Chu
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opportunities, agility and flexibility are a competitive advantage we must attain. New
competitors, often referred to as OTTs (over the top), do not have the burden of legacy
systems and can often outsmart telcos. Operators cannot justify the huge investment in
5G without a strategy to capture a large share of its promised bounty. NFV is part of that
strategic toolset.
15.5.3 Horizontal Network Slicing
Networks are very expensive to build, maintain and operate. 5G envisions networks not
only for mobile consumers on smart phones, but also for television, healthcare, automobiles, and vast swathes of other segments of the economy, as in IoT. Each of these
networks has its own unique requirements. But we cannot build, maintain and operate
entirely separate networks for each of them. It will be cost‐prohibitive and extremely
inefficient. What we need is a shared 5G mobile infrastructure that can be sliced end‐
to‐end, or horizontally, into separate virtual networks that fit best for each market
segment. This slicing applies to not only network access and topology but also to functions, such as security, provided by the slice. SDN and NFV together promise rapid
provisioning and bringing up these slices on a shared and virtualized infrastructure.
15.5.4 Multi‐Tenancy
Having different slices of networks is good, but we also need the virtual infrastructure
to be able to support management and operations by different teams, by different functions in an organization, and by different partners and players in the industry in order
to deliver sophisticated applications on shared infrastructure. NFV architecture is
designed with multi‐tenancy in mind as one of the major differences from traditional
enterprise and telco systems.
15.5.5 Rapid Service Delivery
As we discussed earlier, the new competitive landscape demands business agility.
But that is not all. Many types of requirements in 5G need the ability of rapid service
delivery. For example, an “around the globe” service platform may require provisioning
and tearing down of resources in a “follow the sun” pattern. Another example is the
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) model that requires applications to rapidly update live. Energy conservation is yet another example – being able to
shut down part of the infrastructure when the work load is low, and then restart again
when demands pick up. That also depends on the ability of rapid provisioning, and
security, detecting attacks and rapidly provisioning resources to respond is a strategic
arsenal in cyber defense.
15.5.6 XaaS Models
Service providers are no strangers to providing functions as a service, of course. The
problem is that the legacy service definitions are rigid, hard to change (regulated by governments), and narrowly targeted. Cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web
Services (AWS) pioneered much more flexible service models with a programmable API.
354
opportunities, agility and flexibility are a competitive advantage we must attain. New
competitors, often referred to as OTTs (over the top), do not have the burden of legacy
systems and can often outsmart telcos. Operators cannot justify the huge investment in
5G without a strategy to capture a large share of its promised bounty. NFV is part of that
strategic toolset.
15.5.3 Horizontal Network Slicing
Networks are very expensive to build, maintain and operate. 5G envisions networks not
only for mobile consumers on smart phones, but also for television, healthcare, automobiles, and vast swathes of other segments of the economy, as in IoT. Each of these
networks has its own unique requirements. But we cannot build, maintain and operate
entirely separate networks for each of them. It will be cost‐prohibitive and extremely
inefficient. What we need is a shared 5G mobile infrastructure that can be sliced end‐
to‐end, or horizontally, into separate virtual networks that fit best for each market
segment. This slicing applies to not only network access and topology but also to functions, such as security, provided by the slice. SDN and NFV together promise rapid
provisioning and bringing up these slices on a shared and virtualized infrastructure.
15.5.4 Multi‐Tenancy
Having different slices of networks is good, but we also need the virtual infrastructure
to be able to support management and operations by different teams, by different functions in an organization, and by different partners and players in the industry in order
to deliver sophisticated applications on shared infrastructure. NFV architecture is
designed with multi‐tenancy in mind as one of the major differences from traditional
enterprise and telco systems.
15.5.5 Rapid Service Delivery
As we discussed earlier, the new competitive landscape demands business agility.
But that is not all. Many types of requirements in 5G need the ability of rapid service
delivery. For example, an “around the globe” service platform may require provisioning
and tearing down of resources in a “follow the sun” pattern. Another example is the
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) model that requires applications to rapidly update live. Energy conservation is yet another example – being able to
shut down part of the infrastructure when the work load is low, and then restart again
when demands pick up. That also depends on the ability of rapid provisioning, and
security, detecting attacks and rapidly provisioning resources to respond is a strategic
arsenal in cyber defense.
15.5.6 XaaS Models
Service providers are no strangers to providing functions as a service, of course. The
problem is that the legacy service definitions are rigid, hard to change (regulated by governments), and narrowly targeted. Cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web
Services (AWS) pioneered much more flexible service models with a programmable API.