As the deployment of 5G accelerates, mobile operators are turning to network disaggregation due to the plethora of benefits it offers. In this article, Sanjay Kumar, CMO, IP Infusion, discusses the vital role network disaggregation plays in the rollout of 5G technology.
All around the globe, mobile operators are rushing to deploy 5G networks to address the rising expectations of businesses and consumers. Both companies and consumers expect to access their content any time, from anywhere, simply by powering on their mobile devices, without paying much more than today.
Widespread 5G commercialization has been propelled by a disaggregated mobile network architecture that unleashes cost-effective scalability, from access to aggregation to core, while enabling unprecedented network automation.
Network disaggregation opens up the network to scale, streamline operations, and significantly reduce overall costs. Disaggregation breaks the vendor lock-that has traditionally limited innovation to accelerate new services and revenues.Â
Let’s discuss network disaggregation, the roles it is playing in 5G, and the compelling benefits it delivers.
Mobile Network Challenges
The benefits of 5G have been widely publicized, as exemplified in Figure 1. Realizing 5G potential without substantially driving up complexity and costs demands a new approach. For decades, mobile operators relied upon incumbent vendors to satisfy their needs.
Figure 1 Compelling benefits for 5G
Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) Networking Solutions White PaperOpens a new window
This was sufficient because hardware and silicon innovations require a relatively long timeline.
As software became the core building block, operators became constrained by incumbent vendors’ inability to deliver across an increasingly diverse set of requirements.
New, high-capacity radios and spectrum necessitate scalability at every segment throughout the network. A major challenge for 5G is how to migrate and scale to introduce new capabilities and performance in the most cost-effective manner.
Whether in the base station, radio access network (RAN), or aggregation networks, disaggregation segments the underlying transport network, increasing the network device types needed to fulfill specific requirements. For instance, in the TIP Open RAN reference architectureOpens a new window , interconnection of the base stations to the mobile core may involve separate mobile front-haul, mid-haul, and/or backhaul networks, each with its own unique requirements.
New, high-capacity radios and spectrum necessitate scalability at every segment throughout the network. A major challenge for 5G is how to migrate and scale to introduce new capabilities and performance in the most cost-effective manner.
Learn More: How 5G Can Open Doors To Vast Technological Improvements for Manufacturing Firms
Network Disaggregation to the RescueÂ
Network disaggregation may be defined as “The separation of networking equipment into functional components and allowing each component to be individually deployedâ€:
- Encompasses separation of software OS from the underlying hardware
- Requires open APIs to enable SDN control
Disaggregation is being applied at two distinct levels to open the traditionally proprietary architecture:
- At the network – How network architecture may be transformed through disaggregated devices to offer scalability, manageability, and unprecedented agility
- At the device – How network device design may be disrupted to facilitate reusability, Best-of-Breed technology adoption, and open ecosystems
Network-level disaggregation is essential to support the many 5G deployment options and migration paths. With more than 200 mobile operators worldwide, each with their own 5G journey, the combinations are endless. To support each environment, a set of modular, scalable hardware platforms are needed, along with rich internetworking capabilities to seamlessly migrate to 5G services without service interruption.
The Telecom Infra Project (TIPOpens a new window ) is an industry group supported by many of the world’s leading operatorsOpens a new window that seek to transform mobile networks. The TIP Open Optical Packet Transport (OOPTOpens a new window ) group baselined an open architecture for mobile transport, as depicted in Figure 2. While offering agility, scale, etc., network disaggregation partitions functionality previously implemented in large and costly monolithic network platforms into many devices that require a more limited feature set.
The TIP OOPT mobile transport network for 5G comprises multiple such devices, each with distinct optical reach, bandwidth, timing and synchronization, and communications requirements. Network disaggregation allows many vendors to offer best-in-class technologies for each device type, which is essential in driving down the cost-per-bit, as aggregate capacity significantly expands as in 5G.
