Unlock 5G's potential with e2e orchestration

The shift to 5G has enterprises reimagining the future of their operations. But to truly harness the full potential of 5G, enterprises need to have full control over their network. This can be achieved through the use of an end-to-end service orchestrator which empowers them to optimise their network from a single portal.

Service orchestration is a policy-driven approach to coordinating the network and infrastructure resources required by an application or service. The orchestrator translates the requirements into a set of tasks to be executed by the network devices, automatically configuring the network according to service specifications.

Orchestration takes place across multiple domains and vendor technologies to enable new 5G services that will traverse multiple network segments such as radio, access, core and edge. By combining, coordinating and integrating automated tasks across the different domains and enabling the entire network to be managed via a single web portal, end-to-end orchestration is key to helping businesses unlock the full potential of 5G.

One of the 5G capabilities that can be optimised with service orchestration is network slicing. With a fully-programmable 5G network and end-to-end service orchestration, enterprises are able to create separate network slices or partitions with unique network performance and latency characteristics to support different use cases.

Using the self-service portal, they will be able to instantiate network slices based on the requirements of each use case – for example, service level agreement, core or edge placement of network function, performance, reliability and availability – and the life cycle can be managed based on business needs.

Running in isolation from each other, the network slices broaden connectivity options for the enterprise. Instead of deploying a private 5G network to address specific operational needs, for example, the enterprise can opt for network slicing strategy or a combination of both, depending on the nature of the operations, capex and opex considerations, technology maturity and other factors.

End-to-end service orchestration also enables enterprises to take full advantage of 5G’s ability to support local breakout of traffic, allowing critical low-latency applications to run on compute resources closer to the edge. This reduces the reliance on compute capabilities of end-devices which may be limited in terms of performance and flexibility.

Local breakouts also help address latency issues that arise when traffic is routed to the cloud for processing. For example, in a video surveillance scenario, if the enterprise is using an AI service to analyse the images or video data that is captured, sending the data to such a service in the cloud may not deliver the real time insights needed for timely action. For such use cases, breakout of the traffic to an edge computing facility will provide a more effective solution with greatly reduced latency.

With end-to-end orchestration, this ability to enable and manage local breakouts more efficiently and to tap on distributed resources at scale will pave the way for a new wave of applications and workloads that businesses can use to create differentiation, drive new business, or lower costs.

Using service orchestration to interlink network function modules into end-to-end services also paves the way for rapid innovation by enabling new services to be created within minutes, accelerating time to market.

Enterprises can easily combine new software-based functionality such as AI and machine learning with the capabilities of the network to enable new use cases that deliver better business outcomes, such as superior customer experiences or a quantum improvement in operational efficiency.

With a fully programmable 5G network and end-to-end orchestration, the stage is thus set for enterprises to drive digital transformation and value creation by unlocking the true potential of next generation connectivity.

Contact us to find out how 5G can transform your business.