The Network Edge has Evolved – and it’s Open Source

The future of the Network Edge

In a bid to keep pace with technology advancements and voracious customer demand, the telecoms industry has always been laser-focused on network innovation. As digital transformation strategies mature, open source technologies are taking their place not only deep within the network core but are now defining how we deliver services at the far reaches of the network edge.

On July 7th at 17.00 CET/16.00 BST, senior leaders from the telecoms industry will gather to discuss the role of open source technologies in defining innovation and delivery at the network edge. Join SUSE’s Michael Harverson and a host of guests from Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Mavenir and others, to hear how the industry is capitalizing on open source to galvanize digital transformation and edge strategies. Register here

What are the issues facing telcos right now? Open source software (OSS) is cementing its place in the telecommunications software stack – becoming key to much of the network transformation seen over the last decade. From the 5G Core to MEC – open source is completely changing the industry. OSS is driving the innovation agenda for communications service providers (CSPs) and, by extension, it is now challenging the dominance of proprietary solutions in the telecoms industry.

Traditional mobile networks rely on equipment that tightly couples proprietary hardware, such as antennas and cabinets, with software provided by the major network vendors. By contrast, many of the world’s largest CSPs are trying to unbundle this arrangement, using open-source software to deploy many 5G workloads from the 5GC to OpenRAN and vBNG to uCPE deployments. How are open source solutions implemented by the operators?

Operators implementing open source solutions today tend to do so in conjunction with the deployment of network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN), which will play an important role for the definition and consolidation of the future 5G architectures.

NFV replaces proprietary physical network appliances with an infrastructure less dependent on the underlying hardware. NFV and SDNs enable scalability, flexibility, and innovation better than a hardware-centric design can. VNF to CNF

The use of open source software code further complements this network design. It will eventually replace proprietary software running on vendor-specific hardware, with CNFs (Cloud Native Network Functions) running in containers across hybrid telco clouds and COTS hardware in the data centre and at the edge. Open source builds upon virtualization and containerization to open up the network to third parties, adding vitality to the market and stimulating innovation. This has many potential consequences for the telecoms value chain. Leading CSPs have four fundamental reasons to consider open source:

· Mitigating vendor lock-in

· Enabling new services

· Transforming cost models from CAPEX to OPEX

· Accelerating innovation cycles

How do I find out more?

Join us on the 7th of July to find out why Deutsche Telecom, Orange and Mavenir are putting open source at the heart of their technology architectures, and edge strategies.

Register here!