Next steps: ETSI’s NFV ISG and the road to 5G

The ETSI NFV ISG (Industry Specification Group) has a new chair in Diego Lopez, Head of Technology Exploration & Standards at Telefónica, and a new lease on life. ISGs are supposed to kick-start technology areas, not permanently rule them, but NFV ISG has been granted a two year extension, in part to mesh NFV capabilities with 5G requirements.

NFV ISG: a long way in a short time with further still to go

Diego Lopez, Telefónica, explains why it is important to incorporate 5G into NFV ISG's analysis for the coming NFV release, since NFV is now recognised as an essential enabling technology for 5G.

5G "kind of different" from 2, 3 and 4G: extra harmony required

Janusz Pieczerak, Orange Poland, points out that it’s “kind of different from 2, 3, 4G” because of the range of services and the necessary global diversity of the players on the equipment side but it has to have a harmonized approach. 

Bridging the gaps between NFV and 5G requirements

Tetsuya Nakamura, CableLabs, explains that the need to have a special workshop at this ETSI meeting shows a lack of understanding between the 5G and NFV camps, where many people are using the same terminology for different things.

The big question answered: Must you implement NFV to build 5G?

Bruno Chatras, Orange, explains that if you understand 5G as an overall concept, it appears logical to build an NFV infrastructure to support it since NFV should meet all the 5G requirements for network elasticity and agility.

Swisscom sees NFV as a prerequisite for the 5G journey

Marcus Brunner, Swisscom, sees an extremely close linkage between NFV and 5G - in fact between NFV and all the fixed and mobile access networks, NFV allowing a horizontal approach.

Vodafone's 'huge' network transformation on the road to 5G

Susana Sabater, Vodafone Group, explains that Vodafone is undertaking a great network transformation based on NFV and work from the TM Forum, IETF and ONF, putting NFV and 5G as complementary initiatives.