Artificial Intelligence - The opportunities for Mobile Operators

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

5G Orchestration - The missing brick

With many operators starting to launch 5G, it became clear that Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) coupled with 5G NSA architecture is the quick win. A comfort zone for CSPs Marketing mapping the technology to high internet speed & attractive Data Packages.

Furthermore, most of the Ultra Reliable & Low Latency communications (uRLLC) use cases are still in the PoC phase and the readiness of the Network is still unverified. 

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

NFV is a main ingredient of 5G, an enabler for Edge Computing, and a base for building the futuristic Telco Cloud so it is not a case of backing the wrong horse and it won’t be.

The main problem in my opinion is that operators get unrealistic expectations from vendors with generic terms such as agility, scalability, etc. without clear definitions and that brings the disappointment after the project is started .. where is the agility? Where is the CapEx reduction? etc.

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) or formerly Mobile Edge Computing is a term that has been trending a lot in the last years, especially last year with 5G approaching commercial stage. The buzz word is commonly used to describe the concept of pushing the service to the network edge clashing with other terms such as Fog Computing and confusion has spread with linking the technology with 5G and sometimes with infrastructure technologies such as containers. In this article I am bringing some facts, posting some questions and amending that with my insights trying to demystify the confusion about the technology from Telco perspective.

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

Control and User Plane Separation of EPC nodes (CUPS) is one of the main Work Items of 3GPP Release 14. An Architectural enhancement feature that introduces the concept of separation between Control Plane and User Plane of EPC nodes (SGW, PGW, & TDF) following the architecture below. Opposite to the expectations of having the new interfaces (Sxa, Sxb) based on GTP; the new reference points introduced a new protocol (PFCP - Packet Forwarding Control Plane).

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

Looking to the reachines and the diversity of technologies; one can realize that starting from 3GPP Release 13, the standards have taken a new path. New Network Elements, Extensive focus on Machine Type Communications (MTC), New REST-based Interfaces (JSON), and actually new protocols such as Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) have been introduced.

Having discussed before the CUPS, DeCore, Network Slicing and MEC in previous articles; in this article I will shed some light on three newly introduced Network Elements in 3GPP Releases 13 and 14 which are the Radio Congestion Awareness Function (RCAF), Packet Flow Description Function (PFDF), and Traffic Steering Support Function (TSSF).

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

The new Reference Architecture for 5G Core is getting popular day after day, especially among the telco community. Being a fellow of the same community, I have to admit it, we love the reference architecture! We like to draw blocks and reference points and have unique names for interfaces and then start to understand the Call flows and the protocols specifications. That was actually the typical way that 3GPP has always used to describe and standardize technologies and that’s how we have always used to interpret and understand the technical specifications.

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology

In this article, I am grouping all NFV related questions that I have been asked throughout the last online NFV Sessions and I hope that this may contribute to enriching the Community knowledge and NFV awareness in general.

I am also adding a link to the Session slides and video recording.

Karim Rabie
NFV/SDN Business Solution Executive at Netcracker Technology