Telecommunications Hardware Control Layer for Multi-Vendor Integration
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional telecommunications networks face complexity and vendor lock-in issues when integrating heterogeneous hardware, requiring significant changes to adapt to new hardware or network topologies, especially during disruptive changes like introducing new network functions or disaggregating network functions.
Innovation Solution
A hardware control entity or functionality, implemented as a software stack of microservices, provides a generic interface to manage different types of hardware nodes, translating between generic networking domain infrastructure requests and hardware-specific commands, allowing seamless integration and enhancement without modifying the network's other aspects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If different types of hardware from different vendors are employed to avoid vendor lock-in, then hardware compatibility and vendor independence are improved, but system complexity and operational difficulty increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hardware control entity as an intermediary layer between the generic networking domain infrastructure and specific hardware elements. This mediator translates generic control commands into hardware-specific operations, enabling multi-vendor hardware compatibility while maintaining a unified control interface. The hardware control entity absorbs the complexity of handling diverse hardware types, shielding the upper-layer network infrastructure from vendor-specific details.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the telecommunications network into distinct functional layers: a generic networking domain infrastructure layer, a hardware control entity layer, and specific hardware elements layer. This segmentation allows each layer to operate independently with well-defined interfaces. The hardware control entity layer specifically handles hardware diversity, while the upper layer focuses on network functions, thereby distributing and managing complexity across layers.
2Ease of operation
If the function of a network element and the hardware implementing it are considered the same, then operational simplicity is maintained, but adaptability to new hardware and topology changes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the functional abstraction (network element function) from the physical implementation (hardware). The hardware control entity serves as the decoupling layer that maps between functional requirements and hardware implementations. This allows network functions to be defined independently of specific hardware, enabling easy adaptation to new hardware types without changing the functional model.
Solution Approach 2:
The hardware control entity acts as a mediator that translates between the generic functional view (network element functions) and the specific hardware view (vendor-specific hardware operations). This intermediary layer allows operational simplicity at the functional level while providing adaptability at the hardware level through automated translation and abstraction.
3Adaptability or versatility
If significant changes are made to adapt the network to new hardware or topology, then hardware integration capability is improved, but operational risk and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hardware control entity serves as a protective intermediary that isolates the stable generic networking domain infrastructure from hardware-specific variations. When new hardware is introduced, changes are confined to the hardware control entity layer, which translates commands appropriately. This prevents propagation of changes to the core network infrastructure, thereby reducing operational risk and implementation difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a copying approach where the hardware control entity creates an abstract representation of diverse hardware types that conforms to a standard interface. Instead of modifying the core infrastructure to accommodate each hardware type, a standardized copy or model is created that maps to the generic control commands, enabling safe and consistent integration of new hardware without affecting operational stability.
4Ease of manufacture
If a generic interface is used for the generic networking domain infrastructure, then ease of hardware addition is improved, but handling of hardware-specific technical aspects becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The hardware control entity serves as the intermediary that resolves the conflict between generic and specific interfaces. It receives simple generic control commands from the networking domain infrastructure and automatically translates them into hardware-specific operations. This shields the upper layer from hardware-specific complexity while enabling easy addition of new hardware types through the standardized generic interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The hardware control entity is designed to autonomously handle the translation between generic commands and hardware-specific operations. When new hardware is added, the corresponding hardware control entity automatically configures itself to work with the new hardware type, eliminating the need for manual intervention in handling hardware-specific aspects while maintaining ease of hardware addition through the generic interface.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for operating a telecommunications network using a generic networking domain infrastructure together with a plurality of specific hardware elements or hardware nodes, the plurality of specific hardware elements or hardware nodes being connected to the generic networking domain infrastructure via a hardware control entity or functionality, and each one of the plurality of such specific hardware elements or hardware nodes being used for providing at least one specific task with respect to or within the telecommunications network, wherein the hardware control entity or functionality provides at least one generic interface towards the generic networking domain infrastructure and at least one hardware-specific interface towards each one of the plurality of specific hardware elements or hardware nodes, wherein, regarding a specific hardware element or hardware node having a specific hardware-specific interface, the method comprises the following steps: -- in a first step, the hardware control entity or functionality receives, from the generic networking domain infrastructure, at least one incoming request according to the at least one generic interface, and transmits, to the specific hardware element or hardware node, at least one corresponding hardware-specific command and/or configuration according to the specific hardware-specific interface, and -- in a second step, the hardware control entity or functionality receives, from the specific hardware element or hardware node, at least one hardware-specific event and/or piece of data according to the specific hardware-specific interface, and transmits, to the generic networking domain infrastructure, at least one corresponding outgoing event and/or piece of data according to the at least one generic interface.