By now it’s clear that Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are facing considerable competition from a new breed of market entrants. To make matters worse, these new players are not playing by the same rules, or are held to the same standards, as those who have provided reliable services to all of us for decades.  With today’s field of play tilted in favor of these new players, what are the communication service provides to do to remain competitive as 5G comes into play?

In short, the answer lies in being open to new approaches and architectures, like cloud-native, that is part of the way networks are becoming virtualized.

While the first wave of virtualization was focused on reducing costs and increasing performance, the second wave has taken us toward cloud-native architectures that can be universally deployed.  But we aren’t done yet.

We believe that in order to effectively take advantage of these new approaches, CSPs should keep in mind three main areas:

• Cloud-Native architecture
• Open Source technology
• Telco-grade functionality

Cloud-Native Architectures and Open-Source Technology

When cloud-native architectures are coupled with open-source technology, the benefits are becoming even more profound. Specifically, cloud-native architecture that leverages open-source systems are allowing CSPs to move forward using standardized methods in this new era of building networks that are carrier-grade.

Telco-Grade Functionality

When embarking on this new approach the importance of being “Telco-Grade” should not be overlooked.  Telecom networks have stringent requirements in the areas of interoperability, latency, service delivery, and policy management that must be addressed when building a next-gen 5G mobile core.

To be successful, several things must be accounted for, including:

• Support for Multi-Network Interfaces – to support container environments
• Data Plane Acceleration – to provide the performance that will be required by 5G workloads
• Integrated Network Probing – to provide analytics and real-time data without impacting performance
• Integrated Workflows – to allow efficient creation of new service creation
• Topology and Environmental Awareness – to handle the unique topologies (edge/core) of telecom networks

What it Means for Communication Service Providers

By deploying a cloud-native platform that leverages open source technology and delivers web-scale performance, speed and simplicity, CSPs can move confidently with their transformation, while keeping themselves open to all the possibilities and opportunities that 5G will provide.

To learn more about how Affirmed Networks can support CSPs in this area, read our recent paper, “An Open Approach to Building 5G Networks.”