2 Feature Descriptions

This chapter provides a summary of new features and updates to the existing features for network functions released in Cloud Native Core release 3.25.2.2xx.0.

Note:

CCNC-XXXX is an internal identification number of the feature.

2.1 Automated Testing Suite (ATS) Framework

Release 25.2.202

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Automated Testing Suite (ATS) Framework 25.2.202 includes the following enhancements:
  • Token-based Authentication for Prometheus:

    This enhancement enables ATS to communicate with Prometheus which requires service account token based authentication and with TLS. Service account should be given necessary role-based access control (RBAC) permissions for authorization.

    For more information, see the "ATS Feature Activation and Deactivation" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Automated Testing Suite Guide.

  • Support for Dual Stack:

    The dual stack mechanism establishes connections with REST APIs and ATS GUI in a Kubernetes cluster using IPv4 or IPv6 or both simultaneously.

    For more information, see the "ATS API" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Automated Testing Suite Guide.

2.2 Binding Support Function (BSF)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function (BSF) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancements:
  • Support for SBI Message Priority:

    BSF supports adding 3gpp-Sbi-Message-Priority header to all the requests that it sends out and also in all the responses that it receives from other NFs. Using 3gpp-Sbi-Message-Priority header in requests such as REGISTER, DEREGISTER, or DISCOVERY, BSF and the associated producers and consumers such as SCP, NRF, PCF, AF, and NEF can distinguish between high-priority and low-priority Service Based Interface (SBI) messages.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

    For more information, see the "Support for SBI Message Priority Header" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function User Guide.

  • Support for cnDBTier Georeplication Status Across All Sites API in CNC Console:

    This enhancement allows Georeplication Status Across All Sites APIs to be integrated into the CNC Console, and users can view the georeplication status for the site to the mated sites along with the replication group status on the CNC Console.

    For more information, see "cnDBTier APIs" in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Repository Function User Guide.

  • Support for Even CPUs Profile:

    The Kubernetes CPU Manager is configured with the static or shared CPU policy to reduce deployment failures, mitigate noisy-neighbor effects, and ensure consistent CPU availability for critical network function (NF) workloads in the 5G Core environment. As part of this feature, resource profiling got updated to allocate an even number of CPUs to all BSF services and the Istio sidecar, optimizing guaranteed CPU resources per service.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For details on the resource requirements for installing BSF, see "Resource Requirements" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Application Framework Change: Spring Boot has been replaced with Micronaut as the framework for microservices (except Alternate Route Service, Ingress gateway or Egress gateway micro services).

    For more information, see the "Application Framework Change" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function User Guide.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-1 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-1345 Support for SBI Message Priority
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11758 Support for cnDBTier Georeplication Status Across All Sites APIs in CNC Console
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Binding Support Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11677 Support for Even CPUs Profile

2.3 Cloud Native Core cnDBTier

Release 25.2.201

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier (cnDBTier) 25.2.201 includes the following enhancements:

  • Support for Parallel Restart of cnDBTier Pods

    This release introduces the ability to create, delete, and update pods within a StatefulSet concurrently rather than sequentially. This significantly reduces maintenance windows and rollout times while ensuring stability and data integrity. Users can utilize this functionality by running the dbtupgrade_parallel_restart script.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "Performing a Parallel Restart of cnDBTier Pods" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide.

  • Enhanced Georeplication Monitoring in CNC Console

    A new screen in the CNC Console provides a centralized interface to monitor and verify georeplication status across all configured sites.

