Telstra has now upgraded its 5G radio access network (RAN) coverage footprint across Australia, connecting a Cloud Native 5G Core network to handle new 5G Standalone traffic. Ericsson is Telstra's lead vendor.
5G Standalone means that Telstra already has the capability to run 5G independent of existing 4G network technology. 5G SA devices are expected to be commercially available in Australia in late 2020.
Nikos Katinakis, Telstra’s Group Executive Networks & IT, said Telstra was the first communications service provider in Australia and one of the first in the world to reach the 5G end-to-end Standalone capability milestone.
“Getting the Telstra mobile network to be 5G Standalone-ready is an important step towards unleashing greater capabilities for enterprises and consumers alike. Working together with our technology partner Ericsson, our new 5G service-based architecture will allow us to create innovative new services and solutions and deliver these much quicker than in the past.”
Emilio Romeo, Head of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand, says: “5G New Radio Standalone and 5G Core is the next evolution in architecture for 5G networks, which will help to increase network efficiency and drive new uses, particularly for Industry 4.0. We’re pleased to be working with Telstra to ensure Australians have access to this leading technology, that will ultimately drive new innovation and industries.”
Telstra deploys Ericsson's container-based EPC core
Ericsson's cloud-native container-based Evolved Packet Core was deployed in Telstra’s production Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVi). It is fully integrated into Telstra’s mobile core network and is carrying live 4G and 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) traffic.
Highlights of Telstra’s cloud-native Evolved Packet Core :
- Ericsson Packet Core Controller and Ericsson Packet Core Gateway support 4G and 5G Non-standalone (NSA) control and user plane functions in both a centralized configuration and edge-breakout configurations.
- Ericsson’s Packet Core Controller is deployed as a cloud-native container-based Mobility Management Entity (MME) in an existing MME pool.
- Both the Ericsson Packet Core Controller and Packet Core gateway are designed from the ground up to be fully cloud-native container-based solutions. They run on Ericsson’s Cloud Container Distribution (CCD) that is part of Ericsson’s NFVI solution or on other Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) aligned distributions.
- Ericsson CCD provides container management and orchestration for the latest Ericsson cloud native applications. CCD can be run on bare metal or within a Virtual Machine in an OpenStack deployment.
