Verizon today said it successfully completed an end-to-end data session on its standalone (SA) 5G core and network traffic will start hitting the new core before the end of the year. Full commercialization of the SA 5G core will occur in 2021, according to Verizon.

The operator didn’t name any vendors involved in its SA 5G core, and declined to answer a question about whether Nokia is playing a role in that effort. The decision to omit specific details, including infrastructure vendors, follows this week’s shocking report about Verizon’s plans to end its relationship with Nokia and award Samsung roughly half of its radio access network (RAN) contract going forward.

“Nokia does continue to be an important partner,” a Verizon spokesperson said earlier this week. The relatively tepid response is noteworthy, however, especially now that it opted against using the opportunity again today to forcefully deny the framework of the deal that will see Ericsson and Samsung split its RAN business. 

“We have several infrastructure vendors on the core side all working together for the new core,” the spokesperson said today. 

While the impact of Verizon’s falling out with Nokia will likely cause some challenges, the operator maintains that “deployment of our 5G nationwide is still on track for 2020, using dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to enable that nationwide service,” the spokesperson told SDxCentral. “5G nationwide will initially launch on the current core and we will shift traffic to the standalone core at a later date.”

The SA 5G core, which adheres to a cloud native, containerized design with fully virtualized webscale software, also factors heavily into Verizon’s five-year journey toward its virtualized future. In late January, CEO Hans Vestberg said Verizon's move to virtualize its various networks under a common, unified framework was 60% complete. The operator didn’t provide any new updates on its virtualization progress today.

“The 5G standalone core is critical for unleashing the most advanced benefits of 5G technology including remarkable levels of programmability to manage the advanced solutions and exponential traffic that 5G will bring,” Bill Stone, VP of planning at Verizon, said in a statement. “By building this 5G core with cloud native, containerized architecture, we will be able to achieve new levels of operational automation, flexibility, and adaptability.” 

The evolution of Verizon’s network core is less about speed and latency, and more about the provision of new services and operational applications, the spokesperson explained. 

“It will increase ability and enable deployment at scale for new services,” the spokesperson said. “Cloud-native virtualization, in combination with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, will enable dynamic allocation of the appropriate resources and automated network configuration changes, including the ability to scale up or scale down network function capacity, to provide the right service levels and network resources needed for each use case.”

The SA 5G core will also provide the necessary architecture to support network slicing and mobile edge computing, according to Verizon. “Putting the compute power and data storage closer to the user at the network edge will significantly reduce latency, which will in turn enable very low latency 5G solutions,” the spokesperson explained. It also allows Verizon to virtually assign network resources in real time to deliver specific services via network slicing. 

“5G technology will bring about solutions in manufacturing, retail, entertainment, sports, education, and countless other areas we have not even dreamed of yet,” Stone said.