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Cloud RAN Solution Description
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2 © 2020 Nokia. Nokia confidential. DN09229892 Issue: 2-2
Cloud RAN Solution Description
Table of Contents
This document has 43 pages
1 Summary of changes..................................................................... 7
2 Solution introduction.......................................................................8
3 Solution components......................................................................9
3.1 Products and versions in the solution............................................ 9
3.2 AirScale Radio Network Controllers.............................................10
3.3 AirScale 5G Cloud BTS................................................................12
3.4 Data Center HW...........................................................................13
3.4.1 AirFrame servers..........................................................................15
3.5 Nokia AirFrame Cloud Infrastructure for Real-time Applications
(NCIR).......................................................................................... 16
3.6 Switches and routers....................................................................17
4 CloudBand Application Manager (CBAM)....................................19
5 Data Center layout....................................................................... 20
5.1 DC Pods.......................................................................................20
5.2 Spine and super spine................................................................. 20
5.3 Reference configuration............................................................... 20
5.3.1 Edge DC and remote RAP/BTS sites...........................................20
5.3.2 RAP/BTS site close to Edge DC.................................................. 21
5.3.3 Minimum Edge DC configurations................................................22
6 Networking in the Data Center..................................................... 23
6.1 Network fabrics............................................................................ 23
6.2 IP networks.................................................................................. 25
6.3 Dimensioning............................................................................... 27
6.4 Availability.................................................................................... 27
6.5 Properties.....................................................................................27
6.6 DC management networks...........................................................28
7 Management................................................................................ 30
7.1 Fault and performance management........................................... 30
7.2 VNF management........................................................................ 30
7.2.1 Application lifecycle management................................................31
7.3 Data center management.............................................................31
7.4 Radio network management........................................................ 32
7.5 CBAM placement for Cloud RAN................................................. 33
8 Cloud BTS configurations............................................................ 34
9 Data center multi-tenancy............................................................ 35
9.1 DC multi-tenancy concept............................................................ 35
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Cloud RAN Solution Description
9.2 Shared external networks............................................................ 36
9.3 IP plans........................................................................................ 37
9.4 OpenStack configurations............................................................ 39
9.5 NCIR configurations..................................................................... 39
10 Capacity and dimensioning.......................................................... 41
10.1 Capacity of VNF services.............................................................41
10.2 Dimensioning edge DC capacity.................................................. 42
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Cloud RAN Solution Description
List of Figures
Figure 1 Cloud RAN Solution components......................................................... 9
Figure 2 AirScale Radio Controllers................................................................. 10
Figure 3 AirScale radio equipment................................................................... 12
Figure 4 AirFrame Rackmount..........................................................................14
Figure 5 AirFrame Open Rack..........................................................................14
Figure 6 High level NCIR architecture.............................................................. 17
Figure 7 Edge DC with remote radio sites........................................................ 21
Figure 8 Edge DC and close radio site............................................................. 21
Figure 9 Edge DC in minimum configuration.................................................... 22
Figure 10 L2 fabric in AirFrame rack.................................................................. 24
Figure 11 L3 fabric in Edge Data Center............................................................ 25
Figure 12 HW management network.................................................................. 29
Figure 13 VNF management.............................................................................. 30
Figure 14 Data Center management.................................................................. 32
Figure 15 Radio Network management.............................................................. 32
Figure 16 CBAM in Cloud RAN.......................................................................... 33
Figure 17 Multi-tenant DC connected to network services................................. 35
Figure 18 External network configuration to edge DC for Cloud RAN elements....
37
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Cloud RAN Solution Description
List of Tables
Table 1 Products and versions in the solution...................................................9
Table 2 AirScale BSC VNFCs......................................................................... 11
Table 3 AirScale RNC VNFCs......................................................................... 11
Table 4 AirScale 5G Cloud BTS VNFCs......................................................... 12
Table 5 AirFrame OR server vCPU capacity variants..................................... 16
Table 6 AirFrame rack capacity comparison .................................................. 16
Table 7 External networks for Cloud RAN elements....................................... 36
Table 8 Example A: Four small size VNFs in one rack................................... 37
Table 9 Example B: Two medium size VNFs in one rack................................38
Table 10 OpenStack: VNF flavors..................................................................... 39
Table 11 OpenStack: other requirements..........................................................39
Table 12 AirScale BSC capacity steps.............................................................. 41
Table 13 AirScale RNC capacity steps..............................................................41
Table 14 NFVI capacity allocations................................................................... 42
Table 15 CBAM capacity................................................................................... 42
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Summary of changes
1 Summary of changes
Changes between document issues are cumulative. Therefore, the latest document
issue contains all changes made to previous issues.
