The recently launched Nephio project is the latest attempt by automation experts to drive that innovation into the roll out of 5G network infrastructure. As such, it joins a crowded space of options for operators.

The Nephio project itself is based on Kubernetes, which has become the de-facto standard for automating and orchestrating cloud-native functions (CNFs) and containers. Telecom operators are using Kubernetes to help manage the deployment and operation of their 5G networks, many of which they are running as CNFs in containerized environments.

However, Gabriele Di Piazza, senior director of product management for telecom at Google Cloud, explained during a keynote address at this week’s Open Networking & Edge Executive Forum that not enough has been done to drive Kubernetes’ potential into a 5G network deployment.

“We actually believe that these environments are still not truly cloud native,” Di Piazza said. “We believe that true cloud nativeness lies in the fact that Kubernetes can actually automate all the way down from describing a network function or a service to the infrastructure including all the underlying networking components.”

Google, which is one of the main backers of the Nephio project – and also the creator of the platform that eventually became Kubernetes – explained that the new project is designed to provide operators with “declarative, intent-based automation.”

“In this automation model, operators specify their intention for the network configuration and allow automated systems to actually make that intention real,” the vendor explained in a blog post. “Since the intention does not change as faults occur, networks grow, and environments shift, human interventions are not needed to adjust to those changes.”

This becomes increasingly important as operators look to expand the reach of their 5G networks using edge deployments, which could result in the need for thousands of new network nodes and applications that will need to be deployment, managed, and hopefully monetized.

Nephio attempts to help this process by filling in the automation gaps between the infrastructure it runs on – either on premises or in a public cloud environment – and a service orchestration layer – like the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) – that runs on top.

The Nephio project launched with support from more than a dozen supporters, including operators like Airtel, Bell Canada, Orange, and Rakuten Mobile.

One operator not on the list is AT&T, which was one of the pioneers in virtualizing its network infrastructure. AT&T has been and continues to be a significant member of the Linux Foundation and its Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) outlet, highlighted by AT&T CTO Andre Fuetsch being the initial speaker at this week’s Linux Foundation Open Networking & Edge Executive Forum.

Arpit Joshipura, GM of networking, IoT, and edge at the Linux Foundation, noted that carriers like AT&T will be connected to the development of Nephio through their more direct work with upstream orchestration platforms like ONAP.

The Nephio project joins what has become a crowded market of 5G deployment options for those carriers.

Nephio initially appears similar to the Airship project that was developed by AT&T and some of its partners and eventually donated into the Open Infrastructure Foundation. Airship allows operators to run virtual network functions (VNFs) and cloud native network functions (CNFs), and is core to AT&T’s 5G network operations.

Airship is also a CNCF certified Kubernetes distribution platform. CNCF is a subset of the Linux Foundation and typically hosts most of the cloud-native focused projects.

Joshipura explained that Nephio's initial focus will be on optimizing the Kubernetes aspects of the platform, with eventual tie-ins to Airship or other OpenStack components as is needed.

Nephio backers have been quick to tout collaboration efforts between the project and other options in the market.

“We welcome pretty much everybody to join this community and be part of this community,” Kandan Kathirvel, product lead for telecom at Google Cloud, explained during this week’s launch event. “And in parallel, we would like to collaborate with other open source communities as well.”

This also includes using Nephio as a way to bridge the automation gap between different cloud infrastructure platforms which have begun to flood the market as operators move to sign deals with hyperscalers to host different aspects of their 5G deployments.

However, there is often limited interoperability for a carrier aside from using open source platforms like Kubernetes to help migrate options between those cloud platforms. Nephio allows for the automation of CNFs across those platforms.

“The other aspect is the coming together with cloud vendors as well as the network function vendors and telecom,” Kathirvel said. “The intention is to actually maintain multi-cloud, multi-vendor interoperable … automation templates to completely automate these particular functionalities together.”

Those automation templates will become more valuable to operators as they expand the reach of their 5G networks across different infrastructure and deployment models.