The mobile industry is beginning to roll out 5G standalone networks in earnest, ushering in a new era for telcos and their customers. Almost two-thirds (64%) of mobile operators expect a 5G core network to yield clear benefits to the customer experience within the next three years, according to a global survey of network strategists by Heavy Reading1.
With a 5G core network, mobile operators can harness the agility, flexibility and automated scalability of a cloud-native computing architecture. Almost half of the respondents said 5G core cloud-native functions are ready for large-scale operation, while a further 28% said they are “close to ready”. In addition, almost two-thirds (65%) also see value in network slicing for enterprise services. A cloud-native core will enable operators to dynamically allocate appropriate resources (network slicing) to individual customers and use cases.
The Kubernetes conundrum
Another key survey finding was that deploying a cloud-native IT architecture in a complex telecoms environment can be challenging. In particular, unforeseen operational issues related to functional gaps in scaling Kubernetes are emerging due to industry-specific protocols used by telecoms operators. Almost half (49%) of the respondents identified the “need to secure and protect new Kubernetes clusters outside of legacy security” as one of their top three containerization implementation issues related to the transition to a 5G cloud-native core.
In the IT world, the Kubernetes framework is widely used to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of microservices in containers. However, Kubernetes is still new to telecoms. Some 31% of respondents identified the immaturity of Kubernetes with respect to telco protocols as one of the top three issues for the transition to a 5G cloud-native core.
“As Kubernetes was initially designed for deploying and managing apps for enterprise and Web use cases, it needs to be supplemented by a Kubernetes ingress that does more, like supporting broader telco protocols, tying together ingress and egress, and integrating with the broader telco network,” said Phil Klatte, Principal Product Manager for Service Providers at F5.
“That’s why F5’s BIG-IP SPK solution was developed to include a Kubernetes ingress to support telco protocols as well as HTTP. It also uses network address translation and routing to enable a Kubernetes egress to provide a fixed predefined IP address to the outside world, without impacting the internal dynamism of the cluster.”
Keeping power consumption under control
The Heavy Reading survey also asked respondents to select the top three changes their organization will make to their 5G core infrastructure to meet environmental goals and reduce power consumption. A chosen option for 52% of respondents was to move as many functions as possible to a common infrastructure platform, while 45% selected improving CPU/power efficiencies at edge locations and 40% chose consolidating functions and vendors. In other words, telcos are looking to streamline their network architectures
Living on the edge
In other standalone 5G rollout developments, many mobile operators are starting to deploy compute resources at the edge of their network to support applications and use cases that need highly responsive connectivity. More than half (54%) of the survey respondents said they plan to deploy the 5G data plane (the functions that relay data between users and the Internet) at their network edge within 12 months, with a further 39% intending to take the same step within 24 months.
Network control functions are also gravitating towards the edge, but at a slightly slower pace, with 45% of respondents saying they are likely to deploy the full control plane at the service provider edge within 12 months. These operators also intend to deploy security functions at the edge of their networks: between 45% and 50% of respondents said they will likely deploy an Internet firewall, RAN security gateway and N6 applications at the service provider edge within 12 months.
“Whereas deploying an app in a public cloud can be relatively straightforward, deploying telco apps in potentially hundreds or thousands of locations and then keeping them up-to-date and secure, is a very different proposition, requiring complex operational tooling,” said Alix Leconte, VP for Service Providers (EMEA) at F5. “Operators should avoid manually stitching together application logic and delivery and security technologies across these environments, as this could introduce new security risks and major operational complexity.”