Has virtualization become obsolete in 5G?

Sat Aug 1 14:33:08 UTC 2020

On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 7:21 AM Etienne-Victor Depasquale <edepa at ieee.org>
wrote:

> The surprise for me regards Intel's (and the entire Cloud Native Computing
> Foundation's?) readiness to move past network functions run on VMs
> and towards network functions run as microservices in containers.
>
> See, for example, Azhar Sayeed's (Red Hat) contribution here
> <https://www.lightreading.com/webinar.asp?webinar_id=1608>@15:33.
>

Be careful not to confuse vendors pumping stuff with whats actually
deployed.

Also, AT&T has been doing virtualization for nearly 10 years now, so
perhaps you were just not paying attention

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/at-t-target-for-virtualizing-75-its-network-by-2020

Not sure it has helped ATT in any meaningful way, their stock price  is the
same it was in 2015.

> Cheers,
>
> Etienne
>
> On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 2:35 PM Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 1/Aug/20 11:23, Etienne-Victor Depasquale wrote:
>>
>> Over the past few weeks, I've attended webinars and watched videos
>> organized by Intel.
>> These activities have centred on 5G and examined applications (like
>> "visual cloud" and "gaming"),
>> as well as segment-oriented aspects (like edge networks, 5G RAN and 5G
>> Core).
>>
>> I am stunned (no hyperbole) by the emphasis on Kubernetes in particular,
>> and cloud-native computing in general.
>> Equally stunning (for me), public telecommunications networks have been
>> portrayed
>> as having a history that moved from integrated software and hardware,
>> to virtualization and now to cloud-native computing.
>> See, for example Alex Quach, here
>> <https://www.telecomtv.com/content/intel-vsummit-5g-ran-5g-core/the-5g-core-is-vital-to-deliver-the-promise-of-5g-39164/> @10:30).
>> I reason that Intel's implication is that virtualization is becoming
>> obsolete.
>>
>> Would anyone care to let me know his thoughts on this prediction?
>>
>>
>> In the early dawn of SDN, where it was cool to have the RP's in Beirut
>> and the line cards in Lagos, the industry quickly realized that was not
>> entirely feasible.
>>
>> If you are looking at over-the-top services, so-called cloud-native
>> computing makes sense in order to deliver that value accordingly, and with
>> agility. But as it pertains to actual network transport, I'm not yet sure
>> the industry is at the stage where we are confident enough to decompose
>> packet forwarding through a cloud.
>>
>> Network operators are more likely to keep using kit that integrates
>> forwarding hardware as well as a NOS, as no amount of cloud architecting is
>> going to rival a 100Gbps purpose-built port, for example.
>>
>> Suffice it to say, there was a time when folk were considering running
>> their critical infrastructure (such as your route reflectors) in AWS or
>> similar. I'm not quite sure public clouds are at that level of confidence
>> yet. So if some kind of cloud-native infrastructure is to be considered for
>> critical infrastructure, I highly suspect it will be in-house.
>>
>> On the other hand, for any new budding entrepreneurs that want to get
>> into the mobile game with as little cost as possible, there is a huge
>> opportunity to do so by building all that infrastructure in an on-prem
>> cloud-native architecture, and offer packet forwarding using
>> general-purpose hardware provided they don't exceed their expectations.
>> This way, they wouldn't have to deal with the high costs traditional
>> vendors (Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, Siemens, ZTE, e.t.c.) impose. Granted, it
>> would be small scale, but maybe that is the business model. And in an
>> industry where capex is fast out-pacing revenue, it would be the mobile
>> network equivalent of low-cost carrier airlines.
>>
>> I very well could be talking out the side of my neck, but my prediction
>> is mobile operators will be optimistic but cautious. I reckon a healthy mix
>> between cloud-native and tried & tested practices.
>>
>> Mark.
>>
>
>
> --
> Ing. Etienne-Victor Depasquale
> Assistant Lecturer
> Department of Communications & Computer Engineering
> Faculty of Information & Communication Technology
> University of Malta
> Web. https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale
>
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