Network Slicing
United but Divided : One Network, Independent Slices, Limitless Services
Multi-layer Network to Jumpstart 5G Services
5G is a game changer that will completely shift the paradigm of mobile communication and industries alike. While 5G will indeed enhance the service performance of mobile users, more importantly, it will act as a catalyst for Industry 4.0. To make this vision a reality, a single 5G network must be able to support diverse services such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), and satisfy diverse service level agreements (SLAs) regarding throughput, latency and reliability. With network slicing, operators can easily create several virtual network on top of a common physical infrastructure, including the radio access, core and transport network with each network slice meeting the needs of a specific service. This will enable efficient, versatile and stable network operation and open the door for innovative
5G use cases and various new business models for industries.
Bringing
Network Slicing
Technologies
into Reality
Network slicing involves the end-to-end (E2E) 5G network and requires various
state-of-the-art technologies based on standards and open source communities such as NGMN, 3GPP, ETSI, ONF, IETF, O-RAN and ONAP. Samsung is contributing to these industry endeavors and is able to provide an end-to-end network slicing solution that is comprised of an orchestration platform, slice management system and each network domain (radio access, core, transport). All of these components can be arranged in various configurations to fulfill the requirements and SLAs of each slice.
One-Touch Lifecycle
Management at Your Fingertips
One of the key considerations for network slicing is managing a multi-sliced virtual network. Samsung’s network slicing orchestration is a collection of well-designed mechanisms and tools that enable closed loop automation of network slicing lifecycle management from preparation to commissioning, operation and decommissioning. The cloud orchestration is an E2E service orchestrator that manages the network slice KPIs including capacity, qualification, SLA and network health monitoring. The domain orchestration assigns, scales, and controls resources of the radio access, core and transport to each slice. The two functions guarantee an optimal creation and operation of customized slices for each service in an E2E network. By integrating our Analytics Platform, operators can take advantage of AI and machine learning algorithms for an efficient and intelligent SLA management.
Samsung’s network slicing manager (NSM) is crucial for network slice operations as the manager supports a simple, uncomplicated lifecycle management from network slice creation and operation to termination. The tool comes with service templates with pre-defined network topology requirements and service level agreement conditions based on different types of services that allows a one-click network slice creation and automated provisioning. A single pane dashboard provides a straightforward look at the current status and KPI of all created slices and swift slice management is possible through diverse functions.
Core and RAN Harmonized
for Network Slicing
Samsung’s Core and RAN are designed
to support the needs of network slicing.
Samsung’s cloud native 5G core is based on containerized, stateless micro-services and offers a flexible launch of new services, faster time-to-market and enhanced scalability. With dynamic scaling and instantaneous reconfiguration, operators can adjust the network on-demand in response to the traffic changes of each network slice or service. As all core functions are deployed as independent micro-services, operators can configure a customized core network for each service and slice depending on industry and vertical-specific features defined in 3GPP’s Release 16.
Samsung’s 5G core can also differentiate charging policies among network slices. The slices can report their usage data individually to the charging function (CHF) and the network slice manager and OSS/BSS can send billing information to each consumer. Operators can manage a new business model with independent network slice operations and create an optimal profit model.
For true end-to-end network slicing, RAN slicing is another must-have technology. Samsung’s radio access functions support priority control, resource isolation and traffic separation for RAN slicing. These technologies bring dynamic and real-time RAN control to satisfy the specific characteristics of individual service and slice such as tight delay management for mission critical services or throughput management. Furthermore, AI and machine learning based RIC (Radio Interface Control) can be added for more intelligent and automated service quality management in a closed-loop process.
In addition, by combining with a virtualized RAN that supports flexible configuration settings and resource scaling, it is possible to adapt to continuously changing service requirements more quickly and provide optimal network services. Samsung’s vRAN solution, with its easy expandability and manageability, is able to support operators to rapidly expand their network capacity and features, and evolve their networks with 5G-powered capabilities to support diverse services such as highly traffic demanding services or latency sensitive mission-critical services.
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