    To support this UI enhancement, the following REST APIs are now available:
    • http://base-uri/ocdbtier/faultrecovery/start
    • http://base-uri/ocdbtier/v1/backup/status
    • http://base-uri/ocdbtier/replication/status/realtime
    • http://base-uri/ocdbtier/replication/status/realtime/{siteName,remoteSiteName}

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the following sections:
    • For the REST APIs, see the "cnDBTier APIs for CNC Console" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide.
    • For the enhanced CNC Console screen, see the "Monitoring Georeplication Recovery Status Using CNC Console" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Georeplication Recovery (GRR) Performance Improvement

    To support for both manual and automated recovery, improved site selection, and better monitoring for seamless cnDBTier replication restoration, the following configuration parameters have been updated:

    Added the following global configuration parameters to support backup restoration process in Georeplication Recovery in the Global Parameters section:
    • /global/additionalndbconfigurations/ndb/MaxFKBuildBatchSize with default value 512
    • /global/additionalndbconfigurations/ndb/MaxUIBuildBatchSize with default value 512
    Updated the default values for the following parameters:
    • global/ndb/restoreparallelism from 128 to 1024
    • ndb/resources/requests/memory from 16Gi to 18Gi
    • api/resources/limits/CPU from 8 to 4
    • api/resources/requests/CPU from 8 to 4
    • db-replication-svc/resources/limits/CPU from 1 to 1.1
    • db-replication-svc/resources/requests/CPU from 0.6 to 1
    • db-backup-manager-svc/resources/limits/cpu from 1 to 1.1
    • db-backup-manager-svc/resources/requests/cpu from 1 to 1.1

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "Customizing cnDBTier" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Automated Horizontal Scaling of NDB Pods

    The procedure for scaling ndbappmysqld pods has been updated to utilize the dbtscale_ndbmtd_pods script. This tool automates the expansion of cnDBTier clusters, allowing for seamless scaling of NDB data pods to meet increased capacity demands.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "Horizontal Scaling of ndbmtd pods using dbtscale_ndbmtd_pods" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide.

  • Addition of cnDBTier Georedundant Site

    The procedure to add cnDBTier georedundant mate site has been updated to include the procedure to scale db replication service deployments and ndbmysqld pods.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "Scaling of db replication service deployments and ndbmysqld pod" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Schema and Data Consistency Georeplication Audit

    In a cnDBTier deployment, georeplicated database sites can be monitored using the dbtaudit script. This command-line utility allows administrators to audit site status, review replication health, and ensure overall compliance across distributed database clusters.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "Auditing georeplicated database sites using dbtaudit script" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Aspen Service Mesh (ASM) for External Communication:

    This feature enables secure external communication through ASM (Application Service Mesh) by selectively applying Istio sidecar injection only to pods where external communication is involved. By selectively enforcing ASM policies, cnDBTier ensures the security and compliance of its external interfaces, while preserving high performance and simplifying manageability within the cnDBTier ecosystem.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

    For more information, see the "Aspen Service Mesh (ASM) for External Communication" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-2 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11640 Parallel Restart of cnDBTier Pods
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11227 Georeplication Performance Improvement
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10389 Automated Horizontal Scaling of NDB Pods

2.4 Cloud Native Configuration Console (CNC Console)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Configuration Console (CNC Console) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancements:

  • CNC Console IAM Backend Upliftment:

    CNC Console has performed an IAM backend upliftment to resolve security issues, theme updates, and handle database schema changes. As a part of this upliftment, the core procedures for adding or updating passwords, creating and viewing users, configuring SAML IDP, generating access tokens, and managing user federation remain functionally unchanged. However, the UI screens have been refreshed to align with the latest interface and design standards.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For more information on this enhancement, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Configuration Console Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide and Oracle Communications Cloud Native Configuration Console User Guide.

  • Application Framework Change:Spring Boot has been replaced with Micronaut as the framework for microservices.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required).

