We will open our discussion of 5G architectures with a discussion of the five most common solution architecture patterns.
The Distributed 5G Architecture
We have previously covered a logical 5G architecture in the post below – https://www.vamsitalkstech.com/5g/real-world-5g-deployment-architecture/. The architecture is based on a hierarchical pattern from the twin important perspectives of management and orchestration. The 5G Core (https://www.vamsitalkstech.com/5g/5g-core-5gc-platform-architecture/) components are deployed on a central location with optional multi-site backups for HA (high availability) and DR (disaster recovery). The orchestration function can also be deployed at the central site. The Radio functions are run at the edge locations. The management/orchestration component performs fleet management, remote provisioning, resource allocation and CNF deployment.
Illustration – 5G Core and Radio building blocks can be distributed across compute locations
There are various challenges one needs to account for in terms of the actual 5G deployment model for a given use case. While 5G Core and RAN components are majority designed to be microservices (e.g AUSF, SMF, PCF, UDM etc) that can be orchestrated using Kubernetes, certain functions such as the user plane function (UPF) will still be deployed using VMs. There also may be use cases where the 5G Radio will need to interoperate with a 4G Control Plane, this requires a S-VNFM (vendor-specific VNF manager) and/or G-VNFM (generic VNF manager) for lifecycle management of VMs. This challenge is obviated for containerized functions because a k8s based platform such as Amazon EKS itself manages the NF lifecycle and can also, directly interface with a Service Orchestrator.
Thus 5G solution architecture needs to account for the physical design of the compute hosts, storage elements and network; and the automation aspects we have covered in previous blogs.
The Five 5G Deployment Architecture Patterns
So how does this break down into various solution architecture patterns?
There are five possibilities depending on if the deployment is greenfield (brand new 5G network) versus brownfield (where there exists a footprint of 5G services)
The 5G Core and RAN are both deployed on the cloud provider – “Everything in the Cloud”
The 5G Core runs on the cloud provider and the RAN on premises on managed hardware – “Everything Managed but Hybrid”
The 5G Core runs in the cloud and the RAN on premises on self managed servers – “Self Managed on premise and hybrid”
The 5G Core and the RAN are deployed on managed hardware – “Everything in the Datacenter but Managed”
The 5G Core and the RAN are deployed on self managed hardware – “Everything Operator Managed”
Conclusion
As with most things in technology, each of the above five choices comes with a set of tradeoffs. We will discuss the first pattern – “Everything in the Cloud” in the next blogpost.
Featured Image by Umair Khalid from Pixabay