Japanese telecom giant KDDI scored a deal with Samsung to drive the vendor’s cloud-native 5G standalone (SA) core into its network. The move further bolsters Samsung’s 5G SA presence in the region.

The deployment will see KDDI deploy Samsung’s 5G SA core across different locations across Japan. This will allow for redundancy in the case of traffic demands or natural disasters. This feature is also enabled by the cloud-native nature of the core, which allows it to be spun up as a function running in different physical locations.

The 5G SA architecture also allows each of those cores to be run either interconnected with each other or as an independent 5G network. This feature can be used in locations that might be closer to a resource-needy customer or enterprise to support features such as network slicing or private 5G deployments.

The KDDI and Samsung agreement ties in with extensive work between the two companies. This includes Samsung being core to the carrier’s 5G network deployment; part of KDDI’s commercial launch of a 5G SA cell site using open radio access network (RAN) specifications; and the carrier’s plans to deploy virtualized RAN (vRAN) technology.

More recently, the two demonstrated a network slicing trial that supported service level agreements (SLAs). The field trial generated multiple network slices using Samsung’s RAN intelligent controller (RIC) running on a live commercial 5G SA network in Tokyo.

The latest deployment also extends the Asia-Pacific region’s leadership position in 5G SA deployments.

A Counterpoint Research tracker counted 42 operators that had deployed a 5G SA core, numbers that were in line with a similar tracker from Dell’Oro Group. Counterpoint Research noted that there were 21 5G SA deployments in the Asia-Pacific region; seven in the U.S.; seven in Europe; four in the Middle East and Africa region; and three in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The research firm noted that Ericsson and Nokia lead the market globally, bolstered by ongoing geopolitical challenges that have limited the reach of China-based vendors. Counterpoint Research did note that “Asian vendors Samsung and NEC are mainly focused on their respective domestic markets but are expanding their reach to tier-two operators and emerging markets.”

A 5G SA core, which consists of the user plane, control plane, and shared data layer network functions, is completely diverged from a legacy 4G LTE core. This allows operators to deliver a more resilient core network and support highly-touted 5G services like network slicing, automation, orchestration, and mobile edge computing.

However, this modularity has also made deployments challenging for operators.

AT&T, which recently began to roll out commercial services running on its 5G SA core, had previously stated it was concerned about a lack of ecosystem maturity.

“We’ve always said we’re going to deploy this 5G when the ecosystem is ready,” Marachel Knight, SVP of technology and planning operations at AT&T Communications, said during a fireside chat at last year’s ConnectX event. “Are there devices there to take advantage of that? So, it’s a very methodical approach for us.”

These concerns also hindered initial 5G SA deployments.

LightCounting Market Research last year noted that ongoing “headwinds” had limited the deployment of 5G SA networks to just 20 at the end of 2021. This was just 10% of the 200 5G non-standalone (NSA) commercial networks deployed worldwide.

The firm noted those headwinds were led by “the lack of 5G business cases beyond enhanced mobile broadband combined with some network architecture issues” that continue “to inhibit 5GC SBA [5G core service-based architecture] rollouts.”

Counterpoint Research noted similar hurdles, adding that increasing macroeconomic conditions could also play a role.

“In some markets, operators have adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ approach and are looking for evidence of successful use cases before switching from 5G NSA to SA,” the Counterpoint Research tracker stated. “The ongoing economic headwinds might also delay commercial deployment of SA particularly during the first half of 2023.”