11 shows a high-level view of some of the components of the new access software architecture, using the next-generation XGS-PON access technology as an example. The specific types of hardware are depicted at the bottom. The network abstraction layer hides the details of the underlying hardware from higher software layers, enabling common software control and manage- ment for the different hardware configurations. Although it is not shown, this layer also provides abstraction for different types of access technology. The SDN access controller provides key control functions that integrate the access network components such as the vOLT control and PON manage- ment with the rest of the ONAP software architecture. It is the desire of AT&T that all updates to the controller source and applications are contributed back to the open source community to maintain a long-term viable product. 11.4.8 NETWORK ABSTRACTION LAYER The network abstraction layer is a thin layer of software that provides security protection and a consistent interface for various underlying hardware components incorporated into the access net- work. The protocols and non real-time capabilities are disaggregated onto a micro service running in the AIC environment on standard x86 compute cloud in a virtual machine or container. Through Network Access The intent of the NAL is to be broken Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) down into small clusters per device type and only the needed protocols, Running as a PNF or VNF extensions and drivers loaded RESTCONF NETCONF OpenFlow YANG Generator User Interface Modular Protocol Abstraction Layer API GUI Performance Software RESTful Monitoring Download Management Modular Extensions Abstraction Layer Model Publish Interface OpenSource Framework Model Modular Driver Abstraction Layer Inventory IEEE 1904 Native OLT Driver Extensible Adapter NETCONF State Manager Auth Keys SAI ASIC SDK Cluster Services Switch ASIC Driver Physical PizzaBox OLT MicroOLT Device X NETCONF Device X Switch ASIC R-OLT ONT/ONU ONT/ONU FIGURE 11.12