Verizon is beginning to move into the 5G network slicing arena, using a new field trial to demonstrate slicing capabilities on a commercially available smartphone.
The showcase comes after Verizon started to move customer traffic onto its Verizon Cloud Platform (VCP) in mid-October 2022. In April of this year, the carrier explained a little more about the VCP, stating it had built the containerized platform itself specifically to deal with telecoms workloads.
Now the carrier is ready to start to show off its slicing skills. The MNO said it demonstrated the initial capabilities of end-to-end, dynamic network resource provisioning on a 5G network.
“A commercially available smartphone was the device that was used to demonstrate network slicing,” Verizon spokeswoman Karen Shulz told Silverlinings in an email. “No other hardware was used to accomplish network slicing, just the...smartphone.”
She didn’t say which smartphone was used. The latest iOS and Android operating system updates, however, now offer 5G SA support. So, the device will likely have been the latest Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. Last year, Ericsson and Google used a Pixel 6 Pro smartphone running Android 13 in a network slicing demo of their own.
Unlike the very earliest commercial 5G network slicing, such as that from Singtel, this trial showcased dynamic segments rather than static slices, which are permanently assigned to a specific task like video streaming or supporting IoT device deployments.
“Yes, network resources are allocated dynamically,” Schulz said of the Verizon trial.
Schulz couldn’t give any details yet about when Verizon will start to offer network slicing commercially. But Verizon executive Bill Stone told Silverlinings' sister site FierceWireless that some traffic will be carried over network slices later this year.
Do you want to learn more about the cloud-native 5G market? Sign up to attend our virtual Cloud-Native 5G Summit today.