Many mobile operators are now in the process of migrating their infrastructures towards more open platforms in the backhaul, core and even RAN domains using various technologies such as disaggregation, network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN). And some are just starting to move on from NFV to the more modern and agile cloud-native platforms, which implement network functions as containerized microservices rather than virtual machines. The migrations are being driven by competitive forces, including hoped for capex cost savings, flexibility, freedom of vendor choice, future-proofing and speed of deployment. In theory, 5G should allow a clean break from legacy but in practice there will be coexistence at various levels for some time, especially in the RAN and at…