Verizon’s product-development chief prepares for network slicing

Srini Kalapala has a unique view into Verizon’s operations. As the company’s senior VP of technology and product development, he works across both consumer and business divisions on services that span wireless and wireline networks. He dabbles in everything from long-term research and development to network upgrades to the current needs and demands of Verizon’s customers.

Now, Kalapala is getting ready to move network slicing from the lab and into the real world. “The foundational ingredients are coming into place,” he told Light Reading during a recent interview. “Now is the time.”

Verizon has not yet announced any network slicing products, and Kalapala declined to reveal the company’s specific plans. But he said the industry has evolved to a point where network slicing products will likely begin hitting the market in the next year or two.

On the path to slicing

Kalapala explained that network slicing requires three main elements to work: a 5G network, a core capable of creating slices and device chipsets that can connect to those slices. It’s the last part that’s taking some time, he said, as vendors like Qualcomm and MediaTek begin selling chips that can support network slicing.

Network slicing basically creates a sliver of a 5G network that can be dedicated to specific applications or customers. That’s dramatically different from most of today’s wireless connections, which share access to a “best effort” network. Meaning, the network treats most connections equally, and each of those connections gets whatever capabilities the network can support at that time and in that place.

While that’s fine for most everyday smartphone customers, enterprises and other organizations have expressed willingness to pay for a dedicated “slice” of connectivity that meets their specific needs for things like latency and throughput, regardless of who else might be using the network.

Network slicing is enabled by the standalone (SA) version of 5G. Verizon said late last year that it is moving customer traffic onto its 5G SA core, roughly two years after the mobile operator’s initial 5G SA launch timeline.

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