Introduction

Aether is an open source 5G edge cloud platform that supports enterprise deployments of Private 5G. Information about the Aether project can be found on the ONF website, and an introduction to the Aether architecture can be found in a companion book:

Further Reading

Aether: An ONF Project.

L. Peterson, O. Sunay, and B. Davie. Private 5G: A Systems Approach. 2023

Getting Started with Aether

Aether OnRamp is now the recommended way to get started with Aether. It defines a step-by-step procedure for deploying and operating Aether on your own hardware, including support for 5G small cell radios.

Other Aether guides available on this site include:

• Developing for Aether: Learn how to contribute back to Aether.

• Runtime Operations: Learn how to operate Aether's 5G connectivity service.

• Test Automation: Learn how Aether components are tested.

Note that Aether was originally deployed as a centrally-managed, ONF-operated cloud service, with the expectation that organizations would participate in Aether by connecting their edge site to this operational deployment.[1] That service has now been deprecated in favor of users bringing up their own Aether sites using OnRamp.

[1]

The original Aether service supported the Pronto research project, with edge clusters built on top of an SDN-controlled and fully programmable switching fabric. That fabric is no longer included in Aether OnRamp.

Aether Components

Aether builds on two main subsystems: SD-Core (a cloud native Mobile Core) and SD-RAN (an O-RAN compliant, software-based RAN). Additional documentation for each is available at:

• SD-Core Documentation

• SD-RAN Documentation

More information about 5G and Aether's architecture can be found in the Private 5G: A Systems Approach book.

Community

Information about participating in the Aether community and development process can be found on the ONF Wiki. Join the discussion about Aether on Slack in the ONF Community Workspace.