4G routers changed the life as we know it but 5G is set to change the socities as it has even bigger impact on the lives of people. Below article will shed some light on the Huawei 5G routers and their working.
What Is 5G?
Many of us have heard of 5G, but most of us do not know the technologies behind it. This document starts with mobile phones and introduces the development of technologies behind 5G.
Definition of 5G
Mobile phones are one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Since the invention of the world's first mobile phone by Motorola in 1973, mobile phones have become increasingly important in our life after more than 40 years of development. The functions of mobile phones have extended from merely phone calls to video playing, live video, and gaming. The driving force behind these changes is the mobile communication system, which has evolved from 1G to 2G, 3G, 4G, and now 5G. 5G refers to the fifth generation mobile communication system.
As shown above, 5G offers a leap in capabilities over its previous generations:
Network speed: 5G can reach a theoretical maximum rate of 20 Gbit/s, while 4G can reach only 1 Gbit/s.
Extensive new features: 5G provides ultra-low latency, high reliability, low power consumption, and massive terminal connections.
All these make 5G ideal for a wide array of sectors, ushering in a new Internet of Things (IoT) era.
Benefits of 5G
What changes can 5G bring to our life? Before finding answers to this question, let's look at 5G application scenarios. Mobile communication systems of 4G and previous generations are applied mainly in mobile broadband, that is, making calls and surfing the Internet. In the 5G era, the mobile communication system has far extended beyond the original service scope and penetrated into the IoT field. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) classifies 5G application scenarios into two types: mobile Internet and IoT.
Mobile Internet: 5G inherits the original mobile broadband services while providing higher bandwidth and better user experience.
IoT: 5G focuses on building connections between people and things and between things, so that more devices can access the Internet.
To sum up, 5G will greatly change our life. Figure 1-2 shows the top 10 application scenarios of 5G in our daily life.
Cloud VR/AR: superior-experience gaming, panoramic video, and remote office
Internet of Vehicles (IoV): self-driving, remote driving, tele-operated driving, and platoon driving
Smart manufacturing: wireless industrial cameras, logistics and inventory monitoring, and collaborative robots
Smart energy: feeder automation
Smart healthcare: remote diagnosis, remote ultrasound, and medical robots
Wireless home entertainment: 8K video, cloud gaming
Connected drones: inspection and security protection
Social network: ultra-HD/panoramic live broadcast
Personal AI assistance: wearable devices and AI-assisted smart helmets
Smart city: AI-enabled video surveillance
In the 4G era, dominated by consumers, most data transmitted over the network is downlink traffic. In the 5G era, various intelligent applications pose higher requirements on network capabilities. For example, intelligent applications, such as cloud VR/AR, IoV, wireless home entertainment, connected drones, and social network apps, generate a large amount of uplink data. Massive data transmission has stringent requirements on network capabilities, requiring a minimum of 100 Mbit/s uplink bandwidth.
For traditional private lines, a higher bandwidth means a higher rental unaffordable to many enterprises. 4G links cannot satisfy such bandwidth requirements. 5G links are the best solution to these emerging services. This is where Huawei NetEngine AR6000 — a full lineup of 5G-capable routers — comes in.
Huawei's 5G AR Enterprise Routers
NetEngine AR6000s — Huawei's 5G AR enterprise routers — include all models of the AR6000 and AR6000-S series. 5G AR enterprise routers implement 5G capabilities by installing a 5G-100 card. This document uses the star product AR6121 to describe the appearance, 5G-100 card, 5G remote antenna, and version mapping of 5G AR enterprise routers.
Networking Structure of 5G AR Enterprise Routers
Non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) networking modes are defined in 5G standards for different phases of 5G development. To reduce network investment costs and quickly seize the market, many carriers use the NSA networking at the initial stage of 5G network construction to provide 5G services for users. However, the NSA networking does not support new 5G features such as low latency, low power consumption, and massive terminal connections. To maximize 5G advantages, carriers eventually evolve their 5G networks towards the SA networking. Due to the high cost, long time, and great difficulty of network construction, it still takes much time before the SA networking can be widely adopted. NSA and SA will coexist on carriers' 5G networks for a long period of time. To better provide 5G services for enterprise users, the 5G AR enterprise router functioning as the egress gateway of an enterprise network must support both NSA and SA networking.
