J U N E 2 0 1 6

GETTING TO STANDALONE 5GReal-time applications and new service revenue opportunities

By Sean Kinney

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A U G U S T 2 0 2 0

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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Introduction

With one notable exception,

commercial 5G networks use

a non-standalone architecture

wherein new 5G NR radio in-

frastructure is connected to an

Evolved Packet Core that also sup-

ports LTE data transmissions. Vir-

tualization of EPC functionality

is common but stops short of the

cloud-native core network needed

for a standalone 5G implementa-

tion. With non-standalone 5G, the

emphasis is on delivering enhanced

mobile broadband to consumers.

To enable the full feature set of

5G, including reduced latency, high

reliability and support for massive

numbers of connected devices, op-

erators need to adopt a standalone

5G architecture.

From standardization to com-

mercialization, 5G has largely been

ahead of schedule. The transition to

standalone is ramping up too; in the

U.S. T-Mobile has activated stand-

alone for its low-band 5G network

and Verizon and AT&T plan to make

the jump in the coming months.

While standalone brings numerous

benefits, perhaps chief among them

a clearer path to enterprise service

revenues, the timing is logical and in

step with broader strategies.

As Ericsson’s Peter Linder, head of

5G marketing in North America, put

it, “When we accelerated the stan-

dard and said we can do 5G at the end

of 2018 rather than the end of 2020,

we did not have the ability then to

do both core and radio at the same

time. We said, ‘Let’s focus on doing all

the radio stuff first in way that it’s

as easy as we can possibly make it to

connect into an existing EPC that’s

upgraded with 5G capabilities.”

Speaking on Arden Media’s pod-

cast Will 5G Change the World?,

Oracle’s John Lenns, vice president

of product management, sized up

the standalone transition based

on three types of operators: early

adopters, fast followers and the

mass market. With early adopters,

“You’ll see some standalone archi-

tecture networks going live this

calendar year.” The fast followers

are “putting out requests for infor-

mation to prepare themselves for

issuing RFPs, and the mass market

is still further out into the future.”

As far as what considerations are

top of mind as operators strategize

and invest in standalone 5G, Lenns

highlighted security and rapid se-

curity responsiveness and cost effi-

ciencies both capital and operating.

“From a capex perspective, they are

looking for an efficient transition

through virtualization to cloud-na-

tive. They don’t want to pay twice.

From an opex perspective, they are

recognizing that assembling this

5G solution...is a challenge. It’s not

easy...The CSPs are looking for solu-

tions that make that opex journey

less expensive. How that manifests

itself is they are looking for a solu-

tion that offer them efficiencies

of deployment, more automation,

more embedded test tools, more

self-healing behavior.”

From non-standalone to standalone 5G

“The biggest thing that will have an impact on the total costs is the automation. You have to automate as much as you possibly can.”

Peter Linder, Head of 5G Marketing, Ericsson North America

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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Just like moving from 3G to 4G

or from 4G to 5G, the shift from a

non-standalone architecture to a

standalone architecture is a gradu-

al and phased movement informed

by the mix of assets a particular op-

erator has and strategic service of-

fering priorities. Using standalone

to solve for coverage is very dif-

ferent than using standalone and

other technological capabilities

to enable a smart manufacturing

facility. During these phased tran-

sitions, operators will use a mix of

virtualized network functions and

containerized network functions

running in a cloud-native core.

The co-mingling of EPC and

cloud-native architectures led Er-

icsson to develop its dual-mode 5G

core. “The difference between EPC

and 5G core is essentially an archi-

tectural difference and how you

operate and execute around that,”

Linder said. “When we looked at all

the different migration options...

we came to the conclusion that the

only way you could secure a smooth

evolution for service providers is to

combine EPC and 5G core. The dual

mode is essentially about giving the

option of doing either EPC or 5G

core or EPC and 5G core combined.”

