2025 Predictions: Open Networking & Edge
By Arpit Joshipura & Ranny Haiby
‘Tis the season…for next year’s predictions, and a quick look back at the success and challenges of 2024 (as well as our yearly “report card” on how our past year’s predictions landed). This year saw its fair share of highs and lows as the LFN Collaboration Hub really took flight, and we are poised for another year of collaborative innovation in 2025. Read below for a look at where things are headed and how we did in 2024:
- Domain Specific AI and Open Datasets Sharing will dominate real work in Networking AI: Predictive AI and SLM will be applied to many aspects of designing and maintaining networks. The availability of data will become a key factor for success and the open source community will have an opportunity to expand to data sharing and innovation platforms.
- The transition to cloud-native network automation will accelerate. Open source projects will help create new and more efficient ways to automate deployment and operation of networks that are designed to leverage the benefits of the cloud-native ecosystem.
- Open source software would be a platform for RAN innovation. The transition to the next generation will be more gradual this time, and open source Radio Access projects, especially for CU/DU will be a crucial enabler, lowering the bar for research and commercial product offerings.
- Network service providers will use open source technologies to create new revenue streams – Easy to consume APIs will accelerate the adoption of new services. Projects like CAMARA will enable this new type of monetizing service provider assets. Edge Infrastructure for AI will be another new type of offering, orchestrated and managed by open source technology.
- AI workloads for vertical industries will drive demand for true AI Edge. Considering the cost and scarcity of resources required for AI training and inference, Vertical industries like manufacturing will look to optimize where data is stored and workloads are executed. Constraints like data privacy, energy and cost will dictate a device-edge-cloud continuum for running AI and data workloads. Edge and Networking open source projects will be in the forefront of providing the necessary frameworks and connectivity solutions.
Grading 2024 Predictions: A Report Card
Now we’d like to look back at last year’s predictions for 2024 and take an honest assessment of where things fared:
- AI as an Underlying Horizontal Framework
- Grade: A
AI has indeed become integral across industries, with focused, domain-specific applications gaining traction, especially in telecommunications and edge computing.
2. Increased Importance of Open & Neutral Governance
- Grade: B
While there has been a visible push for open governance, challenges persist in maintaining neutrality and avoiding single-vendor dominance. The progress has been positive but uneven across regions and projects.
3. Progression of Open RAN and Emergence of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN)
- Grade: B
Open RAN advancements are significant, and NTNs are emerging, but adoption and real-world implementations are still in their early stages. Progress has been steady but slower than hoped.
4. Transformation to Cloud-Native Networks
- Grade: A
The industry has clearly embraced cloud-native architectures, with Kubernetes-based solutions and CI/CD approaches becoming standard. This prediction aligns closely with actual developments.
5. Adoption of Multi-Cloud Coupled with Edge & IoT
- Grade: A
The shift to multi-cloud environments integrated with edge and IoT has been well-realized, with seamless connectivity across various edge layers becoming the norm in many industries.
Overall Assessment:
We did pretty well, with the majority of last year’s predictions for 2024 closely matching industry trend that came to fruition, with a few areas showing room for accelerated development. Now let’s see how things shake up in 2025!
