5G Network Slicing for the Enterprise（企業に向けた5G「ネットワークスライシング」

5G Mobile Broadband network deployments are well underway across the world, and some of the more advanced networks in countries like South Korea and the United States are already experiencing download speeds of over 1 Gbps in major urban areas. And while the high download speeds that 5G networks will bring are the highlight of 5G, there are other important new features of the network which will offer new opportunities for enterprises. One of these new features is 5G network slicing, which in essence will allow enterprises to create multiple network connectivity settings for different IoT services within a single deployment. Furthermore, because of the cloud features of 5G networks, these settings will be highly customizable and will be available ondemand.

5G Network Slicing Will Enable New Levels of Network Customization

5G network slicing means that a physical piece of spectrum will be able to be divided into different slices which can be configured for specific IoT services. For example, a smart factory will have many different connected devices, all of which with specific bandwidth, storage, network performance and security requirements. Connected cameras, smartphones, sensor networks, connected vehicles and drones are all examples of such devices. Network slicing is also possible with LTE, but 5G network slicing is a more attractive service for enterprises as higher bandwidth and low latency services can now be included, which is not possible with 4G. Another very important aspect of 5G network slicing is that cloud-based capabilities mean that network settings can be instantly reconfigured if, for example, a factory decides to increase its bandwidth to cameras to migrate from HD to 4K or 8K resolution. Furthermore, adding a new service such as XR can be done instantaneously.