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Accelerate your network to 5G Core
The introduction of 5G signals the start of a new era for regional carriers, where both networks and businesses are evolving and expanding. A new business landscape is rising, in which growing numbers of capabilities are being added to the network to improve current services and address new business needs. Thus, 5G offers a real opportunity for operators to grow revenues and capture more value.
A key part of any 5G project is the introduction and journey to 5G Core (5GC) or a 5G system.
What is 5GC?
5GC is the heart of a 5G mobile network. It establishes reliable, secure connectivity to the network for end users and provides access to its services. The core domain handles a wide variety of essential functions in the mobile network, such as connectivity and mobility management, authentication and authorization, subscriber data management and policy management, among others. 5GC network functions are completely software-based and designed as cloud-native—meaning they’re agnostic to the underlying cloud infrastructure, allowing higher deployment agility and flexibility.
With the advent of 5G, industry experts defined how the core network should evolve to support the needs of 5G New Radio (NR) and the advanced use cases enabled by it.
Together, they developed the new 3GPP standard for core networks known as 5GC.
The new 5GC architecture is based on what is called a Service-Based Architecture (SBA), which implements IT network principles and a cloud-native design approach. In this new architecture, each network function (NF) offers one or more services to other NFs via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Each NF is formed by a combination of small pieces of software code called microservices. Some microservices can even be reused for different NFs, making implementation more effective. The use of microservices also facilitates independent lifecycle management—which allows upgrades and new functionalities to be deployed to specific microservices with zero impact on running services.
Why is 5GC needed?
You’ve probably heard about advanced 5G use cases which, thanks to ultra-low network latency and very high throughputs, will revolutionize businesses and the day-to-day lives of consumers. But none of those will be possible without 5GC. Alongside 5G NR, 5GC is a fundamental cornerstone of 5G networks.
Currently, the vast majority of commercial 5G deployments are based on NR non-standalone (NSA) technology, which uses existing LTE radio access for signaling between devices and the network, and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) networks, which are enhanced to support 5G NSA. This approach allows new 5G services to be introduced quickly while maximizing the reuse of existing 4G networks. However, to unlock 5G’s full potential NR standalone (SA) and 5GC are needed.
The new 5GC architecture addresses the needs of not just today, but also the future—raising mobile communications to unprecedented levels and making it possible to digitalize entire societies.
A 5GC network will enhance user experience, simplify operations and enable agile new service creation, which will open up more enterprise and consumer opportunities for regional carriers.
To enable this, there are six topic areas to consider when building a cloud-native platform.
Six topic areas to consider when building a cloud-native platform.
5G Core
• Establish a core platform built on cloud-native technology, which combines EPC and 5G Core network functions
• Reach deployment flexibility and TCO efficiency during the 5G migration Operations and management
Operations and management
• Efficiently operate a cloud-native platform with new ways of working and evolved processes
• Transform operations to reach the 5G network’s full potential Network security
Network security
• Safeguard networks with a secure design and monitoring to protect against external threats
• Create a safe innovation ecosystem to capture new business opportunities
Cloud-native infrastructure
• Deploy a system-verified cloud infrastructure solution optimized for cloud applications
• Reduce risks while building this cloud platform for 5G services 5G voice
5G voice
• Leverage 4G voice solutions and enable high-quality 5G voice
• Expand with new 5G communication service capabilities
Automation and orchestration
• Increase network automation and orchestrate new 5G use cases
• Reduce time to market for new service development with agile innovation
If you would like to learn more about the advantages of 5GC and how you can evolve toward it, reach out to your Ericsson representative.
