Continuous change requires continuous deployment.
For mobile network operators, the pace of change has never been faster than it is now. From the newest iPhone features to 5G SA and network slicing to fixed wireless access, mobile networks are required to be more dynamic than ever. Quarterly software upgrades and batch releases are no longer adequate for networks that are meant to enable and support new business cases for operators and their customers.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) is the model operators are adopting to create robust networks that can keep pace with customer demands. Continuous integration combines software assets from multiple suppliers as well as open-source code and bespoke configurations. Continuous delivery is the steady provision of software functions and features which are available for testing or activation, either in a lab, a staging environment, or production environment through automated deployment. With CI/CD and DevOps, operators create a consistent loop of planning, coding, building, testing, releasing, operating and monitoring network software functions. Feedback from each stage flows back to earlier stages, creating a loop of continuous improvement. Automation enables teams to build, test and deliver applications reliably, consistently and securely.
CI/CD will be table stakes for network operators as they work to disaggregate their radio access networks. Some of the world’s leading mobile network operators are already exploring ways to virtualize their radio access networks (vRAN) and move baseband functions to cloud infrastructure positioned at the network edge.
“General purpose processors and software-based RAN implemented in a cloud-native architecture can now leverage industry best practices, such as CI/CD,” said Daniel Lynch, Senior Director of Marketing at Intel. “This continues the trend of moving data center and cloud technologies to the network edge, improving network operators’ TCO and end-user experience.”
Intel’s Xeon scalable processors with fully integrated acceleration enable operators to define even the lowest layers of the RAN stack in software, thereby creating opportunities to select best-in-breed software from multiple RAN vendors and offer flexible RAN-as-a-service to enterprise customers. But ongoing operation of a cloud-based, virtualized RAN will require process adaptations and technical changes. And if past is prologue, Ericsson’s pioneering work in CI/CD for RAN with leading operators globally gives them unique perspective on its challenges and opportunities for Cloud RAN.
“If you disaggregate the system with cloud RAN, you have to automate, and a way to do that is to work with CI/CD,” explained Klas Johansson, Head of Central Unit and Operations for Ericsson’s cloud RAN product line. “For Cloud RAN, we believe it will be a showstopper if we don’t get this right,” he said. “You will not be able to run cost-efficient operations of a cloud RAN network without a structured approach to how to leverage automation.”
Johansson added that a modular elastic software architecture, together with CI/CD, will enable network operators to take advantage of in-service software upgrades (ISSU) in a faster changing environment. “We start to see that there is traffic 24/7 because you have fixed wireless access, for example, and all kinds of devices, so there is basically no maintenance window any longer,” Johansson said. He highlighted security patches as an example of network enhancements that cannot wait for scheduled quarterly network upgrades and will be facilitated by CI/CD.
A virtuous cycle
Intel and Ericsson expect CI/CD to enable the operation of next-generation wireless networks, in which the RAN is disaggregated into hardware and software to boost both performance and flexibility. Once that is accomplished, cloud-based vRAN will in turn help operators leverage the many benefits of CI/CD. These include containerization of software, up-to-date security, shorter times to market, granularity of network enhancements and a removal of the error risks inherent in manual software upgrades.
Mobile network operators are learning more about containerization of software as they migrate to 5G standalone (5G SA) core networks. According to Ericsson, Kubernetes over bare metal infrastructure can unlock both capex and opex savings and will help operators take full advantage of 5G SA. After core networks move to cloud-based infrastructure, RAN can follow. Virtualized radio access networks will use CI/CD to support continuous deployment of new containerized solutions. Containers are also an efficient way to deliver security updates, another important benefit of CI/CD.
Virtualized radio access networks using CI/CD will also enable operators to deliver granular network updates much more quickly than they can with scheduled releases. Operational research suggests that in complex networks, change complexity grows exponentially with the size of the change, meaning that discrete minimal enhancements will be much less risky to the network than large periodic refreshes.
"With Cloud RAN, hardware and software are disaggregated such that you can update them independently from each other,” Lynch noted. “With cloud-native RAN, the entire software stack is also disaggregated, from the operating system to the RAN network functions and platform software services. The result is a truly unified CI/CD model across the full cloud-native RAN network hardware and software, enabling you to pick and choose what components to updated, and when to update them.”
Automation is perhaps the biggest benefit CI/CD will deliver for operators as they virtualize their radio access networks. This can ultimately eliminate the need for acceptance testing as well as the unpredictability of schedules that rely on engineers who may have many competing calls on their time, expertise and energy. “Always when there is a human factor, there is a risk for error,” summarized Johansson.
To support this cloud native RAN architecture, the RAN network software itself must be executable on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware—with or without integrated accelerators—utilizing cloud-native tools and processes to manage the software and hardware. Ericsson Cloud RAN has gained prominence as a cloud-native software solution that offers fast service delivery and scalability in networks. By designing the solution to be deployable on any site, any cloud, and any server platform, Ericsson aims to give service providers a platform to seamlessly evolve their networks toward cloud-native technologies and open network architectures.
For mobile network operators, this is the time to lay the groundwork for RAN virtualization and CI/CD. Johansson notes that operators may consider virtualizing their existing software rather than moving to cloud-native systems, but he says that in the context of CI/CD, virtualization of existing software will not provide adequate modularity or flexibility. Instead, network operators should look to cloud-native software running on bare metal infrastructure powered by general purpose processors. This environment creates the optimal framework for virtualized RAN and CI/CD.
To learn more about how cloud-native, virtualized RAN unleashes the full benefits of CI/CD, join Ericsson and Intel for their webinar, Cloud RAN and the Path to Automated CI/CD.