Brandon Wick is a Senior Director of Marketing at Aarna Networks where he leads the organization on digital media, content and automated marketing, and communications strategy and execution. Prior to Aarna, he worked at the Linux Foundation for seven years building and growing open source projects and communities across the networking, cloud, and energy verticals. Before joining the Linux Foundation, he worked for multiple marketing agencies and an international NGO providing volunteer services around the globe. He holds a master’s degree in international relations and a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He resides in the Hudson Valley of New York with his wife and daughter.
To take full advantage of cloud computing, the RAN needs all compute elements deployed in the cloud. This is RAN-in-the-Cloud — a 5G radio access network fully hosted as a service in multi-tenant cloud infrastructure running as a containerized solution alongside other applications. These can be dynamically allocated in an E2E stack to increase utilization and reduce CapEx and OpEX for telecom operators while allowing monetization of new edge applications and services, such as AI.
We've now published a Solution Brief that highlights our RAN-in-the-Cloud Proof of Concept (PoC) with NVIDIA and Radisys. Aarna.ml provides an open source O-RAN SMO (service management and orchestration) built for easy integration across O-RAN software components and this Proof-of-Concept (POC) includes a single pane of glass orchestrator from Aarna and Radisys.
Sriram Rupanagunta is a co-founder & SVP Engineering at Aarna Networks, Inc, and heads their engineering team. Prior to Aarna, Sriram was the Head of India Engineering at Data Center Business of Western Digital Corp. Prior to Western Digital, Sriram was with the SSD based startup Virident Systems (which was acquired by Western Digital). Earlier to that, Sriram was also the co-founder of start up Aarohi Communications which was acquired by Emulex Corporation, and was the Vice President, Technology at Emulex. He lives in Bangalore, India with his wife and a daughter.
Aarna.ml Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP) version 3.3 is now available. Through orchestration, lifecycle management, real-time policy, and closed-loop automation capabilities, AMCOP provides zero touch edge orchestration and solves management complexity at scale. In this post, I’ll highlight the new features, improvements, and additions in the release.
SMO: Topology View for RAN Elements
For O-RAN deployment use cases, AMCOP provides Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) solutions. For the O-RAN Centralized Unit (CU), Distributed Unit (DU), and Open FH M-Plane specification for Radio Unit (RU), respectively, AMCOP SMO uses the O1 interface to perform FCAPS operations..
The new feature in 3.3 is to show the topology of disaggregated RAN elements (CU/DU/RU) in a graphical manner.
Figure - Tree View of Network Topology
SMO: Configurable Colors for Alarm Notifications
AMCOP O-RAN SMO now supports alarm status color codes for different types of alarms.
There are 4 severity levels for the notifications defined in o-ran-fm.yang:
Major
Minor
Critical
Warning
The AMCOP UI retrieves data and modifies the color schemes based on their priority, which enables the Operators to take appropriate actions accordingly (open loop).
ETSI SOL005 API Support for Fault Management
AMCOP now supports ETSI SOL005 implementation using a REST API. The resource representations are made in JSON and resource manipulation is made through CRUD(*) operations. Resources can be created using POST, read using GET, updated using PATCH/PUT, and deleted using DELETE.
This enables the users of AMCOP (especially at higher layer applications, such as OSS/BSS) to interface using the ETSI SOL005 standard.
SMO: Workflows for Configuration, RU Activation, and Cell Setup
AMCOP SMO now supports workflows that perform additional automation of RAN configuration, which needed to be done manually in earlier releases.
Once a session is established between an SMO and an O-RU (Radio Unit), a configuration push is done in order for the RU to be operational immediately, without any manual configuration. The following configuration is now handled automatically:
Carrier configuration
Frame timing configuration
Delay Management configuration
Transport configuration
On receipt of sync status as LOCKED from an O-RU, the SMO triggers a cell setup request to the CU/DU automatically. On receipt of sync status as ERROR from O-RU, the SMO triggers a cell deactivate request to the CU/DU automatically. The SMO fetches the CU/DU based on the cell status and it triggers an activation request to the RU. If the cell is down and then comes up, the SMO activates the O-RU.
The latest version supports E2E testing of RU startup config push with SMO workflow yang modules. It also supports E2E testing of cell setup/active/inactive and E2E testing of RU active/inactive status.
Network Slicing Support (Non-shared Slices)
AMCOP network slicing solution supports 3GPP release v18 for various attributes involved in slicing solutions, as per the specifications TS 28.531 and TS 28.541.
