NETWORK ENGINEERING

Licensing framework

1 © Nokia 2016
Licensing framework

Introduction

Table of contents

<chapter:introduction>

2 © Nokia 2016
Introduction
Overview of license management mechanism

License Management Framework

• License Management framework is responsible for controlling the usage of features and capacity
thresholds based on licenses purchased by customers
• It ensures the continuity of customer‘s business and protects Nokia business against possible
revenue losses by providing mechanism to handle BTS limitation actions when licenses are not
available.

Pool licenses are used for eNB and SBTS

The size of the pool is interpreted in two different ways as:
• The size of the pool defines the number of entities (e.g. NEs), that are
On/Off SW License permitted to use the functionality (licenses can be created for particular
number of entities).

Capacity SW License • Defines the amount of capacity that can be divided among NEs

3 © Nokia 2016
Introduction
Overview of license management mechanism

License Management Components

• Responsible for generation of physical SW License Keys to customers,
Central Licensing System (CLicS): kept in the Centralized License Server (CLS)

• Stores License Keys purchased by customers and is responsible for

automatic allocation of licenses based on requests received from SW
Centralized License Server (CLS) Entitlement Manager (SWEM).
• Licenses are granted if pool capacity is still available
• Is an extension of SW Asset Monitoring client (SWAM) in NetAct
• Gives possibility to monitor feature usage and request for licenses
SW Entitlement Manager (SWEM) when capacity threshold is exceeded or SW license is required
• Compares licenses used to license capacity in CLS

• Stores monitoring data for further handling such as pre-processing to

make raw monitoring data more accurate and usable
SW Asset Monitoring client (SWAM) • Generates reports on feature usage and forwards data to customer and
Nokia Customer teams.

4 © Nokia 2016
Introduction
Overview of license management mechanism

NOLS Operator’s network NetAct RC

eNB
CLicS CLS RTU Request / Release
SWAM
SBTS
SWEM
LKs Pool LKs
PM
RTU Grant / Deny
CM

• Each NetAct has running a Software Entitlement Manager (SWEM), which

checks periodically CM and PM data, for related Sales Items (SIs).
• SWEM is inter-working with CLS to verify, if sufficient SW license capacity is
License Keys (LKs) LKs are downloaded existing:
are generated from CLicS to
by the operator in Centralized License CASE1: If SW LKs are needed CASE2: If SW licenses are needed , but not available
Server (CLS), when and available in the CLS, in the CLS,
Centralized License
there is not enough then capacity of the BTS is • SWEM triggers limiting actions towards BTS.
System (CLicS), which • If enough capacity is available in the CLS at some
avaliable licenses in extended.
is part of NOLS. later point in time, capacity of the BTS is
CLS.
extended and limiting action will be canceled.

5 © Nokia 2016
Licensing framework

Technical Details

Table of contents
License Management
SWEM
SWEM Report Generation
CLS
<chapter:technical_details>

6 © Nokia 2016
Technical Details
License management mechanism (1/2)

Introduced licensing framework has following characterictics:

• There is one CLS per whole operator’s network
• License Keys are distributed automatically

License keys
• SW License Keys - Stored only in CLS. Secure digital media (SW Token) is used to share the right-to-use
credentials of functions and capacity that are granted in the network level
• Emergency SW license key – this type of License Key can be installed on the NetAct License Manager and it enables
all NetAct features for 10 days in case of any unexpected license issue

Notifications Actions not allowed

• User get information when a license pool in the CLS is going to expire • Manual license control is no longer
• A notification threshold can be defined in the CLS enabling early possible
indication of running out capacity • Operator is not allowed to deactivate
− The information is delivered via email to the operator capacity limitation using commands

7 © Nokia 2016
Technical Details
License management mechanism (2/2)
Activating licensed features
• License exists in the pool: the license is allocated as an RTU (Right To Use) to the dedicated NE.
• License does NOT exist in the pool: following first activation, every feature has license free period. User is
informed and has 14 days to order licenses
− For counter based features functionality cannot be deactivated and license capacity needs to be installed
− For other features if no licenses are purchased, feature can be deactivated by user
• Upon expiry of license free period, if user does not purchase licenses, limitation actions will
* DVbeUPtriggered
– User Plane Data Volume

