1 Introduction

This guide describes how to install or upgrade Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Converged Policy (Policy) in a cloud native environment. It also includes information on performing fault recovery for Policy.

Note:

  • This guide covers the installation instructions when Podman is the container platform with Helm as the Packaging Manager. For any other container platform, the operator must use the commands based on their deployed container runtime environment.

  • kubectl commands might vary based on the platform deployment. Replace kubectl with Kubernetes environment-specific command line tool to configure Kubernetes resources through kube-api server. The instructions provided in this document are as per the CNE version of kube-api server.

  • Caution:

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1.1 Overview

Policy is a key component of the 5G Service Based Architecture(SBA). It provides a flexible, secure, and scalable policy designing solution. Policy interacts with other network functions to perform usage monitoring, network behavior management, and governance. It helps operators to design, test, and deploy different network policies supporting 5G deployments. Policy is designed and built with a microservice based architecture on cloud native principles. It uses network, subscriber, and service information to help service providers create policies and determine how and under what conditions subscribers and applications use network resources. It helps in minimizing network utilization while maximizing the quality of experience for operators. Policy solution supports deployments into any cloud, including containers on Bare Metal managed by Kubernetes or VMs managed by OpenStack.

Note:

The performance and capacity of the Policy system may vary based on the Call model, Feature/Interface configuration, underlying CNE and hardware environment, including but not limited to the complexity of deployed policies, policy table size , object expression and custom json usage in Policy design.

Policy is a network function for policy control decision and flow based charging control. It consists of the following functions:

  • Policy rules for application and service data flow detection, gating, QoS, and flow based charging to the Session Management Function (SMF)
  • Access and Mobility Management related policies to the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
  • UE Route Selection Policies (URSP) rules to User Equipement (UE) through AMF
  • Access to subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a Unified Data Repository (UDR)
  • Network control for service data flow detection, gating, and Quality of Service (QoS)
  • Flow based charging towards the Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF)
  • Receiving session and media related information from Application Function (AF) and informing AF of traffic plane events
  • Provision of Policy and Charging Control (PCC) Rules to Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) through the Gx reference point
Policy supports the above functions through the following services:
  • Session Management Service
  • Access and Mobility Service
  • Policy Authorization Service
  • User Equipment (UE) Policy Service
  • PCRF Core Service
  • Binding Service
  • Policy Data Source Service
  • Usage Monitoring Service
  • Notifier Service
  • NWDAF Agent

1.2 References

Refer to the following documents while deploying Policy:

  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Converged Policy User Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Converged Policy REST API Specification Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Converged Policy Design Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Converged Policy Troubleshooting Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment Installation and Upgrade Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide
  • Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Data Collector User Guide

1.3 Oracle Error Correction Policy

The table below outlines the key details for the current and past releases, their General Available (GA) dates, the latest patch versions, and the end dates for the Error Correction Grace Period.

Table 1-1 Premier Support Details

Release Number General Availability (GA) Date Latest Patch Version Error Correction Grace Period End Date
3.24.3 November 2024 24.3.0 November 2025
3.24.2 November 2024 24.2.2 November 2025
3.24.1 April 2024 24.1.0 April 2025
3.23.4 November 2024 23.4.8 November 2025

Note:

For a release, Sev1 and Critical Patch Update (CPU) patches are supported for 12 months. For more information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core and Network Analytics Error Correction Policy.

1.4 Oracle Open Source Support Policies

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core uses open source technology governed by the Oracle Open Source Support Policies. For more information, see Oracle Open Source Support Policies.