Telekom, Mavenir Unveil Innovations in 5G SA Network Slicing

Mavenir, the Network Software Provider building the future of networks with cloud-native solutions that run on any cloud, together with Deutsche Telekom announced significant advancements across two projects both focused on progressing monetisation opportunities enabled by 5G standalone network slicing technologies and powered by Mavenir’s cloud-native Converged Packet Core.

5G Live Video Production Service, with RTL Deutschland, for stable broadcasting of live events using 5G standalone and network slicing technologies. This new service, now commercially available from Deutsche Telekom, allows professional video or media production companies to transmit live HD video streams reliably over the 5G network, even without special equipment (e.g. satellite van).

To further increase the service reach, this use case can also be extended to mobile journalism, where regular consumers can transmit spontaneous video production using their own smartphones.

Demonstration of a multi-domain orchestration proof-of-concept (PoC) with open APIs for 5G dynamic network slicing services on-demand. The collaborative PoC illustrates the ease with which businesses can submit a service request through Deutsche Telekom’s customer interface, initiating the setup of a protected, tailored 5G network slice that assures superior Quality of Service (QoS) tailored to a customer’s specific connectivity needs.

The complete customer journey from the moment an order is placed, to the translation of that order into precise deployment and configuration details for network functions, results in the activation of a dedicated end-to-end network slice with a custom Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Ashok Khuntia, President, Core Networks, Mavenir, says: “Mavenir is committed to support Deutsche Telekom’s 5G Standalone business objectives through the enablement of dynamic network slicing. Mavenir’s cloud-native 5G Core exposes Open APIs allowing Deutsche Telekom’s enterprise customers to seamlessly request deployment and configuration of dedicated 5G Core user and control plane network functions, as well as to provision corresponding subscribers’ profiles through an orchestration layer.”

Torsten Griesche, VP, Tribe Head Data (Network Data Core) at Deutsche Telekom: “Our enterprise customers are demanding tailored and flexible connectivity services. We are proud that our pioneering work on 5G SA Slicing can now be experienced by our customers with the launch of 5G Live Video Production. This is just the beginning of the 5G service journey that will leverage slicing and automation.”

How it works

Network Slicing solution demonstrated by Deutsche Telekom for the multi domain orchestration PoC enables enterprises to book a network slice for video production or any other use case, based on the slice availability at their location. The entire network slice lifecycle is automated, from ordering to instantiation to configuration to management.

The business support system (BSS) takes the customer order and invokes the slice manager/orchestrator. The Mavenir Digital Cloud Automation (MDCA), which serves as a network function management function (NFMF), exposes REST API to the slice orchestrator to receive slice creation and configuration requests. To enable seamless integration with 3rd party orchestrators, Mavenir made the API specification publicly available.

The MDCA which is Mavenir’s CICD framework, uses GitOps practices to automate the creation and configuration of the slice. As part of this procedure, the required network function (NF) for the slice is instantiated, the slice-specific and other dependent NFs are configured. Once the slice is activated, the slice specific KPIs are sent to the operations support system (OSS) layer. This enables monitoring of the network slice’s performance, and any feedback action to be taken for Slice Assurance follows the same path as creation i.e. via MDCA.

The 5G Live Video Production Service and the Multi-Domain Orchestration PoC was implemented using Mavenir’s cloud-native Converged Packet Core components and the MDCA serving as the NFMF.

Mavenir’s end-to-end network slicing solution comprising of RAN, Core, Mavenir Digital Enablement (MDE serving as the BSS), and MDCA based Automation suite provides the same customer journey and slice lifecycle management as that of the Deutsche Telekom solution. MDE exposes TMF based Open APIs easing the integration with third-party management interfaces.

This solution provides several benefits to CSPs, consumers and enterprises, including:

Increased agility and flexibility: Businesses can quickly and easily deploy and manage network slices to meet their specific needs.

Improved efficiency and cost savings: Businesses can optimise their network resources by using network slices for specific applications or use cases.

Enhanced security and isolation: Network slices can be isolated from each other to improve security and performance.

New revenue opportunities: Businesses can offer new and innovative services to their customers by using network slicing.