In an SLA-driven 5G world, in which CSPs must meet dynamically changing and hugely diverse performance requirements, active monitoring is paramount.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is an indispensable element of any outsourced service. It defines, for both parties (service provider and customer), the services to be provided, the expected levels of service and the metrics that’s assessed by, reliability and availability, the penalties if service levels are not met, dispute resolution, and so on.

Put simply, an SLA is a watertight agreement that clearly states metrics, responsibilities, and expectations, so that if there are any issues with the service, or the customer’s demands change, neither party can plead ignorance. It provides:

• Accountability for both parties
• Clarity of expectations and remediation requirements/techniques if service levels drop
• Conflict resolution
• Improved customer QoE of SLAs are consistently met
• Legal protection for both parties
• Compliance by meeting minimum expected service levels

‘Five nines’ availability – the gold standard

The gold standard for availability in most telecoms / MNO services is ‘five 9s’ – that is 99.999%, which equates to around five and a quarter minutes of downtime per year. If it’s more than that, there is likely to be a sliding scale of price for the customer, which equates to a penalty for the provider.

Of course, SLAs don’t just cover service availability – they may also define specific performance targets in terms of QoS / QoE delivered during the lifecycle of the service, as well as response times and support procedures.

SLAs have always been essential, but with the complexity that next-generation networks (4G LTE and 5G) bring they are becoming even more important. The dynamic, virtualised, cloud-native services and use cases that the 5G core network offers create previously unimagined complexity – and in a multi-vendor environment.

For example, IoT services in general will have different performance requirements from services designed to provide connectivity in a smart factory or a port. And, there are innumerable kinds of IoT applications, so there may be considerable variation between them. Capacity and scalability requirements may also change on an on-going basis.

On top of that, 5G Standalone brings network slicing and private networking – each of which demand different performance parameters and metrics, which may change dynamically as services and slices are provisioned and retired, or scalability or latency requirements change.

At the same time, even a small change or upgrade to a service or slice can have significant ramifications throughout the network and the entire technology stack. With operators and CSPs embracing DevOps strategies (including continuous integration and continuous delivery and continuous testing) to ensure continued innovation and agility, it means that ensuring SLAs for rapidly released services and service upgrades becomes imperative.

Some 5G use cases will demand ‘six nines’ network availability

Notably, the 3GPP Release 16 of the 5G Standards, which was completed in 2020, introduces new specifications and recommendations for meeting ‘six 9s’ availability for 5G network services – that is, 99.9999% network availability, which reduces annual downtime from just over 5 minutes to around 30 seconds.

So, what does all this mean for CSPs? First, it means that they will offer and have to support a much wider range of services than before, with very different performance targets. Consumer eMBB services will be very different from mission critical applications for which the new six 9s standard has been devised.

Second, it means that they need to actively monitor their network, services, and network slices on a continuous basis – in real time – with immediate alerts whenever a service drops below expected performance levels, and therefore fail to meet SLAs.

Active monitoring is essentially critical in the 5G era to enable CSPs to meet customer SLAs consistently. If not, they will lose customers (consumer and business) to rivals that are able to maintain SLAs. Active monitoring is not an option, it’s a fundamental requirement.

How Emblasoft Evolver active monitoring helps CSPs to meet SLAs

In such an understandably SLA-driven world, Emblasoft Evolver and its comprehensive Active Monitoring capabilities and functionality can provide real-time visibility into your network, services and network slices. It works by injecting realistic traffic into the network to continuously test how everything is performing, according to any metric and any given KPI / SLA.

It uses software agents, in the network, which can be dynamically and remotely controlled at will, to provide complete visibility into the network. Multiple tests can be run simultaneously, and it covers all generations of mobile technology — 5G-2G — and multiple protocols, including Radius, Diameter, HTTP/2, and many more.

It can, for example, actively monitor services at the edge for latency, VoLTE services for jitter or packet loss, the performance of a private network, or ensure that an estate of IoT devices is performing to the required SLAs. All these tests can be run in parallel, providing a unique and comprehensive insight into your network and the on-going performance of all the differentiated services you offer.

Emblasoft Evolver active monitoring provides continuous end-to-end monitoring of Network Functions and other entities, matching the same standards as the services being tested in a live 5G network. At the same time, it will alert administrators to potential issues in real time, so that they can be remediated before impacting SLAs.

Emblasoft Evolver can meet the toughest demands of today’s SLA-backed 5G propositions, helping CSPs to build customer trust. And, because you can track performance in real time, you can also ensure that you can meet the demands of very different SLAs – verifying that you can actually deliver and that you do so, once the service has been templated and launched.

This helps you protect your business and monetise your service effectively. So, to find out how Emblasoft Evolver active monitoring can help you to comprehensively meet your SLAs in a cost-effective way, contact us today to find out more.