ETSI OSM Release SIX enhances Edge support and lets your Network Service fly

ETSI OSM Release SIX is now available! The new Release brings a huge new set of capabilities to provide end-to-end orchestration across heterogeneous networks and cloud technologies. Among a large number of improvements, Release SIX makes the management of complex services much easier thanks to the extended capabilities to create Network Service primitives and the extension of its Service Assurance (SA) framework, which now can control, store and react to a much wider set of events and conditions in the context of running Network Services and Slices.

In addition, Release SIX widens even more the range of underlying technologies that are supported by OSM. New connectors have been developed for FOG05 Edge clouds, TAPI-based transport networks, VMware’s vCloud Director 9.5, and public clouds. Similarly, various improvements have been added to the already large set of connectors available from previous releases to support additional EPA attributes and ameliorate the support of underlays with the addition of multi-segment networks.

“Operational effectiveness at the edge is critical to a successful 5G strategy and emerging business models for edge-based compute” said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical and founder of Ubuntu. “OSM Release SIX connects edge and core to provide repeatable and reusable services that span the full telco topology and enable both 5G infrastructure and third-party app ecosystems for the edge in VMs and containers.”

All these enhancements lead to a more flexible operator’s experience, with an improved control over orchestration roles (fine-grained control of operations per role and project), and better real-time feedback to the operator, along with various improvements to ease VNF onboarding and testing phases.

“OSM has evolved from an interesting PoC into the most promising architecture for orchestrating VNFs, under the multi-vendor, standardized approach that our Telco customers have been looking for. Increased robustness, as well as exciting features that pave the path towards 5G and the Edge, let us build with confidence the second release of our distribution, WhiteNFV Barcelona, in order to cover the increased demand for operator-led, automated NFV deployments” said Joris Vleminckx, COO Whitestack.

These and other new functionalities of OSM Release SIX will be showcased at the next OSM Hackfest in Patras (Greece) during the second week of September.

New white paper on VNF onboarding

ETSI OSM has also just released the first version of the guidelines on OSM VNF onboarding. These guidelines will help VNF vendors build their own, immutable packages, in a way that is easily consumed by the OSM Ecosystem and users of OSM distributions. The guidelines cover the complete lifecycle of VNFs, from instantiation, through service initialisation, to runtime operations. To learn more, download the white paper on the OSM website.

Source: ETSI media announcement