This new feature of AMCOP supports the Network Slicing across all the 3 domains -- 5G Core, RAN, Transport -- and includes a sample BSS implementation that uses a REST API to drive the slice management logic in AMCOP. The feature is already integrated with open source implementations of 5GC and RAN, but it can be integrated with other vendors’ core and RAN implementations (commercial as well as open source).
In conclusion, the latest release of AMCOP v3.3 includes several new features, enhancements and bug fixes that enable it to orchestrate and manage multiple network elements and non-shared network slices with ease.
Pavan Kumar Samudrala is currently working as Senior Member Technical Staff at Aarna Networks. He is responsible for Product Release Management, Quality Assurance and DevOPs of the product AMCOP. Prior to Aarna Networks, Pavan worked with companies like Western Digital, Microsoft helping teams in delivering quality products. He holds Bachelors and a Masters degree in Computer Science Engineering.
The O-RAN SMO platform can be accessed through various user interfaces (UIs), including the OpenDaylight (ODL) UI. OpenDaylight is an open source software-defined networking (SDN) controller platform that provides a modular architecture for network automation and orchestration.
The ODL UI for O-RAN SMO provides a web-based graphical user interface for managing and orchestrating O-RAN network services. It allows users to visualize the network topology, configure network elements, and monitor network performance. The ODL UI also provides a REST API that can be used for programmatic access to the O-RAN SMO platform.
This document discusses about how to build and deploy ODL UI locally for development.
Requirements:
NodeJs (v12.16.3)
Yarn (1.22.17 - latest at the time) : npm install --global yarn
Change the authentication from oauth to basic in ~/ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux/framework/src/index.dev.html
Change proxy targets in /home/vikas/code/ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux/framework/webpack.config.js from "http://sdnr:8181" to the ip address of the server where the api gateway is running. This will be used by the UI to get the data from rest endpoints e.g. target: "http://54.242.17.220:30181".
Now we need to build the base app which will wrap all the other apps like connect, faultApp etc. Go to ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux/framework and run the below commands :
yarn
yarn run vendor:dev
yarn run build:dev
After this there will be a dist folder created at ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux. Now we can build the apps we want by going to the respective location and running yarn build:dev.e.g go to ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux/apps/connect and run yarn build:dev. For the UI to come up we need at least “connect“ and “faultApp“. This can be changed in /home/vikas/code/ccsdk-features/sdnr/wt/odlux/framework/src/index.dev.html
Once we build the required apps we can run the gui by below command.
If you have any questions about this, please contract us here: https://www.aarna.ml.com/about-us#contact
Aarna
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"The middle mile holds a unique position in the communication infrastructure. This strategic Goldilocks location is the right distance from end-users and data centers, allowing it to facilitate faster communication and host next-generation services that demand a better experience. Given the importance of achieving application performance goals and the increasingly tight coupling between computing and networking, we propose examining the middle mile through a joint networking and computing lens, redefining the New Middle Mile (NMM)." - New Middle Mile Report (Page 1)
The New Middle Mile Report from AvidThink and Converge Network Digest is here! This has been in the works a while and represents a welcome addition to today’s networking research landscape. Traditionally, the Middle Mile has been a static, manual, and opaque environment. But the definition of the middle mile is changing to reflect the strategic importance of the infrastructure location from edge to cloud.
The New Middle Mile is expanding largely through a renaissance in 3 main areas:
1. MultiCloud Networking
2. Storage Repatriation
3. Cloud Edge Machine Learning
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog series in each of these areas.
In the meantime, learn more in this short video from Amar Kapadia, Co-founder and CEO of Aarna.ml.
Pavan Kumar Samudrala is currently working as Senior Member Technical Staff at Aarna Networks. He is responsible for Product Release Management, Quality Assurance and DevOPs of the product AMCOP. Prior to Aarna Networks, Pavan worked with companies like Western Digital, Microsoft helping teams in delivering quality products. He holds Bachelors and a Masters degree in Computer Science Engineering.
Service Management & Orchestration (SMO) is the O-RAN component that oversees all orchestration, management, and automation of RAN elements in O-RAN networks. It supports the O1, A1 and O2 interfaces and uses the TLS (Transport Layer Security) to secure communicate to devices in the O-RAN network. Learn more about O-RAN Architecture and the SMO. This blog is a primer on how we set up SMO & TLS connectivity.
TLS is a cryptographic protocol that provides secure communication over a network by encrypting the data that is transmitted between two endpoints. In the case of O-RAN SMO, TLS is used to encrypt the communication between the SMO and devices in the network to ensure that the data is protected from unauthorized access.
