As mentioned in part 1 of this blog series, 5G will require the deployment of significantly more hardware to increase density and meet network coverage requirements. As one might imagine, adding 20X or more pieces of hardware to a network generates significant operating expenses (OpEx).
Guest blog written by Paul Miller.
Keeping OpEx costs under control in the 4G to 5G transition
The Challenge
Beyond the equipment itself, there are cost centres that span configuration work, network testing and management, and software updating. Wind River offers solutions that enable CSPs to keep OpEx under control in the 4G to 5G transition.
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Solution 1: use simulation to support your 4G to 5G transition
Wind River Simics is an advanced simulation software solution that enables network architects, and anyone involved in designing 5G networks to simulate how the network will perform without having to wire up a physical test network.
Simulation scenarios span a wide range of equipment types, operating systems, software applications, and network configurations/loads. The tool can even simulate the performance characteristics of hardware that hasn’t been manufactured yet. It can model how the hardware will perform based just on the circuitry 'tape up' designs.
Simics is able to model a nearly infinite variety of network scenarios and simplify the 4G to 5G transition.
Through this adaptable modeling technique, Wind River Simics eliminates a significant amount of time and effort out of the network design process. 5G network architects can use Simics to test:
Usage scenarios and deployment patterns
Designs for flaws and simulate outages to measure failover performance
Solution 2: use production-grade Kubernetes solution to manage infrastructure
Wind River Cloud Platform is an open-source, production-grade distributed Kubernetes solution for managing edge cloud infrastructure. Based on the OpenStack StarlingX project, Cloud Platform represents a compilation of open source technology that delivers the features needed to effectively deploy and manage distributed 5G networks.
Wind River Cloud Platform enables:
Management, maintenance, and expansion of 5G infrastructure from single-node servers up to full data centres... even while they have applications running
Relocation of workloads using a 'zero-touch', fully autonomous mode
Activation of remote controllers
Enrollment of new worker nodes
Ability to roll back updates as needed without interrupting network operations
Wind River Cloud Platform delivers a unified edge cloud management and network-wide orchestration platform.
4G to 5G Transition: Manage costs with the right solutions
With the increased density that 5G networks require, telecom organisations are faced with a rapid increase in deployed hardware, which can quickly increase operating costs exponentially. The only way to keep these costs low is to use a simulation solution, like Simics, to test the efficiency of network designs and use an edge management platform, like Wind River Cloud Platform, to handle networks after deployment. CSPs need to find the right solutions that can assist them in the optimisation and management of 5G networks to keep things running smoothly in the 4G to 5G transition.
