HPE integrated infrastructure and Red Hat OpenShift for Ericsson dual-mode 5G core

Deploying a cloud-native 5G Core is about much more than installing network functions. 

Communications service providers need applications, a cloud-native platform, compute, networking, storage, automation and lifecycle operations to work together as one production environment. Each technology layer may be proven independently but bringing them together - and making sure they continue to work together as technologies evolve - can require significant engineering effort. 

That is exactly the challenge HPE and Ericsson set out to address. 

Last year, HPE and Ericsson announced a collaboration and established a joint validation environment focused on Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core running on Red Hat OpenShift and HPE infrastructure. 

Since then, engineering teams across the companies have worked together to integrate, test and validate the different layers of the solution. 

Today, that work has progressed from collaboration and lab validation to an officially released, validated deployment model for Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core on Red Hat OpenShift and HPE infrastructure. 

The solution was architected, integrated, and validated within the broader HPE Telco Cloud Suite framework, which provides a repeatable approach for developing and validating telco cloud infrastructure with ecosystem partners. 

Why validation matters 

Cloud-native architectures give service providers greater flexibility and technology choice, but they also introduce integration considerations across multiple independently evolving technologies. 

Compute must be configured for demanding control-plane and user-plane workloads. The network fabric needs to provide the required performance and resiliency. The container platform needs to be correctly deployed and configured. Infrastructure configuration must remain consistent across sites, and upgrades need to be coordinated across the different layers. 

Finding interoperability or configuration issues during a customer deployment can mean additional engineering work, reconfiguration and delays. 

The objective of the HPE and Ericsson engineering effort was therefore straightforward: identify and resolve as much of that complexity as possible before the solution reaches the customer environment. 

The teams validated the interaction between the major solution components and established a repeatable approach for bringing together the compute, networking and cloud platform required by Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core. 

Bringing the technology layers together 

The validated solution brings together several complementary technologies. 

• Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core provides the cloud-native network functions and associated application lifecycle capabilities. 
• Red Hat OpenShift provides the Kubernetes-based cloud-native platform used to deploy, scale and manage Cloud. 
• HPE provides and integrates the infrastructure foundation, including HPE ProLiant Compute, HPE networking, storage integration, infrastructure automation, deployment capabilities and lifecycle services. 

Together, these technologies provide a tested foundation on which service providers can deploy Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core without having to start the infrastructure integration process from scratch for every project. 

From a reference architecture to a customer environment 

Validation alone is only part of the story. 

Every service provider has different capacity, resiliency, security and site requirements. A repeatable architecture therefore cannot mean a one-size-fits-all deployment. 

The approach combines a validated foundation with customer-specific design and configuration. 

HPE can assess site readiness - including infrastructure prerequisites such as power, cooling, networking and logistics - and adapt the architecture to the customer's requirements. Infrastructure can be integrated and preconfigured before shipment, followed by deployment and configuration of Red Hat OpenShift and validation of platform readiness for Ericsson dual-mode 5G Core. 

This creates a structured path from design and sizing through integration, deployment, validation, operational handover and lifecycle support. 

Making repeatability part of the architecture 

Repeatability becomes particularly important as service providers expand across multiple sites or introduce new software and infrastructure releases. 

Infrastructure-as-code, template-driven configuration and network automation can help reduce manual device-by-device configuration, maintain consistency and limit configuration drift. 

HPE infrastructure automation capabilities and intent-based networking provide a way to apply this approach across the infrastructure lifecycle - not only during the initial deployment, but also as the environment evolves. 

The goal is to move away from treating every deployment as a new integration project and toward an engineering model where a validated foundation can be adapted and reused. 

A faster path to operational 5G Core 

For service providers, the value ultimately comes down to four things: reducing integration effort, identifying potential issues earlier, improving deployment consistency and simplifying lifecycle operations. 

A pre-validated and repeatable approach can shorten the journey from infrastructure design to an operational cloud platform. It can also reduce the amount of customer-specific integration and rework required during deployment. 

And the work does not stop with a single release. As Ericsson, Red Hat and HPE technologies evolve, the same engineering and validation approach can be applied to subsequent releases, helping maintain a tested foundation over time. 

For HPE and Ericsson, that represents an important progression: from collaboration to joint engineering, to a validated deployment model that can be used as the foundation for real customer deployments. 

Open technology. Coordinated integration. A faster path to operational 5G Core.