5G SA/5G Core network
GSA: 200 global operators offer 5G services; only 20 (Dell’Oro says 13) have deployed 5G SA core network
200 global network operators in 78 countries are offering 5G mobile and/or fixed wireless services at the end of 2021, according to the GSA. 487 operators in 145 countries are investing in 5G, including trials and spectrum license acquisitions, up from 412 operators at the end of 2020.
Notably, only 187 of the operators offering 5G services provide 5G mobile services, in 72 countries. The others are delivering 5G fixed-wireless access (even though it’s not an IMT 2020 use case). In total, 83 operators in 45 countries/territories have launched 3GPP-compliant 5G fixed-wireless access services.
Only 99 operators in 50 countries are investing already in 5G standalone (SA) core network, which includes those planning/testing and launched 5G SA networks).
GSA has catalogued just 20 operators in 16 countries with 5G standalone deployed/launched in public networks.
13 January 2022 update from Dave Bolan of Dell’Oro Group:
We count 13 CSPs that commercially deployed 5G SA networks for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) in 2021, and they were nowhere close to the aggressiveness in breadth and depth of the buildouts that we saw by the Chinese Service Providers in 2020, or for that matter in 2021. We thought all three CSPs in Korea would have launched by now, but so far only KT has launched.
And we expected AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., and the CSPs in Switzerland to have launched 5G SA in 2021. In spite of these disappointments, the projected growth rate for 2021 is 61% Y/Y for 2021 and lowering to 18% Y/Y for 2022 due to the expected decline in growth rate by the Chinese CSPs.
The 5G device market is growing much more quickly. The GSA counted 1,257 announced devices at year-end, up nearly 125 percent from 2020. Around half (614) are 5G phones, up more than 120 percent from 278 at the end of 2020.
In total, 857 of the devices are commercially available, up more than 155% from the 335 on the market at the end of 2020. GSA has identified 614 announced 5G phones, up more than 120% from 278 at the end of 2020.
References:
https://gsacom.com/technology/5g/
GSA: 5G Market Snapshot – 5G networks, 5G devices, 5G SA status
Mobile Core Network (MCN) growth to slow due to slow roll-out of 5G SA networks
Progress report: Moving AT&T’s 5G core network to Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud platform
Introduction:
A little more than six months after AT&T announced it’s 5G SA Core Network would run on Microsoft Azure cloud platform, a Microsoft blog post by Shawn Hakl, VP of 5G strategy in Azure for Operators, provides a progress report on that crucial IT industry initiative. Microsoft received requests from many operators, partners, and customers to share more details of the evolution of Microsoft’s hybrid cloud technology to support AT&T’s 5G core network workloads.
Through Azure for Operators, Microsoft has forged close ties with AT&T personnel, product services groups, and partners. At the heart of the value Microsoft delivers in each of these relationships, is the way in which we leverage the power of the cloud to improve the next generation of telco networks. Microsoft aims to harness trends toward Software Defined Networking (SDN), Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs), and Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) coupled with the service-based architecture of 5G, to begin digitally transforming the network.
That evolution involves introducing both hybrid cloud infrastructure and software, building scalable elastic carrier-grade networks, and using the power of AI and machine learning to build self-optimizing networks that can heal, defend, and provision themselves. These efforts will enable operators to hyper-automate the business itself, bringing down costs and improving the overall service experience. Azure for Operators represents the set of investments Microsoft is making to bring the power of the cloud to the network.
Microsoft’s efforts are aimed at getting workloads on the network to function on a carrier-grade hybrid cloud, which includes both public and dedicated on-premises cloud infrastructure. Telecommunication services are highly distributed and will likely become more so over time. As a result, the value of creating a carrier-grade hybrid cloud model lives in its ability to meet customers where they are—at the edge of the cloud, the edge of the network, or the edge of the enterprise.
AT&T Backgrounder on use of “SDN” and network virtualization:
In 2013, AT&T adopted an aggressive position on “Software Defined Networks (SDNs)” and network virtualization, with the ultimate goal of delivering 75 percent of their network using virtualized technology by 2020. With their own definition of SDN (not related to the ONF’s strict separation of control and data planes or using OpenFlow as the southbound interface between them). AT&T says they did meet those objectives, but this author is skeptical based on checks with AT&T employees that work in their central offices.
In the 2013-2020 time frame, there was no commercial cloud option available that included the necessary features and capabilities to enable carrier-grade cloud. AT&T created a mostly proprietary (not standards based as claimed) implementation of cloud technology that was deployed in their on-premises data centers. This initial integrated cloud evolved into a Network Cloud, and today, we’ve arrived at Network Cloud 2.7—representing seven years of experience developing on-premises cloud for network workloads.
With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of this technology, development teams from AT&T’s Network Cloud organization have moved into Azure for Operators, directly integrating the intellectual property into a Microsoft offering and assuring a seamless transition.
Unique AT&T – Microsoft Partnership:
Microsoft says their collaboration with AT&T is unique in three ways:
- It’s the first time that a tier-one operator has embraced commercial hybrid cloud technology to run mobility network workloads that support their existing consumer base.
- The effort is entirely focused on the mobility core network versus go-to-market collaborations at the edge.
- It’s a multi-vendor cloud-mobile core network system: Microsoft hybrid cloud technology supports the AT&T mobile core network that spans more than 60 cloud-native network functions (CNFs) and virtual network functions (VNFs) from 15 different vendors.
Network Cloud technology originally developed by AT&T can be utilized by multiple carriers, maintaining security, without losing differentiation, and with the added benefit of having many costs such as security patching, vendor updates, and regulatory changes delivered as part of a standard commercial product.
These capabilities will be combined with Microsoft’s edge platform, our hybrid management platform, Azure Arc, and our ecosystem of partners including equipment providers, hardware vendors, and software vendors. By joining the Network Cloud with our platform and growing ecosystem, we have achieved a carrier-grade hybrid cloud solution that will be delivered as the Azure for Operators platform. The roles of the partners are as follows:
- Microsoft develops the carrier-grade hybrid cloud technology that supports the AT&T mobility core network workloads.
- AT&T continues to select and manage the network applications (VNFs and CNFs) and their configurations to deliver mobility services to AT&T customers.
In other words, Microsoft is taking the AT&T Network Cloud technology, building it into Microsoft’s standard hybrid cloud product, and then delivering a carrier-grade hybrid cloud solution to the market and AT&T itself, where it can run at AT&T on-premises or on Azure public cloud. Microsoft hybrid cloud technology supports the AT&T mobility core network workloads used to deliver 5G connectivity that supports consumer, enterprise, and the FirstNet responder community. In terms of security, it’s important to note that Microsoft does not access AT&T customer data—AT&T continues to hold access to that data, and Microsoft cannot see it.
