As the world becomes increasingly connected, in no small part due to the explosive growth of 5G, more devices and applications require faster speeds and lower latency to deliver personalized user experiences. At the same time, vertical industries are seeking more robust network performance and security to meet their specific requirements. In response, network slicing and customization have emerged as promising solutions to address these diverse needs.
Network slicing is a technology that creates multiple virtual networks or "slices," each with its own specific characteristics and capabilities, on a single physical network infrastructure. These slices can be customized to meet the unique requirements of different vertical industries. By allocating dedicated resources to each slice, network operators can maintain the required level of service quality, security, and improve performance and increase overall capacity. Examining specific industries can provide insight into the benefits and challenges of network slicing and customization, highlighting their potential impact.
Network slicing is the process of virtualizing network resources and functions using software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). Virtualized resources such as switches, routers, firewalls, and servers can be dynamically allocated in real-time to different slices to optimize network performance and utilization. Network operators can manage and orchestrate standardized interfaces and protocols to optimize communication and coordination between network slices, ensuring service continuity and reliability from end to end. Using advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms can help network operators proactively identify potential issues and optimize routing and resource allocation.
Network slicing in industry verticals
Network slicing and customization offer unique benefits for a range of industries, particularly those that are highly regulated, require high reliability and are prone to security breaches. These industries also demand high bandwidth, scalability and cost-effectiveness. Network slicing and customization have the potential to revolutionize the way these networks are designed and operated, enabling greater customization and flexibility to meet these specific requirements.
Healthcare
Telemedicine is becoming increasingly popular in healthcare, allowing healthcare providers to reach patients in remote or underserved areas or those who have mobility issues. It requires real-time applications as the interface between healthcare providers and their patients. Network delays or interruptions would pose significant risks to patient health and safety. So, the use of network slicing to allocate dedicated resources could strengthen the reliability of the network, keep service quality high and even prevent network congestion.
As per regulatory standards like Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), data must be encrypted within a particular network slice to protect it from unauthorized access. Currently, in healthcare, an industry with extraordinary costs, cutting hardware, deployment and maintenance expenses makes for a compelling argument. With network slicing and custom design, a single physical network infrastructure can support multiple virtual networks, so the use of this technology is very compelling for those with budget constraints.
Transportation
The transportation industry is also highly regulated and requires secure and reliable networks to support the critical functions of communication, traffic management and collision avoidance. In this industry, applications leverage real time data to improve the passenger experience. Custom slices can be built to optimize logistics and manage freight shipments. With traffic congestion and the current environment of safety concerns, network slicing may provide heavy lifting to create safer solutions. And for transportation companies under heavy regulation, this technology can serve as a tracking mechanism for messaging, protocols and security required to meet Intelligent Transport Systems standards for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) networks.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry requires the optimization of production processes for efficiency and quality control. Network slicing plays a crucial role in achieving this objective by providing dedicated network resources for specific production processes. This ensures that the processes have the required bandwidth and connectivity to operate at maximum efficiency. It is possible to create a network slice for a specific production line or even a particular machine. Network slicing also enables real-time monitoring and control of production systems, which results in better quality control and reduced waste.
Manufacturing data and systems must be kept secure and protected with high levels of privacy and security to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive information. Network slicing can isolate production components in their own network slice, thereby reducing opportunities for unauthorized access and breaches. This is particularly crucial in industries such as aerospace and defense, where intellectual property and sensitive information must always be protected. Network slicing also allows the implementation of new manufacturing technologies like the IoT. With network slicing, manufacturers can deploy IoT sensors and devices across production processes, enabling real-time monitoring and control of production systems. This leads to greater efficiency, cost savings and improved quality control.
Challenges of network slicing
As network slicing technology continues to evolve, new and interesting challenges are emerging that require innovative solutions. It is a big challenge to standardize interfaces and protocols that allow slices to communicate with one another and the physical network. In the absence of standardization, there will most likely be compatibility issues that hinder deployment and management. To tackle this obstacle, key stakeholders will need to collaborate so uniform interfaces and protocols are established. Only in this way can we guarantee seamless connectivity and adaptability across diverse network segments.
Conclusion
Network slicing is poised to revolutionize the way that networks are designed and operated. In a survey of 3,000 IT decision-makers by AppDynamics, 94% of respondents reported that digital transformation initiatives were accelerating, with 55% stating that their organization's digital transformation efforts had been sped up because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, network slicing and customization have the potential to transform industry at large and differing verticals in powerful ways. As with any emerging technology, there are challenges to be overcome, but the benefits of greater customization, flexibility, reliability, security and cost-effectiveness to meet different business models and requirements are significant.
Additional resources
"Network Slicing Market by Component, Application Area, Slice Type, Industry Vertical, Region - Global Forecast to 2023"
"Ericsson Mobility Report November 2019" by Ericsson.
"Network Slicing Technologies for 5G Networks" by Xavier Costa-Perez, Antonio De Domenico, and Vincenzo Sciancalepore, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 80-87, May 2017. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1601034CM
"5G Network Slicing: Opportunities and Challenges" by Kashif Mahmood, Haris Pervaiz, and Muhammad Ali Imran, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 16-22, August 2018. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2018.1700417
"Network Slicing in 5G: Survey and Challenges" by Walid Saad, Mehdi Bennis, and Merouane Debbah, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 126-133, May 2017. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1601039CM
"5G Network Slicing: A Comprehensive Survey" by Muhammad Z. Ahmed, Hareem M. Zafar, and Abdul Salam, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 2289-2323, third quarter 2019. DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2019.2910174
About the author
Emily Main holds a J.D. in Compliance Law and a B.S. in Telecommunications. With extensive experience in 5G and digital networking, Main has contributed to numerous publications and conferences, exploring the technical challenges, innovations, trends and applications of 5G technologies and related networking systems. Passionate about RF communications and networking, she is dedicated to sharing the latest advances in the field.
