Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson have demonstrated 5G integration of slice-specific network exposure at the Germany operator\u2019s Bonn laboratory.<\/p>\n
The partners used a commercial grade 5G standalone network provided by Erisson, where they tested it in video production, letting the video director adapt their slice service on demand, according to the requirements of different video streams.<\/p>\n
Network slicing in 5G Standalone networks allows the creation of different virtual networks on a single physical network infrastructure, each with its own characteristics and quality parameters. The Network Exposure Function (NEF) in 5G provides the ability to convert network capabilities and network APIs into special service APIs tailored for specific use cases and associated applications.<\/p>\n
In this proof of concept, a quality of service (QoS) API enables an application to request a better service class in the network slice to serve its performance requirements. The benefits are demonstrated in an exemplary video production use case, where a director uses a portal application to choose between different camera streams in low and high resolution for a broadcast. The director is served by a dedicated “video production” slice.<\/p>\n
When the director selects a high-resolution stream, the application automatically requests a higher QoS class via the API in the video production slice. After receiving a confirmation from the network, the application switches the streaming quality from low to high, thus allocating sufficient network resources to ensure an uninterrupted high-quality video link even in congested network conditions.<\/p>\n