5G Will Bring Holy Grail of "Bandwidth and Features On Demand"

For most of my professional career, the Holy Grail of networking has been “bandwidth on demand,” a network so automated and so flexible that bandwidth could be supplied by a few keystrokes, to any location, and then torn down just as fast, as needed.

These days, virtualized networks that underpin 5G are poised to provide most of those benefits, and a few others we have not traditionally considered.

Though it remains to be seen how valuable such tunable features might be for enterprise buyers (including wholesale customers who want virtual private networks), it should be possible to vary characteristics such as latency, throughput, reliability, mobility support, localized or generalized geographies, security features, analytics and cost.

That might be a very big deal for end user customers, and should also aid suppliers by reducing operating cost and capital investment.

source: Nokia Networks

That is one important element of the value of 5G networks. Traditionally, mobile platforms have brought faster speeds and lower latency, with the latest networks also reducing cost per delivered bit. In the 5G era, core networks and edge networks will have a “flow through” virtual aspect that is quite new.

Strategically, all core networks are evolving towards virtualization, which means all core networks will define, create and support virtual private networks as a basic assumption. Just as important, 5G means that such VPNs will flow through to the edge networks.

That is our “bandwidth and other features on demand” network. It is a big potential deal.

There are some related advantages for service providers, ranging from the possibility of offering differentiated classes of service as a core feature of such networks, to allowing more-efficient use of networks, to reducing operating cost and capital investment.

Customers might gain from ability to buy customized network features that match user core business models (whether there are requirements for latency, quality of service or bandwidth.

In a larger sense, we move closer to the ideal next-generation network we have been talking about--and moving towards--for several decades: a network that can supply not only bandwidth but features on demand, dynamically.

source: Nokia Networks