OpenStack: Implementing 5G Telecommunications and beyond

Hello Folks, Welcome back to Learnizo Global. As we move towards 5G in telecommunication technologies and services offered by it, a lot of network infrastructure needs to be upgraded, migrated, and installed. This is required to support new and advanced use cases as standardized by the 5G communication technology. Apart from Infrastructure, a lot of operational issues like orchestration, service management, interoperability, and FCAP management need to be taken care of. This article will provide you an insight on implementing a cost-effective and agile way to deal with the current requirements of the industry. In this article, we will understand the basics of OpenStack (Sometimes referred to as NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) OpenStack), a free open-source software platform for IaaS (Infrastructure as service) cloud computing and its implementation. We will also have an overview of OpenStack Landscape and OpenStack Architecture

Cloud Computing and Cloud Service models

Let’s quickly understand Cloud computing and Cloud service models. Cloud computing consists of applications and services moved from local computing deployments to somewhere into the Internet “Cloud”.

Cloud deployments offer a virtualized environment where resources are scalable on-demand. Outsourced services are accessed through the Internet using common protocols and networking standards.

Cloud computing (e.g. Amazon, Rackspace, Google) companies build large data centers to sell low-cost and scalable storage and computing. Service Providers and other companies move their applications and services to the cloud. Cloud computing offers two major advantages for Cloud providers and end-users (service providers).

a) More efficient usage of resources: Virtualization enables sharing of physical services, storage, and networking capabilities across different users. Such shared infrastructure enables multi-tenancy, making the most of the available infrastructure. This results in lower costs for computing and storage. b) High scalability: provision of services can be based on current demand requirements. Such dynamic provisioning can be done automatically using software automation for dynamic scaling. It results in the possibility to dynamically expand/contract the required service.

What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center, all managed and provisioned through APIs with common authentication mechanisms.

A dashboard is also available, giving administrators control while empowering their users (Service Providers) to provision network resources and services through a web interface.

Beyond standard infrastructure-as-a-service functionality, additional components provide orchestration, fault management, and service management amongst other services to ensure the high availability of user applications.

Started as a joint project of Rackspace Hosting and of NASA in 2010, OpenStack today is supported and managed by the OpenStack Foundation, which is composed of more than 500 companies (e.g. VMware, CISCO, Citrix, Oracle, Ericsson, IBM, etc)

OpenStack Landscape OpenStack is broken up into services to allow service providers to plug and play components depending on their needs. The below OpenStack map gives you an overview of the OpenStack landscape to see where those services fit and how they can work together.

OpenStack Architecture

OpenStack runs on top of commodity computers (no particular hardware is required). The software platform is installed and runs on top of the host operating system (e.g. Linux OS, Windows OS) in order to create a distributed “cloud operating system”. Such cloud operating system supports the creation of different Virtual Machines (or Containers) which can be connected through Virtual Networks.

Nodes running the OpenStack software are configured to form a single instance combining together computing and storage. Nodes are usually connected through a high-speed local area network. In an instance, at least a node is configured as a controller which is in charge of coordinating OpenStack functions and managing the resources available to the instance. Other nodes are configured as compute nodes that offer computation and storage resources to virtual machines (or Containers). The controller node exposes a web dashboard to allow users and administrators to manage Virtual Machines (or Containers) and allocate Compute, Storage, and Networking to them. Each service composing OpenStack exposes a set of REST APIs (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces) to allow automatic management directly from external applications.

Using open technologies as the foundation for certain software-defined networking (SDN) and NFV frameworks means those technologies are more driven by community standards. The use of standard, open-source technology is enabling large operators and enterprises to tap into a wide range of open development models and tools to speed up development and lower costs.  This allows companies to deploy more cloud technology with scale and agility.

The main drivers of OpenStack adoption, according to a research user survey by the OpenStack Foundation, are the ability to increase operational efficiency, to remain competitive by innovating faster, and to save money.

In our next article, we will have an overview of the OpenStack services. Till then stay safe and happy learning with Learnizo Global.