IBM, Casa Systems, and Enea are linking up on a private 5G platform that is targeted at helping operators better monetize their 5G deployments by entering the rapidly expanding market. It also marks the second step in IBM’s private 5G plans.

The partnership calls for IBM to contribute its Cloud Pak for Network Automation platform. This “Pak” was boosted late last year through a deal with Cisco to infuse Cisco’s Crosswork service to automate and abstract the complexity of virtualizing the radio and network core. The integration will allow operators to orchestrate the management of virtual 5G networks and underlying optical and IP networks using a single cloud framework.

Casa Systems is providing its 5G core that operates through its Axyom Software Framework to support private 5G coverage and capacity needs. Enea is delivering security advancements through end-to-end encrypted communications and subscriber data management without vendor lock-in through its open shift model.

The combo allows for the integration of subscriber data management, security, interoperability, and multi-access 5G to support low latency use cases in private 5G environments.

Rakshit Mehta, business development executive for IBM’s Telecom division, explained the platform can run on-premises using IBM cloud or on top of Red Hat OpenShift through an as-a-service model that can run in most infrastructure environments. He added that it’s targeted at telecom operators and in helping them better penetrate the enterprise market to monetize their 5G network investment.

“Private 5G is one of the drivers that we see as a growth area into B2B that telcos can look at supporting their B2B clients,” Rakshit said, adding this partnership assembles "a solution that addresses the needs in terms of driving an automated deployment of a private 5G network with applications and delivering to the use case" of low-latency applications and connectivity.

Customers are running proof of concepts using the package at IBM’s lab facilities in Dallas.

IBM and Casa are also working to build an open radio access network (RAN) platform to power private 5G use cases. This includes work on the radio intelligent controller (RIC) to support open RAN interoperability and network automation across different hardware and software components.

Rakshit explained that this work with Casa Systems builds on similar work IBM announced earlier this year with Nokia to bring RAN hardware components to the private 5G platform.

“We're looking at cloud RAN deployments on distributed cloud and then having an ability to deliver a catalog of applications that drive the end use case,” Rakshit said.

This work is entering a still-evolving space with significant growth potential. A recent report from SNS Telecom & IT predicts spending on open RAN-compliant RIC platform will hit $600 million by the end of 2025.

This arrangement also furthers Casa Systems' cloud-native transformation that it began last year with a strategic shift toward its cloud-native business where it expects to see a bigger growth opportunity.

That was followed by a move earlier this year when it received a significant investment and order from Verizon to help power the operator’s 5G and private network plans. The deal itself includes Verizon taking an ownership stake in its long-time vendor as well as committing up to $140 million over the next six years on Casa Systems’ cloud-native 5G core platform.

IBM’s private 5G efforts are also entering a rapidly growing market that has attracted telecom operators, vendors, hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), and just about everyone in between.

Stephen Rose, GM for IBM’s Global Telco, Media, Entertainment, and Distribution Vertical business, noted this market growth is also leading to a surge in complexity, which makes it difficult for operators to quantify and support required enterprise KPIs and service level agreements (SLAs).

“When you're selling a private network or even when you're selling a slice, you will be coming across having to have an understanding of the time and motion of how to infuse the network technology with the operational technology and the operational environment in which it sits,” Rose said. “So you need to understand as an operator or as part of the value chain that actually supports the operators to get to market.”

IBM’s goal is to use its automation and hybrid-cloud expertise to bridge this complexity and go-to-market divide for those operators.

“We basically provide the technology bedrock for the operator to actually drive in larger, wider technology strategies, but it has to be anchored in a dominant design point first, and we provide that dominant design point,” Rose added.