In that combined scenario, “You can

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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cut and freeze the investment in

the current physical and virtual-

ized platforms. Over time you can

start phasing out both physical and

virtualized EPC and have every-

thing supported by the 5G core.”

Recall Lenns’ comment about not

wanting to pay twice.

Linder continued: “The move from

virtualized to cloud-native elimi-

nates integration steps. People went

through so much pain depending

on which virtualization [solutions]

they used on which hardware. Right

now, moving toward cloud-native,

that takes away a lot of that cost.”

Another key factor he identified

relates to opex. With standalone,

“The biggest thing that will have an

impact on the total costs is the au-

tomation. You have to automate as

much as you possibly can.”

In an August 25 announcement,

Verizon gave a good look at this evo-

lutionary process from non-stand-

alone to standalone 5G, the role of

the vEPC and how it relates to net-

work slicing and edge computing,

both of which we explore further

in this report. Verizon described its

latest as an “end-to-end fully virtu-

alized 5G data session,” and called it

a “technology milestone [that] pro-

vides the foundation for Verizon to

rapidly respond to customers’ var-

ied latency and computing needs

by providing the foundation for

wide-scale mobile edge computing

and network slicing.” While Veri-

zon is is planning a phased move

to standalone as early as this year,

this particular data session used

the operators vEPC and non-stand-

alone 5G network.

Verizon concurrently called out

its RAN virtualization efforts and

looked ahead to using general-pur-

pose hardware “Instead of adding

or upgrading single-purpose hard-

ware, the move to a cloud-native,

container-based virtualized archi-

tecture with standardized inter-

faces leads to greater flexibility,

faster delivery of services, greater

scalability, and improved cost effi-

ciency in networks.”

SVP of Technology and Planning

Adam Koeppe said in a statement,

“Virtualizing the entire network

from the core to the edge has been a

massive, multi-year redesign effort

of our network network architec-

ture that simplifies and modernizes

our entire network.” This demon-

stration used vRAN equipment pro-

vided by Samsung Networks and

used Intel FlexRAN software refer-

ence architecture, Xeon processor

and FPGA acceleration card.

“Massive scale IOT solutions, more

robust consumer devices and solu-

tions, AR/VR, remote healthcare,

autonomous robotics in manufac-

turing environments, and ubiqui-

tous smart city solutions are only

some of the ways we will be able

to deliver the promise of the digital

world. Advancements in virtualiza-

tion technology are critical steps to-

wards that realization,” Koeppe said.

In this move from non-standalone

to standalone and interworking of

cloud-native and legacy systems,

Rohde & Schwarz Technology Man-

ager Andreas Roessler cautioned

that there’s always a “pro and con.

SA allows [operators] to implement

an end-to-end service-based archi-

tecture...but one may watch out

that this does not effect any loss

of connectivity due to legacy tech-

nology not being supported. Metic-

ulous network deployment is the

key, as always.”

Roessler also gave an important

description of the change in ac-

cess procedure when shifting from

non-standalone to standalone 5G.

With SA, “The UE needs to syn-

chronize autonomously to the 5G

carrier frequency and to acquire

the essential system information

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F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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broadcasted within SIB Type 1.

Once the UE has that, it knows all

the required parameters to per-

form the access procedure and con-

nect with the network. The scan-

ning process for SSB blocks is the

same except the UE does not have

any prior information like in NSA

mode...The prioritization of SSBs is

the same as in NSA mode. For the

detected SSBs, the UE would mea-

sure signal quality (RSRP, RSRQ,

SINR), which needs to be above a

network-defined threshold. For all

the detected and measured SSBs

that are above the threshold, the UE

will randomly but with equal prob-

ability select one SSB, and use the

associated time-frequency resource

in uplink direction to perform the

access procedure.”

Another important theme asso-

ciated with the move to not just

standalone 5G but fully virtualized

networks complete with edge com-

puting capabilities is that telecom

networks are becoming more like

IT networks – software-defined net-

working and a shift toward commod-

ity hardware is familiar to compa-

nies like HPE which sees significant

opportunity in 5G.

