When to launch 5G network slicing

There are encouraging signs that operators will commercialize network slicing over the next two years, finds the new Heavy Reading 5G Network Slicing Operator Survey. The emphasis initially will be on enterprise services, such as secure, wide-area virtual private networks, but consumer services and fixed wireless access will also be in the mix.

(The survey is intended to help industry participants better understand the status of this technology and provide insight into how operators will use network slicing capabilities to offer commercial services. To read the full survey, click here.)

Determining when to invest in new services and how to judge technology maturity and market demand is notoriously difficult. This is particularly the case for network slicing because it impacts the entire application path, from device to cloud. This requirement for end-to-end performance introduces many organizational and technology dependencies to the commercialization timeline.

The Heavy Reading survey asked operators about their plans for network slicing to help understand how close they are to offering commercial services. The figure below shows that while the majority of respondents say their company is still in the early phases, there is also a lead cohort that is now moving toward commercialization.

To read the complete article, visit Light Reading.