For AT&T, this collaboration puts them in a position to deliver new services faster and more flexibly across Azure public cloud and on-premises with common tooling and services, reducing time-to-market for a cloud-native approach.
Microsoft believes the result will be better resiliency across the network, cost advantages when it comes to scaling existing services, and a more effective introduction of new services resulting in continuous improvements to the customer experience.
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Before joining Microsoft in 2020, Hakl was a longtime Verizon executive. He added that “Telecommunication services are highly distributed and will likely become more so over time. As a result, the value of creating a carrier-grade hybrid cloud model lives in its ability to meet customers where they are – at the edge of the cloud, the edge of the network, or the edge of the enterprise.”
James Crawshaw, a principal analyst of service provider operations and IT for research and consulting firm Omdia (owned by Informa in the UK), wrote on LinkedIn that Microsoft will have a lot of work to do to fully support AT&T’s complex core and cloud operations.
He also wrote that AT&T has a history of offloading networking systems. For example, the company in 2016 offloaded its ECOMP orchestration/automation system to the Linux Foundation open source community. However, “I don’t think that was a huge success,” Crawshaw wrote. He believes AT&T has replaced ECOMP (subsequently dubbed ONAP) elements with commercial orchestration systems in a number of areas. Here are are his exact words:
“When AT&T found that its ECOMP orchestration/automation system was getting too hard to manage they offloaded it to the Linux Foundation in the hope that the open source community would take care of it (ONAP). I don’t think that was a huge success (it was a failure, in this author’s opinion). I believe AT&T has actually replaced ECOMP/ONAP with commercial orchestration systems in a number of areas. Offloading its OpenStack-based cloud platform to Microsoft is a similar strategy. But if Microsoft struggles to turn a managed service into a repeatable product that they can sell to other operators around the world they may end up offloading it onto an IT services company whose business model is a better fit.”
Learn More:
Microsoft’s acquisition of AT&T’s Network Cloud, as well as Metaswitch Networks and Affirmed Networks, brings the anchor applications and telco know-how to build the features that are required for a carrier-grade hybrid cloud. These features, available to the entire partner ecosystem, contribute to an open, interoperable network that offers support to all operators. The message to operators from Microsoft is simple and straightforward: your partners and your customers—and the relationship is powered by our technology. For more information about the Azure for Operators strategy, refer to the e-book.
References:
AT&T 5G SA Core Network to run on Microsoft Azure cloud platform
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jamescrawshaw_5g-telcocloud-activity-6884786261261881345-cqpb/
5G Security explained: 3GPP 5G core network SBA and Security Mechanisms
by Akash Tripathi with Alan J Weissberger
Introduction:
5G networks were deployed in increasing numbers this past year. As of December 2021, GSA had identified 481 operators in 144 countries or territories that were investing in 5G, up from 412 operators at the end of 2020. Of those, a total of 189 operators in 74 countries/territories had launched one or more 3GPP-compliant 5G services, up by 40% from 135 from one year ago.
Despite 5G’s much advertised potential, there are significant security risks, especially with a “cloud native” service based architecture, which we explain in this article.
New 5G services, functions and features have posed new challenges for 5G network operators. For example, bad actors could set up “secure” wireless channels with previously issued 5G security keys.
Therefore, it’s imperative for 5G operators to address end-to-end cyber security, using an array of novel techniques and mechanisms, which have been defined by 3GPP and (to a much lesser extent) by GSMA.
5G Security Requires 5G SA Core Network:
It’s important to distinguish between 5G NSA network security (which use 4G security mechanisms and 4G core network/EPC) vs. 5G SA network security (which uses 5G core network serviced base architecture and new 5G security mechanisms as defined by 3GPP).
Samsung states in a whitepaper:
▪ With the launch of 5G Stand Alone (SA) networks, 3GPP mitigates some long-standing 4G vulnerabilities to enable much stronger security.
▪ At the same time, the way the Service Based Architecture ‘explodes’ the new 5G Core opens up potentially major new vulnerabilities. This requires a fundamentally new approach to securing the 5G Core, including comprehensive API security.
▪ Operators can communicate 5G SA’s new security features to some business users. Communication to consumers is more challenging because the benefit of new security enhancements will only come into effect incrementally over many years.
▪ Mobile network security cannot depend on 3GPP alone. Operators must apply robust cyber security hygiene and operational best practice throughout their operations.
In addition, the 5G network infrastructure must meet certain critical security requirements, such as the key exchange protocol briefly described below.
There are many other risks and challenges, such as the rising shortage of well-trained cyber security and cyber defense specialists. We will address these in this article. But first, a backgrounder….
5G Core Network Service Based Architecture (SBA):
To understand 5G security specifications, one has to first the 3GPP defined 5G SA/core network architecture.
5G has brought about a paradigm shift in the architecture of mobile networks, from the classical model with point-to-point interfaces between network function to service-based interfaces (SBIs).
The 5G core network (defined by 3GPP) is a Service-Based Architecture (SBA), whereby the control plane functionality and common data repositories of a 5G network are delivered by way of a set of interconnected Network Functions (NFs), each with authorization to access each other’s services.
Network Functions are self-contained, independent and reusable. Each Network Function service exposes its functionality through a Service Based Interface (SBI), which employs a well-defined REST interface using HTTP/2. To mitigate issues around TCP head-of-line (HOL) blocking, the Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC) protocol may be used in the future.
Here’s an illustration of 5G core network SBA:
The 5G core network architecture (but not implementation details) is specified by 3GPP in the following Technical Specifications:
| TS 23.501 | System architecture for the 5G System (5GS) |
| TS 23.502 | Procedures for the 5G System (5GS) |
| TS 23.503 | Policy and charging control framework for the 5G System (5GS); Stage 2 |
The 5G network consists of nine network functions (NFs) responsible for registering subscribers, managing sessions and subscriber profiles, storing subscriber data, and connecting user equipment to the Internet using a base station. These technologies create a liability for attackers to carry out man-in-the-middle and DoS attacks against subscribers.
Overview of 3GPP 5G Security Technical Specifications:
The 5G security specification work are done by a 3GPP Working Group named SA3. For the 5G system security mechanisms are specified by SA3 in TS 33.501. You can see all versions of that spec here.
3GPP’s 5G security architecture is designed to integrate 4G equivalent security. In addition, the reassessment of other security threats such as attacks on radio interfaces, signaling plane, user plane, masquerading, privacy, replay, bidding down, man-in-the-middle and inter-operator security issues have also been taken in to account for 5G and will lead to further security enhancements.
Another important 3GPP Security spec is TS 33.51 Security Assurance Specification (SCAS) for the next generation Node B (gNodeB) network product class, which is part of Release 16.
