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OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

  • 1.  OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Mar 24, 2017 13:34
    Hi to all,

    i'd like to share some reflection about the future role of OSS Inventory with the introduction of Network and Network Function Virtualizzation: SDN/NFV. Part of network resources and node will be virtualized and dynamic.

    From my point of view is not clear if the traditional OSS Inventory that support Provisioning, Assurance, Deployment and other Network Process have to be remain a legacy system outside but integrated with the NFV/SDN stack.

    The second option is that Inventory must be inserted in NFV/SDN stack and manage all the resources for Orchestrator support, that is to say the resources to create the virtualized network infrastructure but also the resources for the customer service fullfiment. In this option also assurance, deployment function will be virtualized.

    I believe that the evolution of the inventory will be crucial for the new mode of network and OSS process management.

    What is the way forward in your opinion? Please share your ideas and experiences.

    Thanks in advance


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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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  • 2.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Mar 27, 2017 04:22
    Adding to the inventory debate

    At what point do we cross over from inventory to catalog?

    Do we have a means of distinguishing between the two, and do we need to?

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    Hugo Vaughan
    IBM Corporation
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  • 3.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Mar 28, 2017 02:50

    Hugo

     

    Good point. In my view if something gets added to Catalogue, the Inventory should automatically adapt to create a bread crum of the actual instantiation of these Catalogue items.

     

    Herman


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  • 4.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Mar 28, 2017 04:19
    What we've discovered, during our SDN/NFV journey so far, is that in order to accurately assess
    the 'form' of the current NFV SDN/NFV landscape, is that ultimately a single consolidated view is required.
    In other words, inventory, catalogue and topology information needs to be fully amalgamated before we can perform
    effective Service Impact and Root Cause Analysis on an ecosystem which constantly changes. The tech
    is out there to do this and mature (graph databases), but I've not yet seen a finished product which has
    all bases covered for SDN/NFV. A graph DB could happily act as inventory, catalogue and topology store though, avoiding
    the requirement to reply on separate products in future.

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    Chris Bristow
    Hutchison 3G UK
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  • 5.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Mar 28, 2017 09:01
    ONAP uses a graph database for "inventory" and topology; the scare quotes because the "inventory" provides an overall view that is reliant on ultimate sources of truth.  A catalog represents the set of VNFs and services that can be instantiated. It specifies what free parameters exist that must be specified in order to build an instance of a VNF or service.  IMO, it is distinct from inventory.

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    Arun Gupta
    AT&T Inc.
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  • 6.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Mar 28, 2017 05:39
    Hi,

    The way I look at is traditional OSS inventory management system will remain “as it is” in the hybrid network environment. For end to end service orchestration and management, the additional function or layer (master layer in this case) should talk to both traditional OSS and NFV inventory system.

    Traditional inventory management and orchestration differs from CSP to CSP to suit business need. The traditional inventory process and NFV/SDN inventory process may be different. Keeping it separate would provide ease of enhancement and improve maintainability.  Down the line, after some years, NFV inventory will grow and traditional inventory will shrink.

    To me, Inventory and catalog are separate things. For SDN/NFV as descripted in MANO, catalogue is maintained in the descriptor file and in traditional, it is stored in form of metadata or definition files. This catalogue is referred while creating instance of it that is inventory.  



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    Lalitagauri Dixit
    Persistent Systems Limited
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  • 7.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Mar 28, 2017 19:18
    Hi Hugo,

    The main difference between catalog and inventory would be the information registered in each, it's not that one is the evolution of the other.

    The inventory represents all the equipment and data, including quantities, while the catalog would include all the available models, for example:

    Inventory:

    Cisco Routers:

    • 800 Series ISR, quantity: 2, location: Quito, ports available: 3, etc
    • 4000 Series ISR ...
    • Meraki MX ...

    Catalog:

    Routers:
    Cisco:
    • 800 Series ISR
    • 4000 Series ISR
    • Meraki MX
    • ASR 1000 Series
    • ASR 9000 Series
    Hope this helps.

