BARCELONA, Spain--Deutsche Telekom said trends including network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software defined networks (SDN) are contributing to the development of the integrated infrastructure that will be necessary to power 5G networks.
At a presentation during the Mobile World Congress here, the company said NFV and SDN are making it possible to improve the performance and flexibility of networks, which will be key elements in developing the "behind the scenes" infrastructure for 5G networks.
"In future, almost everything will communicate with each other. 5G will provide a further basis for that," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Deutsche Telekom CTO and chairman of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) board.
The operator noted that 5G technology should eradicate demand for higher data transfer rates by providing speeds that are hundreds of times faster than LTE, and that react in a millisecond. Achieving those goals will enable the provision of new services covering fields including healthcare and automotive, the operator stated.
Jacobfeuerborn noted that 5G will be a global standard, and one that covers integrated networks rather than being a pure mobile play. "With 5G we create a worldwide standard for homogeneous communication. That means a common global language--because communication has no local borders," he said.
Deutsche Telekom's view regarding the importance of NFV and SDN was echoed by the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5GPPP), which today released its vision document detailing the key drivers of the progression to 5G, the design principles of the next generation technology, 5G's disruptive capabilities, key technological components, spectrum considerations, and a timeline towards commercialisation of the technology.
Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, and CTOs from Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, SES, Intel, Huawei, DoCoMo and Samsung introduced the vision document at a press conference at the Congress.
Oettinger said: "The rollout of this vision document by the 5GPPP is a key milestone in the global 5G vision" that will "help to further focus research on the most promising technological options, and to start standardisation process without any delay."
The commissioner said early work by industry players is encouraging, because they are all focused on developing "a global set of standards for 5G" that will help to ensure the technology is fully interoperable from the outset. "I'm optimistic that with Europe and our current leadership we will avoid a war on standards, contrasting clearly with the situation at the start of the previous generations of communications systems."
Oettinger concluded by noting that the launch of the vision document shows the 5GPPP "is delivering" and he pledged "the undivided support of the Commission to galvanise European leadership on this critical infrastructure for our economies and societies."
For more:
- see this Deutsche Telekom announcement
- view the 5GPPP Vision document
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