A1 Austria (A1) today announced that it successfully completed the first 5G edge cloud network slicing trial with Nokia and Microsoft. The deployment, claimed by the technology partners to be the industry's first, utilised Nokia's 5G edge slicing solution integrated with Microsoft Azure managed edge compute on A1's live commercial network in Vienna, Austria.
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5G Edge Cloud Network Slicing
With edge cloud network slicing, A1 can bring enterprise cloud applications to mobile users over a high-capacity, secure, and low-latency network. During the trial, A1 demonstrated real-time HD video streaming by transmitting live camera feeds from several mobile devices using Multicasting.io's streaming mobile platform running on the Azure edge infrastructure, according to the joint statement.
The 5G Edge Slicing solution enables operators to take advantage of both slicing and edge cloud capabilities and provide value to their customers. Network slices can be customised to support specific customers' use cases and different applications based on network performance, quality, traffic routing, latency, and security. The network slices were implemented across Devices-RAN-Transport-Core-Edge Cloud Applications.
Sliced mobile broadband VPN
Reportedly, Nokia's solution also offers a sliced mobile broadband VPN in selected business areas such as a campus or city environment. Scalable 5G Edge Slicing supports multiple enterprise VPN deployments using the same 4G/5G network. It can be used with all 4G/5G devices, including new URSP (UE Route Selection Policy) capable multi-slice smartphones for different applications.
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A1 said: "We are excited to lead the industry with the deployment of edge cloud network slicing with Nokia and Microsoft Azure. This innovative solution enables A1 to deliver secure, reliable and high-performance enterprise VPN services integrated with edge cloud applications over our 4G/LTE and 5G networks. This collaboration opens up new business opportunities and demonstrates our commitment to delivering innovative services for our enterprise customers, as well as realizing the full potential of 5G technology."
The trial was executed with Azure, with edge compute deployed at A1's data center in Vienna with connectivity to the Azure region in Austria. This network slicing solution enables A1 to deliver secure and high-performing Virtual Private Network services to enterprise customers integrated with edge cloud applications over 4G and 5G networks.
