The operator was collaborating with Casa Systems and HPE, in a demo controlling a robot, carried out in France.
Orange demonstrated a cloud-native 5G core network for mission-critical applications or service that self-corrected when service level agreement (SLA) parameters were breached by creating a new, dedicated network slice on-demand.
In the demo, a robot is fitted with a 5G radio and connected to management software over an open 5G core network, comprising cloud-native network functions from HPE and Casa Systems.
“Our robot demo underscores how a cloud-native, software-defined 5G network will support latency-sensitive business use cases with automatic detection and migration to a dedicated network slice to meet the strictest SLAs for mission-critical applications,” said Emmanuel Bidet, VP, Convergent Networks Control, Orange.
“This is a new step forward marking the emergence of the real-time enterprise as companies now expect to use data as soon as it is produced from sensors, cameras, robots and other devices and services to power digital transformation strategies.”
Orchestration
HPE’s Service Director orchestration software creates, configures and deploys network slices for the robot’s service to connect at low latency.
The demo shows the service set up and the robot operating normally until additional data traffic and latency are introduced and the robot’s performance is affected.
This triggers an alarm and Service Director works with the 5G core network within seconds to create and deploy a new dedicated network slice with the proper QoS restoring the robot to normal operation.
Domenico Convertino, Vice President Product Management, Communications & Media Solutions, HPE, said, “An open 5G Core is key for operators to break out of the single vendor lock-in of previous generation networks.
“The HPE 5G Core Stack, as well as our newly announced HPE 5G Lab (see below), enable an accelerated evolution to 5G networking that is open and interoperable.”
The cloud-native 5G core network functions are provided by Casa’s Axyom software platform. Jerry Guo, CEO, Casa Systems, noted, “This demo underscores the ability of major operators to build 5G networks using best-of-breed solutions from multiple vendors that are tailored to their specific needs instead of being locked in to legacy infrastructures and network migrations.”
Orange, HPE and Casa are expanding this use case demonstration into an end-to-end campus trial as the next steps toward broader service availability.
New lab
This week HPE unveiled its new 5G Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado in the US (pictured), designed to accelerate the adoption of open, multivendor 5G solutions and an environment for telcos to validate technologies in preparation for large scale deployments and investment.
The HPE 5G Lab has gained support from Affirmed Networks, Casa Systems, Intel, JMA Wireless, Metaswitch, Nokia, Openet and Red Hat.