Based on the 3GPP Common API Framework Slicce as a Service Delivery Platform offers significant advantages by providing standardized interfaces for seamless integration across diverse networks and services. It enables faster deployment of new services, ensures interoperability, and simplifies the management of complex network environments. By leveraging this framework, service providers can enhance flexibility, reduce operational costs, and accelerate innovation, all while maintaining compatibility with existing 3GPP-based infrastructure.
A value-added service (VAS) is a popular telecommunications industry term for non-core services, or, in short, all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions. However, it can be used in any service industry, for services available at little or no cost, to promote their primary business. In the telecommunications industry, on a conceptual level, value-added services add value to the standard service offering, spurring subscribers to use their phone more and allowing the operator to drive up their average revenue per user.
Mobile VAS services can be categorized into:
A distinction may also be made between standard (peer-to-peer) content and premium-charged content. These are called mobile value-added services (MVAS), which are often simply referred to as VAS. Value-added services are supplied either in-house by the mobile network operator themselves or by a third-party value-added service provider, also known as a content provider.
This use case refers to the composition of a workload to deliver value added services in a mobile network. In this article we won’t refer specifically to one service or application but to the overall workload capabilities. Our objective being to bring together the widest set of capabilities to enable the fast and easy creation of new services for mobile subscribers regardless if they are serviced by the 3G, 4G or 5G core network.
The key values for using a cloud native workload as a service delivery platform are:
The service delivery kubernetes workload capacity can be extended by adding more AEFs or AFs instances and the workload capablity set can be extended by adding new AEFs and AFs. Each AEFs or AFs can be upgrated independantly from the other and to insure service continuity, an old version of an engine can co-reside with a new version of an engine until the old versions are decommissioned. Such workloads brings the highest level of flexibility and the most effiective way to orchestrate the service delivery platform.
The following diagram describes the Single Endpoint Session Application Function (SES-AF), which can be use to implement simple services. In this example the SES-AF implements a VPN service. Triggered by the incoming call, it queries the common data store (CDS-AEF) to retrieve the subcriber profile and redirect the call to the correct routable number. The respective AEF will configure the response to the core network according to the protocol it implements abdtracting thought to the service logic implemented in the SES-AF to be aware of the specific telecom protocol structure.
We don’t have any limitation or restriction on the number of services implemented in a single AF or the number of AF that runs a same service. It is at implementation time that we can decide how to proper distribute our workload to make sure it remains as dynamic and as elastic as needed.
| Software packaging | Docker images with helm charts or docker compose |
| Light HTTP server | Used by communication engines to expose API or GUI |
| Async HTTP client | Used by engines that needs to issue HTTP requests |
| React UI library | A set of react components to create single page apps |
| CAPIF library | Provides CAPIF built-in APIS for publishers and consumers |
| SIP library | Provides the SIP & MRFC protocol stack |
| DIAMETER library | Provides the DIAMETER protocol stack |
| GTP library | Provides GTP-C v1 GTP-C v2 protocol stack |
| RADIUS library | Provides a client/server RADIUS protocol stack |
| SMPP library | Provides ESME SMPP v3.4/v5.0 protocol stack |
| SS7 library | Full SS7 stack; SCTP, M3UA, SCCP, TCAP, MAP, CAP & INAP |
| Common library | Logging, caching, JSON & SNMP common tools |
| Data access library | Provides data access component to noSQL docs storage |
