5G RAN greenfield deployment
Description |
Based on a three- to five-year traffic and market projection, a CSP believes that a new 5G market deployment is warranted. The new 5G market is an extension of the current 5G RAN deployment, with a 5G core network in place. The CSP wants an initial small deployment of 5G Cell Sites and the ability to dynamically increase the number of Cell Sites to accommodate increased traffic demand. The CSP also wants to optimize the long-term operating expenses and pay less in initial deployment costs. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with CSPs to analyze the 5G services to be deployed, use cases in terms of performance, scaling, latency, deployment velocity, number of sites, and the current 5G core capacity and performance. Dell Professional Services uses interviews and workshops to determine Cell Site dimensions and bandwidth capacity, gather network requirements, gather the customer information questionnaire (CIQ) data for each site, schedule the initial deployment, and plan future expansion. Also, Dell Professional Services analyzes the 5G core network capacity, resilience, performance, and scalability to determine how to best extend its coverage into a new market. Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat provides an initial optimal footprint that addresses most of a CSP's 5G RAN deployment scenarios, from highly dense and cost-effective Cell Sites using single node OpenShift (SNO) clusters to remote Cell Site deployments that are attached to regional or local data centers. Using Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat workflows, CSPs can automatically deploy the infrastructure cloud and management cloud into CSP-dedicated national and regional data centers to manage the RAN. After the management cloud is deployed, the CSP can roll out the RAN Cell Sites, compute clouds, and local data centers for Cell Site traffic monitoring and optimization. Cell Sites can be deployed as a single node without high availability (HA) or dual nodes for HA at each Cell Site. Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat workflows provide different centralized unit (CU) and distributed unit (DU) topological models to fit a CSP's traffic profiles. |
5G RAN coverage extension
Description |
A CSP wants to extend their initial RAN deployment in an existing market to attract more customers, provide better coverage, and enable emergent 5G applications that require low latency and high bandwidth, such as virtual reality, augmented virtual reality, and gaming. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with a CSP to analyze the traffic profiles, Cell Site topologies, coverage, latency, and bandwidth that is required for new application types. Dell Professional Services uses interviews and workshops to provide the RAN market dimensioning, gather the CIQ data for each site, and schedule the RAN coverage extension. Using Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat scaling workflows, CSPs can automatically deploy new Cell Sites or workload clouds and attach them to their existing 5G core network and RAN. If existing Cell Sites require additional hardware resources, CSPs can use Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat workflows to automate scaling out an existing workload cloud. |
RAN management cloud expansion
Description |
After extending RAN coverage, a CSP wants to expand their management cloud to support potentially thousands of new Cell Sites. The RAN management cloud can be extended in terms of server capacity, analytic capability, network performance, and storage. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with a CSP to determine how best to expand the management cloud. Dell Professional Services uses interviews and workshops to provide the new management cloud dimensioning, gather the CIQ data, and schedule the expansion. Using Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat workflows for scaling, CSPs can automatically extend their management cloud by adding new servers, new network interface controllers (NICs), or new persistent storage. |
Management cloud and RAN workload cloud upgrades
Description |
If Red Hat or Dell release new versions of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift Operators, or Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat, a CSP might want to upgrade their current management cloud to take advantage of new features to scale Cell Site management capabilities. If Red Hat releases new workload cloud software, a CSP might want to upgrade their Cell Site workload clouds to take advantage of new features and enhance their current cloud-native network functions (CNFs). A workload cloud upgrade can potentially require new hardware, new BIOS firmware, or new NICs. Ideally, such an upgrade would happen without a service disruption. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with CSPs to develop the upgrade strategies for the management cloud and workload clouds at Cell Sites. This work includes updating CIQ files and providing options for connected and disconnected upgrades. Dell Professional Services works with Red Hat to understand the new features and determine whether hardware upgrades or firmware updates are required. Using Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat workflows for the management cloud and workload clouds at Cell Sites, CSPs can automatically upgrade their management cloud and Cell Sites without service disruptions. CSPs can automatically upgrade a single Cell Site or a set of Cell Sites as one transaction that includes firmware and software upgrades. The CNFs that are running in the Cell Sites can be redeployed after the workload cloud upgrade is complete. In case of failure during the upgrade process, Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat provides backup and restoration workflows. |
Cell Site hardware upgrade or field replacement
Description |
A CSP wants to upgrade its 5G RAN Cell Sites by adding or replacing servers, adding or replacing server hardware such as NICs, or updating firmware. After the hardware is upgraded or replaced, it must be added back to the workload cloud in an automated fashion. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with CSPs to develop a hardware upgrade strategy, including updating CIQ data. Using Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat, new hardware can be commissioned and deployed in the field and the workload cloud can be automatically updated to include and use the new hardware. |
5G RAN deployment monitoring
Description |
A CSP needs to monitor their Cell Sites' workload clouds, network traffic patterns, and CNFs' health, and want all events and alarms forwarded to their operations and business support systems. |
Delivery |
Dell Professional Services works with CSPs to understand the assurance strategy, observability framework, their platform and tools, and the points where they intersect with Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat. Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat uses Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite and Red Hat observability features to monitor its hardware resources and workload clouds, and send events and alarms to the CSP's endpoints where they can be observed in the Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes user interface. |
RAN certification with RAN network equipment vendors
Description |
Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) who want to deploy their CNFs on Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat can use its automation capabilities for deployment, validation, and configuration of hardware and the containers as a service (CaaS) layer. For CSPs, bundling Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat with centralized and distributed unit CNFs can increase deployment velocity while significantly reducing the operating expenses and capital expenses. |
Delivery |
Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat enables NEPs to enhance RAN-specific workflows with pre- and post-deployment configurations that tune the CaaS layer for the NEP requirements. The Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) orchestrator can extend its own workflows with new operational states based on a NEP's CIQ information such as container network interface (CNI) configuration. |
RAN proof of concept and field trial
Description |
A CSP wants a method and a platform to quickly validate a 5G RAN deployment and validate a NEP's compliance with 3GPP and CaaS. Also, the platform must smoothly transition from proof of concept to field trial or production, and the platform must satisfy CSP requirements and deployment strategies for the next three to five years. |
Delivery |
Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat provides an excellent platform and operations model for quick deployment at the customer's premises or using the capabilities of Dell Technologies Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab (OTEL). It also provides automation capabilities for testing and performance validation. By working directly with CSP-selected NEPs, Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat can create an environment for CNF onboarding, validation, and operation. NEPs can use the blueprint design created during the proof of concept to smoothly redeploy the proof of concept infrastructure at the customer premises. |