Automating the deployment of 5G Network Slices using ONAP

Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) is a carrier grade platform for automatically deploying and managing Virtualized Network Functions. In this paper, we address the deployment of network slices in order to come up with a model that is compatible with ONAP. We analyze various types of network slice ontology presented in the framework of 5G standardization bodies and we propose an ONAP-compatible model on the basis of which we illustrate the design, onboarding, instantiation and distribution of a network slice. We concretely define and deploy a network slice implementing a private and customized mobile core network. The achieved results not only make true NFV and 5G promises, notably those referring to on-demand networks, service customization and time-to-market acceleration, but they open the door to the deployment of private tailored cloud-native 5G networks.