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FutureNet World has announced a partnership with Wray Castle, which will see the delegates of FutureNet World’s Virtual Event in April gain complimentary access to 2 of Wray Castle’s live Telecoms Training Courses, each focused on important themes at the event. 5G SBA (Service Based Architecture) Virtualizing the Core: : 7th April @ 2pm NFV (Network functions virtualization) Deployment: 8th April @ 2pm “We are delighted to collaborate with Wray Castle,” said Giles Cummings, Founder & CEO of FutureNet World. “The chance for FutureNet World delegates to undertake best-in-class training before the event represents a great opportunity for them, both...

The 5G core network architecture is designed to be cloud native making use of NFV (Network Function Virtualisation) and SDN (Software Defined Networking). NFV is used to decouple the logical function of a network element from its associated hardware and implement that function in software as a VNF (Virtualised Network Function). The VNF may be run on general purpose, off the shelf computing platforms. The VNF may be run on general purpose, off the shelf computing platforms. The main feature of SDN is a clear separation between control and user plane functions. SDN supports centralisation of control plane functionality while at the same time supporting...

Where are we now? Initial 5G deployments are referred to as “Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G” and based on Dual Connectivity. This is where the device connects to a 4G “Master” LTE base station first, and then, under the direction of the master, establishes 5G connectivity. These early 5G deployments use spectrum in Frequency Range 1 of 5G. In Europe, this is likely to be in the band 3.4-3.8 GHz (but not exclusively). In terms of coverage, the 5G cells that can be supported at these frequencies within towns and cities, allow 5G “secondary” base stations to be co-located with the 4G...

SETTING THE SCENE In a separate post, we indicated the main ways in which 5G supports current telco business models – largely by enabling the efficient provision of additional capacity in support of broadband connectivity. In this blog, we explore how new business models are opened up by 5G. 4G and 5G share a common underlying foundation radio technology – OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). In 4G it was specifically configured to optimally support relatively large cells (very much the norm at the time that 4G was specified). However, this configuration effectively limited 4G the frequency bands that we...

If you’re following 5G developments you’ll be interested in this overview of how 5G helps to effectively deliver ever-increasing amounts of capacity in support of current and evolving telco business models. Telcos face significant financial challenges in delivering huge amounts of additional capacity across their networks. This is however a fundamental and ongoing requirement that enables their primary business models. The way in which capacity can be increased is effectively limited to four options: Increase the number of base stations Increase the spectrum deployed on those base stations Use the spectrum / radio resources more efficiently / effectively Offload onto...

LTE was designed mainly for the delivery of mobile broadband over smartphones. However, a progressive flattening of broadband revenues has led network operators to seek out new markets and new use cases, in which connectivity can provide economic benefits. These use cases often have different use cases from those of mobile broadband. Some of them, for example mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communications), can be addressed by enhancing the LTE specifications. However, other use cases cannot be supported so easily over LTE, and require a new technology to address them properly. The technology is known as the 5G New Radio (NR)....

2018 will be the start of the journey for those defining their 5G strategy. Specifications will be frozen by 3GPP in Sept 2018, with commercial deployments expected from around 2020. Senior managers, key thinkers and strategists are considering the ways in which the potential of 5G communications can be maximised in such contexts as connected and autonomous vehicles, massive machine-type communications, critical communications, smart cities, virtual and augmented reality, Industry 4.0 and so on. Many network operators have already conducted trials of 5G, as well as announcing plans to demonstrate the technology and to rollout commercial deployments. In South Korea,...

The Wray Castle Strategy and Technology – Positioning for 5G training course rapidly builds a range of competencies critical to maximising the opportunities being presented by both digital transformation and the adoption of 5G and advanced technology concepts. The 5G initiative provides the focus for the next digital revolution that encompasses connected innovation and the increasing digitalisation of a wide range of industries, as well as advanced connectivity and communications. It provides the foundation for transforming business models and positioning; the customer proposition and focus; and the technologies that underpin that transformation. However, aligning strategic technology choices to take full advantage of...

In the first part of this blog, we discussed the requirements for 5G and the specification process being undertaken by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Here, we continue the discussion by investigating the potential technical solutions. Mobile telecommunication systems have traditionally operated in the UHF band, from 300 MHz to 3 GHz. This has given the best trade-off between the competing issues of coverage and capacity, which are greater at low and high frequencies respectively. Unfortunately the UHF band is now extremely fragmented and congested, so attention is being directed to the SHF...

It is now seven years since LTE was standardized and six years since the launch of the first LTE networks. With new generations of mobile communication technology appearing every ten years or so, and network operators struggling to meet their users’ demands for bandwidth, research for 5G is already well under way. The demands on 5G networks will be severe: network traffic is forecast to increase by a factor 1,000 over the next 10-12 years, while the growth of the Internet of Things suggests that the number of connected devices may reach 50 billion by 2020. At the same time,...