KDDI announced the start of commercial service provision for corporations through 5G SA operation.As the first initiative, we have launched an initiative to utilize 5G SA for video distribution on "ABEMA".
KDDI announced on February 21, 2022 that it will carry out live video broadcasting by 5G stand-alone (SA) operation, which is the first in Japan in collaboration with AbemaTV, and announced that it will start 5G SA service for corporations from the same day. It seems that there are still many challenges in accelerating the dawn of the full-scale 5G SA era and the utilization of 5G by companies. → See here for past episodes. [Image] With the introduction of SA, network slicing separates the normal network from the network dedicated to video distribution, enabling stable communication to be secured. The reason why SA is necessary for stable video relay is that mobile companies are the only base stations. Instead, the core network has also set out to shift to SA operation, which operates with 5G-specification equipment, and the environment for demonstrating the true essence of 5G is finally being improved. KDDI announced that it will start full-scale services for corporations through the SA operation. Specifically, the public studio "UDAGAWA BASE" in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo has been converted to a 5G area of KDDI. Using a smartphone prototype that is compatible with 5G SA based on Sony's "Xperia 1 III", it will be a mechanism for live broadcasting by transmitting the video taken by the camera through the 5G SA network. According to KDDI's explanation, the reason why SA operation is necessary for video distribution seems to be to ensure stable communication line quality. When services such as TV stations and ABEMA relay video, a quality network that can stably deliver high-quality video is required, but since ordinary mobile communication is used for various purposes. There is a weakness that the quality is not stable. Therefore, in the past, efforts have been made to ensure stable communication by preparing a dedicated communication line or bundling multiple mobile lines, but in each case, large-scale equipment is required, and many staff members are involved. There was a problem that it would take. However, if it is a 5G network operated by SA, "network slicing" that virtually divides the network according to the purpose of use can be used, so by separating the network that distributes video and the other networks, a stable network It will be possible to deliver video with high quality. Since network slicing is the biggest merit of shifting to SA operation, which takes time to realize the SLA required for slicing, KDDI will further evolve network slicing in line with the start of commercial services. It is important to keep going. Among them, the company is focusing on SLA (Service Level Agreement). As mentioned in the case of ABEMA above, what companies want from network slicing is to be able to continue to use the network with stable quality regardless of the external environment. It seems that it is important to guarantee the quality of the sliced network and to realize a mechanism to maintain it in order to promote the utilization of 5G by companies. To that end, KDDI is proceeding with efforts to realize SLAs not only in core networks but also in wireless access networks (RAN) such as base stations, and "RAN Intelligent" that grasps the communication status of individual users and allocates appropriate wireless resources. We are focusing on technological development related to "Controller" (RIC). In fact, in September 2020, we are conducting a demonstration experiment with Samsung Electronics Korea to realize end-to-end network slicing by using RIC for network slicing control. However, since RIC is also a technology specified by the "O-RAN Alliance" that promotes the openness of RAN, KDDI is actively working toward the openness of RAN in line with the transition to SA operation. increase. Then, on February 18, 2022, KDDI announced that it had succeeded in data communication with Fujitsu and Samsung Electronics using an open 5G SA virtualized base station connected to a commercial network. This is to communicate using a base station configured using equipment from different manufacturers that comply with O-RAN. Specifically, DU (Distributed Unit) that processes wireless signals and CU (Central Unit) that aggregates the processed data and exchanges it with the core network are equipped with Samsung Electronics equipment that uses virtualization technology for wireless communication. It was confirmed that a base station was configured using Fujitsu's MMU (Massive MIMO Unit) for the RU (Radio Unit) to be carried, and that communication could actually be performed. However, such technological development is still in progress, and it seems that it will take some time to introduce network slicing that realizes the SLA required by companies in actual commercial networks. Therefore, KDDI says that the full-scale rollout of services through SA operation will be in 2024, more than two years ahead. Regarding this initiative with ABEMA, we are still considering the full-scale system introduction while repeating verification, and we have not reached the stage of full-scale introduction at the actual site and full utilization. Even though commercial services based on SA operation have started, there are still many issues to be solved, and it seems that it will take a considerable amount of time for companies to fully utilize them. Masahiro Sano Born in Fukushima Prefecture, graduated from Tohoku Institute of Technology. After working on the development of digital content as an engineer, he turned into a writer specializing in mobile phones and mobile phones. He now writes in a wide range of fields related to mobile phones, from industry trends to culture.
Masahiro Sano