5G Evolution Supports a New Wave of Wireless Services

Expanding 5G/6G connectivity to include network-to-smart device communications, combined with AI and IoT, will usher in a new industrial wave and offer greater business value for both industry and society.

The release of each new generation of wireless technology every decade or so has enabled mobile communication to progress considerably since the first portable phones appeared in the 1980s. Technical advances have created new services and business opportunities, driving what’s being referred to as the third wave of communications. The evolution made possible through 5G and future 6G technology will support even more new services for industry and society, well into the 2030s and beyond (Fig. 1).

1. There have now been five generations of mobile communications technology and services, with a sixth on the way.

5G represents the first step toward this next wave of services with expanded connectivity and a significant upgrade in multimedia capabilities combined with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT). 5G will be the first generation of mobile communications to utilize millimeter-wave (mmWave) band frequencies, supporting bandwidths of several hundred megahertz and actualizing ultra-high-speed wireless data communications of many gigabits per second.

This article examines the expansion of 5G/6G wireless communications to new areas of service that will drive another industrial wave and offer greater business value for industry and society.

The Third Wave of Wireless Communications

5G and future systems will close the gap between the physical and cyber worlds. Today, mobile consumers use wireless connectivity to access the web from almost any location. In the future, high-speed coverage will be more widespread and faster, with greater emphasis on uplinking information from real-world events, either human and/or IoT, to the internet.

Once this information is in the cloud, AI could reproduce the real world in cyberspace and emulate it beyond physical, economical, and time constraints, so that “future prediction” and “new knowledge” can be discovered and shared. The role of wireless communications in this cyber-physical fusion is assumed to include high-capacity and low-latency transmission of real-world images and sensing information, and feedback to the real world through high-reliability and low-latency control signaling.

Radio communications in this cyber-physical fusion scenario correspond to the role of the nervous system transmitting information between the brain and the body. Communications convert real-world events to the cyber world through enhanced uplink capabilities and provide feedback information to humans and devices through low-latency downlink functionality.

Next-Generation Areas of Service

2. These are some of the new business services that will be enabled with the third wave of communications, which has been initiated with the advent of 5G.

The next wave of communications focuses on three areas of service (Fig. 2) including:

• Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), which extends the current mobile experience with high data throughput on the order of more than 10 Gb/s, high system capacity on the order of more than 1000X that of LTE, and a much better spectral efficiency (3-4X) than LTE. Its use cases are high-speed mobile broadband, virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming, and more.
• Ultra-reliable, low-latency communications (URLLC), which focuses on achieving low latency, high reliability, and high availability. The expectation is for latencies of less than 1 ms. This is basically for mission-critical use cases and applications.
• Massive machine-type communications (mMTC), which provides connectivity to a huge number of devices whose traffic profile is typically a small amount of data (spread) sporadically. Consequently, latency and throughput aren’t a big concern. The main concern is the optimal power utilization of those devices because they’re battery-powered and the expectation of battery life is around 10 years or so.

Current activity in mmWave front-end design, including antenna-in-package (AiP) phased arrays (Fig. 3), large-scale beamforming RF integrated circuits (RFICs), multi-technology integration, and system-level electromagnetic (EM) analysis will all contribute to realizing New Radio (NR) access technology that can be cost effective and easy to install. This will support the small-cell networks that achieve 5G/6G performance.

3. The images depict dual-polarized AiP phased-array technology designed in Cadence AWR Design Environment software.

Early 5G deployment and related trials have shown room for improvement in coverage and uplink performance in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments and heavy traffic use cases. While future system performance goals are still in the early phases of consideration, full realization of the promise of this next wave of communications creates a need for continued enhancements. Extreme performance is necessary to provide the high reliability and low latency called for by mission-critical (time-sensitive) applications such as self-driving vehicles.

6G Performance Goals

6G will implement many different technologies to achieve its performance goals. Among them will be new topologies of overlapping cells with distributed networks of beamforming antenna controlled by AI and ML to dynamically select optimum transmission paths. Previous cellular communications were based on networks of hexagonal cells spaced far enough apart to avoid signal interference with neighboring cells. In the future, there will be overlapping cells that can be dynamically reconfigured. In addition, coverage will expand through space, sea, and high-altitude drones.

New functionality in spatial multiplexing and massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) are under investigation, including the use of reflective surfaces and metamaterials to manage signal propagation in crowded urban environments with limited LOS. 6G may employ a spatially non-orthogonal, overlapped, and dynamic topology to increase path selection. Beam control through AI and ML will help reduce intercell interference at a cost of complexity.

Besides reconfiguring networks, much of the 5G/6G focus will be on physical design of radio access front ends. Strategic design partitioning, leveraging of optimal semiconductor processes, and multi-fabric assemblies will undoubtedly be utilized, calling for a range of simulation technologies, design and manufacturing flows, and tool interoperability. These trends will require software design support for co-design and co-optimization of next-generation wireless electronic systems across multiple domains—including RF, analog, and digital simulation—aided by large-scale EM and thermal analysis, and robust design verification and signoff.

A common RFIC and system-in-package (SiP) design challenge is concerned with how RF intellectual-property (IP) blocks are subject to EM, capacitive, supply, and substrate coupling. These potentially harmful interactions result from effects that occur with high-frequency signaling. Noise, either into or out of a block, can travel through the substrate or through power bussing. Placement (floorplanning) of noise-generating and noise-sensitive blocks is design critical. Parasitic coupling capacitance within/between RF blocks, and signals routed nearby (100s to 1000s of microns away) can cause disrupted performance. Self-inductance of any nets connected to the RF block, and mutual inductance between any net within an RF block to nets in neighboring blocks, is another concern.

RF IP blocks interact much differently than digital IP blocks. Most place-and-route tools aren’t able to address the unique issues confronted in integrating RF IP. An RF engineer working with RF-aware design tools is required to successfully integrate blocks at the chip, package, or board levels. To understand the effects of parasitic coupling, either capacitive, inductive, and through the substrate, closed-form distributed transmission-line models and EM analysis are essential for RF IP development.

