Network Slicing Engine

This external component provides a Network Slicing Engine (NSE). In the following fundamentals are described such as installing the NSE, configuring it and how to configure Network Slicing requirements.

In a nutshell this component ensures QoS configuration defined in the Descriptors provided by the NFVO.

The network-slicing-engine is implemented in java using the spring.io framework. It runs as an external component and communicates with the NFVO via Open Baton's SDK.

Additionally, the NSE uses the a plugin mechanism to allow whatever driver is needed to setup QoS. Currently, it supports only the neutron driver which allows to configure QoS in OpenStack directly. Hence, the NSE requires at least version Mitaka of OpenStack since it was recently introduced.

Before starting this component you have to do the configuration of the NSE that is described in the next chapter followed by the guide of how to start and how to use it.

Technical Requirements

This section covers the requirements that must be met by the environment in order to satisfy the demands of the NSE:

• Installed and configured Open Baton NFVO/gVNFM (>=3.0.0)
• Installed and configured OpenStack (>=Mitaka) (for Mitaka check here or Newton here) with QoS APIs enabled

How to install Network Slicing Engine

If you have the bootstrap procedure and selected the installation of the NSE component, you could skip this section, and move to the How to use Network Slicing Engine one.

Otherwise, please continue with this section. Different options are available for the installation of the Network Slicing Engine. Either you use the fully automated bootstrap where all configurations are done automatically choosing between either the debian based installation or the source code one. In case you don't use the bootstrap procedure, you can still install the NSE component individually either via apt-get or gradle.

Installation via bootstrap

Using the bootstrap gives a fully automated standalone installation of the NS including installation and configuration.

The only thing to do is to execute the following command and follow the configuration process:

bash <(curl -fsSkl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openbaton/network-slicing-engine/master/bootstrap)

Once you started the bootstrap you can choose between different options, such as installing this component via debian packages or from the source code (mainly for development)

Installation via debian package

When using the debian package you need to add the apt-repository of Open Baton to your local environment with the following command if not yet done:

wget -O - http://get.openbaton.org/keys/public.gpg.key | apt-key add -
echo "deb http://get.openbaton.org/repos/apt/debian/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

Once you added the repo to your environment you should update the list of repos by executing:

apt-get update

Now you can install the NSE by executing:

apt-get install openbaton-nse

Installation from the source code

The latest stable version NSE can be cloned from this repository by executing the following command:

git clone https://github.com/openbaton/network-slicing-engine.git

Once this is done, go inside the cloned folder and make use of the provided script to compile the project as done below:

./network-slicing-engine.sh compile

Manual configuration of the Network Slicing Engine

This chapter describes what needs to be done before starting the Network Slicing Engine. This includes the configuration file and properties, and also how to define QoS requirements in the descriptor.

Configuration file

The configuration file must be copied to etc/openbaton/network-slicing-engine.properties by executing the following command from inside the repository folder:

cp etc/network-slicing-engine.properties /etc/openbaton/network-slicing-engine.properties

If done, check out the following chapter in order to understand the configuration parameters.

Configuration properties

This chapter describes the parameters that must be considered for configuring the Network Slicing Engine.

Params	Meaning
logging.file	location of the logging file
logging.level.*	logging levels of the defined modules
rabbitmq.host	host of RabbitMQ
rabbitmq.username	username for authorizing towards RabbitMQ
rabbitmq.password	password for authorizing towards RabbitMQ
nfvo.ip	IP of the NFVO
nfvo.port	Port of the NFVO
nfvo.username	username for authorizing towards NFVO
nfvo.password	password for authorizing towards NFVO
nfvo.project.name	project used for registering for the events

Starting the Network Slicing Engine

How to start the NSE depends of the way you installed this component.

Debian packages

If you installed the NSE with the debian packages you can start it with the following command:

openbaton-nse start

For stopping it you can just type:

openbaton-nse stop

Source code

If you are using the source code you can start the NSE easily by using the provided script with the following command:

./network-slicing-engine.sh start

Once the NSE is started, you can access the screen session by executing:

screen -r openbaton

For stopping you can use:

./network-slicing-engine.sh kill

Note Since the NSE subscribes to specific events towards the NFVO, you should take care about that the NFVO is already running when starting the NSE.

How to use Network Slicing Engine

The currently only supported driver is neutron, which will use the native QoS capabilities of Openstack Mitaka. To use it simply set nse.driver=neutron in the configuration file. To set QoS policies in your NSD specify the following QoS parameter in the virtual_link of your vnfd configuration.

In JSON:

  "virtual_link":[
    {
      "name":"NAME_OF_THE_NETWORK",
      "qos":[
        "maximum_bandwith:BRONZE"
      ]
    }
  ]

In YAML:

mgmt:
  type: tosca.nodes.nfv.VL
  properties:
    vendor: Fokus
    qos:
      - minimum_bandwith:BRONZE