Ericsson partners with OPPO and Qualcomm for 5G enterprise network slicing device trial

Ericsson, OPPO and Qualcomm Technologies have successfully trialled a 5G enterprise network slicing solution on a commercial Android 12 handset.

The collaboration with consumer electronics company OPPO, and semiconductor producer Qualcomm is the latest partnership for Ericsson.

With the successful trial, the companies hope to mark a significant step towards demonstrating the benefits of network slicing to enterprise.

The Android 12 handset enables operators to manage slices using a policy control mechanism called User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP), which allows devices to automatically switch between different network slices according to the application they are using.

Ericsson said in its press release that this ability to use multiple network slices “is seen as crucial in bringing the full range of benefits 5G connectivity can deliver to enterprises and consumers”.

According to the Swedish vendor, network slicing allows for dedicated levels of speed, latency, and reliability, tailored to the specific needs of the service or application.

The network slices are customisable and allow enterprises to offer various services such as high-quality video communication with colleagues or remote control of devices such as monitoring drones, as well as low latency cloud gaming.

The three partners tested the 5G enterprise network slicing solution at OPPO’s 5G Communications Lab. At the lab, the partners successfully divided part of the network for different applications and use cases (such as low latency cloud gaming and remote controlling drones), which is a solution known as application and network traffic partitioning.

The solution can create multiple virtual end-to-end network slices and is intended to be commercialised for communications service providers worldwide.

“5G network slicing enables enterprises to meet their network security, reliability and flexibility needs,” says Ericsson’s Monica Zethzon. “This solution, created in partnership with OPPO and Qualcomm and underpinned by Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core and 5G RAN Slicing technologies, provides a foundation for CSPs to deliver more tailored 5G services for enterprises.”