SD-Core 1.1 Release

1.1.0 Release Details

SD-Core supports 4G & 5G network functions. SD-Core provides APIs for configuration, telemetry, policy management. AN can connect to AMF or MME depending on the type of access used. Below is the summary of the features delivered in release SD-Core-1.1.

Highlights

All Open Source: Starting this release SD-Core code is open source. All code repositories, helm charts and aether-in-a-box is available to all the community members. Press release about this can be found at this link.

5G small cell integration: While SD-Core’s 5G-SA mobile core has previously been demonstrated to work with 5G-SA RAN nodes (particularly in the DT SD-RAN trial), this is the first release with support for 5G small-cells from T&W running Radisys 5G-SA RAN stack. Furthermore this release includes integration with both Aether ROC and SD-Fabric P4-UPF for 5G features, details of which can be found in the respective release notes.

Policy framework to support QoS at multiple levels: SD-Core makes use of policy network function (PCF/PCRF) to enforce QoS decisions on subscriber sessions. Policies are configured per network slice using SD-Core’s configuration interface. PCF/PCRF binds those policies to the subscribers. Operators can use configuration APIs to assign UE level QoS, per application QoS and also slice level QoS. In SD-Core 1.1 release subscriber policies (QoS & application filtering) are integrated in the 5G core network.

Application Filtering Support: Network slicing, when extended end-to-end to include applications, gives the network-operator the capability to apply access control. The operator can deploy multiple applications at the edge or in the public-cloud, and can restrict the users from accessing applications that are not allocated to the user’s slice. This adds an extra layer of isolation in edge app deployments. SD-Core supports up to 5 application configurations per slice. Application filtering supports usage of port ranges and as well as Subnet configuration.

UE Subscription Removal: Core network triggered UE deregistration is implemented to gracefully force a UE to detach from the network, in cases where the network-operator has removed the UE from the slice to which it previously belonged.

Subscriber Management Interface: SD-Core provides a Subscriber Management Interface to add/update/remove user subscription from the Core Network. Simapp uses this interface to manage subscribers in SD-Core. When used with Aether, the latter uses an Operations portal to manage multiple Aether components including SD-Core. In this release, support for a subscriber proxy is added in Simapp, which is then used by the operations portal to learn about subscribers provisioned in Core Network by Simapp. This change helps SD-Core’s seamless integration in Aether.

5G gNB simulator: The gNB simulator simulates 5G UEs & gNodeBs. It is capable of supporting multiple UEs and gNodeBs and performing both control plane and dataplane tests, which assist greatly in quick development of new 5G-SA features. In addition to a dev-test tool, it can also be used by QA teams to run automated tests for the 5G core network. Please refer to gNB Sim documentation for more details. Support for Service Request and AN release procedures are added in this release.

Stability and Reliability: We fixed a couple of stability issues seen in Aether deployments. This includes fixes around memory leaks, message retransmissions, DNS timeouts and TAU handling at MME.

Known Issues and Limitations

  • The same IMSI cannot part of multiple device groups

  • At most 5 application filtering rules can be added per Slice

  • If a subscriber is attached to a Network Slice then subsequent application filter rules modify/deletion is not notified towards UE & UPF. If UE disconnects and reconnects back to Network Slice then updated application filters are applied to UE.

  • If No Filtering Rules are configured then only Default(Allow-All) Filter rule is added implicitly.

  • PLMN update for Slice does not work. It is recommended to delete the slice and recreate it again with correct PLMN.

  • Application filtering is not available for some combinations of 5G UEs and 5G gNBs. For 5G slices, it is recommended that default behavior be set to ALLOW-ALL and application filtering rules not be added at this time.

Note

For any 3gpp release compliance refer - (4G - 3GPP Release Compliance) and (5G - 3GPP Release Compliance)

Component Versions in the 1.1.0 Release

Helm Chart Versions and their component charts and containers:

  • sdcore-helm-chart: 0.10.16
    • omec-control-plane: 0.10.11

      • hssdb: omecproject/c3po-hssdb:master-df54425

      • hss : omecproject/c3po-hss:master-df54425

      • pcrf : omecproject/c3po-pcrf:pcrf-d58dd1c

      • pcrfdb : omecproject/c3po-pcrf:pcrf-d58dd1c

      • config4g : omecproject/5gc-webui:master-727636a

      • spgwc : omecproject/spgw:master-96012d9

      • mme : omecproject/nucleus:master-01dc535

    • omec-sub-provision: 0.4.5

      • simapp: omecproject/simapp:main-2a3d85f

    • 5g-control-plane: 0.6.19

      • amf: romecproject/5gc-amf:master-1438b55

      • nrf: omecproject/5gc-nrf:master-5844fcf

      • smf: omecproject/5gc-smf:master-7ef661b

      • ausf: omecproject/5gc-ausf:master-7dcc39c

      • nssf: omecproject/5gc-nssf:master-e751140

      • pcf: omecproject/5gc-pcf:master-6bf5a23

      • udr: omecproject/5gc-udr:master-3756e35

      • udm: omecproject/5gc-udm:master-15369ab

      • webui: omecproject/5gc-webui:master-727636a

    • bess-upf 0.0.5

      • bess: omecproject/upf-epc-bess:master-9a4d86c

      • pfcpiface: omecproject/upf-epc-pfcpiface:master-9a4d86c

    • 5g-ran-sim 0.4.11

      • gnbsim: omecproject/5gc-gnbsim:main-d16fdb5

1.1.1 Release Details

Minor release with bug fixes on top of release 1.1.0. Below is the list of defects fixed on top of previous release.

  • MME crash was seen while sending paging request to eNB

  • SPGW crash was seen while handling DDN timeout event

  • PCF changes to send unique qos flows in the Create Policy response.

  • gNBSim changes to support profile timeout & handling NW triggered deregistration

Helm Chart Versions and their component charts versions

  • sdcore-helm-chart: 0.10.18

    • omec-control-plane: 0.10.12

    • omec-sub-provision: 0.4.5

    • 5g-control-plane: 0.6.20

    • bess-upf: 0.0.5

    • 5g-ran-sim: 0.4.12

Testing

For various testing related details refer (see Test frameworks and coverage)

Documentation

SD-Core documentation is available at docs.sd-core.opennetworking.org