Originally reported by Ericsson. Original announcement date: February 2020.
Overview
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Japanese communications service provider KDDI have successfully demonstrated a cloud-native CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) pipeline for KDDI’s standalone 5G Core network. The demonstration marks a significant step forward in the automated, high-velocity delivery of software features for production-grade telecommunications infrastructure.
Why CI/CD Matters for 5G Core Networks
Traditional telecoms software delivery is slow and manual, often taking months to move a new feature from development into a live network. This lag is increasingly problematic as 5G drives demand for rapid service innovation. The challenges are compounded by the complexity of modern telco environments, which frequently combine multi-vendor products, real-time applications, and stringent availability requirements.
Legacy delivery mechanisms — built around monolithic, hardware-centric architectures — are poorly suited to the containerised, cloud-native workloads that underpin standalone 5G Core. A modern CI/CD pipeline addresses this mismatch by treating network software delivery with the same automation and discipline applied in cloud-native software engineering.
What the Pipeline Does
The Ericsson–KDDI solution is a cross-organizational, end-to-end CI/CD pipeline that spans the boundary between Ericsson’s product development units and KDDI’s operational environment. Key characteristics include:
- Container-based deployment: Network functions are packaged as containers, enabling consistent and repeatable rollout across environments.
- Zero-touch software promotion: Software flows from Ericsson’s development pipeline into KDDI’s network without requiring manual handoffs or human intervention at each stage.
- Automated validation and feedback: The pipeline automates software distribution, deployment, validation, and feedback loops, reducing the risk of human error and accelerating the acceptance process.
- Support for network slicing and distributed functions: Simplified workflows make it easier for KDDI to deploy complex sliced and geographically distributed network functions.
Measured Impact
According to Ericsson, the pipeline reduces software time-to-market from months to weeks. Beyond speed, the automation layer maintains the high quality and availability expected of a production 5G Core network — a critical requirement given that 5G services underpin latency-sensitive and mission-critical use cases.
From Virtualised to Cloud-Native Network Functions
The pipeline is designed to handle the full evolution of network function delivery: from traditional virtualised network functions (VNFs) through to fully cloud-native network functions (CNFs). This architectural progression is central to standalone 5G Core, where functions such as the AMF, SMF, and UPF are expected to run as microservices on Kubernetes-based infrastructure, scaling dynamically with traffic demand.
By building CI/CD automation that spans this transition, KDDI and Ericsson position themselves to continuously deliver improvements without the disruptive, infrequent upgrade windows that characterise legacy telco operations.
Industry Significance
For DevOps practitioners, this collaboration illustrates how CI/CD principles — long established in web and enterprise software — are being adapted for the constraints of telecommunications: strict SLAs, regulatory requirements, real-time traffic, and multi-vendor integration complexity.
The ability to automate software promotion across an organisational boundary (vendor to operator) without breaking network quality is a non-trivial engineering achievement. It requires shared pipeline tooling, agreed-upon contract testing, and automated rollback capabilities — all of which are active areas of development within the ETSI NFV and CNCF Telecom User Group communities.
“Our market-leading 5G core and unique CI/CD capabilities mean faster time-to-market, higher performance and cost efficiency. Agile delivery of services while maintaining high quality and availability is a must in 5G Core networks. Our CI/CD end-to-end software pipeline achieves this. We are happy to continue to work with KDDI to automate their network operation.”
Jan Karlsson, Head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson
Key Takeaways
- Cloud-native CI/CD pipelines can reduce 5G Core software delivery cycles from months to weeks.
- Container-based packaging and zero-touch deployment are foundational to achieving this at telco scale.
- Cross-organisational pipelines require both technical integration and agreed operational contracts between vendor and operator.
- Automated validation and feedback loops are essential for maintaining network quality during rapid delivery cycles.
- The KDDI–Ericsson model provides a reference point for other operators evaluating DevOps adoption for 5G Core.