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radisys.com 38 Radisys Series — Who Disaggregated My RAN? eBook optimization. A simplified view of this slicing architecture is presented in the diagram below. The O-RAN Alliance Working Group 1 (WG1) is currently focused on use cases such as RAN slice SLA assurance and multi-vendor slices. To achieve the use cases, O-RAN interfaces O1, O2, A1 and E2 are undergoing further standardization. O-RAN WG1 is also working on possible deployment options of slice management functions in relation to SMOs. Industry Adoption and Further Evolution The promise and potential of network slicing is very high, but adoption is still in its very early stages. The need to define fine-grained control of complex end-to-end use cases is in itself a challenge. In the RAN network, for network slicing to be successful, RAN virtualization is one of the key requirements. RAN virtualization in 5G is a work in progress for many products in deployment. And finally, the aspect of end-to-end slice orchestration and management is still evolving in terms availability of features. The standardization of network slicing continues in 3GPP releases 16 and 17 to address further enhancements and automation. This includes the concept of Generic Network Slice Template and its parameters, and additional KPIs for each slice. With the ongoing work in 3GPP and the O-RAN Alliance, there is going to be a lot more sophistication and automation possible in future RAN networks. References 1. 3GPP TS 28.530 5G; Management and orchestration; Concepts, use cases and requirements 2. 3GPP TS 28.533 5G; Management and orchestration; Architecture Framework 3. 3GPP TR 23.400-40: Study on enhancement of network slicing; Phase 2 4. O-RAN Working Group 1 Slicing Architecture v01.00

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