Softwareisation of the network
Operators understand that the direction of travel for the network, both today and in future, is through the telco cloud. As one operator noted recently, ‘Already with 5G network functions we have no choice.
The era of network functions delivered as physical appliances is not over. Network functions that require high throughput of traffic at scale or which physically convert photons into communication signals will continue to depend on specialist hardware.
The majority of network functions, however, are evolving as software-only applications that will run on the modern environment for application software: the cloud. A cloud environment that supports network functions, otherwise known as a telco cloud, is typically implemented as a private cloud on an individual operator’s premises. Some operators are experimenting with public, hyperscaler-owned clouds as the execution environment for network functions such as the 5G SA core and policy control and charging functions.
Operators understand that the direction of travel for the network, both today and in future, is through the telco cloud. As one operator noted recently, 'Already with 5G network functions we have no choice. We can't buy them as boxes anymore.' The 5G standards body, 3GPP, conceived the 5G core as a software-only set of functions with a service-based architecture that aligns with cloud-native principles. Open RAN initiatives are following the 5G core’s lead, disaggregating functionality from specialist RAN hardware and enabling the resulting software-based functions to run in cloud environments across cell and aggregation sites. Operators with enterprise businesses are increasingly delivering network capabilities, such as firewalls and other advanced security features, SD WAN and multi-cloud networking and application performance optimization to customers via telco clouds hosted in their networks or those of third-party partners. This is proving a cost-effective and flexible approach compared with providing and managing such functionality as separate boxes on the customer premise.
There are many other advantages to a telco cloud architecture that enables multiple network applications to share cloud infrastructure. These include the ability to build a network from best of breed vendors and open components, rather than having to source a pre-integrated stack of technologies that can lock an operator into a single network vendor, its roadmap and pricing. New revenue-generating services based on network slicing, edge computing, network APIs and AI processing are all dependent on an operator implementing telco cloud architecture and softwareizing its network. 6G networks, which will be arriving by the end of the decade, are expected to be almost entirely softwareized networks that may have very different architectures than networks today.
Although the industry understands the trend towards network softwareization, many operators are struggling with the disruption to network architecture and operations that it brings with it. A telco cloud introduces new layers of technology into the network which replace the physical, dedicated hardware that has traditionally supported network functions. Not only does a telco cloud need to be managed differently from that hardware, requiring a much higher level of automation and new IT skills that network engineers are not familiar with, it also changes the organizational roles within network operations teams.
Fully softwareized networks create a split between the teams responsible for operating specific network function applications, such as policy and charging, the 5G SA core or RAN functions and the team responsible for running the horizontal telco cloud infrastructure such functions run on. This requires the setting up of new, inter-team integration and collaboration processes to ensure that the 'network' can still be operated holistically, across infrastructure and application layers. Network engineers that once controlled a network function end-to-end, including its hardware execution environment, now need to work differently and with IT colleagues using cloud-native means of automation and management. They also need to understand concepts associated with operating a softwareized network, such as DevOps, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), GitHub and configuration management databases (CMDBs) and observability.
Despite these challenges, it is critical that operators come to terms with network softwareization and acquire the expertise and tools that enable them to operate telco clouds. Most operators are electing to work with a partner(s) that can help them with such a significant transformation of their networks.
Since a softwareized network will be built from a disaggregated ecosystem of vendors, including network function providers, cloud platform suppliers and IT hardware vendors, they will need to work with partners that have a vendor-agnostic outlook and are embedded within a broad ecosystem of network function and cloud technology vendors. Operators will want to work with companies that can help them both to acquire modern software development and operations experience, including expertise in DevOps, cloud management, API development and management and the application of cloud-based AI tooling, and to apply this experience in a telco cloud environment. Operators will expect partners to provide a roadmap to help them navigate the transition from legacy, brownfield network environments to a softwareized network future. Such a roadmap should include guidance on how to monetize new features of a softwareized network such as APIs, new edge cloud environments and new orchestration and cloud automation capabilities that underpin slicing.
