HPE adds integrated automated management to existing 5G portfolio
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new 5G software solution that adds fully integrated automated management to HPE’s existing 5G portfolio. The solution includes HPE 5G Automated Assurance and a new 5G capability for HPE Service Director, which together simplify the management of 5G networks and reduce deployment risks through a zero-touch, closed-loop system.
The new automation software monitors and orchestrates the network functions, infrastructure, slices and services, automatically acting on issues detected to secure service continuity. The software is pre-integrated with HPE’s open 5G solutions, including the HPE 5G Core Stack, as well as leveraging open-source technologies and offering open APIs to integrate with multi-vendor deployments.
While 5G will bring huge enhancements in terms of bandwidth, latency and the number of devices and services supported, it also introduces massive complexity and operational risks for network operators. 5G standards have been designed to embrace open, cloud-native platforms that utilize disaggregated software and hardware components from a variety of vendors.
As a result, telcos deploying 5G networks will need to manage and maintain numerous network slices, thousands of virtual machines and hundreds of virtual/containerized network functions (VNFs/CNFs) across thousands of sites.
HPE’s 5G automation software reduces the risk of managing a multi-vendor 5G network, providing automation capabilities that span from infrastructure management to slice automation, utilizing open and secure software components. Operators can deploy the 5G automation solution in compliance with standards such as ETSI and 3GPP, combining automated assurance with orchestration to enable a full zero-touch closed-loop process.
Whenever new network functions, slices and services are deployed, it automatically engages monitoring which detects service degradations and automatically triggers the repair, scaling or optimization of the infrastructure and services.
HPE’s integrated 5G automation solution is designed for countless 5G use cases, introducing key innovations such as intent-based orchestration, AI/ML-based assurance, CNF on boarding, automated slice management, and infrastructure elasticity. This new 5G software solution joins the HPE 5G software portfolio alongside the previously released HPE 5G Core Stack, HPE Open RAN Solution Stack and edge solutions, including HPE Edge Orchestrator.
It builds on HPE’s legacy as a leading vendor of service assurance, orchestration and infrastructure management solutions for fixed and mobile networks, accelerating telcos’ ability to deploy 5G.
The software is pre-integrated with the HPE 5G Core Stack, and also integrates with multi-vendor network functions (NFs) from HPE and partners. Integration and testing with both HPE and partner’s NFs is being performed at HPE’s 5G Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“To fully seize the opportunity presented by 5G and network slicing, network operators need to embrace the open, cloud-native principles that have been built into the industry standards,” said Domenico Convertino, VP of Product Management, HPE Communications Technology Group. “In line with this approach, HPE has developed fully integrated automation capabilities that de-risk 5G deployments and maximize business return for network operators. Building on our leadership in telco cloud, operations support systems and orchestration, we are introducing an integrated offering that accelerates automation in the industry.”
The new 5G automation solution brings intent-based orchestration with a new 5G capability for HPE Service Director and provides AI/ML-driven assurance with a new product, HPE 5G Automated Assurance.
A new 5G capability for HPE Service Director
HPE Service Director orchestrates complex 5G infrastructure and services in a simple, codeless way to optimize operational processes across connectivity, compute, application and network functions. It uses intent-based modelling to design service models and their policies to orchestrate the business processes and the complete lifecycle across hybrid environments, enabling operators to embrace DevOps.
HPE Service Director’s new 5G Capability provides zero-touch, profile-driven 5G network slicing orchestration and fully automated management of the lifecycle of network slices across all domains. It is complemented by HPE NFV Director, a proven, scalable ETSI-compliant resource orchestration offering for both VNFs and CNFs.
HPE 5G Automated Assurance
HPE 5G Automated Assurance allows telcos to automate the detection, prediction and remediation of 5G network issues and service degradation, thanks to ML-based data-driven 5G-ready intelligence and an open, secure design.
It collects and analyses a huge amount of diverse information from the 5G network in real time to detect anomalies or problem patterns and trigger appropriate remediation. The HPE 5G Automated Assurance solution has been designed from the ground up to operate in a multi-vendor ecosystem, easily interworking with different technologies from multiple vendors.
These two new automation solutions are complemented by the HPE Resource Aggregator for Open Distributed Infrastructure Management that simplifies the management of telco grade compute infrastructure across thousands of sites.
Availability
The 5G capability for HPE Service Director and HPE 5G Automated Assurance will be available globally in October 2021