HPE sidles up to the open networking movement with a new 5G lab

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has unveiled the HPE 5G Lab, which is designed to accelerate adoption of open, multivendor 5G solutions.

The US is especially keen on opening up the networking vendor scene since it decided Huawei was the devil incarnate, so US tech companies are wise to jump on board that train. The likes of Intel, IBM-owned Red Hat and Microsoft-owned Metaswitch have already announced support for HPE’s initiative, along with European vendors Nokia and Openet.

“Governments and telecoms operators around the world are looking to open 5G technologies as an opportunity to move away from a number of vendors which have raised fundamental concerns around security, resilience and market diversification,” said Phil Mottram, GM of Communications and Media Solutions at HPE.

“However, despite multiple successful deployments, doubts still persist about the ability of open 5G technologies to truly replace the old way of building networks. With the launch of the HPE 5G Lab, telcos, solution vendors and national stakeholders can test innovative new solutions with confidence and ensure that they are ready for mass adoption.”

Apparently keen to avoid treading on the toes of the Open RAN ecosystem, HPE stressed that the initial focus of the 5G Lab will be to bring innovation to the previously monolithic cellular network core. This should be especially attractive to software vendors that have made openness a core part of their product strategy.

“Red Hat is excited to continue our work with HPE to advance open source technologies and principles to help organizations look to deploy their next generation 5G networks,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, global VP of vertical industries and accounts at Red Hat. “With the integration of our industry leading container platform, Red Hat OpenShift, to the HPE 5G Core Stack and the new HPE 5G Lab, businesses can be empowered to test, innovate and build on an open cloud-native infrastructure.”

“Open systems are key to 5G,” said Niall Byrne, VP of Network Strategy at Openet. “Openet is very proud to work with HPE and their 5G partners in the HPE 5G Lab to show how a best of breed, open systems approach is the best way to deliver 5G networks and supporting ecosystems.”