Dec 30, 2021
5G – Understanding Network and Security for Far-Edge Computing
As of August 2021, 175 MNOs were operating public 5G services across 72 countries[9]. It is estimated that 5G networks will account for 77% of MNO revenues (600 billion USD) by 2026, with demand for both consumer and business services such as MEC driving adoption. Much of this is being driven by the massive deployment of cellular-connected IoT devices, which are predicted to top six billion by 2026. That will be the point where IoT devices overtake smartphones as endpoints on mobile networks, with half of these expected to use 5G connections.
5G benefits from widespread support as a single global standard. When the specification was developed, the primary design goals were as follows:
Peak data rates up to 10 Gbps
Reliable, deterministic low latency for critical applications
Much higher density of devices on the network
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) capabilities built into the core
Ability to fine-tune Quality of Service (QoS) parameters per application
At the same time, they realized that MNOs had made considerable investments in 4G/LTE infrastructure. Therefore, the specification was formulated in such a way that brand-new end-to-end 5G networks were not a requirement. Deployments are typically done in a phased manner that allows elements of an MNO’s network to be upgraded over time:
Figure 3.23 – Example of a 5G network
Even where standalone/private 5G networks are built using the full 5G New Radio (5G NR) architecture end-to-end, User Equipment (UE) such as mobile devices themselves are often built in a hybrid way such that 4G/LTE acts as a fallback position in case of incompatibilities.
5G Core (5GC) architecture
5G Core (5GC) is the basis of the network architecture used in 5G (fifth-generation) mobile networks. It is responsible for providing the same core network services as EPC, but it has been redesigned to support the increased demands and requirements of 5G networks. Compared to 4G/LTE EPC, 5GC was designed to be more flexible and scalable, with the ability to support a wider range of use cases and network architectures.
5GC includes the following key elements:
Access and mobility management function (AMF): Manages authentication, radio resource management, handover management, connectivity to external networks, and management of QoS for user data plane traffic.
Session management function (SMF): Manages the establishment, maintenance, and termination of sessions between the mobile device and the network.
User plane function (UPF): Routes user data plane traffic between the mobile device and the network. It is also responsible for compressing packets and enforcing the QoS policies set by the AMF:
Figure 3.24 – 5GC logical architecture
In the preceding figure, we can see that, unlike the PGW in 4G/LTE EPC, there is no longer a single node acting as the gateway to the internet or other packet networks. Mobile devices no longer need to backhaul to the PGW to leave the cell provider’s network. Elimination of this bottleneck was needed to support the much higher density of mobile devices, which is a key use case for 5G:
Figure 3.25 – 5G intranetwork routing
The preceding figure illustrates how the data path between two mobile devices on the same network benefits from 5GC’s distributed UPF. These changes are a key reason 5G devices see average RTTs of <10ms versus the average of 50ms observed in 4G/LTE networks.
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