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US-12621209-B2 - Utilization of network function (NF) node groups for compute optimization and NF resiliency in a wireless telecommunication network

US12621209B2US 12621209 B2US12621209 B2US 12621209B2US-12621209-B2

Abstract

Example embodiments are directed towards utilization of network function (NF) node groups for compute optimization and NF resiliency in a wireless telecommunication network. A plurality of fifth-generation New Radio (5G NR) cellular telecommunication NFs of a telecommunication service provider are implemented as respective containerized network functions (CNFs). Each CNF corresponds to and is implemented by one or more software containers of one or more respective pods for scheduling and execution on one or more respective nodes in a software container orchestration platform that automates deployment, management, and scaling of containerized software applications. The respective nodes of the CNF are deployed in a respective node group of the container orchestration platform. The respective node group is utilized for compute optimization and NF resiliency of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network at a logical level of the respective pods in the node group.

Inventors

  • Andrew Trujillo

Assignees

  • Boost SubscriberCo L.L.C.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20230123

Claims (15)

  1. 1 . A method for implementing telecommunication network functions comprising: implementing a plurality of fifth-generation New Radio (5G NR) cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) of a telecommunication service provider as respective containerized network functions (CNFs) of a plurality of CNFs, wherein each CNF of the plurality of CNFs corresponds to and is implemented by one or more software containers of one or more respective pods for scheduling and execution on one or more respective nodes in a software container orchestration platform that automates deployment, management, and scaling of containerized software applications, wherein each of the one or more respective nodes represents a single physical machine or single virtual machine in a cluster and hosts groups of one or more containers, which run applications, and wherein a master communicates with the one or more respective nodes about when to create or destroy containers and how to re-route traffic based on new container alignments; for each CNF of the plurality of CNFs: deploying the one or more respective nodes of the CNF in a respective node group within a respective cluster of the container orchestration platform; and utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network at a logical level of the one or more respective pods.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: auto-scaling, for compute optimization, a size of the respective node group by adjusting pods of the node group responsive to compute demand of the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: microservices of the one or more software containers of the one or more respective pods performing closed loop assurance, including collecting, storing, and processing network data and performing remediation actions to recover from detected failures in the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the implementing the plurality of 5G NR cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) as respective CNFs includes: implementing control, signaling and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within one or more respective clusters of the software container orchestration platform in a virtual provide cloud (VPC), the one or more respective clusters hosted within an availability zone (AZ) by a national data center (NDC) of a cloud computing service provider; implementing access and mobility management Function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function for voice (UPF-v) and related security NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a first performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the first performance cluster hosted by a regional data center (RDC) of the cloud computing service provider associated with the NDC; and implementing a centralized unit (CU) and a user plane function for data (UPF-d) of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a second performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the second performance cluster hosted by a breakout edge data center (B-EDC) of the cloud computing service provider, wherein a pass-through edge data center (P-EDC) of the telecommunication service provider is physically located at a colocation data center (colo) with a physical server implementing the B-EDC and is directly connected via cable in the colo to a physical server implementing the B-EDC.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the software container orchestration platform is Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
  6. 6 . A system for implementing telecommunication network functions comprising: at least one memory that stores computer executable instructions; and at least one processor that executes the computer executable instructions to cause actions to be performed, the actions including: implementing a plurality of fifth-generation New Radio (5G NR) cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) of a telecommunication service provider as respective containerized network functions (CNFs) of a plurality of CNFs, wherein each CNF of the plurality of CNFs corresponds to and is implemented by one or more software containers of one or more respective pods for scheduling and execution on one or more respective nodes in a software container orchestration platform that automates deployment, management, and scaling of containerized software applications; for each CNF of the plurality of CNFs: deploying the one or more respective nodes of the CNF in a respective node group within a respective cluster of the container orchestration platform; and utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network at a logical level of the one or more respective pods.
  7. 7 . The system of claim 6 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: auto-scaling, for compute optimization, a size of the respective node group by adjusting pods of the node group responsive to compute demand of the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  8. 8 . The system of claim 6 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: microservices of the one or more software containers of the one or more respective pods performing closed loop assurance, including collecting, storing, and processing network data and performing remediation actions to recover from detected failures in the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  9. 9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the implementing the plurality of 5G NR cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) as respective CNFs includes: implementing control, signaling and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within one or more respective clusters of the software container orchestration platform in a virtual provide cloud (VPC), the one or more respective clusters hosted within an availability zone (AZ) by a national data center (NDC) of a cloud computing service provider; implementing access and mobility management Function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function for voice (UPF-v) and related security NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a first performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the first performance cluster hosted by a regional data center (RDC) of the cloud computing service provider associated with the NDC; and implementing a centralized unit (CU) and a user plane function for data (UPF-d) of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a second performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the second performance cluster hosted by a breakout edge data center (B-EDC) of the cloud computing service provider, wherein a pass-through edge data center (P-EDC) of the telecommunication service provider is physically located at a colocation data center (colo) with a physical server implementing the B-EDC and is directly connected via cable in the colo to a physical server implementing the B-EDC.
  10. 10 . The system of claim 6 wherein the software container orchestration platform is Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
