Lavish bandwidth with the barest hint of latency
Google and Ericsson have demonstrated how they can get multiple slices running on a single Android 13 mobile phone. It could support the work ambitions of enterprise employees and creative application for domestic consumption. Could network slices wean users off apples?
According to a statement from Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Packet Core at Ericsson, anyone who can offer network slicing to their customers has a major advantage: “[Operators] and enterprises who can offer customers the flexibility to take advantage of tailored network slices for both work and personal profiles on a single Android device are opening up a vast reserve of different uses of those devices,” said Zethzon.
By confirming that new network slicing is offered by Android 13 and will work fully with Ericsson network technology, the equipment maker is marking a significant step forward in helping the full mobile ecosystem realize the true value of 5G, Zethzon said. This is the first time that the technology has demonstrably worked and will allow operators to customise offerings.
Network slicing is the mythical missing link between 5G networks and reality, in the shape of something that enterprises and customers will actually value, said Ericsson. Like another famous ‘missing link’, sightings of slicing have been rarer than Bigfoot. That exclusivity has only made the public yearn for more, according to industry bodies. Market demand for network slicing in the enterprise segment is projected at $300 billion by 2025, according to the GSMA.
By demonstrating that a single device can make use of multiple slices, which are used according to the on-device user profiles and network policies defined at the CSP level, Google and Ericsson have shown a way to bridge the gap between the three important user groups, they claim.
The results were achieved in an Interoperability Device Testing (IODT) environment on Google Pixel 6 (Pro) devices using Android 13. The new release widens the options for enterprises that assign network slicing to applications through User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP) rules. This, said Ericsson, is the feature that enables one device using Android to connect to multiple network slices simultaneously.
In the demonstration, two extra types of slice were made available on a device’s consumer profile, apart from the default mobile broadband (MBB) slice. App developers can now decide which connectivity category (latency or bandwidth) their app will need and request it. An appropriate slice, whose characteristics are defined by the mobile network, will then be selected. By doing this they can prioritise the latency or bandwidth, as needed, according to any app’s requirements. An online gaming app, for example, might desperately need a low-latency slice, which could then be pre-defined. Those needing to conduct high-definition video calling, on the other hand, would need to have a nice thick high-bandwidth slice predefined for their stream.
Network slicing support is already offered by Android 12, but Android 13 will also allow for up to five enterprise-defined slices to be used by the device’s work profile. In situations where no User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP) rules are available, carriers can configure their network so traffic from work profile apps can revert to a pre-configured enterprise APN (Access Point Name) connection. This means the device will always keep a separate mobile data connection for enterprise-related traffic even if the network does not support URSP delivery.
In July, Telefónica, Google and Ericsson announced a breakthrough in end-to-end, automated network slicing in 5G Standalone mode. The successful lab test showed how they can to provision a network slice from the core to the radio access network (RAN) in 35 minutes. These complex service configurations call for full automation in order to be manageable and guarantee the right levels of service from the network slice.