5G shoulders the heavy responsibility of enabling the digital transformation of thousands of industries, and the reason why 5G networks can support many vertical industry application scenarios is that network slicing is the key to them.
So, among the many technologies that empower industry private networks, why can network slicing stand out as an important technology option? What are the challenges of current network slicing technology? What progress has the industry made in promoting network slicing technology innovation?
Ideal 5G industry private network deployment mode
Industry private network is an important means for 5G to empower industry digitalization. Because the performance requirements of ToB services on connections are diverse, some are sensitive to latency, some are sensitive to rate, and some are sensitive to latency and rate. In order to meet this differentiated requirement, from the perspective of network construction, the 5G industry private network has three options: physical private network, hybrid private network, and network slicing.
The physical private network is to deploy a dedicated end-to-end network for ToB services, the ToB private network and the ToC network are completely isolated, all wireless resources and core network resources are ToB dedicated; the hybrid private network is to allocate different carriers for ToB services, ToB and ToC services are isolated on the spectrum resources, and the hardware equipment, transmission, core network and other resources of the base station can be shared; network slicing is to allocate different slices for ToB services, and ToB and ToC services share spectrum, transmission resources and core network resources. But isolation is done at the PRB level.
Each of the above three methods has its own applicable scenarios. Wu Riping, Director of Network Product Line In Northeast Asia, Ericsson, pointed out in an exclusive interview with C114: "Physical private networks and hybrid private networks are not unique technologies to 5G, and 4G can also be achieved. The advantages of physical private networks and hybrid private networks are good isolation and high degree of service guarantee, but the problem is that the deployment cycle is long, the deployment cost is high, and the maintenance is difficult, which is suitable for scenarios with relatively large enterprise scale and high service isolation requirements. ”
"The network slicing technology is one of the main functions of 5G to distinguish 2G/3G/4G." Network slicing provides a relatively flexible mechanism, so that operators can make full use of public network resources to provide industry private network services, operators can quickly configure slicing, dynamically allocate or recycle network resources, provide differentiated guarantee for the services in the slice, with rapid deployment, moderate guarantee, low cost and other characteristics, can reduce the threshold for enterprises to use the 5G industry private network, especially suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises or in the business exploration stage. Wu Riping said that therefore, network slicing is an ideal way to deploy the private network of the 5G industry, and domestic operators also regard network slicing as the main promotion mode of the 5G industry private network, which should have a better development prospect.
Ericsson's 5G Business Potential report predicts that by 2030 the global digital economy market will be worth about $3.8 trillion, while the economic revenue enabled by 5G technology will be about $1.49 trillion, of which the market value that operators can achieve is about $700 billion. According to the IHS Markit report, 5G will create $12.3 trillion in global economic output by 2035. Among them, 5G network slicing is recognized by the industry as a huge opportunity and important starting point for operators to enter the vertical industry market and enable the digital transformation of the industry.
There are three major benefits for the development of 5G
From the perspective of technical implementation logic, as a newly introduced technology of 5G SA, network slicing is the use of virtualization orchestration and other technologies, which is logically composed of the network elements and network resources of the 5G SA network to provide the network capabilities required by the vertical industry. Through network slicing technology, operators can divide multiple logical networks on a physical network, and each logical network is a network slice.
Network tile technology has distinct characteristics: different slices can provide different network characteristics, such as rate, latency, reliability, etc.; each slice can be isolated from each other, the overload of one slice will not affect the performance of other slices; you can set the service area of the slice.
"Network slices relate users, businesses, and networks." Wu Riping pointed out that through network slicing technology, operators can provide differentiated service guarantees for different users on the same 5G network, so that they can expand the service field of 5G and enrich 5G applications, rather than just providing higher speeds for mobile Internet services, which is crucial for the realization of 5G networks and the long-term development of 5G. Specifically, network slicing will bring the following three major benefits to the development of 5G:
The first is to enable industry applications at a lower cost and reduce the threshold for enterprises to use 5G. Without network slicing technology, operators need to deploy a separate network for each enterprise or type of service, and the disadvantages of this model are long deployment cycle, high construction cost, and inflexible adjustment. The network slice can build a virtual private network based on the existing public network, which is fast to deploy, low cost, and flexible in adjustment, providing a new option for 5G to enter the industry market.
The second is to promote business innovation. Network slicing can provide differentiated guarantees for different services, and 5G application providers can cooperate with operators to launch differentiated services for all groups of people or specific customers, making 5G services more colorful. In this way, operators can not only enter more ToB vertical industries, but also bring about 2B2C business model innovation of "first ToB and then ToC" if they cooperate with application providers such as games and videos, and eventually provide differentiated services to consumers.
The third is to increase operator revenue. After the operator provides differentiated service guarantees, differentiated charges can be carried out, and for the services of key guarantees, in addition to the normal traffic fees, a certain value-added service fee can be charged according to the guarantee level to increase the overall ARPU. For example, 5G deployed by operators is driving innovation in connectivity package packages based on differentiated "services," including differentiated network connectivity services for games, music, sports, social media, video conferencing, education, and office software.
Three major challenges need to be addressed in the initial stage
Although network slicing has very good prospects for development, 3GPP first proposed the concept of network slicing in the R15 phase (August 2017). For more than four years, the industry has conducted in-depth research and exploration on the innovation and application of network slicing technology, but in general, because network slicing is only defined from R15, the development time is still relatively short, and the network slicing is still in the initial stage of development.
