BT, Ericsson and Qualcomm partner on 5G SA network slicing

Ericsson said that the 5G demo was carried out using the vendor’s 5G core and radio access network technology

BT Group, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies said they have successfully demonstrated end-to-end consumer and enterprise 5G differentiated connectivity enabled by network slicing.

In a release, Ericsson said that the 5G demo was carried out using Ericsson’s 5G Core and radio access network technology in the U.K. with devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform.

The trial, which took place at BT’s Adastral Park research and innovation facility, established network slices for gaming, enterprise and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and showed how, by allocating a portion of the 5G SA network to provide dynamic partitions for specific use-cases, optimal performance could be maintained for bandwidth-heavy activities including mobile gaming and video conferencing even during peak times, according to the partners.

BT noted that mobile gaming is experiencing an accelerated growth, with traffic on its subsidiary EE’s network almost doubling since the beginning of 2023 to more than two petabytes of data every month.

Together, BT Group, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies said that they demonstrated an “optimal” mobile cloud gaming experience on Nvidia’s GeForce Now, maintaining a throughput in excess of the recommended 25 Mbps at 1080p even when a background load was generated. The companies initiated a gaming session on Fortnite using the Samsung S23 Ultra device, equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform, and Ericsson implemented network slicing along with the Ericsson RAN feature radio resource partitioning on EE’s network.

The trial also validated the potential of network slicing for BT Group’s business customers, the Swedish vendor said. The Ericsson 5G RAN slicing feature, Radio Resource Partitioning, was enabled to ensure the enterprise traffic to achieve an optimal experience.

Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT Group, said: “Network slicing will enable us to deliver new and improved capabilities for customers in the 5G SA era. As we work diligently towards the launch of our own 5G SA network, today’s successful demonstration of how slicing enables us to differentiate Quality of Service to guarantee performance for different segments is a significant milestone, and illustrative of the new services that will be enabled by 5G SA.”

“5G standalone and network slicing demonstrates that operators like EE will be able to offer customers tailored connectivity with different requirements on speed, latency and reliability for specific applications, such as video streaming and gaming. This ultimate next step in connectivity will enable new service offerings for consumers and businesses who require premium performance, while helping to drive future market growth and innovation for the UK in a wide range of new industries,” said Katherine Ainley, CEO at Ericsson UK & Ireland.

EE had previously announced its 5G network has already reached 60% population coverage in the country. EE initially launched 5G technology in London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester in 2019.