Question: How can open source accelerate the development of 5G?
Mishra: We have to empower the application developer and figure out a way to build use cases, so operators will have to attract developers, and the best way to do that is open source.
On the infrastructure side, can we have a 5G core network, an open source project, that can really be the de facto standard for core networks globally? Who would distribute it unless companies like Red Hat do it? You get the best stuff for free, but somebody has to make it into a product, so we are looking at it as an opportunity.
Open source enables innovation, but if it is not adopted at scale then people will lose interest, so operators have a major role. If they have to commit to open source builds and invest in labs, they have to commit to testing open source software, which will make it mainstream.