Global smart device company OPPO announced the successful testing of a pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution in collaboration with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies. The creation of the solution marks an important step in realizing practical 5G enterprise network slicing deployment and is designed to be implementable by network operators worldwide.
The three companies recently demonstrated the pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution at OPPO’s 5G Communications Lab. During this first demonstration of the solution, OPPO worked closely with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to achieve connection between the core network, wireless network, and chip module.
Using an OPPO Find X5 Pro powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform with Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System, running a highly customized system based on Android 12 – ColorOS 12, Dynamic Network Slicing Selection capability from Ericsson 5G Core to support User Equipment Route selection and Policy control (URSP) and 5G RAN Slicing solution, the joint team demonstrated application and network traffic partitioning using the pre-commercial 5G enterprise network slicing solution. This enables the steering of applications and enterprise services with specific requirements to defined slices without switching devices. Under the new solution, apps which are able to access the dedicated network slice are easily identifiable via a small icon displayed next to the main mobile app icon.
“5G enterprise network slicing is the key to realizing 5G-differentiated applications,” said Xia Yang, Senior Director of Carrier Product Line, OPPO. “Based on our company mission of ‘Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World’, OPPO will leverage our strengths in innovation and collaboration across the tech ecosystem to advance the commercialization of 5G enterprise slicing technology. Together with our partners, we will enable a wide range of OPPO product users to be the first to enjoy a customized 5G connectivity experience.”
Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Packet Core at Business Area Cloud Software and Services, Ericsson said: “5G network slicing enables enterprises to meet their network security, reliability and flexibility needs. This solution, created in partnership with OPPO and Qualcomm Technologies and underpinned by Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core and 5G RAN Slicing technologies, provides a foundation for CSPs to deliver more tailored 5G services for enterprises.”
“Demonstration of commercial 5G enterprise network slicing is an important step in fulfilling the promise of 5G standalone (SA),” said, Sunil Patil, vice president, product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Commercialization of slicing will provide 5G networks tools to customize 5G capabilities as per the needs of the application.”
By partitioning a physical network into multiple virtual end-to-end networks, 5G network slicing can provide independent, customized network resources based on specific needs and use cases, ultimately unlocking a greater number of 5G resources to provide more flexible and effective 5G networks. The companies will now step up efforts to finalize ecosystem, device, and network details with a view to commercial deployment.
Commercial network slicing is set to spur new areas of growth in technology
5G network slicing allows independent virtual network ‘slices’ to be created with different network properties — for example latency, bandwidth, security, and reliability — based on the needs of those connecting to the network. For example, a dedicated network with large bandwidth and low latency can be created for automatic driving applications, providing a higher guarantee that vehicles will receive the level of data accuracy and computing throughput they need to remain safe on the road. Network slices could even be created for specific games or platforms, providing users with more responsive and immersive connectivity that is independent of other traffic on the network. In IoT applications such as smart factories, network slices set up for low latency and high reliability with a large number of connected devices will also help to provide the foundation for smarter operations.
OPPO has been conducting R&D in 5G network slicing together with network operators and other partners for a number of years now. OPPO previously partnered with Vodafone and Ericsson to build the first 5G SA network in the UK at Coventry University, where it also demonstrated the first 5G SA network slicing technology. OPPO has also worked with China Mobile to complete testing and verification of 5G terminal slicing. In the future, OPPO will continue to work with global operator partners to promote the application and implementation of 5G enterprise network slicing, bringing more secure, reliable, and flexible 5G communications to commercial partners and end users.
This article is written by OPPO.