Strategy Analytics worked with P.I. Works who co-ordinated with its partner Turkcell, to publish this joint white paper on how automated end to end Network Slice management can be the critical 5G ‘Service Enabler’ for profitable eMBB, uRLLC and mMTC.

Despite several sound business cases for Network Slicing, progress in 4G/LTE has been hampered by management and operations complexity and the lack of truly dynamic slice resource allocation.

Now 5G has defined three official ‘Service Slice Types’ - eMBB, uRLLC and mMTC that will anchor 5G Network Slicing. 3GPP Releases 15 and 16 in conjunction with 5G Service Based Architecture (SBA) will allow Network Slicing to come into its own with new Network Slice management and dynamic resource allocation mechanisms.

In this report we look at the state of Network Slicing in 2019 and the outlook for Service Provider Use Cases including pre-5G use cases that adopt end to end Slice Management in a ‘5G Ready’ Service Orchestration environment.

Automated Slice instantiation, Service Flow Aggregation and Performance Management for Network Slices and Slice Instances will be key to 5G Profitability.

• Overview
• State of Network Slicing and Future Opportunities
• Stages of Network Slicing Evolution (2017 – 2026)
• Next Generation Slicing Architecture
• Characterizing the Service Instances as Slice/Service Types
• Pre-5G RAN Slicing and Turkcell Use Case
• End to End (E2E) Network Slicing across RAN, Backhaul, Core and Cloud Data Center
  • Examples of Vertical Market and Specialized Network Slice Use Cases
  • Recently announced Network Slicing use cases
• Aggregating Service Instances makes 5G profitable
  • Many ‘Nichey’ Verticals have no standalone Business Case.
  • Aggregating and Managing Dynamic Slice Assignment
  • Management of Network Slices needs to become highly automated in 5G
• Conclusion
  • Network Slicing Automation demands partnerships between vendors and Service Providers