Heavy Reading’s View

Automated
4G/5G Core Networks
Prepared for Cisco Knowledge Network by
Gabriel Brown, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading
November 8, 2017
Agenda

• Capacity Economics & New Services

• Automated Mobile Core
• Distributed Cloud, Distributed Core
• 5G-Ready Services Core
Mobile Network Evolution (in Logos)
Price Pressure & “Unlimited”
$8.97

30x
Mobility Premium Based
Mobility
on Data Plan Allotment
Premium
$ / GB

$1.80
37x
$0.15 $0.05

Mid 2016 Mid 2017

Mobile Access Fixed Access

Source: Mobile Experts, August 2017

Capacity Economics w/ Gigabit LTE
High Band
Unlicensed?
4x4 MIMO
1
High Band
4x4 MIMO Gbit/s

256 QAM
Early adopter user-
Mid Band
4x4 MIMO
experienced data rate =
~100-300 Mbit/s
Low Band Target baseline data
2x2 MIMO rate = 50 Mbit/s
Massive opportunity to simplify in 5G NR
Extreme Capacity with 5G NR

100 MHz of Mid Band Spectrum; or Massive

1 Gbit/s
200, 400, 800 MHz of 28 GHz
4-8 bits/Hz
MIMO
per Sector
400-800 Mbit/s cell edge
+
2x2 & 4x4
1 Gbit/s
LTE Underlay (4 x 20MHz, 2 bit/Hz, 4x4 MIMO) MIMO
per Sector
Existing Cell Site Grid in Phase 1
Reduction in transport cost-per-bit must
be at least matched by lower cost of
operations
 Future Mobile Network Service Dimensions
Network Operations UR-LLC
Low cost operations; (Mission Critical Services)
Network Slicing; Cloud- $$$$$$/Yr/Device
native Low latency; Reliability

eMBB
Massive MTC (IoT) $$$/Yr/Device
$/Yr/Device; Low power; High bandwidth

Vehicular
(telemetry, driver assist,
Source: Heavy Reading, autonomous, etc.)
based on 3GPP SMARTER $$$/Yr/Device; High mobility
Automated Mobile Core
The Need for Core Network Automation
• Diverse services are only economical with
automation at the network and service level

• Mobile operators need both functional agility and

service agility

• Objective: to make networking services as easy to

buy & consume as the cloud
Business Model Evolution
On-demand Services
Network customized, on-the-fly
for multiple use-cases
Dynamic Network Network-as-a-
User requests automatically Service
implemented in network Self-Service
Network
Today’s state-of-the-art
Multiple VNFs to create service Integrated
Virtualized
VNFs Services

Increasing technical & commercial sophistication

Virtual EPC Deployment Examples

Enterprise
& IoT
Connected All Traffic
Car
VoLTE,
Enterprise VoWiFi

Dedicated Public
physical core OpCo
Safety

vEPC
On-Boarding VNFs
Levels of VNF On-Boarding Maturity

Source: Intel, October 2017

• Initially, overly manual and craft-like, but progress being made

Closed-Loop Automation (a model)
Service Assurance

Enterprise Network Service

Service
Connected Car Service
Orchestration
Consumer Broadband

Auth. Database Policy

Network Mobility DRA
Sessions
Orchestration
NFVI / Cloud Platform / Appliances

Actuate Network Functions

 Service Automation (an example)
Test tools and network KPI’s are returned. Assuming
Once service and network provisioning are
that all results are pass, subscriber database updated Solution Deployment 5
complete, update subscriber database for
to connect customers to services
test UE and triggers test cycle
7 1

Instantiate or configure GW and IP Instantiate service

network; System configuration Network Automation and and network slice Service Automation and
complete received Monitoring Monitoring
2
Test tool connected to GW Subscriber Instantiate or configure service.
to test connectivity integrity 3 Database System configuration complete received
4
Test UE is connected to
Network Slice and Service
Authentication &
Test Tool
6
Policy

Svs N
Svs 1
GW

8
Either by triggering a reconnection or when devices
reconnect, subscribers can connect to newly
deployed service over optimized network.
Source: Cisco, October 2017
Console-Driven; API-Driven
Service Catalogue
Product
Service Design tools
Management
Automated Test

REST REST SOAP Netconf CLI

Application NFVO EMS

VIM NE/VNF NE/VNF NE

Distributed Services
 Central Data Center
Distributed Service UDM PCF

Deployment

Automation
N1/N2
AMF SMF

Remote DC for vRAN

and MEC
Remote DC N4 + Extensions

N4
N3
NR UPF IP Services
5G N4 + Extensions
Central Data Center
SGi Services/Internet
User plane and IP
UPF IP Services
Services are instantiated
and managed as a set
N3
NR UPF IP Services
UP and Applications SGi Services/Internet
5G
are chained
IoT Services
Optimized for user plane
Remote DC,
Different domain
Source: Cisco, October 2017
Distributed User-Plane Node
• Virtualized on x86 servers
• GTP termination
• User-plane and IP services chained
User Plane Node with Integrated SGi-LAN Services SBI
VNF VNF VNF VNF
Session SDN Flow
GTP-U
VNF VNF VNF VNF Anchor Client Classifier
GTP IP SGi
S1U
VNF VNF VNF VNF

Counters Flows Tables

GTP High Performance Fast Path Forwarding IP High Performance Data Path
5G-Ready Services Core
5G Development & Deployment Timeline

5G Standalone Development
(5G system architecture & core)
Simulations,
Prototypes & Mass Market
PoCs Service

5G NR
Field Trials
NSA-mode
5G NR Early Drop
(w/ LTE anchor)

2017 2018 2019 2020 2025

Introducing 5G NR
5G Radio in 5G in SA
EPC NSA Mode Mode 5GC
Migrate

CP
UP

eNB gNB eNB gNB

NSA & Standalone Modes
Based on Release 15 specifications, which deployment options is your company
considering for 5G New Radio (NR)? (n=139)

We are considering both Non-

We are focusing on NSA; no
Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA)
current plans for SA (15%)
deployment options
(36%)

We are focusing on SA; no

current plans for NSA…

We are waiting for

5G Release 16 (9%)
Not sure / Don't know
We have no plans to deploy 5G NR at
(19%)
this time (9%)

Source: Heavy Reading’s 5G operator Survey, November 2017

 5G-Ready Mobile Core
Control Plane
HSS + UDM
N10 PCRF + PCF

S6a N7
SMF + N8
SGW-C S5-C PGW-C N15
User Plane N4
S11 N11
SGW-U UPF +
S5-U PGW-U
S1-U
MME AMF
Nx
S1-MME N3 N2
N1
4G Architecture 5G Architecture
E-UTRAN 5G RAN

UE UE
Conclusion
• Capacity demands and service diversity make
automation essential
• The mobile core controls services and is the key pivot
for automation
• As tools mature, operators will become comfortable
with closed-loop automation & self-service
• Advanced 4G and early 5G services can run on a
common, cloud-based mobile core network
Automated Mobile Core White Paper

@gabeuk

brown@heavyreading.com

5G Transport & Networking

New York, November 10
Light Reading Executive Summit
Prague, December 5
 Thank You!

brown@heavyreading.com