  • Support for Additional cnDBTier APIs: CNC Console now supports additional cnDBTier APIs for replication status across all cnDBTier sites. This enhancement is NF dependent and must be enabled in their respective NF configurations.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For more information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier User Guide, and Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, cnDBTier Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Support for Disabling mTLS/TLS for cnDBTier Internal Pod Communication:

    CNC Console supports configuring ASM for external traffic only, effectively disabling mTLS for internal communication between cnDBTier pods. This enhancement provides more granular control over sidecar injection, allowing you to select from three modes: None, All, and External. This replaces the previous binary configuration. CNC Console now supports integration with cnDBTier configured in external mode.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-3 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10855 CNC Console IAM Backend Upliftment
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10849 Support for Migration from Springboot to Micronaut
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CNCC-11861 Support for Additional cnDBTier APIs
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment - per 25K Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11968 Support for Disabling mTLS/TLS for cnDBTier Internal Pod Communication

2.5 Cloud Native Environment (CNE)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment (CNE) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancements:

  • CNE API Server public endpoint:

    This feature provides an option to expose the Kubernetes API server as a public endpoint. The public endpoint is secured using mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication and provides admin-level access to the cluster. This capability supports use cases such as enabling GitOps workflows, while maintaining robust security controls.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

    For more information, see the "Enabling Public Endpoint for CNE (Kubernetes) API Server" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment User Guide.

  • CNLB Support for Egress and Ingress Bypass (OpenStack Only):

    This feature allows applications to use network attachments that route traffic directly through the native Multus interface, effectively bypassing CNLB.

    Note:

    This feature requires a fresh CNE installation and is available exclusively on the OpenStack platform.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "CNLB Bypass Configuration" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • CNLB Connection Synchronization:

    Connection synchronization is now supported between active and standby CNLB application pods. This enhancement preserves live CNLB connections during switchover events, delivering seamless user experience and preventing connection drops.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

    For more information on Connection synchronization, see the following sections in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide:

    • For enabling and disabling connection tracking feature, see "Managing Connection Tracking Feature" subsection in the "Configuring Cloud Native Load Balancer (CNLB)" section.
    • For configurable parameters, see "CNLB Manager Environment Variables" table in the "Configuring Cloud Native Load Balancer (CNLB)" section.
  • Dedicated Nodes for CNLB:

    CNE now supports the creation of dedicated nodes reserved exclusively for CNLB. These nodes do not host any other workloads, except observability workloads. It is recommended to use this feature in conjunction with the Heterogeneous Nodes enhancement for optimal deployment flexibility.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "CNLB Deployment Strategies" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Support for Heterogeneous Node Types:

    Clusters can now be created with up to three different OpenStack VM flavors (small, medium, and large). This enhancement allows for optimized resource allocation within a cluster. For CNLB workloads, using the small flavor is recommended to maximize efficiency and resource utilization.

    Note:

    This feature requires a fresh CNE installation and is available only on the vCNE platform in this release.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the "CNLB Deployment Strategies" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Cloud Native Environment Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • New Versions of Common Services:

    The following common services are upgraded in this release:

    • Helm - 3.19.1
    • Kubernetes - 1.34.2
    • containerd - 2.1.4
    • Calico - 3.30.3
    • MetalLB - 0.15.2
    • Prometheus - 3.6.0
    • OCI-Grafana - 7.5.17
    • Jaeger - 1.72.0
    • Istio - 1.18.2
    • Kyverno - 1.15.0
    • cert-manager - 1.12.4
    To get the complete list of third-party services and their versions, refer to the dependencies_25.2.200.tgz file provided as part of the software delivery package.

Note:

CNE constitutes a number of third-party services. For information about these third-party services, refer to the documents of the respective third-party services.
The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-4 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11487 Support for Heterogeneous Node Types
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11459 CNLB Support for Egress and Ingress Bypass (OpenStack Only)
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11342 cnLB optimization to increase the performance on Ingress or Egress or Mix per Service IP for OpenStack -25.2.200
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11172 Dedicated Nodes for CNLB
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10453 CNLB Connection Synchronization

2.6 Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancements:

  • Application Framework Change: Spring Boot has been replaced with Micronaut as the framework for microservices. With this migration, support for the latency metric *_latency_seconds has been deprecated.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see the “NSSF Metrics” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function User Guide.

  • NRF Client Retry and Health Check: The NRF Client Health Check continuously assesses the health of NRF instances to ensure high availability and seamless failover, especially in georedundant environments. It includes configurable intervals, intelligent health status updates, and a retry mechanism to minimize service disruption.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For more information, see “NRF Client Retry and Health Check” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function User Guide.

