Executive VP and Chief Network Officer Marc Rouanne is confident in how DISH Wireless continues to push 5G into more and more innovative spaces. By welcoming Oracle as a partner and providing the framework for its pure 5G core and service-based architecture (SBA), DISH is bringing a new component to its 5G network: flexibility.
SBA is nothing new, but it is new to the telecommunications industry. As Rouanne stated, “Service-based architectures have been around in the IT world and the cloud world for a long time, but not in the telco.” This is exactly what makes the approach DISH Wireless is taking to its 5G buildout so intriguing. The benefits that SBA and the recent partnership with Oracle are bringing to DISH’s 5G network include the ability to build up its 5G network without having to rely on older generations to connect early adopters, the previously mentioned flexibility, and the ability to add new business models due to DISH Wireless’ newfound capability of using software on-demand while having the scalability to move up or down as needed by a customer.
Flexibility and scalability are incredible features for DISH Wireless to offer because with so many different changes in technology, markets, demand, supply, and basically any other part of a business, having the ability to evolve and change is more imperative than ever before. Especially when you consider the wide range of industries 5G will help bolster and the continuous desire to have instant solutions from consumers. As an example of this, Rouanne discussed its cloud-native 5G partner Amazon Web Services (AWS) saying, “They expose their services and anyone can consume, whereas in classic telco, everything is preconfigured and there is no flexibility (in) the way you consume the software.”
DISH Wireless is collaborating with a variety of companies to deliver cloud-native services and components within its 5G network. These collaborations include Amdocs, AWS, and VMware which is allowing the newly founded wireless entity to make these possibilities a reality. Oracle’s control plane network functions will be onboarded through Kubernetes within the cloud brought on by AWS. This includes Oracle’s Network Repository Function (NRF) and Network Exposure Function (NEF), functions that require a pure 5G core because they are not capable of performing on previous wireless generations.
In 5G’s early stages, many wireless providers are deploying their networks by using non-standalone (NSA) mode because many subscribers rely on previous generations and they are also unable to connect their customer base solely on 5G at this time. NRF provides a commonplace for all of DISH Wireless’ network functions to reside while NEF is where these services become exposed to others, allowing others to view, use, or tap into them for new and/or different applications as needed.
Additional components will be added because of the pure 5G core being used and the Open RAN approach DISH Wireless has taken that allows for collaboration. DISH Wireless is now capable of receiving new software for its 5G network and implementing it quickly. “4G, 3G, 2G, were all thought out, they were a finished product,” said Rouanne. “With service-based architecture, you have unlimited capability for the future because you can stitch, automatically, new applications whenever people have ideas.”
Source: Fierce Wireless
