5G 从协议阅读开始（5G 系统模型基本概念）

在阅读5G的3GPP具体网络技术之前，为了避免陷入具体细节，我们需要一个1000米的高空去把握整个5G网络的脉络，这就需要阅读ITU-T 的Y.3100系列规范。

本节我们就关注ITU-T Y.3100定义的5G专用术语：

• Plane的区分：

Control Plane: The set of functions that controls the operation of entities in the stratum or layer under consideration, plus the functions required to support this control.
Data Plane : The set of functions used to transfer data in the stratum or layer under consideration.
User Plane : Refers to the set of traffic forwarding components through which traffic flows.

NOTE – “User plane” is referred to as “transport plane” in other ITU-T Recommendations.
NOTE – In the ITU-T IMT-2020 related standard documents, ‘‘User plane’’ is used preferentially rather than ‘‘Data plane’’.

Management Plane : The set of functions used to manage entities in the stratum or layer under consideration, plus the
functions required to support this management.

• Resource的区分

Physical Resource: A physical asset for computation, storage and/or networking.
NOTE – Components, systems and equipment can be regarded as physical resources.

Virtual Resource: An abstraction of physical or logical
resource, which may have different characteristics from the physical or logical resource and whose capability may be not bound to the capability of the physical or logical resource.

Logical Resource: An independently manageable partition of a physical resource, which inherits the same characteristics as the physical resource and whose capability is bound to the capability of the physical resource.
NOTE – “independently” means mutual exclusiveness among multiple partitions at the same level.

Network Funtion概念：

Functional Entity: An entity that comprises an indivisible set of specific capabilities. Functional entities are logical concepts, while groupings of functional entities are used to describe practical, physical implementations.

Functional Architecture: A set of functional entities used to describe the structure of an NGN. These functional entities are
separated by reference points, and thus, they define the distribution of functions. The functional entities can be used to describe a set of reference configurations. These reference configurations identify which reference points are visible at the boundaries of equipment implementations and between administrative domains.

Network Function: In the context of IMT-2020, a processing function in a network. NOTE 1 – Network functions include but are not limited to network node functionalities, e.g., session management, mobility management and transport functions, whose functional behaviour and interfaces are defined. NOTE 2 – Network functions can be implemented on a dedicated hardware or as virtualized software functions.

NOTE 3 – Network functions are not regarded as resources, but rather any network functions can be instantiated using the resources.

Virtualized Network Function: A network function whose functional software is decoupled from hardware, and runs on virtual machine(s).

Network Virtualization : A technology that enables the creation of logically isolated network partitions over shared physical networks so that heterogeneous collection of multiple virtual networks can simultaneously coexist over the shared networks. This includes the aggregation of multiple resources in a provider and appearing as a single resource.

Network Softwarization: An overall approach for designing, implementing, deploying, managing and maintaining network equipment and/or network components by software programming.
NOTE – Network softwarization exploits the nature of software such as flexibility and rapidity all along the lifecycle of network equipment and/or components, for the sake of creating conditions that enable the redesign of network and services architectures, the optimization of costs and processes, self-management and bring added values in network infrastructures.

Software-defined Networking : A set of techniques that enables to directly program, orchestrate, control and manage network resources, which facilitates the design, delivery and operation of network services in a dynamic and scalable manner.

上述概念都在在5G系统描述中经常出现的基本概念，务必搞清楚。