Amol Jaikar | daeda1c | 2023-01-31 21:55:44 -0500 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Aether 2.1 Release |
| 2 | ================== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Aether Highlights |
| 5 | ----------------- |
| 6 | |
| 7 | This release of Aether picks up new internal modeling and scalability enhancements. |
| 8 | The release has been primarily validated in the Aether-in-a-Box configuration, |
| 9 | but the basis for this release has seen fairly broad use in various configurations. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | As with 2.0, both 4G and 5G deployments are supported. The 5G User Plane Function (UPF) |
| 12 | can be deployed with both compute-based software, as well as the P4-based |
| 13 | hardware-accelerated UPF. Aether maintains backward compatibility with 4G, and |
| 14 | both 4G and 5G slices may make use of both software and hardware based UPFs. |
| 15 | P4 hardware and BESS software UPFs can be deployed side-by-side in a hybrid deployment. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Features & Improvements |
| 18 | ----------------------- |
| 19 | |
| 20 | New 5G features |
| 21 | """"""""""""""" |
| 22 | |
| 23 | This release of Aether incorporates |
| 24 | `SD-Core 1.2 <https://docs.sd-core.opennetworking.org/sdcore-1.2/release/1.2.html>`__, which is the first |
| 25 | version of SD-Core focused on support for Cloud Native 5G Network Functions. All new functionality in this release |
| 26 | contributes to support of 5G Network functionality, including integration with 5G gNB small |
| 27 | cells from Sercomm; 5G small cell hardware from T&W running 5G-SA RAN stack from Radisys; |
| 28 | 5G slices with Application filtering; and a policy framework that supports QoS at multiple |
| 29 | levels - subscribers, applications and slices. For more details, please refer to the |
| 30 | `SD-Core 1.2 <https://docs.sd-core.opennetworking.org/sdcore-1.2/release/1.2.html>`__ Release notes. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | SD-Fabric Integration |
| 33 | """"""""""""""""""""" |
| 34 | |
| 35 | For this release, configurations incorporating SD-Fabric, and the P4 UPF have NOT been re-validated |
| 36 | (as this release has only been validated on Aether-in-a-Box). Users can continue to deploy these |
| 37 | configurations but should exercise caution to ensure the capabilities continue to operate as expected. |
| 38 | For more details, please refer to the `SD-Fabric 1.2 <https://docs.sd-fabric.org/sdfabric-1.2/release/1.2.0.html>`__ |
| 39 | Release notes. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Configuration Model Improvement |
| 42 | """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" |
| 43 | |
| 44 | The Configuration model of ROC has been upgraded in Aether 2.1 so that the “site”, “application”, |
| 45 | “traffic-class”, and “template” are now at the highest level in the model. The connectivity-service |
| 46 | 4g/5g is now an attribute of slice. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | This change greatly simplifies the ROC API - for example the URL to retrieve a site is now: |
| 49 | |
| 50 | * ``aether/v2.1.x/aiab-enterprise/site/mysite`` |
| 51 | |
| 52 | where previously the equivalent would have been: |
| 53 | |
| 54 | * ``aether/v2.0.x/connectivity-service-v2/enterprises/enterprise/aiab-enterprise/site/mysite`` |
| 55 | |
| 56 | The configuration of the “enterprise” is handled now in onos-topo as an Entity. New enterprises can be |
| 57 | added with the ``entities.topo.onosproject.org`` CRD, and will subsequently be created in onos-topo by |
| 58 | the onos-operator. The ROC GUI remains unchanged, as it has absorbed these model changes into its internal functions. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Configuration System Improvements |
| 62 | """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" |
| 63 | |
| 64 | Aether’s ROC configuration system internals were redesigned and reimplemented to address various |
| 65 | instability issues and incorporate new patterns and architectures. The controllers at the core of onos-config |
| 66 | were `redesigned in |
| 67 | TLA+ <https://github.com/onosproject/onos-tlaplus/blob/master/Config/Config.pdf>`__ – a machine-checked formal |
| 68 | specification language – to develop a more stable and viable |
| 69 | architecture long-term, and the controllers were reimplemented according to the new design. On the northbound, |
| 70 | new gNMI extensions make onos-config’s handling of gNMI Set and Get requests configurable with support for various |
| 71 | consistency strategies when propagating changes to gNMI targets. On the southbound, support was added for handling |
| 72 | non-persistent targets (recovering target configuration after restarts). For additional information, please see the |