Issue 2-2
Minor editorial changes made.
Issue 2-1
AirScale 4G Cloud BTS removed from the scope.
Issue 2-0
Table Products and versions in the solution updated with the Q2 2019 reference solution
component versions.
Chapter AirScale Radio Network Controllers updated with more information on OMS.
Table AirScale RNC VNFCs updated: AirScale RNC19 ->AirScale RNC20
Table 4G Cloud BTS VNFCs updated: 4G Cloud BTS18A → 4G Cloud BTS19; data
updated
Chapter Availability updated with information on sessions and detection intervals.
Chapter Virtual Network Function (VNF) management updated with CBAM information.
Chapter DC Multitenancy concept updated.
Chapter Dimensioning Edge DC capacity updated with information on spare AirFrame
server capacity. CBAM section was updated. Table AirScale RNC capacity steps
updated.
Editorial modifications throughout the document.
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Solution introduction Cloud RAN Solution Description
2 Solution introduction
The Nokia Cloud RAN Solution introduces a tested reference configuration for the Cloud
RAN deployment. The reference blueprint described here can vary in numerous ways
depending on the needs of the operator network, where this reference blueprint can be
used as a base for the planning.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Solution components
3 Solution components
Table 1 Products and versions in the solution
Cloud RAN Solution Q3 2019 – solution component versions
2G VNF AirScale Base Station ASBSC19
Controller
3G VNF AirScale Radio Network ASRNC20
Controller
5G VNF AirScale Cloud BTS-5G 5G19
NetAct Nokia Network / Element NetAct 19
Management System
OMS Operation and Management OMS 19.5
Server
CBAM CloudBand Application CBAM 19
Manager
Infrastructure SW Nokia AirFrame Cloud NCIR19 (RM17 migrated),
Infrastructure for Real-time NCIR19 (OR18, OR19)
Applications
Data Center HW Nokia AirFrame DC Solution NDCS RM17 migrated, OR18,
(NDCS) OR19
NADCM Nokia AirFrame Data Center NADCM19
Manager
Figure 1 Cloud RAN Solution components
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Solution components Cloud RAN Solution Description
Although the CloudBand Network Director (CBND) product is available for the VNF and
DC management, the orchestration is not used in this Cloud RAN reference solution.
Figure 2 AirScale Radio Controllers
The AirScale BSC and RNC can control Single RAN BTSs (SBTSs) as well as the GSM
and WCDMA components of the SBTSs. The SBTS can simultaneously provide GSM,
WCDMA and LTE services in one physical BTS.
The Operation and Management Server (OMS) provides mediation and concentration
functions for the AirScale RNC management plane operations. The OMS is typically
placed in the data center for the NetAct, and can be deployed on dedicated server HW,
or in a cloud with Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure (CBIS). The OMS is a single VNFC
service with no scaling in cloud. New OMS instances are created for added capacity.
Each OMS is capable of mediating several AirScale RNCs.
Radio Controller VNF configurations:
Both AirScale RNC and AirScale BSC have different capacity steps to choose from to
instantiate to the selected initial capacity. The final capacity of any of the scalable
components can be scaled out/in after the instantiation once the initial need is changed.
AirScale BSC VNFC configurations, showing the virtual machine types and amounts, are
as follows:
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Solution components
Table 2 AirScale BSC VNFCs
AirScale MIN RD1_BSC RD2_BSC RD3_BSC RD4_BSC MAX
BSC19 1100 3300 5500 8800
OMU1 1 1 1 1 1 1
RRMU1 2 2 2 2 2 2
MCMU1 2 2 2 2 2 2
BCXU2 3 3 7 11 17 17
ETMA2 2 2 3 5 7 7
ETME2 3 3 5 7 10 10
PCUM2 4 4 16 11 34 100*
*) The AirScale BSC PCUM VNFC can scale beyond the largest value used in the initial
RD4_BSC 8800 configuration.
