• Proposed name for the project: escalator
• Proposed name for the repository: escalator
• Project Categories: Requirements

In the traditional Telco operator’s network, the service (software) is often bound with dedicated hardware and platform. It is easy to upgrade the whole system on demand. In some cases, software or system update called ISSU (In-Service Software Update) could be done without service interruption.

With the technical benefit of virtualization, NFV framework provides a scalable container for each VNF (service software), and de-couples them from the platform and hardware (NFVI).

As we know, OPNFV is committed to provide an open source platform implementation of NFVI and VIM to host Telco services / Network Functions. Currently more than 10 projects have been approved, and more proposals have been created. There will be 2 OPNFV release version per year, just like Openstack community.

OPNFV community must provide some kind of mechanism to assure the operators can perform smooth upgrade of the NFVI and VIM without service interruption when a new major(full set of components with new functions) is released, or a minor version (partial set of components with bug fixed) is required.

This project is aiming to identify the user requirements on smooth upgrade the NFVI and VIM from one version to another. Such as:

• the maximum duration of an upgrade
• the maximum duration of a rollback when an upgrade is failed
• the maximum duration of a VNF interruption
• the granularity of an upgrade
• the required mechanisms when an upgrade is carried on
• the required mechanisms to prepare an upgrade
• the potential I/F between VIM and VNF Manager / NFV Orchestrator if needed
• the information flows among the related entities
• etc.

This project will identify the gaps from the user requirements to the approved OPNFV projects and other upstream projects.

This project will provide a requirement document on NFVI and VIM upgrading.

Based on the output of this project, we may propose another project on the reference design and implementation on smooth upgrade of NFVI and VIM.

• Describe the problem being solved by project
  • In Telco network, a planned network/service interruption for upgrade should be recovered in a short time. This has not been considered by the upstream projects yet.
  • Upgrade platform need a lot of efforts on preparation to avoid making troubles on end users accessing the network services during the upgrading.
• Specify any interface/API specification proposed,
  • interface/API for controlling the upgrade procedure
  • interface/API for sending notifications of the upgrade procedure
  • interface/API for interacting with the Orchestrate or OSS
• Specify testing and integration:
  • TBD
• Debugging and Tracing
  • TBD
• Unit/Integration Test plans
  • TBD
• Client tools developed for status shows etc.
  • TBD
• Identity a list of features and functionality will be developed.
  • Upgrade Validation
  • Upgrade Notification
  • Upgrade Monitor
  • Smooth Upgrade
  • Safe Rollback
• In the scope:
  • Develop an use cases section for upgrade related operations to clarify the scope.
  • Joint work with other dependent OPNFV projects, HA, Multisite, etc.
  • High level requirements on the compatibility of OPNFV platform.
• Out of scope:
  • VNF Lifecycle Management, including VNF upgrade and update
• Describe how the project is extensible in future
  • Architecture, Codes / Automaton scripts to implement related mechanisms if available in the future.
  • Blue Prints to the upstream projects.

* Specify testing and integration like interoperability, scalability, high availablity * What QA and test resources will be available?

* API Docs * Functional block description

• Identify similar projects is underway or being proposed in OPNFV or upstream project
  • TBD
• Identify any open source upstream projects and release timeline.
  • Openstack
  • ODL
• Identify any specific development be staged with respect to the upstream project and releases.
  • TBD
• Are there any external fora or standard development organization dependencies. If possible, list and informative and normative reference specifications.
  • None
• If project is an integration and test, identify hardware dependency.
  • N/A

• Names and affiliations of the committers
  • Jie Hu (hu.jie@zte.com.cn)
  • Qiao Fu (fuqiao@chinamobile.com)
  • Ulrich Kleber (Ulrich.Kleber@huawei.com)
• Names and affiliations of any other contributors
  • Maria Toeroe (maria.toeroe@ericsson.com)
  • Sama, Malla Reddy (sama@docomolab-euro.com)
  • Zhong Chao (chao.zhong@zte.com.cn)
  • Julien Zhang (zhang.jun3g@zte.com.cn)
  • Yuri Yuan (yuan.yue@zte.com.cn)
  • Zhipeng Huang (huangzhipeng@huawei.com)
  • more contributors are welcome

• Described the project release package as OPNFV or open source upstream projects.
  • User Requirement of OPNFV Escalator
  • Gap Analysis on OPNFV Escalator with open source upstream projects.
• If project deliverables have multiple dependencies across other project categories, described linkage of the deliverables.
  • TBD

• When is the first release planned?
  • User Requirement of OPNFV Escalator (June 2015)
  • Gap Analysis on OPNFV Escalator with open source upstream projects (October 2015)
• Will this align with the current release cadence
  • It will align with the 2nd or 3rd release of OPNFV