Distributing Core Functions in 5G networks

The evolution of communications technology has brought us to the era of 5G networks, promising faster speeds, lower latency, and the ability to connect billions of devices simultaneously. However, to achieve these ambitious goals, the architecture of 5G networks needs to be more flexible, scalable, and efficient than ever before. With the advent of CUPS, or Control and User Plane Separation, in later LTE releases, the telecommunications industry had high expectations for a prototypical distributed control-user plane architecture. This development was seen as a stepping stone towards the more advanced 5G networks that were on the horizon. CUPS aims to separate the control plane and user plane functionalities where the Control Plane (specifically the Session Management Function or SMF) is typically centralized while the User Plane Function (UPF) can be located alongside the Control Plane or distributed to other locations in the network as required by specific use cases.

Understanding the need for Distributed UPF

The UPF is a key component in 5G networks, responsible for handling user data traffic. Distributed User Plane Function (D-UPF) is an advanced network architecture that distributes the UPF functionality across multiple nodes closer to the user and enables local breakout (LBO) to manage use cases that require lower latency or more privacy, enabling a more scalable and flexible networking environment. With D-UPF, operators can handle increasing data volumes, reduce latency, and improve overall network performance. By distributing the UPF, operators can effectively manage the increasing data demands across different consumer and enterprise use cases in a cost-effective manner.

D-UPF also plays a crucial role in enabling edge computing in 5G networks. By distributing the user plane traffic closer to the network edge, D-UPF reduces the latency associated with data transmission to and from centralized data centers. This opens opportunities for real-time applications, such as autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and industrial automation, where low latency is critical for their proper functioning.

SOLO, JOGLOSEMARNEWS.COM — The name of the Central Java Regional Police Chief, Inspector General Ahmad Luthfi, is included in the 2024 Central Java Governor candidate market. One of them is the results of the Kanigoro Network survey which places Luthfi in the top position as a candidate for Central Java Governor.

According to the founder of Kanigoro Network, Joko Kanigoro, the survey results support the fact that the Central Java Regional Police Chief has been proven to master problems and has expertise in the territorial field.

In the Kanigoro Network survey simulation, Ahmad Luthfi was in first place with an electability of 25.1%, followed by Hendrar Prihadi at 23.8%, and third place Sudaryono at 13.7%.

Apart from these three names, other names included in the survey were Taj Yasin Maimoen (9.4%), Dico M Ganinduto (7.2%), Yusuf Chudlori (5.6%), Bambang Wuryanto or Bambang Pacul (4.5 %). Meanwhile, another 10.7% said they didn’t know or didn’t answer.

“The appearance of Ahmad Luthfi is an answer to public doubts about the previous Central Java leadership which did not provide significant changes. “Luthfi’s figure is the antithesis of previous governors,” he said Thursday (9/5/2024).

Apart from that, continued Kanigoro, Ahmad Luthfi was considered to be the figure with the most capacity to lead Central Java.

“Mastery of Central Java’s problems and interior is one of the factors why Ahmad Luthfi’s electability is the highest among other figures,” he explained.

Meanwhile, according to Joko, the sample simulation of candidate pairs for governor and deputy governor is based on predictions of the grouping of supporting parties which allows for three candidate pairs. This is based on predictions of electability and availability of seats for Central Java DPRD political parties.

“So it is very possible that in the Central Java regional elections there will be three pairs of candidates for governor and deputy governor,” he said. Prihatsari

• O2 Telefónica says “selected customers” will be able to benefit from the cloud core when using the operator’s standalone 5G network

• The operator aims to move “at least 30-40%” of its customer base by 2025-2026

• A Reuters report suggested that O2 Telefónica first worked with AWS and Sweden-based Ericsson, and then swapped to Nokia and AWS

Telefónica Deutschland (O2 Telefónica) hailed what it described as a first for an existing telecoms operator: the launch of a new 5G core network that is built entirely in the cloud, specifically the AWS cloud. O2’s 5G Cloud Core uses cloud-native 5G core architecture from Finland-based Nokia and is run in the AWS cloud computing environment.

While a small handful of greenfield operators are building cloud-native 5G networks from scratch, namely 1&1 in Germany, Dish in the United States, and Rakuten Mobile in Japan, moving an existing network and customers to the cloud is a somewhat different proposition for more established operators.operators

According to O2 Telefónica, “selected customers” will be able to benefit from the cloud core when using the operator’s standalone 5G network, dubbed 5G Plus. Around 1 million 5G customers will be moved to the cloud core in the first phase.

“With the new 5G Cloud Core, we are moving away from traditional architectures and instead focusing on modern, high-performance, and efficient network technologies. In doing so, we are relying on the quality and global expertise of Nokia and AWS,” commented by Mallik Rao, chief technology and information officer of O2 Telefónica.

Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia, also noted that deployment is the “first of its kind for an existing communications service provider” and enables “greater network agility and service offerings.”

Writing on LinkedIn, Fabio Cerone, general manager telecom EMEA at AWS, said this was a “big day” for AWS in the telecoms industry. “It will bring O2 Telefónica the ability to dynamically scale and allocate 5G network capabilities to meet customer needs, as well as the needs of the new applications that will run on top of the new core,” he said.

AWS vice president Jan Hofmeyr told Reuters that the cloud services provider wants to “make it a business to run telco workloads” and expects more deals with other operators in the next 12 months.

In a blog, AWS said it is increasingly seeing more telecom operators “recognizing the value of moving network workloads to the cloud.” It pointed to the announcement by NTT DoCoMo earlier this year that it will work with AWS to commercially deploy its 5G open radio access network (RAN) in Japan, and also noted it is working with Dish.

Mix it up

Also in an interview with Reuters, Rao said he aims to move “at least 30-40%” of the O2 Telefónica customer base by 2025-2026, once the cloud core had been “working for at least one to two quarters.” The operator has around 45 million mobile customers in Germany.

The Reuters report additionally suggested that O2 Telefónica first worked with AWS and Sweden-based Ericsson, and then swapped to Nokia and AWS.

Indeed, in 2020 the operator had announced it was working with AWS to virtualize its 5G core and would rely on 5G core and orchestration components from the Swedish vendor.

However, O2 Telefónica said there was no collaboration with Ericsson and AWS regarding the 5G cloud core, so there had been no swap.

The operator noted that Ericsson is the supplier of its classic 5G core network, and pointed to 5G cloud core network tests with Ericsson and Google, as well as a cooperation between O2 Telefónica and Ericsson on the RAN as part of a joint cloud RAN/open RAN test.

Overall, O2 Telefónica said it is pursuing a multi-cloud and multi-vendor strategy. Indeed, the operator just launched its first virtual RAN and open RAN site in collaboration with Samsung.