Domenico Convertino, vice pres-

ident of product management for

HPE’s Communication and Media

Solutions business unit, told us,

“When we started looking at 5G...we

were coming from a presence in the

mobile core--2G, 3G, 4G--that was

pretty much subscriber data man-

agement. Looking at the way 3GPP

was defining the [5G NR] standard

at that time, we thought that this

was going to be a huge opportuni-

ty for a company like HPE. What

the telcos are trying to adopt now

is a transformation to cloud-native

that enterprise IT started many

years ago.”

He continued: “We tried to take a

position, as a company, first to pro-

vide the right infrastructure for

5G because 5G is coming with dif-

ferent performance and scalabili-

ty requirements. The second thing

is to look at the access network of

the mobile operator of the future–

more and more convergent with an

edge cloud. And from a pure soft-

ware point of view, the idea was to

help telcos adopt all the best prac-

tices of IT and the simplification

cloud brought to IT, all those best

practices that, at the end of the

day, can dramatically reduce the

cost of ownership.”

From a product side, HPE in March

announced its Core Stack which

the company describes as including

“stateless containerized network

functions…a shared data environ-

ment…a common platform as a

service (PaaS) architecture, end-to-

end management and orchestration

(MANO), and automation frame-

work, all pre-integrated on carri-

er-grade infrastructure as a service.”

The company noted current em-

phasis on 5G RAN investments but

said the “true value” of 5G emerges

when a new core is introduced; “this

enables holistic management, data

sharing, and slicing into virtual 5G

networks with dedicated usage and

characteristics.”

HPE’s VP and GM of Communica-

tions and Media Solutions Phil Mot-

tram tied 5G core adoption to new

service-based revenue opportuni-

ties. “Investing in a new 5G network

before the revenue streams are

there is a financial and technical

challenge for many carriers, but...

telcos can start deployments today

and pay for the infrastructure as

their revenue grows.”

Helping telcos monetize 5G is

a primary focus for VoltDB. The

company sees properly handling

growing data volumes and transac-

tional speeds as key to turning 5G

investments into service revenues;

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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as such, VoltDB is helping opera-

tors make decisions in the sub-10

millisecond range.

Chief Product Officer Dheeraj

Remella explained, “Data is not a

database problem anymore. Data is

a data problem. What is the value

you’re missing with your existing

choices that you can get if you

think differently?” In the context

of standalone 5G and a contain-

erized, microservices-based ap-

proach, “You’re not only storing

data and asking for data but rath-

er you are using this platform to

signal the next component in your

service mesh to start doing its job

as soon as it’s required. You have to

have data storage and data stream

processing capabilities to have a

cohesive service flow.”

Operator focus: T-Mobile

In Early August, T-Mobile

claimed a world’s first with the

launch of a nationwide standalone

5G network that uses its 600 MHz

spectrum. T-Mo initially launched

its 600 MHz 5G network last year and

reached nationwide coverage--200

million people covered--using the

non-standalone architecture. With

the shift to standalone, the oper-

ator saw a coverage expansion of

30% to 1.3 million square miles, up-

ping population coverage to 250

million, and a 40% reduction in la-

tency. Before we look ahead, let’s

look back at some milestones in

T-Mobile’s journey to standalone.

In August 2019, T-Mobile completed

a standalone 5G over the air data

session using multi-vendor kit in a

Bellevue, Washington lab. Vendor

support came from Ericsosn, Nokia,

Cisco and MediaTek.

T-Mo announced another round

of standalone activities in May of

T-Mobile’s 600 MHz 5G coverage in non-standalone mode then in standalone modeIm

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this year. Working with Ericsson, the

companies completed a standalone

5G data session between commer-

cial modems on a production net-

work. They also completed a low-

band standalone 5G voice call with a

mechanism to fallback to Voice over

LTE (VoLTE), along with low-band

Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and

Video over New Radio (ViNR) calls.

