Cloud Native Telecom Certification

Cloud Native Telecom Certification (CNTC) is an open framework that tests open-source telecom network functions against published standards and issues a graded verdict, a scorecard and, on a clean pass, a certificate. The model is the same at every layer: a versioned requirement catalog, automated tests over the real interfaces, an essential-test gate, and a result that can be re-checked by anyone.

What is certified today

CNTC is built outward from the user plane, one layer at a time. Four releases have shipped. Each has its own page with a full, deployable guide.

Release	Certification	Subject	Interfaces
Rel. 1	UPF Certification	User Plane Function	N4 (PFCP), N3 (GTP-U)
Rel. 2	Control-Plane Certification	AMF, SMF, NRF, AUSF, UDM	SBI, N1, N2, N4
Rel. 3	RAN Certification	Split gNB (CU/DU)	N2, F1-C, E1, F1-U, N3
Rel. 4	nFAPI Split Certification	L1/L2 split (Option 6)	P5, P7

CNTC standards and specifications alignment, shown as four quadrants. Top left, User Plane UPF, release 1, over N4, N3 and N6: TS 29.244 for PFCP on N4, TS 29.281 for GTP-U on N3, and TS 23.501 for the 5G system architecture. Top right, Control Plane 5G Core, release 2, over the service based interface, covering seven network functions: TS 29.500 and TS 29.501 for SBI framework and design rules, TS 29.510 for the NRF, TS 29.509 for the AUSF, TS 29.503 for the UDM, TS 29.502 for the SMF, TS 24.501 for NAS, TS 38.413 for NGAP, and TS 33.501 for security including 5G-AKA. Bottom left, CU/DU Split NG-RAN, release 3, over N2, F1, E1 and N3: TS 38.401 for the NG-RAN architecture, TS 38.413 for NGAP on N2, TS 38.473 for F1AP on F1-C, TS 38.463 for E1AP on E1, TS 38.425 for NR user plane on F1-U, TS 38.331 for RRC, and TS 33.523 for the split gNB security assurance specification. Bottom right, nFAPI Split L1 and L2, release 4, over P5 and P7, functional split option 6: Small Cell Forum document 222 for the 5G FAPI PHY API, Small Cell Forum document 225 for the nFAPI network transport wrapper, TS 38.321 for NR MAC, TS 38.211 through TS 38.214 for the NR physical layer, and RFC 768 for UDP transport.

How it works

Every certification is built from two decoupled parts, and only the first one changes from release to release.

An engine measures. It drives the network function over its real interfaces and records what happened. There are three: upfbench for the user plane, cpbench for the control plane, and ranbench for the RAN.
The cntc umbrella judges. It reads the serialized results, grades them against a versioned catalog of requirements, and writes the scorecard and certificate. It is shared by all three engines and is not modified when a new engine is added.

Because the two are separate, any past run can be re-graded against a newer catalog without being re-run.

The verdict

Each catalog marks some of its requirements essential. A run is graded against that gate and returns one of three results:

PASS, every essential requirement was exercised and met.
FAIL, an essential requirement was exercised and not met.
INCOMPLETE, an essential requirement could not be judged on this deployment.

A certificate is issued only on PASS. Individual requirements that could not be judged are recorded as na, together with the reason and what evidence would have been needed. They are never promoted to a pass.

Scope and coverage

Each release ships Level 1: Conformance and Observable Security, which covers everything provable with a spec-compliant peer and observation of the wire. Level 2: Adversarial Robustness and Privileged Interop, which needs a deliberately non-compliant or privileged peer, is drafted as roadmap catalogs and has not shipped.

Certification	Product classes	Level 1
UPF	One subject, `conformance` and `performance`	7 essential
Control plane	AMF, SMF, NRF, AUSF, UDM	44, 26 essential
RAN	O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU	58, 30 essential
nFAPI split	nFAPI VNF, nFAPI PNF	41, 23 essential

Catalogs are versioned per certification, so the version shown on a scorecard belongs to that profile and not to the framework as a whole.

Start here

Each page below is self-contained: prerequisites, install, configuration, a run, and how to read the verdict.

UPF Certification Certify a 5G User Plane Function as a black box over N4 (PFCP) and N3 (GTP-U), covering conformance, N3 robustness, session capacity and throughput.

Control-Plane Certification Certify the five core network functions, AMF, SMF, NRF, AUSF and UDM, over the service based interface and on the wire, with one certificate per function.

RAN Certification Certify a split gNB over N2, F1-C, E1, F1-U and N3, with an independent verdict for each of the O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP and O-DU product classes.

nFAPI Split Certification Certify the L1/L2 split at functional split option 6, grading the nFAPI VNF and PNF separately over the P5 control and P7 data interfaces.