Applying Cloud native principles to all layers of network infrastructure, applications and services as put forth from the NGMN:
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https://github.com/cncf/cnf-wg/blob/main/doc/whitepaper/Accelerating_Cloud_Native_in_Telco.md
Figure 2-1 from "Cloud Native Infrastructure" by Justin Garrison and Kris Nova (ISBN: 9781491984307)
Pre-Validation. Historically, Network Functions have been developed and pre-integrated with well-defined infrastructure, which was known in advance. That pre-validation was done by a Network Function vendor and the system was delivered as a validated/certified bundle together with performance and stability guarantees. In the cloud native world, there are too many permutations which makes it impractical to follow the traditional certification path. However, Cloud Native Network Function (CNF) vendors are still sticking to it by picking a small number of opinionated infrastructure flavors (different from vendor to vendor!) to pre-validate against, making any infrastructure outside this selection too complicated, too costly, and too slow to deliver for CSPs. This creates problems in the adoption of those CNFs as CSPs generally prefer to each have a unified cloud native infrastructure layer, which they are free to choose and often it can differ from the opinionated infrastructure already validated by the CNF vendors.
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Fragmentation of all layers and a need for change in the deployment model
This is a list of modified challenges based on a Sylva article. This Cloud Native Telecom program can be part of solving these solutions.
- Sharing CaaS and physical resources among different applications to reduce wasted compute power with CAPEX and energy impacts
- Complexity for vendors trying to provide multiple cloud platform support
- Operational burdens on Telcos as the different “islands” will need different skills and will evolve at different speeds
- Solutions that can evolve with the necessary speed of cloud native
"if the Telco industry continues with its traditional deployment model then fragmentation is inevitable for the deployment of applications that mandate the use of proprietary CaaS (Container as a Service) and even specific physical compute." https://the-mobile-network.com/2022/11/why-the-eu-big-five-are-launching-sylva/
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