42%CAGR
4.4.3 Network slicing
Common attributes need to be agreed by the industry to minimise complexities of network slicing
Enabled by NFV and SDN, Network Slicing enables the creation of two or more virtual networks with different performance parameters over a single physical network infrastructure, so each of the virtual/logical networks can serve a specific purpose. Conceptually, it can be depicted as slicing a physical network into many networks to serve specific use cases (see Figure 4.4.2).
With network slicing, operators can address a variety of different client requirements, especially enterprises, with one physical network.
Network slicing, however, also comes with complexities in the context of interoperability and roaming. A customer using one network when switching to another network will expect a comparable, if not the same,
5G Cost Considerations
experience. In this context, standardising a general set of attributes that characterise different network slices would be beneficial (e.g. the Generic Slice Templates (GST) defined by the GSMA Network Slicing Templates Taskforce).
The GST is an industry-agreed list of all the necessary slicing parameters. This does not mean that values of the parameters need to be agreed, but rather the attributes would be agreed such that a slice provided by an operator is easily emulated by another operator when the template is transferred, providing a baseline and reference for potential customers.
FIGURE 4.4.2
CONCEPT OF NETWORK SLICING
UTILITIES
5G NETWORK
AUTOMOTIVE
MANUFACTURING MOBILE BROADBAND
COMMUNICATION SERVICES PUBLIC SAFETY
TRADITIONAL NETWORKS NETWORKS WITH NFV
Network functions on dedicated H/W Software components
Virtualization (resource pooling) Cost-efficient, easy to scale and elastic
General-purpose COTS H/W Vendor-specific / Special-purpose / hard to scale
Video
Optimizer IMS Firewall
EPC CDN
IoT Slice Broadband
Slice Low Latency Slice
NFV
RAN 2 (MACRO)
RAN (SMALL CELLS)
RAN 1 (MACRO)
INTERNET OF THINGS
Access
Node Storage
Node Computing
Node MANO Connectivity
NETWORKS OFFER SAME CAPABILITIES TO ALL NETWORKS SUBDIVIDED VIRTUALLY AND OPTIMISED FOR DIFFERENT NEEDS UTILITIES
5G NETWORK
AUTOMOTIVE
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4.4.3.1 The investment case for network slicing The Investment case will be much easier if it is only marginal to the broader 5G investment case
For network slicing to deliver on its promise, it needs to be provisioned in a way that does not create a massive return-on-investment hurdle for operators. There are three considerations to make this happen.
First, and as described above, is to minimise the complexities in its design and conceptualisation.
Second, there is a need to drive economies of scale by
FIGURE 4.4.3
THE ROLE OF COLLABORATION IN THE INVESTMENT CASE FOR NETWORK SLICING
2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
GB/Month/Sub
Crowded
54% CAGR
city 2010
0
Urban Sub-urban Rural
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
79%
19%
2%
Motorways Railways A&B Roads
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
21.8%
6.0%
99.8%
MINIMIZE COMPLEXITY TO KEEP COSTS LOW
Standard Defining Organisations (SDOs)
DRIVE ECONOMIES OF SCALE TO REDUCE UNIT COSTS
GSMA, others
MAKE INVESTMENT CASE MARGINAL TO THE 5G INVESTMENT
Operators MOBILE DATA TRAFFIC IS EXPECTED TO GROW RAPIDLY WITH CAGR BETWEEN 35% AND 54% UNTIL 2025
focusing on a few slicing templates that can achieve wide adoption. Lastly, the investment case needs to be marginal to the broader 5G investment case.
As Figure 4.4.3 shows, responsibility to achieve these will depend on several stakeholders across the industry – Standard Defining Organisations (SDOs) such as 3GPP, industry groups such as GSMA and operators all have a role to ensure that the investment case does not impose a high barrier to the deployment and adoption of network slicing.
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4.4.3.2 Lessons from a network slicing implementation
In 2017-18, King’s College London together with the University of Surrey and the University of Bristol in the UK ran the world’s first 5G end-to-end network slicing implementation.
A major goal of the study was to demonstrate the potential of network slicing in delivering low-latency applications over multiple operator networks, whilst relying on the interoperability of the participating operator’s slices. The implementation involved intelligent cameras and real-time social media connections across London, plus innovative 5G music performances with artists in distributed locations.
One implementation tested was for a low-latency control of a drone, which is launched both from a local operator’s core network and a remote operator’s core network. In the latter case, a low-latency network slice is stretched from local operator’s core network to the remote operator’s core network, where the application server runs. While the proof-of-concept successfully demonstrated the feasibility of stitching together network slices across two operators’ domains, it also demonstrated that manual configuration of a cross- operator slice is a time-consuming process requiring significant coordination.
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Based on their experience, King’s College London provide the following recommendations for operators:
• Network slicing should be an enabler for commercial value propositions and customers should not have to worry about its technical complexities.
• Granularity of network slices can vary, allowing for more differentiation and service creation.
But increased granularity will increase cost of provisioning a slice.
• Network slicing can be used to provide a dedicated service to some customers, and a means to specify a set of QoS for some applications.
• Interoperability and inter-operator cooperation is critical because network slices for global businesses will require the orchestration of various resources from different parts of the network.
• Automation is essential and without it, network slicing will struggle for scalability.
• Network slicing templates, with predefined and optional fields, will help to bring down the cost and time to deploy, guarantee interoperability and enable automation of slice management on global scale.
• New business models and ways of working will emerge from network slicing and operators should get ready to play new roles (e.g. Infrastructure-as-a- service).
• The relationship between operators and end customers could undergo a fundamental change if verticals (e.g. automotive companies) leverage network slicing to reach directly to customers.
Appendix 7.5, commissioned by the GSMA, provides the full analysis from Kings College London’s experience of network slicing.
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