5G is transforming the telecom industry with rapid expansion. Usage of COTS servers and cloud native methodologies are key enablers for growth. Multi-tenant behavior of the 5G infra-structure is going to become common place. Mission critical functionality will co-exist with 3rd party applications on the same hardware, mandating security at multiple levels. Near-Real time RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) is one such 5G module which will require the latest cloud native development and secure infrastructure. In this talk, we will demonstrate the 5G O-RAN component on Arm infrastructure and its importance within the 5G space, as well as discuss the potential effects of using an opensource component and its reduction in costs and increased customizability.

An exciting aspect of 5G is the use of xApps. These allow for models and other services to modify configurations to optimize for the best performance. Since xApps play a critical role with the potential to modify configurations, Kata is the perfect runtime to protect these important assets. Kata secure VM technology isolates critical functions from xApps, sandboxing all RIC services. In addition to the currently provided security features of Kubernetes, Kata becomes an easy yet effective measure and large impact on infrastructure integrity. Although Kata brings many benefits in security, additional layers of protection reduce performance. We will discuss the merits and deficits of the potential security benefits over vanilla Kubernetes and why Kata and Arm is a winning combination.