The Making of 5G: Building an End-to-End 5G-Enabled System

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and implementation of one of the first standards-compliant end-to-end 5G systems, highlighting architecture, orchestration, and lessons learned for industry and academia.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive 5G architecture integrating 3GPP and ETSI NFV components, with innovative monitoring and orchestration methods for 5G deployment.

Findings

Successful deployment of a standards-compliant 5G system

Effective orchestration approaches for 5G network management

Lessons learned for future 5G system development

Abstract

This article documents one of the world's first standards-compliant pre-commercial end-to-end 5th generation (5G) systems. Focus is on a standardized 5G architecture which includes the underlying 3GPP components but also the ETSI Network Function Virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration capabilities. The truly innovative character of 5G enabling fundamental changes to architecture and implementation is discussed, and details of monitoring and orchestration approaches that are deemed instrumental in unlocking the full potential of 5G. Finally, it is important to us to share the lessons learned which we hope are of use to industry and academia alike when building, deploying and testing emerging 5G systems.