First set up SMo GUI with SSL. SDNR is already configured and is listening for HTTPS on port 8443, but the port is not forwarded in the service by default. To use SMO with https, we need to forward port 8443 from SDNR Pod. Enable TLS Connection on RU/DU Simulators and then forward TLS port on RU/DU. Then set up TLS connectivity on Netconf device. To support clients connecting using TLS, configuration files tls_keystore.xml, tls_truststore.xml, and tls_listen.xml needs to be merged into sysrepo configuration of modules ietf-keystore, ietf-truststore, and ietf-netconf-server, respectively. After doing so, a NETCONF client can connect using client.crt certificate and client.key private key and having ca.pem CA certificate set as trusted. Now configure SMO to connect with Netconf Device using TLS certificates. We need the following certs:
Client Private Key
Client Cert
CA Key (Trusted CA)
To Establish TLS based connection, we need to perform the following steps on SMO:
Connect to SMO’s RestConf interface
Add Keystore Entry
Add Private Key
Add trusted CA Certificate
It is important to note that TLS connectivity is just one aspect of securing the O-RAN network. Other security measures such as authentication, authorization, and access control are also needed to ensure the security of the network.
Aarna.ml is an active contributor to the SMO project in the O-RAN Alliance and has developed the industry's first open source SMO. Contact us to learn more.
Brandon Wick
Brandon Wick is a Senior Director of Marketing at Aarna Networks where he leads the organization on digital media, content and automated marketing, and communications strategy and execution. Prior to Aarna, he worked at the Linux Foundation for seven years building and growing open source projects and communities across the networking, cloud, and energy verticals. Before joining the Linux Foundation, he worked for multiple marketing agencies and an international NGO providing volunteer services around the globe. He holds a master’s degree in international relations and a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He resides in the Hudson Valley of New York with his wife and daughter.
The power of “automation” is on display everywhere across the tech industry these days, from self-repairing robots, to AI tools writing code, to CI/CD deploying software into robust applications in production environments. The goals are simple – Simplicity, Speed, and Cost Savings.
Network-as-a-Service
Today’s Communications Service Providers (CSPs) which carry data – the vital life-blood of today’s economies – between systems and users are no exception. Cloud computing has proven just how quickly IT can grow and transform, and sets a high standard for the networking industry to follow. In order to avoid becoming bottlenecks, today’s communications networks, both public and private, need to fully embrace automation. The key to doing this is through open source, cloud native, disaggregated “Network-as-a-Service” (NaaS) solutions. These are deployed on-premises, on a hybrid-cloud, and/or on multi-cloud and support workloads in edge and data center environments. This concept is laid out comprehensively by LF Networking and IBM in this Ebook: Network-as-a-Service – A Practical Approach for CSPs to Implement Cloud-Native Multi-Cloud Networks for Enterprises, and we strongly encourage you to read it.
Value Add
Massive industries don't transform themselves unless there is compelling value greater than the costs of transformation. In this case, the value of network automation derives primarily from:
Acceleration of digital services
Highly distributed and accessible support
Adaptable security
Operational efficiency
Open-standards based solutions
The value of this transformation applies to all the major players in the communications industry – from CSPs who can avoid vendor lock-in and capture more of the value chain – to Hyperscalers that need to support complex workloads spread across cloud locations, edge, and on-premises – to Enterprises looking to move away from the business of managing their networks to focus on their core competencies – to the ecosystem of Vendors and SIs seeking to provide best-of-breed, interoperable solutions grow the size of the overall market.
Open Source
Open source projects also serve as ‘de facto’ standards and ‘reference implementations’ allowing ecosystem participants to adopt emerging standards into their products and services. Several LF Networking projects such as ONAP, EMCOand Nephioare already addressing the needs of Enterprise NaaS, providing necessary functionality and features, including:
End to end network orchestration
Observability and closed loop automation
Distributed edge workload placement
Intent based network configuration
Uniform automation control plane
The Role of Aarna.ml
We at Aarna see our role in the industry as open source practitioners, pioneers, and collaborators. We literally wrote the book on ONAP, have assumed primarily leadership in EMCO, and are community leaders in the exciting new Nephio project. We see open source as the key to a Network-as-a-Service future and have built our flagship products – AMCOP and AES on these open source projects along with others, including those from the CNCF and the O-RAN Alliance SC. More specifically, AES is a commercialized version of theAkraino PCEI Blueprint, which can be thought of as a Network-as-a-Service use case. Our work around the blueprint was awarded first prize at last year’s MEC Hackathon along with our partners at Equinix. This approach brings significant flexibility to enterprise networks and the ability to run cutting edge applications such as AI, IOT, and more.
Keep an eye on this exciting space as it evolves. If you’d like to learn more about the state of open source networking today, contact us for a free consultation.
