During Optus’ Tech Day, Cradlepoint demonstrated application-based traffic steering into two carrier-defined network slices on its fixed wireless and in-vehicle 5G enterprise networking solutions.
Using Cradlepoint 5G routers at the WAN edge and leveraging Optus’ 5G standalone live network based on Ericsson’s 5G Core and RAN with network slicing capability enabled, this was the world’s first demonstration of dual network slicing for businesses using a live production network.
The demonstration showed how carriers can create different network slices, each with its own performance characteristics and security rules, to uniquely support the different types of applications businesses rely on.
“The 5G slicing capability demonstrated by Optus, Ericsson and Cradlepoint will enable customers to prioritise connectivity to different things on the same network. In a retail setting, a business could prioritise connectivity for CCTV camera footage and EFTPOS transactions and deprioritise in-store customer Wi-Fi or music streaming,” said Zorawar Singh, VP product, enterprise and business at Optus.
Another example he referred to would be in an emergency services vehicle, it could prioritise camera feed data, enabling critical application connectivity. "Network slicing will allow us to offer resilient, reliable services over 5G to support diverse enterprise-critical applications,” he added.
Demo setup
The demonstration showed premium and default slices, with the ability to recognise, classify and steer corporate applications into the correct slice. For the fixed wireless use case, the demo used Cradlepoint’s recently introduced NetCloud Exchange (NCX) 5G-optimised SD-WAN with the E3000 Series Enterprise Router and the W1850 Series 5G Wideband Adapter. The Cradlepoint R1900 Series 5G Ruggedised Router was used for the in-vehicle use case, with Cradlepoint connectivity enabling reception of high priority, low latency symmetrical traffic with one network slice and Wi-Fi traffic for passengers on a standard MBB asymmetrical network slice. Secure firewall capability was also part of the demonstration.
Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core and Ericsson RAN enabled the two end-to-end slices for both use cases from the network side.
Nathan McGregor, senior vice president, Cradlepoint said, “The ever-evolving capabilities of 5G connectivity are such an exciting part of network infrastructure today. This was a strong example of how Cradlepoint and Ericsson are working together to deliver solutions that will help carriers monetise their 5G infrastructure investment and facilitate the transition to 5G as essential WAN connectivity.”
Martin Wiktorin, head of Ericsson global customer unit, Singtel, said: “Network slicing is a key enabler for unlocking opportunities through service differentiation and guaranteed performance. Using an end-to-end approach, Ericsson has developed the most complete network slicing portfolio including 5G Core and 5G RAN Slicing with quality-of-service differentiation for automated and fast service delivery of new and innovative 5G use cases.”