    Thank you

    ------------------------------
    Carlos Alberto Novoa Velasco
    Telefonica Ecuador / Otecel S.A.
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  • 8.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Apr 03, 2017 10:45
    Thanks for the feedbacks, i understand the correct approach depends by the ecosystem context, technologies, the type of service, presence of virtualizzation and a lot of variables.

    Best solution is traditional OSS Inventory for more traditional service and provisioning, while best solution is catalogue/orchestrator for NFV/SDN for new vitualized service.

    But what happen if the Telco is migrating to some NFV USE cases on a multi years roadmap?

    For example we've a traditional XDSL/FTTX connectivity Service on a traditional OSS Inventory. The Telco first start a vPE Use Cases project trasformation and after that a vCPE project.
    Durig the transition the OSS Inventory cannot be dismissed, i suppose. Do you have to manage both physical and virtual risources on OSS Inventory or the Network modelling have to be splitted between the OSS Inventory and the new catalogue for the virtualizzation?

    In terms of datamodel my trail first is made of physical resources, then both physical and virtual, at the end most of them are virtualized

    During the transition It make sense have a vPE or vCPE on a traditional OSS Inventory?

    Thanks in advance

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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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  • 9.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Apr 04, 2017 09:29
    Note we had a first pass at the Hybrid networks challenge as as part of R14-5
    IG1122 NFV Readiness: Operating a Hybrid Virtualization Network Infrastructure R14.5.1
    It could probably do with a refresh. Any feedback would be welcome

    We are working in R17 on an intent based management approach for multiple technologies that uses TM FORUM APIs. It is called Hybrid Infrastructure Platform(HIP which is an evolution to concrete APIs based on TR262 Hybrid Network Management Platform Blueprint R16.5.1
    My guess is that legacy networks probably needs to stay on legacy Inventory
    For virtualisation the challenge is that the relationship between the logical resource and the physical resources is changing dynamically so holding the relationship between logical and physical items is going to be a challenge for a traditional inventory due to  volume velocity of change, Holding the ID of logical and physical resources might be possible with a traditional inventory but might overlap with the current NFV implementations .

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    Dave Milham
    TM Forum Chief Architect
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  • 10.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jun 05, 2017 10:23
    Hi all,
    the first question raised in my mind is: how a standard Resource Inventory could manage a Virtual Network Elements created as VNF ?
    I think VNF should be managed almost in the same way as PNF. What can be different is that VNF will have additional information about the relationship [VirtualDevice][VirtualMachine][PhysicalServers].

    Another question I tried to answer is: how can be considered the fact that this Virtual Network Element can moving from a data center to another and contemporarily taking into account all the physical and logical resources (inventory objects) that already refer to that moving NE ?
    As far as the links, services and NE connectivity related are not modified, the datacenter moving should be transparent. The only think that can be tracked is the information about [VirtualMachines][PhysicalServers].

    It is for sure interesting to centralize all the network information (VNF + PNF) on a same Inventory, but the way to centralize this info seems to be somthing to be better understood in the next future.

    A way to mantain a resource Inventory and NFV environmnet aligned could be, for instance, using the discovery module Inventory has.
    Does anyone want to share his point of view about that?

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    Mauro Scarlata
    Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
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  • 11.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Oct 26, 2017 04:43
    ​Mauro, your question are excellent.

    At the moment from my point of view is not clear where the Hibrid Service and Resource Inventory should be located, maybe best solution to manage Hybrid, Virtual and Legacy Service is to put it on the Top to work together with E2E Orchestration so that it can route any type of service and related chain ( legacy, Vitual, etc) and show resource trees information

    In my opinin make the NFV on boarding on a traditional OSS Network and Resource inventory is not so easy for different reason. First of all NFV is dynamic, so that the Inventory need to be updated from the NFVO with latest information about NFV configuration on different VMs, Data Center, HW and SW resources scaling, etc etc. So i suppose the NFV should be represented in a legacy inventory with a logical, more high level representation. Reconciliation should be good to update informaton regarding NFV dinamics and need an integration with the OSS Legacy Inventory.

    Some COTS Network inventory have introduced the possibiity to make the NFV on boarding using for example the TOSCA template, and manage them inside a Network Service.

