Network Slicing

Varied Service Requirements Across Different IoT

Applications
Devices and Control Plane Data Plane Mobility Latency
Bearer Scale Signaling Throughput

Smart Meters Massive (millions) Low Low None High Tolerance

(2-10 t/hr.)

Non Consumer Moderate Low Low None Low Tolerance

Video (10+ thousands) (2-10 t/hr.)

Connected Car High High High Frequent Moderate

(millions) (500 - 1000 Tolerance
t/hr.)

Smartphone High Moderate Moderate Frequent Moderate

Users (millions) (200 - 500 t/hr.) Tolerance

Source: Heavy Reading Cloud-Native Packet Core for Operators IoT Services
Network Slicing Concept
Smartphone Slice

Smart City Slice

V2X Slice
RAN Core Cloud

The capability to deploy multiple independent, service-specific,

end-to-end networks on the same infrastructure.
Notices and Disclaimers
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this
document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from course of
performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software
or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely
secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause deviations from
published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
©2018 Intel Corporation.
IoT, NB-IoT, 5G NG Core Network Slicing
S5/S8 SGi
S1-U SGW PGW

LTE-M slice
LTE-M
UE eNB
S11
Gd/Gdd*
Automobile,
S1-AP MME SMS-SC Factory

SGi
CIoT S1-lite
NB-IoT slice

C-BS
UE S5/S8 SGi
S1-lite C-SGN MB-PGW Logistics,
SCEF Agriculture,
LTE-MTC eNB Climate
UE T6a*
(eMTC) S6t*

SGi
CIoT S1-lite
5G NG Core

gNB
UE S5/S8 SGi
S1-lite NG-Core Mission
SCEF critical
LTE-MTC medical
UE gNB T6a*
S6t*
Source: Affirmed Network
 Network Slicing LTE Architecture
National Core Regional Data Center Local/City Data Center Cell Sites

S1-AP
S1-MME
S1-AP
HSS S1-MME RLC
RRM RRC RRM RRC
Sxa MME S Sched MAC
RAN nRT CP RAN nRT CP
SGW-C 7 PHY
PGW-C RF
Sxb Sxa PDCP PDCP
EPC CP Sxb RT Macro Cell
GTP GTP
S1-U S1-MME S1-U
RAN nRT UP RAN nRT UP
RLC
SGW-U Sched MAC
SGW-U SGW-U
PGW-U PHY
PGW-U PGW-U
EPC UP RF
EPC UP EPC UP
RT Small Cell

SGi APP APP APP APP

SGi
MEC MEC
SGi

User Plane
Control Plane
Notices and Disclaimers
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this
document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from course of
performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software
or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely
secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause deviations from
published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
©2018 Intel Corporation.
Service Concurrency Enabled By Network Slicing
Intrinsic effect: Each service has intrinsic characteristics.
 Smart lighting nodes have no mobility and are relatively delay-tolerant.
Micro effect: Sudden change in one slice does not effect KPIs in adjacent slice.
 At dusk all the Smart City streetlights switch on. Additional signalling does not impact
V2X slice, KPIs remain intact.
Macro effect: Physical resources shifted to different slices according to demand.
 Smartphone data increases throughout the evening, while cars are driven during
morning and evening rush hour. Platform hardware resources are reallocated to
different VMs over 24H.

NFV gives scalability, flexibility and isolation

Network Slicing Challenges
Challenges:
 How to create the slice (per service, per vertical, per application, per QoS).
 Where to create the slice (cell, local data center, regional data center, core)
 How many physical resources will a slice require. Location and size of slice =
slice cost
 Optimal allocation of physical resources to the virtual slices (Scale in, scale
out slice on demand)
 Optimal allocation of air interface resources to the virtual slices (Scheduling)
 Meeting latency targets
Notices and Disclaimers
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this
document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from course of
performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software
or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely
secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause deviations from
published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
©2018 Intel Corporation.
IoT Impact on Service Provider Architecture

Agile Access
 IoT applications will use a wide range of licensed spectrum connections;
 Unlicensed spectrum network technologies, including Low-Power Wide Area
(LPWA) technologies (e.g. Sigfox*, LoRa*,…etc.) will be used.
Agile Aggregation
 The future Agile aggregation will need to support much higher bandwidth
requirements.
Agile Core
 NFV and SDN are important technologies that will enable a more flexible
core network that can efficiently support IoT use cases.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
IoT Impact on Service Provider Architecture

Edge Computing
• Provides cloud computing capabilities within the Radio Access Network (RAN) in close
proximity to mobile subscribers
• Adds potential to host new IoT use cases
Core Computing - SDN/NFV
• Important technologies will enable a more flexible core network that can efficiently
support IoT use cases
• A combination of virtualised functions and SDN will enable the ‘slicing’ of multiple
mobile core instances for IoT use cases
• A fully programmable network will allow networks to quickly introduce and evolve new
functions in a software-defined architecture
Notices and Disclaimers
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this
document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from course of
performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled hardware, software
or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. No computer system can be absolutely
secure. Check with your system manufacturer or retailer.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause deviations from
published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
©2018 Intel Corporation.