Shankar
Shankar is a telecommunications researcher and open-source leader specializing in 5G Core and ORAN technologies. Currently serving as Governing Board Member at Linux Foundation and Technical Steering Committee Representative for the 5G Super Blueprint project, he collaborates with industry leaders from Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Nokia, Verizon, and other major telecom companies.
With 4+ years of intensive 5G Core experience, Shankar is a recognized expert in ORAN Split 7.2 implementations and eBPF integration within User Plane Functions. His technical expertise spans multiple open-source platforms including Open5GS, free5gc, OAI, SD-Core, and Magma, where he has performed extensive testing, validation, and architectural design.
As a former CTO, Shankar architected and deployed private 5G solutions from scratch, demonstrating his ability to translate complex technical concepts into production-ready systems. His strategic leadership has resulted in 12+ collaborative partnerships with organizations including ONF, Magma Foundation, and TARS Foundation.
Shankar's technical skills encompass end-to-end ORAN testing with L1/L2/L3 stacks and commercial radios, DPDK-based 5G core benchmarking, and disaggregated RAN/core deployments. He has actively contributed to the open-source community, successfully implementing L3AF on Windows and speaking at prestigious events including LFN Developer Forum in Budapest and CNCF events in Delhi.
His unique combination of technical depth and strategic leadership has enabled him to secure three major deals through open-source community recognition, establishing him as a trusted voice in telecommunications and cloud computing innovation.
Session
Quantum computing poses an imminent threat to today's cryptographic protocols, requiring urgent migration to post-quantum cryptography. Most projects include common protocols like TLS, mTLS, QUIC, SSH, OAuth, IPSec and many more in their security implementation. This session demonstrates practical implementation of these protocols and approaches to migrating them using OpenSSL's post-quantum capabilities (ML-KEM for key generation and ML-DSA for signatures).
The presentation introduces a prototype framework that implements security protocols with both classical and post-quantum algorithms, enabling developers to understand protocol mechanics, migration challenges, and hybrid approaches. The framework uses OpenSSL and open source libraries such as LibOQS, OQS Provider, and StrongSwan to showcase real-world PQC integration.
The session explores the working of these migrations with existing open source projects, demonstrating real-world PQC integration patterns. Attendees will gain hands-on experience with PQC implementation and leave with actionable guidance for migration projects.