The Open-Source Magma Project Will Become 5G's Linux

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Magma was developed by Facebook to help telecom operators deploy mobile networks quickly and easily. The project, which Facebook open-sourced in 2019, does this by providing a software-centric distributed mobile packet core and tools for automating network management. This containerized network function integrates with the existing back end of a mobile network and makes it easy to launch new services at the network edge. Magma operators can build and augment modern and efficient mobile networks at scale. It integrates with existing LTE and newly minted 5G networks. Several Magma community members are also collaborating in the Telecom Infra Project (TIP)'s Open Core Network project group. The plan is to define, build, test, and deploy core network products that integrate Magma with TIP Open Core disaggregated hardware and software solutions.

The Linux Foundation will help oversee this new stage in Magma's organizational future. Magma will be managed under a neutral governance framework at the Linux Foundation. Arm, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, FreedomFi, Qualcomm, the Institute of Wireless Internet of Things at Northeastern University, the OpenAirInterface(OAI) Software Alliance, and the Open Infrastructure Foundation (OIF). You may ask, since Magma is already working with OIF, which is something of a Linux Foundation rival, why Magma will be working with both? Arpit Joshipura, the Linux Foundation's general manager of Networking, Edge, and IoT, explained, "Magma has gotten great community support from several ecosystem players and foundations including OIF, OAI etc. What we are announcing today is the next evolution of the project where the actual hosting of the project is being set up under the Linux Foundation with neutral governance that has been accepted by the community for a long time. OIF, OAI, and LF will work with their communities of Software Developers to contribute to Magma's core project."

Open niches.

[Ostracus]

Well this is nice if rather specialized.

Re:

[Applehu Akbar]

Actually it's the hippie mom left that thinks that 5G is affectinng their vital body fluids, but please keep spreading the meme that it's the Trumpers. That way, everyone will willingly adopt 5G without any more towers being burned.

While you're at it, please start a meme that the Trumpers hate nuclear power. That way, we can actually get the climate problem fixed, rather than being endlessly agonized over.

open sores

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

Finally, we'll get to see how 5G does it's evil virus spreading right there in the code.

Re:

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

You'll hardly. The superior nature of open source will treat the 5G virus the same as any other payload, subject to administrator's configuration.

The virus will spread accordingly, the wires and the radiowaves that carry it won't turn red, and you won't know anything until it EATS YOUR BRAINZ and turns you into a 5G ZOMBIE.

Re:

[rudy_wayne]

Bill Gates does it again [imgur.com]

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

Given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow ...

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

The patch is released .. theorem holds ... tell it to Microsoft .

Re: open sores

[BAReFO0t]

Yeah, how many years too late?
And OpenSSL (or was it OpenSSH?)?

Let's face it: *Nobody* is randomly reading code.
There are *no* eyeballs.
People only glance at code, if they want to change it.
Even a file with five functions can hide a bug in its last function for decades if people only modify the first one.

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

*enough* eyeballs ...

Re: open sores

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

Are you a pedant or have you not heard of spellcheck and it's evil ways? I'm leaving it like that. It's not how I typed it in but fuck it. People like you are a small bonus.

I don't care about 5G.

[bjwest]

How about some Bluetooth 5 support?

I thought "It's a trap!" after reading the first l

[BAReFO0t]

Facebook developing a system for telecom operators to run their communication networks with?

Now why would they do that?

Sounds to me like the obvious. They want to be paid in ... data.

Meat helmets

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"Magma"

I can never read that word anymore without hearing Dr. Evil.

No, it won't.

[Gravis Zero]

The most important part about Linux is it's community based design: best design wins. Corporations only care about functionality and design is an afterthought. If you check the Magma codebase [github.com] you can see it's already off to a bad start as sizable amounts of the project are divided between five different programming languages. This lack of consistency is typical among large corporate projects who are willing to take any shortcut needed to get the product out the door, long-term consequences be damned.

Re:

[im_thatoneguy]

6G will be out before we know it. If you take 10 years to make sure the "best" design is finished, it'll already be worthless and obsolete.

Re:

[Gravis Zero]

If you take 10 years to make sure the "best" design is finished, it'll already be worthless and obsolete.

False. It may be obsolete but it will far from worthless because it would be able to easily be adapted to the newer design. Nobody threw out Linux because it didn't support IP6, they added support for IP6. Secondly, when people are designing new things, they experiment with implementations on existing systems which is exactly how Linux got USB3 support before anything else.