SÃO PAULO–Network virtualization and upgrading BSS/OSS to make them ready to support the coming demands of 5G, including massive support for the internet of things, are important preparations carriers need to undertake as the next-generation network specification is developed. That was the primary message from vendors to carriers communicated during Futurecom.
Huawei Global VP for Wireless Mohamed Madkour noted that carriers, in the evolution to 5G, should focus on four corners of business sustainability: cost, revenue, supply evolution and demand exploration. According to him, 5G itself should not be a goal. “It’s a long term action; it’s going to revolutionize our lives and generate economic growth in Latin America,” he said.
The journey for 5G should consider spectrum optimization, 4G network evolution, site densification and rural expansion. “To organize spectrum and become more efficient must be concerns for operators. We believe that solving spectrum issue is key to evolve to 5G,” he added. The VP expects in 2018 to bring major evolution to LTE networks as a first step to address major use cases of enhancing broadband, massive internet of things and critical applications, such as connected cars.
In the patch to 5G, there is a lot of work for carriers to do in their systems, as Manuel Zepeda, division president at Amdocs Global Business for CALA, commented during a video interview. Carriers can anticipate future networking technologies by virtualizing their networks and upgrading BSS/OSS for example.
Roberto Medeiros, from Qualcomm, added that carriers should take advantage of non-standalone and standalone architecture. “Carriers don’t need to wait for 5G to experiment the benefits of it for IoT. They can experiment the concept with other technologies such as narrowband-IoT,” he noted.
