VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN 3.1 | 30 NOV 2023

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

VMware Telco Cloud Platform - RAN™ Release 3.1 is a major milestone release in the evolving roadmap of Telco Cloud Platform RAN. It includes key features and enhancements across the carrier-grade RAN stack to improve performance, operability and scale, and user experience.

VMware timing architecture is enhanced by integrating the Timing Pod that supports single and dual West Port Channel NICs. This enhancement provides the flexibility to run services required for the LLS-C1 or LLS-C3 timing and synchronization modes. It also provides an extensible framework for integrating other NICs in the future, and supports switchover or fallback between the primary and secondary PTP sources for timing synchronization. This timing architecture is also aligned with the O-RAN specification for PTP notification.

This release further enhances the CaaS capabilities by introducing the support for NodeIPAM capabilities in Kubernetes nodes, vertical Kubernetes node scaling for resource adjustment, and turbostat utility tool for visibility into processor frequencies and idle statistics. Additionally, Kubernetes Single Node Cluster (SNC) is supported on ESXi for partner validation and Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) compliance is supported at the CaaS and OS levels.

vSphere enhances the capacity of the platform by increasing the number of supported PCI passthrough devices per VM. Telco Cloud Automation introduces new features such as Multi-tenancy and Workflow Hub. VMware Bare Metal Automation enhances the automation capabilities of Telco Cloud Automation with Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) Workflow enhancements, Firmware and BIOS upgrade for Day-2 operations.

Workload Compute

VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 1c delivers the following key features:

  • Increases the number of supported PCI passthrough devices per VM from 32 to 64

  • Exposes turbostat, a Linux utility that provides visibility into processor frequencies and idle statistics

  • Enhances vSphere Green Metrics. New metrics are introduced to capture the power consumption data of a host, including power associated with virtual machine workloads.

For more information, see the VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 1c Release Notes.

Carrier-Grade VNF and CNF Automation and Orchestration

VMware Telco Cloud Automation 3.0 introduces various new features and enhancements. Some of the key features are as follows:

  • Inclusion of Workflow Hub to orchestrate complex workflows

  • Multi-tenancy support to provide tenant awareness capability to the Telco Cloud Automation (TCA) resources

  • Support for Kubernetes Single Node Cluster (SNC) on ESXi for partner validation using Kubernetes 1.26.8.

  • Kubernetes Node IPAM support and Vertical Kubernetes Node scaling for TKG Standard Classy Workload Clusters.

    Note: Applicable only to greenfield deployments.

    • NodeIPAM manages IP address pool allocation for each node when the node initializes.

    • Vertical Kubernetes Node Scaling enables resource adjustments.

  • Security improvements

  • VMware Timing Pod supports and automates timing solutions, including single and dual Westport Channel NICs

  • Automation of Salem Channel NIC in LLS-C1 timing topology with Boundary Clock support

For more information about these features and enhancements, see the VMware Telco Cloud Automation 3.0 Release Notes.

Extended Automation

VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform 3.1 includes the following features and enhancements:

  • Import CSAR package to TCA

  • Integrate Bare Metal Automation (BMA) workflows with TCA Workflow Hub

  • Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) workflow enhancements:

    • Firmware and BIOS update workflows

For more information about these features and enhancements, see the VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform 3.1 Release Notes.

Carrier-Grade Kubernetes Infrastructure

VMware Tanzu Basic for RAN introduces various key features as part of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3.1. This release also inherits enhancements from Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3.

  • Supports the following Kubernetes versions:

    • 1.26.8

    • 1.25.13

    • 1.24.17

      Important:

      • Kubernetes 1.26.8: The standard one-year support policy applies. Kubernetes 1.26.8 is unsupported when Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3 reaches End of Service.

      • Kubernetes 1.25: When Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.2 reaches End of General Support, VMware will no longer support Kubernetes 1.25 with Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

      • Kubernetes 1.24.17: The standard one-year support policy applies. Kubernetes 1.24.17 is unsupported when Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.1 reaches End of Service.

      • Kubernetes 1.24.10 (Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.1.1): In addition to the standard one-year support policy, Kubernetes 1.24.10 receives an additional one year of support. The two-year support clock begins on the release date of Telco Cloud Platform 3.0. The support clock does not reset with every patch release.

      • Kubernetes 1.22 & 1.23: No longer supported

      For more information about lifecycle support for specific Kubernetes versions in a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid release, see the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3 Release Notes.

      For further information about support and extensions, contact Broadcom Support.

  • Single-node clusters are supported in Telco Cloud Automation (Tech Preview). For more information, see Single-Node Clusters in vSphere.

  • Configuration of  cluster-wide Pod Security Admission (PSA) controller with new cluster configuration file variables

  • Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3.1 is a non-Extended Support (non-ES) version supported for one year

  • Node IPAM support for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) nodes

  • Adherence to Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG) compliance at the CaaS and OS levels.