It’s critically important to note that ALL 3GPP security spec features and functions are required to be supported by vendors, but the are ALL OPTIONAL for 5G service providers. That has led to inconsistent implementations of 5G security in deployed and planned 5G networks as per this chart, courtesy of Heavy Reading:
Scott Poretsky, Ericsson’s Head of Security, wrote in an email to Alan:
“The reason for the inconsistent implementation of the 5G security requirements is the language in the 3GPP specs that make it mandatory for vendor support of the security features and optional for the operator to decide to use the feature. The requirements are defined in this manner because some countries did not want these security features implemented by their national telecoms due to these security features also providing privacy. The U.S. was not one of those countries.”
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Overview of Risks and Potential Threats to 5G Networks:
A few of the threats that 5G networks are likely to be susceptible to might include those passed over from previous generations of mobile networks, such as older and outdated protocols.
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Interoperability with 2G-4G Networks
For inter-operability with previous versions of software or backward compatibility, 5G must still extend interoperability options with mobile gadgets adhering to the previous generation of cellular standards.
This inter-operability necessity ensures that vulnerabilities detected in the outmoded Diameter Signaling and the SS7 Interworking functions followed by 2G-4G networks can still be a cause of concern for the next-generation 5G network.
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Issues related to data protection and privacy
There is a likely possibility of a cyber security attack such as Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack in a 5G network where a perpetrator can access personal data through the deployment of the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)-catchers or cellular rogue base stations masquerading as genuine mobile network operator equipment.
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Possibility of rerouting of sensitive data
The 5G core network SBA itself could make the 5G network vulnerable to Internet Protocol (IP) attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). Similarly, network hijacking, which involves redirecting confidential data through an intruder’s network, could be another form of attack.
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Collision of Politics and Technology
Government entities can impact 5G security when it comes to the production of hardware for cellular networks. For instance, various countries have new regulations that ban the use of 5G infrastructure equipment that are procured from Chinese companies (Huawei and ZTE) citing concerns over possible surveillance by the Chinese government.
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Network Slicing and Cyberattacks
Network slicing is a 5G SA core network function (defined by 3GPP) that can logically separate network resources. The facility empowers a cellular network operator to create multiple independent and logical (virtual) networks on a single shared access. However, despite the benefits, concerns are being raised about security risks in the form of how a perpetrator could compromise a network slice to monopolize resources for compute-intensive activities.
3GPP Public Key based Encryption Schemes:
3GPP has introduced more robust encryption algorithms. It has defined the Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) and the Subscription Concealed Identifier (SUCI).
- A SUPI is a 5G globally unique Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) allocated to each subscriber and defined in 3GPP specification TS 23.501.
- SUCI is a privacy preserving identifier containing the concealed SUPI.
The User Equipment (UE) generates a SUCI using a Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES)-based protection scheme with the public key of the Home Network that was securely provisioned to the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) during the USIM registration.
Through the implementation of SUCI, the chance of meta-data exploits that rely on the user’s identity are significantly reduced.
Zero Trust architecture:
As 5G will support a massive number of devices, Zero Trust can help private companies to authenticate and identify all connected devices and keep an eye on all the activities of those devices for any suspected transgression within the network. While it has been successfully tested for private enterprise networks, its capability for a public network like open-sourced 5G remains to be gauged.
Private 5G Networks:
A private 5G network will be a preferred mode for organizational entities that require the highest levels of security taking into account national interests, economic competitiveness, or public safety. A fully private 5G network extends an organization with absolute control over the network hardware as well as software set-up. All of those mechanisms can be proprietary as the 5G private network deployment is only within one company’s facilities (campus, building, factory floor, etc).
Future of 5G Security:
The next-generation 5G-based wireless cellular network has put the spotlight on new opportunities, challenges, and risks, which are mandatorily required as the 5G technology makes great strides.
The 5G security mechanisms will continue to evolve in 3GPP (with Release 17 and above). Many of them will be transposed to become (“rubber stamped”) ETSI standards.
Note that 3GPP has not submitted its 5G core network architecture or 5G security specifications to ITU-T which is responsible for all 5G (IMT 2020) non-radio standards.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable as of May 25th, 2018 in all EU member states, harmonizes data privacy laws across Europe. It could serve as a model for network security and data protection initiatives outside the European Union.
Conclusions:
The 5G network has the possibility to enhance network and service security. While 5G comes with many built-in security controls by design, developed to enhance the protection of both individual subscribers and wireless cellular networks, there is a constant need to remain vigilant and a step ahead in terms of technological innovation to thwart possible new cyber-attacks.
An end-to-end security framework across all layers and all domains would be essential. Introducing best practices and policies around security and resilience will remain imperative to future-proof 5G networks.
References:
Strong Growth Forecast for 5G Security Market; Market Differentiator for Carriers
Report Linker: 5G Security Market to experience rapid growth through 2026
AT&T Exec: 5G Private Networks are coming soon + 5G Security Conundrum?
https://portal.3gpp.org/desktopmodules/Specifications/SpecificationDetails.aspx?specificationId=3169
5G Security Vulnerabilities detailed by Positive Technologies; ITU-T and 3GPP 5G Security specs
Author Bio:
Akash Tripathi is a Content Marketing strategist at Top Mobile Tech. He has 10+ years of experience in blogging and digital marketing. At Top Mobile Tech, he covers various how-to and tips & tricks related to iPhone and more related to technologies. For more about Akash, please refer to:
https://twitter.com/akashtripathi8
https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-tripathi-42315959/
https://www.facebook.com/akash.tripathi.562
https://www.instagram.com/akashtripathi8/
Nokia to provide 5G SA core network for Volkswagen (private) and KDDI (public)
Nokia has deployed a 5G standalone (SA) core network at Volkswagen’s plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. The 5G private campus network covers the production development center and pilot hall at the plant. This network uses the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) system to provide reliable and secure connectivity. Nokia’s DAC provides high-bandwidth and low-latency connectivity for sensors, machines, vehicles and other equipment.
Volkswagen will use the network to improve efficiency in production. The company is initially testing the wireless upload of data to manufactured vehicles and intelligent networking of robots and wireless assembly tools.
“By deploying private wireless to explore and develop its potential in manufacturing, Volkswagen underscores its leading position in leveraging digitalization to enhance efficiency and productivity,” commented Chris Johnson, head of Global Enterprise business for Nokia. “We are delighted to support this effort with the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud and our extensive experience in private wireless networks.”
The pilot network will allow Volkswagen to test whether 5G technology helps the company meet the demanding requirements of vehicle production, as well as increases efficiency and flexibility in series production of the future.