| 73 | `README |
| 74 | file <https://github.com/onosproject/onos-config/blob/master/docs/README.md>`__ for the configuration system. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | Support for complex validation rules |
| 77 | """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" |
| 78 | |
| 79 | Aether support for complex validation rules (“guardrails”) has been added to prevent misconfiguration of the system. |
| 80 | These guardrails are specified using Aether’s yang modeling language, allowing new rules to be modified |
| 81 | easily as needed. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | Aether Testing |
| 84 | -------------- |
| 85 | |
| 86 | Aether uses automated testing based on Jenkins and Robot Framework. The |
| 87 | tests performed are described below. |
| 88 | |
| 89 | Aether-in-a-Box Deployment Tests: |
| 90 | |
| 91 | * https://jenkins.aetherproject.org/view/aiab-test/ |
| 92 | |
| 93 | SD-Core Tests (manual testing): |
| 94 | |
| 95 | * 4G |
| 96 | |
| 97 | * Functional coverage: attach, detach, dataplane traffic, handover, |
| 98 | TAU, paging, error scenarios, failure/restart of network |
| 99 | functions |
| 100 | |
| 101 | * 5G |
| 102 | |
| 103 | * Functional Coverage: register, deregister, dataplane traffic |
| 104 | scenarios, handover, TAU, DDN, few error scenarios, few |
| 105 | failure/restart of network functions, application filtering, |
| 106 | QoS |
| 107 | |
| 108 | ROC: |
| 109 | |
| 110 | * Functional API |
| 111 | |
| 112 | * Related Jenkins jobs |
| 113 | |
| 114 | * https://jenkins.aetherproject.org/view/ROC%20System%20Tests/ |
| 115 | |
| 116 | Documentation |
| 117 | ------------- |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Aether documentation is available at |
| 120 | `docs.aetherproject.org <http://docs.aetherproject.org>`__. |
| 121 | |
| 122 | Limitations and Known Issues |
| 123 | ---------------------------- |
| 124 | |
| 125 | * The P4 UPF does not support Slice MBR, which requires leaving out the |
| 126 | `configuration endpoint` configuration for P4 UPFs. |
| 127 | Additionally, only 1 slice can currently use a P4 UPF. The next |
| 128 | release of Aether will remove both limitations. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | * IMSIs should not be removed from Simapp. They may be added at any |
| 131 | time. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | * When running the ROC GUI in the Firefox browser, it is possible to enter |
| 134 | non-numeric characters in to numeric fields. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | * Application filtering is not available for some combinations of 5G UEs and |
| 137 | 5G gNBs. For 5G slices, it is recommended that default behavior be set to |
| 138 | ALLOW-ALL and application filtering rules not be added at this time. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | * Kubespray is no longer supported for Aether-in-a-Box deployments due to software component incompatibilities. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | * An intermittent issue was observed where a UE may not be issued an IP address.This was observed on a few |
| 143 | occasions during the 2.1 release, but root cause has been determined. It continues to be under investigation. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | Aether 2.1.0 Release |
| 146 | -------------------- |
| 147 | |
| 148 | Aether 2.1.0 is the base release of the 2.1 branch. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | Aether 2.1.0 Component Versions |
| 151 | """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" |
| 152 | |
| 153 | ROC: |
| 154 | |
| 155 | * atomix-runtime: 0.1.9 |
| 156 | |
| 157 | * onos-operator: 0.5.6 |
| 158 | |
| 159 | * aether-roc-umbrella: 2.1.33 |
| 160 | |
| 161 | `SD-Core 1.2.1: <https://docs.sd-core.opennetworking.org/sdcore-1.2/release/1.2.html>`__ |
| 162 | |
| 163 | * sdcore-helm-chart: 0.12.5 (Umbrella Helm Chart) |
| 164 | |
| 165 | * Omec-control-plane : 0.12.0 |
| 166 | |
| 167 | * Omec-sub-provision : 0.6.0 |
| 168 | |
| 169 | * 5g-control-plane : 0.8.8 |
| 170 | |
| 171 | * 5g-ran-sim: 0.6.5 |
| 172 | |
| 173 | UPF: bess-upf: 0.1.0 |
| 174 | |
| 175 | `SD-Fabric 1.2: <https://docs.sd-fabric.org/sdfabric-1.2/release/1.2.0.html>`__ |
| 176 | |
| 177 | * sdfabric: 1.2.0 |
| 178 | |
| 179 | Hardware and Vendor Dependencies: |
| 180 | |
| 181 | * Sercomm eNB: Firmware version 3922 |
| 182 | |
| 183 | * gNB using T&W hardware with Radisys software: |
| 184 | |
| 185 | * Radisys 5G-SA RAN stack: TRILLIUM_5GNR_NXP_GNB_AIO_QCOM_SUB6_WITH_DPDK_BIN_REL_2.4.3 |
| 186 | |
| 187 | * T&W gNB: 5G Sub-6GHz Small Cell (N78, 8GB DDR, With housing), Model SDQ001-RU (N78) |
| 188 | |
| 189 | * Mobile UE for 5G testing: MOTO G 5G (2022), Google Pixel 4 |