Sylva Project Announces Long-Term Vision for Scalable, Cloud-Native Telco Infrastructure

BRUSSELS, Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sylva Project, hosted at Linux Foundation Europe, is taking a significant step towards shaping the future of telecommunications. As 5G continues to expand and 6G technologies emerge, Sylva's long-term vision focuses on developing a cloud-native, scalable, and energy-efficient Telco Cloud infrastructure that will meet the evolving demands of modern telecom services. This infrastructure will support technologies such as Open RAN, edge computing, and AI-driven networks.

A governance board composed of industry leaders, including Deutsche Telekom, Red Hat, Orange, Telefónica, Telecom Italia, and Vodafone, is working to define a reference architecture for the Telco Cloud. This architecture aims to overcome the scalability and operational efficiency challenges faced by telecom operators while addressing the growing focus on sustainability.

Addressing Key Challenges for the Telecom Industry

Telecom providers are confronted with the challenge of modernizing their networks, many of which still rely on legacy hardware and non-cloud-native software. Sylva's solution includes:

• Optimizing Telco Cloud infrastructures for greater scalability and energy efficiency, ensuring that networks can meet the demands of 5G and future 6G technologies.
• Promoting sustainability by developing tools to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of network operations.
• Incorporating cutting-edge hardware, such as DPUs and GPUs, to improve performance and enable AI-based network management.

While Sylva's focus is on addressing the needs of 5G networks, its forward-thinking approach ensures that its infrastructure will support emerging technologies like 6G and AI-driven services.

Collaboration with IT and Open Source Communities

Sylva is built on collaboration, working closely with the IT industry and open source communities to develop standards and tools that will shape the future of telecom infrastructure. This collaborative approach ensures that Sylva's infrastructure is aligned with the broader ecosystem's needs.

AI Integration for Future Networks

With AI becoming a critical component in telecom network management, Sylva is integrating AI technologies to optimize network operations, enhance resource allocation, and enable predictive maintenance. Sylva's use of AI and small language models will play an important role in future network management.

Sustainability and Security as Key Focus Areas

Sustainability and security are central to Sylva's long-term vision. The project is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of telecom services, particularly as edge computing becomes more prevalent. Additionally, Sylva is incorporating comprehensive security measures to ensure the integrity and safety of its cloud-native infrastructure.

Release of Sylva v1.2

Sylva is also preparing to release v1.2. This update introduces key enhancements aimed at improving scalability and performance, particularly in containerizing workloads and optimizing cloud-native operations for telecom operators.

Looking Ahead: A Unified Infrastructure for Telecom and IT Workloads

Sylva's long-term goal is to create a flexible infrastructure that supports both traditional telecom functions and modern IT workloads. By integrating the latest AI, serverless computing, and hardware innovations, Sylva aims to become a key enabler of the next generation of digital transformation in the telecom sector.

For more insights into Sylva's vision, read the full whitepaper.

Supporting quotes

"I'm glad to see that Sylva continues to deliver at a regular pace, bringing significant additional features and including some for the telco & IT convergence.

This release goes one step further towards our production requirements and deployments over our international footprint."  - Guillaume Nevicato, Orange Telco Cloud Product Manager and TSC Co-Chairman of the Sylva project

"While Sylva continues to deliver these new releases, the project also puts its focus on a longer term view and how it should evolve in the future where new challenges arise. There is still some time until 6G will be deployed, but the time should be spent wisely to close the gap of the fast evolving IT cloud technology and the NT space and eventually open the game for a true conversion."  - Kai Steuernagel, VP Cloud Technology, DEUTSCHE TELEKOM AG.

Media Contact:
Federica Nocerino
The Linux Foundation
fnocerino@linuxfoundation.org

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