3 Feature Descriptions

This chapter provides a summary of each feature released in Cloud Native features release 2.1.1.

Cloud Native Environment (OC-CNE)

OC-CNE 1.4 has been updated with the following enhancements:

  • Continuous Deployment

    OC-CNE 1.4 includes a Continuous Deployment (CD) pipeline to automate OC-CNE lifecycle operations.

  • Automated Upgrade

    OC-CNE 1.4 offers a fully automated upgrade from OC-CNE 1.3. Host/guest OS, Kubernetes, and common services are all upgraded via a single CD pipeline command.

  • Automated Replication Configuration for DB Tier

    Prior to OC-CNE 1.4, configuring cross-site DB replication was a manual process. OC-CNE 1.4 automates the initial configuration of cross-site replication.

Cloud Native Diameter Routing Agent (CnDRA)

CnDRA 1.5.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • Multiple deployment support for dra service
  • Alert handling for pod failure

Cloud Native Core Console

Cloud Native Core Console 1.0.0 supports the following functionalities:
  • Supports configuration of NRF managed objects:
    • Screening rules
    • System options
  • Supports configuration of the following SCP managed objects:
    • System Options
    • Service Groups
    • SCP Profile
    • Routing Options
    • Message Priority
    • Mediation Configuration
    • Canary Release
  • Integrated with PCF GUI

Binding Support Function (BSF)

The Binding Support Function 1.4.0 allows Policy Control Function (PCF) to register, update, and remove the binding information from it; and allows NF consumers to discover the selected Policy Control Function.

The Binding Support Function stores the binding information for a certain Protocol Data Unit (PDU) sessions and discovers the selected PCF according to the binding information. It also acts as Diameter proxy agent or Diameter redirect agent to Rx requests targeting an IP address of the User Equipment (UE) to the selected PCF.

For any application function using Rx, such as P-CSCF, the Binding Support Function determines the selected PCF address according to the information carried by the incoming Rx requests.

For more information, refer to Binding Support Function User's Guide under Cloud Native documents on OHC.

Inter-Working Function (IWF)

IWF 1.4.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • To support PCF discovery to find the PCF from BSF for AAA from P-DRA

Network Exposure Function (NEF)

NEF 1.2.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • NEF support for Traffic Influence API and Background Data Transfer API.

Network Repository Function (NRF)

OCNRF 1.5.1 has been updated with the following enhancement:
  • Support for NRF Service Operation Forwarding

OCNRF 1.5.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:

  • Compliance to TS 29.510 15.5.0 (September 2019)
  • Priority-handling in discovery response
  • Full Address Resolution (SLF)
  • Egress Gateway integration
  • Integration with CNC OAM
  • OCNRF ATS

Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)

NSSF version 1.2.1 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • NS-Selection: Support for processing Subscribe and Notify (Allowing AMF to subscribe for notifications based on updates on Session data)
  • NSSF supports subscription for updates on TargetAMFSet (based on TargetAMFSetId and TargetAMFRegionId) with NRF

Policy Control Function (PCF)

PCF 1.5.2 has been updated with the following enhancement:

  • Compatibility of Helm chart with Kubernetes 1.16.2

The Helm chart in PCF 1.5.2 has been updated to make compatible with Kubernetes 1.16.2.

PCF 1.5.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • Helm Charts per Micro-service
  • Enable Diameter configurations via GUI
  • Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) support in PCF
  • PCF HTTPS/TLS Support
  • PCF Integration with CNC Core
  • Session viewer support in PCF over CM API/GUI
  • REST API support for PCF Configuration
  • OAuth2 Support
  • PCF Automated Test Suite support
  • PCF Performance and stress testing/benchmarking
  • PCF Stale Session Handling
  • 3gpp-Sbi-Target-apiRoot header Support

Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

PCRF 1.5.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • CN-PCRF Policy Actions and Conditions
  • Unified Policy Data Source across PCF and CN-PCRF
  • Alarms and KPIs Support in CN-PCRF
  • Policy Lifecycle Enhancements for cnPCRF

Service Communication Proxy (SCP)

SCP 1.5.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • Support to configure NF Profiles statically.
  • SCP 1.5 is compliant with Release 15.2 and 15.5 versions.
    Release 15.5 support is for below services SCP only:
    • NRF Services:
      • Nnrf_NFManagement
      • Nnrf_NFDiscovery
    • UDM Services:
      • Nudm_UECM
      • Nudm_SDM
    • PCF Services:
      • Npcf_SMPolicyControl
      • Npcf_AMPolicyContro
    • AUSF Services:
      • nausf-auth
  • Support for R16 3gpp-Sbi-Target-Apiroot header

Security Edge Proxy Protection (SEPP)

SEPP 1.2.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • SEPP compatible with OCCNE1.2/1.3

Unified Data Management (UDM)

UDM version 1.1.0 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • SIDF (Subscriber Identify De-concealing Function)
  • Subscriptions and Notifications of data change towards AMF/SMF

Unified Data Repository (UDR)

UDR 1.5 has been updated with the following enhancements:
  • Support for encryption of data for UDM data using MySQL NDB Cluster encryption technology
  • Support for 5G SLF
  • Uses 5G Ingress API gateway

Automated Testing Suite (ATS)

Automated Testing Suite (ATS) allows you to execute software test cases using an automated testing tool and then, compares the actual results with the expected or predicted results. In this process, there is no intervention from the user.

ATS for 5G Network Functions

For 5G Network Functions (NFs), ATS is built using Oracle Linux 7-slim as the base image. Jenkins is a part of the ATS image and it provides a GUI interface to the users to test either a single NF or multiple NFs independently in the same environment. Along with the NF docker images, user are provided with the ATS image, simulator images, and test cases for the specific NF. All these are handed over to the customer as a fully automated suite so that they can directly perform Lab deployment and testing. You can combine it with any other Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline with minimal changes, since 5G ATS uses Jenkins as GUI.