Breaking Down 5G Slicing: What It Is and Why It Matters

5G slicing is a resource management capability of 5G networks that allows the separation of such mobile networks into multiple logical subnetworks. It is part of the 5G architecture and isolates user traffic for specific types of communication services. These communication services are specific to the required behaviour of the network traffic that delivers them from user/end devices to application services and other devices. The required behaviour of such network traffic could be lower latency, higher bandwidth, or increased connectivity access. Accordingly, slices are defined by ITU as types urLLC, emBB and iOT. ITU-R Rec M.2083 identifies applications that produce/consume such network traffic.
An example is as follows

These defined slice types support specific use cases and services that are enabled by dedicated network slices created by the service-based 5G SA core.
In a service-based architecture, the core network functions are divided into modular services that can be flexibly combined and orchestrated to create custom network slices. This means that different network slices can be created for different types of services, such as high-speed mobile broadband, mission-critical IoT, or ultra-low latency applications.

By using network slicing, service providers can offer a more customized and efficient service to their customers, as well as enable the development of new, innovative use cases that require specific network characteristics. With 5G slicing, service providers can allocate resources more efficiently, reduce network complexity, and improve overall network performance. While network complexity is reduced, the complexity in orchestrating and enabling 5G slices is increased compared to 5G services. To be disucssed in subsequent posts.