Jennifer Steele
Content Marketing Manager
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.
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:
|
Step 2: Design |
Goal: Create a Blueprint for Service Roll-Out Success |
Objectives:
|
Step 3: Engineer |
Goal: Meet Commercial Launch Milestones |
Objectives:
|
Step 4: Trial |
Goal: Test-Run Launch for "Go/No Go" Decision Making |
Objectives:
|
Step 5: Launch |
Goal: Accelerate Uptake and Use of 5G Services |
Objectives:
|
Step 6: Operate |
Goal: Proactively Manage Customer Expectations and Resources |
Objectives:
|
Step 7: Optimize |
Goal: Improve Productivity, Reduce Costs, and Automate for ROI |
Objectives:
|
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.
- Build Propagation Models
- Leverage Modeling Data
- Validate 5G Network Design
- Assess 5G Readiness
- Accelerate 5G Deployments
- End-to-End Service Assurance
- 5G Uptake
- 5G Edge and Visibility to Microservices
- 5G IoT
- Improve KPIs
- Close Coverage Gap
- 5G Spectrum Analysis
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NETSCOUT’s industry-proven service assurance, security and big data solutions, fueled by Smart Data, can be leveraged by CSPs for all critical phases of the 5G life cycle; which include pre-launch, launch and operations.
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