The Linux Foundation is merging some of its telecom-focused efforts with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in an attempt to provide more clarity for operators and vendors that want to adopt cloud-native principles for their 5G deployments. This will result in a new certification program and a cloud-native networking test catalog.

Ranny Haiby, CTO for networking, edge and access at the Linux Foundation, explained in an interview that the work will see the Linux Foundation’s Networking group (LF Networking) take on “everything that is related to cloud-native network functions” and “the CNCF will continue doing what we call cross-domain developed technology that is applicable to many verticals, not just networking.”

“We are trying to defragment the process,” Haiby said of the effort. “Before, there was some ambiguity about where you start. Do you go to the CNCF, do you go to LFN? We're trying to defragment and make LFN the one-stop shop for your CNF needs.”

Toward that defragmentation, LFN’s efforts will include cloud-native function (CNF) certification and a CNF test suite program. These will help the ecosystem align on CNFs, which are network functions or services that run in a containerized environment, that can be quickly and confidently deployed into a network environment.

“There is a need to address these things: vendor-neutral interoperability, and validation and testing. How to prepare your network for efficient deployment and automation,” Haiby said. “What we have in front of our eyes is the end users, ... the communication service providers ... who have to take these cloud-native network connections and deploy them in their network. But also those who create a network function, so the network equipment manufacturers, vendors and the integrators, and of course there's the software developers and the cloud providers.”

It will later look to work on certifications for platforms; automation and deployments, radio access network (RAN), and other specific LF Networking projects. The test catalog work is still being worked through, with plans for tests on functional and non-functional applications, certification support and providing testing tools for developers and operators.

“That's kind of a longer-term goal,” Haiby said. “We need to start somewhere so we'll focus on the more foundational fundamental test, meaning making sure your network function is really cloud native and it really can run on cloud-native infrastructure.”

Haiby noted the effort has already garnered buy-in from entities like Deutsche Telekom, Nokia and Matrixx.

Linux Foundation involves other projects

The new efforts will also run alongside LFN’s other telecom-focused projects like Anuket, Nephio and Sylva.

LF Networking launched the Anuket Project in early 2021. It combined the organization’s previous Common NFVi Telco Taskforce (CNTT) and the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) projects.

The Anuket Project is designed to facilitate and promote a consistent view and expectation of cloud-native technologies with respect to infrastructure and workloads. It’s tasked with bringing together infrastructure vendors like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Red Hat where telecom platforms run with vendors like Nokia and Ericsson that produce those workloads.

Haiby noted that the new effort will take some ideas from Anuket.

“Not everybody is adopting the Anuket architectures,” Haiby said of that project. “Some parts of the industry may be using different architectures, so we want to provide these test tools and certifications to be independent of whatever infrastructure permutation you chose. We want to have a degree of decoupling or independence there so as not to create the impression that you must use the Anuket architecture otherwise it’s useless.”

Anuket is feeding into the European-based Sylva project, which launched last year. That project is targeted at providing a common cloud software framework and reference implementation designed to consolidate a cloud infrastructure layer for telecommunication and edge services.

Also feeding into the Sylva project is LFN’s Nephio project, which also launched last year. The Google-developed project is designed to provide Kubernetes-based cloud-native intent automation and automation templates to make it easier for telecom operators to deploy and manage multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large-scale edge deployments.

Nephio sits on top of a Kubernetes substrate either directly controlled from an operator or a hyperscaler-based platform like Google Config Connector, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Controllers for Kubernetes, and Azure Service Operator. It takes Kubernetes’ cloud-native orchestration expertise to allow operators to roll out and manage new services in their 5G and edge deployments.

“This program is complementary to Nephio because Nephio tells you how you can automate and orchestrate your network function. This program will help you build that network function,” Haiby said of the new effort. “We have people from the Nephio community involved in this initiative as well so we expect to see a high degree of compatibility between the project and this initiative.”

But, what to call it?

Haiby also highlighted the newness of this effort by stating LFN was still looking for an official name for the project.

“I would say the working title is the Cloud Native Network Initiative under the LFN,” Haiby said. “I know it’s a long name but I want to make sure it's a community effort and it's community-driven, so we left kind of assigning a catchy name to the community itself. One of the things that is on the table is maybe finding a more catchy name that could help us.”