Using higher-frequency bands in 6G (94 GHz to 3 THz) will help reduce the size of these antennas, making efforts to shrink component footprints easier. However, the antennas, feed networks, and package interconnects will all be more susceptible to parasitics and unintended coupling (crosstalk), requiring rigorous EM analysis and design verification. This move to higher spectrum will lead to a wide range of design and integration challenges.

Need for Wireless Technology Improvements

5G deployment and related trials have shown there’s room and need for improvements to the coverage and uplink performance of NLOS environments and heavy-traffic use cases. To fully achieve the promise of this next wave of communications, we’ll need continued enhancements to guarantee the high reliability and low latency necessary to close the gap between the cyber and physical worlds. 5G evolution will concentrate on better uplinking and toward more delivery guarantees, as opposed to “best effort,” with a focus on URLLC (Fig. 4).

4. Integration of beamsteering RF front-end module technologies will improve uplink data rates for 5G/6G devices.

Achieving URLLC performance with < 1-ms latency and up to “nine nines” (99.9999999%) mission-critical reliability (for factory operational technology) for networks based on edge cloud computing will require a massive number of small-cell radio access points and distributed antennas with AI/ML controlled beamsteering. Implicit in the requirements for this vast deployment of non-orthogonal networks will be the need to drive down the cost of the beamforming antenna arrays and complex receivers, especially if faster-than-Nyquist signaling techniques are applied, while greatly improving (beyond the current best effort) uplink technology.

Conclusion

A key goal of 5G has been to expand the reach and value of wireless technology beyond the individual mobile subscriber in support of mMTC and URLLC. Expanding connectivity to include network-to-smart device communications, combined with AI and IoT, will usher in a new industrial wave and offer greater business value for both industry and society.

Source: https://www.mwrf.com/technologies/software/article/21142848/5g-evolution-supports-a-new-wave-of-wireless-services 27 09 20

Service exposure: a critical capability in a 5G world

Exposure – and service exposure in particular – will be critical to the creation of the programmable networks that businesses need to communicate efficiently with Internet of Things (IoT) devices, handle edge loads and pursue the myriad of new commercial opportunities in the 5G world.

While service exposure has played a notable role in previous generations of mobile technology – by enabling roaming, for example, and facilitating payment and information services over the SMS channel – its role in 5G will be much more prominent.

The high expectations on mobile networks continue to rise, with never-ending requests for higher bandwidth, lower latency, increased predictability and control of devices to serve a variety of applications and use cases. At the same time, we can see that industries such as health care and manufacturing have started demanding more customized connectivity to meet the needs of their services. While some of these demands can be met through improved network connectivity capabilities, there are other areas where those improvements alone will not be sufficient.

For example, in recent years, content delivery networks (CDNs) have been used in situations where deployments within the operator network became a necessity to address requirements like high bandwidth. More recently, however, new use-case categories in areas such as augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), automotive and Industry 4.0 have made it clear that computing resources need to be accessible at the edge of the network. This development represents a great opportunity for operators, enterprises and application developers to introduce and capitalize on new services. The opportunity also extends to web-scale providers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba and so on) that have invested in large-scale and distributed cloud infrastructure deployments on a global scale, thereby becoming the mass-market provider of cloud services.

Several web-scale providers have already started providing on-premises solutions (a combination of full-stack solutions and software-only solutions) to meet the requirements of certain use cases. However, the ability to expand the availability of web-scale services toward the edge of the operator infrastructure would make it possible to tackle a multitude of other use cases as well. Such a scenario is mutually beneficial because it allows the web-scale providers to extend the reach of services that benefit from being at the edge of the network (such as the IoT and CDNs), while enabling telecom operators to become part of the value chain of the cloud computing market.

Figure 1: Collaboration with web-scale providers on telecom distributed clouds

Figure 1 illustrates how a collaboration with web-scale providers on telecom distributed clouds could be structured. We are currently exploring a partnership to enable system integrators and developers to deploy web-scale player application platforms seamlessly on telecom distributed clouds. Distributed cloud abstraction on the web-scale player marketplace encompasses edge compute, latency and bandwidth guarantee and mobility. Interworking with IoT software development kits (SDKs) and device management provides integration with provisioning certificate handling services and assignment to distributed cloud tenant breakout points.

In the mid to long term, service exposure will be critical to the success of solutions that rely on edge computing, network slicing and distributed cloud. Without it, the growing number of functions, nodes, configurations and individual offerings that those solutions entail represents a significant risk of increased operational expenditure. The key benefit of service exposure in this respect is that it makes it possible to use application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect automation flows and artificial intelligence (AI) processes across organizational, technology, business-to-business (B2B) and other borders, thereby avoiding costly manual handling. AI and analytics-based services are particularly good candidates for exposure and external monetization.

Key enablers

The 5G system architecture specified by 3GPP has been designed to support a wide range of use cases based on key requirements such as high bandwidth/throughput, massive numbers of connected devices and ultra-low latency. For example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) will provide peak data rates above 10Gbps, while massive machine-type communications (mMTC) can support more than 1 million connections per square kilometer. Ultra-reliable low-latency communications (uRLLC) guarantees less than 1ms latency.

Fulfilling these eMBB, mMTC and uRLLC requirements necessitates significant changes to both the RAN and the core network. One of the most significant changes is that the core network functions (NFs) in the 5G Core (5GC) interact with each other using a Service-based Architecture (SBA). It is this change that enables the network programmability, thereby opening up new opportunities for growth and innovation beyond simply accelerating connectivity.

Service-based Architecture

The SBA of the 5GC network makes it possible for 5GC control plane NFs to expose Service-based Interfaces (SBIs) and act as service consumers or producers. The NFs register their services in the network repository function, and services can then be discovered by other NFs. This enables a flexible deployment, where every NF allows the other authorized NFs to access the services, which provides tremendous flexibility to consume and expose services and capabilities provided by 5GC for internal or external third parties. This support of the services subscription makes it completely different to the 4G/5G Evolved Packet Core network.

Because it is service-driven, SBA enables new service types and supports a wide variety of diversified service types associated with different technical requirements. 5G provides the SBI for different NFs (for example via SBI HTTP/2 Restful APIs). The SBI can be used to address the diverse service types and highly demanding performance requirements in an efficient way. It is an enabler for short time to market and cloud-native web-scale technologies.

