This week, Amdocs (News - Alert) unveiled an online charging system intended to work with 5G services. The billing software company says the new Digital Monetization solution supports scenarios in which network slicing is employed.
Network slicing allows mobile network operators to manage and operate multiple virtual networks over a common physical network infrastructure. That way they can ensure different applications receive the treatment they need to function properly.
Amdocs says its cloud-based OpenStack solution employs “an innovative isolation mechanism” to ensure activities on the different slices don’t impact one another. And that, it adds, aligns with the 5G standards 3GPP published last month.
“Our customers are leading the way in the industry’s transition to 5G, which will serve as the backbone for a new generation of services that require the higher bandwidth, lower latency and greater agility that 5G provides,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of Amdocs Technology. “As such, we have developed the latest version of our Digital Monetization suite to help them monetize the advanced product configurations that network slicing enables. It will also help them ensure that a customer connected to a 24/7 vital eHealth service, delivered over one network slice, is not impacted by an overload of events from another network slice streaming a live football match.”
While network slicing will be possible in 5G networks, and will be helpful especially for IoT applications, there are also solutions out there by companies like Affirmed Networks that enable it on 4G networks today.
“Network slicing is fundamental to operators seeking to scale across different industrial sectors. By making network connectivity part of the fabric of an enterprise process, operators can diversify their customer base and increase revenues massively and sustainably,” says Gabriel Brown, Principal Analyst at Heavy Reading. “In 4G networks, virtual EPC, in combination with dynamic resource selection, offers operators the opportunity to introduce commercial “slicing” propositions in the near-term. One of the challenges of using dedicated core networks and APNs is the integration and management overhead. To fully take advantage of slicing, operators need to simplify resource allocation processes.”
Edited by
Mandi Nowitz
