Will 5G Networks Require New Network Engineer Skills?

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Will 5G Networks Require New Network Engineer Skills?
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The 5G network will likely affect network engineer skills in areas such as security, physical appliances, and software. But enterprise teams won't see too much change, for now.

The transition to the upcoming fifth-generation standard begins with an IP-dependent 3G cellular network, which is also the basis for most enterprise networks. The 4G network then combines more functions, including processing the cellular voice traffic on the IP. 

As IP becomes the default for both networks, it is clear that the network engineers of operators and customers will begin to share many of the common networking skills. Now, the 5G transition is taking place. By 2020 or 2021, most operators will have a commercial operation of 5G, to 2024, which may be the main operator technology.

The network engineers in the enterprise data center may not be able to see a wide range of changes in their skills, as 5G is mainly the operator technology. However, the 5G network may create new opportunities for cloud-based mobile applications, so business support may change over time.

Where will network engineer skills see the most change?

Security will become an important area of network engineer skills for enterprise teams. The combination of enterprise networks, cloud services, and 5G may create overlaps and gaps in network security that engineers must manage closely.

Operator network engineers have seen changes and complexity because 5G deployment has changed the way their companies build and deliver communications services. Therefore, 5G networks will need different, finer granularity programmability to deal with the number and type of services the organization plans to run on top of the cellular infrastructure.

Focus on software and micro-services is critical to the implementation of the 5G commitments, and they should be an integral part of any 5G service. The network engineer is no longer able to program each device through the command-line interface (CLI). The complexity will require the programmability, orchestration, and automation of the software definition.

The following areas will be critical for network engineer skills:

Software-defined networking, for routing and switching.

Software-defined radio access networks, for the radio connection to mobile handsets and devices.

Network functions virtualization, for virtualizing physical network applications and functions such as gateways, firewalls or load balancing.

Automation and orchestration, for handling changes quickly and efficiently based on conditions or loads.

The old way of configuration through CLI at the device level is rapidly dissipating, as we move to a more virtualized world where programmable devices and automation will drive much of what happens in networking.

Will 5G networks require new network engineer skills?

The 5G network will likely affect network engineer skills in areas such as security, physical appliances, and software. But enterprise teams won't see too much change, for now.

The transition to the upcoming fifth-generation standard begins with an IP-dependent 3G cellular network, which is also the basis for most enterprise networks. The 4G network then combines more functions, including processing the cellular voice traffic on the IP. 

As IP becomes the default for both networks, it is clear that the network engineers of operators and customers will begin to share many of the common networking skills. Now, the 5G transition is taking place. By 2020 or 2021, most operators will have a commercial operation of 5G, to 2024, which may be the main operator technology.

The network engineers in the enterprise data center may not be able to see a wide range of changes in their skills, as 5G is mainly the operator technology. However, the 5G network may create new opportunities for cloud-based mobile applications, so business support may change over time.

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