Transforming to Digital: The Telco Service-based Network Architecture

The evolution to 5G architecture, Cloud, and an agile platform to support new digital business-to-business services and customer revenue streams will require telcos transitioning into digital service providers (DSPs) to either build a completely new network or evolve their existing one. In either case, a very flexible and agile infrastructure combining core network functions (4G, 5G, fiber) and IT systems is needed. This paper provides the background, challenges, and one clear solution leading to a service-based network architecture.