The v1.5 software update to Aether, the ONF’s open source private 4G/5G managed service platform, was recently released. Aether is blazing forward with secure, scalable and cost effective private 5G connectivity for Industry 4.0 applications such as IoT and machine to machine (M2M) communications.
Furthering the evolution of Aether since its launch a year ago, the focus of this release is support for the 5G SD-Core, which includes:
- A redesign of Aether modeling, workflows, and API.
- Integration of the 5G SD-Core into Aether.
- Update of the 4G SD-Core for compliance with the 5G Aether API.
- 5G Core being used with 5G-SA disaggregated RAN components (CU/DU/RU).
New Features and Improvement Highlights
4G and 5G Connectivity Service Improvements
Aether supports mobile/cellular connectivity using both the 4G and the 5G SD-Core. The 4G modeling used by Aether-1.0 has been replaced with newer modeling that unifies the 4G and 5G cores in a single modeling abstraction.
Device Grouping and Network Slicing
To isolate groups and manage traffic, Aether v1.5 supports a Network Slicing abstraction where similar connected devices can be aggregated together into a Device-Group, and different Device Groups can be allocated to different network slices (Virtual Connectivity Service - VCS).
Aether Portal
The portal integrates both control of the Aether Network and metrics reported by Aether components in a single pane of glass with multi-tenancy separation.
Role-Based Access Control
These access controls are used in the Aether Portal to limit which enterprises a portal user is allowed to view or modify.
Learn More
The Aether project is in the "Incubation Phase" under the ONF Member-Only Software License, which grants ONF members access to the project repositories. Please review the ONF Member-Only Software License, License Overview, and Licensing & IPR FAQ before requesting access. Members wishing to gain access should contact membership@opennetworking.org.