  • Support for TLSv1.3 on Internal API Communication: NSSF supports TLSv1.3 (in addition to TLSv1.2) for secure communication with the Kubernetes API server.

    Configuration Status: Disabled by default.

    For more information, see “Support for TLSv1.3 on Internal API Communication” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function User Guide.

  • Support for Dual Stack: Using the dual stack mechanism, NSSF communicates within services or deployments in a Kubernetes cluster using IPv4 or IPv6 or both simultaneously depending on the configured deployment mode.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see “Support for Dual Stack” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function User Guide.

  • Support for Disabling mTLS/TLS for cnDBTier Internal Pod Communication: CNC Console supports configuring ASM for external traffic only, effectively disabling mTLS for internal communication between cnDBTier pods. This enhancement provides more granular control over sidecar injection, allowing you to select from three modes: None, All, and External. This replaces the previous binary configuration. CNC Console now uses external mode to integrate with cnDBTier and you can deploy cnDBTier without ASM sidecars for internal pod communication.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For more information, see “Configuring NSSF to Support Aspen Service Mesh” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Support for ASM 1.21.6: NSSF supports Aspen Service Mesh (ASM) 1.21.6 from this release.

    For more information, see “Configuring NSSF to Support Aspen Service Mesh” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

  • Support for Grafana 7.5.x: NSSF supports Grafana version 7.5.x.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default.

    For more information, see “Software Requirements” section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function Installation, Upgrade, and Fault Recovery Guide.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-5 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11959 Support for Disabling mTLS/TLS for cnDBTier Internal Pod Communication
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-11377 NSSF: Support for ASM 1.21.6
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advance Networking - 25K Active Subscribers CCNC-11118 Support for Dual Stack
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10668 Support for Grafana 7.5.x
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10361 NSSF: S-nssai to be configured at PLMN level
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-9884 Application Framework Change
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-9153 Support for TLSv1.3 on Internal API Communication
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Network Slice Selection Function - 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-9234 NRF Client Retry and Health Check

2.7 Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management (OCCM)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management (OCCM) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancement:

  • Support for Certificate Cloning: OCCM supports the certificate cloning functionality. It streamlines how users create new certificates by allowing them to clone or duplicate an existing certificate’s configuration. This significantly reduces manual entry, minimizes errors, and ensures consistency across certificate deployments.

    Configuration Status: Enabled by default

    For more information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management User Guide.

  • Support for Deleting Certificate Configuration and Secret: OCCM has enhanced the delete certificate functionality support deleting the certificate and Kubernetes secret simultaneously. This enables the user to delete the associated Kubernetes secret along with the certificate configuration in a single action.

    Configuration Status: Always enabled (no additional configuration required)

    For more information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management User Guide.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-6 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management - 25K Active Subscribers CCNC-10321 Support for Certificate Cloning
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Certificate Management - 25K Active Subscribers CCNC-10622 Support for Deleting Certificate Configuration and Secret

2.8 Operations Services Overlay (OSO)

Release 25.2.200

Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Operations Services Overlay (OSO) 25.2.200 includes the following enhancement:

  • Alert Forwarding to Kafka: With this feature, OSO introduces an Alert Processing Microservice (APM) that receives HTTP-based alerts from OSO(Alert manager), converts them into Kafka-compatible JSON messages, and sends the alerts to a designated Kafka partition. TLS is not supported for Kafka messages.

Note:

In this release, TLS is not supported for Kafka messages.

Configuration Status: Disabled by default

For more details, about this feature, see the "Alert Forwarding to Kafka" section in Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Operations Services Overlay User Guide.

The following table lists the license names for feature mapping. For additional licensing information, see Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Licensing Information User Manual.

Table 2-7 License names for feature mapping

License Name CCNC Number Feature Name
Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core, Advanced Cloud Native Environment – 25K Active Subscribers Perpetual CCNC-10339 Alert Forwarding to Kafka