O-RAN/OSC/ONAP-based multi-operator/multi-vendor resource pooling, RAN slicing in disaster scenarios
Channel: The Linux Foundation
Date: 11/10/2021

While slicing advantages are available now, there are still numerous problems to solve that current network slicing approaches do not address. For example, there is no support of: a. Multi-vendor and multi-tenant networks, as there is not yet a common protocol for creating an end-to-end slice covering a wide variety of hardware, software, and network resources; b. Highly dynamic slice resource scaling - this leads to frequent situations where slice resources are under- or over-provisioned; c. Resource pooling in conjunction with elastic resource scaling across multiple operator radio access networks (MORAN). 

This demo utilizes separate (autonomous) O-RAN/OSC/ONAP-based Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) frameworks for two (hypothetical) operator networks consisting of multi-vendor disaggregated O-RAN Network Functions such as Near-RT RIC, O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU, and O-RU. During a disaster scenario, an overarching Public Safety SMO pools resources and manages slices across both operator SMOs and subtending networks. To realize multi-vendor slices, coordination between O-DUs & O-CUs is required to assign radio resources appropriately and without conflict. Resource allocation between slices or O-DU/O-CUs is provisioned through the O1/A1 interface. This demo was a part of the LF Demo Pavilion / ONE Summit 2021.