The topology section provides information on specific classes, attributes, relationships, and events related to vRAN, Network Function, and the underlying Kubernetes infrastructure.
Topology Objects
The Server Manager builds a topology of the vRAN solution components. The topology objects represent the vRAN components in the network, their relationships, and their connections. These objects include:
- CentralizedUnitControlPlane: The Central Unit Control Plane (CUCP) CNF hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC) and the control-plane part of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). The CUCP terminates the E1 interface connected with the Central Unit User Plane and the F1-C interface connected with the Distributed unit. Communication between one gNodeB CUCP to another gNodeB CUCP is over the Xn interface.
- CentralizedUnitUserPlane: The Central Unit User Plane (CUUP) CNF hosts the user plane part of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) and the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) protocols. The CUUP terminates the E1 interface connected with the CUCP and the F1-U interface connected with the DU.
- DistributedUnit: The Distributed unit (DU) Network Function handles the RLC, MAC, and Physical layers of the baseband processing. The DU terminates the F1-C interface connected with the CUCP and the F1-U interface connected with the CUUP.
- gNodeB: gNodeB is a 3GPP-compliant implementation of the 5G-NR base station. It consists of independent Network Functions, which implement 3GPP-compliant NR RAN protocols. 5G NR disaggregated vRAN introduces a logically split baseband unit architecture. Centralized unit (CU) and Distributed baseband unit split over the F1 interface. The Centralized Units are further split into Central Unit Control Plane CUCP and CUUP connected over the E1 interface. The CUCP, CUUP, and DU connections form the midhaul. The CU is connected to the Core network over the NG interfaces to form the backhaul. The DU is connected to the RU Radio Unit through the front-haul eCPRI interface. The vRAN architecture supports higher layer split 3GPP Option 2 between PDCP at CU and RLC at DU and a lower layer split Option 7 between High-PHY at DU and Low-PHY at RU.
- VirtualMachine: Represents the VirtualMachine that stores data on the VMwareDatastore and is hosted by Hypervisor.
- KubernetesMaster: Represents a master node which controls and manages a set of worker nodes.
- KubernetesWorker: Represents the nodes that are responsible for running the workload.
- KubernetesPod: Represents the pod in Kubernetes ecosystem and this pod is the smallest execution unit in Kubernetes.
- Container: In Kubernetes, it represents the container. This container refers to an image that is ready-to-run software package that includes everything with which you can run your application.
- KubernetesService: Represents the service instance in Kubernetes environment. Primarily it is an abstraction which defines a logical set of pods and a policy by which you can access them.
- KubernetesReplicaSet: Represents the ReplicaSet in Kubernetes ecosystem. Primarily ReplicaSet maintains a stable set of replica pods running at any given time. As such, it is often used to guarantee the availability of a specified number of identical pods.
- NetworkFunction: Represents the network function that is running as a container in Kubernetes cluster.
The following table provides a list of vRAN classes, key attributes, relationships, and events.
| Class | Key Attributes | Key Relationship | Problem and Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| CentralUnitControlPlane |
|
|
|
| CentralUnitUserPlane |
|
|
|
| DistributedUnit |
|
|
|
| Container |
|
|
|
| gNodeB |
|
|
|
| Host |
|
|
|
| Hypervisor |
|
|
|
| KubernetesMaster |
|
|
|
| KubernetesWorker |
|
|
|
| KubernetesPod |
|
|
|
| KubernetesService |
|
|
|
| KubernetesReplicaSet |
|
|
|
| NetworkFunction |
|
|
|
| VirtualMachine |
|
|
|
