Overview of 5G, network slicing, and OpenAirInterface One of the interesting aspects of the 4G/5G era is confluence between theopen-source software-defined networking technologies used in mainstream fixednetworks and the closed-source technologies used the access and corecomponents of cellular networks. This poses significant challenges from alegal standpoint because of the required mix of the two software technologiesin common data centers. This conflictual relationship is aggravated furtherwith the emergence of mobile edge computing. Once the legal issues areultimately resolved, as it seems to be the case, the main issue will be thatof satisfying real-time processing constraints for the radio-access networkfunctions. These stem from the latency requirements of cellular systems whenthe radio-access procedures are executed on commodity servers. Moreover, whennetwork function virtualization is put into the picture to allow fortechniques such as network slicing to descend down in the radio-accessnetwork, the situation becomes even more challenging from a real-timeperspective. This talk will provide an overview of the evolution of 4G networks towards 5Gand some of he new applications and industries that will be enabled by it. Wealso cover the role of the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance and how it istrying to soften the blow of clash between open and closed-source communitiesin radio-access and core networks along with its relationship with some of theother related open-source communities. The talk will also cover some technicalaspects related to the difficulties in virtualizing radio-access networkfunctions on commodity servers when it comes to real-time requirements,orchestration and management.