What’s new in SUSE ATIP 3.1?

October 15, 2024 | By: Andrés Valero

In the telecommunications industry, edge computing is driving the future of real-time, low-latency data processing. From supporting 5G networks to enabling network functions virtualization (NFV), Telcos require a cloud-native platform that delivers unmatched flexibility, scalability, and security.

Today, we’re excited to announce ATIP 3.1 powered by SUSE Edge, the latest evolution in edge computing designed specifically for the demanding needs of telecommunications. This release brings enhanced integration, and critical features to support the growing demands of modern Telecom infrastructures.

Why SUSE ATIP?

SUSE ATIP is a cost effective solution for CNF/VNF deployments, decoupling the hardware from the software and certified for the main hardware providers in the Telco space.

Streamlined Operations: Unify cloud architecture for any telco and non-telco use case across bare metal, private and public cloud. Implement zero touch operations to increase efficiency.

Carrier grade security and observability: Collect and analyze data in real time from a single pane of glass to improve visibility and enhance user experience. Implement zero trust security models. New and improved observability capabilities.

Minimize Deployment Risks: SUSE’s edge-optimized Linux and Kubernetes technologies, paired with world-class support and consulting services, help you simplify edge infrastructure deployment while minimizing risks.

Key Benefits of SUSE ATIP for Telco

Scalable 5G Deployments: As the demand for 5G continues to grow, this platform provides Telcos with the tools to manage and scale networks efficiently, even in low-latency and high-performance environments.

Zero-Touch Provisioning: Use GitOps workflows and Cluster API to provision bare-metal infrastructure with zero-touch provisioning, perfect for automating deployments at scale.

Strong collaboration with Sylva Project: SUSE and Orange are leading the way with Sylva Project becoming the standard for EU based Telecom companies setting up technology standards based on open source software and making ATIP the commercial implementation. As an example we can see Orange Telco Cloud CaaS based on ATIP.

Edge Image Builder: This feature enables you to build and ship complete images, including advanced OS tuning and deployment, Kubernetes (RKE2/K3s), and applications in a single raw or iso image.

Architecture and components of SUSE ATIP

SUSE Edge leverages a robust suite of open-source technologies, with Linux as the operating system, Kubernetes as the platform for applications, and Rancher for management.

The platform’s architecture is divided into two main parts:

Management Stack: Controls downstream clusters, manages applications using GitOps, and provides tools for logging, monitoring, and observability.
Runtime Stack: Composed of workload clusters distributed across multiple locations, all managed by Rancher Prime.

SUSE Edge 3.1 basic architecture and components.

Key components in SUSE ATIP/Edge 3.1:

SUSE Edge 3.1 components

Versions of the platform’s main components:

SLE Micro 6.0
Edge Image Builder 1.1
Rancher 2.9.1
RKE2/k3s 1.30.3
NeuVector 5.3.3
Longhorn 1.7.1

MetalLB 0.14.8
Akri 0.12.20
CAPI Core 1.7.5
Metal3 0.8.1
SUMA 5.0

Release Components

What’s new in SUSE ATIP 3.1?

The focus of this release has been improving integration, and maintainability in general. Check out the new features:

Extended Lifecycle: SUSE Edge 3.1 offers up to 24 months of combined solution lifecycle, providing longer-term support.

SLE Micro 6.0: Ships with new features such as real-time kernel live patching, cloud init support for cloud providers, enhanced arm and SoC integration and improved SELinux support.

Edge Image Builder (EIB) 1.1: SUSE Edge now ships with an updated version of EIB, now supporting SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0, building Arm aarch64 images (tech preview), additional security functionalities

, improved build caching, enhanced network configurations amongst many other new features.

Observability powered by StackState. Rancher Prime now comes with new observability capabilities provided by StackState (technology preview for Edge).

Full stack upgrade automation for GitOps workflows, in this release with the integration of Rancher Turtles the workflow and usability for CAPI improves and lowers the adoption barrier. Also, a new dedicated lifecycle/upgrade controller is introduced.

Updated SLE Micro Images: Edge Image Builder generates up-to-date images for SLE Micro, streamlining OS and Kubernetes deployments.

DHCP-less Networks: Support for deployment via Metal3 in DHCP-less environments, using declarative network configuration.

Enhanced Edge Stack Validation: SUSE’s engineering team has introduced new testing procedures to ensure validated designs that lead to improved architectures.

Improved UI for Validation Results: Access validated design results through a more user-friendly interface, simplifying the process of consulting and using the best architectures. – https://ci.edge.suse.com

Conclusions

ATIP 3.1 is designed to meet the needs of modern telecommunications companies by providing scalability, reliability, and flexibility for critical 5G and NFV workloads. With deeper integration of improved GitOps workflows, and support for DHCP-less environments, this release helps Telco operators to simplify their cloud-native journey at the edge.

Ready to explore the next generation of telco platforms? Learn more about SUSE ATIP 3.1 and how it can transform your business, come and talk with our team at Kubecon NA 2024 in Salt Lake City and Kubernetes on Edge Day. Or come participate and be hands-on with our experts at Rancher Day 2024.