By Celestine Okorie
The GSMA convened pioneers in 5G to develop a guidelines document that provides technological, spectrum and regulatory support to operators in the deployment of 5G Stand Alone (5G SA) Option 2.
Combining the high-performance of New Radio with a cloud-native core network, 5G SA realises all of the expected capabilities for 5G, high throughput, low latency, high reliability and will enable operators to expose these network features to third parties. Deployment is critical to unlocking US$700 billion in enterprise opportunities and for governments to fully realise societal benefits delivered by mobile communications. Such areas include advanced public safety networks, e-education and e-health.
“The deployment of fully virtualised networks using 5G Stand Alone Cores, thereby facilitating Edge Computing and Network Slicing, will enable enterprises and governments to reap the many benefits from high throughput, ultra-low latency and IoT to improve productivity and enhance services to their customers,” said Chief Technology Officer, GSMA, Alex Sinclair.
“5G Stand Alone Option 2 can meet various and more stringent requirements and provide optimal and differentiated solutions, thereby empowering more businesses and unlocking the potential of many services. 5G is changing our society and life,” said Executive Vice President of China Telecom, Liu Guiqing.
“NTT DOCOMO has been actively promoting virtualisation of our core network; we believe that this virtualisation technology is already mature and that our operational know-how will be our advantage. In the future we expect to build dedicated networks, optimised for consumer use cases, such as AR /VR and gaming,” said General Manager of Core Network Development Department, NTT DOCOMO, Inc, Hiroyuki Oto.
