Comprehensive interpretation of the innovative concept of Amazon Cloud Technology Private 5G

Author: Fan Guiju

foreword

At AWS re:Invent last year (2021), I was very surprised that AWS was able to launch AWS Private 5G services to the market so quickly. You know, not long ago (February 24, 2021), the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) announced the results of the auction of the C-band 3.7GHz-3.98GHz 5G frequency band - this round of auctions created the highest ever FCC auction. Auction record, with a total amount of 81.1 billion US dollars, a total of 5684 frequency band licenses were obtained by 21 operators.

It is conceivable that the AWS Private 5G service must be a "blockbuster" that AWS has planned for a long time. As an ICT practitioner, the author is naturally full of infinite curiosity about it. I might as well try to interpret the technical insider of AWS Private 5G today.

The deployment of AWS in the 5G ICT field in recent years

Since it is said that it has been planned for a long time, of course it cannot be nonsense. First of all, let's review what the author has learned about the strategic deployment of AWS in the 5G ICT field in recent years.

Private MEC solution from AWS and Verizon

In August 2020, Verizon deployed its 5G private network and MEC platform on AWS Outposts.

Through the Private MEC solution launched by AWS and Verizon, Verizon customers can use the private MEC platform to quickly deploy real-time MEC apps, such as: smart logistics, predictive maintenance, robotics, factory automation, etc. Reduce costs, improve safety, accuracy and efficiency.

This solution can be applied to specific scenarios such as factories, warehouses, and large-scale business parks, providing a secure and edge-specific computing platform that supports unified connectivity, computing and storage without requiring customers to spend expensive network and IT infrastructure .

At the same time, because AWS Outposts is used as the IT base, the solution can also provide customers with reliable, secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency AWS services, APIs, and all tools running on AWS Outposts.

AWS partners with Vodafone Business to launch MEC solution

Also, in August 2020, AWS also partnered with Vodafone to launch a MEC solution.

Different from the previously mentioned solution using AWS Outposts as IT pedestal. AWS's MEC solution in partnership with Vodafone Business uses Amazon Wavelength as the IT pedestal.

By embedding the computing and storage services provided by AWS Wavelength in Vodafone's 4G / 5G Network Edge DC (edge data center), it can help customer-side developers to build low-latency 5G MEC applications for end users such as UE (mobile devices) program. For example: change monitoring and facility security, smart cars, smart cities, healthcare and real-time interactive video streaming.

Like AWS Outposts, AWS Wavelength also provides customers with reliable, secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency AWS services, APIs, and all the tools that run on AWS Wavelength. It enables developers to obtain the same service experience as on the AWS central cloud on the telecom edge cloud of the task.

AWS partners with ERICSSON and Telefonica Germany to launch a public cloud-based 5G private network solution

In September 2020, AWS cooperated with ERICSSON (Ericsson 5G equipment provider) and Telefonica Germany (Telefonica Germany) to launch a public cloud-based 5G private network solution.

From the overall architecture of the official announcement, 5GC CP NFs (5G core network control plane network elements) provided by ERICSSON run on AWS Region in the form of CNF, while UPF and CU-CP of 5G NR run in the form of VNF On AWS Outpost deployed to customer premises. Among them, for 5GC CP NFs, AWS EKS is recommended for bearer; for 5GC UPF and 5G NR CU-CP, AWS EC2 is recommended for bearer.

For VNFs running on AWS Outputs, it can be based on network optimization technologies such as SR-IOV and DPDK, combined with AWS Nitro System technology, by offloading hypervisor, security, storage and other related workloads to dedicated hardware boards. The realization of VNF equivalent to the performance of physical machines enables the forwarding rate of 5G UP to reach an astonishing 100Gbps.

In addition, according to the business requirements of Telefonica Germany, SONiC white-box switches are also considered to implement UPF equipment, and then support Tbps level forwarding, which can fully meet the performance requirements of toC / toB UPF at the same time.

AWS and Dish collaborate to launch public cloud-based 5G private network and 5G public network solutions

In April 2021, Dish's official website announced that it has chosen AWS as its preferred cloud provider and will build its 5G network on AWS. According to the cooperation agreement between the two companies, the two companies will work together to provide 5G public network and 5G private network services for toC consumers and toB enterprise customers.

Dish is going to fully xNF (VNF/CNF) 5G Core and RAN/O-RAN and deploy it on AWS. At the same time, Dish's own BOSS system will also be deployed on AWS.

