Build a Modern, Reliable 5G Network with Kubernetes on Google Cloud

As telecommunications operators embrace cloud-native architectures, they face unique challenges in moving complex, mission-critical workloads to Kubernetes.

Standard Kubernetes networking wasn’t built for the stringent demands of telco-grade networks.

In this video, Google’s Principal Engineer Prashant Venugopal and Product Manager Abhi Mahajan explore how Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is evolving with tailored innovations to meet the rigorous demands of the telecommunications industry, from network isolation to seamless in-service upgrades.

Challenge: While Kubernetes offers agility, telco operators encounter significant hurdles when deploying containerized network functions (CNFs). These include strict requirements for traffic isolation, the complexity of managing dynamic IP addresses in a legacy environment, the operational overhead of a distributed microservices architecture, and the critical need for zero-downtime software upgrades for 5G core services.

Solution: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) addresses these challenges with a suite of innovations focused on flexibility, allowing operators to evolve to cloud-native patterns at their own pace. These solutions provide robust connectivity, persistent reachability, and rapid convergence, simplifying operations and increasing reliability for telco workloads.

Key takeaways from the session

• Standard Kubernetes networking doesn’t provide the granular multi-network support and isolation needed to meet mission-critical, hard real-time demands in telco.
• GKE bridges this gap with a telco CNI bundle (including Multus and IPvLAN) and a multi-networking API, allowing for the separation of management, control, and user plane traffic.
• To solve for persistent reachability, GKE introduces a persistent IP API for true static IP support and a GKE Route API for ECMP-like functionality, ensuring dependable connectivity for dynamic containerized workloads.
• GKE’s data plane is engineered for sub-second convergence, enabling rapid failure recovery and high availability, which directly improves end-user experience.
• The flexibility to use Multus or cloud-native multi-networking means you are not tied to a single architecture, providing multiple options for your journey to the cloud.