Six Areas Where Hyperscalers & Telcos Should Collaborate in 2021

Various posts on this blog (http://www.vamsitalkstech.com/?p=8633) have cataloged how 5G mobile services will usher in a whole range of business uses – from interactive mobile applications to AR/AR to high-resolution gaming etc. Transformational improvements over 4G in bandwidth, latency will usher in frictionless experiences for mobile consumers. 

5G accelerates the Telco trend towards becoming a software-defined industry. When one reads the 5G NGC specifications it becomes clear that the tenets of the control plane have moved away from monolithic logical-based functions (as in the 4G EPC) to becoming service-oriented. Services that can be deployed as modular functions in the cloud and termed as network functions (NFs). Interactions between which are done using service-based interfaces that are RESTful in nature.    

On the other hand, hyperscalers such as AWS have already begun releasing services such as AWS Outposts, Direct Connect (DC), and Wavelength – services that enable support for a range of 5G computing scenarios across RAN, MEC Edge, and Mobile Core. They are both collaborating and competing with Telecom & CS (Communication Services) on cloud-based infrastructure projects. At this point, both Telcos and Hyperscalers have capabilities spanning infrastructure, operations, and applications. Below are some broad areas where both – hyperscalers and telcos- can collaborate to enhance the delivery of 5G services and consumer use cases (such as Content streaming, AR, VR, Autonomous Vehicles, etc).

1. Unified IT experience – Cloud Providers such as AWS already support the consumption of both foundational cloud services as well as applications using both a self-service portal as well as via application programming interfaces (APIs). Telcos that are in the process of developing 5G capabilities as cloud-native network functions using microservices frameworks should follow this model. The availability of both a single pane of glass and governance as well as unified management tools, across OSS and BSS systems can help catalog and deploy network functions and applications highly effectively.  The other important aspect of telco operations is automation. OSS and BSS must be able to deploy 5G services into the IaaS, whether these services or VM or container-based. The placement should support distributing Control and User Plane locations. And finally, monitoring should be available to ensure that sufficient capacity is available to serve customers as well as to detect any service failures.
2. Self Service – Self-service is essentially the ability for customers as well as internal stakeholders such as developers or business users to provision entire applications using a simple catalog. These catalogs will include network functions (VM or container-based) as well as higher-order services such as network functions and 5G services. The cloud platform (via an orchestrator such as Kubernetes) should then enable the end-to-end automation of service fulfillment from design, provisioning to deployment & operational management of these services to various clouds (Edge or Access or Core) based on cost, SLA and performance considerations. 
   
3. DevOps – All the above use cases for 5G impose a broad requirement that Telcos pivot to an agile development culture. This has the benefits of solving a range of operational issues that will be incurred in developing, updating, and delivering interactive applications at a carrier scale. Hyperscalers who have mastered this challenge both internally as well as enabled tens of thousands of customers can help in the following ways.
   1. Provide managed DevOps platforms, frameworks that telco providers can leverage.
   2. Via professional services, teach telco development teams, the practices they follow internally to perform safe, continuous deployments.
   3. Help improve collaboration across both the development and the operator side of the CSP house.
   4. Bring together multiple paradigms to enable the creation of value-added applications. E.g. In the case of AWS, machine learning model creation & lifecycle management via Sagemaker and container support via EKS/ECS
4. NFV and SDN – Cloud providers support the onboarding of NFVs on their cloud though the VIM deployments may need to be based on OpenStack or VMware. To support NFV(i) deployments themselves, telco providers need support for low latency features such as SR-IOV, NUMA, CPU pinning, and DPDK.  Hyperscalers like AWS not only provide these features but also provide high-performance packet processing. The separation between the User Plane (UP) functions from the Control Plane (CP) functions is a key pillar of 5G architecture. This allows both planes to evolve, scale separately thus allowing decentralized physical deployments e.g. centralized data center, cell site, edge location, or distributed location such as a remote manufacturing facility/retail store, etc. For larger carriers, adopting public clouds to run (not just burst capacity but also for) core functions in 5G and for RAN will usher in improvements in performance and speed. Once developers join the bandwagon when the rollout of 5G becomes normal, they will be to leverage hyperscaler service-based design allowing procedures that are interactions between network functions enabling their reuse. The range of deployment options we will discuss in #6 has the benefit of enabling NFs (Network Functions) to interact with other NFs without using an intermediary to connect them. This also dictates that 5G platforms need to be designed to be cloud-native from the get-go.
5. Mobile Private Networks – Mobile private networks are among the biggest use cases for 5G technology. A Mobile Private network is essentially a private network deployed to support the needs of an enterprise. Dedicated RAN components can be deployed on-premises at enterprise campuses/remote edge sites/core networks running in the cloud. These (RAN) components typically support functions such as voice, data, and business applications. The advantage with MPNs is that the enterprise customer deploying them has control of the QoS. The customer has greater control over QoS. 
6. Edge Services – One of the major areas 5G and public cloud intersect is at the network edge.  While telcos are building out or examining their mobile edge computing (MEC) strategies, the leading cloud vendors provide extensive edge services that are attractive to telcos. For instance, AWS has Outposts and Wavelengths that enable telcos access to consumers at virtually every metro while allowing interconnectivity with NFVi while leveraging VPC and DX.  Leading public clouds like AWS already provide extensive services for you to manage, connect, and deploy your IoT devices and applications in a seamless and secure way. AWS also provides extensive edge capabilities that allow you to have access to compute and storage on-premises as well as within a 5G network. 

Network Operators clearly have substantial assets – 4G/5G networks, immense geographical reach, customer engagement at the consumer level, domain expertise, radio expertise, and wide area networks. On the other hand, hyperscalers such as AWS have established internet-scale cloud platforms with exciting edge offerings as well as a host of up-the-stack services (ML, AI, BPM, IoT platforms, etc). While there exist opportunities for collaboration beyond the operator/vendor relationship, there will still be competition. First, a key lesson for operators from the time of 4G is that they shouldn’t just be in the business of building pipes but should also offer value-added services. The hyperscalers will be great partners here. Secondly, telcos and hyperscalers can partner in the B2B market offering services around private mobile networks. Telcos are very attractive partners to hyperscalers, and it is not uncommon to see operators partner with multiple cloud vendors. Expect to see much more revenue sharing, joint GTM, and marketing as 5G becomes reality in late 2021.