Figure 1-6 shows the NSA networking. In NSA networking, a 5G base station connects to the upgraded 4G core network via a 4G base station, without the need to deploy a new 5G core network. The NSA networking enables carriers to quickly evolve from 4G to 5G and provide higher data bandwidth and more reliable connections for users.
Figure 1-7 shows the SA networking. In SA networking, the 5G network uses a brand-new end-to-end network architecture, and user equipment (UEs), base stations, and core networks are all implemented using 5G technologies. SA is the ultimate architecture of 5G. It supports all new 5G features, such as high bandwidth and low latency.
- Figure 1-7 SA networking of 5G AR enterprise routers (Option2)
Concepts
The 5G network architecture involves the following concepts:
UE: a terminal device used by a user to access a wireless network. On a WAN, a UE is a 5G AR router.
gNodeB (gNB): a 5G base station. gNBs are base stations deployed based on 5G standards to provide wireless access to 5G networks.
eNodeB (eNB): an LTE base station.
Evolved Packet Core (EPC): an LTE core network, to which LTE base stations can be connected.
EPC+: upgraded LTE core network, to which 5G base stations can be connected.
Next Generation Core (NGC): a 5G core network. NGC is a core network built based on 5G standards and can be connected to 5G base stations.
Key Differentiators of 5G AR Enterprise Routers
We have been amazed by the appearance of 5G AR enterprise routers. Now, let's look at the key differentiators of 5G AR enterprise routers. Figure 1-8 shows the three key differentiators of 5G AR enterprise routers. With these differentiators, 5G AR enterprise routers stand out in Tolly tests.
5G access
Some mobile service branches that require fast network deployment, for example, exhibition halls, want to use small 5G SIM cards to quickly connect to the network and communicate with enterprise data centers and cloud services, just like the way of connecting a mobile phone to a carrier network. This will greatly simplify enterprise network deployment. This is also a typical application scenario of a 5G AR enterprise router, which can provide 5G capabilities by installing a small 5G card and a 5G SIM card. We can insert a 5G SIM card into a 5G card just like the way on a mobile phone. As such, the 5G AR enterprise router implements fast deployment and flexible access, as shown in Figure 1-9.
Excellent performance
Typically, an enterprise deploys hundreds or even thousands of applications. This requires enterprises' routers to identify applications and provide differentiated quality for different applications accordingly. Additionally, edge access routers need to provide more security capabilities. As such, in addition to IP forwarding, enterprise routers need to forward and process service traffic according to L4-L7 application characteristics. In scenarios where multiple services need to be processed concurrently, the forwarding performance of the CPU-based software forwarding mode deteriorates greatly (80% in extreme conditions). 5G AR enterprise routers innovatively use the "fully programmable network processor (NP) + multi-core CPU" heterogeneous forwarding mode, instead of the traditional CPU-based software forwarding mode.
As shown in Figure 1-10, the NP quickly forwards L3 traffic that originally needs to be processed by the CPU, and the multi-core CPU processes L4-L7 service traffic. In addition, 5G AR enterprise routers integrate five hardware-based acceleration engines: Service Awareness (SA), HQoS, IPSec, ACL, and WAN optimization, which use independent logical hardware modules to process these key services. In this way, the forwarding performance of 5G AR enterprise routers is significantly improved, which is much higher than competitors' forwarding performance.
