Ericsson and SK Telecom demonstrate 5G software-defined Telecommunications Infrastructure

June 29, 2016, 14:24 (CEST)

• World-first demonstration uses Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System (HDS) 8000
• Software-Defined Telecommunications Infrastructure (SDTI) enables dynamic composition of network components to meet scale requirements of 5G services
• Ericsson and SK Telecom announced 5G memorandum of understanding in July 2015

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and SK Telecom, a leading telecommunications operator in South Korea, have successfully completed the world's first demonstration of Software-Defined Telecommunications Infrastructure (SDTI).

SDTI refers to an infrastructure platform where network components such as CPU, memory and storage are disaggregated as customizable modules. As a result, they can be dynamically composed to meet the scale requirements of various 5G services, while enabling high-quality user experiences, faster service rollout and increased efficiency.

The demonstration used Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System (HDS) 8000 - a new generation of hyperscale datacenter system based on Intel® Rack Scale Architecture.

Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center, SK Telecom, says:

"SDTI is an innovative technology that enhances network efficiency by flexibly constructing hardware components to satisfy the infrastructure performance requirements of diverse 5G services.

"SK Telecom will continue to work closely with Ericsson to develop and verify innovative virtualization technologies to optimally support both new and existing services over the 5G network."

SDTI is a key enabler of 5G network slicing, whereby a virtualized network is created and optimized for a particular user or service. The demonstration focused on two use cases - ultra-micro-network end-to-end (E2E) slicing for personalized services, and ultra-large-network E2E slicing for high-capacity processing.

Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO, Ericsson, says:

"We are pleased to jointly develop this SDTI technology based on Ericsson HDS 8000. Ericsson will continue to lead 5G innovation and commercialization in collaboration with SK Telecom."

In July 2015, Ericsson and SK Telecom announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) targeting 5G. Under the terms of the MoU, the two companies will develop and deploy network slicing technology optimized for 5G services, build a joint 5G test bed and provide the world's first 5G pilot services. By the end of 2016, Ericsson and SK Telecom plan to deploy and verify an end-to-end 5G pilot system consisting of 5G devices, radio and core networks, and SDTI.