Page 24 - ITU-T Focus Group IMT-2020 Deliverables

2 ITU-T Focus Group IMT-2020 Deliverables

The IMT-2020 network is envisioned to be an access network-agnostic architecture where core network will
be a common unified network for emerging new radio access technologies for IMT-2020 as well as existing
fixed and wireless networks (e.g., WLAN). The access technology-agnostic unified core network should be
accompanied by common control mechanisms which are decoupled from access technologies.

The IMT-2020 network should support newly-defined RATs for IMT-2020, evolved IMT-advanced RATs, WLAN
access networks, fixed broadband access networks, and fixed and mobile satellite networks. IMT-2020
network should support efficient access and management capability for various types of IoT/M2M devices.

7.4 Separation of control plane and user plane functions

The IMT-2020 network should be future-proof as much as possible to accommodate even unforeseeable use
cases. The clear separation of control and data planes and the enabling technologies are the basis to make
the IMT-2020 network flexible and extensible.

The IMT-2020 network should support highly scalable distributed architecture to avoid signalling congestion
and to minimize the signalling overhead for diverse UE/RAT/service requirements.

In order to support distributed network architecture, and optimized routes for application data and signalling
data, control plane and user plane functions should be clearly separated with defined interface.

7.5 Distributed network architecture

The IMT-2020 network should be flexible enough to handle the explosive increase of traffic from the new
emerging bandwidth-hungry services such as ultra-high definition (UHD) TV, augmented reality (AR), video
conferencing, remote medical treatment, etc. The heavily centralized architecture onto an anchor node of
existing IMT networks is expected to be changed to cope with the explosion of mobile data traffic. This will
require the gateways to the core network are expected to be located closer to the cell sites resulting in
distributed network architecture.

The distributed network architecture will bring a significant reduction on backhaul and core network traffic
by enabling placing content servers closer to mobile devices and also be beneficial to the latency of the
services.

7.6 In-network data processing

The IMT-2020 network should be designed and implemented for optimal and efficient handling of huge
amounts of data.

The IMT-2020 network should have mechanisms for promptly retrieving data regardless of their location. In-
network data processing is a system that provides with network wide data processing and application
services by network nodes.

In IMT-2020, network nodes, where and when required, should provide data processing and application
services (i.e., in-network processing), and storage to reduce the network congestion and response time (e.g.
for context-aware proximity services, CCNx, on-path big data processing, etc.). ICN and the edge computing
are typical examples.

7.7 Unified intelligent network management
The IMT-2020 network should be designed to simplify operations and management of the network with
increased complexity due to flexible and extensible network softwarization.
Procedures should be automated as far as possible, with well-defined open interfaces to mitigate multi-
vendor interworking problems as well as interoperability (roaming) issues. Standardized management
protocol and common OAM protocol are desirable. Also, enhanced end-to-end QoS management and
security/privacy models should be designed.

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