With the standalone 5G network

up and running, T-Mobile Vice Pres-

ident of Radio Network Technology

and Strategy Karri Kuoppamaki

told RCR Wireless News, “It’s a huge

step forward in our evolution and

our plan to bring 5G for all--to ev-

eryone everywhere.”

T-Mobile is following a 5G spec-

tral strategy it often compares to

a layer cake. The low-band 600

MHz network provides wide area

coverage, 2.5 GHz spectrum ac-

quired from Sprint brings a bal-

ance of coverage and capacity,

and millimeter wave deployment

is reserved for urban cores and

other dense user environments.

“The benefit of SA is that it sort

of breaks the dependency on mid-

band spectrum which is sort of the

anchor for 5G in non-standalone

mode,” Kuoppamaki said. “This then

allows us to bring 5G on low-band

to areas that didn’t have 5G.” But

the transition is about more than

just coverage expansion, he said.

“The last [benefit], which I think is

probably one of the most important

benefits of this as well, is that it’s

really sort of a key to our 5G future

and many of these advanced fea-

tures that talked about in 5G.”

Asked about VoNR, Kuoppamaki

said it’s not supported today but,

“We’re working very hard to intro-

duce Voice over NR.” Discussing

how traffic is managed in areas

where standalone 600 MHz 5G and

non-standalone 2.5 GHz 5G are both

available, he said, “Non-standalone

and standalone are not mutually

exclusive,” noting the ability to

transition between the networks

based on application demand from

the UE. “This is an ever-changing

scenario,” he said.

“What drives us is obviously the

best customer experience and best

speed experience. I’d say that there

are a couple of different corner-

stones to our strategy. One is to push

5G evolution forward very, very

aggressively. We’re never going to

be happy with where it’s at at any

point in time. The second piece is to

deploy the spectrum assets we have

more broadly. The third one is just

in general to improve the network

and its coverage across the board. I

think those are the types of things

that are pushing us over time.”

Operator focus: Rakuten Mobile

Rakuten Mobile, the mo-

bile operator subsidiary of Japa-

nese e-commerce giant Rakuten,

launched LTE services this year on

top of a fully-virtualized, greenfield

network composed of 330 “far edge”

sites connected to 58 regional data

centers hosting vRAN workloads,

“It’s a huge step forward in our evolution and our plan to bring 5G for all – to everyone, everywhere.”

Karri Kuoppamaki, Vice President of Radio Network Technology and Strategy, T-Mobile

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and three central data centers that

primarily host control plane work-

loads. The operator currently uses

a virtualized evolved packet core

built following a Control and User

Plane Separation (CUPS) architec-

ture for LTE services.

Speaking during Light Reading’s

5G Networking Digital Symposium

in June, Rakuten Mobile EVP and

CTO Tareq Amin discussed the

company’s roadmap for evolving its

core network to non-standalone and

standalone architecture. On CUPs,

“We felt this was mandatory and

necessary if you wanted to offer

local breakout and true edge appli-

cations. We really pushed very hard

to enable this and enable it at scale.”

With its vEPC, Rakuten Mobile has

used a microservices-based archi-

tecture wherein software is decom-

posed into loosely coupled bits that

can be rapidly rearranged into var-

ious network functions. “In our net-

work,” Amin said, “because of the

microservices architecture that we

have implemented, we could really

have [an] infinite number of UPF

and control plane functions. What-

ever happens at any instance of time

in data center one, we could in real

time be able to carry the session in

data center two or three and be able

to manage this traffic.” This ability

to automatically move a workload

“started to point to possibilities and

ideas” about what a cloud-native ar-

chitecture can enable.

While Amin said the 198 unique

virtual network functions Rakuten

Mobile has deployed as virtual

machines running on OpenStack

is “amazing” compared to a propri-

etary implementation, “There is a

lot of things that are missing--quite

a bit actually. As elegant as this VM

architecture that we have done is,

we are not completely satisfied. We

need to get to a state in which we

are able to truly, truly have elastici-

ty...You never worry about capacity

“In the 5G core era, everything that we do must start with cloud-native. It has to have the personality and the architecture of microservices.”

