Kubernetes-based open-source effort spearheaded by Linux Foundation, Google Cloud
The Linux Foundation and Google Cloud announced this week the formation of Project Nephio. The new open-source effort aims to deliver carrier-grade network function automation using Kubernetes.
“Building, managing and deploying scalable 5G networks across multiple edge locations is complex. The Telco industry needs true cloud-native automation to be faster, simpler and easier, while achieving agility and optimization in cloud based deployments,” said the Linux Foundation in a statement.
“Nephio aims to deliver carrier-grade, simple, open, Kubernetes-based cloud native intent automation and common automation templates that materially simplify the deployment and management of multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large scale edge deployments,” it said.
The authors provided some additional detail about the network automation challenges facing Communication Service Providers (CSPs) on the project web site.
“Having multiple automation control planes for different types of infrastructure and different types of network functions makes it impossible to provide interconnected automations that maintain consistency across layers. It also makes it impossible to automatically adapt interrelated layers when one of them changes,” it said.
Leveraging Kubernetes as the automation control plane
“Nephio consolidates on Kubernetes as the automation control plane. This enables us to bring all the declarative, active reconciliation benefits to the entire stack,” it added.
Project Nephio’s developers assert that Kubernetes’ “configuration-as-data” paradigm solves existing network automation challenges for organizations still centered on Infrastructure-as-Code methodologies.
“Configuration-as-Data, or CaD, is a methodology for configuration management that rigorously enforces well-structured declarative configurations, and separates those configurations from the code that operates on them. This makes the configurations amenable to manipulation by well tested, reusable code, and enables robust, semantically aware merges of edits made by humans, bulk editing tools, and automations,” they wrote.
The Linux Foundation and Google Cloud hope that Project Nephio will accelerate onboarding of network functions to production.
Founding organizations for Project Nephio include a wide range of network operators including Airtel, Bell Canada, Elisa, Equinix, Jio, Orange, Rakuten Mobile, TIM, TELUS, Vapor IO, Virgin Media O2 and WINDTRE. The effort also has the backing of infrastructure vendors including Aarna Networks, ARM, Casa-systems, DZS, Ericsson, F5, Intel, Juniper, Mavenir, Nokia, Parallel Wireless and VMware.
The Linux Foundation began a collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2021 to spur 5G network software and application development around open-source technology. The first project, OPS-5G, focuses on a software stack for 5G, the network edge and IOT. The overall goal is to accelerate 5G software development ranging from specific applications to network feature support, and orchestration and analytics, by borrowing from and building upon existing open-source projects and new ones.
