope.
89
90Configuration System Improvements
91"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
92
93Aether’s ROC configuration system internals were redesigned and
94reimplemented to address various instability issues and incorporate new
95patterns and architectures. The controllers at the core of onos-config
96were `redesigned in
97TLA+ <https://github.com/onosproject/onos-tlaplus/blob/master/Config/Config.pdf>`__
98– a machine-checked formal specification language – to develop a more
99stable and viable architecture long-term, and the controllers were
100reimplemented according to the new design. On the northbound, new gNMI
101extensions make onos-config’s handling of gNMI Set and Get requests
102configurable with support for various consistency strategies when
103propagating changes to gNMI targets. On the southbound, support was
104added for handling non-persistent targets (recovering target
105configuration after restarts). For additional information, please see
106the `README
107file <https://github.com/onosproject/onos-config/blob/master/docs/README.md>`__
108for the configuration system.
109
110Support for complex validation rules
111""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
112
113Aether now has support for complex validation rules (“guardrails”) to
114prevent misconfiguration of the system. These guardrails are specified
115using Aether’s yang modeling language, allowing Aether staff to easily
116add more rules as the need arises.
117
118Data Plane Optimization
119"""""""""""""""""""""""
120
121Prior releases of Aether passed data plane traffic through the
122management server. Aether 2.0 has been optimized so that this is no
123longer necessary. User traffic is now processed by the P4-UPF or the
124BESS-UPF and then forwarded upstream (or to edge-applications) directly
125by the dataplane (fabric) leaf-switch.
126
127Furthermore, we now support more common enterprise deployments where the
128radio access nodes (eNBs/gNBs) connect to the enterprise L3-routed
129network, rather than connect directly to our fabric. We also simplified
130configuration to support the use of fabric-switch front panel ports
131rather than using the confusing, device-specific SDK ports.
132
133Aether Testing
134--------------
135
136Aether uses automated testing based on Jenkins and Robot Framework. The
137tests performed are described below.
138
139SD-Core Tests:
140
141* 4G
142
143 * Functional coverage: attach, detach, dataplane traffic, handover,
144 TAU, paging, error scenarios, failure/restart of network
145 functions
146
147* 5G
148
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800149 * Functional Coverage: register, deregister, dataplane traffic
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800150 scenarios, handover, TAU, DDN, few error scenarios, few
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800151 failure/restart of network functions, application filtering,
152 QoS
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800153
154* Jenkins jobs for functional can be found at
155
156 * https://jenkins.aetherproject.org/view/SD%20Core%20System%20Tests/
157
158ROC:
159
160* Functional API
161
162* Related Jenkins jobs
163
164 * https://jenkins.aetherproject.org/view/ROC%20System%20Tests/
165
166Aether System Tests
167
168* 5G
169
170 * Functional testing includes multiple slice creations,
171 enable/disable of device groups, QoS validations, rate limiting
172 tests (at UE, slice, application), application filtering tests,
173 container restart tests
174
175* 4G
176
177 * Functional testing includes multiple slice creations,
178 enable/disable of device groups, QoS validations, rate limiting
179 tests (at UE, slice, application), application filtering tests,
180 container restart tests
181
182* Jenkins Jobs:
183
184 * https://jenkins.aetherproject.org/view/Aether%20System%20Tests/
185
186Documentation
187-------------
188
189Aether documentation is available at
190`docs.aetherproject.org <http://docs.aetherproject.org>`__.
191
192Limitations and Known Issues
193----------------------------
194
195* Each site should be configured with a different Enterprise ID”.
196
197* The P4 UPF does not support Slice MBR, which requires leaving out the
198 `configuration endpoint` configuration for P4 UPFs.
199 Additionally, only 1 slice can currently use a P4 UPF. The next
200 release of Aether will remove both limitations.
201
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800202* The transaction history page on the operations portal is not
203 currently enabled; It will be available shortly after the first
204 2.0 release.
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800205
206* The Sim-Card model deviates from the ID convention used by the other
207 models, using the field sim-id instead of sim-card-id”.
208
209* IMSIs should not be removed from Simapp. They may be added at any
210 time.
211
Sean Condon3f180c12022-03-10 19:34:06 +0000212* When running the ROC GUI in the Firefox browser, it is possible to enter
213 non-numeric characters in to numeric fields.
214
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800215* Application filtering is not available for some combinations of 5G UEs and
216 5G gNBs. For 5G slices, it is recommended that default behavior be set to
217 ALLOW-ALL and application filtering rules not be added at this time.
218
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800219Component Versions
220------------------
221
222ROC:
223
224* atomix-controller: 0.6.9
225
226* atomix-raft-storage: 0.1.25
227
228* onos-operator: 0.5.1
229
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800230* aether-roc-umbrella: 2.0.43
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800231
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800232:doc:`SD-Core 1.1 <sdcore:release/1.1>`
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800233
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800234* sdcore-helm-chart: 0.10.16 (Umbrella Helm Chart)
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800235
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800236 * Omec-control-plane : 0.10.11
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800237
238 * Omec-sub-provision : 0.4.5
239
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800240 * 5g-control-plane : 0.6.19
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800241
Scott Bakerd9f79282022-03-11 11:41:40 -0800242 * 5g-ran-sim: 0.4.11
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800243
244UPF: bess-upf: 0.0.5
245
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800246:doc:`SD-Fabric 1.1 <sdfabric:release/1.1.0>`
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800247
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800248* sdfabric: 1.1.0
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800249
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800250Hardware and Vendor Dependencies:
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800251
Scott Baker0a2905d2022-03-09 14:13:47 -0800252* Sercomm eNB: Firmware version 3922
253
254* Radisys 5G-SA RAN stack: TRILLIUM_5GNR_NXP_GNB_AIO_QCOM_SUB6_WITH_DPDK_BIN_REL_2.4.3
255
256* T&W gNB: 5G Sub-6GHz Small Cell (N78, 8GB DDR, With housing), Model SDQ001-RU (N78)
Scott Baker505738f2022-03-09 10:51:53 -0800257