Free SW license period

• There is SW license free period for all licensing features. Every feature gets 14-days free period
- after this period limiting action will be triggered by SWEM
- 14-days free period is also applied for capacity items (e.g data user, data volume)

How it is Capacity 28 days

calculated? calculation 14 days
period
EXAMPLE license
14 days for without
free period
Daily UP DV* limitations

* Daily User Plane Data Volume

8 © Nokia 2016
Technical Details
SW Entitlement Manager

SWEM overview
• SWEM collects and processes the configuration and measurement data based on customer specific settings
• Data monitored by SWEM
- Configuration Management parameters (CM)
- Performance management counters (PM) including post-processing (i.e. averaging counter usage over 14 days)
• NetAct SWEM assigns unique identifiers for each NE and manages them for assigning capacity allocations and
limitations to specific NEs

SWEM functions SWEM benefits

• Request licenses from the CLS
• Generate plan file using the configurator containing
the configuration parameters for capacity limitations
and to trigger the download of this plan file to the
affected NEs
• Viewing and exporting monitoring reports
• Setting notifications and alarms thresholds
• SWEM utilizes information about the actual customer
network, this provides:
- knowledge of what types and how many SW tokens
are available, can / must be purchased for a specific
Network Element
- knowledge of what kind of limitations are applied to
the Network Element

9 © Nokia 2016
Technical Details
Centralized License Server (1/2)

• Centralized License Server (CLS) enables centralized, automatic license management in the whole
network.
• CLS is integrated directly to one NetAct Regional Cluster (Local NetAct Regional Cluster), other
NetAct Regional Clusters (Remote NetAct Regional Clusters) are integrated remotely to the CLS.
Nokia Operator’s network

SRAN LTE
Local NetAct Regional Remote NetAct
Centralized Cluster (with CLS) Regional Cluster
License Server (without CLS) Network elements
LKs
Centralized SRAN LTE
License Server Remote NetAct
Regional Cluster
(without CLS) Network elements

10 © Nokia 2016
Technical Details
Centralized License Server (2/2) User interface of the CLS

License Keys (LKs) view

Centralized License Server functions LK and zipped LKs import to CLS

• Provides complete centralized network management LK browser per Target Type

• Provides support on SW only business models, cloud
License attributes overview and filtering options
environment and protection of 3rd party SW
• Avoids swap procedure by having NW level pooling LK removed from CLS
• Provides network level monitoring reports LK expiration warnings
• Provides only one target ID per customer
Licensed features view
Benefits of enhancing license management by CLS Features per Target Type table

• Flexibility for capacity allocation and network pooling Feature allocation details
• Enabling full network view
• Allowing full scalability Warning thresholds configuration

• Enable fast interfacing/connecting of new types of NEs

Activity Log

Success/failed license requests

Which features are needed but missing

11 © Nokia 2016
Licensing framework

Deployment
Aspects
Network graphic boxes Network element boxes
Table of contents

<chapter:deployment_aspects>

12 © Nokia 2016
Deployment Aspects
SWAM and SWEM
SWAM (SW Asset Monitoring) is a component of NetAct, which generates reports bases on PM
(measurements) or CM (configuration management e.g. which features are enabled on NEs).
• These reports are generated (automatically) once a day (customer can setup only start time)
or manually (if it is necessary).

SWAM
SWEM

13 © Nokia 2016
Deployment Aspects
Centralized License Server (CLS)

• CLS is a place where customer keeps licenses (only). Customer can see there, how licenses are
distributed, which are expired/will be expired in the next few days/not assigned, etc.

14 © Nokia 2016
Deployment Aspects
License

• License is generated in ClicS via Nokia Online Services (NOLS)

15 © Nokia 2016
Deployment Aspects
Integration of new network element

• Before integrating a new network element it is recommended to

check if enough pool license capacity is available in the CLS - If New eNB
not then additional license capacity is needed to be uploaded
• The connection between the NE and the NetAct RC is established
and then the licenses distribution is done automatically
• All licenses in LTE/SRAN are pool licenses – it is not possible to
assign licencese to specific eNB/SBTS - New uploaded license (to
CLS) will be distributed immediately when CLS get information from
SWEM that one of hundreds (thousands) eNBs/SBTSs needs it

16 © Nokia 2016