1 Fixed capacity
2Scaled capacity
3 Configured capacity ‘Configured capacity’ means the decision for the capacity or
capability is taken in the instantiation phase and cannot be scaled afterwards.
AirScale RNC VNFC configurations, showing the virtual machine types and amounts, are
as follows:
Table 3 AirScale RNC VNFCs
AirScale MIN RC1 RC2 RC3 MAX
RNC20
SN1 3 3 3 3 3
CFPU1 2 2 2 2 2
CSPU2 2 4 6 12 24*
USPU2 2 15 29 65 77*
EIPU2 2 4 8 16 16
UVM3 0 1 1 1 1
*) The AirScale RNC CSPU and UCPU VNFCs can scale beyond the initial RC3
configuration.
1 Fixed capacity
2Scaled capacity
3 Configured capacity ‘Configured capacity’ means the decision for the capacity or
capability is taken in the instantiation phase and cannot be scaled afterwards.
The minimum and maximum data center resource consumptions of the VNFs are
described in section Capacity and dimensioning.
For more information, see:
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Solution components Cloud RAN Solution Description
• includes BTS radio and antenna parts and Flexi System Module or AirScale System
Module for the real-time computing.
• is based on the AirScale and Flexi System Modules used for standalone bare-metal
BTS deployments.
The CU is the BTS VNF for the non-real-time computing.
Figure 3 AirScale radio equipment
Table 4 AirScale 5G Cloud BTS VNFCs
5G Cloud BTS19 MIN MAX
OAM3 1 2
CPCL3 1 7
CPNB3 1 2
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Solution components
Table 4 AirScale 5G Cloud BTS VNFCs (Cont.)
5G Cloud BTS19 MIN MAX
UPUE2 1 72
CPUE2 1 35
CPIF3 1 2
CPNRT3 1 2
DB3 1 2
SN3 0 3
UVM3 0 1
1 Fixed capacity
2Scaled capacity
3 Configured capacity which stays for the capacity or capability agreed in the instantiation
phase. The configured capacity cannot be scaled afterwards.
The dual OAM VNFCs enable resiliency within the AirScale Cloud BTS-5G VNF.
The minimum and maximum data center resource consumptions of the VNFs are
described in section Capacity and dimensioning.
• AirScale BSC
• AirScale RNC
• CU of the AirScale Cloud BTS-5G
• CBAM
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Solution components Cloud RAN Solution Description
Figure 4 AirFrame Rackmount
Figure 5 AirFrame Open Rack
AirFrame Rackmount HW is available in two main configuration variants:
• Standard AirFrame RM
• AirFrame RM migrated
AirFrame RM setup includes:
• 20 compute nodes
• 2 controller nodes
• 2 storage nodes
• 2 data plane ToR switches (leaf switches)
• 2 management plane switches
• An optional HW management switch
• Power units
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Solution components
The RM migrated configuration is designed for use with the NCIR18 release and beyond.
In the migrated configuration used for Cloud RAN deployments a third controller node is
added replacing one of the compute nodes, leaving 19 compute nodes for the
applications.
In the Rackmount verification for the Cloud RAN reference solution described in this
document, the RM17 variant was used with NCIR17 (20 compute nodes and 2
controllers).
The AirFrame Rackmount provides downwards scalability and fits small edge DCs, while
the AirFrame Open Rack provides higher server density per rack and lower power
consumption for efficient scaling the edge DC upwards.
The cloud instance size evolves according to the reference infrastructure evolution, that
is now from one full RM17 rack to one full OR18 rack, and further to multi-rack
infrastructure configurations according to the future roadmap.
The higher cloud instance capacity enhances the capability for multitenancy or enhances
the capability for VNF scaling. An example is the data capacity in AirScale BSC when
PCUM VNFCs are scaled out and the scaling would not anymore be limited by the
availability of HW resources).
