Understanding the three major trends in the development of 5G bearer network technology in one article

At present, cloud-network integration is facing new demands and challenges, and 5G bearer network technology is also facing new development trends in terms of deterministic assurance, customized services, and intelligent management and operation. Only when all parties in the industry strengthen collaborative research can they jointly promote the research and development of new 5G bearer network technologies and pilot verification, and help promote the application of 5G+ in vertical industries.

Cloud-network integration drives the development of 5G bearer network technology

The latest data shows that my country has built a total of 792,000 5G base stations, achieving 5G network coverage in all prefecture-level cities and building the world's largest 5G network. The 5G network not only provides consumers with high-speed mobile Internet access and high-definition video services, but also lays the network foundation for the promotion of 5G+ vertical industry applications. At present, my country's operators are actively implementing the "new infrastructure" strategy and promoting digital transformation, and conducting in-depth research on the development path of cloud-network integration and the vision of new architectures and technologies such as 6G.

In November 2020, China Telecom released the "Cloud Network Convergence 2030 Technology White Paper", which systematically introduced the technical architecture, three-stage development path and goals of cloud network convergence, and proposed key measures in the near future and six major technical innovation directions; China Mobile released three 6G technology reports in November 2020, proposing 6G vision requirements, "2030+ network architecture" and key technology prospects, hoping to jointly create a beautiful world of "digital twins and ubiquitous intelligence". In March 2021, China Unicom released the "CUBE-Net 3.0 Network Innovation System White Paper", hoping to strengthen scientific and technological innovation and R&D cooperation with all parties in the industry in the fields of cloud network convergence and computing network integration, open optical network and cloud optical integration, 5G network and deterministic services, cloud network brain and intelligent operation, ubiquitous elastic ultra-broadband access, etc.

At present, my country's 5G core network mainly adopts a distributed cloud data center architecture, hoping to promote the integration of 5G and cloud networks into an era of symbiosis and mutual promotion, thereby giving birth to a variety of 5G application innovations, and promoting the application and promotion of 5G and its enhanced technologies in thousands of industries such as industrial Internet, smart grid, smart transportation, smart medical care, and smart education. For the bearer network, it should also continue to adapt to the development needs of cloud network integration, artificial intelligence, computing power network, and future 6G. Next, in the field of bearer networks, we should comprehensively and in-depth study the key technologies and development trends in determinism, intelligence, customization, flexible expansion, IP+optical collaboration, and open capabilities, and put forward suggestions suitable for the development of industrial applications in my country, effectively supporting the development of my country's "new infrastructure" and digital transformation.

Three major trends in the development of 5G bearer network technology

01Achieving deterministic bearer of service tiered assurance

Since there are many application scenarios in 5G+ vertical industries, and they are usually the converged applications of eMBB, uRLLC and mMTC, and there are also large differences in the requirements for SLA, providing deterministic networks with bounded performance guarantees has become a key enabling technology. As of the current status, the 3GPP R17 and R18 standards will focus on enhancing the customized service capabilities of RAN and SA that support uRLLC and network slicing; ITU-T, IEEE802.1 and IETF and other international standardization organizations are conducting research and customization of L1-L3 deterministic bearer technology standards; my country's CCSA, 5G Bearer Working Group under the 5G Promotion Group, Future Network and other industry alliances are also actively conducting relevant technical standards and industrial application research. For example, 5GDNA has released a series of white papers on the needs, technologies and practices of 5G deterministic networks in the power industry.

In addition, the deterministic bearer network supporting cloud-network integration is composed of technical protocols and QoS mechanisms at different levels. It is necessary to objectively analyze the advantages and disadvantages and applicable scenarios of the L1 layer FlexE interface based on time slot multiplexing and the MTN channel technology based on time slot crossing, the L2 layer delay-sensitive network (TSN) series technology based on Ethernet bridging, and the L3 layer IP-based deterministic network (DetNet) technology. Combined with the differentiated needs of various services, research key technologies that provide bounded hierarchical guarantees in dimensions such as security, isolation, reliability, bandwidth, latency, jitter, and time-frequency synchronization. For application scenarios such as operator wide area networks and industry private networks, build an optimized deterministic bearer network technology architecture and application solutions to achieve deterministic bearer with bounded hierarchical guarantees for typical services such as industrial control, AR/VR, and machine vision.

