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Jennifer Steele

Sr. Content Marketing Manager, Service Provider Solutions

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What Is the 5G Network Services Lifecycle?

The 5G services lifecycle provides clear guidance for the recommended progression of steps during three distinct phases of network and service evolution, including 5G SA network deployment and the successful launch of commercial 5G services. 5G RAN and core network engineers, operations teams, and automation experts can leverage this lifecycle with each technology turn from 4G to 5G and beyond.

What Are the Phases of the 5G Lifecycle?

As part of any major telecommunications technology turn, 5G networks and 5G services move through three phases: pre-launch, launch, and operations.

 What Is 5G Lifecycle

Pre-Launch

In this initial phase, network engineers and design teams lay the groundwork to create and validate the critical infrastructure that is needed to support 5G services and meet mobile subscribers' high expectations. Encompassing four steps, the Pre-Launch Phase for a successful 5G service rollout addresses the network capacity and coverage that will be needed (PLAN), the specifications and architecture that will be implemented (DESIGN), the validation and troubleshooting of the proposed design, including interoperability and the validation of vendor configurations (ENGINEER), and smaller-scale, controlled lab or multi-site 5G service markets with real-world traffic volumes (TRIAL).

Launch

During the Launch phase, service providers go to market and roll out commercial-ready 5G services to larger production networks for subscriber use (LAUNCH). During this phase, service and network performance is closely monitored to ensure that latency, throughput, and capacity benchmarks are being met.

Operations

As subscribers begin to interact with the network and 5G services, communication service providers enter the Operations phase. In this phase, the focus centers around the accelerated adoption of new services and technology and the preservation and assurance of the end-user experience with monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities (OPERATIONS). In addition, this phase is also focused on improving the network's efficiency and the productivity of telco personnel (OPTIMIZE).

What are the Goals and Objectives Associated with Each Stage of the 5G Lifecycle?

  Goal Objectives

Step 1: Plan

Goal: Understand Capacity and Coverage Needs

Objectives:

  • Analyze density and traffic patterns.
  • Build propagation models.

Step 2: Design

Goal: Create a Blueprint for Service Roll-Out Success

Objectives:

  • Leverage propagation modeling data.
  • Monitor traffic growth and trends.

Step 3: Engineer

Goal: Meet Commercial Launch Milestones

Objectives:

  • Test network design end to end.
  • Analyze network traffic.
  • Validate network configurations.

Step 4: Trial

Goal: Test-Run Launch for "Go/No Go" Decision Making

Objectives:

  • Test system readiness for multiple sites.
  • Proactively monitor baseline traffic volumes.

Step 5: Launch

Goal: Accelerate Uptake and Use of 5G Services

Objectives:

  • Validate customer use.
  • Verify network interworking.
  • Confirm internal resources for support.

Step 6: Operate

Goal: Proactively Manage Customer Expectations and Resources

Objectives:

  • Troubleshoot subscriber and network issues.
  • Monitor service delivery and performance.

Step 7: Optimize

Goal: Improve Productivity, Reduce Costs, and Automate for ROI

Objectives:

  • Tune the network performance.
  • Enhance KPIs for targeted actions and triage.

How Can NETSCOUT Support CSPs Moving Through These 5G Lifecycle Phases?

NETSCOUT offers vendor-agnostic tools and a highly scalable visibility platform to help CSPs successfully identify and navigate the challenges associated with each phase of the 5G lifecycle. With 5G Core and RAN solutions, CSPs can confidently address the following use cases.

  • Optimize Design for Quality Coverage with Predictive Analysis and Modeling
  • Align with Marketing Efforts with 5G Propagation Modeling and Coverage Maps
  • Validate 5G Network Design with E2E Session Trace and Troubleshooting
  • Assess 5G Service Readiness with Network Design Readiness Metrics and Executive Scorecards
  • Accelerate 5G Deployments with 5G Service Launch and RAN Troubleshooting
  • Proactively Assure End-to-End Service Quality with Smart Data and Subscriber Insights
  • Analyze 5G Uptake and Increase Adoption with Proactive Monitoring of Device
    Insights and Performance
  • Improve the Customer Experience with Visibility into Microservices and Kubernetes Containers
  • Enable 5G IoT with Carrier-Grade Service Assurance
  • Improve 5G KPIs with Smart Data for Business Analytics and Predictive Forecasting
  • Close Coverage Gaps with Actionable Real-time Cell Insights
  • Analyze 5G Spectral Use with Actionable Spectrum Insights

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