Canonical and OpenAirInterface to collaborate on Open RAN

Canonical is excited to announce that we are collaborating with OpenAirInterface (OAI) to drive the development and promotion of open source software for open radio access networks (Open RAN). Canonical will bring automation in software lifecycle management to OAI’s RAN stack, alongside additional infrastructure capabilities. This will better enable telcos to adopt open source software as the telecom industry transitions to Open RAN running on COTS hardware.

We are at the beginning of both a technical and business transition in the domain of Open RAN, and Canonical is committed to promoting a full carrier-grade and open source stack for operators, network function vendors, and enterprises. Today’s announcement follows OAI’s 10th Anniversary event, which took place on 12-13 September 2024 in Sophia Antipolis/France, where Canonical delivered a keynote speech highlighting the role of open source in the industry.

“Open source is instrumental for the success of Open RAN. The OpenAirInterface Software Alliance (OSA) plays a paramount role by promoting collaboration between various companies, ensuring that their open-source software stack can be integrated with multiple hardware and software components from different vendors.“, said Dr. Cédric Gégout, VP of Product Management at Canonical during discussions after the keynote.

He concluded by mentioning that two of the biggest challenges in the 5G industry are first achieving interoperability between different vendors and systems, and second delivering secure and production-grade software that is both transparently maintained and reliable for all the actors in the Industry. OSA and actors such as Canonical ensure transparency in its code and processes, which helps identify vulnerabilities faster and ensures robust security measures are in place.

A statement from OpenAirInterface expressed the organization’s excitement at collaborating with Canonical in open source:

“OpenAirInterface community has been using Canonical tools since its inception for development, orchestration and CI/CD. Canonical plays a pivotal role in the open source cloud-native ecosystem. We are very enthusiastic about working together with Canonical towards the common goal of achieving open-source Open RAN.”

Canonical’s role towards 5G Open RAN with open source

With a mission to incubate a wider ecosystem for Open RAN and boost adoption of open source technologies in 5G RAN deployments, Canonical is involved in several tracks, focusing on different aspects of Open RAN networks running open source virtual RAN (vRAN) workloads. Some of these tracks will focus on:

• Improving user experience with software orchestration for OAI RAN software stack
• Harnessing the power of cloud-native development environments for a better developer journey
• Ensuring security and transparency along the full delivery chain
• Promoting software and hardware interoperability with lab tests on various architectures and interfaces in collaboration with hardware manufacturers
• Performance optimizations for production-grade deployments based on strong partnerships with silicon vendors

A framework for open source in Open RAN

Canonical and OAI both aim to establish an open source framework for Open RAN. One of the key elements of this framework is interoperability between various system components. This provides Canonical with a strong technical foundation to collaborate with various organizations in testing and showcasing a high-performance 5G software-defined stack, spanning from the Core Network to baseband and radio layers. This is particularly timely as multiple organizations are focusing on solutions for private mobile networks, industrial deployments, and large-scale telco 5G rollouts. Canonical’s goal is to strengthen the Open RAN industry by incubating innovation with products from various vendors offered for modern telecom RAN infrastructure.

Another key aspect of the framework is to demonstrate how various open source technology components aid users and developers in deploying and operating OAI’s Open RAN software stack. This will include software orchestration, security maintenance, cloud-native development and execution environments, all of which will be supported by various types of optimizations to achieve performance improvements. 

The initiative will integrate open source software solutions that bring extra layers of security, reliability and efficiency to OAI’s open source software stack, and provide system users and developers with a smooth experience in Day 0-2 operations. This will empower operators, enterprises, technology enthusiasts and researchers with a repeatable stack that is easy to deploy and maintain, whilst enjoying all the benefits of open source with OAI RAN stack and Canonical products.

Canonical in OpenAirInterface

Canonical joined OAI in December 2023, and it is also one of the pioneers of various initiatives that have been central to advancing open source management and orchestration solutions for telecom networks. Canonical offers open source infrastructure products for edge and central telco clouds alike, and is now expanding its portfolio to also include telecom applications and private mobile network infrastructure.