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Breaking 5G and edge compute into microservices to enable customization

China Mobile is using a 5G and MEC solution to enhance efficiency in manufacturing, emergency response, smart utilities and other vertical businesses.

Alasdair Riggs
11 Oct 2022
Breaking 5G and edge compute into microservices to enable customization

Breaking 5G and edge compute into microservices to enable customization

Despite the huge value 5G and edge computing could bring to a wide range of industries, most CSPs have designed and built their operating models primarily for the consumer market, meaning they don’t necessarily support the higher demands by industry for reliability and availability. To meet this challenge, China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei are seeking to provide unique solutions to address each vertical customer’s specific value goals. To that end, they have decomposed and restructured their 5G network and operations into microservices – encompassing more than 130 atomic network capabilities and more than 70 atomic KPIs – which can be used to orchestrate network services and KPIs for various industry customer needs.

The Sustainable growth for enterprises with 5G and MEC operations Catalyst also involves development of a value design and orchestration center to orchestrate network services, service level agreements, graphical user interface portals and service assurance to support business agility. The final piece of the puzzle is a value operations framework that evaluates whether a proposed solution can fulfill the defined business values. China Mobile Zhejiang now offers a single marketplace or 5G mall encompassing both the value design and orchestration center and the value operation center. The CSP plans to introduce its 5G and MEC solution to about 1,400 new customers throughout Zhejiang province during the first year of deployment.

“Although each industry has its own unique operation processes and working environments, 5G and MEC solutions are able to support the fundamental capabilities of each industry with minimal customization,” says Kong Huaming, Chief Business Architect at China Mobile Zhejiang. “For example, in manufacturing, our 5G and MEC solution which supports the factory to monitor and provide a safe environment for workers can also be replicated in other industries like building construction.”

The CSP is now extending its commercial offerings from pure communication services to end-to-end solution services. These new revenues are “growing 80% annually, and in themselves are also driving up the demand for voice, data and connection services,” Kong Huaming adds. “All of which allows us to grow our business in a sustainable manner.” For example, the 5G and MEC solution is now being used to connect ambulances via 5G to enable real-time hospital consultations and emergency treatment. It is also being deployed to enable electric utilities to balance power generation and consumption, and manage clean power generation facilities, including photovoltaic modules and wind farms. China Mobile says the improved reliability of renewable energy could reduce fossil energy consumption over the whole city of Hangzhou.

In the manufacturing sector, the 5G and MEC solution is being employed to enable quality inspections using artificial intelligence, allowing existing quality inspection personnel to be reskilled and redeployed in a more pleasant, safe, and healthy work environment. As well as supporting economic growth, China Mobile says its 5G and MEC solution can also deliver wider societal benefits by creating social and environmental value. “With the solution developed by this Catalyst, we’ve shown that a CSP can develop their vertical business without a significant increase in operation costs,” concludes Kong Huaming. “The advanced economy of Zhejiang province in China consists of many diverse verticals, and serves as a great example of how a CSP can grow its vertical business.”