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By Hakan Emregul

Performance assurance and 5G: what’s the big deal?

The promise of 5G and generating or sustaining new revenue opportunities will rely upon a host of new high-performing applications, use cases, and services that can be commercialized if stringent service performance requirements can be met and sustained.

In addition, the performance metrics and KPIs collected from the network are valuable, as this data will play a significant role in supporting the orchestration, automation, and edge cloud application integration of the overall service chain. Customer satisfaction and Quality of Experience will be key for 5G service differentiation and creating commercial value.

Another aspect is that even though 5G’s service-based architecture is a relatively new concept, 5G networks and services will need to integrate with existing 4G networks and services to optimize costs and deployment.

5G access, MEC and slicing: why visibility on the ‘new’ matters

The 5G access network, MEC, and network slicing together with distributed cloud infrastructure are now part of the networking solution required to support 5G services. Performance data collected from these environments will need not only to be meaningful, but also needs to be integrated to support orchestration, automation, and simplification of the overall service lifecycle.

The key to success lies in having full control and visibility into your complete service enablement environment including edge and slice management. Customer satisfaction and service assurance will be the key driver of new 5G services and revenue. Mobile operators, cloud, and application providers will also need to increase collaboration and share performance information.

In the end, service assurance starts from the user experience and can be impacted by everything that is between the service edge and the customer.

Have you considered the challenges and what’s needed from performance monitoring to support new 5G domains? Accedian has put together a Performance Management Expert Use Case Series of webinars on critical 5G topics.

  1. The access network: This is the first point of connection for the end user and is a crucial part of the service level agreement (SLA) that defines the network service promise.  This on-demand webinar provides an overview of performance requirements in the access network, including:
  • 5G’s architecture and its impact on services
  • Why performance monitoring and timely KPI reporting are critical
  • Why, what, and where to instrument for end-to-end assurance
  • What it means for a brownfield` service provider when it comes to assurance in 5G
5G Access Performance Management Expert Use Case | Accedian

Link to on-demand video/webinar: https://go.accedian.com/episode-1-on-demand-5g-access

2. The multi-access edge (MEC): is a key enabler for high-performing services and is needed to meet the performance KPIs. It is a multi-layer environment that consists of physical, virtual, and service layers. The distributed edge or MEC is one of the critical aspects of the new 5G architecture, learn more about:

  • 5G MEC service diversity and performance management
  • What do real-time performance monitoring and analytics mean for the edge
  • What and where to measure and instrument
  • What an ideal `performance solution` for MEC should include 

Link to on-demand video/webinar: https://go.accedian.com/episode4-webinar-5g-mec

3. Network slicing: 5G standalone networks support slicing that allows operators to multiplex their network to support a diverse set of commercial use cases.  The diverse requirements and dynamic nature require us to manage the services and applications using specific slices or private logical paths to manage and effectively assure SLAs and quality of experience (QoE). Learn more about:

  • The 5G service chain, slicing and service diversification
  • Real-time performance monitoring, and importance of analytics
  • End-to-end assurance vs. segment-based assurance in 5G network slices
  • The 5G service chain, slicing and service diversification
  • Real-time performance monitoring, and importance of analytics
  • End-to-end assurance vs. segment-based assurance in 5G network slices

Link to on-demand video/webinar: https://go.accedian.com/episode6-webinar-urllc-on-demand