When talking about mobile networks, we generally talk about disaggregation and virtualization of the RAN rather than the core. The 5G Core Network was also designed with disaggregation in mind, supporting service-based architecture (SBA) where Network Functions (NFs) are modular and can be deployed as microservices. The 5G Core (5GC) is the foundation for Standalone 5G (5G SA) networks where the end users can experience the power of 'real' 5G. A newly published forecast report by Dell’Oro Group pointed out that the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market 5-year cumulative revenue forecast ..read more

Over the years we have looked at the standards development, infrastructure development and even country specific mission critical solutions development in various blog posts. In this post we are sharing this short new tutorial by Mpirical on mission critical services in LTE and 5G. The video is embedded below: Related Posts:  The 3G4G Blog: Maritime Communication (MARCOM) Services over 3GPP system The 3G4G Blog: Update from 3GPP on LTE & 5G Mission Critical Communications The 3G4G Blog: Mission Critical Services update from 3GPP - June 2017 The 3G4G Blog: QCI Enhancements For Missi ..read more

At DEF CON 31 last year, Tracy Mosley, Vulnerability Researcher at Trenchant presented a talk titled "Nothin’ but a G Thang - The Evolution of Cellular Networks" (background of title). The abstract of the talk says: In this talk we will walk through each step of cellular evolution, starting at 2G and ending at 5G. The never-ending attack and defend paradigm will be clearly laid out. In order to understand the attack surface, I’ll cover network topology and protocol. For each cellular generation, I will explain known vulnerabilities and some interesting attacks. In response to those vulne ..read more

PAULEY are a dynamic UK-based SME at the forefront of the exciting emerging market in big data and interactive tools for business. Pioneers in Spatial Computing, our specialist team are working with clients operating in key industries and sectors including transport, safety critical industries and the education and training sector, to embed innovative digital technology into their business processes. At Athonet's Uptime 2022 conference, Phil Pauley, CEO at Pauley Interactive, spoke about real-life deployment of Digital Twin and Private Cellular at St Pancras railway station. His talk is ..read more

The Project Coordination Group (PCG) of 3GPP recently approved a new logo for use on specifications for 6G, during their 52nd PCG meeting, hosted by ATIS in Reston, Virginia. As with previous logos, surely people in general will use them not just for 3GPP 6G compliant products, but for all kinds of things. New 6G logo approved - The Project Coordination Group (PCG) of 3GPP has approved a new logo for use on specifications for 6G, during their 52nd PCG meeting this week. Learn more: https://t.co/sh2yvQtc23 via @3GPPLive#Free6Gtraining #6G #5G #B5G #5GAdvanced #3G4G5G pic.twitter.com/2CtUVBGQg ..read more

I am fascinated by and have previously written blog posts about transparent antennas. Back in 2019 NTT Docomo announced that they have been working with glass manufacturer AGC to create a new transparent antenna that can work with a base station to become an antenna. Then in 2021, NTT Docomo and AGC announced that they have developed a prototype technology that efficiently guides 28-GHz 5G radio signals received from outdoors to specific locations indoors using a film-like metasurface lens that attaches to window surfaces. Transparent antennas/lens are one of the pillars of Docomo’s 6G vision ..read more

It's been a while since we covered V2X as a topic on this blog. If you are not well versed with CAVs and V2X, we recommend you to watch our tutorials on the 3G4G page here. The networking channel hosted a seminar on 'Vehicular networking' last month. Quoting from the webinar preview: Looking back at the last decade, one can observe enormous progress in the domain of vehicular networking. Many ongoing activities focus on the design of cooperative perception, distributed computing, and novel safety solutions. Many projects have been initiated to validate the theoretic work in field tests and pr ..read more

Critical infrastructure requires precise timing to operate. This reliance makes the infrastructure vulnerable to disruptions in timing that can be either intentional or unintentional. Intentional disruptions can be caused by GNSS jamming or spoofing or network attacks.. Unintentional disruptions are usually caused by equipment failures or acts of nature. Back in April 2022, Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) hosted a webinar on this topic, a precursor to the Annual Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems (WSTS). The webinar featured top industry experts deliverin ..read more

I have been asked about the UE Assistance Information (UAI) RRC message a few times before. Generally I have always pointed people back to the LTE/5G specifications but here is a concise video that the telecoms technology training company Mpirical have shared recently: If you want to dig further into details then please see the RRC specifications: 36.331 for LTE and 38.331 for 5G.  Over the years I have added quite a few short tutorials from Mpirical on this blog, do check them out below. Related Posts:  The 3G4G Blog: EPS Fallback Mechanism in 5G Standalone Networks The 3G4G ..read more

I have been meaning to share this video/presentation by Patrick Scannell for quite some time now. Pat Scannell is a technology and telecom industry consultant who is a world leader on 5G and the co-evolution of technology and cognition, specializing in innovation and commercialization of emerging technologies across a wide range of industries. At the IEEE International Symposium on Digital Privacy and Social Media 2022, Pat gave a talk titled 'The Return of Magic: Technological Complexification'. The outline of the talk says:  Today’s tech is characterized by rapidly accelerating co ..read more