“Predictable wireless performance and the real-time capabilities of 5G have great potential for smart factories in the not-so-distant future. With this pilot deployment, we are exploring the possibilities 5G has to offer and are building our expertise in operating and using 5G technology in an industrial context,” said Dr.-Ing. Klaus-Dieter Tuchs, network planning at Volkswagen.
Nokia’s work with Volkswagen at its main German plant aligns with the vendor’s private 5G ambitions, as reported by German newspaper Handelsblatt in 2019. The company said at the time that it expects to provide 5G networks for German companies following the opening of the application procedure for local firms intending to use 5G frequencies on industrial campuses, highlighting not only its intention to offer its service for network planning, but also aims to operate the networks.
Nokia’s private network reach extends beyond Germany of course. The vendor has worked with industrial-type partners on LTE, 5G-ready and IP/MPLS networks around the world including at the Zeebrugge port in Belgium, the Irish Aviation Authority and the Société du Grand Paris (SGP), the state owned industrial company responsible for the Grand Paris Express metro project.
Resources:
Nokia Industrial Private Wireless
https://www.nokia.com/networks/industry-solutions/private-wireless/industry/
Nokia Digital Automation Cloud | Nokia
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On December 2nd, Nokia announced that Japanese network operator KDDI selected Nokia’s 5G Core and Converged Charging software to support its transition to a fully automated, cloud-native 5G SA Core network architecture.
Nokia’s cloud-native 5G Core’s near zero-touch automation capabilities help operators drive greater scale and reliability. Following the evolution of KDDI’s networks to 5G standalone core, subscribers will experience lower latency, increased bandwidth and higher capacity.
Nokia’s open 5G Core architecture gives KDDI the flexibility to be responsive to market demands while controlling costs by streamlining operations and unlocking crucial capabilities, such as network slicing. Developed around DevOps principles, Nokia’s 5G Core will automate the lifecycle management of KDDI’s networks, as well as enable continuous software delivery and integration.
Nokia will also deploy 5G monetization and data management software solutions including cloud-native Converged Charging, Signaling, Policy Controller, Mediation and Registers to capture new 5G revenue opportunities, enhance business velocity and agility, and streamline the operator’s network operations.
References:
Nokia deploys 5G private network at Volkswagen plant in Germany
Dell’Oro: 5G SA Core network launches accelerate; 14 deployed
According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, revenues for the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market are poised for growth in 2022. The outlook has turned positive, starting in 4Q 2021, as 5G Standalone (SA) commercial launches begin to accelerate.
“The expected growth rate for 2022 is more optimistic than reported last quarter with the commercial deployments of more 5G SA enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) networks,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “We count 14 commercial 5G SA networks deployed by Communication Service Providers for eMBB services. Five of the 14 5G SA networks went commercial after the close of 3Q 2021 quarter. Europe had a surprising uptick in 3Q 2021 with 5G SA network commercial launches primarily in Germany,” Bolan added.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2021 Mobile Core Network Report:
- MCN market revenues declined into negative growth year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter.
- The slowdown is attributed to a slowing of the 5G SA network buildouts in China.
- 5G Packet Core revenues for the quarter were spread across only six vendors: Ericsson, Huawei, Mavenir, NEC, Nokia, and ZTE.
13 January 2022 Update (SA=Stand Alone; eMBB=Enhanced Mobile Broadband 5G use case):
The Dell’Oro Group Mobile Core Network Quarterly Report offers complete, in-depth coverage of the market with tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, shipments, and average selling prices for Evolved Packet Core, 5G Packet Core, Policy, Subscriber Data Management, and IMS Core including licenses by Non-NFV and NFV, and by geographic regions. To purchase this report, please contact us at [email protected].
Opinion:
It’s this author’s belief that the 5G SA core network market will be dominated by the hyperscale cloud service providers. In particular, Amazon AWS, Microsoft AZURE, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud. 5G SA core network enables many hyped capabilities, such as network slicing, MEC, VoNR, automation, virtualization and others.
Addendum:
Please refer to Dave Bolan’s COMMENT in the box below this article. You can download a free whitepaper from the link there.
References:
5G Standalone Commercial Launches Accelerate Mobile Core Market, According to Dell’Oro Group
The Sorry State of 5G SA Core Networks- Smart Communications in Phillipines
Telcos Loss: Private 5G & MEC/5G SA Core Network – Cloud Giants Take Market Share
TIM Brasil, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Motorola test 5G SA for power distribution in LatAm
TIM Brasil has been carrying out a 5G Standalone (SA) pilot in Sao Paulo since August 2nd. It’s in partnership with energy distribution company Enel, reports Telesintese. The 5G SA tests in an electric substation in the neighborhood of Vila Olímpia are being conducted in the 3.5 GHz band and use Ericsson AIR 6449, AIR3227, and AIR 6488 antennas. Qualcomm provided a 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) gen 2 CPE with Snapdragon X62 5G Modem, while Motorola provided Edge, Moto G 5G and Moto G100 smartphones.
Sensors installed by Enel in the substation allow remote control of the structure and identify in real time if there are faults or maintenance needs. According to the companies, this is the first pilot to use 5G in electrical distribution in Latin America.
Photo Credit: Telesintese
As Leonardo Capdeville explained to Tele.Síntese , the 5G worked as a backhaul link for Qualcomm’s CPE, which radiated the WiFi signal through the power substation. Sensors installed by Enel in the substation allow remote control of the structure and identify in real time if there are failures or maintenance needs.
Another application tested is related to the field team. Enel technicians use smartphones connected directly to 5G. These feature augmented reality programs that allow instant access to substation data and detail how to perform maintenance just by pointing the camera at the equipment.
This was the first pilot to use 5G in electrical distribution in Latin America, according to the companies.
Currently, Enel uses systems that connect via 3G to its control centers. Such a connection is much slower, and results in response times in the seconds.
With 5G, observe Fernando Andrade, responsible for the Engineering and Construction area at the distributor, the response time is between 1 to 5 milliseconds, opening the way for a more intense use of the concept of “self healing” networks, that is, networks that establish routes for energy as problems in one of them are identified.
PROJECT WILL BE BIGGER WHEN 3.5 GHZ SIGNAL IS RELEASED:
According to the executives, the project should evolve. Enel liked the result, noted gains in efficiency and speed in handling incidents. In the city of São Paulo there are 120 power substations that could be connected, but the executive goes further: “We started with the substation because it is a relatively controlled environment, but it is possible to spread the technology to the equipment throughout the network ”, he observed.
Andrade envisions the use of 5G for commanding drones, capturing and analyzing images. It even suggests that, in the future, garbage trucks bring cameras and sensors that analyze energy networks, freeing inspectors for other tasks.
Capdeville, from TIM, points out that the current test is based on a provisional license from Anatel, but that the antenna installed in Vila Olímpia must remain and be used to serve the 5G consumer in general as soon as the 3.5 GHz spectrum is released in the city – the operator was one of the buyers of the track in the auction held by the regulatory agency at the beginning of the month .