Experience assurance
Some instant messaging applications, such as voice calls and video conferences, are sensitive to delay and packet loss. When packet loss occurs on the network, artifacts, freeze frames, unclear voice, or intermittent voice may occur, resulting in poor user experience. When the packet loss rate reaches 1%, services are affected. When the packet loss rate reaches 10%, services are almost unavailable. To mitigate packet loss, 5G AR enterprise routers introduce forward error correction (FEC) technology. FEC classifies traffic, intercepts specific data streams, transmits redundant packets that contain verification information, and verifies packets at the receive end. If packet loss or packet impairment occurs on the network, redundant packets can be used to restore packets, ensuring smooth video experience even when the packet loss rate reaches 20%, as shown in Figure 1-11.
Scenarios of 5G AR Enterprise Routers
The preceding chapter highlights the differentiators of 5G AR enterprise routers. You may still have a doubt: Our wired or 4G networks are functioning well. Why do we need 5G AR enterprise routers? Now, let's look at this question from the perspectives of traditional and emerging services.
Traditional service scenarios
5G AR enterprise routers not only provide 5G links for enterprises, but also support 3G and 4G links, with better performance. Limited by factors such as the network speed, latency, and reliability, 4G links are mainly used as escape links for wired links and are used as primary links for transmission only in areas where wired links are difficult to deploy. When being used as escape links, 4G links are in idle state, leading to low bandwidth utilization, as shown in Figure 1-12.
5G links have higher bandwidth, stability, and reliability than 4G links and therefore can replace wired links and function as primary links of enterprise WANs. Especially for enterprises that lease private lines from carriers, the required bandwidth increases with an ever-growing amount of data traffic, resulting in a high private line expense. In such scenarios, 5G links provided by 5G AR enterprise routers are the best choice for enterprises.
Emerging service scenarios
Some of the top 10 application scenarios in the 5G era have not gotten full swing, which is mainly because that the current network capabilities cannot meet the requirements. For example, cloud VR/AR requires a latency as low as 5 ms. Such a low latency can be achieved only by 5G networks. Currently, carriers are vigorously building 5G networks, and enterprises need to actively build their own 5G access capabilities to better carry out emerging services. 5G AR enterprise routers offer flexible 5G access capabilities, excellent performance, and optimal experience, making them ideal for enterprise egress gateways, as shown in Figure 1-13.
Even if your enterprise network does not need to connect to the 5G network currently, you can deploy 5G AR enterprise routers as gateways. If you need to connect to the 5G network in the future, you only need to add a 5G card to implement the 5G access capability, without the need to replace routers.
Typical Application Scenarios of 5G AR Enterprise Routers
Primary Link for WAN Access
Application Scenario
Although wired WAN access technologies such as access through optical fibers, xDSL interfaces, or E1/T1 interfaces are mature and widely used, they may encounter bottlenecks in scenarios such as:
In remote branch companies or offshore oil fields, the wired WAN access service is unavailable or too expensive.
The wired WAN cannot cover all gas stations and ATMs that are widely distributed.
5G links are ideal for these special scenarios due to the following reasons:
5G links are flexible and easy to deploy. The network can be connected simply by inserting a SIM card, enabling quick service provisioning.
5G links have high bandwidth and low costs. They can replace private lines for enterprises, reducing the costs of leasing private lines. An enterprise branch uses 5G cellular interfaces of 5G AR enterprise routers to establish high-bandwidth, high-reliability, and easy-to-deploy WAN uplinks, which connect the branch to the headquarters over the Internet.
Networking
As shown in Figure below, an enterprise branch communicates with the headquarters through the Internet. The enterprise branch uses a 5G AR enterprise router as the egress gateway, which connects to the Internet through a 5G link.
Backup Link for WAN Access
Application Scenario
Reliability is an important factor that must be considered in enterprise networking, especially for large-scale enterprises. If services are interrupted, heavy loss may occur. To enhance reliability for interconnection between enterprise branches and the headquarters over the Internet, enterprises typically deploy two WAN uplinks. This prevents the scenario where branch users cannot access the headquarters' services due to link faults. The two WAN uplinks work in primary/backup mode. When the primary link fails, traffic is switched to the backup link, ensuring service continuity.
