What services are provided by 5G? That's what we will be looking at in this video. Let's start by looking at the case of the 4G network. Originally, 4G networks were simply designed to provide IP connectivity to a terminal, a UE, or user equipment. This paved the way for many services: Internet, social networks, file transfer, telephony with voice over LTE, for example. This is now seen as a limitation. Why is that? Because putting an IP stack in a smart object which must function with minimal energy consumption is unwise. IP isn't even well-suited to industrial networks. Finally, simple 2G services such as SMS were somewhat overlooked at first. In 5G, just like in 4G, we provide IP connectivity, that is to say, that we make it possible for a UE to have an IP address, and therefore, to be able to transmit data with another member of the IP network. That could be IPv4, IPv6, or IPv4v6. But other connectivity services are possible, such as Ethernet connectivity. Indeed, Ethernet is the most widely used data transport technology, be it for local area networks or backbones, or also in industrial networks. In this case, providing connectivity means that through a 5G network, a UE can be a member of an Ethernet network. There is one condition for that to happen; the UE must have a MAC address. In 5G, the type of access provided will be generalized even further, this is known as unstructured connectivity. A UE can through a 5G network be a member of all kinds of networks, Modbus, BACnet, LonWorks, CAN, for example. In that case, the UE must have an address or an identity that is compatible with the chosen technology. If we look at what is provided, we have a data network. An IP network, for example, or an Ethernet network or other type of technologies. In any data network, exchanges are structured in the form of blocks of bytes or blocks of bits. In networking terms, these are known as PDU for protocol data unit. A PDU is any type of structured block of data. IP packets and Ethernet frames are PDUs. The data network can exchange or transmit PDUs. 5G provides a PDU connectivity service. This can be defined as a service which enables a UE to be a member of a data network through a 5G network. There is also the concept of PDU session. What does it mean exactly? It is an association between the a UE and a data network. From the moment the PDU session is established, the UE is identified by an address in the data network addressing scheme. It is therefore possible to exchange data by transferring PDUs. But even if a PDU session is established, that doesn't mean the data are necessarily exchanged. If we take the case of 4G, there is an equivalent to a PDU session, and it is established as soon as the terminal is switched on or at least when it is not in airplane mode. We have already looked at PDU connectivity service. There are also Short Messaging Services with up to 153 characters as standard SMS and up to 39,015 characters. When concatenating multiple SMS, 5G networks can of course transfer SMS, and this is still done between the terminal and an SMS server. These are the same formats and protocols as in 2G, 3G, and 4G. There is complete compatibility. One thing that can be done is to transfer SMS in signaling messages. There is also the multimedia service IMS or IP multimedia system. This can be seen as an IP-based infrastructure. IMS is quite complex but provides a wide range of conversational services. This includes telephony, video, videoconferencing, and messaging. There are also specific emergency services such as 112 calls in Europe, for example. IMS is based on the session initiation protocol or SIP. The 5G network acts as IP-CAN or IP Connectivity Access Network, or the IMS functionality is external to the 5G network but is of course managed by mobile network operators. Operators don't want to be limited to bit transport. They want to give added value to the networks and provide additional services such as notification services, which are open to an external service provider. The simplest service is geolocation. This is used to define services based on location. That is to say, a service provided by the telecom operator or a third-party service provider, which uses the terminal location information, for example, to help me to find the nearest excellent French restaurant. This service can be either pull, that is to say responding to a request, the location is requested for a given terminal, or by notification for an event or when the terminal's location is sent regularly. This is known as push service. Location services can be run for commercial purposes. For example, a list of local restaurants is provided along with the direction to get to your chosen restaurant. Location services can also be useful for network optimization or in an emergency or for legal intercepts. The other service that can be provided by an external provider is monitoring. For example, the reachability of a UE. When the user switches on their mobile terminal a notification is sent to the external service provider. We have seen location-based services which can be a notification service. Other options relating to roaming status are also possible. When the users go abroad, the external service provider is notified or indeed more generalized notifications when there are a large number of terminals in a given area. Of course, users should be aware of the location service provided, and most often they subscribe to it. This service policy, together with billing policy are defined. In conclusion, a 5G network is not simply a mobile IP network. It can transport any kind of data block. IP packets, of course, but also Ethernet frames. It can provide an SMS service, be connected to an IMS infrastructure for multimedia communications. Finally, it can provide services to third parties such as location-based services or notification services. For connectivity services, one important concept is the PDU session. A typical PDU session is provision of an IP address to the UE, as well as, for example, Internet access.
