Mobile central office re-architected as a datacenter (M-CORD)

Mobile central office re-architected as a datacenter (M-CORD) is an open source platform enabling 5G mobile networks, which is built on software defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV) and cloud technologies. It includes virtualized Radio Access Network (RAN) and virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) to enable mobile edge applications and services. The reference implementation of the M-CORD is based on commodity servers, white-box fabric switches, disaggregated access technologies and open source software providing virtualization techniques.

M-CORD provides three important functions: disaggregated / virtualized RAN, disaggregated / virtualized EPC, and mobile edge services. It has three main components: 1) OpenStack, a datacenter management platform providing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) capability, 2) ONOS (Open Network Operating System) controlling the white-box fabric switches and managing the virtual networks for OpenStack services, and 3) XOS (Anything-as-a-Service Operating System) assembling different kinds of services.

It’s still an on-developing open-source project, and has some important functions not covered or well-developed in their recent releases. Some open problems existing in M-CORD are shown as follows:

• The virtualized BBU is not implemented in the current framework. It relies on the commercial company named Cavium to provide this function and the terminal emulator;
• The implemented EPC only contains virtualized SGW and PGW. Another commercial project NG4T provides the vMME functions.