China Unicom and telecoms equipment supplier Huawei agreed to carry out joint research on 5G network slicing and develop key technologies for the operator’s 5G network services and applications.

The companies said through a joint innovation agreement they will develop and promote network slicing for various vertical markets, such as VR/AR games, industrial control, internet of vehicles and IoT.

Zhang Yong, president of China Unicom’s Network Technology Research Institute (pictured, second from left), said: “Network slicing is a key native capability of 5G, which can maximise the efficiency of communications networks and reduce network construction and O&M costs. China Unicom will demonstrate the multi-scenario slicing service in vertical industries and deepen the integration with the industry to facilitate digitalisation in China.”

He wants both parties to focus on terminals, chips, networks and vertical industries to accelerate the introduction of new applications and jointly build a 5G slicing ecosystem in 2018 and 2019.

He Weijie, VP of Huawei’s cloud core network product line (pictured, second from right), said: “We hope to cooperate with China Unicom to explore new business models based on slices and explore new business value.”

The ability to split a network into multiple slices, offering differentiated service levels such as ultra-high bandwidth or low latency, is considered a key innovation and application for future 5G networks.