The AirFrame OR setup optimized for Cloud RAN VNFs includes:
• 42 compute nodes
• 3 controller nodes
• 2 leaf switches
• HW management switch
• Power units
Similarly to AirFrame RM, based on the needs, you can add more storage nodes also to
the AirFrame OR configuration optimized for Cloud RAN.
• RM17 – Broadwell processor microarchitecture
• OR18 – Skylake processor microarchitecture
• OR19 – Cascade Lake processor microarchitecture
The OR19 and OR18 have the same amount of servers in the rack, but the number of
virtual CPUs (vCPUs) is increased with corresponding effects to the rack capacity.
The performance of the Cascade Lake variant is verified with AirScale RNC. Other Cloud
RAN products will follow later with separately announced product releases. The OR19
requires NCIR18 FP3 or a later version for the infrastructure SW.
vCPU capacity
The numbers for full rack deployments are as follows:
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Solution components Cloud RAN Solution Description
Table 5 AirFrame OR server vCPU capacity variants
OR18 OR19
Number of servers compute 42
controller+compute 3
storage+compute 3
Number of vCPUs compute 54 70
controller+compute 40 56
storage+compute 50 66
Total vCPUs in rack 2538 3306
The following table gives a rough vCPU capacity comparison value for different AirFrame
rack variants in relation to RM17 with NCIR17A deployment.
Table 6 AirFrame rack capacity comparison
Rack type Raw vCPU capacity factor
RM17 (ref) 1
OR18 2,54
OR19 3,31
g Note: These figures do not take into account the spare capacity allocation
recommendations for recovery and upgrade purposes (for example, one spare server
and 85% VNFI allocation)
Memory
The memory amount in OR19 is cost- and performance-optimized for Cloud Radio VNF
needs. Although the increased vCPU capacity in the OR19 means the average memory
and VM root disk space for individual VMs decrease, the memory space is adequate and
optimized for the Cloud RAN VNFs.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Solution components
Figure 6 High level NCIR architecture
Spine switch
The spine switch aggregates the transport traffic from the AirFrame racks within one data
center Pod. 2N redundant spine switches are used in the Pod.
The recommended product is Nokia AO/AR/AE-Z9100ON-A/D.
Leaf switch
The leaf switch aggregates the transport traffic from the installed nodes in an AirFrame
rack. 2N redundant leaf switches are used in the racks.
The recommended product is Nokia AO/AR/AE-Z9100ON-A/D or AO/AR-S4048T-A/D.
HW management switch
The leaf switch aggregates the transport traffic from the installed nodes in an AirFrame
rack. 2N redundant leaf switches are used in the racks.
The recommended product is Nokia AO/AR/AE-Z9100ON-A/D or AO/AR-S4048T-A/D.
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Solution components Cloud RAN Solution Description
The radio access point (RAP) and/or BTS site switch aggregates the RAP/BTS data at
the remote site.
Currently the solution does not define a specific type for the switch. The switch is
selected based on the number of RAPs and BTSs at the site.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description CloudBand Application Manager (CBAM)
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Data Center layout Cloud RAN Solution Description
5.1 DC Pods
An edge Data Center is divided into modular Pods for easy scaling. Each Pod can be
scaled from one to eight AirFrame racks, and new Pods can be created for increasing
the data center capacity.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Data Center layout
Figure 7 Edge DC with remote radio sites
This is the basic site configuration model from which the other variants are derived.
Figure 8 Edge DC and close radio site
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Data Center layout Cloud RAN Solution Description
Typical applications for this site configuration are malls and airports, where the BTS and
RAP sites are in practice in the same building as the data center or nearby.
Figure 9 Edge DC in minimum configuration
Note that expanding this kind of configuration in commercial use to a larger DC is more
difficult compared to a DC with spine switches already in place.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Networking in the Data Center
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Networking in the Data Center Cloud RAN Solution Description
Figure 10 L2 fabric in AirFrame rack
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Networking in the Data Center
Figure 11 L3 fabric in Edge Data Center
In one rack site there is no need for the spine switches, and leaf uplinks are connected
directly to the edge router. The reference solution includes the spines for easy
extensibility to larger DC site solutions.
6.2 IP networks
IP usage for the reference configuration
Dual stack IPv4/IPv6 is configured for the underlay networks. The reference allocation
per Pod (max eight racks) is one /20 IPv4 network and one /96 IPv6 prefix.
