1.What is network slicing? Network slicing, a crucial technology of 5G Core Network (5GC), is the embodiment of Network as a Service (NaaS), enabling network to be deployed on demand.
In essence, network slicing is a sort of separation technology in 5GC, dividing operators’ physical networks into multiple virtual E2E networks which are isolated based on different service requirements such as latency, bandwidth, security and reliability to meet emerging diverse application scenarios and various service requirements.
2.Why network slicing is introduced to 5GC? The reason why introducing network slicing to 5GC is that diverse requirement of network from different services.
There are diversified scenarios and service requirement in 5G application. Obviously, the immense diversity of specific requirement can not be ensured and satisfied with the unified network architecture. If constructing private network for each scenario, it will increase operators’ cost burden to construct and operate network, leading to waste of resources.
Therefore, network slicing appeared, exploring the possibilities to enable each network slice to adapt to different services requirements, and providing reasonable network operation as well as effective resource usage.
3.Three major application scenarios of 5G network and their QoS requirement There are diverse data services, but these services can not be provided at the same time with full resources because of the limited network resources. Therefore, it’s essential to rank data services with priority, and offer network resources and service quality according to the priority. Here is the introduction of Quality of Service (QoS).
QoS of major application scenarios of 5G network
According to three 5G application scenarios above and their specific requirements, network slicing isolates network into three major categories:
The first category is in charge of eMBB service. The second category is in charge of mMTC service. And the third category is in charge of uRLLC service.
4.The characteristics of 5G network slicing product a. End-to-end isolatedservices: based on the capacity of network slicing, it isolates services from end to end, including isolation of different customers or different services from the same customer. b. Quality-reliable services: ensure the quality of 5G, backbone network, metropolitan area network and so on. Customer can choose according to their specific requirements such as security of services and transmission quality. c. Function-customized services: customer-oriented function requirement with the network architecture, the ways of accessing, the amount of terminals, the coverage area and so on. d. Automated services: based on the new cloud-operated system, accessing the unified delivery of automated E2E services .
The working process of network slicing
5.The future of network slicing in 5GC As the potential and crucial technology of 5GC, network sling is able to provide 5G services for industries effectively by matching the network and services requirements with flexible operation and distribution of network based on different services. In a word, network slicing can construct a network offering customized services for specific scenario, which can help lower the cost of operators, enhance the effectiveness and optimize the network connections.
The real energy of 5G is to build a unified network to connect everything in the future. To achieve this goal, we should promote and develop network slicing to enable the network to meet the needs of different service requirements.
The innovative era of connecting everything through network is coming.
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