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Early beta Hardening toward production

A full 5G core on a laptop.

Register a UE with real 5G-AKA, bring up a PDU session, and forward user-plane traffic. In early beta, and under active development toward production.

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6
network functions
R16–18
3GPP releases
1
compose file to start
beta
hardening to production

Network functions

A handful of functions, not a dozen.

Co-located interfaces are in-process calls. Everything that crosses a boundary speaks a real 3GPP protocol.

DMF

AMF + SMF

Terminates NAS and NGAP from the gNB, runs 5GMM registration, and manages PDU sessions — programming the UPF over N4. N11 is in-process.

DPF

AUSF + UDM + UDR + PCF

Authenticates subscribers, de-conceals SUCI to SUPI, holds subscriber data, and supplies policy. N8/N10/N12/N13 are in-process calls.

NRF

standalone

Every NF registers on startup, discovers peers by type, and heartbeats. The registry at the center of the service-based architecture.

UPF

standalone

Receives GTP-U from the gNB over N3 and forwards decapsulated UE traffic to the data network over N6 through a userspace TUN datapath.

SMSF

optional · standalone

Activates SMS service and relays MO/MT SMS over NAS — RP/CP/TPDU decode, store-and-forward SMS-SC, delivery via Namf_Communication.

NSSF

optional · standalone

Optional network slice selection for labs that need S-NSSAI handling beyond the DMF defaults.

Interfaces

Real 3GPP, on the wire.

Reference points that cross a boundary are real protocols. SBI defaults to h2c; TLS/mTLS is optional on the NRF.

IfaceProtocolDefault
N1NASin NGAP over N2
N2NGAP / SCTP:38412
N3GTP-U (UDP):2152
N4PFCP (UDP):8805/udp
N6IP via TUNuserspace
N20Namf / NsmsfSMS over NAS
SBIHTTP/2 (h2c)TLS optional

Co-located interfaces — N11 inside the DMF, N8/N10/N12/N13 inside the DPF — are plain function calls, with no socket to connect to.

Maturity

Early beta, headed for production.

The golden path works today and we run it every day. Production-grade is the destination, not the current claim — so here is exactly where the line sits.

Works today
  • UE registration with real 5G-AKA — SUCI de-concealment to SUPI
  • PDU session establishment with policy from the PCF
  • User-plane forwarding: GTP-U on N3, TUN datapath out to N6
  • SMS over NAS via the optional SMSF
  • NF discovery and heartbeat through the NRF
  • One compose file, or the Helm chart, to stand the whole core up
Not there yet
  • Single PLMN and a single AMF — roaming and Xn handover are not implemented yet
  • Optional NSSF only — multi-slice carrier topology is still ahead of us
  • PCF is minimal — static and basic AM/SM policy today
  • No admin REST API yet — provision subscribers by seed or SQL
  • Not yet hardened for production traffic — run it in a lab or an integration rig

We publish this list because the gaps move. TinyCore is under active development and every release closes some of it — tell us which line blocks you and it moves up the queue. For protocol load and conformance against it, see dflux Runner.

Next step

Stand up a 5G core today

Bring up the docker lab and run your first registration in about ten minutes.

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