Samsung’s 5G Standalone Core Goes Live in KDDI’s Nationwide Commercial Network

With Samsung’s cloud-native 5G Standalone Core, KDDI will witness the tangible benefits of a 5G SA network — unlocking improved reliability, super-fast response times and optimized network slicing capabilities

Samsung Electronics today announced that its cloud-native Standalone (SA) Core went live supporting KDDI’s nationwide commercial 5G SA services in Japan. Samsung’s 5G SA Core delivers a range of advantages to the operator’s network, including improved reliability and faster response times, required for applications such as cloud gaming, autonomous vehicles, real-time robotics and immersive video.

This milestone follows KDDI’s selection of Samsung to provide its 5G SA Core for the operator’s commercial network in February 2023. Leading up to this launch, the companies have conducted field tests and trials, successfully validating Samsung’s 5G SA Core performance and integrating Samsung’s 5G Core software in a multi-vendor environment. For this launch, Samsung and KDDI have successfully deployed and operated Samsung’s 5G Core software using KDDI’s smart operation system, supporting failure detection, root cause identification, and recovery method decision.

“As we continue to push the boundaries as an innovation leader in Japan, our 5G Standalone network will make it possible to provide our customers with maximum reliability and unprecedented capabilities,” said Toshikazu Yokai, Chief Network Officer, Managing Executive Officer, Deputy General Manager of Technology Sector at KDDI. “In collaboration with Samsung, we continue to offer the best 5G connectivity experience our customers expect, and now we are thrilled to spread the full benefits of 5G nationwide.”

“5G Standalone presents a pathway for future-readiness and this advanced technology opens doors to unprecedented benefits, delivering next-generation capabilities to enterprises and consumers,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “As we continue to spearhead 5G innovation, we believe Samsung’s ongoing collaboration with KDDI will lead to game-changing opportunities and transformative experiences for end users.”

Samsung’s 5G SA Core supports:

• Multi-level redundancy. Leveraging the cloud-native architecture, Samsung’s 5G SA Core is designed to have no single point of failure with multi-level redundancy. This ensures high resilience and reliable service continuity in every part of the system.
• Multi-vendor interoperability. It can be easily integrated with third-party 5G core network functions and OSS for flexible deployment and automation.
• Seamless upgrades to SA. With one software package that supports NSA and SA, Samsung’s solution can facilitate a smooth migration to 5G SA.
• Session continuity with geo-redundancy. Deployed at various locations, Samsung’s 5G SA Cores provide session continuity support to ensure stability and reliability. Each SA core is dimensioned to pick up loads in case one of the active core becomes unavailable due to traffic bursts or natural disasters.

One of the key benefits of 5G SA Core is that it allows the dynamic allocation of resources to different applications — known as network slicing. Network slicing divides a single physical network infrastructure into multiple virtual slices, and each slice is dedicated to a specific user case or application. A single network can dynamically support multiple 5G use cases and applications at once, accelerating the delivery of new services and meeting the tailored demands of enterprises and consumers.

Recently, KDDI and Samsung signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a 5G Global Network Slicing Alliance, aiming to introduce an array of commercial 5G network slicing services and to assess new business models. The two companies will continue to collaborate on advancing this technology, to help fulfill emerging enterprise and consumer demands.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio, from vRAN 3.0, Open RAN, Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company currently provides network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.