Continuous End-To-End Network Slicing Service Automation and Orchestration

Amdocs 5G Slice Manager receives requests from northbound BSS systems to deploy, activate, modify, upgrade and terminate network slices. The Slice Automation & Orchestration module of the Amdocs 5G Slice Manager is responsible for the instantiation of the Network Slice instance, the associated NFs, and their resources, to establish network slicing across the network domains. The Slice Automation & Orchestration module instantiates the necessary VNFs, CNFs, PNFs, network resources and connections end-to-end across the various network domains, to deploy the service into the network by interacting with each network domain, for example, RAN, Transport and Core infrastructure, and application controllers as required.

The Slice Automation & Orchestration module follows 3GPP technical specification guidelines for management of network slicing. The specific requirements of a network slice instance are provided to the Amdocs 5G Slice Manager using a Network Slice Type (NEST), which is a GST that is filled with the attribute values for the services that this network slice instance is expected to support.

As soon as the network slice activation is triggered, the Communication Service Management Function (CSMF) within Amdocs 5G Slice Manager receives the Communication Service-related requirements and converts them to network slice-related requirements, such as network type, network capacity, and QoS requirements. The CSMF then forwards the network slice requirements to the Network Slice Management Function (NSMF).

Figure 6: Amdocs’ 5G Slice Manager – E2E Network Slice Lifecycle Management