4.2 Intent driven management

28.3123GPPIntent driven management services for mobile networksManagement and orchestrationRelease 17TS

4.2.1 Support for intent driven management

In intent driven management, the consumer provides its intent to the producer of a set of management services that would be consumed in a specific domain. For example, for the purpose of requesting a radio network with a new coverage, one possible solution (non-intent driven approach) is to use the set of classic MnSs (e.g. provisioning MnS) to decommission a cell and instantiate the cell to a new Node B for the new coverage. The alternative solution (intent driven approach) is to use management service produced by the domain is what may be referred to as the Intent-driven MnS by stating the intent for the radio network for the new coverage, based on the intent, system can trigger actions (e.g. decommission a cell and instantiate the cell to a new Node B) to satisfy received intent. The Intent driven MnS could in principle deployed as a replacement of the deployed classic MnSs for the same network and service management purpose, where the consumer focuses on the ‘what’ and the producer is concerned about the ‘how’.

The producer of an Intent-driven MnS shall allow the consumer to manage the service and / or network resources through the use of intents. The producer shall support the capabilities for intent fulfilment, which include the following:

– The consumer states the intent to be fulfilled (which can be implemented by createMOI operation on the Intent IOC) and the producer receives and acknowledges the receipt of the intent.

– The producer validates the intent and then translates the intent to identify the required internal logic needed to fulfil the intent.

– The producer executes the compiled logic to fulfil the intent.

– The producer may report about the fulfilment result of the intent.

4.2.2 Intent driven MnS

Introduction of service-based architecture for 5G, in combination with functional model of business roles, exceeds the level of complexity for managing network in different scenarios (including scenarios for design/planning, deployment, maintenance and optimization) both in a single and multivendor network. New/simpler ways of managing are needed.

Actions of an intent driven MnS related to the fulfilment of intents may be categorized as intent deployment and intent assurance. Intent fulfilment refers to the steps taken to satisfy a newly received intent or an update to an existing intent. The goal of intent fulfilment is to bring the network or service’s state to satisfy the new or updated intent. The fulfilment of some intents may end at the intent deployment, the case, if the intent’s goal simply describes the availability or presence of a service. In other cases, the intent’s goal describes the assurance requirements for a network or service (e.g. quality of service, end user experience, SLS, etc.) in addition to the need of existence of a service. Those intents have their fulfilment tied to the operation of the referred service or network function and may require frequent recurring actions to keep those assurance requirements achieved. This part of the intent fulfilment is referred to as intent assurance.

An Intent driven MnS allows its consumer to express intents for managing the network and services and obtain the feedback of intent evaluation result. The Intent-driven MnS producer have the following capabilities:

– Validate the intent.

– Translate the received intent to executable actions as follows:

– Performing service or network management tasks.

– Identifying, formulating and activating service or network management policies.

– Evaluate the result/information about the intent fulfilment (e.g. the intent is initially satisfied or not) and intent assurance (e.g. the intent is continuously satisfied).

Figure 4.2.2-1 shows the model of Intent-driven MnS.

Figure 4.2.2-1: Intent-driven MnS

The intents may be fulfilled by utilizing multiple mechanisms including among others: Rule-based mechanisms, closed loop mechanisms and AI/ML based mechanisms. These mechanisms can be combined in solutions of various complexity, ranging from a simple approach rule-based mechanisms, to more elaborate solutions combining AI/ML, closed loop automation to ensure the fulfilment of intents.

When the intent is created on the MnS producer, the MnS producer may consume other management services (including non-intent driven MnS and intent driven MnS) to fulfil or satisfy the intent, e.g. creating new assurance closed control loop instance(s) or using assurance closed control loop instance (s) to satisfy the intent. The internal implementation of the intent fulfilment will however not be standardized.

An Intent driven MnS includes the following management capabilities to support intent lifecycle management:

– Create an intent, a MnS Consumer request to create a new intent on the MnS producer.

– Activate an intent, MnS Consumer request to activate an intent on the MnS producer when the intent is suspended.

– De-activate an intent, MnS consumer request to de-activate an intent on the MnS producer for a temporary suspension.

– Delete an intent, MnS Consumer request to remove an intent on the MnS producer.

– Modify an intent, MnS Consumer request to modify the content of the intent (e.g. expectation targets) on the MnS producer.

– Query an intent, MnS Consumer request to return the content and state (e.g. active, inactive) of the intent on the MnS producer.

4.2.3 Intent translation

The Intent driven MnS producer is the provider of Intent driven MnS and is responsible for deriving activities for networks and services or other intent(s).

The MnS consumer may consume Intent Driven MnS(s) provided by the Intent driven MnS producer(s) or may have the consumer role for non-intent MnS producers.

The conflict(s) including conflict between the intent and other intent(s) and/or Non-intent requirements needs to be detected and resolved during the intent translation. Figure 4.2.3-1 illustrate the potential way to satisfy intents originating from CSC:

– Intent-CSC MnS producer provides intent driven MnS for communication services. Intent-CSC MnS producers receive the expressed intent and translate it to Intent-CSP or network requirements, then may consume Intent-CSP MnS(s) or Non-Intent MnS(s) for network to fulfil the intent-CSC.

– Intent-CSP MnS producer provides intent driven MnS for network services. Intent-CSP MnS producers receive the intent and translate it to new Intents for NOP or network element requirements, then may consume Intent-NOP MnS(s) or Non-Intent MnS(s) for NE to fulfil the intent-CSP.

– Intent-NOP MnS producer provides intent driven MnS for network equipment. Intent-NOP MnS Producers receive the expressed intent, and translate it to detailed network element requirements, then takes some internal actions to fulfil the intent-NEP.

Figure 4.2.3-1: Potential way to satisfy intent-CSC originating from CSC