5G is moving to an all software environment. Users will no longer deploy physical network functions except for the Radio Unit (RU). These software network functions require orchestration, ongoing management, and automation to be deployed at scale. A few instances can be managed manually, but at scale, automation is a must.
In addition, 5G network functions are moving to a cloud native architecture. As a result, the orchestration solution (we will use the term orchestration to include ongoing lifecycle management and real-time policy driven control loop automation as well) must support cloud native network functions (CNF) that can be deployed on a Kubernetes edge/core/public cloud.
Our Aarna Networks Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP) product can accomplish the above. It can orchestrate both 5G RAN and 5G Core. On Dec-14, I showed a demo of AMCOP orchestrating the open source Free5GC 5G Core onto an open source Kubernetes edge cloud.
The demo goes through cluster registration, CNF onboarding, service design, and finally service orchestration. The service orchestration phase takes care of placement intent and day 0 configuration as well. If you want to watch the demo, you can do so here.
A number of our customers have recreated, or are in the process of recreating this demo in their own lab. If would like to do so as well, please contact us.