The 3GPP is now working on conceptualizing 5G use cases toward industry verticals. Many use cases can be created on-demand as a result of the SBA.

Distributed cloud infrastructure

The ability to deploy network slices – an important aspect of 5G – in an automated and on-demand manner requires a distributed cloud infrastructure. Further, the ability to run workloads at the edge of the network requires the distributed cloud infrastructure to be available at the edge. What this essentially means is that distributed cloud deployments within the operator network will be an inherent part of the introduction of 5G. The scale, growth rate, distribution and network depth (how far out in the network edge) of those deployments will vary depending on the telco network in question and the first use cases to be introduced.

As cloud becomes a natural asset of the operator infrastructure with which to host NFs and services (such as network slicing), the ability to allow third parties to access computing resources in this same infrastructure is an obvious next step. Contrary to the traditional cloud deployments of the web-scale players, however, computing resources within the operator network will be scarcer and much more geographically distributed. As a result, resources will need to be used much more efficiently, and mechanisms will be needed to hide the complexity of the geographical distribution of resources.

Cloud-native principles

The adoption of cloud-native implementation principles is necessary to achieve the automation, optimized resource utilization and fast, low-cost introduction of new services that are the key features of a dynamic and constrained ecosystem. Cloud-native implementation principles dictate that software must be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces as loosely coupled stateless services and stateful backing services. This is usually achieved by using a microservice architecture, where each piece can be individually deployed, scaled and upgraded. In addition, microservices communicate through well-defined and version-controlled network-based interfaces, which simplifies integration with exposure.

Three types of service exposure

There are three main types of service exposure in a telecom environment:

• network monitoring
• network control and configuration
• payload interfaces.

Examples of network monitoring service exposure include network publishing information as real-time statuses, event streams, reports, statistics, analytic insights and so on. This also includes read requests to the network.

Service exposure for network control and configuration involves requesting control services that directly interact with the network traffic or request configuration changes. Configuration can also include the upload of complete virtual network functions (VNFs) and applications.

Examples of service-exposure-enabled payload interfaces include messaging and local breakout, but it should be noted that many connectivity/payload interfaces bypass service exposure for legacy reasons. Even though IP connectivity to devices is a service that is exposed to the consumer, for example, it is currently not achieved via service exposure. The main benefit of adding service exposure would be to make it possible to interact with the data streams through local breakout for optimization functions.

Leveraging software development kits

At Ericsson, we are positioning service exposure capabilities in relation to developer workflows and practices. Developers are the ones who use APIs to create solutions, and we know they rely heavily on SDKs. There are currently advanced developer frameworks for all sorts of advanced applications including drones, AR/VR, the IoT, robotics and gaming. Beyond the intrinsic value in exposing native APIs, an SDK approach also creates additional value in terms of enabling the use of software libraries, integrated development environments (IDEs) plug-ins, third-party provider (3PP) cloud platform extensions and 3PP runtimes on edge sites, as well as cloud marketplaces to expose these capabilities.

Software libraries can be created by prepackaging higher-level services such as low-latency video streaming and reverse charging. This can be achieved, for example, by using the capabilities of network exposure functions (NEF) and service capability exposure functions (SCEF), creating ready-to-deploy functions or containers that can be distributed through open repositories, or even marketplaces, in some cases. This possibility is highly relevant for edge computing frameworks.

Support for IDE plug-ins eases the introduction of 3PP services with just a few additional clicks. Selected capabilities within 3PP cloud platform extensions can also create value by extending IoT device life-cycle management (LCM) for cellular connected devices, for example. The automated provisioning of popular 3PP edge runtimes on telco infrastructure enables 3PP runtimes on edge sites.

Finally, cloud marketplaces are an ideal place to expose all of these capabilities. The developer subscribes to certain services through their existing account, gaining the ability to activate a variety of libraries, functions and containers, along with access to plug-ins they can work with and/or the automated provisioning required for execution.

Functional architecture for service exposure

The functional architecture for service exposure is built around four customer scenarios:

• internal consumers
• business-to-consumers (B2C)
• business-to-business (B2B)
• business-to-business-to-business/consumers (B2B2X).

In the case of internal consumers, applications for monitoring, optimization and internal information sharing operate under the control and ownership of the enterprise itself. In the case of B2C, consumers directly use services via web or app support. B2C examples include call control and self-service management of preferences and subscriptions. The B2B scenario consists of partners that use services such as messaging and IoT communication to support their business. The B2B2X scenario is made up of more complex value chains such as mobile virtual network operators, web scale, gaming, automotive and telco cloud through web-scale APIs.

Figure 2: Functional architecture for service exposure

Figure 2 illustrates the functional architecture for service exposure. It is divided into three layers that each act as a framework for the realization. Domain-specific functionality and knowledge are applied and added to the framework as configurations, scripts, plug-ins, models and so on. For example, the access control framework delivers the building blocks for specializing the access controls for a specific area.

The abstraction and resource layer is responsible for communicating with the assets. If some assets are located outside the enterprise – at a supplier or partner facility in a federation scenario, for example – B2B functionality will also be included in this layer.

The business and service logic layer is responsible for transformation and composition – that is, when there is a need to raise the abstraction level of a service to create combined services.

The exposed service execution APIs and exposed management layer are responsible for making the service discoverable and reachable for the consumer. This is done through the API gateway, with the support of portal, SDK and API management.

Business support systems (BSS) and operations support systems (OSS) play a double role in this architecture. Firstly, they serve as resources that can expose their values – OSS can provide analytics insights, for example, and BSS can provide “charging on behalf of” functionality. At the same time, OSS are responsible for managing service exposure in all assurance, configuration, accounting, performance, security and LCM aspects, such as the discovery, ordering and charging of a service.

One of the key characteristics of the architecture presented in Figure 2 is that the service exposure framework life cycle is decoupled from the exposed services, which makes it possible to support both short- and long-tail exposed services. This is realized through the inclusion and exposure of new services through configuration, plug-ins and the possibility to extend the framework.

Another key characteristic to note is that it is possible to deploy common exposure functions both in a distributed way and individually – in combination with other microservices for efficiency reasons, for example. Typical cases are distributed cloud with edge computing and web-scale scenarios such as download/upload/streaming where the edge site and terminal are involved in the optimization.

