Automatic Deployment For Packet Core Node On The Cloud Platform

With the development of virtualization and cloud technology,the native nodes in traditional mobile packet core network are evolving to the virtualization platform,node deployment and configuration changes from the traditional telecommunication O&M platform to cloud-based platform,native entity node configuration changes to the virtual machine application configuration.In order to deploy on cloud platform more quickly and easily,we need a software tool,which can greatly improve our efficiency,to generate the cloud manager-compatible node configuration file and apply on the nodes automatically.The main work of this paper is to realize automatic deployment for packet core node on the cloud platform and to develop an automatic configuration script tool to realize following functions: generate vEPC compatible configuration files for the nodes;automate some of the configuration steps,such as config files transfer,restart of services,etc;generate subnets for the nodes configuration from a parent net;keep track of IP addresses and other parameters assigned to different applications and list them on demand;verify nodes connectivity.After using this tool,the engineers just need to input the required static parameters such as IP address,VLAN ID,node name,etc.in the xml(Extensible Markup Language)templates,then the tool will automatically generate the corresponding parameters of the nodes and apply to the O&M software.After committing on the nodes,the configuration work is alomost done.This tool basically realized the one-button configuration functionality.The tool also comes with several other utilities,such as generating wireshark host mapping file between the IP address and host name to make signaling tracking and troubleshooting easily,as well as several O&M software assistant tools.The main innovation in this article are as follows:1.Use Python's built-in libraries and rich third-party libraries to design a module for importing static node parameters from xml file into the sqlite database.2.Base on Jinja2 template engine,design a generic class using Jinja2 templates to generate configuration files,each node has a corresponding subclass to handle the specific work;study the ECM REST API(Ericsson Cloud Manager Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface),design a class which can communicate with ECM(Ericsson Cloud Manager)O&M software to obtain the dynamic configuration parameters,this behavior is a series of HTTP verbs based on JSON(JavaScript Object Notation);study SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol)protocol,design a class to communicate with switches,then use this class to transfer and apply configuration to the switch.3.Study python Cliff(Command Line Interface Formulation Framework)library,design various CLI command lines which are used in the tool;in addition to the automatic configuration functionality,also using this library to design several other utilities.This automation configuration tool has been already widely used in the laboratory test system,it has brought great convenience to improve the efficiency and accuracy of node deployment in the daily test work.Although cloud-based virtual nodes have not been large-scale deployed in the commercial telecom network since they are still in the experimental stage nowadays,however,as the technology matures,virtual nodes will save a lot of hardware cost and virtualization will become a very valuable technology trend.If large-scale deployment happens,a lot of configuration migration works will need to be performed in the future,using such tools will greatly save man hour and time cost.Possibly this tool will be provided in the future as a part of formal solution for free or charge to the customers.The development of such tools can also give reference to automation configuration of the other non-mobile packet core network nodes on the cloud platform.