The NWDAF standardises data use and analytics models and drives product and service development

Vendors are increasingly offering 5G networks based on 3GPP standards. The challenge of implementing 5G, including more-complex network slicing, is driving the need for a new standard for an integrated data analytics framework that exposes underlying data and data analytics models, and manages each layer to introduce network data analytics functions (NWDAFs) into the core network logic. 3GPP’s Release 17 includes details of how to support multiple NWDAFs in a single network, thereby allowing for multi-vendor domains to exist, if necessary. Vendors are building and testing their products to support the standard in anticipation of its finalisation.