Telefonica has teamed up with California-based startup Netsia to successfully demonstrate Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing as part of the operator’s cloud-based Unica virtualisation project. The test saw Netsia’s ProgRAN platform integrated into Telefonica’s Global Network Labs in Madrid to create a private LTE network with the ability to be sub-divided into multiple slices which, at RAN level, can offer different performances, latencies and radio resources to different sets of customers.
The demo means SDN/NFV techniques can be successfully applied to the RAN, completing the last piece of the puzzle towards effective end-to-end network slicing, said the partners, adding that operators will now be able to offer network functions to many different industries – such as IoT, healthcare or automotive – using a RAN-As-A-Service business model.