The following lists show the Cloud RAN reference allocations. The operator can allocate
more addresses and networks as needed.
IPv4
x.x.0.0 /25 router ids
x.x.0.128 /25 router out of band
x.x.1.0 /24 host management (/28 subnet per one NCIR airframe cabinet)
x.x.2.0 /23 hw management (/26 subnet per one RM18/OR18 airframe cabinet)
x.x.4.0 /23 stack1 ProviderExterrnal subnets (8 x /26)
x.x.4.0 /26 stack1-ext0
x.x.4.64 /26 stack1-ext1
x.x.4.128 /26 stack1-ext2
x.x.4.192 /26 stack1-ext3
x.x.5.0 /26 stack1-ext4
x.x.5.64 /26 stack1-ext5
x.x.5.128 /26 stack1-ext6
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Networking in the Data Center Cloud RAN Solution Description
IPv6
# stack1 (first IPv6 network block with 117 mask stack, dual stack, 8x
subnets)
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:0/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext0
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:100/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext1
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:200/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext2
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:300/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext3
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:400/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext4
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:500/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext5
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:600/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext6
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:700/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext7
# stack1 (second IPv6 network block with 117 mask stack, pure ipv6, 8x
subnets)
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8000/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext8
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8100/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext9
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8200/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext10
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8300/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext11
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8400/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext12
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8500/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext13
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8600/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext14
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:0:0:8700/120 cran-pod1-stack1-ext15
#cran-infra networks for one PoD
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:3:0:100/120 cran-infra-pod1-p2p (pool for /127
point-to-points)
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:3:0:0/120 cran-infra-pod1-routerids (pool for
/128 IPs)
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:3:0:1000/116 cran-infra-pod1-host-mgmts (/120 subnet
per one AirFrame cabinet)
2a00:8a00:4000:3804:0:3:0:2000/116 cran-infra-pod1-hw-mgmt (/120 subnet per
one AirFrame cabinet)
Routing
The routing in the L3 fabric is based on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
The following routing principles are used in the reference solution:
• All network devices (edge routers, spine and leaf switches) have their own unique 4-
byte Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). For easier manageability, it is
recommended to have distinctive AS number ranges for network topology layers
(edges, spines, leaves).
• Links between BGP peers in fabric are configured with /31 and IPv6 /127 point-to-
point addresses.
• IPv4 loopback address is used as BGP router ID.
• All switches have ECMP routing. Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is
configured as active-active using peer routing.
BGP policy-based routing principles:
• Individual BGP neighbor peer groups are based on IPv4/IPv6 family and neighbor
role (leaf, spine or edge).
• Only IPv4/IPv6 default routes are advertised towards leaf layer.
• IPv4/IPv6 loopback and stack prefixes (including provider, host mgmt and HW mgmt
networks) are leaked out towards backhaul.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Networking in the Data Center
• Routes are not aggregated in leaf or spine switches.
• There are unique route maps and prefix lists for IPv4 and IPv6 family.
Racks' subnets are configured at the deployment, so that internal traffic among the racks
is also routed.
6.3 Dimensioning
In the AirFrame OR18 cabinet the compute nodes connect to the leaf switches with
4x25Gb links, which in 42 compute node configuration sums up to 4200Gb. The leaf
switches have 8x100GB uplink connections, which means 1:5,25 aggregation level for
the outgoing traffic from the AirFrame cabinet. This number covers both application traffic
and the internal DC management traffic.
In the AirFrame OR one of the two NICs in the compute nodes is used for the DC
management traffic. While the DC management traffic load is significantly lighter than the
application data traffic load, the effectual aggregation in the leaf layer is much smaller
than the theoretical 5,25 based on NIC capacities.
Much of the traffic within a rack is application internal traffic between the VNFCs (VMs) of
the Cloud RAN elements. While NCIR multi-rack clouds are not supported, this
application internal traffic remains within the cabinet, and does not reach the spine layer
switching. This leaves the aggregated traffic capacity for the real backhaul traffic of the
Cloud RAN services.
