AT&T highlighted ongoing progress on the Common NFVi Telco Taskforce (CNTT) that is looking to define and create virtual network function (VNF) reference architectures for NFV infrastructure (NFVi) to support carrier SDN deployments.

Ryan van Wyk, VP of Network Cloud at AT&T, noted in a blog post that the carrier last month conducted work with a handful of operators on CNTT. He explained that the work was focused on making the CNTT process work across each operator’s vendor ecosystem. Operators involved in the latest interoperability work with AT&T included Vodafone, Verizon, and Orange.

“With the race to deliver this new technology each operator and the suppliers that support them have implemented NFVi differently, even though in most cases using many of the same open source software projects like ONAP, OpenStack, Airship, and Kubernetes,” noted van Wyk, who recently replaced Amy Wheelus in his role. “The net result is that suppliers of the VNFs (e.g. a virtualized router) must either customize their software or the NFVi itself needs to be customized for every operator installation.”

He added that the work concluded with a commitment from industry trade group GSMA to make its recently launched “reference model a standard, supplier volunteers to pilot the first reference conformance, and alignment with OPNFV on their role in support of CNTT.”

CNTT is a collaboration between The Linux Foundation’s LF Networking Group and the GSMA. LFN initially cited the project at the Open Networking Summit event last April, with an official unveiling in June. AT&T, along with a handful of other operators were part of the CNTT project's initial "task force."

The GSMA unveiled the first CNTT data release last September. It included the first set of a common reference model and the first reference architecture.

CNTT has also been working with the Linux Foundation’s OPNFV group on testing protocols. These have been through the OPNFV Verification Program (OVP), which verifies the labs, infrastructure, and VNFs. OVP has already verified more than a dozen NFVi platforms. These include products from Ericsson, Lenovo, Wind River, Nokia, ENEA, LG U+, Huawei, and ZTE.

For its part, OPNFV this week unveiled its ninth platform release, dubbed Iruya. Heather Kirksey, VP of community and ecosystem development at the Linux Foundation, noted in a blog post that the release provides support for CNTT and OVP work, including reference implementation, test automation for 5G and edge deployments, and continues OPNFV’s testing and integration work and upstream contributions.

Kirksey also noted that Iruya includes support for edge computing features through projects like Rocket, which is hardware acceleration for virtual EPC (vEPC); Edge Cloud, which is edge OpenStack test cases; and Container4NFV, which secures containers with multiple IP addresses.

At the recent KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America event in San Diego, Kirksey wrangled a live, on-stage demo of a Kubernetes-powered end-to-end 5G cloud native network that was based on work with OPNFV, OVP, and CNTT. She said the demo was important due to the growing amount of work around networking issues and Kubernetes.

“We are embracing cloud native and new applications and we want to let the folks here know why we want to partner with the cloud native developer community,” Kirksey said during an interview at the event. “It has been a bit of a challenge to get that community excited about telecom and to get excited about working with us to advance networking.”