Aricent, a global design and engineering company, announced an Open Source collaboration with CableLabs^®, a non-profit innovation and R&D lab founded by members of the cable television industry, on a self-managed and optimized virtual infrastructure platform on the Kubernetes and the Docker container model.

The adoption of containers and virtualization technology in the data center has proven to dramatically lower the cost of operations, accelerate service delivery, and meet heightened customer expectations. According to a recent report by Dell'Oro Group, network function virtualization (NFV) and related cloud-native technologies are laying the groundwork for future 5G services by providing the necessary network resilience and agility¹.

However, cable operators still find it challenging to deploy the latest “cloud-native” technologies because of the operational complexity associated with configuring and maintaining an array of software-defined infrastructure. In addition, new services such as streaming video, gaming and entertainment or industrial IoT applications, depend on highly differentiated network, compute and storage requirements.

With the SNAPS^TM-Kubernetes platform, MSO’s can adopt a de facto standard container model for network functions and microservices in the head-end, and developers can consume a managed platform that abstracts away complexity so they can on-board innovative and cloud-based applications without the hassle.

“We believe in contributing to Open Source communities because it’s the basis for more decentralized value creation that will accelerate innovation,” said Walid Negm, Chief Technology Officer at Aricent. “Successful Open Source projects need a community, so in 2017 we worked with CableLabs, the cable industry and ultimately the OPNFV project. With this latest Kubernetes platform, we are delivering more choice for cable companies and cable equipment manufacturers. They can hit the ground running with cloud-native systems, dramatically cut operating costs and secure new sources of revenue.”

Source: Aricent media announcement