Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson demonstrate global
availability of 5G End-to-End Network Slicing with Quality of Service
- Uniform,
home-operator controlled, and Quality of Service (QoS) secured connectivity for
latency-critical applications of globally operating enterprises
- 5G
slicing in combination with SD-WAN and local traffic breakout enable flexible
connectivity establishment and control
- Radio Resource Partitioning (RRP) further secures
Radio Access Network (RAN) resources and QoS with Radio Access Network (RAN)
slicing
Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson announced a breakthrough proof of
concept implementation of global 5G end-to-end network slicing to facilitate
uniform international connectivity for latency-critical enterprise applications
with guaranteed Quality of Service. In a world first, this global 5G slicing
trial includes SD-WAN and end-to-end service orchestration and, in a very
flexible and uniform way, managed connectivity for latency-critical
applications in different countries. This approach will be especially
beneficial for global enterprises who run latency-critical applications in
different international subsidiaries.
End-to-end network slicing is a key enabler for unlocking 5G opportunities,
driving business model innovation and new use cases across various industry
segments. 5G slicing will enable use cases that require specific resources and
QoS levels. Globally operating enterprise are more and more seeing the need for
uniform connectivity characteristics to serve their applications in different
markets. Some of the latency-critical business applications that demand
consistent international connectivity performance are related to broadcasting,
logistics, and automotive telematics.
In this trial, the QoS connectivity was extended from Germany to Poland using a
5G slicing setup that is based on commercial grade Ericsson 5G Standalone (SA)
radio and core network infrastructure and a Deutsche Telekom commercial SD-WAN
solution. The home operator-controlled User Plane Function (UPF) is placed in
Poland as the visited country and the entire setup is managed by an Ericsson
orchestrator integrated with a Deutsche Telekom business support system via
open TM Forum APIs. Combining 5G slicing and SD-WAN technology allows flexible
connectivity establishment and control, while traffic breakout close to the
application server in visited countries enables low latency.
Radio resource partitioning (RRP) for enhanced RAN slicing
Making efficient use of the radio spectrum and isolating different users with
their Service Level Agreement (SLA)/QoS requirements efficiently is key for
differentiated service offerings using end-to-end 5G network slicing
technology. In addition to differentiated QoS treatment, the capability of the
radio resource partitioning (RRP) feature for RAN slicing was also verified. It
achieves an efficient isolation and sharing of radio resources among network
slices by isolating the radio resources into partitions that can be associated
per network slice in a dynamic way. Each network slice can rely on the
availability of a certain minimum allocation of radio resources, while unused
capacity is dynamically made available to other network slices, thus maximizing
the overall capacity of the system. For an operator, this enables delivery of
high-value services with SLA assurance, while at the same time using valuable
spectrum efficiently.
This trial enhances 5G network slicing with SD-WAN in an international setup
with a central, common orchestration enabling:
- Flexible
and automated connectivity establishment and control
- Low
latencies with QoS due to traffic breakout of a QoS secured slice in a visited
country
- Use
of shared RAN infrastructure and QoS assured RAN partitions
- Uniform
service characteristics across geographies for global enterprise needs offered
by a central operator in cooperation with international partner operators
Alex Choi, SVP Technology Strategy & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom,
says: “Network slicing is a key 5G enabler to deliver tailored connectivity
services to enterprise customers. By flexibly combining 5G slicing with SD-WAN
in an international setup, we can address the emerging need among enterprises
for uniform global connectivity with guaranteed quality of service.”
Erik Ekudden, Senior Vice President, CTO and Head of Group Function Technology,
Ericsson says: “Combining different technologies in an intelligent and flexible
way across borders to address the emerging needs of globally operating
enterprises is another proof point of the promise that a global 5G ecosystem
can offer.”
Source: Deutsche Telekom AG media announcement