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Journey of NgKore and Aether SD-Core

By May 15, 2025No Comments

Contributed by NgKore.

NgKore is an open-source community led by a group of passionate researchers, engineers, and professionals working to advance the future of 5G Advanced and 6G technologies. Our work spans a wide range of focus areas, including O-RAN, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), AI/ML integration, Post-Quantum Cryptography adoption, blockchain integration, and cloud-native telecom infrastructure.

At the heart of NgKore is a commitment to openness and interoperability. We actively contribute to replacing proprietary hardware and closed systems with open-source software, enabling vendors, operators, and developers to innovate without being locked into specific solutions. Our team shares complete end-to-end deployment guides, technical insights, and demonstration videos to help others build and scale open telecom systems. 

Our Journey with the Aether/SD-Core Community

NgKore’s engagement with open-source 5G began through practical experimentation with platforms such as Magma, Open5GS, Free5GC, and OpenAirInterface (OAI). As our research progressed, we evaluated a range of 5G core implementations for their real-world applicability, scalability, and cloud-native design. Among them, Aether/SD-Core emerged as the most production-ready platform—offering advanced features like Network Slicing, DPDK-SR-IOV and CNDP integration, and Dynamic Scaling capabilities.

Following extensive lab testing, we adopted Aether SD-Core as the foundation for several of our advanced R&D workflows. We integrated it with real radios, COTS UEs, and O-RAN components, validating its robustness in complex, large-scale deployment scenarios. These efforts were documented and shared through a series of technical demonstrations and walkthroughs, including:

We successfully integrated Aether SD-Core with open-source RAN solutions such as OAI and SRSRAN, and tested it with commercial O-RUs from LiteON, Benetel, and Accton, alongside various COTS UEs. Additionally, we performed extensive testing with simulators like UERANSIM and gNBsim, and used PacketRusher to simulate thousands of UEs – benchmarking system performance under high-load and failure conditions.

Leveraging Charmed SD-Core, we achieved user plane scaling through Canonical’s Juju charms. Our team is now actively working on control plane scaling, aiming to build a fully elastic and cloud-native 5G core. We have also validated UPF operation in both AF_PACKET and DPDK with SR-IOV modes.

As part of our continued contribution, we proposed our open-source project HEXAeBPF to the LFN 5G Super Blueprint. HEXAeBPF is an interoperable eBPF-defined 5G Core (eDC) Kubernetes operator that enables seamless integration between multiple eBPF-based UPFs (such as eUPF, OAI-UPF-eBPF, BPF-UPF) and open-source 5G core solutions including Aether SD-Core.

Future Work

Looking ahead, we are expanding our focus on cryptographic resilience in telecom systems. We have implemented Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) over Aether/SD-Core—specifically on the SBI and other 3GPP-defined interfaces—and proposed this work under our open-source project QORE to the LF Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA). This effort supports the growing need for quantum-safe, future-ready telecom infrastructure.

About NgKore

NgKore Infrastructure and Funding

NgKore is a non-profit research community founded by university researchers and engineers, sustained entirely through self-funded, bootstrapped efforts. Our progress is made possible through strong collaborations with academic institutions and industry partners, who support us with access to advanced testing infrastructure and resources.

Collaboration and Community Engagement

At NgKore, we believe that open innovation thrives through collaboration. Our community actively engages with global open-source foundations and research alliances to co-develop the future of telecom and network infrastructure. As members or associate members of leading open-source and standards organizations—including the Magma Foundation, OpenAirInterface (OAI), LF Connectivity, Open Infrastructure Foundation (OIF), TARS Foundation, NextArch Foundation, and the PKI Consortium—we maintain strong ties with the global open networking community. In addition, we are actively associated with initiatives such as the LFN Super Blueprint (SBP), Hyperledger, LF Decentralized Trust (LFDT), Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA), O-RAN Software Community (OSC), Nephio, L3AF, OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation. We also collaborate closely with industry partners to ensure our work remains grounded in real-world challenges and opportunities.

Through these collaborations, we share technical knowledge, contribute code, participate in working groups, and support broader efforts to create secure, scalable, and future-ready network solutions. Our involvement extends beyond code—we advocate for openness, diversity, and community-driven progress across the open-source ecosystem.

Over the years, NgKore has hosted and participated in numerous technical events, talks, and meetups to support open-source education and collaboration. Notable engagements include:

NgKore 6G Research Lab

Our primary research facility, the 6G Research Lab, is based at the University of Delhi and serves as a hub for experimentation in 5G Advanced, 6G, and edge technologies. The lab houses a mix of COTS and high-performance servers, more than 14 radios (including SDRs and commercial O-RUs), multiple COTS UEs, PTP switches, GNSS receivers, high-speed NICs, and hardware accelerators.

In addition to core telecom infrastructure, the lab supports experimentation across emerging verticals with AR/VR/XR headsets, drones, HoloLens, robotics, and IoT devices. This enables us to validate open-source solutions in realistic, high-impact scenarios—from immersive communication and industrial automation to autonomous systems and intelligent networking.

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