Contents

Configuring network slicing· 1

About network slicing· 1

Basic concepts· 1

Network slicing tasks at a glance· 2

Creating an NSI and configuring parameters· 2

Configuring a network slice channel on an interface· 3

Configuring bindings between packets and NSI IDs· 4

Configuring network slice packet statistics· 5

Display and maintenance commands for network slicing· 5

 

Configuring network slicing

About network slicing

In the era of IoT, with a massive amount of devices and various applications connected to the network, home and industry users have diversified demands. A single network or unified policy can no longer meet the evolving demands of new services and scenarios. Building separate networks for each scenario is costly and time-consuming. The network slicing technology allows partitioning a physical network into multiple independent virtual networks. It enables on-demand resource allocation for different services and provides differentiated queue scheduling capabilities, meeting various business demands without affecting existing networks.

Figure 1 Network slicing architecture

 

Basic concepts

Network slicing has the following concepts:

·     Network slice instance (NSI)—An independent virtual network in a network with network slicing deployed. A virtual network is identified by its unique NSI ID (also called slice ID).

·     Network slice packet—Based on DSCP/VLAN information, you can bind common packets to specific NSI IDs for transmission. The packets can then be forwarded through the associated NSIs, which are known as network slice packets.

·     Network slice channel—A logical channel on an interface, used for forwarding network slice packets. A network slice channel is associated with an NSI by the NSI ID. You can create multiple network slice channels on an interface and assign an independent scheduling queue to each network slice channel. In this way, the scheduling queues for network slice channels do not affect each other.

Network slicing tasks at a glance

To configure network slicing, perform the following tasks:

1.     Creating an NSI and configuring parameters

2.     Configuring a network slice channel on an interface

3.     Configuring bindings between packets and NSI IDs

4.     (Optional.) Configuring network slice packet statistics

Creating an NSI and configuring parameters

Restrictions and guidelines

If an NSI is associated with an interface through the slice-id flex-channel command, use the undo slice-id flex-channel command to cancel the association before you delete the NSI.

When multiple network slice channels exist on the output interface, the device performs strict priority-based scheduling according to the scheduling priority of the network slice channels. If network congestion occurs on the output interface, packets in higher-priority network slice channels are forwarded first. Packets in lower-priority network slice channels can be scheduled in sequence only after all packets from the high-priority network slice channels are forwarded out of the queue.

Procedure

1.     Enter system view.

system-view

2.     Enable network slicing and enter network slice view.

network-slice

By default, network slicing is disabled.

3.     Create an NSI and enter its view.

instance slice-instance-id

4.     (Optional.) Configure a description for the NSI.

description text

By default, no description is configured for an NSI.

Configuring a network slice channel on an interface

About this task

After enabling network slicing on an interface, you can create network slice channels on the interface. The device allocates independent scheduling queue resources for network slice channels on the interface. Packets matching an NSI ID are forwarded through the associated network slice channel. The bandwidth specified for the network slice channel created on the interface serves as both the guaranteed bandwidth and the upper limit for the channel. Traffic exceeding this bandwidth is processed by traffic shaping for buffering.

When you configure a network slice channel on an interface, specify the flex-channel keyword with the shared keyword to configure the shared mode for the network slice channel. The device will assign shared-mode scheduling queue resources to this network slice channel. Non-network slice packets and network slice packets from other network slice channels can compete for the scheduling queue resources of this network slice channel during network congestion. Network slice channels in shared mode enable more flexible traffic scheduling.

Restrictions and guidelines

Before enabling network slicing on an interface, you must use the instance command to create an NSI.

You can configure multiple network slice channels for an interface.

If you execute the network-slice enable command on an interface to enable network slicing for it, the interface cannot join a link aggregation group.

You can specify only the shared mode for a network slice channel.

Procedure

1.     Enter system view.

system-view

2.     Enter interface view.

interface interface-type interface-number

3.     Enable network slicing for the interface and enter network slice view of the interface.

network-slice enable

By default, network slicing is disabled on the interface.

4.     Create a network slice channel for the interface, and specify the bandwidth for the network slice channel.

slice-id slice-instance-id flex-channel flex-channel-value [ shared ]

By default, no network slice channels are configured on the interface.

Configuring bindings between packets and NSI IDs

About this task

With this feature configured, the device binds the specified packets to NSI IDs. When forwarding the packets through an output interface, the device searches for the network slice channel configured on the output interface. The device then schedules and forwards the packets through the network slice channel identified by the bound NSI ID. If no network slice channel identified by the bound NSI ID exists on the output interface, the device forwards the packets according to routing table lookup.

You can repeatedly execute the index binding-type command to configure multiple bindings between packets and NSI IDs identified by different index-value values. Upon receiving a packet, the system compares it with packet match criteria in ascending order of index values specified with the index binding-type command. If a match is found, the system does not continue to compare the packet with other bindings.

Restrictions and guidelines

If you repeatedly execute the index binding-type command and specify the same index value, the most recent configuration takes effect.

If you bind a DSCP/VLAN value or interface to an NSI ID, you cannot bind the DSCP/VLAN value or interface to any other NSI IDs.

Procedure

1.     Enter system view.

system-view

2.     Enable network slicing and enter network slice view.

network-slice

By default, network slicing is disabled.

3.     Create and enter NSI-to-packet mapping view.

nsi-mapping

4.     Configure bindings between packets and NSI IDs

index index-value binding-type { dscp { dscp-startvalue [ to dscp-endvalue ] } &<1-32> | interface interface-type interface-number | vlan { vlan-startvalue [ to vlan-endvalue ] } &<1-32> } slice slice-id [ replace dscp dscp-value ]

By default, the bindings between packets and NSI IDs are not configured. That is, no packets are scheduled or forwarded through the network slice channels identified by NSI IDs on an interface.

Configuring network slice packet statistics

About this task

With network slice packet statistics enabled, you can use the display network-slice statistics command to display statistics of packets forwarded through the specified network slice.

Restrictions and guidelines

After you execute the index binding-type command to bind packets to NSI IDs in NSI-to-packet mapping view, packets can be allocated to the configured slices. At this time, you must execute the slice-id flex-channel command for the interface to create a network slice channels for the interface. This enables collecting packet statistics for the corresponding network slice channels. Without any network slice channels created, traffic statistics for the network slices cannot be collected.

Procedure

1.     Enter system view.

system-view

2.     Enter network slice view.

network-slice

3.     Enable network slice packet statistics.

statistics enable

By default, network slice packet statistics is disabled.

4.     (Optional.) configure the interval for collecting network slice packet statistics.

statistics interval time

By default, the device collects network slice packet statistics at 30-second intervals.

Display and maintenance commands for network slicing

Execute display commands in any view and reset commands in user view.

 

Task	Command
Display network slice configuration information.	display network-slice instance [ slice-id slice-id ]
Display the bandwidth usage of network slices on interfaces.	display network-slice bandwidth usage statistics [ interface interface-type interface-number ]
Display the associations between NSIs and interfaces.	display network-slice binding-list [ slice-id slice-instance-id ] [ interface interface-type interface-number ]
Display network slice packet statistics.	display network-slice statistics [ slice-id slice-instance-id ] [ interface interface-type interface-number ] [ verbose ]
Clear network slice packet statistics.	reset network-slice statistics [ slice-id slice-instance-id ] [ interface interface-type interface-number ]