GITOPS-BASED CONTINUOUS DELIVERY OF CLOUDNATIVE 5G NETWORK FUNCTIONS WITH AUTOMATED CONFIGURATION VALIDATION

Abstract

GitOps has emerged as a reliable approach for managing cloud-native applications through declarative configuration and version-controlled workflows. This paper presents a GitOps-based continuous delivery framework for Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs) in 5G environments, enabling automated deployment, configuration management, and lifecycle operations. The proposed approach integrates CI/CD pipelines with Kubernetes orchestration to ensure consistent and repeatable releases across distributed telecom infrastructures. Automated configuration validation mechanisms are incorporated to detect policy violations, misconfigurations, and deployment inconsistencies before production rollout. By leveraging infrastructure-as-code principles, the framework enhances operational efficiency, reduces manual intervention, and improves service reliability. Experimental evaluation demonstrates faster deployment cycles, improved configuration accuracy, and reduced downtime compared with traditional deployment methods. The study highlights how GitOps-driven telecom DevOps practices can accelerate 5G service delivery while maintaining configuration assurance, scalability, and compliance requirements.