A look at who's leading the way in 5G research
VMware pushes into more hybrid cloud.
However, private cloud still might be more difficult to plan for.
The current 5G tests are using pre-standardized gear.
We often hear about fabrics, and we often hear about networks—but on paper, an in practice, they often seem to be the same thing. Leaving aside the many realms of vendor hype, what’s really the difference? Poking around on the ‘net, I came across a couple of definitions that seemed useful, at least at first blush. For instance, SDN Search gives provides the following insight—
The word fabric is used as a metaphor to illustrate the idea that if someone were to document network components and their relationships on paper, the lines would weave back and forth so densely that the diagram would resemble a woven piece of cloth.
While this is interesting, it gives us more of a “on the paper” answer than what might be called a functional view. The entry at Wikipedia is more operationally based—
Switched Fabric or switching fabric is a network topology in which network nodes interconnect via one or more network switches (particularly crossbar switches). Because a switched fabric network spreads network traffic across multiple physical links, it yields higher total throughput than broadcast networks, such as early Ethernet.
Greg has an interesting (though older) post up on the topic, Continue reading
The 5G architecture is also introducing a re-architecture of the core, incorporating new technologies and approaches.