  • Support for a new Tanzu Kubernetes Workload cluster type "Classy Standard Cluster"

    Note: The new features of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid are available only in the Classy Standard Cluster type. For more information about cluster types, see Deploy a Workload Cluster.

For more information about these features and enhancements of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3 and 2.3.1, see the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.3 Release Notes.

Operations Management

VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance 2.2 includes the following new features:

  • Samsung vDU RAN Assurance Phase 2 (Metrics and Events based on USM)

  • Anomaly detection (Tech Preview)

  • Closed-loop remediation

  • Pipeline reporting

  • Remote Collector deployment

  • KPI Definition Tools

  • Alarm Subscription

  • Integration with third-party ticketing systems

For more information about these features, see the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance 2.2 Release Notes.

Components

Mandatory Add-On Component

Note: Additional license is required.

Optional Add-On Components

Note: Additional license is required.

Note:

To download these components, see the VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN 3.1 Product Downloads page.

Support for Backward Compatibility of CaaS Layer with IaaS Layer

VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN 3.1 supports backward compatibility of its CaaS layer components (Telco Cloud Automation and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid) with the IaaS Layer component (vSphere) in earlier versions of Telco Cloud Platform for RAN. With this feature, you can upgrade the CaaS layer components to their latest versions while using earlier versions of the IaaS layer component.

For more information, see Software Version Support and Interoperability in the Telco Cloud Automation Deployment Guide and Supported Features on Different VIM Types in the Telco Cloud Automation User Guide.

Resolved Issues

Note: For information about the entire list of fixes delivered in each Telco Cloud Platform RAN component, see the corresponding product release notes.

  • CSAR Instantiation Fails Due to an Empty PCI ID in ESX Info CR

    When an existing host profile is modified to enable SR-IOV on a vNIC and a new PCI group is created for the vNIC, the PCI group entry in the esxinfo Custom Resource (CR) has an empty PCI ID, resulting in the failure of CSAR instantiation.

    This issue is fixed in Telco Cloud Automation 3.0.

Known Issues

Note: For information about the entire list of known issues in each Telco Cloud Platform RAN component, see the corresponding product release notes.

  • Radio Link Might Go Down and Up Occasionally When Using Intel Westport NIC in LLS-C1 Mode with PTP Timing Pod

    When the Intel Westport NIC is configured in LLS-C1 mode with PTP Timing Pod, the radio link might go down and up occasionally.

    Workaround: None

  • High ts2phc Offset Values Might be Observed Rarely in HPE DL110 Servers with LLS-C1 Configuration

    In HPE DL110 servers that run DU workload in LLS-C1 configuration, high offset values in ts2phc timing might be observed rarely. This issue might also be observed when using Intel NVM 4.3 on E810 Westport channel NIC with GNSS connected and VMware timing pod, resulting in radio units going out of sync temporarily for a brief duration.

    Workaround: Reduce the occurrence of high offset values by deactivating MCTP Discovery on the management interface of the HPE DL110 server.

  • Unable to Power ON VMs Requiring 52 GB Memory on Low-Memory Servers 64 GB or Less

    VMs requiring 52 GB memory or more cannot be powered ON on low-memory servers (64 GB or less) running ESXi 8.0 U1.

    Workaround: Reduce the memory consumption in the 64 GB server by following these steps:

    1. Add the following settings in the ESXi host:

      • esxcli system settings kernel set -s maxVMs -v 6

      • esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Mem/MemMinFreePct -i 1

    2. Reboot the ESXi host.

    3. Re-instantiate the VM on the server.

  • Latency Spikes Might Occur for a Brief Period When Accessing Dell iDRAC Console Using USB Devices

    When the Dell iDRAC Console is accessed using a USB Device such as keyboard and mouse, latency spikes might occur for a brief period.

    Workaround: None

    Note: Access the Dell iDRAC console only during the maintenance window of the ESXi host.

  • PTP Service Error Occurs When Instantiating a CSAR Without Specifying the iavf and ice Driver Details

    If you instantiate a CSAR without specifying iavf and ice drivers in the /Definitions/VNFD.yaml file, the PTP service error occurs instead of indicating the package error in Telco Cloud Automation.

    Workaround: Specify the iavf and ice driver details as described in KB90345.

  • Scheduling Latency Spikes Might be Observed Over a Long Run on Servers Installed with ESXi

    A few spikes in scheduling latency of over 20us might be observed over a long run on servers that are installed with ESXi.

    Workaround: None

Release Notes Change Log

Date

Changes

Jun 21, 2024

Lifecycle details about the following Kubernetes versions are added to the What's New section:

  • Kubernetes 1.26.8

  • Kubernetes 1.25

  • Kubernetes 1.24.17

  • Kubernetes 1.24.10

  • Kubernetes 1.23 & 1.22

Support Resources

For additional support resources, see the VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN documentation page.

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