    I think this's a good point for discussion.

    Kind Regards
    Stefano


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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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  • 12.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Oct 27, 2017 02:12
    Hi,

    Its a wonderful topic for discussion, i will try to provide few details which could be useful

    Traditional OSS vs Current OSS(in Cloud env):
                     Traditional OSS had access directly to end equipment through network, so it was easy to manage inventory and end to end management from OSS

                     OSS function in Cloud scenario is limited to deployment and  Elasticity of Virtual Network function, so no control on the HW inventory

    Traditional vs Cloud Management:
                    Traditional management of inventory was based on the network element instances 
                    In Cloud, it has been divided into HW inventory and Virtual function inventory

    Then what is the way forward to manage inventory:
                    Answer comes from the way IT applications are managed currently.

                   a. Orchestration manages the entire HW inventory and mapping to Network Functions
                   b. OSS manages the Network function elasticity 
     
    Currently there are multiple orchestration vendors available in IT environment and thats an area IT and Telecom converge, the recent collaboration of Nokia and Amazon shows the same, to move towards IT way of managing telecom applications, Telecom applications are complicated than IT applications

    This is also an area where major operators are inclined towards for a solution to move to cloud faster

    i dint try to answer the question, but wanted to share the direction the solution is heading towards

    hope it helps the discussion

    Thanks.



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    karthik s
    Tata Communications Ltd
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  • 13.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Oct 30, 2017 05:54
    Hi Kkarthik, good point

    What do you mean exatly when you says "OSS manages the Network function elasticity"?  i don't undestand if you referer to the NFV onboarding on the traditional OSS.

    Thanks in advance

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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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  • 14.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Oct 30, 2017 06:05
    ​ETSI Might Form a Second Group to Connect NFV with OSS

    this's the new on SDX Central

    ETSI Might Form a Second Group to Connect NFV with OSS

    SDxCentral remove preview
    ETSI Might Form a Second Group to Connect NFV with OSS
    THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The European Telecommunications Standards Institute ( ETSI), which basically kicked off network functions virtualization (NFV) five years ago with an NFV white paper, is now in the process of creating a new group - the Zero-Touch group. The ETSI NFV industry specification group (ISG) laid the foundation for the majority of network virtualization work.
    View this on SDxCentral >



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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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  • 15.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Oct 31, 2017 00:51
    Hi 

    I meant TEM will be part of OSS to Scale-in and Scale-out of network functions/applications. in traditional OSS, there is no concept of TEM

    TEM - Telecom elasticity management (Scaling-in and Scaling-out of telecom Network applications)

    Rgs//Karthik

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    karthik s
    Tata Communications Ltd
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  • 16.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    Posted Oct 30, 2017 09:45
    ​​ 
    Hey Stefano,
     
    Exactly this question I am asking a very long time. Let me share the Vodafone Germany thoughts on this.
     
    First of all, I need to mention, that we have a clear separation between planning department and operations. That means in the past operations would not install any equipment without an order from planning. I think especially in case of NFV/SDN this cannot be handled in this way anymore, as NFV might pop up in case of any events for possibly only a few seconds.
     
    For mid and long term planning It Is necessary to be able to have a hint how much hardware needs to be installed or can be used for other segments of the network.
     
    I respect to our given company structure and workflow I requested to create interface between Domain Orchestrator and the Inventory.
     
    As we are in a transition to 100% NFV, we still need to have a "classical" inventory and can't add or combine not virtualized network function into the NFV Stack.
     
    Best regards
     
    Thorsten

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    Thorsten Reihs
    Vodafone Group
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  • 17.  RE: OSS Inventory evolution and NFV/SDN

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Oct 31, 2017 04:38
    ​Hi Thorsten,

    thanks for your i think the logical modelling of NFV on Inventory side it's a very good idea to have on legacy OSS information about virtualized network function when needed

    Only high level information and a subset of attributes can be modelled on the Logical representation of NFV without continuous update of the Inventory with the dynamic information

    The onboarding of NFV in the inventory required a TOSCA model of NFV?

    Thanks in advance

    Kind Regards

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    Stefano Gufi
    Accenture
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