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Orwell

5G networks are fiercely developing and so are the vertical applications of this technology, in fields such as Automotive, 4.0 Industry or Public Protection and Disaster Relief. To develop new 5G applications, researchers need to test them. However, the price of 5G infrasctructure and the required expertise to assemble a fully functional testbed may be a barrier that some cannot overcome. This led to the creation of 5G testbeds with state-of-the-art technology which allow NetApp developers to have access to the required infrastructure to test their applications without having to worry about all the deployment process. These tests require a controlled environment, thus all the infrastructure has to be monitored. This work discusses an approach that complies with 5GASP directives and centralizes all the information on a unique time-series database. Moreover, the proposed methodologies were implemented in a proof of concept product which demonstrates the potential of the proposed approach on a working testbed.

What is Orwell​

Orwell is a monitorization system created to keep track of 5G testbeds' metrics following the 5gasp standards.
However, due to its modularity it is possible to use this monitoring system in a wide range of systems. It is easy to develop new modules which makes possible the use of any metrics collection tool, you just have to choose the ones you like the most.

  • Be non intrusive As shown earlier in this document, there are already some solutions for monitoring testbeds. However, in order to make NetApp developers trust the testbed and test results, the less interference in the tests, the better.

  • Transparency Another key point mentioned is that, regardless of the toolkit used, the information must be available through an uniform access interface that offers all the information in a unique format.

  • Open Source A big part of this project relies on open source tools, so this project must give back to the community what the community has given it. Besides, 5GASP aims to speed up the research process offering tools to test new 5G applications, so Orwell must follow the same purpose.

  • Modularity Testbeds’ infrastructures have big and complex architectures, sometimes with several system admins and more than one project on the same infrastructure. For that reason, this project must be as divisible as possible, so system admins can choose only what makes sense in their reality. Another advantage of having a modular and a micro-service oriented architecture is the possibility of adapting some modules without having to study all the code.

Metrics​

Orwell was developed to collect metrics from machines, network and 5G Core.
It was developed using Open Source Mano (OSM) as our Management and Orchestration tool and Openstack as our Virtual Infrastructure Manager.

Machine Metrics​

We used Prometheus Node Exporter, Telegraf and Gnocchi in our proof of concept.
Since one of our objectives was collect metrics without having access to the machines, we used OS images with boot services. (Read more)

Network Metrics​

We used Perfsonar to collect this metrics.
Metrics from PerfSonar tests can be stored in many different places, being the most common one the archival service that comes with PerfSonar, esmond.

5G Core Metrics​

5G metrics are collected through an API developed by Huawei called eSight. This API provides information about the 5G network interfaces and its devices. However, since the necessary infrastructure is still not in place, some of the methods are not available. Also, eSight system has an odd behavior, because the API is separated from the user interface, meaning that actions carried out through the API do not are not reflected in the user interface and vice versa.