By Mike Robuck
Public clouds require the right blend of scale and speed
Operators need to tap into the public cloud to migrate their legacy 3G and 4G networks onto a single 5G-oriented platform, insisted Amdocs General Manager Niall Norton.
Speaking to Mobile World Daily in an interview, Norton explained 5G introduces a range of new functions and network attributes that can be exposed and managed through operators’ business support systems.
“At Amdocs, we call this the ‘5G Value Plane.’ Encompassing charging and policy functions, and managed by a centralised catalogue, the 5G Value Plane acts as the 5G ‘brain’, bridging 5G business and IT functions, and handling analytics within the 5G network,” stated Norton. “With key functions consolidated, telcos can derive value from 5G in a way that is both efficient and scalable, which wasn’t possible with previous network generations.”
The 5G policy function is also a key enabler of 5G monetisation, making it possible for operators to adapt the network for individual services. Different network characteristics, such as ultra-low latency and high-bandwidth can have different pricing and charging rules, along with related service level agreements. The public cloud is increasingly being used by telcos to augment their security capabilities.
Carriers are also moving to hybrid clouds or multi-cloud environments, which blend private and public clouds, in order to pick the capabilities from each to suit their specific requirements, boost agility and improve redundancy. According to Norton, multi-clouds also avoid vendor lock-in with a single cloud provider, which is particularly useful if one of the large hyperscale providers suffers a network outage.
“Crucially, multi-cloud gives choice – just as no two CSPs are alike, there is no one size transformation fits all,” he said. Norton is scheduled to take part in a public cloud session this morning.