Advantages of 5G network slicing | disadvantages of 5G network slicing
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of 5G network slicing. It mentions 5G network slicing advantages or benefits and 5G network slicing disadvantages or drawbacks.
What is 5G network slicing?
5G network slice spans across multiple parts of the 5G network consisting of 5G terminal, 5G RAN (radio access network), 5GC (core network). The 5G network slicing can also be deployed across multiple operators. A network slice consists of dedicated and/or shared resources e.g. in terms of storage, processing power and bandwidth. One network slice is isolated from the other network slices in the system.
Network slice types are defined based on functional or behavioural perspective. As a result, mobile network operators can deploy single network slice type which fulfills need of multiple verticals or they can deploy multiple different network slice types which are packaged as single product to meet different business customers. The network slicing is categorized into Vertical slicing, horizontal slicing, static slicing and dynamic slicing. Refer What is network slicing?.
Benefits or advantages of 5G network slicing
Following are the benefits or advantages of 5G network slicing:
➨It uses NFV (Network functions virtualization) and SDN (Software Defined Networking) in order to divide physical network into multiple virtual networks to cater
various customer requirements.
➨Single network can be used to offer various service based and specific use case based customer requirements.
➨Operators can allocate appropriate amount of resources as per network slice. Hence
it helps in effective utilization of resources. For example one network slice can be configured to deliver
low latency & low data rate while the other network slice can be configured to deliver
high throughput.
➨It helps network operators in reducing expenses (i.e. OPEX) and capital expenditure (i.e. CAPEX).
➨It offers improvement in operational efficiency and time to market for delivery of the
5G network services.
➨It overcomes all the drawbacks of "DiffServ" which is most popular QoS solution.
DiffServ can not discriminate and differentiate same traffic type such as VoIP originating from
different tenants. Moreover "DiffServ" does not have capability to isolate different traffic types.
Network slicing overcomes these drawbacks of "DiffServ".
Drawbacks or disadvantages of 5G network slicing
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of 5G network slicing:
➨It is usually applied in the core network part of the 5G network.
It can also be implemented in RAN part with the help of resource pooling.
RAN (Radio Access Network) needs to be redesigned to leverage all the benefits of the network slicing.
➨Interoperability should be tested in order to ensure network slicing works as
expected in the 5G network.
➨Common consensus among industry experts is needed to make it deliver best results, which will take
some time.
➨Though it offers more efficient use of shared radio resources, it requires more sophisticated techniques
in order to ensure isolation of these radio resources.
Refer 5G applications of use cases which are results of 5G benefits and its network slicing feature.
5G NR Numerology | 5G NR Terminology
5G NR Control channels | 5G NR Traffic Channels | 5G NR Reference Signals and sequences
5G TECHNOLOGY RELATED LINKS
This 5G tutorial also covers following sub topics on the 5G technology:
5G basic tutorial
5G Frequency Bands
5G millimeter wave tutorial
5G mm wave frame
5G millimeter wave channel sounding
Difference between 4G and 5G
5G testing and test equipments
5G network architecture
5G NR Physical layer
5G NR MAC layer
5G NR RLC layer
5G NR PDCP layer
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