02Customized services adapted to the coordinated development of cloud + AI + computing power network

Driven by the integration of 5G and emerging technologies such as cloud computing, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and computing power networks, my country's ICT industry is evolving towards an innovative ecological model of "connection + computing power + application + service". With the widespread application of AI, the requirements for computing power in cloud-network integration are growing exponentially, which also poses new challenges to the computing power supply of cloud computing nodes.

The computing network is a technical system that transmits computing power and other resource information in real time, realizes information association and high-frequency trading of multi-party heterogeneous computing, storage, network and other resources, and thus solves the problem of computing power allocation and resource sharing between different types of cloud computing nodes. In the future, cloud-network integration will develop in the direction of "computing-network integration", and the bearer network should also provide ubiquitous network flexible connection capabilities, provide customized service capabilities for computing networks and their applications, and realize intelligent high-quality perception experience.

SRv6 is an application extension of segment routing (SR) technology based on IPv6. It has higher flexibility and scalability, stronger application integration capabilities, and more complete customized programming capabilities than SR-MPLS. At present, my country's operators and equipment manufacturers have realized the integrated application of Overlay and Underlay based on SRv6+EVPN, and are also actively promoting the development of SRv6 technical standards and pilot applications in existing networks. In order to realize the construction of a customized service network that is closely integrated with business applications in the future, the SRv6 technical standards need to be continuously improved.

It is reported that IETF has released two standards, SRv6 encapsulation (RFC8754) and programming (RFC8986). Basic protocols such as SR-Policy are in the stage of improving the working group draft. Network slicing, flow detection and BIERv6 multicast technology for 5G and cloud are also in the stage of demand and framework research. Therefore, the packet header compression G-SRv6 technology that improves transmission efficiency is expected to form a working group draft this year. In addition, APN6, which solves the perception of cross-domain business applications, is still in the application exploration stage, and it is still necessary to gradually carry out SRV6 applications in combination with application scenarios and the maturity of the industrial chain.

03Build intelligent management, control and operation capabilities for industry virtual private networks

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the 5G Application Action Plan, which shows that it will focus on promoting industry virtual private networks, realizing intelligent collaborative orchestration and full life cycle management of end-to-end network slicing from terminals, wireless, bearer to core networks, to meet the needs of efficient operation and maintenance and rapid service delivery.

Looking at the general trend of cloud-network integration development, it is necessary to connect the 5G network slice management and control system and the cloud data center management and control system at the technical level, build a "cloud-network brain", and realize the unified management and integrated operation of cloud-network resources, so that it has intelligent, agile, and precise management and operation capabilities. In addition, the management and control system of the bearer network should also integrate the bearer sub-slice management and control function, support the planning of bearer sub-slice templates according to different slice business scenarios and SLA indicator decomposition, realize the full life cycle management and control of soft and hard isolated slice resource orchestration, configuration, monitoring and analysis, and realize multi-dimensional performance and fault alarm big data analysis through AI/ML to achieve intelligent management and control operation and maintenance.

Collaboration to promote 5G bearer technology standards and industry collaborative development

In summary, my country's current bearer network technology still needs to rely on continuous development to meet the cloud-network integration's requirements for deterministic bearer, customized services, and intelligent management and control operations. In the future, my country's operators should strengthen in-depth cooperation with all parties in the industry chain, including various industry customers, research institutes, equipment vendors, and chip/device vendors. At the same time, they should closely combine technical standard innovation with the healthy development of the industry, and jointly promote the development of 5G bearer network technology for cloud-network integration, and vigorously support the national "new infrastructure" development strategy and the digital transformation of the industry.