Wu Riping believes that at the current stage, the common application of network slices still faces challenges such as expectation matching, standard improvement, and model refinement.
Challenge 1) Expectation matching: The industry's expectations for 5G network slicing are high, but the functions that network slicing can provide are still relatively limited, and it will take time to further evolve and improve.
Challenge 2) Perfect standards: The automatic orchestration of slices is very important, but 3GPP does not have a detailed definition of the orchestration process and interface of slices, resulting in the current cross-vendor, cross-domain end-to-end slice automation orchestration is still difficult. At the same time, the definition of SLA and the mapping of SLA and network capabilities need to be improved, and the subsequent standards of 3GPP will continue to improve the relevant functions of network slicing.
Challenge 3) The details of the business model also need to be confirmed: network slicing can provide different types of SLA guarantee through QoS scheduling, resource reservation, carrier isolation, etc., but the application scenarios of various guarantee mechanisms have not yet been standardized and templated, and how ToB and ToC work together has yet to be explored. At present, there are some pilots in the market, but mainly in the verification of the feasibility of the technology, specific to how to standardize operations, how to bill and other business model details are still being explored.
Practical polishing: The test results of "single-terminal multi-slice service concurrency" are of great significance
It can be seen that the development of network slicing in the initial stage has a long way to go.
How to solve the challenges of expectation matching, standard improvement, and model refinement, especially before the large-scale deployment of network slicing services, to find out the status quo of network capabilities, discover and solve problems, accumulate experience, and at the same time, through the pilot test of network slicing, promote the maturity of the industrial chain such as equipment and terminals, realize the service and user differentiation capabilities of the shared network, and support the personalized needs of operators' 2C/2B services.
To this end, operators are also working with industry partners to find answers in practice. For example, Ericsson, the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, and some operators have completed TESTs of URSP (UE Route Selection Policy), including docking tests based on the newly released URSP functions of Android 12.
Ericsson and IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group completed the inter-vendor interconnection of end-to-end slice management; Ericsson cooperated with China Mobile to complete the live network test of cross-pulling through the end-to-end network slicing of different manufacturers; on the existing networks of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, at least two slices are generally configured on the base station, one is a 2C public slice and the other is a 2B public slice; recently, Ericsson has cooperated with Beijing Unicom to open a 5G first-class/business class service based on network slicing technology.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that Shandong Unicom recently joined hands with Ericsson and vivo to jointly complete the test of sliced wireless characteristics based on 5G SA commercial network in Weifang. The test results are in line with expectations, which not only provides valuable experience for China Unicom's slicing technology deployment, but also lays a solid technical foundation for future 5G industry application innovation and landing.
"One of the highlights of this test is that on the commercial network, commercial smartphones are used to realize the concurrency of single-terminal multi-slice services, that is, URSP functions, and the access characteristics and mobility characteristics of single-terminal multi-slice services are tested, which is industry-leading." Wu Riping said: At present, the function of supporting multiple slice service concurrency (URSP) on a single terminal is not very mature in the entire industry, most commercial 5G terminals only support static configuration of single slices, and single terminals can only use one slice, in the case of multi-service scene concurrency, users cannot flexibly switch to truly enjoy the experience upgrade brought by 5G slices. The implementation of the smartphone URSP has a very important role and significance for the use of expanded slices:
First of all, the ToC slice business is more abundant. After the smartphone supports URSP, the ToC service is not limited to the default slice service, and individual users can order different network slices to ensure the quality of access services for online games, webcasts, network videos and other applications.
Second, promote the development of 2B2C slicing business. For online games, finance and other industries, great emphasis is placed on the service experience of key customers, if the smartphone supports URSP, enterprises in these industries can order different sliced services from operators to provide them to their high-end customers. For example, online game companies can subscribe to private line slicing services for VIP users and provide access services with rate guarantees.
Third, promote the development of enterprise slice business. If the smartphone does not support URSP, users need to use different mobile phones to use personal business and enterprise business, which is very inconvenient and is not conducive to the development of enterprise slice business. After the smartphone supports URSP, URSP can automatically switch between different network slices according to the application, and a mobile phone can use both personal business and enterprise business, which is conducive to the popularization of enterprise slice business.
It should be pointed out in particular that due to the wide range of network slicing, the complete slicing service needs the support of terminal, wireless, transmission, core network, and network management. Therefore, Wu Riping believes that the success of this test benefits from the coordination of operators, the cooperation between different professional fields and different manufacturers, reflecting the spirit of openness and cooperation, which is very important for the success of the slicing business and the further evolution of the 5G network.
Currently, Ericsson offers end-to-end network slicing solutions, including wireless, core, transport, cloud infrastructure and OSS/BSS. For example, on the wireless network side, in order to support network slicing, Ericsson launched the Ericsson 5G RAN slicing overall solution, including QoS framework, RAN slicing framework, Advanced RAN slicing, UE Group Framework and other functional suites, which can provide QoS-based differentiated scheduling, slice-based access control, mobility control, RB resource reservation, Based on the differentiated parameter configuration of slice +5QI, it provides a multi-dimensional guarantee means to realize the SLA of slices, and comprehensively helps the maturity and large-scale commercialization of network slice technology. C114 Communication Network Li Ming