The 5G network pilot is part of Enel’s Urban Futurability project, which will transform Vila Olímpia into a digital and sustainable neighborhood with an investment of R$125 million from the Research and Development program of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).
TIM and Enel, both companies with Italian origins, already have a partnership for research and development of products and in different areas. Enel is one of the companies hired by TIM to supply energy from renewable sources. In this case, the built-in solar power plants distributor in Bahia serves the tele consumer units.
In addition, Enel X, the energy company’s innovation arm, has a contract with TIM to develop solutions for smart cities – such as smart grid applications.
References:
https://www.telecompaper.com/news/tim-brasil-launches-5g-standalone-tests-with-enel–1404882
EXFO/Heavy Reading Survey: Nearly half of all mobile network operators plan to deploy 5G SA within 1 year
EXFO worked with Heavy Reading to conduct a survey of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) across North America and Europe to understand their approach to 5G SA core network and the revenue opportunity it presents. 49% of MNOs are planning to deploy 5G SA within the next year, while a further 39% will deploy 5G SA within one to two years. The main drivers for deploying 5G SA are to support enhanced consumer offerings such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mobile gaming; accelerate time to market for new services; and offer network slice-based services.
While 76% of MNOs believe service assurance will be necessary to sell advanced 5G services and meet stringent service level agreements (SLAs), operations teams don’t have real-time visibility into how outages and degradations impact customers—whether they are humans or “machines” (critical, latency-sensitive applications and devices like emergency services or factory floor robots). 65% of MNOs say that this lack of actionable insight is preventing them from automating networks and fault resolution, which are essential to meeting demanding performance expectations in enterprise applications.
Specifically, most MNOs said they need a range of new tools and capabilities to generate revenues from 5G services:
- 86% say they need real-time network, service and quality of experience intelligence
- 85% say they need to be able to monitor per-service and per-device performance.
- 81% say they need AI-driven anomaly and fault detection, as well as root cause analysis.
- 82% say they need monitoring of end-to-end network slices.
“The opportunity to generate revenues from 5G SA lies in automated networks, which means service providers must deliver on enterprise service level agreements. This survey with Heavy Reading reinforces what we hear regularly from our customers: mobile network operators want greater service assurance and analytics to deliver actionable insights into network performance and user experience,” said Philippe Morin, CEO at EXFO. “This is where EXFO’s unique, adaptive approach to service assurance comes into play. By taking a source-agnostic approach to data collection and analytics, combined with a fully cloud-native architecture, our service assurance platform integrates with legacy and new 5G systems to provide a unified, end-to-end view of customer experience, device and network performance.”
5G NSA (LTE & EPC) 5G SA (NR connected to 5G core)
Benefits of 5G SA core network:
- MNOs can launch new enterprise 5G services such as smart cities, and smart factories
- It is fully virtualized, cloud-native architecture (CNA), which introduces new ways to develop, deploy and manage services
- The architecture enables end to end slicing to logically separate services
- Automation drives up efficiencies while driving down the cost of operating the networks.
- By standardizing on a cloud-native approach, MNOs can also rely on best of breed innovation from both vendors and the open-source communities
“When you look at the number of RFPs that are out there and the dialog we’re having, I think we’re now starting to see the need [to move]from what I would call studying or doing assessment, to potentially now looking at deploying [5G SA],” Morin said. He pointed out that there have been numerous announcements by carriers around 5G private networks and enterprise-based services, which he says are the initial drivers for 5G SA deployment — and are also driving the need for enhanced service assurance capabilities.
“When you’re talking about more business-focused use cases, service-level agreements become even more important and that’s why [there is a]need for service assurance,” Morin said. In contrast to previous network generations, where service assurance was often considered only after a variety of other decisions were made, the expectations of serving enterprise use cases are making service assurance a higher priority. “It’s pretty clear, as you deploy 5G SA, especially in the context of … [having]machines connected to this, IoT devices and so on, and more of an enterprise focus, that service assurance requirements are much more front and center than what we’ve seen in the previous protocols.”
Morin sites two key 5G SA capabilities that offer value:
- The ability to support billions of connections (massive machine-to-machine communications.
- Network slicing to enable differentiated services at scale.
With those opportunities, comes the requirement for MNOs to ensure that they can provide the levels of service and scalability that slicing and massive IoT demand — and that’s where operators will need better monitoring tools, visibility and insights, Morin says, and their acknowledgement of that need is reflected in the survey. EXFO’s joint survey found that 76% of the surveyed MNOs believe that service assurance will be necessary for deploying 5G SA. “I’m pretty sure we would not have the same stats, if you would’ve asked the same questions around 3G and 4G,” Morin added.
“If you’re going to have business use cases that machines are going to be relying on to be able to execute that application, machines won’t be as tolerant as humans, because the service won’t be able to operate. So what this means is that the network operators need a better view of insights on the network performance, that in the past, because it was for humans, maybe was not as required. But clearly, now, for 5G SA and 5G revenues that are going to be driven out of this, getting better visibility on what is happening that is down to the device level– not just the customer; the device, the service and the network — and end-to-end visibility will be really, really critical.”
There’s also the changing nature of service assurance and visibility strategy and tools to consider. As enterprises moved into making use of big data, their strategies and architectures often involved pouring network data into a massive data lake and then retrieving information from there as needed.
“With 5G, and 5G Standalone in particular, we absolutely believe that’s not going to be the architecture of choice. … You cannot wait for the issue to come up, and go into a data lake to try to figure out what happened in the last 15 minutes. We believe that it’s got to be real-time, it’s got to be adaptive — because you can’t start getting information from all the devices and all the IoT. This would have a big impact on your overall cost structure.”
Morin said that 5G SA core network’s cloud-based, orchestrated and automated nature enables the company to support machine-learning and generate insights only when an anomaly or service issue/problem is detected. AI will then determine whether data is needed from the device, service or network layer in order to resolve the issue(s).
“If you’re going to really make 5G SA a success, it will require a higher level of automation, and I do believe that service assurance will be what I would call an automation enabler. If you don’t have that capability to monitor and in an automated way, provide actionable insights to [a specifics]use case and to [a specific]SLA, I think it will be very difficult to go into a high-volume deployment with 5G SA.”
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Author’s Note:
Despite the optimistic results of this 5G SA core network survey, just 13 network operators had launched commercial public 5G SA networks as of the middle of August 2021. Some 45 other operators are planning or deploying 5G SA for public networks, and 23 operators are involved in tests or trials. That’s out of a total of 176 commercial 5G networks launched worldwide (163 of them are 5G NSA networks)!
