NEC 5G Vertical Business Platform: Enabling Industry-Specific Digital Transformation with Cloud and Network Ecosystems
NEC 5G Vertical Business Platform: Enabling Industry 4.0 through Cloud-Enabled 5G Networks.
There are many industries interested to establish their specific use cases that are being reliant on digital transformation into smart manufacturing, smart construction, smart transportation and healthcare, etc.. The NEC 5G Vertical Business Platform offers a holistic framework that enables Industry 4.0 through an enterprise-focused hybrid cloud-enabled 5G-ready network ecosystem, plus a full complement of security services. This framework delivers secure, scalable and seamless capabilities for enterprise customers.
The uploaded image makes it very clear how NEC integrates MC (multi-cloud) management for enterprises by enabling digital services that use NFVI (network function virtualisation infrastructure) and edge computing for real-time data velocity applications.
🏭 Industry Use Cases based on NEC's 5G Vertical Platform.
The activities of a sector needs to be strategized on application basis, i.e. targeting at high density and latency oriented requirements.
Smart Manufacturing – Real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, autonomous robotics.
Smart Construction – Site-based monitoring (including digital twin), remote control of equipment, site based monitoring of asset management (including hazards).
Smart Transportation – Fleet-based monitoring, autonomous vehicles support system, real-time traffic signals for autonomous vehicles (Level 4 target-oriented expected).
Healthcare – Emergency-driven based care (immediate care facility), remote diagnostic care (degree of seriousness), medical devices connectivity (dynamic flexible touchscreen modularisation along the supply chain - clinical & logistics contexts).
These applications are provided through the Netcracker Business Cloud for securing appropriate orchestration of digital service capability proposition through scaling ability.
☁ Hybrid Cloud Ecosystem:
Public, Private, and Telecom Clouds to Bridge the Gap
A key component of NEC’s platform is built using hybrid cloud architecture, combining:
Public cloud - To offer the elasticity and scalable
Private cloud - To provide secure enterprise grade services
Telecom cloud (NFVI & Edge Cloud) - Which has been purpose built for telco workloads and or provides low-latency services closer to the user edge
When deployed with flexibility in mind, hybrid cloud architecture allows for more services to be deployed even when considering strict latency, data sovereignty, and security requirements.
🌐 Ready Network Ecosystem 5G - From Edge to Core
Underpinning the platform is a 5G ready Network Ecosystem, which will connect homes, SME offices and enterprise branch locations using fibre and radio access units as follows:
Important Elements:
RU (Radio Unit) - Which will be at the access edge (i.e. SME/Home)
vDU (Virtual Distributed Unit) - Which will perform baseband functions close to the RU
vCU (Virtual Central Unit) - Which will aggregate the vDUs and connect with the core
CSP Local and Central Offices - Which will run network functions, control and redundancy
Metro/Aggregation Access Network - Provides connectivity from the edge to centrally located data centers
Core NW - Provides a consolidated platform for data transport and sessions.
The ecosystem will support front-haul, mid-haul, and backhaul traffic paths for E2E 5G (end-to-end)
🛡️ NEC’s End to End Security: Unleashing Trust in 5G
NEC embeds security with a multi-layer framework to address telco-grade threats:
Security Layer Description
Security as a NW Service Built into NW functions
Telecom Cloud Security NFVI and cloud native application protection
5G Ready NW Security RADIO, edge and core protection
Cyber Defense Threat detection and response, and analytics
This comprehensive methodology incorporates all layers of a secure stack to ensure that privacy, integrity and regulatory compliance is preserved.
📊 Summary Table:
NEC 5G Platform Layers
Layer Functions/Technologies
Digital Services Industry use cases (Manufacturing, Healthcare, etc.)
Netcracker Business Cloud Orchestration and fog cloud applications
Hybrid Cloud Ecosystem Public, private, and telecom cloud services
5G Ready NW vRAN, Edge, Metro, and Core NW
Security Framework Multi-layer security across all infra.
✅ Conclusion:
NEC Delivers a Unified 5G Platform for Digital Industries
The NEC 5G Verticals Business Platform delivers a solid secure scalable foundation for enabling Industry 4.0. By unifying telecommunications NW with hybrid cloud infra and maintaining rigorous security considerations, NEC enables real-time applications that require ultra-reliability, low latency, and orchestration on demand.
From smart factories to healthcare delivery systems, and everything in between, NEC's layered architecture will delivery business continuity, reliability, and security for business critical services.
🚀 Strategic Benefits of NEC's 5G Vertical Business Platform
The platform can enable a broader segment of businesses and service providers to modernize their infrastructure and monetize their investments, which transcends a simple technology stack. Here are a few examples:
🧩 Modular, Scalable Architecture
It's modular and scalable to allow customers at scale, large or small (e.g. SMEs or large complex factories) flexibility to customize the platform to their specifications
It enables operators to bring vertical service offerings to market with a very rapid time-to-market
⚡ Ultra-Low Latency, High Reliability
When carefully integrated with edge and local breakout architectures, ultra-low latency and high reliability will be available for real-time processing right next to the end user.
The platform will help to unlock Truth- or Lying-Critical operational use cases, such as: remote surgery, industrial automation, and autonomous vehicles!
🔐 Secure by Design
The security capabilities of the platform function and seamlessly protect any threats on each layer, from the cloud, to the edge, to the device.
The above capabilities will also minimize the attack surface using mechanisms like Network Slicing and Micro-Segmentation.
💡 Business Innovation.
The business platform will provide revenue growth opportunities to operators, through Network-as-à-Service (NaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) types of businesses.
Based on years of innovation, the platform will enable an increase of rapidly implemented service innovation, via Netcracker's BUsiness Cloud orchestration layer.
🏗️ Deployment Considerations for Telecom Operators
Telecommunications operators who are considering the NEC 5G Vertical Business platform capabilities or intend to integrate composite 5G business technologies, will need to consider:
✅ Infrastructure Preparedness
A Operator should make certain that the edge and local data center, wherever they are, are capable of hosting vCU/vDU and telco-grade containers.
Companies will need to compete for limited capacity for Edge and Local data centers, with service availability at these fixed or deployed sites. They need to standardize their approach usually at a carrier grade level.
Operators should establish all of the elements of the front-haul and mid-haul.