DT and SK Telecom network slices are now available in the other telco’s footprint
Korean telco SK Telecom, together with German operator Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Swedish vendor Ericsson have jointly built and demonstrated what they claim to be the world’s first intercontinental 5G trial network.
DT and SK Telecom network slices are now available in the other operator’s footprint, connecting Germany and South Korea.
Also, a proof-of-concept has been implemented and successfully evaluated, featuring the creation and roaming extension of network slices optimized for Augmented Reality (AR) and maintenance services.
The successful demonstration was hosted at DT’s corporate R&D center in Bonn, Germany and SK Telecom’s 5G Testbed at Yeongjong-do, Korea.
”5G is not just a faster network. 5G will provide extreme user experience anywhere and anytime, even when the user roams across different operators globally”, said Alex Jinsung Choi, CTO SK Telecom. “Federated network slicing will enable seamless platform sharing amongst operators at a global scale for continuous and guaranteed user experience.”
“Our customers are demanding global connectivity with a unified service experience,” said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CTO Deutsche Telekom. “Network slicing is envisaged as a key enabler to support multiple services in the 5G era. Today’s breakthrough shows we can extend that concept to ensure optimized service experiences with global reach for our customers.”
In 5G, network slicing technology will allow operators to configure an end-to-end network that provides the desired overall functionality and service parameters. Federated network slicing will make it possible for an operator to provide a network service globally.
SK Telecom said that the home and visited operators must have agreements in place that enable the recreation of a given network slice in the visited network. These agreements should cover aspects such as: network slice availability at the access layer, availability in the core network and the connection to customer application servers.
“Network slices in the context of 5G will be like ‘virtual networks on-demand’. With this world’s first intercontinental 5G trial network, we truly demonstrate the provisioning of network slices to global customers when abroad,” Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Ericsson, said.
