GSMA advises operators to keep it simple on network slicing

By Gabriella Jeakins

On the final day of 5G World 2018, GSMA Technical Director Michele Zarri gave operators some advice on deploying network slicing on 5G: “keep it simple”.

Zarri advised operators to work together with their competitors to create a set of standard slices. “Only a handful of slices maybe 10 or 15 can serve the vast majority of the use cases,” he said. “You can have a safety net of 10 slices that every operator creates as this makes it easier for manufacturers. It does not block innovation, it is complementary and allows for roaming.”

This all sounds good in theory and would greatly benefit those producing IoT devices in the future. However, we’ve been talking about network slicing for a while now, and it’s hard to imagine any such plan being all that simple to execute.

As with many of the network developments discussed at this year’s event, it all comes down to money. With European operators struggling to justify their investments in 5G, business cases seem to be at the top of everyone’s agenda.

But to Zarri, the business cases for network slicing are obvious. By allocating a network across virtualised network slices, each for different use cases and services, reliability is massively improved. For many of the use cases proposed for 5G such as autonomous vehicles, this reliability will be essential. Such a wide range of use cases have been put forward for 5G in everything from entertainment to agriculture that this could open up major new revenue streams. “When you look at vertical industries that did not benefit from 4G, they are all targets now,” he said.

There are fears that network slicing and the creation of private networks might start to push operators out from major revenue streams that will be created. Zarri tried to set everyone’s mind at ease, by addressing this concern. On the issue of private networks, he insisted that operators would still be the key players and weren’t at risk of being pushed out. “Private networks will exist, they exist today, but operators have the know how – you need someone who knows how it works,” he said.

It remains to be seen how fast European operators will move in network slicing and whether it really is possible to find a simple solution. But with demand for reliable, low latency networks increasing and operators so focussed on finding that all-important business case, I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about network slicing over the coming year.