Five years have handed for the reason that early drop of 3GPP’s Release 15, launching the industrywide journey in pursuit of 5G. And immediately 5G continues to be evolving, as subsequent releases and pending future releases proceed to outline the capabilities and companies enabled by the 5G structure. In hindsight, most advertising and marketing groups would admit they jumped the gun on 5G, setting overly excessive expectations with the promise of latest experiences. And whereas the most important promise of 5G has at all times been pace, the community transformation to get there was something however quick. Migrating from monolithic legacy architectures to a 5G service-based structure (SBA) has proved to be a frightening activity, nonetheless this transformation stays important for the profitable monetization of the brand new experiences and capabilities that 5G has been promising to ship.
A quick historical past of 5G and innovation
At the middle of 5G innovation is the core. The 5G Core is a rethinking of how we’ve got finished issues previously, but maintains a backwards compatibility with the 4G LTE period whereas including profound advantages for 5G:
- The 5G Core fixes a number of the limitations of 4G – for instance, Session and Service Continuity (SSC) modes, Access, and Session Management separation
- Control and User Plane separation is designed as a part of the structure from day one, enabling edge computing use instances (MEC), excessive bandwidth, and LBO to call a number of, all of which might be delivered simply and economically
- Protocols like SBI (Service Based Interfaces) allow new improvement architectures for the 5G Core resulting in extra fast innovation
- The 5G Core profiles and guidelines might be deployed granularly by strategies comparable to community slicing, and community coverage
We might go on for pages and pages, bulleting out options and advantages of 5G, typing an inventory which will by no means finish as future function releases proceed to refine and add enhancements. And whereas all these new capabilities that 5G is bringing sound nice, there’s a distinction between what has been put to paper and what’s being finished in the actual world immediately. For instance, many new 5G use instances require units to assist N1 NAS protocols. With new 5G units and a model new 5G SA packet core that is no drawback. But we reside in the actual world stuffed with current 4G companies and others earlier generations of units that don’t assist the brand new protocol(s). Most of those units work nice immediately and haven’t any rapid must be changed. Thus, supporting a number of generations of expertise has led to a necessity for sustaining two cell cores, one that can assist 4G legacy NAS protocols and 5G NSA units with legacy NAS protocols, and a second core for supporting the newer 5G N1 NAS units.
Two Cores, no drawback?
On the floor, including one other core only for 5G wants doesn’t seem like too difficult and it isn’t. In a regular occasion, packet cores (e.g., SMF, UPF, PGW, SGW, PCRF, PCF, and so forth.,) may very well be deployed and managed in parallel. Operating two cores in parallel just isn’t optimum and such a configuration presents vital challenges for outlining coverage and subscriber knowledge administration. Any communication service supplier contemplating this route might want to make use of a number of operations groups and a few artistic engineering for sustaining their provide packages. With two cores you’re successfully doubling the prices and dangers with out coming near doubling the reward. Fortunately, there’s an intriguing various to working two cell cores in parallel and that’s discovering a mechanism for converging the core capabilities right into a unified structure.
We set out on this path years in the past, working intently with service suppliers, like T-Mobile, to know the challenges they confronted and the worth of a converged core. While there has at all times been loads of noise about 5G NSA and 5G SA deployments, with T-Mobile we centered past that to outline an structure for a “Converged Core”. This meant enhancing operations, buyer expertise, and total subscriber high quality whereas sustaining what already existed. We name it a “Converged Core” as a result of it brings collectively the previous, current, and way forward for cell core applied sciences. There are different names for this within the trade comparable to a “Unified Core” or an “Any Generation Core” that describe the identical thought. We leveraged our experience because the trade chief in 4G packet cores, matching market necessities with technological capabilities to construct a smoother path ahead to 5G with a converged core.
Addressing the Business Outcomes
The Cisco Converged Core addresses the important enterprise challenges skilled by our service supplier companions, together with:
- The capability to outline coverage at one location and apply the coverage throughout entry networks (4G, 5G, Wi-Fi)
- The capability to cut back operations prices with a single, unified platform as an alternative of working a standalone 4G core and a standalone 5G core, in parallel
- The capability to rapidly deploy new client and enterprises companies in a unified method, whatever the finish customers entry necessities
- A unified billing and assist expertise for the top prospects
What is the Converged Core?
The Converged Core is the guts of the cell community. In distinction to earlier generations of expertise, 5G Cores are software program based mostly and outlined by 3GPP’s Service Based Architecture (SBA)–a set of interconnected community capabilities (NFs). These community capabilities, such because the Session Management Function (SMF), Access Management Function (AMF) and the User Plane Function (UPF), to call a number of, are containerized software program that helps the separation of the management aircraft from the person aircraft. Instead of {hardware} dependencies and the point-to-point (P2P) limitations of the earlier technology’s expertise, the Service Based Architecture (SBA) is supposed to be a flat, constructed for portability and scalability with the cloud. Each perform is cloud-native and far totally different than their predecessors. Take the SMF, for instance, the SMF supplies frequent session administration for all accesses, together with WLAN, and handles all session administration signaling for person tools (UE) which is relayed by the Access Management Function (AMF). In 4G architectures, a few of these capabilities are supplied by the Packet Data Network Gateway Control Plane Function (PGW-C). The remaining management aircraft components together with the Serving Gateway Control Plane Function (SGW-C) and Packet Data Network Gateway Control Plane Function (PGW-C) together with the session administration capabilities from the outdated Mobility Management Entity (MME) have been additionally migrated into the brand new Session Management Function (SMF).
