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NETWORK / 19 / APRIL 2018 ting in the way of both business and the utilities. In the past, the only way of providing distinct segregation would have been to physically separate the networks; business running down one cable and consumer down another. Today, the fih generation of telecoms networks – 5G – removes this need. "Network slicing is a new feature that has become avail - able in 4G and will be available as standard in 5G," Fava-Verde said. "It enables multiple virtual networks to run over shared physical networks." The same principle – disag - gregation – can apply with wire- less networks. In older and ex- isting networks, data was more hardware-specific. 5G and smart networks enables the hardware and soware to diverge. "Instead of specifically designed applications, the new generation will run soware that creates networks within wide boxes," he continued. "It is a true revolution; smart networks are created by the act of disaggregation and you make them smarter by applying machine learning," basically another term for artificial intel - ligence, or AI. Seamless experience Andy Woodhall, chief sales officer with Simoco Wireless Solutions, says that users won't necessarily know if they are using a 'smart' network or not – unless they are using them and see the advantages displayed. A parallel for the lay consumer might be the first time they used a 4G equipped smartphone; the increased capacity and higher speed was immediately noticeable. And the experience of 4G is also germane to today's changes: as time has passed, the superior service is not as im - pressive as it was at the begin- ning and it has become beset by the same problems of capacity as its predecessors. That leads to the question of whether network operators such as utilities, for example, be given their own 5G spectrums, separate from consumers'? Jeff Casey, business develop - ment director with infrastruc- ture consulting firm Burns & Mc- Donnell, believes it is essential in strategically vital services. "We cannot sustain the de- carbonisation of power genera- tion in the face of rising demand without digitisation," he said. "We as an electrical industry have collected all the low- hanging fruit. Intermittency of generation with renewables, the fact that generating capacity is hundreds of miles from demand and the reality that peak genera - tion is not aligned to demand means that we must rethink the way grids are constructed. We absolutely need data, sensors, open platforms and for them to be built in a robust way." Coming from the US, Casey has a different experience of the way networks are constructed, and he points out that the US will be seeing 5G networks switched on before the year end. While some companies, such as Southern Water and neighbouring company SES, are in the process of making their supply networks smarter, turn - ing more meters into sensors and speeding up reaction to get as near real-time monitoring as possible, there are still a lot of searching conversations about what needs to happen in the telco networks. "I'm a firm believer that utili - ties know their business needs, which are for reliable commu- nications infrastructure and access to specific frequencies," Casey said. Crucial differences Simoco Wireless Solutions' Woodhall says it is important to realise the difference in critical- ity between applications within a smart network. "Different applications require varying amounts of data, resilience, security, and reliability. Each individual network operator values certain parameters over others and each operator's geographical topology makes some technologies more feasible than others. "A utility company in rural Scotland cannot rely on cellular services for automation commu - nication. 5G, 4G,3G, 2G, LPWAN technologies such as LoRa & Sigfox, licensed and unlicensed wireless mesh technologies, and fixed line comms such as ADSL and fibre all have their advan - tages and disadvantages." If one technology will not do everything then future networks have to be adaptable, to the point of being platform agnostic. BT, along with the Engi- neering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) is Jean-François Fava-Verde. Andy Woodhall. Jeff Casey. investing millions of pounds in the Next Generation Converged Digital Infrastructure Prosperity Partnership research pro- gramme with the University of Lancaster. The project's focus is on developing new, data-driven architecture for autonomous operation of future telecom- munications infrastructure. But is that not what the current 5G drive is supposed to be deliver- ing? Network evolution "It is a continuum," said Nawacki. "You can argue that the 4G architectures of today are already 5G-ready. A lot of people talk about "4.9G "as a strategy: you leverage existing authentication systems using a subscriber SIM, but you are actually using a low latency/ high throughput network to deliver the application space. Whether you're using 4G or 5G, you're dealing with LTE (long term evolution) architecture, if you build a 4G network today are you painting yourself into a corner? No. It's all IT technol - ogy. What 5G brings is higher throughput, lower latency and more computing at the end." "4G has capacity constraints, which is why 5G is going to sup - plant it," said Fava-Verde. "As the Internet of Things expands, we are going to need a huge amount of capacity; 4G cannot handle it." 5G offers bandwidth, latency and the ability to cope with more devices, through network function virtualisation, which virtualises entire classes of net - work node functions into build- ing blocks that may connect, to create communication services. The use of AI and machine learning then becomes not just a good idea but absolutely essential to manage networks, because human operators will be unable to cope with the vol- ume of data available. Human involvement will be more about designing the systems and managing exceptions, rather than running them; day to day needs will be taken care of by the network itself.