As outlined in several articles in this issue, one of the great challenges of designing the new-look mobile or converged network is to make open source technologies, designed for software-defined data centers, fit for purpose even for the most performance-intensive telco functions, up to and including the RAN. That means closer cooperation between the standards effort for the 5G New Radio, and the various initiatives which aim to transform the mobile network into a virtualized, programmable, software-driven services platform to support the distributed cloud. The logic of the latter development is clear, because it will allow established or new mobile operators to expand their revenue models with rapid roll-out of new services and with flexible network-on-demand options. However, they still…