5 Points for 5G Acceleration

MWC Barcelona is right around the corner, and of course 5G will be a hot topic of discussion. It reaches across all of the themes for this year’s show – intelligent connectivity, Industry 4.0, disruptive innovation, and more. I’m excited to meet with customers and partners and to share what Radisys is doing to accelerate this 5G evolution. Here are my 5 Points for 5G:

1. Open. The transition to the “Connected Everything” era with the advent of 5G, will require a fundamental change in how networks are built. Open will define these new networks. However, when we talk about “open,” we need to look at it from multiple angles. Mobile operators will need to disaggregate their networks and leverage open components from a multi-vendor ecosystem to break vendor lock-in, reduce costs and accelerate service innovation. With the advent of Open, Multi-vendor interoperability and systems integration expertise are critical to success.
   
   
   
   There are a number of Open Ecosystems such as the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and the O-RAN Alliance that are making progress with the delivery of open reference architectures that will define 5G.
   We’re asking our customers and ecosystem partners to join the Open Network Disruption with Radisys. We launched our program last year to enable building an ecosystem and help accelerate mobile operators’ time-to-market with disruptive technology.
    
2. Edge. We will see a number of 5G services and applications deployed at the network edge. Mobile operators must move their computing processing to the edge in order to meet the ultra-low latency requirements of 5G, as well as to support the anticipated 1000x increase in mobile data volumes. Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) will not only deliver a better end user experience, it will also enable mobile operators to save significant backhaul costs by processing data where it is generated.
   There are a number of 5G applications that will need to leverage an edge architecture, such a remote video surveillance, self-driving cars, and smart parking lots. I’ll be sharing more details on these automotive use cases during an MWC panel session on “Disruptive Innovation in Transport: Future Mobility” on February 28 from 14:30-15:30.
    
3. Shared Spectrum. The concept of leveraging shared spectrum has taken off in the U.S. with the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). Mobile operators are seeking to leverage shared spectrum today to add capacity for indoor and outdoor deployments and ease network strain. Radisys is active in enabling this new ecosystem. In addition to contributing an Automated CBSD Certification Test Harness to the CBRS Alliance to enable a robust OnGo™ certification program, Radisys’ systems integration expertise will help accelerate CBRS market adoption and help pave the way to 5G.
    
4. NSA/SA. 3GPP is enabling mobile operators to transition to 5G by supporting both Non-Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA deployments). The initial wave of 5G deployments in NSA mode will leverage existing 4G infrastructure. Eventually deployments will migrate from NSA to SA for improved network efficiency and reduced costs. Radisys was the first to deliver a 3GPP Release 15 compliant 5G Software Suite that supports both NSA and SA deployments, delivering to mobile operators a clear path to 5G. During MWC, we will demonstrate our 5G Software Suite capabilities in collaboration with our partners – with cool demos such as showing how we can empower 5G-based intelligent security for smart cities.  
    
5. Now. After years of hype, 5G is finally becoming a reality. Dozens of mobile operators are in early field trials and are planning to launch networks this year, and commercial RFPs are being issued. We’re in close collaboration with our partners to deliver a disaggregated end-to-end 5G platform that will provide mobile operators with a deployment-ready solution that accelerates their time-to-market. Now is an exciting time in telecom!

If you’ll be attending MWC, please visit the Radisys booth in Hall 5, Stand 5I61 to see our open and disaggregated solutions for 5G Acceleration and more. Contact open@radisys.com to schedule a meeting.