Although the switch redundancy in the spine layer takes care of the availability in case
one of the two switches fails, the capacity of the spine layer will suffer. Therefore, it is
recommended to install four spine switches for a data center Pod with more than four
AirFrame cabinets.
6.4 Availability
The router and switch devices are all duplicated in the reference solution for redundancy.
An outage in these devices leads to automatic rerouting. Note that losing a redundant
device still leads to a capacity drop in the networking, and all maintenance actions are to
be scheduled for low traffic hours.
The Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is configured according to the size of the
topology, capacity of the network devices and availability requirements. In the solution
reference configuration, 100ms intervals with a multiplier value three are used. However,
the detection interval can be increased to up to 300 ms to increase the number of
sessions if needed.
6.5 Properties
MTU
While the products shall work with default maximum transmission unit (MTU) of 1500B,
performing fragmentation/reassembly when required, the MTUs in the Cloud RAN
Solution should be set as per VNF specific recommendations. The infrastructure
reference setup supports jumbo frames up to the edge router.
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Networking in the Data Center Cloud RAN Solution Description
QoS
IP header Differentiated Services (DiffServ) is used to classify and mark the IP traffic
(DSCP). This can be set by the originating applications and overwritten by, for example,
virtual switches' compute hosts to harmonize QoS conventions in the network and not
rely/trust on the applications. Active traffic engineering is not required from the underlay.
Transport security
The infrastructure does not provide encryption for the data transfer; the E2E
communications are expected to be secured by applications when required.
In some networks separated networking layers for VNF traffic, VNF management traffic
and infrastructure management traffic may be required. In the Cloud RAN reference
solution, it is expected that the same networking infrastructure (devices, links) are used
for all purposes due to excess cost of providing physical separation. In general, physical
network/traffic separation is in cloud replaced by isolation in virtualized networking –
cloud underlay (not directly accessible by the VNFs) is considered as separation layer,
instead of using physical separation with interfaces and cabling.
In the NCIR the networks are separated logically and physically for performance and
security reasons. External networks belong to a different security zone from internal
ones. Also, provider networks used by VNFs are in a different zone from infrastructure
networks.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Networking in the Data Center
Figure 12 HW management network
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Management Cloud RAN Solution Description
7 Management
NCIR
The alarms and measurements collected in NCIR are not VNF instance specific, but
related to all VNFs within the cloud.
Figure 13 VNF management
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Management
In the solution context, only basic CBAM deployment (non-HA, IPv4, single OAM
networking connecting to VNFs) has been verified. CBAM was deployed in the same
stack as the VNFs. Note that with non-HA setup it is vital to arrange regular backups. For
details, see Administrator Guide in CloudBand Application Manager Operating
Documentation, in Discovery Center.
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Management Cloud RAN Solution Description
Figure 14 Data Center management
Figure 15 Radio Network management
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Management
The operations and tools for managing the radio networks aspects of the Cloud RAN
elements are in principle identical to those of the bare-metal deployed RAN elements.
The main difference is in the HW management, where in Cloud RAN the HW is not
element specific and is therefore extracted as a separate set of functions from the
management of the virtual network element.
Typically, the NE deployment in cloud or in bare-metal is not visible in the radio network
(RNW) operability functions.
The OMS is used for the mediation functions of the AirScale RNC.
The AirScale RNC and AirScale BSC are connected to the same BTS types and
versions as in classical controller deployments.
The radio network management relation to ONAP is not covered in this description yet
but will be added to later issues.
Figure 16 CBAM in Cloud RAN
Placing the CBAM for Cloud RAN VNF control in the central DC suits small Cloud RAN
networks and trialing. In distributed edge DC sites with several VNF instances (VNFI), a
more practical location for the CBAM may be in the edge DC clouds controlling the local
VNFs. In a small edge DC with only a few VNFIs, the CBAM in another edge cloud can
be shared as in Figure CBAM in Cloud RAN.
Consider also the setup for the network management – distributed CBAM deployments
enable access to the CBAM locally, while the access to services in the central cloud may
be restricted for security reasons.