Note also that there are no ITU standards or 3GPP specifications for how to implement a 5G SA Core network. There are many choices which will lead to different, incompatible implementations of the 5G Core network
References:
https://www.exfo.com/en/products/service-assurance-platform/nova-core/
https://www.exfo.com/en/resources/blog/mobile-private-networks-5g/
https://www.affirmednetworks.com/sa-and-nsa-5g-architectures-the-path-to-profitability/
Google Distributed Cloud for 5G network operators – another form of lock-in?
At Google Cloud Next ’21 the cloud giant announced Google Distributed Cloud, a portfolio of solutions consisting of hardware and software that extend Google cloud infrastructure to the edge and into the customer premises data center. This new offering permits wireless network operators to run their 5G core and radio access network (RAN) functions on Google Distributed Cloud in a variety of locations. These could include a telco’s own facilities, premises owned by customers or Google’s network of about 140 centers. One unifying theme is that hosting functions in a multitude of places – and not just a couple of big data centers – would shorten the distance that data signals must travel and cut service-interfering latency, a measure of the journey time. Functions can also be co-hosted with enterprise applications, according to Google.
In particular, Google Distributed Cloud can run across multiple locations, including:
- Google’s network edge – Allowing customers to leverage over 140+ Google network edge locations around the world.
- Operator edge – Enabling customers to take advantage of an operator’s edge network and benefit from 5G/LTE services offered by our leading communication service provider (CSP) partners. The operator edge is optimized to support low-latency use cases, running edge applications with stringent latency and bandwidth requirements.
- Customer edge – Supporting customer-owned edge or remote locations such as retail stores, factory floors, or branch offices, which require localized compute and processing directly in the edge locations.
- Customer data centers – Supporting customer-owned data centers and colocation facilities to address strict data security and privacy requirements, and to modernize on-premises deployments while meeting regulatory compliance.
The first products under this portfolio include Google Distributed Cloud Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted. Google Distributed Cloud Edge is now available for preview, while Google Distributed Cloud Hosted set to become available in preview in the first half of 2022.
Google Distributed Cloud Edge is primarily aimed at wireless network operators. It is designed to exist in the operator edge, customer edge and Google edge locations, of which there are over 140 around the world.
while Google Distributed Cloud Hosted is meant for public-sector and commercial customers that need to meet strict data residency, security or privacy requirements. Both are fully managed and comprise hardware and software solutions, including artificial intelligence and analytics capabilities.
During a media briefing, Google Cloud’s VP and GM of Open Infrastructure Sachin Gupta said “This portfolio allows customers to focus on applications and business initiatives rather than management of their underlying infrastructure. In other words, they can just leave the complexity to us.”
Gupta added that the Distributed Cloud Edge product enables network operators to run 5G core and radio access network functions closer to users, allowing them to slash latency and “offer their enterprise customers high-speed bandwidth, with private 5G and localized compute.” In a blog, the executive added the product advances previously announced work with Ericsson and Nokia to deliver cloud-native network applications. He said that Distributed Cloud Hosted is a “safe and secure way to modernize on premises deployments without requiring any connectivity to Google Cloud.”
Google Distributed Cloud is built on Anthos, an open-source-based platform that unifies the management of infrastructure and applications across on-premises, edge, and in multiple public clouds, all while offering consistent operation at scale. Google Distributed Cloud taps into our planet-scale infrastructure that delivers the highest levels of performance, availability, and security, while Anthos running on Google-managed hardware at the customer or edge location provides a services platform on which to run applications securely and remotely.
Using Google Distributed Cloud, customers can migrate or modernize applications and process data locally with Google Cloud services, including databases, machine learning, data analytics and container management. Customers can also leverage third-party services from leading vendors in their own dedicated environment. At launch, a diverse portfolio of partners, including Cisco, Dell, HPE, and NetApp, will support the service.
As Google’s global network increases in reach, the company will be building out service-centric networking capabilities to simplify everything from connectivity to observability. For organizations with interconnects, VPNs, and SD-WANs, Networking Connectivity Center provides a centralized management model, with monitoring and visualization through our Network Intelligence Center. And, with Private Service Connect, partners and customers such as Bloomberg, MongoDB, and Elastic are now able to easily connect services without having to configure the underlying network.
Enterprises with workloads both on-premises and in the cloud can leverage hybrid load balancing to securely optimize application delivery. To help you detect and prevent malicious bot attacks, we recently integrated reCAPTCHA Enterprise with Cloud Amor. Together with Cloud IDS, the Google network edge is fortified with best-in-class security.
Obviously, virtualization is a network operator prerequisite so that network software runs on common, off-the-shelf compute servers. After virtualizing, network operators could theoretically integrate their networks with Google’s distributed cloud.
Iain Morris of Light Reading offers his opinion:
Operators might do this if they believe a deal with Google costs less than operating a private cloud, or if it promises other benefits. But it means giving the hyper-scaler a big say over technology strategy and would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, when the valuation gap between telecom players and Internet firms was not so extreme and telcos were much warier of tie-ups.
For a start, it would obviously hand prominent roles to Anthos, Google’s application management platform, and Kubernetes, a container orchestration platform that Google originally designed. Even when Google’s facilities are not being used, it will effectively manage the hardware and software.
Obviously, neither Ericsson or Nokia were listed as partners or systems integrators as their purpose built wireless network equipment and 5G SA core network software are in direct competition with 5G deployments using hyper-scale cloud service providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) technology. Ericsson will launch virtual RAN software next year while Nokia´s AirScale Cloud RAN solution is in trials with major wireless network operators, including AT&T (which has outsourced its 5G SA core network to Amazon AWS). Nonetheless, those two major network equipment vendors made supportive comments:
“The announcement of Google Distributed Cloud supports Ericsson’s vision of the network becoming a platform of innovation, enabling companies across the ecosystem to deliver the applications of the future the way they need to, unlocking the full potential of 5G and edge,” said Rishi Bhaskar, Head of Hyperscale Cloud Providers for Ericsson North America.
“This announcement builds on our on-going partnership with Google Cloud to develop Nokia cloud-native 5G core and Nokia radio solutions for Google’s edge computing platform,” said Nishant Batra, Nokia Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. “By extending this relationship into Google Distributed Cloud Edge, we will increase customer choice and flexibility, ultimately helping our global customer base with multiple cloud-based solutions to deliver 5G services on the network edge.”
Curiously, there was no mention of software partners in Google’s announcement, but any RAN software would have to work with the underlying base station hardware. Who takes responsibility for that is something 5G network operators must resolve before committing to Google Cloud.
