What is Network Slicing?
Simply put; network slicing is a process by which telco carriers can ‘slice-up’ a singular 5G network into multiple virtual (end-2-end) networks that are individually optimized to suit various end point connected applications (smartphone, IoT, et al.)
Key benefit of network slicing
5G is set to serve broad range of IoT use cases with varying degree of network requirements… from autonomous vehicles that would require uninterrupted access to high bandwidth & critical latency network resources through to millions of industrial M2M sensors requiring nothing more than low bandwidth & intermittent network access
Equally allocating the same amount of (5G) network resources across a range of connected services with varied network requirement would almost always be a waste of precious network resources for the telco carrier
Network slicing could also help isolate sensitive connected solutions (think: smart home security) from the wider (& potentially insecure) public access network
These virtual network slices would typically operate independent of each other with a common backhaul, core & even cloud infrastructure…
…and can further be made efficient in conjunction with technologies such as SDN (software-defined networks) & NFV (network functions virtualization)
From a revenue standpoint, some IoT solutions will be high usage & cost more to operate whilst others would be light usage & cost less…
….each network slice would specifically cater to these individual solution requirements and would have it’s unique billing mechanism & revenue models
Telco carriers exploring the technology
So far telco carriers such. asSK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, etc. are actively working with network equipment OEMs such as Huawei, Nokia & Ericsson on running network slicing trials & research with varying degree of success
The technology will play a central role in the deployment of a wide array of connected devices & services (both consumer & enterprise) and as such is already being recognized as an ideal architecture in the 5G wireless network era
Expect increased commitment to research & use case trials from a a host of wireless players in the near future