Tareq Amin, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Rakuten Mobile

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anymore.” Which brings us to the

coming transition of the core net-

work to a cloud-native architecture.

Looking ahead to the activation

of non-standalone 5G and then the

transition to standalone, as well

as the future trajectory for the

LTE network’s vEPC, Amin said

the mission is to deploy all of it

on the company’s own cloud plat-

form. Rakuten Mobile is working

with compatriot firm NEC on what

Amin described as an “open core.”

That collaboration considers joint

development of a container-based

standalone core using source code

developed by NEC. The two firms

are also collaborating on manufac-

ture of 5G radio units.

Amin laid out his thinking on

using the LTE vEPC to support a

non-standalone launch, then dis-

cussed the next step. “The most

challenging thing in the cloud-na-

tive 5G core, in my opinion, is the

completion of a highly-scalable,

high-throughput UPF. I think the

control plane functions are rela-

tively straightforward. We want

to achieve a very good throughput

on our UPF containerized architec-

ture. We’re spending considerable

time with NEC on the development

of that feature. I don’t think NSA is

an exciting thing whatsoever. It just

gets us out there with higher band-

width and higher speed for the end

user. This is not where we want to

be. When we launch our 5G core, for

a period of time we will run them

in parallel. But 5G core, once built

with all containerized functions

and components, will collapse all

the 5G functions” into a single, con-

verged cloud-native core.

Operator focus: Vodafone UK

Vodafone U.K. sees stand-

alone 5G as a key enabler of ad-

vanced use cases like autonomous

vehicles, smart manufacturing, re-

mote surgery and the “internet of

senses,” according to materials pub-

lished by the operator. In pursuit

of that future, the operator in July

deployed a standalone 5G network

at Coventry University that will

be initially used to enable virtual

reality-based training for “student

nurses and allied health profession-

als,” the company said. The network

uses equipment from Ericsson, Me-

diaTek, OPPO and Qualcomm.

Coventry University’s Vice Chan-

cellor John Latham said the stand-

alone 5G network “will help us con-

tinue to change and enhance the

way students learn” and added that

the institution’s goal is “creating a

5G campus...We will soon be able to

reveal how we will use this tech-

nology to maximize the potential

of virtual reality teaching for our

Health and Life Sciences students.”

Vodafone U.K.’s Chief Technology

Officer Scott Petty said the current

focus of 5G is “increased speeds...

but it’s only the tip of the iceberg of

what 5G can do. With this new live

network we’re demonstrating the

future potential of 5G and how it

“From here, we will really start to see 5G make a difference to the way organisations think about being connected, and what’s possible with connectivity in the future.”

Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone U.K.

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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will be so valuable to the U.K. econ-

omy...From here, we will really start

to see 5G make a difference to the

way organizations think about be-

ing connected, and what’s possible

with connectivity in the future.”

Among the chief benefits stand-

alone 5G enables, Vodafone U.K.

calls out network slicing (more on

this later). The operator also notes

that the distribution of computing

power closer to where data is gen-

erated is key to fully realizing the

latency reductions made possible

by standalone.

Vodafone U.K. has offered com-

mercial 5G service since July 2019

and has availability in dozens of

cities as well as elsewhere in its

multi-national footprint, including

Ireland, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Leveraging latency requires

decentralized compute

As we’ve established, latency

reduction is a big selling point

for standalone 5G networks. Sin-

gle millisecond latency, combined

with ultra high capacity and

speeds, opens up real-time use cas-

es--things involving autonomous

assets, precision robotics and inte-

gration of augmented and virtual

reality into business processes. But

all of these applications depend on

real-time data creation, transport,

analysis and the action initiated

by that process. Regardless of the

latency on an airlink, if that data

has to be transported to a central

processing facility, it’s a wash. This

is the argument for decentralizing

data center functionality to edge

compute nodes.