Iain says that network operators teaming up with cloud service providers is a new form of lock-in substituting cloud hyper-scalers from wireless network equipment vendors. He wrote:
What’s entirely unclear is why operators should worry less about dependency on Google than they currently do about their heavy reliance on Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia. Switching from one RAN vendor to another is costly but feasible, as swap-outs of Huawei in Europe are showing. Moving from one public cloud to another may be as tricky as quitting a crime syndicate. In 2019, Snapchat developer Snap warned in a regulatory filing that moving systems between public clouds would be “difficult to implement” and demand “significant time and expense.”
If this and other hyper-scaler offers take off, the real losers would probably not be Ericsson and Nokia – which can still sell radio units and provide RAN software – but the vendors of private cloud software, such as VMware and Red Hat (owned by IBM). More generally, the public cloud could also be a threat to some of Google’s own hardware partners. “The server vendors (Dell, HPE etc) also lose out,” says James Crawshaw, a principal analyst with Omdia (a sister company to Light Reading, in an email. “Although they are going to be building and shipping the Google boxes, I suspect the margins on these will be lower than the regular servers they sell enterprises.”
Few telcos have been as brave/reckless (delete according to bias) as Dish and gone all-in with a public cloud. That is partly because brownfield operators would be writing off the servers they already own. Nevertheless, Crawshaw expects public cloud usage to keep rising. “Servers are depreciated over three to seven years depending on the business and how fresh they like their IT,” he says. “So while the telcos will continue to run their own clouds, they will increase their public cloud usage over time and only partially renew their private estate.”
AT&T, Bell Canada, Telus, Telenet, TIM, Reliance Jio and Orange are all on the growing list of operators that have put some IT workloads on Google Cloud. “Some of these are running packet core and RAN applications as well,” says Gupta. Contrast that with Dish Network which is wholly reliant on the AWS public cloud and AT&T which has its own physical 5G RAN, but will use the public AWS cloud for its 5G SA core network.
“Some years ago, everyone was saying we would have vendor lock-in with Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia and no one mentioned Oracle and Cisco and now the light is on hyper-scalers,” said Yves Bellego, Orange’s director of network strategy, during a recent interview with Light Reading. “In fact, that risk is something we have always been very concerned about.” That would imply cloud hyper-scaler lock-in is something network operators must carefully evaluate.
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References:
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/google-targets-telcos-new-distributed-cloud-infrastructure
https://telecoms.com/511704/google-launches-a-more-flexible-iteration-of-its-cloud-portfolio/
Telefónica Deutschland/O2 “pure 5G” with DSS, Open RAN and 5G SA
One year after the 5G launch, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 confirms their 5G network will cover over 50 percent of the German population by the end of 2022. The company is also on track to cover of over 30 percent of the population by the end of 2021. The basis for this 5G network expansion is the investment of around four billion euros until the end of 2022.
The focus of this 5G network expansion is on so-called “pure 5G” via the mid-band 3.6 GHz frequency. The 3,000th 3.6 GHz antenna just went live in the O2 5G network. Meanwhile, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 is installing around 180 of these 5G antennas in the network every week, tendency further increasing. The company is expanding 5G twice as fast overall compared to 4G and is fully on track to supply all of Germany with 5G by the end of 2025.
As with 2G, 3G and 4G, we are also bringing 5G to mass market readiness in Germany through rapid network expansion, network investments in the billions and products with the best price-performance ratio,” said CEO Markus Haas on the first anniversary of the 5G launch in the O2 network.
“Since the beginning, we have aligned the 5G roll-out with the concrete benefits for private customers and businesses. This is the most effective way for us to drive forward the urgently needed digitisation for business and consumers. Today, one year after the launch, our 5G network is already live in a hundred cities. And current international tests confirm that it is the fastest 5G network in Germany. Now we will also quickly bring the O2 5G network to the area.”
The added value of 5G for private customers in this early expansion phase, beyond the performance advantages, lies primarily in the additional network capacities provided by the new mobile communications standard. In the first half of 2021, the O2 mobile network transported 1 billion gigabytes of data, an absolute record. Cities are data traffic hotspots. The growing number of urban 5G users is increasingly shifting parts of this data traffic to the 5G network, thus relieving the 4G network. In this way, the O2 5G network also ensures a consistently good network experience for 4G users of all Telefónica Deutschland / O2 brands and partner brands.
Market penetration with 5G is visibly gaining speed. In the meantime, 5G smartphones account for more than 50 percent of all end devices sold through Telefónica Deutschland / O2 sales channels. In line with this, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 is now moving the 5G network expansion more strongly into the area. Here, too, the telecommunications company is focusing on so-called “pure 5G” via the 3.6 GHz frequency. In the future, it will provide private and business users with multiple gigabit data speeds and response times (latency) of just a few milliseconds.
This is where “pure 5G” differs from the combined 4G/5G via Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which currently prevails in other German 5G networks [1.]. 5G shares lower frequency bands with 4G at comparable performance levels. Where it is a useful 4G extension in selected areas, the company will also use Dynamic Spectrum Sharing. In addition, it is partially rolling out 5G purely over the 700 MHz frequency to accelerate area rollout and lay the groundwork for the upcoming 5G Stand Alone in the O2 network. The first sites are already live.
Note 1. Both Vodafone Germany and Telekom Deutschland use DSS to facilitate the rollout of 5G by sharing spectrum between 4G and 5G networks: Vodafone has deployed the technology to switch 700MHz frequencies back and forth between 4G and 5G, while Telekom Deutschland is rolling out DSS as part of a 5G expansion drive and is apportioning 5MHz of its 2.1GHz resource for 4G and 5G as needed. Telefónica Deutschland, which has already said it would use DSS for deployment in rural areas, conceded it will use DSS for 4G expansion in “selected areas.” The operator also appeared to indicate that its 5G deployment over 700MHz will be only partially “pure,” in order to accelerate its network expansion.
Photo Credits: Henning Koepke / Telefónica Deutschland
Telefónica Deutschland / O2 is continuously increasing its 5G network expansion despite parallel major projects such as the 3G switch-off and densification of the 4G network. In addition, the company has set the course for its 5G network of the future in the last twelve months. Telefónica Deutschland / O2 was the first German network operator to bring the innovative open architecture Open RAN for the mobile access network out of the laboratory and into live operation.
The conversion to Open RAN will start before the end of this year. It will give the company greater flexibility in the choice of manufacturers and, as a primarily software-based solution, simplify and accelerate the upgrading of base stations. Telefónica Group has appointed NEC as systems integrator for open RAN trials in its four main markets – Spain, Germany, the UK and Brazil.
O2 plans to deploy Open RAN later this year
In addition, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 achieved the first frequency bundling in the 5G live network in this country via carrier aggregation, which further accelerates 5G for customers and ensures a stable high data throughput. The O2 network also recently saw the German premiere of the first voice call directly via the 5G live network. These 5G calls do not take a diversion via the 4G network and thus no longer interrupt ongoing 5G data connections. Finally, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 now operates an independent 5G core network (no explanation given for what that means?).
