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Telco core and RAN DU reference design specifications

The telco core reference design specification (RDS) describes OKD 4 clusters running on commodity hardware that can support large scale telco applications including control plane and some centralized data plane functions.

The telco RAN RDS describes the configuration for clusters running on commodity hardware to host 5G workloads in the Radio Access Network (RAN).

Reference design specifications for telco 5G deployments

Red Hat and certified partners offer deep technical expertise and support for networking and operational capabilities required to run telco applications on OKD 4 clusters.

Red Hat’s telco partners require a well-integrated, well-tested, and stable environment that can be replicated at scale for enterprise 5G solutions. The telco core and RAN DU reference design specifications (RDS) outline the recommended solution architecture based on a specific version of OKD. Each RDS describes a tested and validated platform configuration for telco core and RAN DU use models. The RDS ensures an optimal experience when running your applications by defining the set of critical KPIs for telco 5G core and RAN DU. Following the RDS minimizes high severity escalations and improves application stability.

5G use cases are evolving and your workloads are continually changing. Red Hat is committed to iterating over the telco core and RAN DU RDS to support evolving requirements based on customer and partner feedback.

Reference design scope

The telco core and telco RAN reference design specifications (RDS) capture the recommended, tested, and supported configurations to get reliable and repeatable performance for clusters running the telco core and telco RAN profiles.

Each RDS includes the released features and supported configurations that are engineered and validated for clusters to run the individual profiles. The configurations provide a baseline OKD installation that meets feature and KPI targets. Each RDS also describes expected variations for each individual configuration. Validation of each RDS includes many long duration and at-scale tests.

The validated reference configurations are updated for each major Y-stream release of OKD. Z-stream patch releases are periodically re-tested against the reference configurations.

Deviations from the reference design

Deviating from the validated telco core and telco RAN DU reference design specifications (RDS) can have significant impact beyond the specific component or feature that you change. Deviations require analysis and engineering in the context of the complete solution.

All deviations from the RDS should be analyzed and documented with clear action tracking information. Due diligence is expected from partners to understand how to bring deviations into line with the reference design. This might require partners to provide additional resources to engage with Red Hat to work towards enabling their use case to achieve a best in class outcome with the platform. This is critical for the supportability of the solution and ensuring alignment across Red Hat and with partners.

Deviation from the RDS can have some or all of the following consequences:

  • It can take longer to resolve issues.

  • There is a risk of missing project service-level agreements (SLAs), project deadlines, end provider performance requirements, and so on.

  • Unapproved deviations may require escalation at executive levels.

    Red Hat prioritizes the servicing of requests for deviations based on partner engagement priorities.