BARCELONA, Spain -- Huawei and Deutsche Telekom are determined to validate network slicing technology, saying their joint demo in Deutsche Telekom's 5G:haus lab in Bonn, Germany, can create network slices on demand in each given application scenario with the flexibility and efficiency required for 5G applications.
The companies showed off what they described as the world's first 5G E2E network slicing demo on the opening day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
According to an NGMN Alliance white paper, the intention of a 5G slice is to provide only the traffic treatment that is necessary for the use case and avoid all other unnecessary functionality. Third-party entities can be given permission to control certain aspects of slicing via an API in order to provide tailored services.
Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CTO at Deutsche Telekom, said network slicing is envisioned for 5G in order to provide an efficient enablement of the highly versatile network characteristics that will be required to connect different industries, as well as the mass mobile broadband like connectivity that customers will demand. "We show that these capabilities can be provided as on-demand network services for diverging use cases," he said in a press release.
"Huawei is investing a tremendous innovation efforts into the 5G key enabling technology," said David Wang, president of Huawei Wireless Network, in the release. "5G network slicing can enable a unified physical network infrastructure to support multiple industry services, including mobile broadband and vertical sectors. We will devote more efforts to transform the advanced innovation technologies into the best user experience for our customers."
Deutsche Telekom and Huawei are collaborating in joint innovation and testing 5G system technologies, including air-interface and network architecture. Due to a 6-year experience accumulation on 5G R&D, Huawei says it has achieved a wealth of experience in research and field tests. The company expects to team up with more partners in the industry to build the emerging 5G ecosystem and push forward the development of 5G.
Meanwhile, in a keynote speech at MWC, Huawei Deputy Chairman and rotating CEO Guo Ping said it will be a long time before 5G is deployed on a large scale, and industry players must make sure they don't miss out on opportunities. He also said that three things should be done before 5G arrives: increase connectivity, enable verticals and redefine network capabilities.
In terms of redefining the network, he said that carriers, as the hub of connections, need to establish software-defined architecture, achieve agile operations and significantly improve user experience, for example by providing minute-level service provisioning. They also need to develop Big Data operation capabilities to effectively increase operating efficiency and explore ways to monetize Big Data.
Besides choosing a strategic partner that possesses integration capabilities, carriers need to develop their own integration capabilities and help establish a more open and innovative ecosystem, according to Guo.
For more:
- see this press release
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