5G will bring with it bigger bandwidth and ultra-low latency. That’s expected to help usher in – or just better enable – a variety of applications.
But getting all the pieces in place to create 5G-enabled networks – and the big data, Internet of Things, machine learning, robotic, and video applications they will support – will require the work and input of a variety of stakeholders. So Nokia (News - Alert) Bell Labs and some of its friends plan to build a 5G platform-as-a-service to allow for that. The Next Generation Platform-as-a-Service will enable and encourage collaboration between 5G ecosystem players, explains the group.
This 5G cloud-native platform will facilitate building, shipping, and running virtual network function applications with telco-grade quality in terms of latency, reliability, and capacity, Nokia Bell Labs (News - Alert) said. And it will combine all sorts of third-party applications with those VNFs to create more versatile and powerful cloud objects. That, it adds, will break down silos between connectivity (to humans, robots, sensors, etc.) and computing (machine learning, big data, video applications).
Consortium members include service providers BT and Orange. Nokia Bell Labs France, Nokia, and ATOS are the vendors involved. Small and medium-sized enterprises Virtual Open Systems (News - Alert), Vertical M2M, and B-COM of France, and ONAPP of the U.K. are members. The following academic institutions are also involved: University of Milano-Bicocca, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, and IMEC.
The need for these kinds of 5G industry efforts is more important now than ever. That’s because 5G seems to be moving at an accelerated pace.
Nokia recently made headlines when its CEO, Rajeev Suri (News - Alert), said that the company originally thought 5G would take off in 2020 or 2021. But now, he said, it appears commercial 5G networks could go commercial as early as 2019.
Edited by Maurice Nagle