The exposure framework is realized as a set of loosely connected components, all of which are cloud-native compliant and microservice based, running in containers. There is not a one-size-fits-all deployment – some of the components are available in several variants to fit different scenarios. For example, components in the API gateway support B2B scenarios with full charging but there are also scaled-down versions that only support reporting, intended for deployment in internal exposure scenarios.

Other key properties of the service exposure framework are:

• scalability (configurable latency and scalable throughput) to support different deployments
• diversified API types for payload/connectivity, including messaging APIs (request-response and/or subscribe-notify type), synchronous, asynchronous, streaming, batch, upload/download and so on
• multiple interface bindings such as restful, streaming and legacy
• multivendor and partner support (supplier/federation/aggregator/web-scale value chains)
• security and access control functionality.

Deployment examples

Service exposure can be deployed in a multitude of locations, each with a different set of requirements that drive modularity and configurability needs. Figure 3 illustrates a few examples.

Figure 3: Service exposure deployment (dark pink boxes indicate deployed components)

In the case of Operator B in Figure 3, service exposure is deployed to expose services in a full B2B context. BSS integration and support is required to handle all commercial aspects of the exposure and LCM of customers, contracts, orders, services and so on, along with charging and billing. Operator B also uses the deployed B2B commercial support to acquire services from a supplier.

In the case of Operator A, service exposure is deployed both at the central site and at the edge site to meet latency or payload requirements. Services are only exposed to Operator A’s own applications/VNFs, which limits the need for B2B support. However, due to the fact that Operator A hosts some applications for an external partner, both centrally and at the edge, full B2B support must be deployed for the externally owned apps.

The aggregator in Figure 3 deploys the service exposure required to create services put together by more than one supplier. Unified Delivery Network and web-scale integration both fall into this category. As exposure to the consumer is done through the aggregator, this also serves as a B2B interface to handle specific requirements. Examples of this include the advertising and discovery of services via the portals of web-scale providers.

A subset of B2B support is also deployed to provide the service exposure that handles the federation relationship between Operator A and Operator B, in which both parties are on the same level in the ecosystem value chain.

Conclusion

There are several compelling reasons for telecom operators to extend and modernize their service exposure solutions as part of the rollout of 5G. One of the key ones is the desire to meet the rapidly developing requirements of use cases in areas such as the Internet of Things, AR/VR, Industry 4.0 and the automotive sector, which will depend on operators’ ability to provide computing resources across the whole telco domain, all the way to the edge of the mobile network. Service exposure is a key component of the solution to enable these use cases.

Recent advances in the service exposure area have resulted from the architectural changes introduced in the move toward 5G and the adoption of cloud-native principles, as well as the combination of Service-based Architecture, microservices and container technologies. As operators begin to use 5G technology to automate their networks and support systems, service exposure provides them with the additional benefit of being able to use automation in combination with AI to attract partners that are exploring new, 5G-enabled business models. Web-scale providers are also showing interest in understanding how they can offer their customers an easy extension toward the network edge.

Modernized service exposure solutions are designed to enable the communication and control of devices, providing access to processes, data, networks and OSS/BSS assets in a secure, predictable and reliable manner. They can do this both internally within an operator organization and externally to a third party, according to the terms of a Service Level Agreement and/or a model for financial settlement.

Service exposure is an exciting and rapidly evolving area and Ericsson is playing an active role in its ongoing development. As a complement to our standardization efforts within the 3GPP and Industry 4.0 forums, we are also engaged in open-source communities such as ONAP (the Open Network Automation Platform). This work is important because we know that modernized service exposure solutions will be at heart of efficient, innovative and successful operator networks.

Source: https://www.ericsson.com/en/ericsson-technology-review/archive/2019/service-exposure-a-critical-capability-in-a-5g-world

5G Network Slicing – Moving towards RAN

The CU-UP is a perfect fit for the Radio Network Sub Slice

Network Slicing is a 5G-enabled technology that allows the creation of an E2E Network instance across the Mobile Network Domains (Access, Transport, & Core). Each slice is ideally identified with specific network capabilities and characteristics.

The technique of provisioning a Dedicated E2E Network Instance to End users, Enterprises, & MVNOs is called “Slicing” where one Network can have multiple slices with different Characteristics serving different use cases.

The technology is enabled via an SDN/NFV Orchestration framework that provides Full Lifecycle management for the Slices enabling the dynamic slicing (on-demand instantiation & termination for Slices) with full-Service Assurance Capabilities.

The Concept is not relatively new where the Mobile Broadband Network has always succeeded to provide services to end-users via partitioning the network through Bearers & APNs. Below is how the evolution looks like transiting from one Network serving all services to Dedicated Core Network Instances serving more targeted segments.

 

With the introduction of 5G, the 4G Dedicated Core logic evolved to be 5G Network Slicing with a standard framework that advocates 4 standard slices to be used for global Interoperability (eMBB, uRLLC, MIoT, & V2X)and allowing more space for dynamic slices addressing different Marketing Segments. These slices are globally identified by Slice/Service Type (SST) which maps to the expected network behavior in terms of services and characteristics.

 

New terms and concepts are introduced with Network Slicing such as

• Network Slice Instance (NSI) – 3GPP Definition – A set of Network Function instances and the required resources (e.g. compute, storage and networking resources) which form a deployed Network Slice.
• Network Slice Subnet Instance (NSSI) – 3GPP Definition – A representation of the management aspects of a set of Managed Functions and the required resources (e.g. compute, storage and networking resources).

If the above definitions are not clear, then the below diagram might clarify it a little bit. It is all about the customer-facing service (Network Slice as a Service) and how it is being fulfilled.

I’d say that the Core NSSI is the most popular one with a clear framework defined by 3GPP where the slicing logic is nicely explained in many contexts. However, the slicing on the RAN side seems to be vague in terms of technical realization and the use case. So, what’s happening on the radio?!

The NG-RAN, represented by gNB consists of two main functional blocks (DU, Distributed Unit) & (CU, Centralized Unit) as a result of the 5G NR stack split where the CU is further split to CU-CP & CU-UP.

