Deutsche Telekom teamed with Mavenir and MobiledgeX to demonstrate a reference design for software capable of bringing the 5G user plane to the network edge, a move the operator tipped to boost its ability to deploy fresh services.

The companies explained the technology enables Deutsche Telekom to orchestrate mobile traffic inside and outside its network, in private 4G and 5G deployments and public cloud.

Alex Choi, SVP strategy and technology innovation at Deutsche Telekom, stated the “ability to dynamically and seamlessly orchestrate traffic” across a range of networks make “new connectivity solutions” possible.

The trial employed Mavenir’s 5G core running in Deutsche Telekom’s network. The companies stated the reference design is not dependent on any underlying cloud architecture, infrastructure vendor or operator.

MobiledgeX, an edge computing company founded by Deutsche Telekom, created the platform enabling operators to dynamically allocate user plane functionality across their own cloud infrastructure.

Sunay Tripathi, CTO and EVP of engineering and product at MobiledgeX, said the technology “transforms traffic patterns in mobile operator networks, making the telecom operator the largest customer of their own edge cloud offering”.

Mavenir noted the technology will assist operators with the process of local breakout, or segmenting mobile traffic onto local networks and enabling smartphone users to access the internet outside the range of their home network. CSO Bejoy Pankajakshan said Deutsche Telekom will have “freedom to deliver a point of interconnect/local breakouts anywhere in the world, on any cloud”.

The companies said they demonstrated the technology using “cloudlets” in Germany.

Operators expect to use 5G for multiple latency-sensitive use cases, not all of which will need to send user data all the way to the network core, making user plane flexibility an important goal for some.