A Network Slice is a complete logical network including Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network (CN). It provides telecommunication services and network capabilities which can vary from slice to slice. A device can access multiple Network Slices simultaneously through a single RAN.

Network Slicing is defined as the method of creating multiple unique logical and virtualized networks over a common multi domain infrastructure. In 5G Core, service providers offer multiple types of communications services as follows:
  • Business-to-consumer (B2C) services. For example, mobile web browsing, 5G voice, Rich Communication Services, and so on.
  • Business-to-business (B2B) services. For example, internet access and LAN interconnection.
  • Business-to-household (B2H) services. For example, Internet access, MBMS, VOIP, and VPN.
  • Business-to-business (B2B2X) services. For example, services offered to other CSPs such as international roaming and RAN sharing communication services to their own customers.
Prerequisites
  • VMware Aria Operations must be installed and Kubernetes Management Pack must be deployed.
  • Kubernetes Management Pack must be configured to manage the infrastructure.
  • Modify the /etc/hosts file where the Domain Manager Servers are running to update the IP address to Kafka Service mapping:
    • For TKG deployment: <Virtual IP address of the VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid workload cluster> kafka-edge.
    • For AKS and AWS deployment: <Kafka Edge IP> kafka-edge.
    • For VM Based On-Prem Demo deployment,: <Kafka Edge IP> kafka-edge.
    Note: For identifying the Kafka IP address, see Identify Data Collection Framework and Kafka IP Address and Port Numbers.

Network Slice Discovery and Monitoring

Network Slice leverages 5G Core and vRAN Assurance to provide discovery and monitoring at the component level. Network Slice and its subnet instances are discovered in VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance Domain Manager (ESM) using VMware Telco Cloud Automation REST APIs.

vRAN and CNFs can monitor and provide root cause analysis on a Network Slice. For Topology, Notification, and RCA information, see Virtualized Radio Access Network use case in the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assuarance User Guide.

For the Network Slice to be discovered, the VMware Aria Operations and the VMware Telco Cloud Automation instance (where the Network Slices are configured) must be discovered in the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance.

As part of the NetworkSlice Discovery, following new objects are created in the VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance:
  • NetworkSliceService
  • NetworkSliceSubnetService
To discover the CellSite in VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance, configure the VMware vCenter, VMware Aria Operations, and VMware Telco Cloud Automation credentials and then trigger the discovery of the same using the ICMP only mode.