Basically, a gNB may consist of a gNB-CU-CP, multiple gNB-CU-UPs & multiple gNB-DUs with the below regulations

• One gNB-DU is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP.
• One gNB-CU-UP is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP;
• One gNB-DU can be connected to multiple gNB-CU-UPs under the control of the same gNB-CU-CP.

The Location of CU can vary according to the CSP strategy for Edge and according to the services being offered. There can be possible deployments in Cell Sites, Edge DCs, & Aggregation PoPs.

The CU-UP is a perfect fit for the Radio Network Sub Slice.

But Is there a framework to select the CU-UP based on Network Slice Assistance Info?!

Ideally, The CU-CP must get assistance information to decide which CU-UP will serve the particular PDU. Let’s explore that in the 5G (UE Initial Access) Call flow below

 

At one step, in RRCSetupComplete message, the UE declares the requested Network Slice by having the NSSAI (Network Slice Selection Assistance Information) that maps to SST (Slice/Service Type). However, this info is not used to select CU-UP but can be used by CU-CP to select the Serving AMF.

The mapping between PDU Session(s) and S-NSSAI is sent from AMF to gNB-CU-CP in Initial Context Setup Request message. This looks like the perfect input to build logic for Selecting the gNB-CU-UP but looking to the standards, one may realize that the mechanism for selecting the gNB-CU-UP is not yet clear and missing in 3GPP.

Although it is mentioned in many contexts in 3GPP Specifications that the CU-CP selects the appropriate CU-UP(s) for the requested services of the UE, the full picture for the E1 Interface is not yet clear especially for such detailed selection process

This will definitely impact the early plans to adopt a standard RAN Slicing Framework.

The conclusion from my side and after spending some time assessing the Network Slicing at the RAN Side is summarized in the below points.

It is very early at this stage to talk about a standard framework for 5G RAN Slicing.

The first wave for Network slicing will be mainly around slicing in the core domain.

RAN Slicing is a part of an E2E Service (NSaaS) that is dynamic by nature. An Orchestration Framework is a must.

5G Network slicing is one of the most trending 5G use cases. Many operators are looking forward to exploring the technology and building a monetization framework around it. It is very important to set the stage for such technology by investing in enablers such as SDN/NFV, automation, & orchestration. It is also vital to do the necessary reorganization, building the right organizational processes that allow exposing and monetizing such service in an agile and efficient manner.

Source: https://www.netmanias.com/ko/post/blog/14456/5g-iot-sdn-nfv/the-cu-up-is-a-perfect-fit-for-the-radio-network-sub-slice

5G mobile networks: A cheat sheet

As LTE networks become increasingly saturated, mobile network operators are planning for the 5G future. Here is what business professionals and mobile users need to know about 5G networks.

What is 5G?

5G refers to the fifth generation of mobile phone networks. Since the introduction of the first standardized mobile phone network in 1982, succeeding standards have been adopted and deployed approximately every nine years. GSM, the 2nd generation wireless network, was first deployed in 1992, while a variety of competing 3G standards began deployment in 2001. The 4G LTE wireless technology standard was deployed by service providers in 2010. Now, technology companies and mobile network operators are actively deploying 5G cellular networks around the world for new mobile devices. These 5G deployments accompany transitional LTE technologies such as LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro, which are used by network operators to provide faster speeds on mobile devices.

Principally, 5G refers to “5G NR (New Radio),” which is the standard adopted by 3GPP, an international cooperative responsible for the development of the 3G UMTS and 4G LTE standards. Other 5G technologies do exist. Verizon’s 5G TF network operates on 28 and 39 GHz frequencies, and is used only for fixed wireless broadband services, not in smartphones. Verizon’s 5G TF deployments were halted in December 2018, and will be transitioned to 5G NR in the future. Additionally, 5G SIG was used by KT for a demonstration deployment during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

5G NR allows for networks to operate on a wide variety of frequencies, including the frequencies vacated by decommissioning previous wireless communications networks. The 2G DCS frequency bands, the 3G E-GSM and PCS frequency bands, and the digital dividend of spectrum vacated by the transition to digital TV broadcasts are some of the bands available for use in 5G NR.

5G standards divide frequencies into two groups: FR1 (450 MHz – 6 GHz) and FR2 (24 GHz – 52 GHz). Most early deployments will be in the FR1 space. Research is ongoing into using FR2 frequencies, which are also known as extremely high frequency (EHF) or millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. Discussions of the suitability of millimeter wave frequencies have been published in IEEE journals as far back as 2013.

Millimeter wave frequencies allow for faster data speeds, though they do come with disadvantages. Because of the short distance of communication, millimeter wave networks have a much shorter range; for densely-populated areas, this requires deploying more base stations (conversely, this makes it well suited to densely-populated places such as arenas and stadiums). While this would be advantageous in certain use cases, it would be a poor fit for use in rural areas. Additionally, millimeter wave communication can be susceptible to atmospheric interference. Effects such as rain fade make it problematic for outdoor use, though even nearby foliage can disrupt a signal.

Tests of early 5G mmWave networks by sister site CNET surfaced a number of performance problems, with the Moto Z3, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, and LG V50 depleting their battery faster than on 4G networks. In the case of the Moto Z3—which uses a pogo-pin connected Moto Mod add-on to deliver 5G—four hours of testing completely drained the battery in the attachment; the use of sub-6 GHz 5G networks is expected to lessen this effect. Likewise, increased efficiency in Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X55 modem will alleviate some performance issues.

It is vital to remember that 5G is not an incremental or backward-compatible update to existing mobile communications standards. It does not overlap with 4G standards like LTE or WiMAX, and it cannot be delivered to existing phones, tablets, or wireless modems by means of tower upgrades or software updates, despite AT&T’s attempts to brand LTE Advanced as “5G E.”While upgrades to existing LTE infrastructure are worthwhile and welcome advances, these are ultimately transitional 4G technologies and do not provide the full range of benefits of 5G NR.

For an overview of when 5G smartphones are being released, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of 5G smartphones, check out TechRepublic’s cheat sheet about 5G smartphones.

What constitutes 5G technology?

