Thought to write on 5G again, as 5G is still elusive in talk
and discussion. 5G is a re-imagination, paradigm shifts and new vision to
accommodate certain advancements on radio and core network technologies, like
massive MIMO, SDN/NFV, VNF/Cloud and MEC. 5G is also about upcoming use
cases and capability & flexibility provided for them like IOT, Network
Slicing or Application defined networking.
By and large it’s an end-to-end overhauling with new
instruments to existing networks, which may be of concern for many reason, that
need a transformational approach. As VNF and Cloud are most obvious tools to
take up the necessary load of new functionality, MEC at the RAN level will be
pivotal to discriminate the service logics and catalyze the application specific
requirements fulfillment.
The transformation is going to shape-in with the shift in
architectural paradigms to more hybrid or heterogeneous approaches and also
leveraging the virtualization to accommodate variety of applications and use
cases like for massive IOT, public safety, HD
video, mission critical i.e. latency sensitive applications.
Mobile edge computing abbreviated as MEC is about the cloud
at edge or may be related to new term called as fog computing which is about
putting many of RAN specific functionalities on virtual systems which are
adaptive to load and computational requirements. MEC will help to provide right
orchestration for VNF kind of architecture need for End to End networking, in
term of network operation and performance optimization. MEC is best for the
uses cases like for content management networks, latency sensitive
applications, massive access management etc.
Virtualization is the kingpin in whole 5G conception as the
required flexibility of the systems and network can be provided through it and
that help to accommodate the application specific configuration with the term
that provide end to end re-construction i.e. it is all about network slicing.
Network slicing can also be envisaged as application defined networking that is
about ad-hoc re-deployment or re-configuring network in line to the specific
application requirements. As per the 5G
specification, this re-deployment time is not in days but in minutes and saying
precisely it is 90 minutes only.