The Telco Cloud Platform RAN solution architecture consists of a centralized management domain along with compute workload domains to support the required RAN workloads in a Regional Data Center and a Cell Site.
Before you deploy a Cell Site host, deploy a management domain and a compute workload domain at your Regional Data Center (RDC) using Telco Cloud Automation. The following sections describe the VMware SDDC design within a construct of Management workload domain and Compute workload domain, and how they are related in this RAN design.
Management Domain
The management domain contains a single vSphere cluster called the management cluster. The management cluster hosts the VMs that manage the solution. This cluster is crucial for the management and monitoring of the solution. Its high availability deployment ensures that the management and monitoring services are always available centrally at Regional Data Center.
| Management Domain Components |
Description |
|---|---|
| Management vCenter Server |
Manages the Management Domain. |
| Compute vCenter Server |
Manages the Compute Workload Domain. |
| NSX Manager |
Three instances of NSX Manager are used in a cluster. Note: NSX is not used at the RAN site such as Cell Site location. |
| vRealize Suite Standard |
Includes vRealize Log Insight and vRealize Operations. |
| vRealize Network Insight |
Communicates with the vCenter Server and NSX Manager instances to collect metrics that are presented through various dashboards and views. |
| vRealize Orchestrator |
Workflow engine, fully integrated with Telco Cloud Automation |
| Telco Cloud Automation |
Includes TCA Manager and TCA-CPs. |
| VMware Tanzu Basic for RAN |
Creates Workload clusters in the compute Workload domain. |
In the Telco Cloud Platform RAN solution, the Management Domain is hosted at Regional Data Center (RDC).
Compute Workload Domain
The compute workload domain can contain multiple vSphere clusters at RDC. These clusters can contain a minimum of three ESXi hosts and a maximum of 96 or 64 hosts (when using vSAN), depending on the resource and availability requirements of the solution being deployed at RDC.
The Cell Site host, which is designed to onboard CNFs on a single node ESXi host, is part of the compute workload domain. This host provides Kubernetes workload cluster where CNFs such as vCU and vDU workloads are placed.
Each compute workload domain can support a maximum of 2500 ESXi hosts and 45,000 VMs in combination with the RDC cluster and Cell Site hosts. If you use other management and monitoring tools, the vCenter maximums do not apply and the actual number of ESXi hosts and VMs per workload domain might be less.
