Facilitating the ongoing transformation of 5G networks

Facilitating the ongoing transformation of 5G networks

By David Allan, Wireless-Wireline Convergence Work Area Director at Broadband Forum

As operators and technology providers continue to jointly develop 5G convergence standards, five esteemed presenters, including representatives from Nokia, Telstra, Telecom Italia and Ericsson, recently convened at the Broadband Forum’s BASe knowledge webinar entitled ‘5G Wireless – Wireline Convergence Work Overview Webinar’ to discuss the shared goal of realizing a converged wireless wireline network within the Broadband Forum.

Drawing the industry together

Drawing on the expertise of the panel who are all instrumental in the Forum’s work in driving open standards, the webinar began by discussing the formation of 5G Wireless Wireline Convergence (WWC) within the Broadband Forum and 3GPP. In 2016, operators approached the Broadband Forum to discuss 5G and its implication on the wireline network and they were interested to know if the industry would be migrated to a single 5G Core (5GC) or still operate two separate core networks – wireline and wireless.

The webinar explored the Forum’s close collaboration with 3GPP as they examined Use Cases, laid out goals and established ways of working together. Their joint work resulted in the release of industry specifications such as Release 16 from 3GPP and Phase 1 document published from the Broadband Forum. These specifications are a crucial part of a step-by-step transformation that is designed to ensure a smooth migration path and maximize the addressable market.

Streamlining 5G architecture

Christele Bouchat of Nokia highlighted the factors that are currently driving convergence. Primarily, timing is key as transformation in both wireless and wireline is already underway with cloudification and control/user plane separation (CUPS) which 5G WWC can leverage for faster and more efficient transformation. Another driver is optimization as 5G WWC allows the integration of functions and systems as well as, the operational maintenance and management.

Further to this, 5G Routing Gateways have been introduced with Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) cards and Access Gateway Function (AGF) is replacing Broadband Network Gateways (BNGs) through Network interfaces to talk to the 5GC, moving towards a streamlined architecture serving multiple access technologies. These factors represent the conjunction of services, functions, and applications and from a monetary point of view, as new and improved services are becoming available to all customers through a single core instead of two.

Elaborating on deployment scenarios and answering questions that operators may be asking in the light of Wireless and Wireline Convergence, David Woolley of Telstra discussed the migration strategies have been designed so that either can be replaced at any time in a reversible way, through the Unified Data Management (UDM) storing both the Line ID and the SIM. This means an access network can be instructed to transfer traffic from BNGs to AGFs. Therefore, this is great news for customers who will encounter a minimal loss of service. From a Customer-premises Equipment (CPE) perspective, this means that no customer is left stranded. The hybridization of Use Cases through a 5G-Residential Gateway (5G-RG) allows for high availability, preferred access networks, and a family of Use Cases through Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS) multi-access architecture.

Increasing monetization and convergence

Rosaria Persico of Telecom Italia explained how through convergence, operators can leverage their Edge assets through 5G to provide advantages in terms of latency and rich bandwidth for end-users which hyper cloud providers consider to be very valuable. 5G has been driving the industry much faster than any other technology and network slicing is an exciting development that allows networks to be logically segmented to support specific services such as resilience, bandwidth or latency. For example, a given slice could support low latency demands like gaming, while another could be used to provide high reliability, such as mission-critical activities in a hospital.

5G provides the opportunity to streamline all aspects of network operations at the same time, while simultaneously facilitating the longer-term goal of increased monetization through convergence too, highlighted David Allan of Ericsson. WWC specifically, is a key part of the whole convergence scenario and the Broadband Forum has rolled out the groundwork, driving value for converged and fixed operators as the WWC journey continues. An update on Phase 2 was provided in regard to expanding the deployment options and unlocking more of the value of the 5G system.

During the Q&A session following the presentations, David Woolley outlined one of the primary advantages of convergence for operators of having access to one scalable network instead of managing two distinct networks that can’t be consolidated.

For more on the WWC Work Area, please visit: https://wiki.broadband-forum.org/display/BBF/Wireline-Wireless+Convergence.

To download the full recording and slide deck, please click here: https://www.broadband-forum.org/meetings-and-events/5g-wireless-wireline-convergence-work-overview-webinar.