SUSE and Sylva: Tackling Telco ecosystem fragmentation challenges

At MWC 2026, SUSE and Project Sylva will co-present a joint demonstration at the SUSE booth. This demonstration will highlight a Project Sylva-aligned Telco stack, specifically focusing on the practical deployment and operation of an Open RAN-based cell site. 

Background

Leading CSPs and NEPs in Europe launched Project Sylva as a Linux Foundation Europe initiative to develop and release a homogenous cloud framework tailored for telco and edge use cases. The goal is to overcome the fragmentation and integration challenges the industry is facing. In addition, Project Sylva aims to develop a reference implementation of the cloud software framework and create a validation program for such implementations.

The goals set forth by Project Sylva benefit all the stakeholders in the ecosystem. A common cloud layer and reference architecture for CaaS will reduce costs for CSPs. A homogenous CaaS layer enables a “build once, deploy many times” model for NEPs and ISVs.

Figure 1: Cloud Layer convergence enabled by Project Sylva architecture

SUSE has been an active, founding contributor to Project Sylva. Collaborating with Sylva partners, SUSE has developed a cloud-native, open source platform built from components such as Linux, Kubernetes (RKE2), Rancher, and Metal3, acting as the Open CaaS Layer and in alignment with the Project Sylva architecture, as illustrated in Figure 1. 

Components of the SUSE-Project Sylva demonstration

The SUSE-Project Sylva demonstration is a joint effort, with key contributions from SUSE, Supermicro, Intel, and SRS. The demo architecture and components are described below.

Figure 2: Architecture of the SUSE- Project Sylva demonstration

• SUSE components
  • SUSE delivers a Sylva-aligned, AI-native, secure, and carrier-grade software foundation for telco infrastructure, serving as the Open caaS layer. This platform is built on rigorously validated and hardened open-source components, including OpenSUSE Leap Micro (Linux), RKE 2 (Kubernetes), and Rancher Manager. A key strength of the SUSE platform is its “management first” approach, which is vital for Communication Service Providers (CSPs). This methodology enables fully automated, zero-touch provisioning of both management and workload clusters, allowing CSPs to efficiently provision and manage downstream RAN sites at a large scale. Additionally, the SUSE platform supports the high forwarding performance and low latency required to preserve the mobile user’s Quality of Experience (QoE).
• Supermicro components
  • The Supermicro SYS-112D server family is specifically engineered for demanding Telco environments, including 5G, Open RAN, and edge IoT deployments, ensuring high performance and reliability at RAN sites. These servers provide built-in GNSS support and are ideal for space-constrained edge and access sites due to their compact 1U short-depth form factor.
  • High data throughput and support for latency-sensitive RAN workloads are delivered through advanced networking options ranging from 25G to 100G. The system also offers high port density with the ability to expand up to eight additional 25G ports using Supermicro-built PCIe cards featuring Intel’s E830 chipset.
  • Powered by the latest Intel® Xeon® 6 SoC, the SYS-112D family achieves a significant performance-per-watt improvement, facilitating the energy-efficient scaling of modern Telco workloads.
• Intel components
  • The Intel® Xeon® 6 SoC is explicitly designed for the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the Far Edge. Its integrated vRAN Boost is designed to handle the heavy math of 5G Layer 1 processing. The chip has high-speed Ethernet switching capability built-in, reducing the need for separate Network Interface Cards (NICs)
•  SRS components
  • SRS/OCUDU is an open-source, deployment-grade, scalable, and modular RAN solution. Aligned with 3GPP Release 18, it is optimized for high performance on both x86 and ARM platforms. This solution is capable of supporting over 1000 users per DU cell.

SUSE-Project Sylva demonstration: Key Capabilities and Success Metrics

This demonstration illustrates the key steps and verification points for deploying infrastructure and applications using Project Sylva, emphasizing operational consistency and declarative management.

• Infrastructure & Kubernetes cluster deployment
  • Configuration of cluster parameters on values.yaml file  to define infrastructure. Key inputs include hardware provider, node counts, CPU/RAM specs and networking CIDRs. 
  • Bootstrap via management cluster. This pushes configuration to the Management Cluster, triggering the Sylva Units Operator and FluxCD to begin the lifecycle management process.
  • Automated provisioning with CAPI. The Cluster API (CAPI) controllers take over, communicating with your infrastructure provider to spin up VMs or physical nodes and install the base OS and the Kubernetes layers
  • The successful deployment of the downstream clusters is verified by retrieving the kubeconfig file and accessing the new cluster
• OCUDU deployment and traffic validation 
  • Configure and deploy OCUDU network functions on the downstream workload clusters
  • Use a traffic generator to generate external control and user plane traffic. Deploy Grafana and validate the connection status and monitor the traffic flow, on the Grafana UI

This demo showcases the operational consistency delivered by Project Sylva, the foundational framework for a “Develop Once, Deploy Anywhere” strategy. Project Sylva simplifies the deployment of all cluster types—whether management or workload clusters—across the Core, RAN sites, and the Edge. It enables operators to smoothly shift from imperative to declarative management using automated GitOps tools. This approach prevents vendor lock-in, offering flexibility regardless of the specific Kubernetes distribution or Hypervisor used.

Discover More at MWC 2026

Visit the SUSE booth to learn more about SUSE Telco Cloud and see demonstrations of the SUSE-Project Sylva Telco use cases.

Where: Mobile World Congress 2026, Barcelona

When: March 2nd through 5th

Location: Hall 2, Stand 2C31

Additional Resources

• SUSE Telecom Industry Solutions
• SUSE Telco Cloud Product Information
• Success Stories
  • Orange
  • Ericsson
• ABI Research report
• Project Sylva Blog
• Parallel Wireless and SUSE Partner to Deliver Hardware Agnostic Kubernetes-Enabled Solutions (Press Release)
• Supermicro product description