5G Network Automation

Managing a network has never been easy. Complex architectures harm telcos’ potential to adapt to market changes. To benefit from 5G, SDN/NFV and AI, operators need IT systems that facilitate network automation and are unified to support multiple processes. That’s why telecoms must automate their front-end, network and IT configurations and processes.

To monetize their 5G infrastructure, telcos will let their partners use it through network slicing.
Network slicing is an architecture that allows the multiplexing of virtualized and independent logical networks on the same physical network infrastructure.

Each network slice is an isolated end-to-end network tailored to fulfill diverse requirements requested by a particular application. As we can see in Figure 1, network slices are an end-to-end concept.

We call each of these networks network slices. The color represents the SLA requirement.

In this example, Operator Y, which has three customers (BMW, Fiat, and Public safety) created 5 network slices that contain RAN slices (each of the network slices contains RAN slices), Core slices, and Transport slices.

Each domain has a RAN controller, Core controller, Transport controller, and we have an end-to-end orchestrator.

In our webinar B2B 5G Network Slicing: Unlocking the Digital Transformation, Intraway, Readiness IT and Kloudville discussed how to quickly launch initial 5G services for the B2B segment in order to support new business models and operations over 5G.

Let’s see in Figure 2 how, for example, an E2E network slice (Infotainment) is created in this network. The logical flow is as follows: There is a company that has Honda as a customer that needs an end-to-end network slice for Infotainment, and the budget for the SLA is 10 Mb/s.

Figure 2

1. The customer portal sends a request to the Operator, and the Operator uses its network slice or templates to generate a network slice profile.
2. Then, it goes through various decompositions, triggering different actions in the network.
3. It sends a request to NFVO, which creates the virtual RAN, virtual core, or both if needed.
4. The second portion is that it sends a request to the RAN controller to create the RAN slice and give the RAN equipment personality.
5. The same token sends a request to the 5G core controller to create the core slice.
6. Lastly, it sends a request to the transport slice controller to create the connectivity between this, RAN and core.

At this point, it’s stitching all these slices, creating a single end-to-end network slice for a specific customer.

Most 5G networks will retain both virtual and physical elements in the coming years.
Such hybrid infrastructures will call for automated network provisioning – provided by a Resource Orchestrator.

To ensure a seamless 5G experience, operators need AI-driven network performance monitoring and assurance and automated reactions to potential issues and failures.

Automation will be accomplished incrementally. However, most operators will implement it in multiple areas of their businesses at the same time. Some companies are looking to combine these efforts into a single autonomous network initiative, while others leave departments and domains to their own agendas for the time being. It will be important for CSPs to create a thorough, business-wide approach for autonomous networks.

In our webinar B2B 5G Network Slicing: Unlocking the Digital Transformation, Intraway, Readiness IT and Kloudville discussed how to quickly launch initial 5G services for the B2B segment in order to support new business models and operations over 5G.