Relative to the Session Management Function (SMF), the User Plane Function (UPF) helps a set of operations comparable to forwarding to different capabilities, encapsulation/decapsulation of information, bitrate enforcement, and software detection. The Session Management Function (SMF) can dynamically activate and configure the User Plane Function (UPF), or a subset of User Plane Functions, to offer the visitors dealing with performance wanted for a session. Within the 5G structure, one or a number of User Plane Functions (UPF) might be activated and configured by the Session Management Function (SMF) per session, or as wanted per software. At a excessive stage and in contrast to 4G, which has distinct person aircraft entities (SGW-U or PGW-U), the 5G SBA consolidates these entities with the User Plane Function (UPF). Effectively establishing a normal model of the 4G core’s person aircraft components, inclusive of the Serving Gateway User Plane Function (SGW-U), Packet Data Network Gateway User Plane Function (PGW-U) and the Traffic Detection Function (TDF).
The decoupling and reshuffling of community capabilities’ roles and tasks between a 4G core structure and the 5G Service Based Architecture (SBA) has been each a problem and alternative. Rewriting and implementing community capabilities to be backwards appropriate and forwardly compliant was gradual and troublesome, however price it. Like the fable we study at a younger age, gradual and regular wins the race, particularly when belief and reliability are of utmost significance. Our strategy to the enterprise issues and technical challenges of supporting a number of entry applied sciences (4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi) was to construct a composable 5G converged core that communication service suppliers like T-Mobile can use to deploy capabilities as wanted. Fundamental to the design of Cisco’s Converged Core is being cloud native, a containerized resolution supporting each 5G units and legacy 4G units, on the identical platform, thereby eliminating the necessity for a separate 4G Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), two units of insurance policies deployed in two totally different places, and a future stuffed with complications.
The Cisco Converged Core is aligned with 3GPP’s TS 23.501 and TS 23.502 definitions for non-roaming structure interworking between 5G and EPC/E-UTRAN. To simplify the deployment, SMF+PGW-C as outlined by 3GPP is interpreted as SMF+S5-C, with out a full PGW-C however with the power to assist the S5 Control interface on the SMF. Similarly, UPF+PGW-U, as outlined by 3GPP, can also be interpreted as UPF+S5-U. This strategy, , permits communications service suppliers emigrate e and leverage a Service Based Architecture through the use of the brand new South Bound Interfaces (SBI) outlined in 3GPP. The result’s centered investments and a easy migration path for a communication service supplier’s 5G journey.
With a Converged Core communication service suppliers can assist 4G units connecting by way of the Mobility Management Entity (MME) and the Serving Gateway (SGW) in 4G or 5G NSA architectures to be anchored on the identical Session Management Function (SMF) and User Plane Function (UPF) as a tool that will join by way of the Access Management Function (AMF) in a 5G SA structure. All capabilities northbound comparable to Policy by way of Policy Charging Function (PCF) and Charging by way of Charging Function (CHF) are supported utilizing new service-based architectures which communication service suppliers can use to unify choices and focus important investments. The structure additionally permits for ease of mobility throughout protection domains i.e., 4G LTE, 5G NSA and 5G SA creating a way more seamless expertise for finish customers.
Leading with this structure, the Cisco staff developed a single converged core platform that may be deployed and configured, as wanted. Taking the deployment structure one step additional, the Cisco Converged Core might be deployed in numerous variations relying on operator use instances:
- Standalone 5G SA Session Management Function (SMF) and 5G User Plane Function (UPF) solely
- Typically used for 5G SA solely use instances comparable to Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) with 5G SA units
- Device Types supported: 5G SA Capable
- SMF+S5C and UPF+S5-U mode to allow exterior Serving Gateway (SGW) integration
- Typically used for migrating in a multivendor atmosphere the place current investments within the Serving Gateway (SGW) are leveraged for prolonged interval or when utilizing particular roaming architectures
- Device Types supported: 4G, 5G NSA, 5G SA
- Session Management Function (SMF) + Serving Gateway Control Plane Function (SGW-C) and the User Plane Function (UPF) + Serving Gateway User Plane Function (SGW-U) as a whole converged core
- An optimized footprint deployment for supporting a single unified operations
- Device Types supported: 4G, 5G NSA, 5G SA
Summary
By main with a unified product structure that allows in-field selections on how you can configure and deploy varied use case particular fashions, the Cisco Converged Core:
- Reduces studying curve for communication service supplier operations groups
- Simplifies administration and operations by unifying coverage and repair choices
- Improves end-user experiences
- Provides service parity for communication service suppliers migrating from current Cisco 4G deployments
- Economizes investments within the structure of the longer term
Cisco has lengthy been an trade chief in cell cores and our Converged Core resolution continues that management by delivering outcomes tightly aligned with our communication service supplier buyer wants. Migrating from 4G companies to the 5G future is a journey finest made with companions you may belief. The Converged Core is constantly enhancing, including new capabilities, and optimizing itself because it evolves. With new use instances for communication service suppliers and enterprises alike on the horizon, the alternatives for innovation appear infinite.
Resources
Visit our product pages to study extra about how the Cisco Cloud Core and Packet Core portfolio
To study extra about T-Mobile and Cisco Launch of the World’s Largest Cloud Native Converged Core Gateway, learn the December 2022 press launch
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