Samsung vCore is at the "Core" of 5G Evolution

5G is creating a ripple effect of innovations and developments that enrich our daily lives. Last year, 5G commercial services have begun and operators have been continuing to enhance their services with the latest network technologies, including 5G Standalone (SA).

Samsung’s virtualized mobile core solutions have been at the forefront of this evolution, offering innovative network services to users. As we enter into the next phase of the 5G era after commercial deployments around the globe, we had an opportunity to hear from Jongpil Ho, Practice Leader of Core Solutions, Product Strategy at Samsung Networks. He discussed the importance of core in operators’ 5G networks and took a deeper dive into Samsung’s core solutions.

The history of Samsung’s core solution development spans over three decades. And the year 2015 marked a significant milestone for Samsung when it successfully completed the development of vCore that led to its commercialization. Samsung has been leading innovations with its virtualized core solutions that include EPC, 4G/5G common packet core, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Mission Critical Push to Talk (MCPTX) and Cloud Management Systems.

In April of 2019, Samsung 5G Non-Standalone vCore (NSA vCore) commercially launched for the first time in the world. Currently, all three operators in Korea use Samsung vCore solution to provide 5G commercial services. The number of 5G users who own a 5G-enabled mobile device has reached nearly 15% of total mobile users as of now. Since 5G launch, Samsung vCore solution reliability and quality have been proven with no service outage.

Samsung has also collaborated as a sole 4G LTE partner to a leading operator in India to establish and commercialize one of the largest LTE networks, including core networks, in the world in 2016. This network serves nearly 400 million subscribers, where the average data consumption per user is over 11 gigabytes per month with Samsung’s core – both virtualized and physical together. Samsung introduced CUPS (Control and User Plane Separation) architecture to its commercial vCore, which provides a foundation for easy, software-upgrade migration to 5G along with the company’s Cloud Management System.

One of the key areas of reliability is providing continuous service during large network outages that can cause network overload conditions due to large bursts of traffic. Its field-proven vCore solution has implemented various overload control features. Samsung not only offers overload control functions defined by the 3GPP standards such as AMF / MME Load Re-Balancing, but also offers its own unique overload control features to prevent NF (Network Function) overloads. When traffic storms occur which may be caused by factors such as natural disasters, accidents or human errors, the event throttling feature responds by limiting the traffic threshold condition that is defined and configured by the operator to minimize the impacts on the network. Additionally, Samsung vCore solution that supports stateless architecture includes a NF context database, which stores and synchronizes NF context data for system redundancy and geographical redundancy, enhancing the reliability of its core.

Depending on the needs of the operators, Samsung has the capability to provide a wide range of end-to-end solutions, including Network Functions (NFs) such as AMF, SMF, UPF, NRF and NSSF.

Embracing open standards and multi-vendor collaboration not only opens up various options for the operators but also helps them break out of vendor lock-in. With the goal of strengthening its vCore solutions, Samsung has created 5G Open Labs in Samsung’s R&D Campus in Korea and the US to actively lead collaborative development efforts with top-tier companies and run multi-vendor interoperability tests.

Samsung cloud-native 5G SA core allows network operators to quickly launch new services and conduct upgrades according to their business needs while reducing OPEX by providing higher operational efficiency. With the adoption of cloud native architecture, Samsung’s core transforms into a service platform that can scale easily from small to large capacity. With proven success in commercializing virtualized mobile core solutions, Samsung will continue to support global operators in bringing advanced 5G services to life.