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The Oracle Communications cloud-native 5G Core is built on principles that are defined by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), with seamless integration in open-source orchestration and automation frameworks and a range of popular cloud services that are sponsored by the CNCF. Oracle’s 5G solutions are developed using DevOps principles and are designed to support zero-manual-touch management, in which the life cycle of NFs can be governed by automated CI/CD workflows.
All Oracle 5G core NFs are developed as cloud-native applications composed of a collection of microservices that run in a cloud-native environment and separate processing or business logic from state management. Microservices can be grouped into three layers:
The following figure shows the Oracle CNF architecture:
Each layer includes multiple microservices, which are deployed as Kubernetes pods in replica sets. The data management layer is implemented as an independent cloud-native database tier (cnDB) based on MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition (CGE). Each NF has a schema and a set of tables in the database tier. The same database tier can be used for multiple NFs.
Building a telecom network using authentic cloud-native solutions empowers CSPs to replicate the success of IT web-scale models, which have been proven to be agile, cost-effective, and customer-oriented. From an operational perspective, CSPs can benefit from increased automation and more efficiency gains through the adoption of agile processes. This includes continuous delivery of software, continuous deployment that is enabled by automated testing, methods to enable canary releases, end-to-end service orchestration, and, eventually, one-click procurement of slices that are deployed as a service for specific use cases and market segments.