With the transformation of digital technology, mobile communication technology is developing rapidly. From voice to digital to traffic management, the demand for large-connection, low-latency, high-speed, and high-reliability networks is increasing. The fifth-generation mobile communication industry technology has also become The global research and development hotspot. The future 5G network can be applied to all aspects of the Internet of Vehicles, smart cities, and smart medical care. With the joint efforts of the global industry, the key capabilities and application scenarios of 5G networks have been basically determined. It is expected that my country will realize the commercialization of 5G networks in 2020. During this process, the core network will completely overturn the previous network architecture and how the core network will develop It plays a key role, especially in the future technological development direction of the core network, which faces severe challenges in the evolution process.
With the advent of 5G technology, the world is about to enter an era of data explosion. This will be a leapfrog development and a revolution, and it will mean a disruptive change in the network architecture. It will no longer be a communication between people, but will become a communication between people and things, things and things. This kind of large connection, low latency, and high speed network will bring a huge amount to the core network. Impact. As the 5G commercial time point approaches, how the core network develops will play a key role, especially in the future technological development direction and evolution process of the core network facing severe tests.
1 Current status and problem analysis of core networkAt the 2018 Shanghai World Mobile Conference held not long ago, the three major operators of China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom revealed a timetable: It is planned to realize the official commercial use of 5G networks by 2020. As the fifth generation of mobile communications, the first impression that 5G networks bring to people is speed. The 4G era has mainly realized the rapid communication connection between "people and people", but the "ambition" of 5G is much more than that. Its goal is to make more "people and things", "things and things" quickly connected, and then Promote the arrival of the era of Internet of Everything. The high speed, high stability and low latency of 5G will improve the safety performance of unmanned driving. In addition to unmanned driving, application scenarios such as remote control and smart home will also be closer to consumers. According to the current industry analysis, the global 5G application fields will mainly focus on four aspects: Internet of Vehicles, public safety, smart cities, media and infotainment. This is also what the industry believes is the greatest value of 5G networks, which "can be deeply integrated with more industries."
At present, China Mobile has a preliminary consensus on the basic architecture of 5G, which is to support multiple accesses, reduce the coupling of different access methods and core networks, achieve on-demand networking, and leverage NFV/SDN technology. The emergence of NFV (Network Function Virtualization) technology effectively solves the shortcomings of the core network architecture and provides operators with a good development opportunity. The introduction of NFV technology into the mobile core network is of great significance.
With the approach of commercialization, 5G networking has reached a critical period of development. China Mobile has proposed three major design principles for 5G network architecture. The first is from rigidity to softness, that is, from solid-state networks to dynamic networks, to realize network resource virtualization. Decoupling and servicing of network functions. The second is IP-based and Internet-based mobile networks, that is, to achieve interoperability and integration with IT networks, introduce Internet technology, and optimize network design. Finally, centralized intelligence and distributed processing, centralized intelligence-centralized functions, provide personalized value-added services for vertical industries, and distributed processing-mobile network functions close to users, increase network throughput and reduce latency. The use of SDN/NFV technology to achieve network cloudification, coupled with microservice design, means that 5G networks are truly open, service-oriented, and software-oriented, which is conducive to the integration and development of 5G and vertical industries.
In June of this year, the 3GPP 5G NR standard SA (Independent Networking) solution was officially completed and released, marking the official release of the first truly complete international 5G standard. SA independent networking exists relative to NSA (non-independent networking), and the new capabilities it introduces are also an important feature that distinguishes 5G from 4G. The NSA mode is to build only 5G base stations and not 5G core networks. It cannot achieve a direct 5G network from terminal to terminal. There are many paths for signal transmission, and the delay is also very long. It cannot well support network slicing and edge computing. And other 5G technical characteristics. In the SA independent networking mode, the 5G base station is connected to the 5G core network, which can be deployed to the base station side through the core network, so that there are few paths to transmit signals, and the service server can be directly reached from the base station side.
In the 4G network, there are fixed communication links and communication paths between the traditional core network elements. The user's location information must be reported from the wireless base station to the MME, and then the MME passes the S-GW to the P-GW, and finally passes it on Update the policy for PCRF. Under the 5G core network service-oriented architecture, various network functions and services can communicate at will according to their needs, which greatly optimizes the communication path.
With the use of virtualization technology in the field of telecommunications, the traditional core network elements have realized the decoupling of software and hardware, and the software part is called the network function (Network FuncTIon). The service-oriented structure defined by 3GPP further splits a network function into several self-contained, self-managed, and reusable network function services (NF Service). These network functions are decoupled from each other and have independent upgradeability and independent flexibility. , With standard interfaces and other network functions and services intercommunication, and can be arranged and instantiated deployment according to different needs through the orchestration tool. This kind of network element splitting has a similar idea to the cloud-native or micro-service architecture that is often talked about. 3GPP has standardized definitions and defines a set of network function services with standard interfaces for external intercommunication for each 5G network function.
2 Based on 5G core network evolutionAnother revolution in communication technology in the 5G era has realized the transformation from personal applications to industrial applications. With the advent of the 5G era, the core network needs to continue to evolve to meet higher traffic demands and better service experience.
2.1 Core network NFV
Definition: NFV (Network FuncTIons VirtualizaTIon) network function virtualization refers to the decoupling of software and hardware of traditional network elements through the use of virtualization software technology, and software of different manufacturers runs on a unified virtualization infrastructure. Its advantages are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
(1) Reduce the overall CAPEX/OPEX of operators;
(2) Reduce the time for new business and service market launch;
(3) Increase the flexibility of the architecture and realize the flexible architecture;
(4) A more open platform for virtualization applications and pure software applications;
(5) Reduce the development and deployment costs of innovative services.
