New: AWS Telco Network Builder – Deploy and Manage Telco Networks

Over the course of a couple of hundred years, the telecom business has grow to be standardized and controlled, and has developed strategies, applied sciences, and a complete vocabulary (chock filled with attention-grabbing acronyms) alongside the way in which. As an business, they should honor this great legacy whereas additionally profiting from new know-how, all within the identify of delivering the absolute best voice and information companies to their prospects.

Today I wish to let you know about AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB). This new service is designed to assist Communications Service Providers (CSPs) deploy and handle private and non-private telco networks on AWS. It makes use of current requirements, practices, and information codecs, and makes it simpler for CSPs to make the most of the ability, scale, and suppleness of AWS.

Today, CSPs usually deploy their code to digital machines. However, as they give the impression of being to the longer term they’re in search of extra flexibility and are more and more making use of containers. AWS TNB is meant to be part of this transition, and makes use of Kubernetes and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for packaging and deployment.

Concepts and Vocabulary
Before we dive in to the service, let’s have a look some ideas and vocabulary which are distinctive to this business, and are related to AWS TNB:

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) – A European group that defines specs appropriate for world use. AWS TNB helps a number of ETSI specs together with ETSI SOL001 via ETSI SOL005, and ETSI SOL007.

Communications Service Provider (CSP) – An group that gives telecommunications companies.

Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) – A standardized grammar that’s used to explain service templates for telecommunications purposes.

Network Function (NF) – A software program element that performs a selected core or value-added operate inside a telco community.

Virtual Network Function Descriptor (VNFD) – A specification of the metadata wanted to onboard and handle a Network Function.

Cloud Service Archive (CSAR) – A ZIP file that comprises a VNFD, references to container photos that maintain Network Functions, and any extra recordsdata wanted to help and handle the Network Function.

Network Service Descriptor (NSD) – A specification of the compute, storage, networking, and site necessities for a set of Network Functions together with the data wanted to assemble them to kind a telco community.

Network Core – The coronary heart of a community. It makes use of management airplane and information airplane operations to handle authentication, authorization, information, and insurance policies.

Service Orchestrator (SO) – An exterior, high-level community administration instrument.

Radio Access Network (RAN) – The parts (base stations, antennas, and so forth) that present wi-fi protection over a selected geographic space.

Using AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB)
I don’t occur to be a CSP, however I’ll do my finest to stroll you thru the getting-started expertise anyway! The major steps are:

1. Creating a operate bundle for every Network Function by importing a CSAR.
2. Creating a community bundle for the community by importing a Network Service Descriptor (NSD).
3. Creating a community by deciding on and instantiating an NSD.

To start, I open the AWS TNB Console and click on Get began:

Initially, I’ve no networks, no operate packages, and no community packages:

My colleagues equipped me with pattern CSARs and an NSD to be used on this weblog publish (the community features are from Free 5G Core):

Each CSAR is a reasonably easy ZIP file with a VNFD and different gadgets inside. For instance, the VNFD for the Free 5G Core Session Management Function (smf) appears to be like like this:

tosca_definitions_version: tnb_simple_yaml_1_0

topology_template:

  node_templates:

    Free5gcSMF:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.VNF
      properties:
        descriptor_id: "4b2abab6-c82a-479d-ab87-4ccd516bf141"
        descriptor_version: "1.0.0"
        descriptor_name: "Free5gc SMF 1.0.0"
        supplier: "Free5gc"
      necessities:
        helm: HelmPicture

    HelmPicture:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.Artifacts.Helm
      properties:
        implementation: "./free5gc-smf"

The ultimate part (HelmPicture) of the VNFD factors to the Kubernetes Helm Chart that defines the implementation.

I click on Function packages within the console, then click on Create operate bundle. Then I add the primary CSAR and click on Next:

I evaluate the main points and click on Create operate bundle (every VNFD can embody a set of parameters which have default values which may be overwritten with values which are particular to a selected deployment):

I repeat this course of for the 9 remaining CSARs, and all ten operate packages are prepared to make use of:

Now I’m able to create a Network Package. The Network Service Descriptor can also be pretty easy, and I’ll present you many excerpts. First, the NSD establishes a mapping from descriptor_id to namespace for every Network Function in order that the features may be referenced by identify:

vnfds:
  - descriptor_id: "aa97cf70-59db-4b13-ae1e-0942081cc9ce"
    namespace: "amf"
  - descriptor_id: "86bd1730-427f-480a-a718-8ae9dcf3f531"
    namespace: "ausf"
...