For mobile network operators, the 3GPP has identified three aspects for which 5G should provide meaningful advantages over existing wireless mobile networks. These three heterogenous service types will coexist on the same infrastructure using network slicing, allowing network operators to create multiple virtual networks with differing performance profiles for differing service needs.

eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband)

Initial deployments of 5G NR focused on eMBB, which provides greater bandwidth, enabling improved download and upload speeds, as well as moderately lower latency compared to 4G LTE. eMBB will be instrumental in enabling rich media applications such as mobile AR and VR, 4K and 360° video streaming, and edge computing.

URLLC (Ultra Reliable Low-Latency Communications)

URLLC is targeted toward extremely latency sensitive or mission-critical use cases, such as factory automation, robot-enabled remote surgery, and driverless cars. According to a white paper (PDF link) by Mehdi Bennis, Mérouane Debbah, and H. Vincent Poor of the IEEE, URLLC should target 1ms latency and block error rate (BLER) of 10−9 to 10−5, although attaining this “represents one of the major challenges facing 5G networks,” as it “introduces a plethora of challenges in terms of system design.”

Technologies that enable URLLC are still being standardized; these will be published in 3GPP Release 16, scheduled for mid-2020.

mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communications)

mMTC is a narrowband access type for sensing, metering, and monitoring use cases. Some mMTC standards that leverage LTE networks were developed as part of 3GPP Release 13, including eMTC (Enhanced Machine-Type Communication) and NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT). These standards will be used in conjunction with 5G networks, and extended to support the demands of URLLC use cases on 5G networks and frequencies in the future.

The ways in which 5G technologies will be commercialized are still being debated and planned among mobile network operators and communications hardware vendors. As different groups have differing priorities, interests, and biases, including spectrum license purchases made with the intent of deploying 5G networks, the advantages of 5G will vary between different geographical markets and between consumer and enterprise market segments. While many different attributes are under discussion, 5G technology may consist of the following (the attributes are listed in no particular order).

Proactive content caching

Particularly for millimeter wave 5G networks, which require deploying more base stations compared to LTE and previous communications standards, those base stations in turn require connections to wired backhauls to transmit data across the network. By providing a cache at the base station, access delays can be minimized, and backhaul load can be reduced. This has the added benefit of reducing end-to-end delay. As 4K video streaming services—and smartphones with 4K screens—become more widespread, this caching capability will be important to improve quality of service.

Multiple-hop networks and device-to-device communication

In LTE networks, cellular repeaters and femtocells bridge gaps in areas where signal strength from traditional base stations is inadequate to serve the needs of customers. These can be in semi-rural areas where population density complicates serving customers from one base station, as well as in urban areas where architectural design obstructs signal strength. Using multiple-hop networks in 5G extends the cooperative relay concept by leveraging device-to-device communication to increase signal strength and availability.

Seamless vertical handover

Although proposals for 5G position it as the “one global standard” for mobile communications, allowing devices to seamlessly switch to a Wi-Fi connection, or fall back to LTE networks without delay, dropped calls, or other interruptions, is a priority for 5G.

Who does 5G benefit?

Remote workers / off-site job locations

One of the major focuses of 5G is the ability to use wireless networks to supplant traditional wireline connections by increasing data bandwidth available to devices and minimizing latency. For telecommuters, this greatly increases flexibility in work locations, allowing for cost-effective communication with your office, without being tied to a desk in a home office with a wireline connection.

For situations that involve frequently changing off-site job locations, such as location movie shoots or construction sites, lower technical requirements for 5G deployment allow for easily set up a 5G connection to which existing devices can connect to a 5G router via Wi-Fi. For scenes of live breaking news, 5G technologies can be used to supplant the traditional satellite truck used to transmit audio and video back to the newsroom. Spectrum formerly allocated to high-speed microwave satellite links has been repurposed for 5G NR communication.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices

One priority for the design of 5G networks is to lower barriers to network connectivity for IoT devices. While some IoT devices (e.g., smartwatches) have LTE capabilities, the practical limitations of battery sizes that can be included in wearable devices and the comparatively high power requirements of LTE limit the usefulness of mobile network connectivity in these situations. Proposals for 5G networks focusing on reducing power requirements, and the use of lower-power frequencies such as 600 MHz, will make connecting IoT devices more feasible.

Smart cities, office buildings, arenas, and stadiums

The same properties that make 5G technologies a good fit for IoT devices can also be used to improve the quality of service for situations in which large numbers of connected devices make extensive use of the mobile network in densely populated areas. These benefits can be realized easily in situations with variable traffic—for instance, arenas and stadiums are generally only populated during sporting events, music concerts, and other conventions. Large office towers, such as the 54-story Mori Tower in Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills district, are where thousands of employees work during the week. Additionally, densely populated city centers can benefit from the ability of 5G networks to provide service to more devices in physically smaller spaces.

When and where are 5G rollouts happening?

Early technical demonstrations

The first high-profile 5G rollout was at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. KT (a major mobile network operator) Samsung, and Intel collaborated to deliver gigabit-speed wireless broadband, and low-latency live streaming video content. During the games, 100 cameras were positioned inside the Olympic Ice Arena, which transmitted the video to edge servers, then to KT’s data center to be processed into “time-sliced views of the athletes in motion,” and then transmitted back to 5G-connected tablets for viewing. This demonstration used prototype 5G SIG equipment, which is distinct from the standardized 5G NR hardware and networks being commercialized worldwide.

Similarly, Intel and NTT Docomo have announced a partnership to demonstrate 5G technology at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The companies will use 5G networks for 360-degree, 8K-video streaming, drones with HD cameras, and smart city applications, including “pervasive facial recognition, useful for everything from stadium access to threat reduction.”

Other 5G tests and rollouts have occurred worldwide. Ericsson and Intel deployed a 5G connection to connect Tallink cruise ships to the Port of Tallinn in Estonia. Huawei and Intel demonstrated 5G interoperability tests at Mobile World Congress 2018. In China, ZTE conducted tests in which the company achieved speeds in excess of 19 Gbps on a 3.5 GHz base station. Additionally, in tests of high-frequency communications, ZTE exceeded 13 Gbps using a 26 GHz base station, and a latency of 0.416 ms in a third test for uRLLC.

Where is 5G available in the US?

