Reliance Jio has already deployed network slicing in India, even as the final rules for it are yet to be finalised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The regulator released a consultation paper in August and recently held an open house discussion.

While TRAI is yet to finalise the regulations, Jio’s Senior Vice President for Planning and Engineering, Sanjay Thakur, said at the India Mobile Congress that the company had deployed a “mission critical slice” for the Maharashtra Police when 35 lakh people gathered at Pandharpur in a single day. He said Jio had also used network slicing at a similar event in Tirupati, where around five lakh people gathered near the temple. “Network slicing as a part of intelligent RAN worked beautifully,” Thakur said.

“…in Maharashtra [at a religious event in Pandharpur] 35 lakh people get together on a single day and we define a mission critical slice for [for the] Maharashtra police. Then we had a similar event at Tirupati and in Tirupati in a small area around the temple around 5 lakh people got together so network slicing as a part of intelligent RAN worked beautifully like so intelligent RAN is going to take shape it is already started there are some steps of maturity and we will soon see it taking shape as I explained in some examples.” – Jio

Why Jio is pitching Network Slicing and AI-powered RAN networks in the crowded regions: “India has a population density of say 13 times or 15 times of any developed country. Mumbai alone has a population density of 25,000 people per square kilometre. And in a religious event like Pandharpur and Tirupati, so we had 2 major religious events recently, there were 1 lakh people per square kilometre. Now the RAN has to evolve in such a way that it has to adapt quickly. The fifth pillar which I feel that RAN, intelligent RAN has to take care is learning. Now we will have a network that will learn on its own. I did not teach the network. So the network will learn and the network will adopt as per the requirements of the customers, the requirements of efficiency, etcetera,” Thakur said.

COAI says network slicing and prioritisation will depend on use cases: The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) argued that network slicing and prioritisation would depend on the use cases that network providers want to prioritise and support. Savjit S. Soin, Deputy Director General for Regulatory Affairs at COAI, said:

“In the case of prioritization, it is more intent based that what kind of a service would you like to prioritize? So You give that kind of a higher number to that quality of service so that it gets serviced at all times.” -COAI. 

Network slicing could support machine-to-machine communications: Ciena, a US-based global telecommunications networking company, said network slicing could be used for machine-to-machine communications.

“…till date, we have been providing services to humans. There is a tolerance value, there is an emotional value. The moment this changes to machine to machine, they would want a very simple thing, bandwidth or a simple slice. And moving to autonomy will make their networks very, very simple, standardised, And I think that’s how they can have a slice which can cater to machine to machine communications.” – Girish Bhatia, Ciena 

Jio has previously acknowledged deploying network slicing: This is not the first time Jio has publicly acknowledged deploying network slicing. When the Department of Telecommunications wrote to TRAI seeking recommendations on net neutrality concerns surrounding network slicing, MediaNama reported that Jio had already deployed the technology.

 “We are the only ones who are running six commercial network slices in the production network today,” said Aayush Bhatnagar, President of Reliance Jio. 

During an earnings call, Anshuman Thakur, Non-Executive Director for Strategy and Planning at Reliance Industries, said, “Our network is ready, but of course, we have to see if the market, the regulations, etc., are also ready for those.”

Recent regulatory developments concerning net neutrality and network slicing

• TRAI: In August, TRAI released a consultation paper on a quality-of-service framework for 5G networks that could formalise network slicing in India.
• Jio and GSMA: During the consultation process, Reliance Jio and GSMA urged TRAI to allow service-based network slicing as the regulator considers new quality-of-service rules.
• MediaNama: Upholding the principles of net neutrality, MediaNama submitted counter-comments to TRAI, arguing that net neutrality regulations should apply to network slices as well.
• Broadband India Forum (BIF): BIF later warned that application-specific network slicing could breach net neutrality, arguing that giving different apps different speeds would lead to content discrimination. However, during the initial stakeholder consultation, COAI and BIF did not make submissions.
• Jio: Opposing a provision that would require telecom operators to maintain network capacity, Jio opposed TRAI’s proposed 80% network utilisation threshold for 5G network slicing. The company urged the regulator to withdraw the proposed restriction, arguing that high utilisation does not necessarily indicate congestion or slower speeds.
• TRAI open house: At the open house discussion, MediaNama shared its views on network slicing, net neutrality and telecom operators.
• TRAI open house: At the same discussion, BIF, consumer groups, Airtel and Jio shared their views on TRAI’s proposed framework for 5G network slicing and quality of service.

Vodafone Idea says humans should control high-stakes network decisions: Addressing the role of artificial intelligence in network management and slicing decisions during the same India Mobile Congress discussion, Praveen Sharma, Executive Vice President for Technology Projects at Vodafone Idea, said network slicing is a commercial and strategic monetisation decision.

Since slicing involves allocating dedicated network capabilities that directly affect revenue, service-level agreements (SLAs) and business strategy, Sharma argued that such high-stakes decisions should remain under explicit human control rather than being delegated to autonomous AI agents.

“There are certain actions in operators like regulatory actions, lawful interception, monetization of the network like we want to monetise the particular frequency, particular slicing. So those actions should be left to humans only.” – Praveen Sharma, Vodafone Idea. 

What is a RAN system, and how does it interact with network slicing? The Radio Access Network (RAN) is the part of a mobile network that connects a phone to the rest of the network. It consists of antennas and radio equipment that transmit and receive signals over the air. Everything a user does on a mobile network relies on the RAN to establish and maintain connectivity.

RAN slicing typically works by distributing and allocating radio resources among slices. Vendors now offer products that allocate these resources dynamically. Ericsson, for instance, says its RAN slicing product allocates resources on a one-millisecond basis, which it says improves the end-user experience and spectral efficiency.

Vi calls for service-aware networks and deep packet inspection: Rajesh Singh, who works in radio planning at Vodafone Idea (Vi), said telecom operators had long sought networks that could identify the services consumers use and allocate resources accordingly.

“[To] all Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) vendors, we ask one feature that why not you get a service aware network? When a consumer starts session or anything in apps, he should know what kind of service he’s looking forward… Radio is again, I’m telling you, dumb…. Somebody has to look in at packet level, we used to call it DPI, deep packet inspections; inspect it and then decide what kind of service we need to deliver. that was the long demand from this industry. I think this AI-RAN this will be available now. We already 3GPP also working some features already even both all OEM vendors are bringing on the table where link management, interference management all these started coming in. But not directly impact.” 

Singh said AI-powered RAN systems could help operators move beyond being seen as “dumb pipes” that provide connectivity while other companies capture the revenue generated by digital services.

“I think I have been in telecom industry, I felt bad every time when came in the many forums. We used to be called as a dumb pipe. We always are dumbest. Guys who’s been utilised by all kind of OTTs, all kind of infrastructures, all e-commerce. You just tell them anybody’s Uber, Amazon, Netflix are making money, but operators are not making money. So we were really with the dumb pipe. After many decades, we’re seeing this word intelligent RAN. We’re going to be also smarter now hope so this all intelligence will work and will become smarter coming days…”

Catch up with Medianama’s coverage of network slicing here. 

Also Read: