Can Nokia’s 5G Network Slicing Software Improve its Position in the 5G Race?

Nokia strengthens its 5G strategy with its latest cloud-native, network slicing management product that will offer new revenue channels for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and bring agility to its customers.

Facing intense competition in the global 5G race, the Finnish telecommunication company, Nokia has made smarter investments to boost 5G developmentsOpens a new window . This week, Nokia dipped its toes into the network slicing market with the launch of Digital Operations Center software. The cloud-native solution will deploy, operate, and deliver network slices at scale and speed through automation.

Ahead of the announcement, Nokia rolled outOpens a new window next generation 5G AirScale Cloud RAN to meet the growing IoT and 5G business demandsOpens a new window , and help operators capitalize on 5G services.

How Can 5G Network Slicing Benefit CSPs?

Nokia’s big move in network slicing, which is the secret sauce behind the 5G network, opens new revenue doors for CSPs. The question is, why did Nokia make this move? Locked in a battle with its prominent rivals, Huawei and Ericsson, Nokia must step up its game to stay ahead in the 5G race. Nokia wants to support different enterprise-level business models with new service offering, bring agility with automationOpens a new window , and empower CSPs to generate revenues from 5G services.

With network slicing technology, telecom operators can provide a portion of their virtual networks for customer use cases. Based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), network slicing divides a single physical network into multiple virtual networks to support different Radio Access Networks (RANs). The sliced virtual networks are then customized to meet different customer’s requirements. One of the main advantages of network slicing is that telecom operators can provide networks on an as-a-service basis which will enhance operational efficiency.

Brian McCann, Chief Product Officer, Nokia Software, saysOpens a new window , “Nokia Digital Operations Center is an important step to making the full set of network slicing capabilities available for CSPs as we move from the consumer aspect of 5G to the enterprise and industrial side of 5G.”

Built on Nokia’s multi-vendor, multi-domain, and multi-technology Common Software Foundation (CSF), Digital Operation Center automation software combines network orchestration and assurance capabilities, which will “enable CSPs to offer on-demand enterprise network services based on 5G network slicing.”

Promising yet competitive, 5G networkOpens a new window has the potential to address higher speed, higher bandwidth, and low latency prerequisites of customers, such as virtual gaming activities, IoT, smart city infrastructure, autonomous self-driving cars, and much more. With this automated network slicing software, CSPs can intelligently manage and control the entire lifecycle of services, create new revenue opportunities, and scale operational efficiencies.

It was a week of victories for Nokia. Winning the race against Chinese telecom company Huawei, Nokia was selected to kickstart secure 5G infrastructure in Singapore. It will be interesting to see how Nokia’s newOpens a new window President and CEO, Pekka Lundmark will change the company’s stumbling position in the competitive 5G market.

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