Verizon Wireless deployed mmWave-powered 5G, marketed as “Ultra Wideband (UWB),” in Chicago, IL and Minneapolis, MN on April 3, 2019; in Denver, CO on June 27, 2019; in Providence, RI on July 1, 2019; in St. Paul, MN on July 18, 2019; and in Atlanta, GA, Detroit, MI, Indianapolis, IN, and Washington, DC on July 31, 2019.

Future deployments of Verizon’s 5G services have been announced for Boston, MA, Charlotte, NC, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, OH, Dallas, TX, Des Moines, IA, Houston, TX, Little Rock, AR, Memphis, TN, Phoenix, AZ, Providence, RI, San Diego, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, as well as Kansas City, by the end of 2019.

Verizon Wireless started deployments of its 5G fixed wireless internet service on October 1, 2018 in Los Angeles and Sacramento, CA, Houston, TX, and Indianapolis, IN. Verizon’s initial 5G network deployments use its proprietary 5G TF hardware, though the company plans to transition these networks to 5G NR in the future. Verizon’s 5G TF network is only used for home internet service, not in smartphones.

AT&T has active 5G deployments in Atlanta, GA, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Waco, TX, Charlotte, NC, Indianapolis, IN, Jacksonville and Orlando, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA, Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, New Orleans, LA, New York City, NY, Oklahoma City, OK, and Raleigh, NC. Deployments have also been announced for Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, and Minneapolis, MN.

AT&T has deployed LTE Advanced nationwide; the company is marketing LTE Advanced as a “5G Evolution” network, though LTE-Advanced is not a 5G technology. AT&T has a history of mislabeling network technologies; the company previously advertised the transitional HSDPA network as 4G, though this is commonly considered to be an “enhanced 3G” or “3.5G” standard.

Sprint started deployments of 5G on May 30, 2019 in the Dallas / Ft. Worth and Houston, TX, Kansas City / Overland Park, KS, and Atlanta, GA metro areas. Sprint’s 5G networks run on 2.5 GHz, providing more widespread coverage throughout a region than is possible on line-of-sight mmWave connections, though with a modest decrease in speed compared to mmWave networks. Sprint activated 5G service in Chicago on July 11, 2019. The company has also announced plans to deploy 5G in Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, Phoenix, AZ, and Washington, DC.

T-Mobile USA has active 5G services in Atlanta, GA and Cleveland, OH, with future plans to bring 5G services to Dallas, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Las Vegas, NV, and New York, NY. T-Mobile’s deployment is powered by Ericcson AIR 3246 modems, which support both 4G LTE and 5G NR. This equipment allows for 5G and LTE networks to be operated from the same equipment.

The purchase of Sprint by T-Mobile has been approved by the Justice Department, though a multi-state lawsuit is aiming to prevent the deal from proceeding. If the merger goes forward, “only the New T-Mobile will be able to deliver… real, game-changing 5G,” according to T-Mobile CEO John Legere in a June 2019 blog post. Following a merger, the New T-Mobile will have 600 MHz low-band, 2.5 GHz mid-band, and mmWave spectrum holdings, putting it at an advantage relative to AT&T and Verizon.

Where is 5G available in the UK?

EE debuted 5G services in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, and Manchester on May 30, 2019. Availability of 5G by the end of 2019 is planned for Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield. Availability of 5G in 2020 is planned for Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Wolverhampton, and Worcester.

BT, which owns EE, is anticipated to deploy separate BT-branded 5G services in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Belfast in autumn 2019.

Vodafone provides 5G services in Birkenhead, Birmingham, Bolton, Bristol, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow, Lancaster, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newbury, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, and Wolverhampton at present, with deployments planned for Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, and Warrington by the end of 2019.

Three will begin rollout of 5G services in London in August 2019, with services for Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Reading, Rotherham, Sheffield, Slough, Sunderland, and Wolverhampton expected before the end of the year.

Three and Vodafone do not charge a premium for 5G network services in the UK, compared to their rate plans for 4G.

O₂ announced availability of 5G services for Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough, and Leeds “from October 2019,” with plans to bring expand 5G services to “parts of 20 towns and cities, before rolling out to a total of 50 by summer 2020.”

Where is 5G available in Australia?

Optus has 100 5G-capable sites in service, and has pledged to build 1,200 by March 2020.

Telstra commenced rollout of 5G networks, starting with the Gold Coast in August 2018. Telstra services select neighborhoods in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and Toowoomba.

Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) operator has declared its intent to provide 5G fixed wireless internet access in a statement to ZDNet.

Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE have been banned by the Australian government from providing 5G networking equipment to mobile network operators due to national security concerns.

Where else in the world is 5G available?

South Korea was the first country to have a commercially available 5G network, with SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus activating 5G networks on April 3, 2019, two hours before Verizon Wireless activated 5G in the US, according to ZDNet’s Cho Mu-Hyun. By April 30, 2019, 260,000 subscribers in South Korea were using 5G networks. KT, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, is working on deployments of in-building repeaters for use in crowded buildings such as airports and train stations.

5G is also seen as vital for economic development among Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia including 5G as part of the Vision 2030 economic development plan, and Qatari network operator Ooredoo claiming “the first commercially available 5G network in the world” on May 14, 2018, prior to the availability of smartphones that can use 5G.

Ookla maintains a map of 5G network services worldwide, with networks categorized into Commercial Availability, Limited Availability, and Pre-Release to demonstrate the extent of availability for each observed deployment.

How does a 5G future affect enterprises and mobile users?

As technology advances, older devices will inevitably reach end-of-life; in the mobile space, this is an outsized concern, as wireless spectrum is a finite resource. Much in the same way that the digital switchover occurred for over-the-air TV broadcasts, older mobile networks are actively being dismantled to free spectrum for next-generation networks, including transitional LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and “true” 5G networks.

In the US, AT&T disabled its 2G network on January 1, 2017, rendering countless feature phones—as well as the original iPhone—unusable. Verizon plans to disable its legacy 2G and 3G networks by the end of 2019, which will render most feature phones and older smartphones unusable, as well as IoT devices such as water meters. Verizon stopped activations of 3G-only phones in July 2018. End-of-life plans for the 2G networks of Sprint and T-Mobile have not been publicly disclosed.

