What is 5G Standalone?

What is 5G Standalone (SA)?

The 5G network is what the telecom industry calls the fifth generation of mobile technology. When it debuted in 2019, companies touted it as a major advance in mobile wireless technology that would surpass existing 4G LTE technology, promising to reduce latency, increase speed, save energy, and enable a new world of possibilities such as smart cities and IoT that could change the dynamics of the modern world.

The goal of the industry is to work towards 5G SA, or standalone, in order to bring the 5G network to its full potential throughout the network, as opposed to just connecting 5G devices to a 4G LTE core via a hybrid 4G/5G network. With a 5G core, the network infrastructure will look quite different, utilizing the latest software tools and advances in cloud, virtualization, and 5G core network slicing.

These technologies will unlock the full use, and thus the real-world applications that are only possible with 5G SA.

The 5G standard is defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to mean networks employing 5G New Radio software, but the 3GPP allows existing 4G LTE networks to underlay 5G New Radio technology until a more unified and upgraded network becomes attainable.

5G Standalone vs. 5G Non-Standalone. What’s the difference?

The difference between 5G SA vs. 5G NSA is that 5G NSA is a network that can be built on top of existing 4G LTE infrastructure, whereas 5G SA is “standalone,” meaning it employs new 5G technology at each point in the network.

5G SA vs. NSA : 4G LTE Core vs. 5G Core

Perhaps most importantly, 5G SA is run on the 5G Core which, unlike LTE, is cloud-based. This means that 5G technology benefits from the software, automation, network slicing, and virtualization possibilities that this new architecture can provide. This is essential for the security, efficiency, speed, and low latency that 5G has promised.

As 5G started rolling out as an NSA network, the RAN (radio access network) relied on a 4G core, even when 5G technology was being employed to connect end users to the network.

But for 5G to live up to its promises of speed, low-latency, and energy efficiency, the remainder of the network will need to evolve, not just the devices at the last mile, for example.

When will we have 5G Standalone?

T-Mobile was the first to announce a commercial 5G standalone network back in 2020, but industrywide the transition has been rolling out relatively slowly, due to various factors such as the infrastructure challenge of moving to a cloud-native 5G core.

Carriers intend to move over to 5G SA, but there must be alignment with hardware, geography, and other variables.