Successful pilot of Africa’s first FWA 5G slicing
Nokia has created network slices on hybrid 4G-5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, in trials with African mobile operator Safaricom. The trials were piloted on its live commercial network and this was the first-time 4G/5G network slicing has been successfully achieved in Africa. The trial used a multi-vendor network environment and included a radio access network (RAN), transport and core. The trial also tested the effects of software upgrades to a range of Nokia’s products and services and the system passed.
The successful trial means that Safaricom can support new types of enterprise network services, including fast lane internet access and application slicing. In addition, Nokia can create secure slices of FWA connections to enterprise locations, as well as to private or public application clouds.
“We are proud to have hosted Africa’s first successful pilot of fixed wireless access slicing on our network,” said Safaricom Network Director James Maitai, “Nokia’s expertise has been key.”
The multi-vendor pilot took place in Kenya’s Western Region, which was a proving ground for Nokia’s AirScale 4G/5G base stations, the NetAct network management and assurance system and Nokia’s FastMile 4G/5G CPE.
Network slicing lets operators divide a network into multiple virtual portions, which can be optimised for a specific target application or service. The end user of each network slice can then be serviced with different priorities, routing, levels of network performance and security capabilities. Slices can be managed and run within minutes and each has key performance indicators used for service assurance.
Nokia’s 4G/5G slicing system supports LTE, 5G NSA and 5G SA technologies with slice service continuity between the networks. This enables slicing services for all LTE and 5G devices.
“This is a huge step forward in providing Safaricom with state-of-the-art connectivity,” said Ramy Hashem, Head of Safaricom Customer Team at Nokia, “early experience of slicing technology is invaluable in understanding the new business opportunities it enables.”