e, new alarming (as new interfaces are exposed) and corresponding additional correlations required to localize issues. This requires an intimate understanding of the different modules and their roles, interfaces and failure modes. The ONAP platform and associated analytics and policies is responsible for this tracking and correlation between hardware and software layers, between different network layers, and between disaggregated network functions. 15.2.3 ROLE OF ONAP IN NETWORK OPERATIONS As discussed in Chapter 7, ONAP is the "brain" providing the lifecycle management and control of the software-centric network resources, infrastructure, and services. ONAP lets us rapidly onboard Network Operations new services and from an operations perspective, it provides a framework for real-time, policy- driven software automation of network management functions. The ONAP platform together with supporting intelligent analytics, recipes and policies enables service designers and operators to automate network provisioning, network administration, and net- work maintenance functions in a consistent and comprehensive manner across all VNFs. Customers benefit through the rapid introduction of new and innovative services, reduced service provisioning times (potentially minutes instead of months) and improved service performance as automation typically responds to impaired conditions faster than human operators. The automation enabled by ONAP also allows the operations group(s) to deal with massive customer demand growth- absent corresponding equivalent revenue growth-without corresponding expansion in the size of the team(s). The automation of network management functions is not new; there is a tremendous amount in place today. However, network management is all too often introduced as an afterthought in how technologies and services are designed, built, and deployed. In contrast, network management auto- mation is at the very heart of the network design with ONAP, the focus being on bringing common automation and reusable analy