Amdocs launches 5G slice manager for automation of 5G network slicing

Amdocs a provider of software and services to communications and media companies, announced the availability of its 5G Slice Manager solution. The solution is designed to help service providers accelerate their 5G journey, providing a comprehensive set of capabilities to manage and monetise 5G network slices from design to creation, launch and on-going closed-loop operations.

As service providers accelerate the deployment of 5G networks, the introduction of capabilities such as network slicing and edge computing will introduce new complexity in managing the life cycle of services. Realising the full business potential of 5G requires solutions to address this challenge.

Amdocs 5G slice manager helps service providers maximise the monetisation of 5G networks through automated and streamlined management of innovative services that are based on 5G network slicing. Amdocs’ solution is being actively trialed by service providers, including a operator in North America that used the system to instantiate 5G core components, dynamically select and allocate underlying cloud resources, and view the live status data and event-driven updates via the inventory capability. Amdocs 5G Slice Manager enables service providers to automate network slice life cycle management in whatever stage of the journey they are at in their 5G slicing deployment, whether network operations focused, IT/monetisation systems driven, or new business enablement.

“5G network slicing will allow operators to tailor and slice the network to address specific use-case and customer requirements, a significant change from the previous generation of one-size-fits-all mobile networks,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president, network infrastructure, IDC.

“This opportunity also brings more complexity in managing the life cycle of network slices across the siloed operational network domains such as core, transport and RAN. Emerging solutions such as the Amdocs 5G slice manager are designed to address this complexity with automated and adaptive network slice management functionality, and business-focused slice monetisation.”

“As we look to the monetisation of 5G, managing the design, orchestration and delivery of services within a network slice is of paramount importance to our connected society. Being able to differentiate an offering by providing the appropriate network resources required for a service will become vital to meeting customer expectations for these premium experiences,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of media, Network and Technology at Amdocs.

“Combined with Amdocs CES20’s offer creation, converged charging and real-time billing capabilities, we believe that the slice manager becomes a core component of delivering enhanced experiences for users and creates a monetisation opportunity for CSPs.”

Amdocs 5G slice manager includes functionality for slice design, instantiation and performance management:

• Slice design: Supports network slice modeling by chaining various network functions, links and connection points to create specific network slice services. This includes specifying slice parameters, policy and resources dependencies (e.g., throughput, latency, mobility, reliability, isolation, volume and number of users) across all the resources that support the slice and detailing other parameters for the end-to-end instantiation of network slices.
• Slice automation & orchestration: Instantiates network slice instances and the associated network functions by interacting with the different domain controllers to configure all the resources necessary to create network slices and ensure a link between instantiated slice resources and the end-to-end designed slice.
• Slice operation: Monitors and assures the behavior and performance of the various slices through collecting network function and infrastructure data, analysing the performance data and events, and triggering the appropriate actions for resource scaling, elasticity and automatic healing to meet slice requirements. The solution’s closed-loop service automation approach ensures the slice will sc ale on demand to accommodate changes in service and performance requirements.

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