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11 July, 2017
One thing that is abundantly clear from network functions virtualisation (NFV) projects and pilots is that cost-cutting is the number one priority in the transition to NFV, writes Fergus Wills, the director of product management at Openwave Mobility. (more…)
27 June, 2017
NFV-core based 5G networks have already caught the fancy of the telco cloud service provider. The reasons for this are its promise of high quality of service (QoS). (more…)
11 May, 2017
High speed, high reliability and low latency are the key benefits that CSPs expect from 5G. While high speed (targeted at 20 Gbps) helps to upload and download video-based content faster and in larger volumes, high reliability (always 100%) supports mission-critical services especially in the IoT world. Here is the Part 1 of the article. (more…)
18 April, 2017
Huawei launched Network Value+, a precision investment solution for carrier’s digital business, at the 2017 Huawei Global Analyst Summit. (more…)
03 March, 2017
Astellia has been selected in a global framework agreement with Telefónica Group to deploy its geolocated-based RAN optimisation platform. The system has already been deployed in Spain and will be rolled-out during 2017 in Latin America. (more…)
22 February, 2017
ZTE Corporation, an international provider of telecoms, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, has been chosen as the exclusive construction provider of the China Mobile Group Hebei Branch (Hebei Mobile)’s integrated content delivery network (iCDN) and home service smart operation platform. (more…)
08 February, 2017
TV and video delivery is likely to become a core capability of next generation 5G wireless services, concludes a new report from Strategy Analytics. Recent demonstrations have suggested that 5G will support 1Gbps data throughput rates. (more…)
31 January, 2017
The opportunities for leveraging 5G are countless, not only for provisioning applications delivering programming to mobile phones, but also to other wireless devices. Pop-up point-of-sale kiosks with customised video and offers.
Medical equipment integrated not only with back-end servers in the hospital, but integrated with other healthcare equipment in the patient’s room – and with real-time video delivery and two-way communications with specialist care professionals.
Smart cities can use 5G networks to manage traffic by integrating vehicles with traffic lights, embedded road sensors, intelligent analytics, mapping software, and even information about the city’s sporting events – automatically routing through traffic away from the football stadium as the big game is about to end, says Marc-Antoine Boutin, director of Product Management at CENX.
In all those cases, and more, 5G and network slicing will allow the service provider and application developers to envision the ideal network architecture for their specific purposes.
Thanks to SDN, NFV, VNFs and LSO, a virtual network can be provisioned end-to-end, embracing the mobile devices, the data center and cloud services, and everything in-between. The advanced functionality of 5G will ensure that the radios in towers, small cells, smartphones and the Internet of Things are an integral part of the service’s network slice.
The capabilities of modern networks will unleash those possibilities. As multi-carrier SDN networks become more common and performant, new applications will emerge that leverage the low-latency, high-reliability 5G networks. And that’ll be true of applications that require a lot of bandwidth, such as mobile gaming and fixed-mount security cameras, as well as those that have more modest requirements in the automated factory, connected car and modern business.
As Spider-Man’s beloved Uncle Ben teaches him, “With great power comes great responsibility.” 5G network slices have the potential to become quite complex and resource-intensive. If the virtualised requirements for those networks are not carefully designed, and properly instantiated on physical networks through orchestrated SDN, they could become hogs that run slower than expected, consume more resources than anticipated, and become brittle and unreliable.
This can become a particular problem when it comes to the wireless portions of the virtualised networks and the 5G network slices. The bandwidth and capability of mobile networks are quite constrained; whether microwave, 802.11 or cellular data, there’s only so much available, and in the case of cellular data, the end-user may have caps and charges on its use: Wasting that resource may cost the customer money.
Even on mobile backhaul and small-cell networks, there’s only so much radio to go around on today’s often-oversubscribed networks.
This points to the need for not only careful design, but continuous monitoring of 5G network slices. A failure of a 5G network means more than a service outage that must be routed around or solved through the rapid fail-over to a backup network; it could also have adverse affects on the other applications requiring the carrier network, microwave tower, and even the mobile device itself.
As we move into the exciting new world of 5G networks, and begin to develop, design and deploy network slices for services and applications, it’s essential to consider service assurance every step of the way. End-to-end service assurance – extending through the RAN and other aspects of the mobile connection – will be key to ensuring that service level agreements are met, resources are used effectively… and customers will be happy.
With great power comes great responsibility. As with Spider-Man, 5G offers the potential for great power in mobile networks. The responsibility? Service assurance for SDN and the IoT. It’s the best way to go when planning to deliver excellence for the many opportunities in 5G.
The author of this blog is Marc-Antoine Boutin, director of Product Management at CENX
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @ VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus
30 January, 2017
Network slicing first appeared with 4G networks and enabled new possibilities – and this will go much farther when 5G enables network slices to incorporate the radios. (more…)
19 January, 2017
SNS Research has published a new report, The vRAN (Virtualised Radio Access Network) Ecosystem: 2017 – 2030 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts. (more…)
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