On January 11th, SK Telecom released the news that it succeeded in demonstration of Korea's first wired infra 5G technology, 'Distributed Core Network', in conjunction with Nokia. With this demonstration of 5G in the core network, the company, having already demonstrated speeds of 19.1Gbps in last October, could build the nation's first end-to-end 5G technology lineup.    

'Core Network' acts as a control tower in a mobile communication network, and performs underlying tasks required for providing mobile communication services, like user authentication, data transmission, etc. All users must pass this core network to be able to access the Internet. So, a radical innovation in the core network is an essential prerequisite for commercialization of 5G.    

Services like calls, texts, SNS, Internet, etc. that users request are handled only by central control centers located in major cities. In 5G era, to secure ultra-low latency in delivering large-volume contents, these central control centers are to be distributed geographically closer to users.  

Distributed core network architecture

The demoed 'Distributed Core Network' technology is designed to virtually separate and relocate the physical core network into multiple virtual core networks using virtualization technology. Currently, there are some unhappy users who are hundreds of KMs away from the core network. This new technology will let operators build virtual central control centers across the nation as needed, and readily handle service requests coming from these areas, substantially overcoming restriction resulting from physical distance.  

Mr. Jin-hyo Park, Head of Network R&D Center, SK Telecom, pointed out, "For efficient provision of high-quality 5G service, intelligent core network is essential. And the entire network should be optimized in order to offer customized services through the intelligent core network." He added, “SK Telecom will work closely with Nokia to deliver differentiated 5G services and to improve and standardize 5G network architecture technologies."

Vesa Tykkylainen, VP, Liquid Core and MBB Liquid Core, Nokia, said, "In the demonstration, we verified the performance of a key 5G technology that will serve as an underlying technology in the coming era of hyper-connectivity. We will continue to cooperate with each other in standardization and commercialization of 5G technologies." 

• Core network: Wired network system that serves as the brain of a mobile communication network, and provides a wide range of value-added services like voice calls, Internet, etc. to subscribers connected via a wireless access network. 
• For development of 'core network' technologies, SK Telecom has been participating in Open Network Operating System (ONOS) program, a project for developing key 5G SDN solutions, as well as Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), a network virtualization project group, making efforts to build 5G ecosystem for both wired and wireless communication.