HPE and Intel launch open source programme to simplify 5G rollouts

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has launched a new open-source programme, called Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative, to help telecom companies simplify the management and roll out of 5G network infrastructures across geographies.

The project was launched in collaboration with technology company Intel, and supported by industry players such as Red Hat, Tech Mahindra, World Wide Technology, AMI Power and Apstra.

Read: HPE launches as-a-service portfolio for open 5G network requirements 

HPE will launch the commercially-supported version of the open-source programme, along with the associated plug-in components, in the second quarter of 2020.

While 3G and 4G networks are built on proprietary systems, 5G standards require open-source platforms that can utilise commercial off-the-shelf servers, HPE said. 

“5G and edge computing industry initiatives will require large-scale and geographically distributed multi-vendor infrastructure deployments that can only be cost effectively realised with infrastructure-as-code automation,” Claus Pedersen, vice president of telecom infrastructure solutions at HPE, said.

Pedersen said that the new open-source project would help tackle network scalability challenges and avoid vendor lock-ins through multi-vendor infrastructure deployments. It would also help companies roll out a centralised fault and configuration management system as well as aggregate information that is resource-specific, he said.

HPE and Intel also announced another open-source project under the Linux Foundation to further develop the initiative. It will help its ecosystem partners deploy automated management of their networks, they said.

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As telecom companies have begun to deploy industrial internet of things (IoT), and introduce higher levels of automation and distributed data analysis, other industries that use these technologies can also benefit from the Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative, HPE said.