Designing Network Slices

The process of creating network slices starts with the onboarding of network slice resources (network function, network services and all the accompanying artifacts) using the Slice Design module. Subsequently, the network slice is modeled. For example, by chaining various NFs, links and connection points to create specific network slice services.

The Amdocs’ 5G Slice Manager solution is powered by the Linux Foundation’s Open Networking Automation Platform (ONAP). It uses TOSCA modeling for the network slice building blocks, such as VNFs, CNFs, PNFs, and the network services themselves, as well as GSMA Generic Network Slice Templates (GST), thereby ensuring commonality, flexibility and reusability.

The Slice Design module contains a catalog of modeled (in advance) network functions and network services that can be easily reused, to create new network slices and services with unprecedented speed and promptness. A service instance is realized by one or more network slice instances (NSIs), which in turn might consist of network slice subnet instances (NSSIs).

Figure 4: High-level Illustration View of Network Slice Modeling.

The slice service business attributes, such as latency, throughput, supported UEs, and the maximum number of concurrent sessions, are distributed by the Slice Design module to the service catalog, for example, CatalogONE. These attributes include the performance, functionality and operational characteristics of the network slice. Exposing the network slice business attributes to the service catalog enables product designers and then product managers, to define products and sellable commercial offers, by adding descriptors that contain pricing, discounting, and promotion specifications.

For each service defined, the Slice Designer module associates definitions, processes, and policies for management and execution of this service. The BSS, OSS, and the Slice Manager integrate seamlessly via these shared definitions and models, to radically improve time-to-market for new services, products, and offers.

Usually, a service provider’s ability to transform itself and develop new services or re-use existing services in new ways, is constrained by the speed of the network engineering tools to create, test, integrate and debug the cycle, which is typically a very manual, document-based and time-consuming process. On the other hand, Amdocs Slice Designer enables service/slice creation automation, testing and debugging, packaging, and distribution, and is an important first step in shortening the service/slice development lifecycle and reducing engineering and IT costs.