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Cloud BTS configurations Cloud RAN Solution Description
All-in-Cloud configuration
The All-in-Cloud configuration introduces a further functional split of the DU to a
virtualized function and physical function. The virtualized function is instantiated in a far
edge cloud, and is connected to the physical radio site, and to the CU in edge cloud.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Data center multi-tenancy
Figure 17 Multi-tenant DC connected to network services
The virtual network function components (VNFCs) of each VNF can be divided into and
used in all the compute nodes within the same Nokia AirFrame Data Center Solution
(NDCS) hardware. The number of possible tenants depends on the VNF size and type of
used hardware.
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Data center multi-tenancy Cloud RAN Solution Description
The Cloud RAN reference solution does not use Availability Zones or host aggregates
and relies only on per-VNF anti-affinity rules in OpenStack to avoid placing redundant
units (VMs) to the same compute hosts.
DC multi-tenancy does not need a separate procedure for activation. When the feature is
available for the operator, it allows to use multi-tenancy with all its benefits.
Table 7 External networks for Cloud RAN elements
Network name ASBSC ASRNC 5G cBTS
extnet-vlan-0 oam, omusig oam oam
extnet-vlan-1 aoip uplane1 (Iu-CS) -
extnet-vlan-2 Gp uplane2 (Iu-PS) backhaul_up0_net
extnet-vlan-3 - uplane3 (Iur) -
extnet-vlan-4 trxsig, pabis uplane4 (Iub) fronthaul_net,
fronthaul_up_0,
fronthaul_up_1
The logical network names do not include the data type carried in the network or product
specific indices, since they vary between the products, and could easily cause confusion
and misunderstanding.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Data center multi-tenancy
Figure 18 External network configuration to edge DC for Cloud RAN elements
In addition to the external networks shown above, each Cloud RAN VNF uses a set of
VNF specific internal networks for internal data exchange between the VNFCs (VMs) of
the VNF instance. These networks become automatically created in the VNF creation.
NTP
The OAM network (extent-vlan-0) is used for the NTP, except in the ASBSC19 the
monitoring network (extent-vlan-7) is used for this purpose.
SCTP multi-homing
Two separate C-plane transport interfaces can be used for Stream Control Transmission
Protocol (SCTP) multi-homing configuration. Multi-homing can improve network
resilience at transport layer for the control plane.
9.3 IP plans
Typically a /26 subnet is reserved for each external network for the Cloud RAN VNFs.
Hovever, in large configurations the amount of IP addresses of a /26 subnet may be
exceeded in some external networks, and a second /26 subnet, or a larger /25 subnet
may be required.
In tables below, in the example A, /26 subnets are sufficient for all external VNF
networks, while in the example B, the extnet-vlan-7 for monitoring connections grows
beyond the /26 subnet address space, and a /25 network is required.
Table 8 Example A: Four small size VNFs in one rack
NVF configurations Amount External networks (IPs)
Amount: extnet-vlan-x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ASRNC RC1 1 4 12 8 8 8 8 8 25
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Data center multi-tenancy Cloud RAN Solution Description
Table 8 Example A: Four small size VNFs in one rack (Cont.)
NVF configurations Amount External networks (IPs)
RC2
RC3
ASBSC RD1 2 16 4 8 20 16 16 34
RD2
RD3
RD4
cBTS5G Non HA 1 1 14 9 2
Min HA
Max HA
TOTAL 21 16 30 8 37 26 24 59
Table 9 Example B: Two medium size VNFs in one rack
NVF Amount External networks (IPs)
configurations
Amount: extnet-vlan-x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ASRNC RC1
RC2 1 4 24 16 16 16 16 16 45
RC3
ASBSC RD1
RD2 1 16 3 16 28 16 16 36
RD3
RD4
cBTS5G Non
HA
Min
HA
Max
HA
TOTAL 20 27 32 16 44 32 32 81
AirFrame OR18 rack is used in the examples above, although the subnet sizes do not
directly depend on the used rack type.
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Data center multi-tenancy
The OR19 with its increased vCPU capacity enables more and bigger VNF instances to
share the same cloud. While the number of VNFCIs increases correspondingly, also the
consumption of IP addresses in the external networks increases. Therefore, with the
OR19 the recommended subnet size (/26) may easily be exceeded. As in the example in
the table above, even in an OR18 rack with this specific configuration the subnet size
recommendation in the extnet-vlan-7 must be exceeded.