Deploying two uplinks via private lines will lead to a high expense. Originally, enterprises often deploy a wired link as the primary link and a 4G link as a backup link. After 5G links that feature higher reliability and stability, larger bandwidth, and lower costs emerge, enterprises can deploy two 5G links as WAN uplinks or deploy a wired link as the primary link and a 5G link as the backup link.
Networking
As shown in Figure 1-15, the enterprise branch communicates with the headquarters over the Internet. The enterprise branch uses a 5G AR enterprise router as the egress gateway, which connects to the Internet through a 5G link. To enhance link reliability, two 5G links are established between the enterprise branch and headquarters.
Key Technologies
In addition to backup, a 5G link of 5G AR enterprise routers and a wired WAN link can form dual uplinks for load balancing through local PBR. In addition, 5G AR enterprise routers can establish multiple 5G links, which are used as WAN uplinks. Multiple 5G links can work in primary/backup or load balancing mode. In primary/backup mode, 5G links can connect to the same carrier or to different carriers. In load balancing mode, 5G links load balance traffic based on Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routes, increasing the WAN egress bandwidth.
Establishing a Secure VPN Interconnection with the Headquarters via a 5G Link
Application Scenario
VPN is a technology used to establish a private and dedicated virtual communication tunnel between an enterprise branch and the headquarters for private data communication between them over a public network. VPNs are widely used on enterprise networks because they are secure, reliable, trustworthy, flexible, and cost-effective. 5G links feature high bandwidth, low latency, and easy deployment. The combination of 5G links and VPNs can better meet the requirements for fast, secure, and efficient interconnection between remote users, enterprise branches, and enterprise headquarters.
An enterprise branch connects to the Internet through a 5G link and establishes a VPN connection with the enterprise headquarters so that the branch can connect to the headquarters over the Internet. Different VPN tunnels can be established over 5G links based on service requirements between enterprise branches and the headquarters. For example, GRE is a Layer 3 tunnel encapsulation technology that can carry Layer 3 service traffic between branches and the headquarters. Ethernet over GRE tunnels can carry Layer 2 Ethernet traffic between the headquarters and branches. IPSec VPN tunnels can encrypt data transmitted on links to prevent data from being intercepted or tampered with. IPSec VPN tunnels are ideal for industries that have stringent requirements on service security and confidentiality, such as off-premise ATMs and government agencies.
Networking
As shown in Figure 1-16, an enterprise branch communicates with the headquarters through the Internet. The enterprise branch uses a 5G AR enterprise router as the egress gateway, which connects to the Internet through a 5G link. A VPN tunnel is established between the enterprise branch and headquarters over the 5G link.
Establishing a Secure VPDN Interconnection with the Headquarters via a 5G Link
Application Scenario
Virtual private dial-up network (VPDN) is developed based on the dial-up network. The VPDN sets up a transparent point-to-point virtual link to forward traffic between a branch and the headquarters gateway. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a widely used VPDN tunneling protocol. L2TP establishes a tunnel between the L2TP access concentrator (LAC) and the L2TP network server (LNS) over a dial-up network (PSTN or ISDN) based on Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).
On traditional dial-up networks, enterprises use phone lines leased from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and apply for a dial string or IP addresses. This results in high costs. Besides, private lines cannot provide services for off-site employees, especially employees on business trips. With 5G links, enterprises can combine 5G and VPDN to maximize the advantages of wireless links and dial-up networks to meet more requirements on interconnection between enterprise branches and headquarters.
Networking
As shown in Figure 1-17, an enterprise branch communicates with the headquarters through the Internet. An enterprise branch uses a 5G AR enterprise router as the egress gateway, which dials up to a carrier network through a 5G link. The carrier establishes an L2TP tunnel to forward service traffic between the enterprise branch and headquarters. In addition, services exchanged between the branch and headquarters have high security requirements. To meet such security requirements, an IPSec VPN tunnel can be established for data encryption between the branch and the egress gateway of the headquarters based on the 5G link.
