New 5G LAN technology advances QoS across the enterprise

As enterprises integrate 5G technology into their enterprise network environments, they face new questions about how to best ensure consistent quality of service (QoS) for essential business applications across 5G RAN and traditional enterprise LANs. The need for unified and deterministic connectivity across both network technologies is a must.

Traditional QoS within enterprise networks, such as using traffic identification, classification, DSCP assignment, and queuing/dropping techniques, has long been used as the de facto method for controlling and prioritizing the convergence of voice, video, and data.

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Modern 5G technology has taken some of the benefits of QoS and other built-in improvements to codify what is often referred to as 5G network slicing. This is a set of standards developed by 3GPP, the main standards body responsible for advancing the 5G architecture.

A new approach to enterprise 5G QoS, called "microslicing," takes the concept of 5G network slicing a step further. As a popular approach to help enterprises guarantee service quality and enforcement from the cellular radio access network (RAN) to the entire enterprise IT infrastructure, microslicing is widely considered to be an important technology to simplify the integration of 5G technology within enterprise networks.

What is microsectioning?

Microslicing is an evolving technology that extends the QoS of a dedicated 5G radio access network (RAN) over existing enterprise infrastructure, with the goal of achieving consistent end-to-end performance for critical applications that cannot survive the erratic packet delivery across private cellular wireless media.

Microslicing is defined as a set of network functions within a 5G LAN that allows various QoS metrics and traffic thresholds to be automatically defined and enforced on discrete application flows or groups of devices. This creates a cohesive, end-to-end logical network that maps out QoS from the ingress cellular RAN through the entire existing enterprise L2/L3 network.

From a service level agreement (SLA) perspective, a single microslice can be configured to meet the network requirements of an application. The SLA for a microslice includes a set of network performance requirements for different traffic flows traversing the 5G RAN. Some of the configurable options include:

• Traffic Prioritization
• Packet Delay Budget (PDB)
• Packet Error Rate (PER)

Within the microslicing framework, the control plane continuously monitors and adjusts traffic flow when network congestion occurs to meet established QoS standards. These processes and functions ensure that high-priority traffic receives priority and special treatment over low-priority traffic in real-time as defined by the network administrator.

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Depending on the performance requirements of the application data being transferred over the bearer channel, a microslice can be configured as one of three bearer types. The three types of microslice bearer channels are:

• Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) - Used to set traffic policies for bitrate-sensitive device groups and applications. GBR defines the minimum bitrate value allocated to a bearer. The bitrate can be higher than the GBR if sufficient network resources are available.
• Non-Guaranteed Bit Rate (Non-GBR) - Used to set traffic policies for device groups and applications that are not bit rate sensitive.
• Latency Critical Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) - For services that require both GBR and end-to-end network latency as low as 5 ms. These bearer channels are typically sufficient for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) implementations over 5G LANs.

While selecting a bearer channel creates the framework for microslices, they must still be defined and prioritized using network-based SLA parameters. In other words, once you set up a bearer type, such as GBR or non-GBR QoS class options, you must select.

Microslicing uses the QoS Class Identifier (QCI) standard outlined by the 3GPP standards organization. This is done to simplify the process of setting up appropriate network quality parameters for use in packet scheduling across the 5G RAN.

Comparison between 5G network slicing and 5G LAN micro-slicing

5G LAN micro-slicing and 5G network slicing are 3GPP standard features of 5G technology widely used by mobile operators, and there is a clear difference between the two. However, the difference between them is not well understood.

In the world of mobile network operators (MNOs), network slicing is an architecture that allows the creation of multiple virtual networks using overlay technologies on a common public or shared physical infrastructure. From a 5G operator's perspective, a network slice is an independent, end-to-end logical network running on a shared physical infrastructure that is capable of delivering the agreed quality of network service.

Customizable network slice service options include transmission speed, quality, latency, security and reliability. These service levels are provided based on the quality of service requirements negotiated between mobile operators and enterprise customers. But this leaves enterprises with little control over service quality.

With network slicing, 5G operators are fully responsible for managing and coordinating network resources to meet customer SLAs. From the operator's perspective, network slicing is a way to gain additional revenue opportunities for customers who are looking to pay more for an improved 5G service experience.

In most cases, 5G operators create and manage network slices on a customer-by-customer basis. This means that all customer traffic traversing a common 5G network slice will receive the same application service level, regardless of the type of application or service being transported by the RAN.

In contrast, 5G LAN microslicing gives IT administrators full control over end-to-end QoS, with the ability to create virtual microslices at a per-application level. Microslicing is one of the only ways to provide strict, SLA-backed traffic guarantees for each application over the wireless medium, and can be directly integrated with existing enterprise QoS frameworks.

To achieve fine-grained control over micro-slice data flows, administrators can organize their RAN into application and device groups.

• Device Groups - Admins can group 5G endpoints connected to the RAN via SIM or eSIM, logically segmenting them by device type. In many cases, the type of device often determines which applications/services are frequently operated. This helps coordinate which devices are assigned to a specific micro-slice.
• Applications - Applications can be configured so that the control plane can identify the data flows that are transported on the RAN. Once the application is identified, the flow is assigned to the appropriate micro-slice and the associated network performance SLA.

In turn, clear SLAs can be created running from one end of the 5G LAN to the other. Once data leaves the radio network and flows into the corporate LAN, the traffic can be automatically translated or mapped to the necessary corporate VLAN IDs or QoS policy settings understood by enterprise-class routers and switches.

There is no doubt that new micro-cutting technologies will play an important role in enabling cellular technology within the enterprise as enterprises embrace 5G LAN technology to improve wireless coverage, eliminate mobility issues, and gain new deterministic performance on both the RAN and LAN.