SK Telecom has been leading the 5G forum since 2013, and has laid the foundation for creating a 5G ecosystem and securing global competitiveness by inducing cooperation with domestic industry, academia, research institutes, and overseas operators. By publishing the '5G White Paper' that suggests the direction of evolution toward the 5G era and holding technology exchange meetings with global 5G associations, we have established the vision, core technologies, and services for 5G, which were defined differently in each country.

The 'SDN/NFV Forum', of which SK Telecom was recently elected as the chairman, is a consultative body of industry and public research institutes established in 2014 to present a common SDN/NFV framework based on virtualization technology for the development of domestic ICT such as 5G and to lead the development of future ICT convergence technology.


* SDN (Software Defined Networking): A technology that improves operational efficiency by separating the transmission/control layers of network equipment and integrating them in one place.
* NFV (Network Function Virtualization): Technology that applies virtualization technology to communication systems to implement and provide existing hardware-based service functions as software.

Virtualization is a technology that installs hardware equipment that needs to be installed to provide communication services in the form of software on a general server, and is evaluated as a key technology for 5G evolution.

SK Telecom has been leading the development and commercialization of virtualization technologies, including commercializing the first virtualized LTE switch in Korea in 2015 and the international standard system orchestrator for managing virtualized network functions. In recognition of these achievements, the company won the IMS Virtualization Technology category at the 2016 IMS Industry Awards.

As the chairman of the 'SDN/NFV Forum', SK Telecom plans to take the lead in fostering the next-generation ICT technology and ecosystem based on 'openness and collaboration'. It plans to lead the development and standardization of core technologies based on virtualization to advance the commercialization of 5G, allowing customers to enjoy 5G-based services such as UHD services and AR/VR services more quickly.

“It is meaningful that SK Telecom, which has contributed to the activation of virtualization technology, a core technology in the next-generation ICT field, has been elected as the chairman of the SDN/NFV Forum,” said Choi Jin-seong, head of SK Telecom’s Comprehensive Technology Center, who was elected as the chairman of the SDN/NFV Forum. “As next-generation communication technologies including 5G are expected to evolve based on virtualization, SK Telecom will lead the global ICT based on its advanced technological prowess.”