After long and repeated delays, 2024 will see a significant increase in 5G Standalone (SA) launches, signaling the beginning of the 5G Advanced Era. With this milestone just around the corner, we are committed to helping you unlock the value of 5G SA, from enabling efficient operation, scalability, and flexibility to your 5G network to unlocking many new features. A look back at the critical role of management and orchestration. As 5G moves from hype to reality, we are exploring the potential to unlock new revenue opportunities through customized 5G network orchestration.
Dynamic is a killer app
The “killer apps” of 5G are likely the wide range of new use cases that can be realized as a decentralized, scalable, and resilient network. All have one thing in common: unlock new features like customizable network slicing, edge computing, and quality of service guarantees. The need for advanced management and orchestration solutions to deploy, scale, and optimize cloud native network functions (CNFs) and their capabilities. The foundational infrastructure to realize the dynamic potential of 5G.
Several efforts are underway to address the advanced management and orchestration needs of 5G. One of them is Nephio, an open source LF networking project. Nephio develops Kubernetes-based intent automation solutions that provide management and orchestration capabilities at scale. It automates the complex tasks of deploying and managing network functions, adapting the infrastructure and dynamically configuring 5G topologies in an efficient and cost-effective manner for advanced use cases. .
However, the benefits of advanced management and orchestration solutions extend beyond scalability and cost efficiency. Dynamic orchestration offers the potential to create new services and deliver new customer experiences that can change CSPs’ revenue prospects for the better. For both consumers and businesses, CSPs will be able to deliver the highly personalized services they value on demand, inspiring loyalty, spending, and advocacy within their communities.
So what’s new?
Network management and orchestration concepts and solutions are not new. It has long been used to deploy and optimize networks that serve a wide subscriber base. This was more the nature of previous generations of networks than a shortcoming of traditional management and orchestration. It lacked the ability to dynamically support the fine-grained requirements of individual users. Therefore, in pre-5G networks, management and orchestration primarily provided efficiencies and benefits to carriers rather than specific customers.
5G changes everything. 5G’s dynamic orchestration enables services such as time-based, region-specific network slicing for bandwidth-intensive VR services during live sporting events. This includes using edge computing resources near each gamer to deliver low-latency game slices for an immersive gaming experience. Increase throughput on demand to enterprise manufacturers, secure critical production capacity during peak times, and more. The opportunities to create new experiences and deliver unprecedented value are vast.
In this 5G context, management and orchestration take on a new dimension. Responsible for precise deployment, expansion, and optimization to build and customize networks on demand according to specific customer requirements to meet customer needs and expectations, anytime, anywhere, when and how needed. To do.
The value is in the experience
In addition to all the other advancements in the 5G specification, the introduction of converged charging systems (CCS) has expanded the ability to monetize new services. CCS and its interface to a variety of new cloud-native network capabilities enables CSPs to bill in new ways beyond minutes, messages, and megabytes. Release 3GPP 17 means that management and orchestration solutions can call on CCS to bill for dynamic lifecycle events as services are personalized and tailored to specific customers. Lifecycle events include network slice provisioning, network slice modification, edge resource provisioning, and edge application scaling, all of which can be monetized.
The value of management and orchestration lies in the ability to guarantee guaranteed SLAs (previously not possible), configure specific resources on demand, or provide services that start at one point and end at another. It comes from offering and allowing subscribers to specify location and location. When does she pay the fee and no longer get billed for the fee she doesn’t use 90% of the month? Enhanced customer experience means all charges are always transparent to customers. For example, a business customer may rely on her customized, low-latency 5G network connection with a service level agreement (SLA). As the network and infrastructure adapt automatically, their activities and corresponding charges should be transparently visible to customers, reinforcing the operator’s commitment to providing a unique and valuable experience.
As the advanced capabilities of 5G standalone (SA) expand around the world, CSPs are increasingly experimenting with new services, advanced management and orchestration deployments, and new monetization methods. Customer feedback is paramount to planning and executing broader deployment and next steps. A flexible approach to monetization streamlines the process of experimentation and change. Some activities may be billed directly to the customer, while other activities may be encapsulated into a higher level subscription fee, with or without a cap on the number of configured events per billing period. can. The optimized approach to billing for orchestration depends on many factors, including customer segmentation, service evolution, the nature of the services offered, and the value of the equipment to deliver an enhanced customer experience.
Let’s design!
A significant paradigm shift is taking shape at the intersection of new 5G capabilities, real-time converged charging systems, and network management and orchestration. As a result, CSPs have a unique opportunity to design highly personal and customized 5G communication experiences for consumers and businesses. If you haven’t already done so, CSP product managers are encouraged to start evaluating how they can leverage management and orchestration to create compelling new 5G services for their portfolio. At the same time, new charging capabilities and models must be adopted that can incorporate lifecycle measurement events for management and orchestration. Adopting innovative charging models, focusing on transparency, and leveraging customer feedback are key to navigating this dynamic new landscape and leveraging these new features to make a difference in his 5G market. It becomes.