The evolution from today’s network to the future NFV network means:
Business deployment is complex, evolving to flexible and rapid deployment;
Complex operation and maintenance, evolving to simplified operation and maintenance;
There are various types of hardware devices, evolving towards normalized hardware and resource sharing;
Innovation is difficult and business opportunities are limited, and it is evolving to promote innovation and multiple commercial opportunities.
NFV is the basic technology of the future network, which helps to realize the software-based basic communication network. Core network virtualization is a specific application of NFV in the mobile core network. Its ultimate goal is to use standard X86 server storage and switching equipment to replace the dedicated network elements in the original communication network. X86 standard IT equipment has low cost, which can save a lot of investment costs for operators. After the decoupling of software and hardware, network equipment functions will no longer rely on traditional dedicated hardware, which enables flexible sharing of resources and facilitates the development and rapid deployment of new services.
2.2 Network slicing
The mobile communication system changes every ten years, technical support applications, and applications are based on scenarios: the development of 3G and 4G benefits from the mobile Internet. In addition to the enhancement of mobile Internet, 5G is another driving force from the Internet of Things. 4G upgrades 5G, from mobile Internet to the era of Internet of Everything. 5G will fully surpass 4G on 8 KPI indicators. Among them, the peak data transmission rate will reach 20Gbit/s, the user experience rate will reach 100Mbit/s, and the time delay will be less than 1ms. The above indicators are not achieved by traditional 4G technology, which also indicates that 5G will adopt a brand-new technical solution, so we need-network slicing.
Network slicing can achieve:
(1) New types of services for large enterprises/verticals and MVNOs, "just right" services that meet different economic forms on demand
(2) Able to optimize the price and performance of specific services
(3) Enhance security and provide customized services through specific encryption technology and isolation
(4) Cross-operator industry slicing deployment (for example, for the national smart grid between two operators
(5) Network slicing or joint slicing for global service scope)
5G network slicing will become the first application and basic business form for vertical industries in the 5G era. It will provide customized, isolated, and quality-guaranteed dedicated logic networks for the needs of vertical industries.
â—†The concept of network slicing
Network slicing is a collection of end-to-end logical functions and the physical or virtual resources required by it, including access networks, core networks, and transmission networks. Network slicing can be regarded as a virtualized "private network" in 5G networks.
Network slicing can be built based on traditional proprietary hardware, or based on NFV/SDN general infrastructure. It is recommended to build on a unified platform to achieve low-cost and efficient operation.
â—†The choice of network slicing
NSSF and NRF are newly-added functional entities that differentiate 5G from 4G networks, and can implement network slicing-related functions.
Table 1 New 5G functional entities
Network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI)
As the subscription information, it identifies a specific network slice and is carried by the terminal at the same time. The UE selects network slice instances of RAN and CN through NSSAI.
Network slice selection function (NSSF)
Introduce the independent NSSF control plane network function to realize the flexible selection of network slices, select the network slice instance set for UR, determine the allowed NSSAI, and determine the AMF set serving the UE based on the configuration or inquiring to the NRF.
â—†Network slicing deployment strategy
According to the level of standard perfection, product support, and user needs, the network slicing deployment recommendations: single domain to cross-domain, gradually evolve from the core network to the wireless and transmission fields; the slicing service type gradually changes from eMBB service to uRLLC/mIoT, and then press Need to be extended; slice design is independently designed by operators to open slice capabilities; slice management ranges from basic slice configuration management and life cycle management to automated orchestration. Single domain to cross domain, gradually evolve from the core network to the wireless and transmission fields; the slice service type is gradually changed from eMBB service to uRLLC/mIoT, and then expanded on demand; the slice design is independently designed by the operator to open the slice capability; each slice is managed independently , Independent upgrade, independent evolution; slice management from basic slice configuration management and life cycle management to automated orchestration.
Choose different schemes according to different scenarios:
Operator individual user slice scenario: AMF/PCF/UDM/NRF sharing, different slices contain different SMF/UPF; the operator uniformly controls the strategy adopted between slices; the same user subscription data is used between slices;
Enterprise private network slice scenario: AMF/UDM/NRF sharing, SMF/UPF/PCF each slice is deployed separately, through the deployment of independent policy management in the slice, each slice can set a specific strategy for the session and service routing;
Virtual operation scenarios with independent card allocation requirements: AMF/SMF/UPF/NRF/UDM/PCF each slice is deployed separately;
Through the above analysis, we find that network slicing technology has become a new element of the mobile core network architecture reform. Equipment manufacturers will also begin to release equipment products one after another.
The development of 5G technology in the communication network needs further research and development and testing, and its performance and reliability need to be further improved.
3 concluding remarksThis paper analyzes the current status and problems of the core network in detail, and on this basis, expounds the key technologies involved in the future development direction of the core network, including NFV virtualization technology, network slicing technology, etc. Through the discussion on the development of key technologies, this paper analyzes the evolution process of the core network relying on key technologies in the future, with particular emphasis on analyzing the influence of the deployment of network slicing technology on the future evolution of the network.
The rapid development of big video, Internet of Things, VR/AR, and autonomous driving puts forward new requirements for network capacity and reliability. The core network 5G evolution is an inevitable trend. I believe that technological development can help 5G and enhance the future development of operators. Competitiveness.
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