A method for providing performance guarantees for using microservices in a cloud-native architecture is provided. A network service controller specifies a set of performance characteristics for a particular service that is accessible by a network. The network service controller identifies a particular path in the network for the particular service having a performance guarantee that meets the specified set of performance characteristics. The network service controller configures a host machine running virtualization software with forwarding information for the particular path. The forwarding information is used to tag the packet with a list of transit nodes associated with the particular path when a packet is to be forwarded for the particular service.

The information processing method includes: acquiring, by an information processing device, numerical value information pertaining to an attribute of a network slice, the numerical value information being obtained by converting input information which has been inputted through a user interface; and selecting, by the information processing device, a network slice as a candidate to which a terminal device is to be connected.

According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of testing a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) during commissioning of the plurality of VNFs in a virtualized environment in a customer network, the method comprising: at a VNF testing component configured to have access to the virtualized environment of the customer network, performing interoperability testing between a first VNF component instantiation (VNFCI) within a first VNF of the plurality of VNFs and a second VNFCI within a second VNF of the plurality of VNFs, the second VNF being different from the first VNF, the first VNF and the second VNF comprising a subset of VNFs within the plurality of VNFs, wherein performing the interoperability testing comprises: instructing the first VNFCI to interoperate directly with the second VNFCI in a predetermined manner; and determining whether the second VNFCI reacts to the instructed direct interoperation in an expected manner.

According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of testing a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) during commissioning of the plurality of VNFs in a virtualized environment in a customer network, the method comprising: at a VNF testing component configured to have access to the virtualized environment of the customer network, performing interoperability testing between a first VNF component instantiation (VNFCI) within a first VNF of the plurality of VNFs and a second VNFCI within a second VNF of the plurality of VNFs, the second VNF being different from the first VNF, the first VNF and the second VNF comprising a subset of VNFs within the plurality of VNFs, wherein performing the interoperability testing comprises: instructing the first VNFCI to interoperate directly with the second VNFCI in a predetermined manner; and determining whether the second VNFCI reacts to the instructed direct interoperation in an expected manner.

A method for determining analytics for service experience for a Network Slice instance in a network comprising one or more network entities is provided. The method includes obtaining first information for determining a mapping between a set of one or more user equipment (UEs) and a set of one or more Network Slice instances, obtaining second information for determining the analytics of the set of one or more UEs, and determining the analytics for a Network Slice instance based on the first information and the second information.

A configuration method, a negotiation method, and an apparatus are provided. The configuration method includes: sending, by a network slice management network element, configuration information to a network device, where the configuration information includes information about a network slice and a system feature supported by the network slice; and receiving, by the network slice management network element, a configuration completion indication from the network device. Based on this solution, the related information of the network slice can be configured for the network device.

A network device may obtain information concerning a virtual chassis that indicates that the network device and an additional network device are to be included in the virtual chassis. The network device may determine, based on the information concerning the virtual chassis, that the network device is connected to the additional network device, wherein the network device is connected to the additional network device via a link between a network interface of the network device and a network interface of the additional network device. The network device may cause the network interface of the network device to be converted to a virtual chassis interface and the network interface of the additional network device to be converted to a virtual chassis interface to enable the network device and the additional network device to be included in the virtual chassis to allow bootstrapping of the virtual chassis as a single logical device.

A building network system of a building including one or more processing circuits configured to generate virtual networks, each virtual network of the virtual networks generated for one building equipment group of building equipment groups and deploy the virtual networks on network infrastructure of the building. The one or more processing circuits are configured to generate updates to the virtual networks to address resource changes in at least one of the building equipment groups and deploy the updates to the virtual networks.

Methods and apparatuses in the field of network slice management are disclosed. A method of managing, by means of an activation code management server (100), a plurality of activation codes (511 562) in a network includes steps of: providing (S31), for each of a plurality of network slices, a network slice identifier (570) in correspondence with a network slice; providing (S32) at least one VNF-product identifier (580), each VNF-product identifier (580) being in correspondence with a VNF; providing (S33) a plurality of activation code indicators (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560), each activation code indicator (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560 being indicative of one or more of the plurality of activation codes (511 562); and associating each of the plurality of activation code indicators (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560) with a corresponding network slice identifier (570) and a corresponding VNF-product identifier (580).

Methods and apparatuses in the field of network slice management are disclosed. A method of managing, by means of an activation code management server (100), a plurality of activation codes (511 562) in a network includes steps of: providing (S31), for each of a plurality of network slices, a network slice identifier (570) in correspondence with a network slice; providing (S32) at least one VNF-product identifier (580), each VNF-product identifier (580) being in correspondence with a VNF; providing (S33) a plurality of activation code indicators (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560), each activation code indicator (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560 being indicative of one or more of the plurality of activation codes (511 562); and associating each of the plurality of activation code indicators (510, 520, 530, 540, 550, 560) with a corresponding network slice identifier (570) and a corresponding VNF-product identifier (580).