Session abstracts

Traditional automation can’t deliver results at the speed of the rapid evolution of modern networks. With so many modern techniques and possible approaches to automation including event-driven automation—including event-driven automation, GitOps, AIOps, and others—how can these techniques coexist? And how do we start this journey?

In this session, we will discuss open source patterns and architectures that can be used to start the evolution toward autonomous networks while maintaining the stability required by our current services.

Speakers:

• Vodafone Oman - Pramod Chinchunsure, Head of Technology Operations
• Intel - Vinodh Raghunathan, Director Commercial OS/CaaS Readiness - Intel Network and Edge Group
• Cisco - Omar Sultan, Director, Product Management, Automation + AI
• Red Hat - Hanen Garcia, Global Telco Solutions Manager

The quest to continue modernizing and evolving hybrid cloud environments spans across numerous technologies and touches upon almost every aspect of architecture. Programmable networking, adaptable and scalable resource allocation, network slicing, service orchestration, and AI are some of the approaches being taken to virtualize and cloudify 5G network functions across the entire network, from core to edge deployments.

This panel discussion will detail some use case examples like smart scaling for telco datacenters using predictive analytics, the migration of workloads to multicloud environments, cloud bursting and redundancies, and more.

Speakers:

• Intracom - Nikos Anastopoulos, Technology Management Partner, Office of the CTO
• Tech Mahindra - Manish Mangal, Global Business Head, 5G and Network Services
• Red Hat - Volker Tegtmeyer, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Global Telco

The telecommunications industry is well on its way to full digital transformation. However, diverse technologies (5G, broadband networks), geographies, and operational domains (network, transport, cloud, RAN) each present unique challenges requiring specialized automation solutions. TM Forum® Open APIs and architectures enable end-to-end automation workflows that effectively take advantage of AIOps Insights to create intelligent "actionable generative AI" self-healing automation systems.

In this session, we will dive into the DarkNOC catalyst project—a network operations center that operates solely on technology without human intervention—and will explore other successful deployments using GenAI and/or open APIs for NetOps.

Speakers:

• IBM - Jason Hunt, Distinguished Engineer
• AT&T México - Arturo Barraza López, Director of Network Technology and Innovation Labs
• Iquall Networks - Hernan Gonzalez, Innovation Manager
• Red Hat - Francisco Poo Hernandez, Senior Telco Solutions Architect

In this session, customers and partners will share their latest 5G SA core deployment experiences and best practices, and discuss the importance of observability, automation, and lifecycle/application management strategies. We will explore how AI can accelerate the pathway to the delivery of additional services.

Speakers:

• TELUS - Jérôme Birot, Vice President, Telco Cloud and Wireless Core Services
• One New Zealand - Poohmipat (Art) Sripukdee, Principal Architect
• Red Hat - Rimma Iontel, Chief Architect - Global Telco

To deliver an enhanced experience, telecommunication service provider radio access networks (RANs) are becoming more distributed, spanning across locations from traditional centralized datacenters to distributed locations out at the network edge.

In addition to an evolving architecture, service provider RANs are being moved to cloud-native network functions (CNFs) that utilize container-based architectures and microservices. Many network equipment providers (NEPs) are refactoring their RAN network functions to become open, in order to take full advantage of these new technologies, such as increased resource utilization, resiliency, and portability. RANs are also becoming open, giving service providers the ability to further disaggregate RAN network functions for and incorporate flexibility in how they design, build, and operate their access networks.

In this session learn how Red Hat is collaborating with key NEPs to ensure successful RAN deployments on a carrier-grade application platform that delivers the lowest latency and highest performance. This panel discussion will also outline how the RAN is taken to the next level with automation and zero touch provisioning and operations to accelerate service delivery and mitigate risk through consistent and compliant configuration management.

Speakers:

• Nokia - Aji Ed, Head of Cloud RAN
• Mavenir - Brandon Larson, SVP and GM, Cloud, AI & IMS
• Dell - John McCready, Product Management
• Red Hat - Shujaur Mufti, Senior Manager, Global Partners Solution Architecture, Telco 

The traditional telco business model built on connectivity subscriptions is no longer sufficient. Technology players are winning due to their rapid deployment cycles, superior software skills, and global scale, resulting in much slower growth rates for telco revenues compared to global internet giants. To remain competitive, telcos must transition to techcos—organizations that must run both an infrastructure business (an infraco) and a service innovation business (a servco) within the same company.

In this panel session, STL Partners will share their latest research findings, cover the six tenets to a successful transition, and lead an interactive discussion with telcos who are in the midst of transitioning to techcos.

Speakers:

• Colt Technology Services - Tom Moran, Technology and Sustainability Researcher and Consultant
• STL Partners - Chris Barraclough, CEO
• Red Hat - Lisa Littlefield, Principal Product Marketing Manager

During this fireside chat, Red Hat and Avanseus will discuss the importance of linking AI to observability, automation, and remediation strategies to ensure high-performing and resilient 5G networks for a seamless customer experience.

Speakers:

• Avanseus - Rajendra Panda, Co-founder
• Red Hat - Rob McManus, Principal Product Marketing Manager

In this session, Red Hat and Kove will explore the critical role of software-defined memory (SDM) in addressing the growing demands of AI workloads. They’ll discuss how integrating Kove™ with Red Hat® OpenShift® enhances performance, reduces energy consumption, and lowers costs, all while providing the flexibility needed for scalable AI infrastructure.

Speakers:

• Kove - John Overton, Founder and CEO
• Red Hat - Bill Wright, Edge AI Technology Evangelist

Public cloud is an easy way to augment capacity for applications. With the ability to elastically scale up/down and in/out, it provides a mechanism to add capacity during failure or to meet the surging demand of subscribers/consumers for Telcos. However, designing such capabilities also means CNFs and the infrastructure are able to handle different traffic patterns and scenarios. Stitching together multi-cluster and multi-cloud capabilities to ensure services scale across footprints and workload is balanced employs not only infrastructure management but also distributed CNF deployment and management.

This fireside chat discusses how you can build a DR (disaster recovery) solution or augment capacity on demand for mobile voice using ng-voice IMS stack, lower the overall cost footprint for redundancy solutions, and add value by introducing new capabilities or use cases leveraging the public/hybrid cloud models.

Speakers:

• ng-voice - Azhar Sayeed, CTO
• Red Hat - Mark Longwell, Director, Telco and Edge Alliances, Hybrid Platforms Business Unit

In this fireside chat, VodafoneZiggo will share their telco transformation journey including their  latest 5G SA core deployment experiences and best practices.

Speakers:

• VodafoneZiggo - Wouter Bouvy, Product Owner Cloud Native Core Platform
• Red Hat - Rimma Iontel, Chief Architect - Global Telco

In this fireside chat, Samsung Networks and Red Hat discuss the crucial role the partner ecosystem plays in the future of Open RAN—and how collaboration can accelerate deployments and improve operational efficiency in this dynamic landscape.

• Samsung Networks - Alok Shah, Vice President of Strategy, Business Development, and Marketing for the Networks Business at Samsung Electronics America, Samsung Networks
• Red Hat - Ather Chaudhry,  Senior Director, Global Telco Partner Solution Architects

During this session, Red Hat and Ericsson look ahead to the future of telecom networks—exploring emerging trends, challenges, and how the partner ecosystem is critical in driving success across the industry.

• Ericsson - Peter Linder, Head of Thought Leadership North America
• Red Hat - Ather Chaudhry, Senior Director, Global Telco Partner Solution Architects