5G is moving to an all software environment. Users will no longer deploy physical network functions except for the Radio Unit (RU). These software network functions require orchestration, ongoing management, and automation to be deployed at scale. A few instances can be managed manually, but at scale, automation is a must.

In addition, 5G network functions are moving to a cloud native architecture. As a result, the orchestration solution (we will use the term orchestration to include ongoing lifecycle management and real-time policy driven control loop automation as well) must support cloud native network functions (CNF) that can be deployed on a Kubernetes edge/core/public cloud.

Our Aarna.ml Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP) product can accomplish the above. It can orchestrate both 5G RAN and 5G Core. On Dec-14, I showed a demo of AMCOP orchestrating the open source Free5GC 5G Core onto an open source Kubernetes edge cloud.

The demo goes through cluster registration, CNF onboarding, service design, and finally service orchestration. The service orchestration phase takes care of placement intent and day 0 configuration as well. If you want to watch the demo, you can do so here.

A number of our customers have recreated, or are in the process of recreating this demo in their own lab. If would like to do so as well, please contact us.

I'm thrilled to announce the Aarna.ml User Group on Meetup. We plan to have 5G and edge computing related technical meetups roughly every 2 weeks on Monday at 7AM Pacific Time. These sessions will be hands-on technical demo sessions with presentations. No marketing fluff, just a sneak peak at the technology we are working on. In addition, you will get to meet Aarna.ml engineers, ask them questions, and network with other community members that share the same interest as you.

The first five meetups are as follows:

• Free5GC 5G Core Orchestration on Kubernetes, Dec 14, 2020
• Day-N Configuration of 5G RAN (O-RAN), Jan 11, 2021
• Creating a Development Environment for O-RAN NRTRIC, Jan 25, 2021
• Cloud Native Application (CNA) Orchestration on Multiple Kubernetes Edge Clouds, Feb 8, 2021
• End-to-End 5G Network Slicing Demo, Feb 22, 2021

Please join us! We look forward to seeing you. And, if you want to recreate any of these demos in your lab, contact us at info@aarna.ml.

I'm pleased to announce that we have joined the Open Networking Foundation. Our primary interest is in the SD-RAN project. What makes SD-RAN  interesting to us is the fact that this community is building an open source near-real-time RIC (nRT-RIC) and a set of xApps. As a quick backgrounder and the context for our interest, let's review the O-RAN architecture diagram first (from an ONAP point-of-view).

Our product, the Aarna.ml Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP), serves the role of what O-RAN calls an SMO (Service Management & Orchestration). AMCOP onboards and orchestrates the various O-RAN components, performs configuration and lifecycle management on these components, and then monitors them for analytics and closed control loop automation. AMCOP will also implement the Non-Real-Time RIC functionality (NONRTRIC). We utilize (or plan to utilize) ONAP projects such as EMCO, CDS, DCAE, Policy, DMaaP to build AMCOP.

AMCOP will have multiple interfaces to other O-RAN components. The main ones are O1 for fault management (FM), performance management (PM), and configuration management (CM) and A1 for providing policies to the nRT-RIC.

By participating in the SD-RAN project, we hope to contribute to and benefit from the community in the following ways:

• Collaborate on the O1 interface to configure the nRT-RIC
• Collaborate on the A1 interface to provide policies to nRT-RIC
• Collaborate on defining rApps (that reside in the NONRTRIC) that might be beneficial to the nRT-RIC
• Interop testing between AMCOP and the ONF nRT-RIC

We believe that this will be a great two way street. We can hopefully contribute to the community and at the same time, we can benefit from the community by interacting with the top minds in the O-RAN space.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please do reach out to us at info@aarna.ml. We already have a video of AMCOP and the O1 interface and we will be publishing future blogs and demo videos on our O-RAN activities.

The Linux Foundation announced  ONAP certification yesterday to help close the human talent gap that is emerging with the  growth of network automation, 5G, and edge computing. As per the Linux Foundation, "COP [Certified ONAP Professional] is a three-hour, performance-based certification exam that provides assurance that a certificant has the ability to onboard Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), design and deploy network services, and configure VNFs. "

This is a great step forward to help create a pool of experts with baseline understanding of ONAP and the underlying concepts of xNF onboarding, service design, service orchestration, xNF lifecycle management, and closed control loop automation.

You might be wondering — how can you prepare for this exam? As it turns out, we at Aarna.ml can help. We have a comprehensive 5-day course called the Certified ONAP Professional course to help you prepare for the exam. The training is instructor led, and due to COVID, the entire session will be virtual. If you sign up before December-15-2020, we have a 5% discount for 5+ participants and a 10% discount for 10+ participants. The minimum number of participants is 3 and the scheduling of the actual training is flexible and can also be pushed to 2021.

If you have some 2020 training budget left over, why not sign up?

In this demo video, we will show you how to use our product, the Aarna.ml Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP) to deploy a network service based on Altran 5GC CNFs and A10 Thunder next generation firewall CNF onto Kubernetes. We will show the following steps:

• Register an already created Red Hat OpenShift (CRC) Kubernetes cluster with AMCOP
• Onboard Altran 5G Core and A10 Thunder NGFW CNFs on AMCOP; we will use Helm charts as the CNF descriptors
• Create a network service using these CNFs
• Deploy the network service onto the Kubernetes cluster

Please note, it is a silent video. Excited? Please contact us if you would like to create a similar service in your lab.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) views 5G as an important technology and plans to make significant investments. The DoD also wants to support 5G startups. As part of these initiatives, the DoD is holding an event titled "NSIN STARTS presents: Navy & Marine Corps 5G". In this event, there will be a series of keynote presentations outlining the DoD's 5G strategy. In addition, 10 startups will be providing their pitch in an effort to win a $50,000 award. Aarna.ml was fortunate enough to be chosen to compete. The event is next week on October 27, 2020 from 10:00AM to 5:00PM PDT.

The above startups have been asked to explain how they solve one of four 5G problems: autonomous vehicles, sensor suites, 5G relay, and other 5G enabled technology. We will present how the Aarna.ml Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform (AMCOP) produdct solves the 5G relay problem. In the 5G relay problem, the DoD "seeks to dynamically extend the reach of static 5G infrastructure through mobile 5G relay nodes." In reality, all 5G problems need orchestration, lifecycle management, and automation of network services and edge computing applications; however, in this problem, more so than others, needs a fully automated solution. Imagine setting up a 5G network in the field with manual steps that for example require kubectl commands. That's simply not going to happen and that's where AMCOP comes in!

Please support us by joining the event.