By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A new software solution that will enable communications service providers to deliver customised 5G services with guaranteed performance has been introduced by Ericson.
The innovation, a 5G network slicing solution for radio access networks (RAN), was built on Ericsson radio expertise and scalable and flexible architecture.
According to a statement from Ericsson, the 5G RAN slicing technology allocates radio resources at one-millisecond scheduling and supports multi-dimensional service differentiation handling across slices.
This strengthens end-to-end slicing capabilities for dynamic resource management and orchestration that ensure the high-quality end-user experience required by diverse use cases.
“Ericsson 5G RAN slicing dynamically optimizes radio resources to deliver significantly more spectrum-efficient radio access network slicing.
“What makes our solution distinct is that it boosts end-to-end management and orchestration support for fast and efficient service delivery.
“This gives service providers the differentiation and guaranteed performance needed to monetize 5G investments with diverse use cases.
“With 5G as an innovation platform, we continue to drive value for our customers,” the Head of Product Area Networks at Ericsson, Per Narvinger, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Also commenting, the Executive Officer and Chief Director of Mobile Technology at KDDI, Toshikazu Yokai, noted that, “End-to-end slicing is key to monetizing 5G investment and RAN slicing will help make that happen. Across different slices in our mobile networks, RAN slicing will deliver the quality assurance and latency required by our customers.”
The Director of Networks and Service Platforms at Strategy Analytics, Sue Rudd, noted that, “Ericsson is the first vendor to offer a full end-to-end solution with RAN slicing based on dynamic radio resource partitioning in under one millisecond using embedded radio control mechanisms to assure Quality of Service, Over the Air, in real-time.
“This truly end-to-end approach integrates radio optimization with policy-controlled network orchestration to deliver inherently secure virtualized private RAN slicing without the loss of the 30 – 40 per cent spectrum capacity due to ‘hard slicing’. Ericsson’s real-time dynamic RAN slicing bridges the ‘RAN gap’ to make e2e slicing profitable.”
For Mark Düsener, Head of Mobile and Mass Market Communication at Swisscom, “We’re gearing up for the next stage of 5G where we expect to apply end-to-end network slicing and RAN slicing is key to guaranteed performance.
“With efficient sharing of network resources across different slices, we will be able to provide communications for diverse 5G applications such as Public Safety or Mobile Private Networks.”
Network slicing is one of the major 5G deployment models and Ericsson has ongoing 5G network slicing engagements for RAN, transport, core network and orchestration across the globe involving use cases for the consumer segment and enterprises/industry verticals such as video-assisted remote operations, AR/VR, TV/Media for sports event streaming, cloud gaming, smart city, and applications for Industry 4.0 and public safety.
Adedapo Adesanya