Nokia added 5G core as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) option for operators and enterprises looking for a simpler way to run a complex 5G standalone (SA) core feature. It also furthers the vendor’s ongoing development of SaaS offerings.

The Core SaaS for 5G service will be offered on-demand through a subscription service managed by Nokia. This removes upfront expenses and the need for an operator or enterprise to manage software maintenance and updates.

Nokia’s Ed Elkin explained that the platform removes “a big hurdle to running 5G standalone.”

“Instead of doing that, they can subscribe to the service from us or if they are a service provider they can turn around and sell this 5G standalone service to their enterprise customers,” Elkin, adding that this would be something can be done for a private 5G network.

Elkin said that the core service was one of its most complicated SaaS implementations. He explained those challenges included developing a 5G SA core, migrating that core to work reliability and consistently in a public cloud environment, and putting it in a package that was easy to consume.

Nokia has been offering a 5G SA core for a few years, which Elkin said was in of itself a “big deal.” The vendor currently counts more than 70 communication service providers using its product, including recent launches from Dish Network and T-Mobile US.

That development then evolved to the next step of making it work on different public clouds.

“Public clouds are built for IT workloads, OSS-type workloads, and the 5G core and radio is characterized by high CPU workloads, latency sensitive needs, and all sorts of crazy separate product flows of how you address redundancy and survivability, that’s just another kettle of fish,” Elkin said, adding that the vendor has been successful in getting this up and running on hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The third step involved inserting business APIs that allow the service to be managed and controlled in an efficient manner by Nokia.

The new offering is expected to soon hit trials with a commercial launch expected during the first half of next year. Elkin said he was encouraged with the integration process of getting the platform to work successfully in different environments, something that has so far tempered broader 5G SA deployments.

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

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

The research firm explained those headwinds are 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.”

Elkin noted that Nokia’s Core SaaS for 5G allows for much quicker customization of services that should make it easier for operators to turn on revenue-generating applications.

“By letting us run the core on the cloud and operate it and you have the business customization you can do, it's the same core so solving that customization equation is part of value there and you probably are going to get to shorter time-to-value and the expense translation from capital lockups,” Elkin said.

The Core SaaS for 5G service is the tenth offered by Nokia as part of its SaaS push that began early last year as part of a broader re-alignment for the vendor.

This includes launches last year of security and analytics features, and more recent launches of services targeting the fixed-wireless access (FWA) market.