Nokia and Mobily pilot 4G and 5G FWA network slicing
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Faye Sutton
| 21 January 2021
Nokia says it has successfully piloted 4G and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) network slicing with Saudi Arabian telco Mobily on its live commercial network.
MObily 21jan2021

The pilot test took place in Riyadh, occurred in a multi-vendor environment and included sliced access, transport and core networks with management and assurance capabilities.

Mobily said the solution will enable it to offer new FWA services to priority consumer and enterprise customers. It allows Mobily to divide its network into multiple virtual networks per application including voice, data, online gaming and home office applications

Nokia’s 4G/5G network slicing solution works in LTE, 5G non-standalone (NSA) and 5G standalone (SA) networks. It provides mobile broadband connectivity from 4G/5G devices and customer premises equipment (CPE) to cloud applications through sliced access, transport and core.

The solution supports existing LTE, 5G NSA and 5G SA devices. The slice continuity between LTE and 5G allows operators to maximise their network coverage and assets such as available spectrum for new mobile services. Nokia’s customers are already working on a variety of slicing use cases including enterprise applications, transportation, manufacturing, utilities, public safety and smart city applications.

Mobily CTO Alaa Malki said: “Mobily continuously works in partnership with global vendors to try new innovative technologies. Network slicing will enable mobile operators to rapidly provide, manage and assure services within minutes. Each slice can have a different network performance, quality, routing and security capabilities as well as Key Performance Indicators for service assurance.”

Added Ari Kynäslahti, head of technology and strategy at Nokia Mobile Networks: “For early pioneering operators it’s important to get practical real-life experience of the new slicing technology and its business opportunities. Nokia was the first vendor to offer a slicing solution and we are proud to continue our long-standing partnership with Mobily to offer 4G and 5G network slicing services to their customers.”