Nokia unveiled what it claimed to be the telecoms industry’s first Multi-Access Edge Slicing service which it will showcase with UAE operator e& at MWC this month, and how operators can generate new revenues with it.
The Finnish vendor said its new service will enable operators to slice across 4G/5G, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Fixed Access (FA), and it can support several use cases and applications simultaneously.
As an example, UAE operator e& can enable a 4G/5G smartphone user to send sensitive business information and make a video call, both using different slices of the network at the same time.
A family using FWA can use one slice to access services such as HDTV streaming, cloud gaming, meanwhile another slice can be used for work through a laptop. Both slices can be altered to specific requirements such as latency (for online gaming) and bit-rate, QoS and security.
Operators using this service can offer “on-demand network slicing”, an example was a subscriber could order and activate a slice for a gaming app running at the edge cloud with enhanced network performance and low latency.
Olivier Loridan, Senior Analyst at Omdia, said: “Nokia's Multi-Access Edge Slicing is promising due to its seamless integration of MEC and Network Slicing. While the connectivity needs of enterprises and consumers are evolving rapidly, this tailored solution has the potential to address this new demand.”
