LG Uplus announced that it has jointly developed a 'Software Development Kit (SDK),' a software development platform for automatic 5G network control, with domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers Cowiver and HFR.

SDK is a program that enables the development of 'SDN (Software Defined Networking),' which is software capable of centrally controlling and managing various network equipment. By using it, software that can automatically control 5G equipment can be created.

As the variety of equipment continues to increase every year, telecommunications companies are actively utilizing SDN to centrally integrate and control complex network equipment and manage it systematically.

However, since the protocols for creating such equipment control software are not publicly available, there are many cases where SDN cannot be properly applied to equipment from domestic small and medium-sized developers. From the perspective of telecommunications companies, controlling only equipment from major manufacturers is limited, which naturally leads to reduced network management efficiency.

Accordingly, LG Uplus released the first SDK in Korea, a development tool for creating SDN, enabling easy and rapid development of SDN. Cowiver and HFR, co-developers of the SDK, successfully developed SDN using the SDK and controlled the 'Carrier Ethernet' equipment currently deployed in LG Uplus's enterprise dedicated network.

In particular, the SDK was also used to control Packet Optical Transport Network (POTN) equipment, which is being considered as a strong candidate for 5G equipment, and it is expected to be usefully utilized for controlling 5G equipment from overseas manufacturers in the future.

LG Uplus anticipates that the release of the SDK will foster an open ecosystem capable of implementing network automation, thereby expanding mutual growth with domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. Furthermore, as the SDK is designed in accordance with domestic standards (TTAK.KO-01.0095, TTAK.KO-01.0096) established by the Korea Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), it is expected to contribute to the revitalization of the domestic standardization industry.

Meanwhile, automatic control of communication equipment is considered an essential element in the 5G era because it allows for flexible response to environmental changes, such as quickly applying new services or rapidly recovering from failures with just a few clicks in a complex network environment where equipment from various manufacturers is mixed.

LG Uplus plans to continuously introduce development tools (programs) for 5G network automation to respond agilely to the rapidly changing network environment, while enabling not only domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers but also overseas manufacturers to develop automation technologies based on domestic standards.

"We have laid the foundation to manage not only existing equipment but also equipment to be introduced in the future, regardless of the manufacturer, using an automatic control software development tool," said Kim Dae-hee, Senior Vice President of LG Uplus's 5G Strategy Division. "This will enable stable network operation by completely blocking accidents that could occur due to human intervention."