Additionally, as 5G is used increasingly to deliver wireless broadband, wireline broadband providers will face competition as the two services approach feature parity. With many people using smartphones both as their primary computing device and for tethering a traditional computer to the internet, the extra cost of a traditional wireline connection may become unnecessary for some people, and enable those outside the reach of traditional wireline connections to have affordable access to high-speed for the first time.

Business customers may also integrate 5G technology in proximity-targeted marketing. 5G’s reliance on microcells can be used as a secondary means of verification to protect against GPS spoofing, making proximity-targeted marketing resistant to abuse.

As 5G specifications are designed around the needs of businesses, the low-power and low-latency attributes are expected to spark a revolution in IoT deployments. According to Verizon Wireless President Ronan Dunne, 5G will enable the deployment of 20 billion IoT devices by 2020, leading to the creation of the “industrial internet,” affecting supply chain management, as well as agriculture and manufacturing industries. These same attributes also make 5G well suited to use cases that require continuous response and data analysis, such as autonomous vehicles, traffic control, and other edge computing use cases.

Source: https://clearcritique.com/5g-mobile-networks-a-cheat-sheet/

5G URLLC: Design Challenges and System Concepts

Abstract—The upcoming fifth generation (5G) wireless

communication system is expected to support a broad range of

newly emerging applications on top of the regular cellular

mobile broadband services. One of the key usage scenarios in

the scope of 5G is ultra-reliable and low-latency

communications (URLLC). Among the active researchers

from both academy and industry, one common view is that

URLLC will play an essential role in providing connectivity

for the new services and applications from vertical domains,

such as factory automation, autonomous driving and so on.

The most important key performance indicators (KPIs) related

to URLLC are latency, reliability and availability. In this

paper, after brief discussion on the design challenges related to

URLLC use cases, we present an overview of the available

technology components from 3GPP Rel-15 and potential ones

from Rel-16. In addition, coordinated multi-cell resource

allocation methods are studied. From the system level

simulation results in an urban macro environment, it can be

observed that effective multi-cell cooperation, more

specifically soft combining, can lead to a significant gain in

terms of URLLC capacity.

Download complete file: 5G_URLLC

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328400150_5G_URLLC_Design_Challenges_and_System_Concepts

5G: Use it to leapfrog, others will be left behind

The most innovative sector, usually non-carrier related, must be supported by government. Cross-discipline talents are crucial…

The Philippines launched Southeast Asia’s beginnings of a commercial 5G service through a home broadband wireless connection in June 2019. The new service allows internet users connection speed of 20 Mbps to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) through the 5G wireless network sans the trouble of time-consuming physical fiber optic connection underground. The new technology will speed up the adoption of broadband internet in the country and expedite the introduction of 5G wireless mobile communication in the 2020s.

Like other earlier generations of 1G to 4G mobile communication, the new 5G mobile communication system has the potential to drastically affect society through the new application areas developed along with the technology.

The table below shows how each successive generation of mobile communication has changed the world.

From the perspective of national development, the current transition from 4G to 5G is more significant than the earlier mobile communication generation shifts. While the technology behind 5G is essentially an engineering improvement over 4G, the application arena represents a revolution. The earlier 1G to 4G worked mainly on how to change and improve communications, and confined itself mostly to the consumer spaces in the economy. The critical application area in 5G will likely move to business and government space in the economy and holds significant promise to improve any countries’ productivity, regardless of whether they are developed or developing.

New use cases of 5G make it different 

Each generation of mobile communication encompasses all technologies of the previous generations and expands its economic footprint by embracing new activities as well as improving the old one. There are three new different use cases of the 5G network:

1. Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB): High bandwidth internet access suitable for web browsing, video streaming and virtual reality. eMBB is the service just introduced in the Philippines via the 5G wireless broadband, and its full functionality will be utilized when mobile 5G smartphone service is introduced.

2. Massive machine type communication: This feature means we can install as many as a million monitoring devices in 1 square kilometer without physical wiring connection, and collect real-time data for analysis and action. This functionality means sensors can be monitoring everything anywhere in real-time.

3. Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC): This means 5G system can receive and send back a signal from a faraway place in less than 10 milliseconds with an accuracy of 99.999 percent. This performance is better than the human response that runs into 50 to 100 milliseconds. URLLC allows remote control of many time-sensitive operations such as remote surgery, autonomous vehicle.

5G business model development and the critical role of government regulation

The three different use cases of 5G mean any operation that will benefit from more accurate real-time data collection, analysis and response is a candidate for productivity improvement using the technical capability of the 5G. There are many current government activities and business applications in developing countries that can tap the 5G platform and significantly promote economic development.

One prime candidate for using 5G platform is in real-time traffic management. The management system can use the Internet of Things (IoT) and low latency to build a connected traffic management infrastructure using the 5G platform to link all data collected by the various traffic monitoring sensors at appropriate control junctions. The data collected can then be processed by the artificial intelligence-based traffic management algorithms on the platform to issue real-time management instructions to direct and modify traffic at a particular traffic choke point.

The 5G technology opens the door of using the new communication technology to promote the growth of developing countries by boosting the productivity of existing economic activities. The opportunity can only be exploited by entrepreneurs who are also well versed in the details of the particular application domain. The country should take the initiative to foster the development of such entrepreneurship and help the entrepreneur to become the drivers in developing relevant business usage models for 5G.

One of the critical regulatory frameworks the government should provide is helping the non-carrier related entrepreneurs to tap the 5G network. For example, 5G network slicing allows operators to divide a single physical network — everything from the radio to the core network — into multiple virtual networks. Each network slice can have different speed limits, different latencies and different quality of service configuration. The charges levied by the carrier will materially affect the development of the use cases by the entrepreneurs. How to partition the revenue of different stakeholders through different fee structure is going to be a social issue for the government to resolve.

Another critical challenge to the government in using 5G to improve the economy is the reorientation of the country’s education setup. We noted in the case of traffic management: AI ability is a complementary competency if one wants to tap the potential of 5G. Hence the government should look at its education setup to develop more cross-discipline talents who can integrate the new technology with the requirement in the fields.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/5g-use-it-to-leapfrog-others-will-be-left-behind/594782/