Speaking of edge and core, Linder

said, “Those two are kind of yin and

yang in terms of functionality. We

expect them to be at the same loca-

tion. If you bring out edge compute

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“The MEC node can actually house the core. If the entire point of 5G is fatter pipes and lower latency, you can’t travel 1,500 miles [to a centralized data center]...and retain the low latency.”

Dheeraj Remella, Chief Product Officer, VoltDB

https://www.voltdb.com/landing/the-hidden-inflection-point-in-5g-rcr/

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

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to say 20 locations in Dallas, and

then pipe all the traffic back from

those edge computing sites to a

cloud core node in Austin, then

back out to the subscribers, you’ve

lost all advantage. The core net-

work functionality has to be close

or closer to the subscribers or you

lose all the advantages.”

Remella proposed that, in a de-

centralized network capable of

supporting huge bi-directional data

flows, a mobile edge compute node

“becomes a representation of the

core. The MEC node can actually

house the core. If the entire point of

5G is fatter pipes and lower latency,

Edge computing architecture

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you can’t travel 1,500 miles [to a cen-

tralized data center] even if it’s over

fiber and retain the low latency.”

The data velocity involved in ap-

plications enabled by standalone

5G, as well as the autonomous

manner of the delivery, creates the

need for a multi-faceted approach

to data handling. Remella said

VoltDB things about a fast cycle

and a slow cycle.

“When you look at a 1 millisecond

latency network, these things are

happening very fast,” he explained.

“When an event happens, the next

10 milliseconds are really, really

important for you and you need to

do a lot of comprehensive things in

that window to be able to monitor

or to be able to provide quality or

SLA assurance or detect and miti-

gate a threat.”

He described the slow cycle as

driving “automated intelligence.

As network events are happening,

you need to do the fast cycle and

siphon data into the slow cycle for

machine learning. The fast and

slow cycles need to play in tandem.

It’s not a client/server modality.

We’re seeing the confluence of a

database platform and streaming

platform coming together to solve

one complex problem.”

New slices, new services

The ability to deliver a net-

work slice is the long goal of the

transition to standalone 5G. At a

high-level, a network slice is an

end-to-end logical partition of a

network that provides specific

levels of service in an autonomous

fashion. This can take numerous

forms but the high-end vision

is an operator providing an en-

terprise its own slice capable of

flexibly delivering everything

from low-power sensor connec-

tivity to real-time data streaming

and analysis. The enterprise gets

everything it needs in terms of

connectivity and the operator

provides a differentiated service

in a manner that optimizes use of

network and spectral resources.

But, like most things in telecom, it

won’t happen overnight.

“It’s something that’s going to ma-

ture in steps,” Linder said, analogiz-

ing the process to painting traffic

demarcations on a road. “Perhaps

the first step is to get the white

paint on the sides so you get the

traffic on the road. The next step

is a little like putting the stripes in

the middle and putting in the lanes.

In an early form, Linder con-

sidered one slice comprising the

public network and a second slice

supporting private public safety

communications. “Then, as you

move further, we can discuss here

should the slices be based...on

use case or use case categories?”

Slices for fixed wireless access,

mobile broadband and the inter-

net of things, for example. “When

it’s very small, perhaps getting

to two [slices] is a step but when

you go beyond two to four or six,

what is the logical step for logical

“Activating network slicing in the core is just one step. The supporting features on the air interface, i.e., bandwidth parts, mixed numerologies, etc. have to be there as well.”

Andreas Roessler, Technology Manager, Rohde & Schwarz

F E A T U R E R E P O R T

15

compartmentalization? I see it as

something that’s going to grow and

develop and gradually get refined.”

Roessler sees network slicing as

something an operator will offer

when there’s a need to “serve sig-

nificantly different QoS. Network

slices should be selected based on

the UE type and its requirements.

