5 Business level requirements

32.1303GPPConcepts and requirementsNetwork sharingRelease 17Telecommunication managementTS

5.1 Requirements

5.1.1 Requirements for the OAM&P of shared RAN

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-1 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability allowing its authorized consumer to manage S-RAN of any of the following radio access technologies:

i/ GERAN;

ii/ UTRAN;

iii/ E-UTRAN;

iV/ NG-RAN.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-2 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability allowing its authorized consumer to manage S-RAN according to any of the following scenarios:

i/ Multi-Operator Core Network

ii/ Gateway Core Network.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-3 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability allowing its authorized consumer to know which POPs the shared resources belong to.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-4 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability allowing its authorized consumer to configure which POPs share each cell.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-5 Any POP shall be able to activate a signaling-based trace / MDT session on its subscribers, whether they are attached to the POP own RAN or to the S-RAN, provided:

a/ this is compliant with the RAN sharing contract; and

b/ user consent for participation in MDT is respected.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-6 The MOP shall be able, on behalf of any POP, to activate an area-based trace / MDT session, on the portion of the S-RAN that the POP shares and on the POP subscribers only, from the 3GPP management system of MOP, provided

a/ only the POP related subscriber data are collected;

b/ this is compliant with the RAN sharing contract; and

c/ user consent for participation in MDT is respected.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-7 The MOP shall be able, on behalf of multiple POPs, to activate an area-based trace / MDT session, on the portion of the S-RAN that each POP shares and on each POP subscribers only, from the 3GPP management system of MOP, provided:

a/ each POP has access only to its subscriber data (i.e. not to other POPs’ subscriber data);

b/ this is compliant with the RAN sharing contract; and

c/ user consent for participation in MDT is respected.

5.1.2 Requirements for the OA&M of shared core network elements

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-8 In the GWCN scenario, the MOP shall be able to manage S-CORE.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-9 The MOP shall be able to know which POPs the shared core network elements belong to.

REQ-NS_GEN-CON-10 The MOP shall be able to configure which POPs share each core network element.

5.1.3 Requirements for the management of measurements for cross-operator accounting based on data volume and QoS

REQ-NS_PM-CON-1 The MOP shall be able to charge the POPs for the data volume used by POP’s users per selected QoS profile criteria via measurements defined for shared networks.

– The QoS profile criteria may include QCI Indicator, GBR Indicator, ARP Indicator.

– It shall be possible to differentiate between DL and UL.

REQ-NS_PM-CON-2 The MOP shall be able to set the reliability for the selected measurements defined for cross operator accounting purpose in shared networks.

REQ-NS_PM-CON-3 A maximum number of 200 counter instances (for measurements defined for cross operator accounting purpose in shared networks) can be recorded per granularity period.

5.1.4 Requirements for management support for NG-RAN MOCN network sharing scenario with same Cell Identity broadcast

Req-MOCN_SameCellId_Cfg-CON-1. The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure NgC and NgU individually for each POP.

Req- MOCN_SameCellId_Cfg-CON-2. The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure PLMNId individually for each POP.

Req- MOCN_SameCellId_Per-CON-3. The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to collect and report some measurements (e.g. active UEs measurements, packet delay measurements) in PLMN granularity for each POP.

5.1.5 Requirements for management support for NG-RAN MOCN network sharing scenario with multiple Cell Identity broadcast

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-1 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure NgC and NgU individually for each POP.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-2 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure PLMN-IdentityInfo (including PLMNId, NR Cell Identity, TAC) individually for each POP.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Perf-CON-3 The 3GPP management system shall have the capability to collect and report some measurements (e.g. active UEs measurements, packet delay measurements) in PLMN granularity for each POP.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-4 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure the common F1 interface for all POPs.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-5 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure the individual F1 interface for each POP.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-6 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure the individual NR cell relation individually for each POP.

5.1.6 Requirements for the OAM&P of shared NG-RAN

REQ-NS_NG-CON-1 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability to manage both the non-shared network elements and shared network elements in a NG-RAN network at the same time.

REQ-NS_NG-CON-2 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability to configure the NG-RAN network element to start the sharing of one currently non-shared NG-RAN network element or stop the sharing of one currently shared NG-RAN network element.

REQ-NS_NG-CON-3 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall support a capability to configure the POP-specific attributes of the shared NG-RAN individually based on the POPs’ requirements.

REQ-NS_NG-CON-4 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure the radio resources partitioning policies for the POPs based on the agreement between POPs.

Req-MOCN-MultiCellId-Cfg-CON-5 The 3GPP management system of the MOP shall have the capability to configure the administrative state of the operator specific NR Cell DU.

5.2 Actor roles

For GERAN, UTRAN, and E-UTRAN:

MOP-SR-DM: An entity performing an IRPAgent role in MOCN and in GWCN.

MOP-SC-DM: An entity performing an IRPAgent role in GWCN.

MOP-NM: An entity performing the IRPManager role in MOCN and in GWCN.

For NG-RAN:

MOP-SR-DM: An entity performing the Management Service Producer role for the management of shared NG-RAN MOCN.

MOP-NM: An entity performing the Management Service Consumer role for the management of shared NG-RAN in MOCN.

5.3 Telecommunications resources

For MOCN and GWCN, the managed GERAN, UTRAN, E-UTRAN, NG-RAN network elements are viewed as relevant telecommunications resources in the present document.

