5G Network Services

AICO is an SME member of the NetWorld2020 European Technology Platform and also contributes to the Expert Advisory Group of NetWorld2020.

The fifth generation mobile network (5G for short) is currently being developed in Europe and world wide. The 5G public-private partnership (5G-PPP) , which was initiated by the EU commission, industry manufacturers, telecommunications operators, service providers, SMEs and researchers, is among others, e.g. 3G-PP, NGMN, NetWorl2020, working toward a globally standardised new mobile network generation.

The goal of 5G is to be more than just another mobile access technology with higher data rates, lower latency, higher availability, better security, and higher energy efficiency than 4G (LTE). 5G aims to become the single solution that combines different technologies, e.g., various mobile access technologies, device-to-device communication, even satellite communication, and to be open to future extensions. A major concern is also the integration of so called verticals, being businesses that provide parts (data and/or services) along the chain to integrated network applications, e.g., e-health, autonomous driving, multimedia content distribution, the Internet of things (IoT), or machine to machine communication (M2M), to name just a view [https://5g-ppp.eu/white-papers/].

The 5G development is therefore focused on the use-cases and their optimal support by the technology to be deployed. These use cases raise very different demands, which hardly can be fulfilled by a single technology. For example: guaranteed latency <1ms, data-rates up to 10 Gbit/s, 500 km reach, 10 years battery lifetime, guaranteed availability, state-of-the-art security. Therefore, 5G needs to integrate network slicing, meaning an application aware provisioning of resources. Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) are key concepts central to 5G networks, possible more central than the new radio technologies to come.

AICO, being a small privately owned software consulting company, concentrates on application requirements analysis and protocol/mechanism performance assessment, primarily analytically/numerically and practically via process evaluation and simulation studies.