The company has thus created the basis for freeing the new network from its technical dependence on 4G and will provide a 5G core network for 5G Stand Alone (SA). In future, this will enable private and business customers to use even the most demanding 5G applications. Technically, the company is already in a position to roll out a nationwide 5G Stand Alone network.
As soon as 5G Stand Alone offers real added value for customers, O2 will activate the technology. For example, when enough end devices in the market support 5G SA. Telefónica Deutschland is working with Ericsson for its 5G core network, but noted that the deployment of open radio access network (RAN) technology will ensure access to a wider group of vendors.
Over the past year of 5G service, Telefónica Deutschland / O2 has started to move their 5G core network for industrial applications to the cloud. This will significantly simplify the establishment of 5G campus networks, accelerate the introduction of new industrial applications for companies and shorten the time to market for new products and applications, according to the company.
The rapid expansion of the 5G network helps Telefónica Deutschland / O2 to pursue its corporate goal of offering its customers the greenest mobile network in Germany by 2025. 5G transmits significantly more energy-efficiently than the predecessor standards. The conversion of 3G to 4G and 5G network technology alone will reduce the power consumption of the O2 network by up to 90 percent per transported byte. In addition, the company will make a significant contribution to achieving Germany’s climate targets overall. Its 5G network will pave the way for digital solutions and all-round connectivity, helping other industries to save CO2 emissions and develop sustainable business models.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/o2-germany-boasts-of-pure-5g-but-concedes-dss-need/d/d-id/772583?
The Sorry State of 5G SA Core Networks- Smart Communications in Phillipines
Very few 5G SA core networks of any size have been launched to date. According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), just 13 network operators had launched commercial public 5G SA networks as of the middle of August 2021. Some 45 other operators are planning on deploying 5G SA for public networks, and 23 operators are involved in tests or trials. That’s out of a total of 176 commercial 5G networks launched worldwide (163 of them are 5G NSA networks)!
Note that there is NO 5G core network in 5G NSA as per middle of this chart:
In the U.S., T-Mobile’s 5G SA has not provided the much touted benefits such as network slicing, automation, service chaining, network management, etc. “The light version of 5G standalone,” summed up analyst Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics.
For T-Mobile, the immediate incentive and upside to deploy SA 5G was making its midband 2.5GHz 5G more relevant, Entner said. As in, keeping its low band 600MHz 5G non-standalone as the pilot signal would lead to fewer phone screens lighting up with its mid band 5G, especially indoors.
“Now that 2.5GHz signal can piggyback on the 600 pilot,” he said. “With that, they get better penetration in the building with 2.5.”
Karri Kuoppamaki, SVP of radio network technology and strategy at T-Mobile, said that “the vast majority” of the carrier’s 5G customers had SA-ready SIMs, but he didn’t offer more specifics about the state of its standalone deployment. Those customers may not necessarily realize they’ve gotten anything special from SA 5G at T-Mobile, but that may not matter either, given the superiority of the carrier’s mid-band 5G.
“Standalone 5G is a means to an end,” said Craig Moffett, analyst with MoffettNathanson. “Ultimately, what matters is network capability. Being first gives T-Mobile just one more edge in network performance.” Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst at Techsponential, concurred.
“For now, smartphone buyers should focus on finding the best combination of speed and coverage that is available in their area,” he said in an email. “That is often T-Mobile’s 5G network, but the technical underpinnings are somewhat less important to average consumers than the amount and frequency of the spectrum that T-Mobile has to deploy thanks to its acquisition of Sprint.”
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Smart Communications is one of the few wireless network operators in the world to have launched a 5G standalone (SA) network. The Philippines-based telco is using a separate 5G core and operating a network that is no longer anchored to 4G LTE (5G NSA). The new infrastructure supports network slicing and opens up industrial and enterprise opportunities, for example.
Smart’s 5G SA network is not yet widely available. In fact, it has been launched only in Makati – a city in the Metro Manila region and the country’s financial hub. PLDT-owned Smart said its “first batch” of 5G SA sites is fully operational. Smart noted that it has now deployed more than 4,000 non-standalone 5G sites nationwide, supported by PLDT’s 524,000 kilometer fiber network. Smart first launched 5G services in 2020.
Smart has collaborated with Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia on 5G, although it only name-checked the Swedish vendor in today’s release. For example, Smart said it has teamed up with Ericsson to develop 5G use cases at the PLDT-Smart Technolab, which currently hosts one of the 5G SA sites.
“Through the years, PLDT and Smart have been at the forefront of breakthrough innovations in the telco industry, including 5G. With the first batch of our 5G SA sites now fully operational, we are starting to see the true capabilities of 5G which will play a critical role in the advancement of massive IoT, health care and smart cities, delivering customer experience that is truly world-class” said Alfredo Panlilio, PLDT and Smart Communications president and CEO.
“Technology plays an important role in today’s society as evidently seen during the pandemic. 5G SA, as an innovation platform, will create new opportunities for enterprises and consumers that will maximize its ultra-reliable and low latency capabilities. This enables industrial automation, autonomous mobile robotics deployment, safe remote crane operations, fast response in gaming and interactive video streaming, among others. We are creating opportunities for the Filipino Enterprises to compete in the global arena,” said Mario Tamayo, head of technology at PLDT and Smart.
With the activation of the first 5G SA sites at the PLDT and Smart headquarters in Makati, Smart has upgraded its 5G facilities, enabling them to connect with the 5G core network.
With 5G SA in place, Smart said it will be able to offer Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and network slicing capabilities in the short term, as well as support new industrial and enterprise opportunities. Smart made its first successful VoNR call in July this year at the Technolab in Smart Tower in Makati City.
Smart is certainly the first to launch 5G SA in the Philippines, while rival Globe Telecom is testing the technology. Globe had 81.7 million mobile subscribers and Smart 71.7 million at the end of the second quarter. Smart and Globe still dominate the Philippines mobile market, despite a challenge from China Telecom-backed newcomer Dito Telecom.
About Smart Communications:
More than 650 global brands—including those in the most highly regulated industries and all the G15 investment banks, rely on Smart Communications to deliver meaningful customer communications across the entire lifecycle—empowering them to succeed in today’s digital-focused, customer-driven world while also simplifying processes and operating more efficiently. This is what it means to scale the conversation.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/asia/smart-trumpets-standalone-milestone-with-5g/d/d-id/772511?
https://www.smartcommunications.com/resources/press-releases/
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211004/5g/smart-activates-5g-sa-network-headquarters-philippines
Telcos Loss: Private 5G & MEC/5G SA Core Network – Cloud Giants Take Market Share