For GWCN, MSC, SGSN and MME are viewed as relevant telecommunications resources in the present document.

5.4 High-level use cases

5.4.1 Fully pooled radio resources between two POPs

In this use case, cells are shared between POP A and POP B. As agreed by MOP and POPs in their RAN sharing agreement:

– Radio resources of the S-RAN are fully pooled between POP A and POP B; UEs from POP A and POP B are served in the S-RAN in a first come first served mode;

– MOP is responsible for configuring the S-RAN accordingly.

Figure 5.4.1-1: Fully pooled radio resources between two POPs

5.4.2 Alarm raised on a shared cell (MOCN scenario)

In this use case, an alarm is raised on cell #1 of a shared (e)NodeB. According to the RAN sharing agreement, the two POPs A and B are informed by the MOP of the occurrence of this new alarm, as well as of the alarm clearance by the MOP.

Figure 5.4.2-1. Handling of an alarm raised on a shared cell (MOCN)

5.4.3 Single DM for managing S-RAN and POP own RAN

In this use case, Operator A is a POP and manages its own (non-shared) NEs from its POP-RAN-DM while Operator B is both MOP and POP and manages S-RAN and its own (non-shared) NEs from a single DM.

Operator B has several possibilities:

Example #1: configure, NE per NE, which POPs share the cells that it manages; or

Example #2: define two separate groups of BTSs / (e)NodeBs:

– one for the S-RAN NEs – it shall then configure which POPs share the cells of this group of BTSs / (e)NodeBs; and

– one for its own (non-shared) RAN NEs.

Figure 5.4.3-1: Single DM for managing both S-RAN and own RAN

5.4.4 Management of measurements for cross-operator accounting based on data volume and QoS

The operator has made an agreement to act as a Master Operator, MOP, for another operator (Participating Operator, POP) for RAN sharing. The agreement is regulated in an SLA, which states the following: The QoS profile criteria ARP-1 – 10 and GBR-5 for QCI-4 and QCI-8 is supported. The DL QCI-4, GBR-5, and ARP-1 – 10 is charged by x Euro per Mbit, while UL QCI-4, GBR-5, and ARP-1 – 10 is charged by y Euro per Mbit. QCI-8 is charged z Euro per Mbit regardless of QoS. For cross operator accounting purpose, the network needs to provide data volume measurements with high reliability for the used QoS profile criteria to the MOP.

5.4.5 Management support for the mixed deployment scenario of shared NG-RAN network elements and non-shared NG-RAN network elements

In this use case, Operator A owns and manages a NG-RAN network. Operator A and Operator B get a NG-RAN sharing agreement that Operator A will share some of the NG-RAN network elements in its NG-RAN network with Operator B. Operator A may need to configure the NG-RAN network to start the sharing of one currently non-shared NG-RAN network element or stop the sharing of one currently shared NG-RAN network element according to the requests from Operator B in the future.

5.4.6 Radio resources partitioning between two POPs for the shared NG-RAN

In this use case, radio access network (i.e. one of multiple shared NG-RAN network elements) are shared between two POPs (POP A identified by PLMN A, POP B identified by PLMN B).

As agreed by POP A and POP B in their RAN sharing agreement:

– Radio resources (e.g. PRB, RRC connection, DRB) of the shared radio access network are partitioned for POP A and POP B, which means the radio resource partitioning policies (e.g. RRMPolicyRatio) of the radio access network is agreed for POP A and POP B. The detailed RRMPolicy definition for NG-RAN see the clause 4.3.36 of TS 28.541 [8]. Following is one example of RRMPolicy for corresponding POP A and POP B. In this example,

– POP A has 20% dedicated radio resources, 30% prioritized resources and 50% shared resources. In this case, there are 20% radio resources are dedicated for the POP A, 30% radio resources are guaranteed for POPA when it needs to use them, and 50% resources are shared with POP B.

– POP B has 30% prioritized resources and 20% shared resources. In this case, there are 30% radio resources are guaranteed for POP B when it needs to use them, and 20% resources are shared with POP A.

Figure 5.4.6-1 Example of structure RRMPolicy for radio access network resource partitioning for POP A and POP B

Note: If the network slicing feature is supported, the RRMPolicy is defined for each RRMPolicyMemberList which contains both PLMNId and S-NSSAI. In this case, the RRMPolicy is defined in RRMPolicyMember (combination of PLMNId and S-NSSAI) granularity.

MOP-NM (play the role of MnS consumer) obtains the radio resource partitioning policies the shared radio access network based on above agreement, and sends the radio resource partitioning policies to MOP-SR-DM (play the role of MnS prodcuer) to configure the shared NG-RAN NEs. MOP-SR-DM derives the radio resource partitioning policies for corresponding cells of each shared NG-RAN NE and configures the corresponding shared NG-RAN NE with corresponding radio resource partitioning policies for corresponding cells (see RRMPolicy defined in TS 28.541[8] which is contained by RRMPolicyManagedEntity).

MOP-SR-DM monitors the radio usage resources measurement (e.g. UL/DL PRB used for data traffic, RRC connections) for POP A and POP B, and send such radio usage resources measurements to MnS consumer. Based on the radio resources usage measurements and other information (e.g. service traffic requirements changes) for POP A and POP B, the radio resources partitioning policies may be updated based on the agreement between POP A and POP B. The MOP-NM requests the MOP-SR-DM to reconfigure the updated radio resources partitioning policies of the shared radio access network for corresponding POP A and POP B.