In the new age of connectivity, enterprise mobility demands are evolving from plain speed to guaranteed, tailored network performance built around business needs, and as operators try to work out how to address these demands with their 5G standalone (SA) networks, designing networks for multi-tenanted environments (MTEs) can close connectivity gaps, according to a study from the GSMA.
MTEs were defined by the global mobile communications trade body as a shared, logically isolated network estate that delivers a level of performance aligned to tenants’ requirements in multiple places over public 5G Standalone (5G SA) or public/private hybrid infrastructure.
The conclusion of the research was that MTEs can give multiple businesses private-grade, logically isolated connectivity over shared infrastructure. Yet it also found that while more than 40 mobile network operators have commercialised network slicing worldwide, productised MTE offerings “barely exist”.
Putting the study into context, the GSMA noted that airports, shipping ports, broadcasters, mission-critical services, video streaming, industrial sites and other enterprise players increasingly expect connectivity that is consistent, customised, secure and dependable for high-value operations spanning multiple sites and moving assets. This, it said, results in enterprise expectations becoming graded into a range of unique needs.
To meet this evolving demand, the GSMA stressed that there was an architectural opportunity for mobile network operators to evolve foundational mobile network design, in many cases several decades old, to one that’s fit for modern use.
Currently, it remarked, connectivity service providers have two approaches to respond to enterprises’ varying needs: deploying private networks with bespoke architecture for an enterprise site, and offering services through nationally deployed public networks which serve many customer segments. Yet the GSMA warned that as enterprises’ varying needs evolve, bespoke private networks built for a single enterprise user are unlikely to meet new customer needs.
The study highlighted a number of key examples of this. First of all, it cited enterprises whose on-site operations involve hundreds of tenants each with unique needs for cost-effective service and which cannot all be served by a private network that’s designed for use by one enterprise.
In addition, there were enterprises with integrated operations that stretch across multiple locations and geographies with moving assets between them, and which also cannot be served by a private network and need mobility as part of the service. Customers with such demands represent an emerging “wedge” of need, said the paper.
In an MTE, independent tenants run side by side on the same physical network, each with its own isolated slice with performance guarantees, security boundary, observability and commercial terms. To the tenant, it serves them like dedicated infrastructure, but underneath, the physical and virtual resources are shared.
Where an MTE is able to draw on a common 5G SA core, the study suggested that it would be less expensive to deploy than a private network. Moreover, where it can draw on sophisticated operator-wide billing and charging systems, an MTE could be significantly more effective than a private network in monetising the network capability by charging the customer for it.
In doing so, the GSMA stated that MTEs offer operators and digital ecosystem players the opportunity to deliver private-grade experience at public-network economics and with superior monetisation. In markets with net neutrality regulation – such as in certain parts of Europe – the industry could have an opportunity to modernise how such principles are applied so that MTEs, and slicing in general, can support safeguarding industrial competitiveness and economic growth.
Going forward, the GSMA believes MTEs will depend on network slicing that differentiates connectivity across customers, with the possibility that such uses are not compatible with net neutrality principles. Given that MTE functionality will be critical to advancing industrial capability, jobs and competitiveness, it said building the case for MTEs offers an opportunity to modernise telecommunications regulation whereby networks do more to safeguard long-term economic security.
Looking at what it called the opportunity ahead, the GSMA was adamant that the demand landscape is clear. Enterprises across different markets and use cases increasingly require, it said, differentiated, slide-based, capability-led connectivity. MTEs offer operators a way to meet that need, delivering private-grade performance over public or hybrid infrastructure.