  11. 11 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to cause actions to be performed, the actions including: implementing a plurality of fifth-generation New Radio (5G NR) cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) of a telecommunication service provider as respective containerized network functions (CNFs) of a plurality of CNFs, wherein each CNF of the plurality of CNFs corresponds to and is implemented by one or more software containers of one or more respective pods for scheduling and execution on one or more respective nodes in a software container orchestration platform that automates deployment, management, and scaling of containerized software applications; for each CNF of the plurality of CNFs: deploying the one or more respective nodes of the CNF in a respective node group within a respective cluster of the container orchestration platform; and utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network at a logical level of the one or more respective pods.
  12. 12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: auto-scaling, for compute optimization, a size of the respective node group by adjusting pods of the node group responsive to compute demand of the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  13. 13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the utilizing the respective node group for compute optimization and NF resiliency includes: microservices of the one or more software containers of the one or more respective pods performing closed loop assurance, including collecting, storing, and processing network data and performing remediation actions to recover from detected failures in the respective NF of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network.
  14. 14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the implementing the plurality of 5G NR cellular telecommunication network functions (NFs) as respective CNFs includes: implementing control, signaling and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within one or more respective clusters of the software container orchestration platform in a virtual provide cloud (VPC), the one or more respective clusters hosted within an availability zone (AZ) by a national data center (NDC) of a cloud computing service provider; implementing access and mobility management Function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function for voice (UPF-v) and related security NFs of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a first performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the first performance cluster hosted by a regional data center (RDC) of the cloud computing service provider associated with the NDC; and implementing a centralized unit (CU) and a user plane function for data (UPF-d) of the 5G NR cellular telecommunication network in respective node groups within a second performance cluster of the software container orchestration platform in a VPC, the second performance cluster hosted by a breakout edge data center (B-EDC) of the cloud computing service provider, wherein a pass-through edge data center (P-EDC) of the telecommunication service provider is physically located at a colocation data center (colo) with a physical server implementing the B-EDC and is directly connected via cable in the colo to a physical server implementing the B-EDC.
  15. 15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the software container orchestration platform is Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunication networks, more particularly, to utilization of NF node groups for compute optimization and NF resiliency in a wireless telecommunication network. BRIEF SUMMARY It is advantageous to provide Fifth Generation (5G) wireless technology in a resilient, flexible manner that optimizes compute resources. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the embodiments described herein have been made. 5G provides a broad range of wireless services delivered to the end user across multiple access platforms and multi-layer networks. 5G is a dynamic, coherent and flexible framework of multiple advanced technologies supporting a variety of applications. 5G utilizes an intelligent architecture, with Radio Access Networks (RANs) not constrained by base station proximity or complex infrastructure. 5G enables a disaggregated, flexible and virtualized RAN with interfaces creating additional data access points. 5G network functions may be completely software-based and designed as cloud-native, meaning that they're agnostic to the underlying cloud infrastructure, allowing higher deployment, agility and flexibility. With the advent of 5G, industry experts defined how the 5G core (5GC) network should evolve to support the needs of 5G New Radio (NR) and the advanced use cases enabled by it. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops protocols and standards for telecommunication technologies including RAN, core transport networks and service capabilities. 3GPP has provided complete system specifications for 5G network architecture which is much more service oriented than previous generations. Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) is an important element of 5G architecture. MEC is an evolution in cloud computing that brings the applications from centralized data centers to the network edge, and therefore closer to the end users and their devices. This essentially creates a shortcut in content delivery between the user and host, and the long network path that once separated them. This MEC technology is not exclusive to 5G but is certainly important to its efficiency. Characteristics of the MEC include the low latency, high bandwidth and real time access to RAN information that distinguishes 5G architecture from its predecessors. This convergence of the RAN and core networks enables operators to leverage new approaches to network testing and validation. 5G networks based on the 3GPP 5G specifications provide an environment for MEC deployment. The 5G specifications define the enablers for edge computing, allowing MEC and 5G to collaboratively route traffic. In addition to the latency and bandwidth benefits of the MEC architecture, the distribution of computing power is better enables the high volume of connected devices inherent to 5G deployment and the rise of IoT. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops protocols for mobile telecommunications and has developed a standard for 5G. The 5G architecture is based on what is called a Service-Based Architecture (SBA), which implements IT network principles and a cloud-native design approach. In this architecture, each network function (NF) offers one or more services to other NFs via Application Programming Interfaces (API). Network function virtualization (NFV) decouples software from hardware by replacing various network functions such as firewalls, load balancers and routers with virtualized instances running as software. This eliminates the need to invest in many expensive hardware elements and can also accelerate installation times, thereby providing revenue generating services to the customer faster. NFV enables the 5G infrastructure by virtualizing appliances within the 5G network. This includes the network slicing technology that enables multiple virtual networks to run simultaneously. NFV may address other 5G challenges through virtualized computing, storage, and network resources that are customized based on the applications and customer segments. The concept of NFV extends to the RAN through, for example, network disaggregation promoted by alliances such as O-RAN. This enables flexibility, provides open interfaces and open source development, ultimately to ease the deployment of new features and technology with scale. The O-RAN ALLIANCE objective is to allow multi-vendor deployment with off-the shelf hardware for the purposes of easier and faster inter-operability. Network disaggregation also allows components of the network to be virtualized, providing a means to scale and improve user experience as capacity grows. The benefits of virtualizing components of the RAN provide a means to be more cost effective from a hardware and software viewpoint especially for IoT applications where the number of devices is in the millions. The 5G New Radio (5G NR) RAN comprises of a set of radio base stations (each known as Next Generation Node B (gNb)) connected to the 5G core (5GC) and