Verizon is venturing into Standalone 5G, having recently completed its first data session with an end-to-end 5G system including the carrier’s new 5G SA core. Verizon said that it plans to start moving traffic onto the new core in the second half of this year, with full commercialization in 2021.
The carrier described the new core as having a containerized design, and said that it’s being built using a “webscale software architecture based on advanced IP-based technologies.”
Verizon added that a “virtualized and containerized 5G core” is an “important step to realizing the full potential of innovative and advanced 5G solutions.”
“The 5G standalone core is critical for unleashing the most advanced benefits of 5G technology including remarkable levels of programmability to manage the advanced solutions and exponential traffic that 5G will bring,” said Bill Stone, VP of planning for Verizon, in a statement. “By building this 5G core with cloud-native containerized architecture, we will be able to achieve new levels of operational automation, flexibility and adaptability.”
Verizon said that it expects to see a number of benefits from implementing a SA 5G core, including the ability to support network slicing and dynamic resource allocation, including real-time Radio Access Network resource management and management of virtual network functions; optimized services between its fixed and mobile networks; advanced analysis of network data in order to optimized performance; and the ability to move workloads according to the requirements of a use case, among others.
“5G technology will bring about solutions in manufacturing, retail, entertainment, sports, education and countless other areas we have not even dreamed of yet,” said Stone. “The network we are building, from the base of the 5G technology, to the advancements in the Radio Access Network, to the architectural design changes in the core of the network — are all critical to ensuring we have the most advanced and robust network to support the life- and societal-changing solutions that will come with this new technology.”
Verizon is one among many mobile network operators around the world who are venturing into 5G Standalone. Vodafone UK recently turned up what it claimed was the first live SA 5G deployment in the country, with a new network built for Coventry University (What’s the status of 5G SA? Read more here). T-Mobile US was testing SA 5G back in August of last year in preparation for deployment this year.
In a May blog post, Dave Bolan, mobile core network analyst for Dell’Oro Group, wrote that the telecom industry is expected to continue its progression toward 5G SA this year and that “lab proof-of-concepts and field trials are well underway around the world,” with significant activity in China.
“Vendors and [service providers] are working together to learn about the intricacies of implementing 5G SA, which primarily means implementing the 5G Core for 5G NR base stations,” he wrote. “Some SPs will operate multiple 5G Cores dedicated to consumers, enterprise, public safety, and Internet of Things (IoT). They believe that dedicated 5G Core networks will be able to deliver new agile business solutions at a quicker pace for their respective user bases and more efficient network management.”