For example, a local utility pro-

vider deploying smart meters

has specific QoS requirements

that network slicing can address

also using a particular frequency

band...for extended coverage, and

uses advanced Rel-16 features

like 2-step RACH to allow quick

access to the network transmit-

ting small data packets. Applying

network slicing is just one step

to get the full benefits...Also the

correct features on the air inter-

face and the infrastructure need

to be implemented by chipset and

terminal vendors as well as infra-

structure providers.”

When considering network slic-

ing, Roessler said considerations

must extend beyond the core. It’s

“drive by software-defined ra-

dio trend as in 5G core network

elements are functions...that are

independent of hardware. Acti-

vating network slicing in the core

is just one step. The supporting

features on the air interface, i.e.,

bandwidth parts, mixed numerol-

ogies, etc. have to be there as well;

or a flexible infrastructure with

following the trend of mobile edge

computing, e.g. for lower latency

only a network slice is not suffi-

cient. We have to shorten the dis-

tance between client and server

to become faster.”

He also pointed out that increas-

ingly autonomous networks give

way to increasingly autonomous

test and measurement practices,

including network optimization,

quality benchmarking and service

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quality monitoring. “You can install

probes in a fleet of Uber cars, waste

trucks, or busses that collect net-

work data, evaluate the QoE of ap-

plications, and report the results to

a central entity. This is also called

‘autonomous benchmarking’ since

it is unsupervised and not linked

to a drive/walk test campaign. Op-

erators can quickly get details in

real-time (and offline for post-pro-

cessing in addition) about the qual-

ity that subscribers perceive in

their networks.”

Remella said that for industrial

and enterprise IoT-type implemen-

tation, “Standalone 5G is really key.

I think that’s where standalone

5G is really going to start shining.

When you look at today’s imple-

mentations, it’s a combination of

4G core...plus your [5G] hardware

radio infrastructure investment.

When you put these two things to-

gether, you still aren’t tapping into

5G specifically.”

The need for agile delivery of

network slices is necessary for

vertical digital transformation

“because you have rapid data gen-

eration and consumption.

Also in this process, you have

to bring more intelligence to the

edge to make a real-time control

loop for things like process auto-

mation and digital twins. This is

where your 5G is going to really

accelerate revenue.”

So what does it look like when all

these pieces--5G connectivity and

core alongside edge compute--are

put together and applied to a use

case that creates business value for

a user and revenue potential for a

service provider?

Conclusion

The transition from 4G to

non-standalone 5G, although ac-

celerated from a standards and de-

ployment perspective, was and still

is gradual. The same will be true for

the transition from non-standalone

to standalone 5G. And, in addition

to investments in a cloud-native

core, the full benefits of stand-

alone 5G also require concurrent

investment in virtualization and

cloudification beyond the core out

to radio sites and edge computing

nodes. How operators approach

this confluence of technologies and

the management of them will be in-

formed by assets on hand as well as

strategic market priorities. But for

5G to rise up and meet the goal of

enabling broad digital transforma-

tion of enterprise and industry, “Ev-

erything is related to the 5G core,”

Convertino said.

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UPCOMING 2020

EDITORIAL PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

SEPTEMBER 2020

Figuring out 5G NR: Covering indoors and outdoors with millimeter wave

Wi-Fi 6: State of the market

5G Test and Measurement: How will automation shape workforce trends?

OCTOBER 2020

Digital Industry Solutions (New Series) Asset Tracking – a roundup and review of all the connectivity technologies in play in the asset tracking space.

Understanding the role of microwave in 5G transportMaking Industry Smarter (series)

Healthcare – how the healthcare sector is being transformed by IoT and AI (sensors and analytics)

5G Test and Measurement: Optimizing the fiber validation process to drive network scale

NOVEMBER 2020

5G Inside: Things to know in indoor 5G network design

The benefits of bringing 5G NR into unlicensed spectrum

DECEMBER 2020

Wi-Fi, public 5G or private network: What’s an enterprise to do?

5G in 2021: Expectation vs. reality or Will 5G change the world?