So those are day one day N, so again, all of them have to be managed, either as a cluster or individual.
And then as you know, as you gain more experience, you may have to tweak certain parameters. For example, when you initially configure them, which is called day zero configuration parameters. And then set parameters depending on the location or whatever, in the case of 5g, for example. So, you have to configure a certain set of PNFs with certain parameters. So that’s the first part, which is to automate the onboarding.Īutomating the configuration – All PNFs may not have the same configuration. And also as in the case of 5g, the problem is going to be there due to a lot more units, because the number of such devices will be more known at the base stations and so on. So again, all these functions can be done manually, but it’s going to be extremely tedious to do that. In that case, it has to be automated or reconfigured. For example, you may take a physical device and move it to a different location. The second part of that same functionality is PNFs migration. But these are all physical functions that are out there in the network service. In that sense, it’s kind of similar to the way you onboard VNFs. So, that’s the first aspect, which is to onboard the PNFs. PNF onboarding automation – There could be thousands of PNFs and onboarding them manually by the operators is going to be a very tedious and very time-consuming process. Sriram Rupanagunta: Essentially there are 3 aspects that you have to look at from a PNFs point of view. Now, how do you automate PNFs? Is it a similar capability, what PNF objects/functionality do you automate? Can you elaborate on that? Hema Kadia: Sriram, one of the things that we always hear about is virtual network function (VNF lifecycle management or how the orchestrators – whether it is ONAP, or OSM MANO, or vendor-specific orchestration & management functions, they always talk about VNF management. PNF automation – What needs to be automated & why? What are the similarities with VNF automation? So that’s the importance of having these PNFs. Now, the importance is that you know, even though your entire network service is virtualized or containerized, there will continue to be these physical devices that will stay as PNFs. So in that case, you want to keep them as PNFs. that people don’t want to migrate them to virtual functions. This could be some legacy devices, like routers, which are high-performance devices. There are a bunch of devices that have not yet migrated to the virtual functions. Physical network functions are devices that have not yet migrated to the virtual functions And because when you create a service, it will have virtual functions and physical functions. They will remain as physical functions and they are an important part of the overall service. And for example, if you take the 5G specific use case, the 5G base stations function cannot be virtualized. There is a class of these devices, which cannot be virtualized. The idea is to make it more flexible so that people can create these functions quickly and make changes. The VNF refers to the virtual machines and the CNS refers to containers. So if you take any sort of modern cloud-native functions, a lot of the functions are virtualized either as VNFS or as CNFs. Sriram Rupanagunta: There are 2 categories of these physical functions: Physical network functions are the devices that cannot be virtualized And we know that PNFs are going to exist here beyond the transition phase to 5G. We’ve heard a lot about virtual network function (VNF). Hema Kadia: Sriram, let’s start with defining the physical network function (PNF).
What is the physical network function (PNF) & its relevance in 5G?
Aarna Networks is a startup that’s working on a platform that essentially tries to automate a lot of the functions of the 5G, cloud-native functions of 5G, and edge applications such as automation lifecycle management and creating control loops for making changes in the configuration.
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