This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Steve Douglas, Head of Market Strategy at Spirent, a Keysight company

The first wave of 5G technology revolutionized mobile connectivity, providing the groundwork for cloud-native, software-powered service delivery. However, although the speed, capacity, and flexibility of networks have soared, service innovation and monetization have not yet achieved their full potential.

The next few years could mark a dramatic turning point in 5G profitability. 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology is expected to support a new wave of smarter networks—and revenue-generating services—to meet the growing expectations of a broad customer base. For operators, it sets up new opportunities for lucrative AI and ML-enabled offerings. Like any breakthrough innovation, 5G-A also introduces new challenges.

As the importance of consistent performance and governance grows, continuous testing, validation, and assurance from lab to live environments will become even more essential. As they explore new possibilities of 5G-A, now is the time for operators to begin designing test coverage and developing assurance strategies to support their new services.

A bold release roadmap

The transition to more advanced, high-value 5G-A services will be driven by 3GPP Releases 18-20 over the next two years. With every step, 5G technology will achieve enhancements in capabilities like network slicing, new connectivity options, and improved support for industrial and IoT use cases.

Release 18, which is now frozen, offers improved core and RAN flexibility, and better support for vertical applications with highly specific requirements. Release 19 will soon follow up with additional IoT and edge support capabilities, together with improved AI operations support. Finally, 3GPP Release 20, expected in 2027, will further enhance new 5G-A capabilities and initiate a bridge to 6G technology.

What’s in it for operators and customers?

Operators, enterprise customers, and consumers are expected to experience major benefits from new advancements in 5G technology. 3GPP Release 18 provides immediate improvements that promise to enhance a variety of industrial and vertical use cases. Examples include:

Improved capabilities for industrial services like railways, uncrewed aerial vehicles, automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X), edge computing applications, and private 5G networks

Extended coverage and improved consumer experiences through better integration with non-terrestrial networks

Enhanced efficiency for IoT applications, such as improvements to Machine-Type Communication (MTC) and eRedCap, as well as broader coverage utilizing satellite integration

Better network performance and efficiency across RAN and core layers, for lower latency, high-throughput experiences

Dynamic network slicing and QoS-based service tier support, to enable guaranteed user experiences

Support for 5G Multicast Broadcast Services (MBS) for organizations that require group communication and content distribution at scale

These impressive capabilities are all part of the first wave of 5G improvements. Automation, rich analytics, and power efficiency are integrated deeply throughout the 5G-A network. They provide operators with the tools they need to better manage complexity, scale services, and support sustainable growth, while keeping Opex in check. The latest network advances also empower operators with the features they need to create more differentiated service offerings and set the stage for additional revenue sources.

Minimizing risk and maximizing success with testing and assurance

With numerous new features and updates available in 5G-A, operators will need to thoroughly test their updates before deploying them to the operational network. In dynamic, always-evolving 5G environments, the testing lifecycle must be continuous, ranging from impact planning through to production.

Advanced capabilities also require more advanced test methodologies, such as digital twins and active service assurance. These methodologies extend thorough, automated testing across the full lab-to-live lifecycle to fully evaluate the impact of changes before they are deployed. Let’s consider some examples of potential 5G-A use cases, and how automated, continuous testing and assurance can support their success:

**Supporting UAVs (Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles): **The latest advances in 5G deliver powerful capabilities that provide a foundation for aviation-grade drone operations. 3GPP Release 18 implements a dedicated aircraft-to-anything (A2X) service layer. It also offers integrated altitude-aware mobility, supports inter-operator coordination, and enables policy-based flight management.

Test and assurance requirements will be stringent. They must confirm that the new 5G features will support highly latency-sensitive UAV operations in live airspace, in a safe, policy-compliant way.

**Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN): **For operators seeking to offer extended service coverage options to customers, 3GPP Release 18 offers improved 5G support for satellite-based Non-Terrestrial Networks. Features like discontinuous coverage handling enable devices to sleep when they are out of satellite range, then reattach on the next satellite pass, to optimize service continuity. The new release also provides IoT enhancements that improve mobility and performance for IoT sensors that are served by satellites.

As they deploy these services, operators must test to confirm that their network successfully delivers all of the power-saving and satellite-specific mobility features in a compliant way, without impacting the user experience

**Railway Communications: **The initial 5G-A release also provides support for the migration from GSM-R to Future Railways Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), through a new railway-optimized air interface and spectrum profile. Release 18 also enhances 5G Core capabilities for managing passenger services and onboard data backhaul, utilizing a shared infrastructure. These upgrades will support service enhancements to enable railways to seamlessly transition to the latest digital FRMCS systems—without disruption to their current operations.

To support these enhanced railway communications, operators will need to thoroughly test and verify that the 5G core is capable of supporting high-speed mobility. Tests will also need to confirm that the network can support deterministic control traffic and priority enforcement to meet rail traffic requirements.

A new wave of value creation in 5G

The emerging enhancements to 5G technology promise to transform 5G networks into more agile, responsive platforms that are better aligned to today’s evolving service needs. With rich analytics capabilities, deeper support for IoT and industrial applications, and integrated AI/ML capabilities, operators have a wealth of new features to choose from as they design, build, deploy, and monetize new services.

Although comprehensive testing will require a strong strategy and careful planning, operators that make it an integral part of their service development process will ultimately minimize risks and costs—while accelerating time to market and improving the customer experience.

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Categories: Industry Viewpoint · Wireless