Deprecate and archive Free5GC Usecases

[efiacor]

The Free5GC use-case components and associated e2e test suite no longer have the support required to continue ongoing maintenance in Nephio.

The proposal is to move towards the OAI use-case, which has more potential for future support and ongoing maintenance.

Impacts:

Archive the following repos:

• https://github.com/nephio-project/free5gc

Remove the following e2e test suites:

• https://github.com/nephio-project/test-infra/tree/main/e2e/tests/free5gc

Remove the related documentation:

• https://docs.nephio.org/docs/guides/user-guides/usecase-user-guides/exercise-1-free5gc/

[vjayaramrh]

It would be good to list out the points where support is missing. Thanks

[efiacor]

It would be good to list out the points where support is missing. Thanks

• The free5GC repo has not been touched since March 2024 (On my birthday in fact :D)
• The controllers dependencies and go version are out of date and possibly vulnerable.
• The version of free5GC being used is from July 2022
• The specialization and configuration required for the NFs is overly complex and difficult to maintain without domain knowledge.
• The gtp5g module required only supports Ubuntu 20.04

There prob is more but quite a few there.

[gvbalaji]

I support this move for the following reasons.

• We have already demonstrated multi vendor solution. Right now we don't have cycles or engineers to manage multiple of them.
• We don't have support for free 5gc where as we have all the support for OAI
• We have not kept up to date with free5gc
• Going forward we can demonstrate capabilities on OAI only. ( for example transport use cases, SA use cases)

It's a choice we are making based on project's priorities, resource constraints , and maintenance aspects

[efiacor]

@gkumar78 @gvbalaji @liamfallon

Prelim list of work items:

Nephio Free5GC

Non exhaustive list

• Upgrade go version and dependencies
• Upgrade docker base and builder versions
• Upgrade free5gc version
• Upgrade and verify MakeFiles
• Update OWNERS file to relevant state
• Project was originally built using operator sdk. This should still work as expected.
• Verify testing is ok.
• Update the gotests image used in prow jobs.
• Preferably use the gotests image for relevant make targets
• Verify docs are still relevant and update accordingly.

Nephio pkg catalog

• Check if any updates are require on the free5gc pks

Nephio test-infra

Non exhaustive list

• Investigate the hard dependency on Ubuntu 20.04 for the required gtp5g module
• If possible, move free5gc e2e prow jobs to use a later ubuntu vm
  https://github.com/nephio-project/test-infra/blob/main/prow/config/config.yaml#L1865
  https://github.com/nephio-project/test-infra/blob/main/.prow.yaml#L122

[NMSVishal]

Hi @efiacor ,

My teammate Sanju can work on the above given work items.

Shall we start working on it ?

[efiacor]

Hi @NMSVishal ,
Yes we discussed with @gkumar78 regarding creating an new Issue with associated tasks to track the work. @gkumar78 also mentioned that this may not be achievable for R5 release, but if work can begin that would be good.

[gkumar78]

Hi @NMSVishal , it would get Great if your team can start off on these changes.

I have added a new Issue #931 to group the tasks needed to move to latest version of Free5GC. Divided all the needed activities (that I could envision for now) into 5 independent tasks; you are free to pick up any based on your availability. Not sure if they can be broken down any further; as there are inter-dependencies.

[NMSVishal]

Hi @gkumar78 ,

Thanks for the update, we have updating the free5gc codebase as per the migrate plan given in the issue 931.

We will update you if anything is needed ,thanks in advance.

[gkumar78]

Great @NMSVishal. I have divided the whole Free5GC upgrade to 5 subtasks under Issue #931. Please assign all the tasks in-progress in your name so as to avoid duplicate effort by anyone else.

[NMSVishal]

@gkumar78 , I am not able to assign it to myself , can you please assign to the sanjujunnuthula.

[gkumar78]

@NMSVishal , I also don't have rights to assign task. Also, don't see sanjujunnuthula in Nephio organization; please get him added. Once done, he should be able to assign the task himself.

Also, please check which of the Free5GC related tasks would you like to assign to sanju.