Then it defines the enter variables, together with default values (this jogs my memory of a AWS CloudFormation template):

  inputs:
    vpc_cidr_block:
      sort: String
      description: "CIDR Block for Free5GCVPC"
      default: "10.100.0.0/16"

    eni_subnet_01_cidr_block:
      sort: String
      description: "CIDR Block for Free5GCENISubnet01"
      default: "10.100.50.0/24"
...

Next, it makes use of the variables to create a mapping to the specified AWS assets (a VPC and a subnet on this case):

   Free5GCVPC:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.Networking.VPC
      properties:
        cidr_block: { get_input: vpc_cidr_block }
        dns_support: true

    Free5GCENISubnet01:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.Networking.Subnet
      properties:
        sort: "PUBLIC"
        availability_zone: { get_input: subnet_01_az }
        cidr_block: { get_input: eni_subnet_01_cidr_block }
      necessities:
        route_table: Free5GCRouteTable
        vpc: Free5GCVPC

Then it defines an AWS Internet Gateway throughout the VPC:

    Free5GCIGW:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.Networking.InternetGateway
      capabilities:
        routing:
          properties:
            dest_cidr: { get_input: igw_dest_cidr }
      necessities:
        route_table: Free5GCRouteTable
        vpc: Free5GCVPC

Finally, it specifies deployment of the Network Functions to an EKS cluster; the features are deployed within the specified order:

    Free5GCHelmDeploy:
      sort: tosca.nodes.AWS.Deployment.VNFDeployment
      necessities:
        cluster: Free5GCEKS
        deployment: Free5GCNRFHelmDeploy
        vnfs:
          - amf.Free5gcAMF
          - ausf.Free5gcAUSF
          - nssf.Free5gcNSSF
          - pcf.Free5gcPCF
          - smf.Free5gcSMF
          - udm.Free5gcUDM
          - udr.Free5gcUDR
          - upf.Free5gcUPF
          - webui.Free5gcWEBUI
      interfaces:
        Hook:
          pre_create: Free5gcSimpleHook

I click on Create community bundle, choose the NSD, and click on Next to proceed. AWS TNB asks me to evaluate the checklist of operate packages and the NSD parameters. I accomplish that, and click on Create community bundle:

My community bundle is created and able to use inside seconds:

Now I’m able to create my community occasion! I choose the community bundle and select Create community occasion from the Actions menu:

I give my community a reputation and an outline, then click on Next:

I make it possible for I’ve chosen the specified community bundle, evaluate the checklist of features packages that shall be deployed, and click on Next:

Then I do one ultimate evaluate, and click on Create community occasion:

I choose the brand new community occasion and select Instantiate from the Actions menu:

I evaluate the parameters, and enter any desired overrides, then click on Instantiate community:

AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB) begins to instantiate my community (behind the scenes, the service creates a AWS CloudFormation template, makes use of the template to create a stack, and executes different duties together with Helm charts and customized scripts). When the instantiation step is full, my community is able to go. Instantiating a community creates a deployment, and the identical community (maybe with some parameters overridden) may be deployed greater than as soon as. I can see the entire deployments at a look:

I can return to the dashboard to see my networks, operate packages, community packages, and up to date deployments:

Inside an AWS TNB Deployment
Let’s take a fast look inside my deployment. Here’s what AWS TNB arrange for me:

Network – An Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) with three subnets, a route desk, a route, and an Internet Gateway.

Compute – An Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster.

CI/CD – An AWS CodeBuild undertaking that’s triggered each time a node is added to the cluster.

Things to Know
Here are a few issues to learn about AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB):

Access – In addition to the console entry that I confirmed you above, you may entry AWS TNB from the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) and the AWS SDKs.

Deployment Options – We are launching with the power to create a community that spans a number of Availability Zones in a single AWS Region. Over time we count on so as to add extra deployment choices similar to Local Zones and Outposts.

Pricing – Pricing relies on the variety of Network Functions which are managed by AWS TNB and on calls to the AWS TNB APIs, however the first 45,000 API requests per thirty days in every AWS Region are usually not charged. There are additionally extra costs for the AWS assets which are created as a part of the deployment. To study extra, learn the TNB Pricing web page.

Getting Started
To study extra and to get began, go to the AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB) residence web page.

— Jeff;