Distributed Telco cloud Architecture – Part 1 – Server & Switch design

The deployment topology for 5G core and RAN architecture commonly used by Communication Service Providers (CSPs) can be realized by building the data center and network infrastructure based on hierarchical layers.

In this blog I’ll give a brief commentary about the server and physical design.

Lets us assume in our lab we have Central Site, Regional Site & Cell Site. Then it is important to understand the physical switches configuration between the sites & vLANs configured on switches.

Lets look at a sample diagram below

Here we have 4 server hosts at Central & Regional site as a best practice recommendation. These hosts are added in the cluster. Cell Site hosts are added as individual hosts. These servers are connected to two physical switches at each site. The physical switches are interconnected with each other as shown. The Cell Site hosts are additionally connected to RU switch for PTP connectivity.

vLANs needs to be configured on switches for Server/ESXi management, vMotion, vSAN for platform management and specific network interfaces required for Core/CU/DU workload components and PTP connectivity.

Lets look at the sample vLANs needed (Note: As per your design vLANs will change)

Please note above is a sample list of vLANs and actual list in your lab will change as per your workloads and design.

Hope this data helps in initial server & switch configuration of your lab.