Young Lee
Head of Network Architecture,
Networks Business at Samsung Electronics
In our last post, we explored what 5G cost accelerators and optimizers are and how we can accelerate the 5G network evolution through developing cost optimizers in terms of network infrastructure.
What makes 5G economically viable? Reducing OPEX is one of the best ways to make TCO (total cost of ownership) lower. There are four technology pillars: automation, virtualization, cloudification and network slicing. Success in these four pillars, will accelerate the 5G evolution.
[Figure 1] 4 Pillars of 5G Network Evolution
The 1st pillar: Automation
[Figure 2] The 1st pillar: Automation
Automation is key to reducing OPEX and the first pillar enabling 5G network evolution. There are many complex functions to be placed in parallel or in sequence in network operation. Network Automation process comprises two closed loops – one for orchestration and another for assurance. The role of the orchestration part is the provision of network resources according to given policy to the offered service. Once resources are provisioned, the assurance elements including monitoring & diagnosis play their role of optimizing the network resources within its confines.
In case the SLA is violated, the assurance part informs the orchestration part of the basics of AI/ML analytics. The orchestration part then resumes provision of services to meet the SLA. Both the orchestration and the assurance depend on data collected from E2E domains and the insights produced by the AI/ML-based analytics engine, triggering actions for provision/control.
For more information about Samsung's automation vision, please visit here.
The 2st pillar: Virtualization
[Figure 3] The 2nd pillar: Virtualization
Virtualization, the second pillar enabling 5G network evolution, is also essential to achieve automation. Network functions virtualization is a network architecture concept that uses the technologies of IT virtualization to virtualize entire classes of network functions into S/W building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create communication services. Instead of building dedicated network appliances (H/W) only to perform some specific NFs (Network Functions), NFV (Network Function Virtualization) allows to build COTS servers that host all NFs as virtualized S/W entities running on its servers. The net effect of this transformation is cost reduction, easy adaption, and a faster TTM (time-to-market) of new services.
The 3st pillar: Cloudification
[Figure 4] The 3rd pillar: Cloudification
Another important task as essential as reducing TCO is creating new services. This is where cloudification, the third pillar, plays a pivotal role. Cloudification further enhances service agility, rapid elasticity, and high scalability by placing all necessary functions in CNFs (Cloud Native Network Function) over the cloud infrastructure.
The main driver of cloudification is Cloud Native, which is one step further from NFV/VNF. Specifically, both gNB and 5G Core are migrating to a Cloud Native Core. One of the main features of Cloud Native is micro-services. In Micro-service architecture, network functions are modularized into much smaller micro-services level. Micro-services are commonly deployed in a container. This enables highly flexible scaling and function lifecycle management. Stateless server architecture is another feature of Cloud Native. It means servers do not maintain session state while delegating the state management to the outside of application. The benefit of stateless architecture is an improved resiliency and auto-scale in/out. The cloud native core provides capabilities that allow the network to adapt to changing demands and support new services with minimal interactions required by the operation organization. For more information about Samsung’s Cloud Native core, please visit here.
The 4st pillar: Network slicing
[Figure 5] The 4th pillar: Network slicing
The last pillar is network slicing. Network slicing allows for flexible management of the network, offering various services including the existing communication service. Only when network slicing can be implemented as another pillar along with the other three, 5G will be a true new-service enabler. Network Slicing is an automated new service creation infrastructure that facilitates monetization. Each network slice is regarded as a new service that not only generates revenue but also reduces the cost by sharing the common network infrastructures. We are building per slice usage and charging infrastructure. There are tremendous opportunities for new service creation such as B2B verticals and other B2C services that never existed before. For more information about Samsung’s vision of Network Slicing, please visit here.
[Figure 6] 5G Enables New Types of Services
In the previous generations of 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, there were only limited services, including voice, some data and some video. But with 5G, network slicing provides big changes. It empowers the operators to offer immersive services, such as smart factory, smart city, autonomous driving, drone-based solutions, etc. I can envision that anyone can define a new service that can be delivered dynamically to operators’ network infrastructure. This means new revenue generation for the operators and increased satisfaction for the users.
[Figure 7] Samsung's strengths with the 4 pillars of 5G network evolution
5G network evolution will be driven by the four pillars: Automation, Virtualization, Cloudification and Network Slicing. These four pillars will empower the operators to deploy new services 10x magnitude faster, manage and operate without manual intervention, maximize its efficiency and auto-scale its resources. Moreover, these four pillars will enhance their service agility and rapid elasticity; and thus provide the readiness for monetization.
Samsung’s product solutions are developed from an end-to-end network perspective, taking into account of these four pillars of 5G technology. This means our solutions will help the operators to reduce costs and increase revenue. We have also taken leadership in the standards organizations and industry alliances to promote a seamless inter-operability in the multi-vendor environment to avoid vendor lock-in for the benefit of the operators. Samsung is at the forefront of the digital transformation era and will continue to empower operators to transform their networks and services with these four pillars of 5G network evolution.
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