Aether is an open source 5G edge cloud platform that supports enterprise deployments of Private 5G. Information about Aether (a Linux Foundation project) can be found on the project website. An introduction to the Aether architecture can be found in a companion book:
Further Reading
L. Peterson, O. Sunay, and B. Davie. Private 5G: A Systems Approach. 2023
:doc:`Aether OnRamp </onramp/overview>` 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:
- :doc:`Developing for Aether </developer/roc>`: Learn how to contribute back to Aether.
- :doc:`Runtime Operations </operations/gui>`: Learn how to operate Aether's 5G connectivity service.
- :doc:`Test Automation </testing/about_system_tests>`: Learn how Aether components are tested.
Note that Aether was originally deployed as a centrally-managed cloud service with a dedicated ops team. The expectation was 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 :doc:`OnRamp </onramp/overview>`.
| [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 builds on two main subsystems: SD-Core (a 3GPP-compliant cloud native Mobile Core) and SD-RAN (an O-RAN compliant near Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller, or nRT-RIC). Additional documentation for each is available at:
A third component, ROC (Runtime Operational Control), is part of the
Aether Management Plane. This Guide documents how operators use ROC to
control Aether (see the NAV bar). ROC builds on µONOS (specifically
the onos-config microservice), with additional documentation for
developers available at:
More information about 5G and Aether's architecture can be found in the :doc:`Private 5G: A Systems Approach <sysapproach5g:index>` book.
Information about participating in the Aether community and development process can be found on the Aether Wiki.