Traditionally, Telecom operators would buy equipment from the vendors that would be deployed to offer telecom services. Recently, there is a substantial change in this approach, where the networks are built using open interfaces. There are often open source implementations of these open interfaces. In this talk we explore this landscape, looking at FOSS projects in this space.

We start with a basic discussion of the network architecture for 5G. Discussing the functions that are performed by the Radio Access Network and Core Network. We then discuss in details about the ORAN-SC (Open RAN Software Community - a Linux Foundation Project) platform for the Radio Access Networks in the 5G.

I will also be speaking about my own work in this project and complementary projects. Further we discuss opportunities for Open Source software and some of the projects where developers can contribute.

Also, I will present a case for developing the next generation telecom networks using modern, safe programming languages, especially because this is a core infrastructure component of any modern society and discuss some of my work there.