Nokia announced it offers the world’s first automated 4G / 5G network slicing within RAN, transport and core domains.
Mobile operators can now cost effectively deliver and assure network slicing services at unprecedented speeds.

Nokia’s new automation capabilities offer operators an unmatched solution to deploy network slices within minutes instead of hours or days.

Janne Koistinen, 5G Program Director, Telia Finland, said: “Telia is a global forerunner in 4G/5G network slicing, working for end-to-end network slicing since 2019 with Nokia.”
Nokia said the automation capabilities within the network domains extend Nokia’s 4G/5G end-to-end network slicing solution and slice orchestration functionality announced earlier this year.

Sasa Nijemcevic, head of Network Automation for Nokia’s IP/Optical Networks business, said: “Nokia is the first vendor to provide slicing in LTE and 5G networks in a multivendor network environment. By adding extreme automation capabilities, we are offering operators a single, modular solution that helps them deliver a new wealth of services at unprecedented speeds.”

The new capabilities consist of software packages for Nokia’s existing NetAct and SON/Self-Organizing Networks (radio) and Network Services Platform/NSP (transport and core) operations and assurance products.

These capabilities work in conjunction with Nokia’s Digital Operations Center service orchestration software to complete the round-trip process to design, deploy, optimize and assure slice-based services.

Slice automation enables operators to streamline operations, thereby reducing operational costs and meeting expectations for service velocity. Automating the network slice creation and update becomes a key success factor for operators as the number of services, customers and slices continue to surge.

Nokia’s new slicing management solution consists of radio, transport and core domain controllers and assurance tools. Controllers support real-time slice operations and automation for the creation, modification and deletion of a large number of slices in their respective, multivendor domain.

Operators can create different customer policies and group profiles for slices with different network performance, quality, routing and security capabilities. This enables them to provide new slicing services for small, medium or large enterprises, private wireless, Internet of Things, fixed wireless access, content and applications.