Data and VoIP Communication via Multiple 5G APNs
Application Scenario
An enterprise branch needs to transmit a large amount of service traffic to the headquarters. Because the cost of a private line is high, the branch wants to communicate with the headquarters through the Internet. In addition, the branch wants to exchange voice services with the headquarters at a low cost, so VoIP communication needs to be implemented through the IP multimedia core network subsystem (IMS). The branch is located in a remote area and cannot obtain the wired WAN access service. Therefore, a 5G link is established as the WAN access link. To implement data and VoIP communication between the branch and headquarters, the branch deploys the 5G dual-APN function.
Networking
As shown in Figure 1-18, an enterprise branch communicates with the headquarters through the Internet and IMS network. The Internet implements data communication, and the IMS network implements VoIP communication. The branch uses a 5G AR enterprise router as the egress gateway, on which the 5G dual-APN function is enabled. One APN is used to access the Internet, and the other APN is used to access the IMS network.
Key Technologies
An APN identifies the external public data network (PDN) that a user wants to access. To enable users to access different PDNs, the 5G module of the 5G AR enterprise router supports the multi-APN function.
A 5G cellular interface of a 5G AR enterprise router contains multiple cellular channel interfaces. Each cellular channel interface is a logical service interface and can be configured with an IP address and DCC dial-up to independently forward service traffic. Each APN is bound to a cellular channel interface. Therefore, traffic of different services, such as voice, data, and VPN, can be bound to different APNs for forwarding. Multiple APNs share the uplink bandwidth of the 5G cellular interface. Therefore, QoS is required to schedule service traffic for different APNs. For example, voice services have high real-time requirements. Therefore, QoS needs to be configured on the cellular interface to ensure that voice services are preferentially scheduled.
Establishing a Secure SD-WAN Interconnection with the Headquarters
Application Scenario
In the 4G era, many enterprises use LTE links as WAN links to connect to the Internet. Due to limited bandwidth, LTE links are typically used as escape links for improving the reliability of enterprise egress gateways. In the 5G era, 5G links offer higher bandwidth, security, and reliability than 4G links, and are increasingly used as primary links for WAN access. On SD-WAN networks, a 5G link can be used as the primary or backup link.
For example, in the intelligent bank scenario, 5G AR enterprise routers are deployed at branches offering services such as VR and Financial Capsule, with the 5G link being used as the primary link to access the 5G private line network provided by a carrier. 5G AR enterprise routers are also deployed at some sub-branches, with the 5G link being used as the backup link of the private line to enhance the network reliability for the sub-branches. Leveraging 5G AR enterprise routers, sub-branches can provide customers with ultra-fast, stable, and highly reliable 5G access experience, such as wealth management, remote video, wireless Internet access, and Financial Capsule.
Networking
Key Technologies
5G AR enterprise routers fully support SD-WAN, which can solve the interconnection problems caused when 5G AR enterprise routers are deployed as gateways of traditional enterprise branches.
After introducing 5G links, enterprises need to integrate their wired and wireless links to make full use of wired and wireless bandwidth resources. The SD-WAN Solution supports more than 10 types of WAN interfaces and access to the network by combining multiple types of links, which can quickly adapt to on-demand interconnection with multiple networks and build the full-mesh networking.
As a wireless link, a 5G link may be interfered with. How can we ensure that services are not affected by packet loss caused due to occasional interference? The SD-WAN Solution provides abundant features such as SA, intelligent traffic steering, and FEC, which can guarantee experience of key services even if packet loss occurs.
Traditional wired deployment involves network planning, cabling, and device commissioning, which take a long period of time and cannot achieve fast provisioning of new services. SD-WAN supports plug-and-play and zero touch provisioning. iMaster NCE-WAN — a controller in the SD-WAN Solution — automatically provisions configurations to CPEs after they go online. This greatly shortens the deployment time from several days or even one month to one day or even several hours.
The SD-WAN Solution leverages iMaster NCE-WAN to monitor the quality, throughput, and service quality of links including the 5G link in real time to implement global visualized O&M.
