Original primary goals based on contributions from Nokia, Samsung, HCL, Capgemini, Parallel Wireless, Alexandre Huff (UTFPR) and Abhijit G:

• We will deprecate the RMR-based E2 subscription interface and H-release xApps need to use the REST based interface already supported by the the C++, go, and python xApp frameworks (RIC-375). The subscription manager should handle subscriptions for failing xApps (RIC-929) and provide a callback on subscription delete success/failure (RIC-928). We plan to implement the RIC subscription delete required procedure (RIC-851)
  
• Update to newer golang version of all components (RIC-881)
• We will develop a CRD, i.e., a K8S operator on top of the DMS REST API to simplify xApp deployment (RIC-715). Also the DMS Rest interface gets the missing delete API (RIC-954). RIC-717 allows to deploy multiple cooperating xApps together.
• On E2 side we will implement the E2 Reset procedure from RAN to RIC (RIC-949) and the RIC Subscription Delete procedure (RIC-851). We also implement robustness improvements (RIC-932 for reconnect cases) and troubleshooting improvements (RIC-813, RIC-814).
• There's work planned to deploy the kserve-based model provisioning from the AI/ML project into the RIC platform (RIC-955)
• The xapp frameworks for Golang (RIC-930), C++ andRust (RIC-951) will get some enhancements that are already implemented in the other languages, incl. support for xApp registration in the xapp-framework-cpp (RIC-705).
• E2T (RIC-813) and E2Mgr (RIC-814) support dynamic changing of log levels for better troubleshooting
• RIC-953 A1 testing improvements and bug fixes
• Added to plan during H:
  • Support for policy status notifications in A1 (RIC-973 (incl. RIC-975))
  • Faster timeout in SCTP heartbeats (E2) (RIC-976)

• Link to planned Jira work items: all teams

Achieved H release highlights = high-level release notes (TODO-date) below (note that the release image list is here: TODO-link)

• E2 reset (from E2 node to RIC), E2 subscription delete required, A1 policy status notfications
• Preparation of feature for I release, e.g., include xApps in subscription delete required decision

For the H release of the near-RT RIC we do only limited integration testing: only the use cases: deploy RIC, deploy xApp, make E2 connection, get list of A1 policies has been tested.

Filled in end-of-release checklist: TODO-link

Status 2023-05-19: From the 22 epics planned (link) we implemented 4 10 (link). 11 12 items have been moved out of the H release, e.g, because of implementation delays (link). Incomplete items: 7 1 (link). Additionally we fixed 7 bugs and small implementation tasks (link)

H release source code, container images and deployment instructions