Wireless Has Transformed Network Architectures, More Coming

Wireless and the internet have radically transformed access network topologies. In the past, the architecture featured a long distance (core) network, distribution networks (metro trunking network) and access networks (local loop) plus premises wiring. 

Mobile networks--depending on how one wishes to describe it--substitute a wireless access network for cables or add a wireless tail to the cabled access network. These days, the indoor private network tends to use Wi-Fi rather than cabled Ethernet. 

source: Ericsson

Wireless local loop is a concept some service providers have employed for many decades, largely as a solution for customer access in lower-density scenarios, and initially seen as a voice solution.

 Wireless internet service providers and satellite providers are other connectivity providers that have for decades used either point-to-point or point-to-multipoint microwave networks to provide communications. But many thought DECT might become a standard for wireless local loop, in the mid-1990s. 

Satellite direct has been a delivery technology since the 1980s for video and other services, including both direct to consumer and master-antenna services aimed at residential complexes. Geostationary satellites provide internet access today, while new constellations of low earth orbit satellites are likely to do so in the future, with additional use of non-traditional platforms that might include free-floating balloons or other high-altitude platform systems (HAPS).  

source: Semantic Scholar

The point is that wireless “last mile” or “first mile” approaches have become more common since the early 1980s, reaching significant adoption in the 4G era in the form of mobile internet access, sometimes as a substitute for fixed access. Many believe 5G fixed wireless will be more attractive, as it will better match cabled network speeds and prices. 

Fixed wireless based on 5G will allow new entrants such as T-Mobile to attack the home broadband market that has, up to this point, been dominated by cable TV companies. That can be quite attractive for an attacker with zero present market share. 

Fixed wireless using 5G might also provide new opportunities for existing providers where other approaches, including fiber to the home, do not seem especially attractive. 

But network architectures are affected in other ways, as well. Small cell networks extend the metro optical fiber network much deeper towards end users, creating a “fiber to the small cell” network. 

At the service level, the 5G network core being fully virtualized, network slices through the core network, terminating at wireless and mobile endpoints, represent a new level of service assurance formerly possible only with virtual private networks.