Verizon Wireless has completed the first successful end-to-end data session over its new 5G network standalone core. Announcing the development in a press release, the company noted that its new core’s containerised design is being built using a webscale software architecture based on advanced IP based technologies. It said it will carry 5G traffic and offer ‘unprecedented levels of service agility and automated scalability’. Looking ahead, Verizon has said it expects to start moving traffic on the new core in the second half of 2020, with full commercialisation following in 2021.
Commenting, Bill Stone, Vice President of Planning for Verizon, noted: ‘The 5G standalone core is critical for unleashing the most advanced benefits of 5G technology including remarkable levels of programmability to manage the advanced solutions and exponential traffic that 5G will bring … By building this 5G core with cloud-native containerized architecture, we will be able to achieve new levels of operational automation, flexibility and adaptability.’