Table 10 OpenStack: VNF flavors
hw:cpu_polic hw:cpu_thread Hugepage AZs or host
y s_policy size aggregates
(hw:mem_p RM17 only: for VM
age_size) CPU models placement
supported
(hw:cpu_mod
el)
Table 11 OpenStack: other requirements
VNF tagged SR-IOV Anti-affinity Hyper-threading
VLAN trunk (server-groups) (host)
ASRNC no no 2 supported
ASBSC no no 2 supported
5G cBTS no no 4 supported
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Data center multi-tenancy Cloud RAN Solution Description
The NCIR has one installation file (/opt/nokia/userconfig/user_config.yaml), and thus one
setup to cater for all its VNF tenants. Without separate zones, the environment has to be
able to accommodate the VNF with the highest demands. Mostly the content of the
configurations recommended for the products is similar with only a couple of differences.
OR18
dpdk_profile_compute:
default_hugepagesz: 1G
hugepagesz: 1G
hugepages: 160
platform_cpus:
numa0: 1
numa1: 0
ovs_dpdk_cpus:
numa0: 2
numa1: 2
RM17” compute
performance_compute_dpdk:
default_hugepagesz: 1G
hugepagesz: 1G
hugepages: 112
platform_cpus:
numa0: 1
numa1: 0
ovs_dpdk_cpus:
numa0: 1
numa1: 1
RM17” controller+compute
performance_concompute_dpdk:
default_hugepagesz: 1G
hugepagesz: 1G
hugepages: 80
platform_cpus:
numa0: 4
numa1: 4
ovs_dpdk_cpus:
numa0: 1
numa1: 1
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Capacity and dimensioning
Table 12 AirScale BSC capacity steps
AirScale BSC19 TRX PCU Ch for GPRS/EDGE
RD1_BSC 1100 1100 4 864
RD2_BSC 3300 3300 24 576
RD3_BSC 5500 5500 16 384
RD4_BSC 8800 8800 54 016
The capacity step of an AirScale RNC is selected based on WBTSs and WCELs, the
capacity allocations for the CSPU VNFCIs, and planned user and control plane capacity,
throughput and external connectivity needs.
Table 13 AirScale RNC capacity steps
AirScale RNC20 WBTS WCEL
RC1 528 2640
RC2 1320 6600
RC3 2000 10000
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Capacity and dimensioning Cloud RAN Solution Description
Table 14 NFVI capacity allocations
AirScale BSC AirScale RNC 5G Cloud BTS CBAM
VCPUs Min 34, Max 680 Min 212, Max 804 Min 28, Max 372 8
Memory Min 176 GB, Max Min 316 GB, Max Min 78 GB, Max 32 GB
904 GB 1156 GB 916 GB
Storage Min 372 GB, Max Min 286 GB, Max Min 240 GB, Max 300 GB
747 GB 986 GB 2520 GB
(Non-HA
configuration)
In DC planning the maximum infrastructure resource utilization must not exceed 80-85%
of the maximum capacity. See product documentation for the detailed limitations.
CloudBand Application Manager
Table 15 CBAM capacity
CBAM capacity
50 Vims
1000 VMs
50 VNFIs
250 VMs/VNFI
16 parallel LCM operations
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Cloud RAN Solution Description Capacity and dimensioning
The CBAM capacity limits the practical number of Cloud RAN VNF instances. Depending
on the configuration, several CBAM instances may be required to manage the VNF
instances at an edge cloud site.
To reserve enough capacity for VNF runtime LCM operations, such as scaling, it is not
advisable to connect too many VNFs to one CBAM.
For example, one large configuration of the AirScale Cloud BTS-5G alone may require
up to 128 VMs. This means maximum eight such 5G Cloud BTS instances for one
CBAM.
Note also that only one LCM operation for each VNF is allowed at a time.
In this example, the scaling capability introduces the limiting factor for the number of
VNF instances for one CBAM – regardless of the size of the AirScale Cloud BTS-5G
configuration.
When the CBAM is in the edge DC for the RAN VNFs, the processing needs of the
CBAM must be considered in the DC planning.
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