DDI for 5G Infrastructures

5G mobile networking is able to deliver many improvements over previous versions of celular technologies. The deployment of networks will be phased over several years and features will appear along the road at the rhythm of normalisation by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).

As initial benefits for the mobile user, 5G networks can provide a greater density of devices on the radio network, higher bandwidth and lower latency transit that enables new usages like industrial control, inter autonomous vehicle event sharing (V2V), augmented reality or mobile online gaming. This all requires powerful infrastructure close to the mobile device and quick decisions on IP network basics, including DNS.

5G private networks can be used for large campuses (e.g. airports, universities, factories) as an alternative to existing wireless data solutions1. In addition, telcos are able to build dedicated slices for large mobile customers or corporations acting as an access provider, whereas today device connectivity is mainly the responsibility of the I&O teams. Enterprise slices can be seen as an extension of the private network and require smooth integration of IP services like address plan management and naming resolution. DHCP and DNS services are part of the fundamental IP services required to extend the private corporate network over telcos waves.

3GPP releases 15, 16 and 17 bring innovation and material for new services for telcos. Mobile users and enterprises will take advantage of these new services for their own business and usages. With a slow normalization process of the entire 5G standards and slow deployment of both radio network and disruptive services, enterprises can plan their new usages and imagine new use cases. Telcos on the other hand should already prepare their infrastructure for this new hyped technology. Radio network, coverage and backbone networks are a big obvious part of this work. Edge computing and service virtualization are other important transformations as the deployment model is moving towards software for most functions (known as NFV for Network Virtual Functions). Some functions will be hosted in central parts of the network but most functions related to IP services may benefit from being hosted at the edge of the networks, close to the end devices in order to limit delay and backhauling the network traffic to central points. This is where EfficientIP SOLIDserver solution brings great value to 5G services.