SK Telecom signed a deal with Samsung, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Intel to develop an NFV platform targeted at 5G deployments. The move comes as operators are beginning to deploy standalone (SA) 5G networks that can begin fulfilling the long-held promise of 5G.

The deal calls for the four signees to develop NFV technologies for 5G network infrastructure, establish a standardized process for NFV adoption, and develop technologies that can take advantage of a virtualized network. They expect this work to reduce the time required to validate and integrate such platforms from different vendors within a network.

SK Telecom will provide its 5G network to the cause. The carrier has been one of the more aggressive in the world in rolling out 5G services including the “world’s first standalone 5G data session” using equipment from multiple vendors on a commercial 5G network. However, it more recently lost out to T-Mobile US in launching the first 5G SA network.

Intel, which has been working with SK Telecom on its 5G plans, is providing its Xeon processors, Ethernet 800 Series network adapters, and solid-state drives. Intel has been supplying that equipment to develop a 5G SA user plane function (UPF) based on the 3GPP’s Release 15 specification for SK Telecom.

HPE is chipping in with its ProLiant Servers that will tie into the Samsung equipment to provide verification support. HPE recently announced plans for a 5G core software stack that is set to launch later this year. And it claimed that more than 300 telecommunications customers in 160 countries and 700 million mobile subscribers across 82 network operators use HPE’s mobile core software.

The combined work will connect SK Telecom’s 5G core network into Samsung’s virtualized 5G platform. Samsung was one of the first vendors selected by SK Telecom to provide 5G infrastructure and continues to be a big part of the carrier’s 5G ecosystem.

The work should also help propel the use of NFV in navigating the complex virtualized and computing needs for 5G services like edge computing that will need to connect and manage billions of devices.

The SK Telecom-led effort is not the only ongoing push to cram NFV into 5G.

The Linux Foundation’s LF Networking group launched what it describes as the first open source platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for 5G network functions. The XGVela project — donated by China Mobile with support from China Unicom, China Telecom, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel, and Red Hat — looks to enhance general PaaS functions from existing open source efforts for specialized telecommunications requirements.

It targets upper layer services as PaaS functions and is designed to enable more cloud deployments among network operators. It also taps into LF Networking’s Common NFVI Telco Taskforce (CNTT) and the OPNFV Verification Program in a bid to more holistically address cloud native architecture deployment challenges and specific requirements for mobile carriers.

“NFV continues to evolve as telcos increasingly adopt cloud native technologies,” explained Heather Kirksey, VP of community and ecosystem development at the Linux Foundation, as part of that launch. “Change, however, brings challenges, especially to areas like compliance, testing, automation, and integration.”