The Broadband Forum has published its technical report 5G Transport Architecture and Requirements (TR-521), which recommends architecture and equipment requirements to provide a transport network suitable for supporting 5G mobile radio access networks (RANs).

The 5G transport network interconnects with the 5G RAN and provides connectivity to the 5G mobile core network.

Various technologies can be deployed to support new 5G use cases in 5G transport networks. These include mature technologies such as Ethernet and Ethernet VPN (such as previous Broadband Forum work (such as TR-350, TR-224, and TR-221), as well as contributions from Broadband Forum partners (such as IEEE 802, ITU-T SG15, and IETF) ) emerging technologies.

David Sinicrope, Access and Transport Architecture (ATA) Work Area Director of the Broadband Forum, said: "5G cannot operate without the support of well-founded transport networks. These transport networks must be prepared to support the massive use of what 5G can achieve. use cases and services that include higher capacity, enhanced performance, and high reliability.”.

Release of TR-521 provides functional reference architecture and equipment requirements for transport networks supporting 5G front-end and back-end

"This helps operators clarify what to expect from the transport equipment they purchase, and it also helps transport equipment suppliers decide what to implement and how to use it," he added.

The Broadband Forum also released the Mobile Transport Network Slice Instance Management Interface (MMI) (TR-522) specification to address the Transport Network slice management interface as the name suggests.

5G end-to-end slicing facilitates the realization of multiple logically independent networks on a common physical infrastructure platform. In the process of implementing 5G end-to-end slices, the 3GPP management system needs to be aligned with the corresponding transport network management to ensure that the required performance, functionality and connectivity are achieved.

TR-522 addresses the interface between the 3GPP management system and the transport network manager, helping to provide this alignment. Specifically, this work defines interfaces that support the configuration, assurance, monitoring, and reconfiguration of 5G network slices in 5G networks.

These two specifications, along with the accompanying market reports (MR-521.1 and MR-522), explain the motivation for the work and have been completed by the Mobile Transport and Routing project stream within the Broadband Forum's Access and Transport Architecture (ATA) work area.

The Mobile Transport and Routing project flow is responsible for the Forum's mobile transport and routing architecture, including control, management and data planes. These architectures leverage new industry technologies and practices while protecting investments in deployed networks.