WG06 Meeting minutes 19/02/2026

Agenda

• Feedback on the management of CNF dependencies versus the infrastructure
• WG06 Sylva contributions beyond the guidelines
• Kubecon / Sylva Day

Supports

• Replay
• DT CNFs versus Infra
• Orange Feedback
• Swisscom feedback

Minutes (AI generated)

The meeting focused on discussing the management of CNF dependencies versus infrastructure, with participants sharing their experiences and challenges. DT presented on the progress made with a new operator approach, while Orange and others shared feedback on the current state of CNF deployments and the challenges faced.

The group discussed the need for better documentation, standardization, and automation of CNF configurations. They also explored the potential for creating business operators and the role of orchestrators versus operators in managing network functions.

The conversation touched on the importance of collaboration with vendors and the possibility of organizing hackathons to develop common solutions. The conversation ended with a brief discussion of upcoming events and sessions at KubeCon and Sylva Day.

Next Steps

• Morgan: Bootstrap a community web form (or converge with existing Excel/YAML structure) for capturing CNF prerequisites and propose it for validation by the TSC and Working Group 2 (could be a requirements before validation by WG02).
• All: Discuss in Amsterdam the proposal for a common CNF prerequisite web form and its integration/validation in Working Group 2.
• Luis: Share telefonica feedbac during next session

Advancing CNF and Infrastructure Management

The meeting focused on feedback regarding the management of CNF dependencies versus infrastructure, highlighting issues such as manual software delivery, vendor-specific patches, and inconsistent documentation quality. DT shared progress on cluster templates and configurations, noting harmonization efforts and the integration of new operators, while emphasizing the need for further advancements in application automation and infrastructure changes. The discussion also touched on the upcoming Kubecon and Sylva Day events, with a focus on GitOps and AI as popular topics.

Challenges in CNF Deployment

The meeting focused on the challenges and progress related to the deployment and management of Network Functions (CNFs) in Kubernetes environments. DT shared updates on the migration to a new operator with stricter security rules, while Swisscom and Telefonica discussed their experiences and ongoing work with CNF integration and GitOps. Orange highlighted the need for a simpler approach to collecting CNF prerequisites, as the current Excel-based method is inefficient and often incomplete.

The discussion also touched on the complexities of working with multiple vendors, legal constraints, and the need for better collaboration between infrastructure and CNF teams to optimize resource usage and reduce overcomplicated configurations.

Vendor Security and Supply Chain Challenges

Orange discussed challenges with vendor configurations, network designs, and security access, noting that vendors often treat security as parametric and request full administrative rights, which the team refuses. Orange highlighted the need to recentralize supply chains to meet the Cyber Resiliency Act. Orange also mentioned issues with scanning images in production clusters due to performance concerns, which limits their ability to verify what is really running in terms of images.

CNF Dependency Management Challenges

The discussion focused on dependency management challenges in CNF deployments, with Swisscom sharing Swisscom's experience of using YAML configuration files and Argo workflows, which sometimes break when infrastructure versions change. The group agreed to create a community web form for representing CNF dependencies, which would be validated by Working Group 2 and potentially become a requirement for workload validation, though it would initially be used primarily for community purposes.

Sylva Roadmap and Web Form Guidelines

The team discussed two main topics:

• web form guidelines
• Sylva roadmap contribution

For the web form, they addressed cluster access restrictions, lab configuration cost reduction, and supply chain adoption guidelines.

Regarding the Sylva roadmap, they reviewed contributions from Working Group 2, including automation enablers and GitOps tools, and discussed potentially moving some open source projects from Orange Open Source to Sylva Git Repository (e.g., Istio and SDC.IO deployment intents). The team also considered unifying the format for deploying different components and planned a meeting with the main Istio contributors during kubecon to discuss financial support for upstream development.

Network Orchestration Versus Operator Approaches:

The group discussed operator approaches versus orchestrator perspectives in network function management, with Orange highlighting that while some believe in full orchestration, others prefer operator-oriented solutions. They explored the possibility of joint development initiatives for specific use cases, particularly for SwissCom, and discussed the need for a clear definition of Kubernetes operators in their context. Joel shared that SwissCom doesn't create operators for everything but finds them beneficial for business cases and MPN configurations. Organizing a hackathon to explore different optionscould be interesting.

The conversation ended with plans for future sessions, including one in March focused on infrastructure constraints, and confirmation of participation in upcoming events like KubeCon and Sylva day.