5G Core (5GC)

5G Core (5GC) is the heart of a 5G mobile network. It establishes reliable, secure connectivity to the network for end users and provides access to its services. The core domain handles a wide variety of essential functions in the mobile network, such as connectivity and mobility management, authentication and authorization, subscriber data management and policy management, among others. 5G Core network functions are completely software-based and designed as cloud-native, allowing higher deployment agility and flexibility on multiple cloud infrastructures.

With the advent of 5G, industry experts defined how the core network should evolve to support the needs of 5G New Radio (NR) and the advanced use cases enabled by it.

Together, they developed the new 3GPP standard for core networks known as 5G Core (5GC), which includes new network functions (NFs) to the Core Network. The figure below depicts the 5GC network architecture with some of its main NFs associated to the packet core and user data management domains.

3GPP 5G Core architecture

The new 5GC architecture is based on what is called a Service-Based Architecture (SBA), which implements IT network principles and a cloud-native design approach. In this new architecture, each network function (NF) offers one or more services to other NFs via Application Programming Interfaces (API). Each NF is formed by a combination of small pieces of software code called as microservices. Some microservices can even be re-used for different NFs, making implementation more effective and facilitating independent life-cycle management – which allows upgrades and new functionalities to be deployed with zero impact on running services.

Let’s talk about the scale phase of cloud-native networks

At the beginning, the size of cloud-native 4G and 5G networks is manageable in the “manual”, traditional way, with limited levels of automation and orchestration. But what happens next?

Today, we work with service providers across the globe in expanding their cloud-native networks, not only to new geographical locations or by growing its capacity, but also by adding new cloud-native network functions (NFs), such as subscription data management NFs to an already-live cloud-native packet core network.

As the cloud-native network expands, the need for automation and orchestration capabilities increases, as does the need for a broader review of operational structures and ways of working. Modernization of some network domains, such as moving into a bare-metal cloud infrastructure or deploying VoNR services, may also be covered in this phase. 

Explore more and learn how to release 5G’s full potential in your network by reading our cloud-native 5G Core guide series.

Access all guides| View 5G Core architecture infographic 

More insights and learnings how to scale up with cloud-native 5G from running cloud-native core networks at scale, including how to resolve 3GPP standard ambiguities, improve 5G service offerings and achieve multi-vendor field integration is shared in this blog post. 

To capture new business and provide a diverse range of services, the 5G environment will have more capabilities than earlier generations. This also implies that we need to do things differently to counter the growing demand and complexity. In essence, we need to do more with stable or lower cost while significantly contribute to reaching Net Zero emissions.  Here we share examples of actions you can do to optimize your 5G Core network.

We defined 5G to transform the world. This means new capabilities are being added to networks to enable more innovation. Capabilities that will open-up more service provider opportunities for value creation in enterprise and industry segments, and expanded collaboration with application developers. For 5G Core, this implies scaling capabilities such as enriched network slicing, edge computing and network exposure. Get inspiration of what can be done from leading service proiders and experts from Ericsson's Core network team.