Bringing automation to open source 5G software at Ubuntu Summit 2024

In today’s massive private mobile network (PMN) market, one of the most common approaches to PMN software and infrastructure are proprietary private business solutions. However, as our recent demonstrations at the October 2024 Ubuntu Summit in the Hague showed, open source software with enterprise-grade support is a cost-effective alternative to these proprietary, closed-source business solutions. Today, open source PMN software is rapidly advancing to the quality and sophistication of private solutions, mostly thanks to the work of two prominent organizations that distribute open source software for 5G mobile networking, 5G radio access networks (RAN) and 5G mobile core networks: OpenAirInterface (OAI) Software Alliance and the Linux Foundation’s Aether SD-Core project.

End-to-end Private 5G demo at the Ubuntu Summit

At this year’s Ubuntu Summit at The Hague, Netherlands, Canonical gave a live demonstration of how open source with automation can help enterprises in their private mobile network deployments. The demo showcased successful integration of Charmed Aether SD-Core and Charmed OAI RAN, where a 5G PMN was set up with commercial 5G phones connected via a software-defined radio (SDR) as the radio front-end. The demo attracted considerable attention from the Summit attendees, who were particularly drawn by the potential impact of these two products on the private mobile networking market.

Our live installation also showcased the ability to deploy the 5G PMN as disaggregated components. This included the control and user plane separation (CUPS) capability of Charmed Aether SD-Core.

Automation in 5G networking software lifecycle management 

Outside of our live installation, building private 5G mobile networks has long been a difficult and time-consuming task that presents major obstacles to engineers and start-ups. Two of the most common barriers to the adoption of 5G private mobile networks are the inherent complexity of mobile networking software, which requires deep domain knowledge in mobile networking, and a lack of expertise in cloud-native software operations as needed by 5G software components. The problem with this is that most enterprises either don’t need such a high level of complexity in their deployment or lack the expertise and specialist staff to do it themselves. They just want a 5G solution to operate and manage their PMNs, from a simple system that doesn’t require expensive hires or extremely in-depth technical ability. Such a network must also be efficient, secure and performant, whilst delivering a superior connectivity experience for business devices and user equipment, as opposed to what traditional wireless solutions like WiFi can achieve.

Canonical’s Telco Engineering team has been working to make the experience in deploying and operating a 5G mobile network simple and frictionless by means of automation in software lifecycle management. Thanks to Canonical Juju software orchestration engine and pre-integrated observability, Charmed Aether SD-Core and Charmed OAI RAN now have open source automation to make it simple to deploy a 5G PMN on general-purpose servers running Kubernetes. This provides a cost-effective, secure and performant solution to any enterprise that wants to own its dedicated private mobile network serving its business sites exclusively.

The impact

Private mobile networks can truly be a viable alternative to traditional wireless connectivity solutions and justify additional technology investment by enterprises only if they can deliver on a few crucial criteria. These include:

• Cost-efficiency
• Simplicity in deployment and operations
• Superior communications quality, reliability and security
• Future-proof long-term stability with a mechanism to deliver seamless updates and upgrades

Thanks to open source software and software automation, Charmed Aether SD-Core and Charmed OAI RAN are designed to address these requirements. Cost reduction in deployment and operations along with simplicity in system management are key enablers for a smooth technology transition by businesses. With a cost-effective solution, businesses can confidently deploy their own mobile networks on-site and boost their business operations, whilst ensuring data privacy and system security.

What’s next?

Canonical’s Telco Engineering team will continue to deliver more advanced and comprehensive system demonstrations in Ubuntu Summit events with added features to showcase what open source can achieve in telecommunications. Stay tuned to our further news and updates on telecom software in private mobile networking with Charmed Aether SD-Core and Charmed OAI RAN.

Give it a try!

If you would like to test and try a 5G network on your own, check out our documentation pages for how you can deploy and operate a cloud-native 5G core network and Open RAN radio stack with automated open source software, and tell us about your experience. Whether you are an expert in mobile networks or beginning your journey by taking your first steps into this technology domain, we would like to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Contact us

To learn more about how you can achieve a cost-efficient private mobile network with our Charmed Aether SD-Core open source product, contact our team here. Canonical provides a full stack for your telecom infrastructure. To learn more about our telco solutions, visit our webpage at ubuntu.com/telco.

Further reading

Introducing Charmed Aether SD-Core: Automated open source 5G mobile core network

Canonical and OpenAirInterface to collaborate on open source telecom network infrastructure

What is Open RAN?