March 24, 2020 - SHENZHEN, CHINA: China Mobile, Huawei, Tencent, China Electric Power Research Institute, and Digital Domain have jointly released the Categories and Service Levels of Network Slice White Paper to introduce the industry’s first classification of network slice levels. The new white paper dives into the definitions, solutions, typical scenarios, and evolution that make up the five levels of network slices. It serves as an excellent reference to provide guidance in promoting and commercializing network slicing, and lays a theoretical foundation for the industry-wide application of network slicing.

Network slicing is a key 5G technology aimed at building customized 5G industry virtual private networks over the same physical network to accommodate applications with widely diverse requirements. Industry customers have increasingly high recognition and expectations for 5G network slicing as 5G unlocks a new wave of B2B marketplaces. Defining levels of 5G network slices from the perspective of resource and network capabilities will undoubtedly enable operators to better plan and deploy 5G network slicing and help industry customers fully understand the capabilities of their 5G network slices to select the most appropriate level of slicing service.

China Mobile, Huawei, Tencent, State Grid, and Digital Domain co-founded the 5G Slicing Association (5GSA) at the beginning of 2018 to advance the research and commercialization of slicing technologies. Led by 5GSA, member organizations issued the Categories and Service Levels of Network Slice White Paper to share their views on the definition, industry progress, and vertical requirements of network slicing.

The white paper points out that 5G networks can fall into public networks and industrial networks to meet the service, isolation, deployment, and operation requirements of public and industry users. The paper defines five levels of network slices: common and VIP network slices for public applications, common and VIP network slices for common industrial applications, as well as special network slices for dedicated industrial applications. The paper also analyzes the capabilities of wireless, transport, and core networks and details security, operation, O&M, and cost aspects of each network slice level to act as a reliable reference for network slice design, application, and promotion.

The development of E2E network slicing cannot be accomplished overnight. It will ultimately mature over several iterations. As different network slices serve at varying service levels, the resulting costs will inevitably differ. Customers from different sections are expected to select and customize the most appropriate network slice levels for their applications and requirements to avoid excess demands. According to the paper, 5G network slicing development will go through three phases and gradually iterate and evolve to E2E slicing supporting dynamic closed-loop SLAs and network self-optimization.

You can find the white paper here: Link

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