carbon: NPE while karaf starting

job https://jenkins.opendaylight.org/releng/view/bgpcep/job/bgpcep-csit-1node-userfeatures-only-carbon/ is "broken" (at least builds 240 - 268)

https://jenkins.opendaylight.org/releng/view/bgpcep/job/bgpcep-csit-1node-userfeatures-only-carbon/268/consoleFull

the karaf even does not start well, after 10 minutes returns
16:09:33 waiting 605 secs...
16:09:33 503 http://localhost:8181/restconf/modules
16:09:33 Timeout Controller DOWN

the shown log shows many exceptions. One of them is
16:09:33 org.osgi.service.blueprint.container.ComponentDefinitionException: Error when instantiating bean protocolsInitialConfig of class org.opendaylight.protocol.bgp.rib.impl.ProtocolsConfigFileProcessor
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BeanRecipe.wrapAsCompDefEx(BeanRecipe.java:361)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BeanRecipe.getInstanceFromType(BeanRecipe.java:351)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BeanRecipe.getInstance(BeanRecipe.java:282)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BeanRecipe.internalCreate2(BeanRecipe.java:830)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BeanRecipe.internalCreate(BeanRecipe.java:811)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.di.AbstractRecipe$1.call(AbstractRecipe.java:79)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.di.AbstractRecipe.create(AbstractRecipe.java:88)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintRepository.createInstances(BlueprintRepository.java:255)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintRepository.createAll(BlueprintRepository.java:186)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintContainerImpl.instantiateEagerComponents(BlueprintContainerImpl.java:724)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintContainerImpl.doRun(BlueprintContainerImpl.java:411)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintContainerImpl.run(BlueprintContainerImpl.java:276)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.ExecutorServiceWrapper.run(ExecutorServiceWrapper.java:106)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at org.apache.aries.blueprint.utils.threading.impl.DiscardableRunnable.run(DiscardableRunnable.java:48)[15:org.apache.aries.blueprint.core:1.6.1]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.access$201(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:180)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:293)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)[:1.8.0_102]
16:09:33 Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight.yangtools.binding.data.codec.impl.BindingCodecContext.getCodecContextNode(BindingCodecContext.java:150)
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight.yangtools.binding.data.codec.impl.BindingNormalizedNodeCodecRegistry.fromNormalizedNode(BindingNormalizedNodeCodecRegistry.java:182)
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight.controller.md.sal.binding.impl.BindingToNormalizedNodeCodec.fromNormalizedNode(BindingToNormalizedNodeCodec.java:153)
16:09:33 at Proxy87477272_22c8_4be3_b02c_5f2f5e167ce2.fromNormalizedNode(Unknown Source)
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight.protocol.bgp.rib.impl.ProtocolsConfigFileProcessor.loadConfiguration(ProtocolsConfigFileProcessor.java:66)
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight.protocol.bgp.config.loader.impl.ConfigLoaderImpl.handleConfigFile(ConfigLoaderImpl.java:109)[302:org.opendaylight.bgpcep.bgp-config-loader-impl:0.7.0.SNAPSHOT]
16:09:33 at org.opendaylight