Dish believes that deploying 5G networks on AWS will help save the cost of CT network construction and accelerate innovation in IT applications.

• Save the cost of CT network construction: Dish only needs to deploy the 5G network on AWS, and does not need to invest in construction, operation and maintenance related network hardware and IT infrastructure. This means a possible industry trend - equipment manufacturers do not have to provide physical hardware to operators in the future, but only need to provide network function software.
• Accelerate innovation of IT applications: Leveraging AWS' common software stack and service capabilities, such as AI, cloud orchestration, and CI/CD, helps Dish and its customers' developers simplify and accelerate innovation of 5G industry applications and solutions.

AWS and Swisscom Collaborate to Launch Hybrid Cloud-Native 5G Core Network Solution

In June 2021, AWS announced that it is officially the preferred public cloud provider for Swisscom (Swiss Telecom). Swisscom hopes to improve IT agility and operational efficiency by implementing a cloud-first strategy, thereby reducing time-to-market for new ICT products and services.

Swisscom regards AWS as a key part of its comprehensive digital transformation, and will gradually migrate a large number of business support systems to AWS, including:

• Enterprise Resource Management System (ERP)
• Operation Support System (OSS)
• Business Support System (BSS)
• data analysis system
• Contact Center System
• Communication configuration system
• and many more

In addition, Swisscom will use AWS' mature cloud infrastructure and services to explore how to build a reliable, scalable, secure and cost-effective 5G core network in the cloud to rapidly develop and deploy 5G services for customers. Specifically, Swisscom will attempt to migrate the current 5G network on traditional infrastructure to a new 5G SA network supported by a cloud-native 5G core network on AWS.

Swisscom expects that once the cloud-native 5G SA core network goes live, it can effectively reduce operating costs, improve reliability and scalability by virtualizing and automating network functions, and accelerate the deployment of new functions and customer-facing applications.

AWS Private 5G

After reviewing so many 5G-related solutions jointly launched by AWS and ecological partners in the past two years, we can feel that the launch of AWS Private 5G is so natural.

At AWS re:Invent, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said, "With AWS Private 5G, you can build and expand a private mobile cellular network in days instead of months. You get all the benefits of mobile technology. benefits without having to go through lengthy planning cycles, complex integrations and high upfront costs.”

At present, AWS Private 5G is released to the market in the form of a preview version of the hosting service, which aims to reduce the complexity of 5G private network construction, simplify the deployment of 5G private network, and eliminate the problems faced by enterprise 5G private network through hosting services. Challenges include: upfront network architecture design, network planning, procurement and integration of hardware and software, licensing and pricing models for security regulations, and scaling needs exposed as traffic grows.

Simply put, AWS Private 5G is a new managed service that allows customers to easily deploy, manage and scale their own 5G private cellular network with all the necessary hardware and software provided by AWS. Greatly lowers the barrier to entry for any business interested in this solution.

To sum up, we can briefly summarize the product concept of AWS Private 5G:

• Fully cloud-based 5G private network: This means that the 5G private network naturally possesses the key features of cloud computing, including: pay-as-you-go, elastic scaling, and high reliability. This is the key to saving CT network construction costs and accelerating IT application innovation.
• Fully Managed 5G Private Network: This means that 5G Private Network subscription is fully self-service, compliant and easy. In the words of Adam Selipsky: "It's very easy to use, you just tell us where and what capacity to build the network, and we'll provide you with all the necessary hardware, software and SIM cards. Once the device is powered on, the 5G private network will Very easy to auto-configure and set up a mobile network. You just plug the SIM into the UE (end equipment) and everything is connected.”

In short, AWS Private 5G service integration packages the Small Cell base station, general server, 5G core network software and RAN software required to build a 5G private network, and a single management and control platform integrated with AWS IAM. Users can make purchases with just a few mouse clicks, and network administrators can directly control and set resource access rights for mobile devices on their 5G private network. And all of this is delivered and maintained by AWS, and AWS Private 5G requires no up-front or per-device charges, just network capacity and throughput.

It can be seen that AWS's blockbuster this time has once again led the industry's innovative concept-purchasing a 5G private network like any other IT procurement. This move by AWS will also have a major impact on the overall market.

More importantly, AWS has a clear goal of seeing 5G private networks as an important starting point for higher-value services and digital transformation of enterprises.