The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced to open source its Private 5G connected Edge Cloud platform Aether and related component projects SD-Core, SD-RAN and SD-Fabric under the permissive Apache 2.0 open source license.
It is claimed to be the first open source 5G Connected Edge platform for enabling enterprise digital transformation. Aether provides 5G mobile connectivity and edge cloud services for distributed enterprise networks. Aether represents a complete, open 5G solution, addressing RAN through Core, democratising availability of a robust and complete software-defined 5G platform for developers.
Aether’s component projects – 4G/5G dual-mode cloud native mobile core, SDN P4 Programmable Networking Fabric and Open RAN implementation with RIC and xApps has also been open sourced.
ONF said it is easy to get started using Aether Private 5G. Aether can be deployed by developers on a laptop using Aether-in-a-Box, a simple pre-packaged end-to-end development environment including RAN through mobile core.
By making such a complete solution available in a footprint that can run on a laptop, developers can get started with minimal friction. Developers can then organically grow the test deployment at their own pace into a fully disaggregated production-grade deployment, including production-grade RAN radios, disaggregated UPF edge processing and cloud-native mobile core.
“This makes it easy to get started with Aether, while assuring developers that Aether can scale to meet the needs of even the most demanding commercial applications,” ONF siad in a release.
