Development of technology to process services in relevant regions without going through central control centers

SK Telecom announced on the 11th that it has successfully demonstrated wired infrastructure 5G technology for the first time in Korea at the '5G Global Innovation Center' located at the Bundang Comprehensive Technology Institute, in collaboration with Nokia, a global network equipment manufacturer.

Following their successful demonstration of the world's fastest speed of 19.1Gbps in October, SK Telecom has developed and demonstrated 5G technology in the 'core network,' the wired infrastructure, and has successfully established the nation's first end-to-end 5G technology lineup encompassing both wired and wireless services.

Core Network refers to the wired network system at the center of a mobile communication network that provides various value-added services including calls and internet to customers connected to the wireless transmission network.

Achievement within two months following 19.1Gbps demonstration



The 'core network' serves as the control tower of the mobile communication network and performs the foundational functions for providing mobile communication services such as customer authentication and data transmission. Accordingly, SK Telecom argues that since customers must access the internet through the 'core network' to utilize wireless networks, fundamental innovation of the 'core network' is essential for 5G commercialization.

Services such as calls, text messages, SNS, and internet requested by customers are processed only through 'central control centers' installed in major metropolitan areas. The 'core network innovation' that enables reduction of physical distance from customers through distributed placement of these 'central control centers' has been identified as one of the critical challenges that must be solved for the 5G era, where ultra-low latency transmission of large-capacity content is essential.

The 'core network distribution and redeployment' technology successfully demonstrated this time is a technology that can separate and redeploy the physical 'core network' through virtualization technology. When this technology is applied, virtual 'central control centers' can be established in major regions throughout the nation to immediately process service requests coming from those regions. By applying this technology, the limitation of physical distance between the 'core network' and some customers located hundreds of kilometers away can be overcome.

SK Telecom expects that this demonstration will receive interest and attention from mobile carriers and equipment manufacturers worldwide, as the 'core network distribution and redeployment' technology is being discussed in various 5G standardization meetings.

Park Jin-hyo, Head of SK Telecom's Network Technology Institute, stated, "Intelligence of the core network is essential to efficiently provide high-quality 5G services, and it is important to optimize the entire network to provide customized services through this," and added, "With the goal of providing differentiated 5G services, we plan to continue cooperation with Nokia on optimizing 5G network architecture and standardizing it."

Vesa Tykkylainen, Vice President of Nokia (VP, Liquid Core and MBB Liquid Core), said, "Through this demonstration with SK Telecom, we have verified the performance of 5G core technology that will form the foundation of the future hyper-connected era where all things are connected," and stated, "Going forward, both companies will continue cooperation on 5G technology standardization and commercialization."

Meanwhile, SK Telecom is participating in ONOS (Open Network Operating System), a 5G SDN (Software Defined Networking) core technology development project, and is making efforts to create a 5G ecosystem encompassing both wired and wireless by joining OPNFV (Open Platform for NFV), a network virtualization project group, in order to develop 'core network' technology.