onramp/overview.rst

Overview
----------------

Aether is an open source 5G edge cloud connectivity service that
supports enterprise deployments of Private 5G. Aether's architecture
is described in a companion book; this guide references sections of
that book to fill in details about Aether's design.

.. _reading_private5g:
.. admonition:: Further Reading

   L. Peterson, O. Sunay, and B. Davie. `Private 5G: A Systems
   Approach <https://5g.systemsapproach.org>`__. 2023

Source code for all the individual components that comprise Aether
(e.g., AMP, SD-Core, SD-RAN, SD-Fabric) can be downloaded, and
deployment artifacts built from that source code (e.g., Docker Images,
Helm Charts, Fleet Bundles, Terraform Templates, Ansible Playbooks)
can be used to bring up a running instance of Aether on local
hardware. (See the *Source Directory* section of this guide for
information about where to find the relevant repositories.)

A multi-site deployment of Aether has been running since 2020 in
support of the *Pronto Project*, but that deployment depends on an ops
team with significant insider knowledge about Aether's engineering
details. It is difficult for others to reproduce that know-how and
bring up their own Aether clusters.  Aether is also available as two
self-contained software packages designed to support developers
working on individual components.  These packages are straightforward
to install and run, even in a VM on your laptop, so they also provide
an easy way to get started:

* `Aether-in-a-Box (AiaB)
  <https://docs.aetherproject.org/master/developer/aiab.html>`__:
  Supports developers working on SD-Core and AMP.

* `SDRAN-in-a-Box (RiaB)
  <https://docs.sd-ran.org/master/sdran-in-a-box/README.html>`__:
  Supports developers working on xApps and the ONOS-based nRT-RIC.

Note that these two packages do not include SD-Fabric, which depends
on programmable switching hardware. Readers interested in learning
more about that capability (including a P4-based UPF) should see the
Hands-on Programming appendix of our companion SDN book.

.. _reading_pronto:
.. admonition:: Further Reading

   `Pronto Project: Building Secure Networks Through Verifiable
   Closed-Loop Control <https://prontoproject.org/>`__.

   `Hands-on Programming (Appendix). Software-Defined Networks: A
   Systems Approach
   <https://sdn.systemsapproach.org/exercises.html>`__. November 2021.

As a tool targeted at developers, AiaB and RiaB support a streamlined
modify-build-test loop, but a significant gap remains between these
self-contained versions of Aether and an operational 5G-enabled edge
cloud deployed into a particular target environment. `Aether OnRamp
<https://github.com/opennetworkinglab/aether-onramp>`__ is a
re-packaging of Aether to address that gap. It provides an incremental
path for users to:

* Learn about and observe all the moving parts in Aether.
* Customize Aether for different target environments.
* Experiment with scalable edge communication.
* Deploy and operate Aether with live traffic.

Aether OnRamp begins with a *Quick Start* deployment similar to AiaB,
but then goes on to prescribe a sequence of steps a user can follow to
deploy increasingly complex configurations. These include both
emulated and physical RANs, culminating in an operational Aether
cluster capable of running 24/7 and supporting live 5G workloads.

Note that OnRamp includes support for bringing up a 4G version of
Aether connected to one or more physical eNBs, but we postpone a
discussion of that capability until a later section. Everything else
in this guide assumes 5G.

Aether OnRamp is still a work in progress, but anyone
interested in participating in that effort is encouraged to join the
discussion on Slack in the `ONF Community Workspace
<https://onf-community.slack.com/>`__. A roadmap for the work that
needs to be done can be found in the `Aether OnRamp Wiki
<https://github.com/opennetworkinglab/aether-onramp/wiki>`__.