Figure 2 Network disaggregation enables the virtualization of the RAN
Telecom Infra Project Open Optical Packet Transport Architecture
Source: TIP
The Business Case for Network Disaggregation
Network disaggregation is accelerating global 5G rollouts, as network operators large and small evolve trials to deployment.Â
In a recent survey on disaggregated Transport networksOpens a new window , operators report a wide range of expected benefits for disaggregating the mobile transport network, as indicated in Figure 3. The survey reveals that agility tops cost reduction, but both motivate the decision to adopt disaggregation. Facilitating new service delivery to drive new revenue streams is, not surprisingly, a high priority. Another important goal is to avoid vendor-lock-in, unleash innovation, and access new technologies needed to compete over the long term.
As operators strive to attain the full potential for 5G, network disaggregation is emerging as a critical asset to realize a disruptive approach by offering:
- Choice – instead of over-reliance on a single vendor, network operators are afforded a wide range of alternatives that may be readily integrated through open interfaces.
- Advanced technologies – New technologies may be readily adopted as needed based on operator and not vendor priorities.
- Pace of innovation – Operators control when new technologies and products are introduced in the network based on their individual needs.
- Business continuity – Operators may readily swap not only components but vendors as well to mitigate exposure to disruptions in the supply chain.
- Access to open ecosystems – Operators may exploit inclusive and open ecosystems that are governed by a broad community vs. controlled by a single incumbent vendor.
Figure 3: Operators are seeking a wide range of benefits from network disaggregation
Source: Open and Disaggregated Packet and Optical Networks: A 2020 Heavy Reading Survey Opens a new window Heavy Reading | Feb, 2021
Disaggregating the 5G mobile network addresses a number of additional challenges:
- Scale – New radio technologies achieve an order of magnitude bandwidth, which imposes significant demands on the mobile network. Network disaggregation on white box hardware enables tremendous increases in capacity at modest incremental costs.
- Migration – Each operator is migrating to 5G from a unique starting point, which requires a broad set of communications protocols and services to support. A robust control and management plane is a must to accommodate operators’ individual journeys.
- Management – Network disaggregation simplifies automation and management of the entire service delivery lifecycle. Each device is designed for automation, through common APIs, without being encumbered by legacy and proprietary network management systems.
Figure 4Â Open NOS Platform disaggregates networking devices, which in turn disaggregates the network
Source: IP InfusionOpens a new window
Open NOS Platform
The key to network disaggregation is the Open Network Operating System (NOS) software platform, as illustrated in Figure 4. The Open NOS platform may address a broad set of use cases across a wide range of white-box hardware platforms from multiple ODMs.Â
Open NOS platforms are architected with abstraction layers to readily integrate with best-of-breed technologies, including network silicon, modular interface transceivers, and white box hardware platforms with a range of capacities. By providing standard management interfaces and open APIs, network devices employing open NOS platforms facilitate automation and manageability, reducing operations expense and driving down the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Unlike proprietary architectures, which are typically saddled by significant technology debts, operators are free to mix and match technologies to achieve their specific objectives.
Learn More: How Organizations Can Effectively Manage the Exploded Network
Closing Thoughts
Network disaggregation has revamped every segment from the base station to the core. By opening up the network, operators may adopt new products and technologies at their own pace through common APIs and interfaces.Â
The prospect of an inclusive and open ecosystem, where the market determines the winners and losers vs. a single dominant vendor, places the operator squarely in the center. Standards and open integration motivate broad industry participation and the cost-reduction expected from a highly competitive market.
The key enabler for disaggregation is the open NOS platform. Mobile operators should take care to select an open NOS platform that is capable of supporting many diverse use cases, provides extensive multi-protocol support to allow operators to seamlessly migrate to 5G, and offers open APIs to automate and streamline operations from access to core. In addition, the open NOS platform future-proofs the network to exploit technological advancements today and ultimately evolve to 6G, which is just around the cornerOpens a new window .
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