5G SBA – 5G Service Based Architecture
(5G SBA) is a new way of designing and implementing the 5G core network, which is the part of the network that handles the control and management of 5G services and applications. In SBA, the 5G core network consists of a set of interconnected network functions (NFs), which are software components that provide specific capabilities and functionalities. Each NF can act as a service producer or a service consumer, and can communicate with other NFs through a service based interface (SBI), which is a standardized RESTful API using HTTP/2 or QUIC protocols.
Some of the benefits of SBA are:
- It enables a more flexible and modular development of new services and features, as NFs can be added, removed, or updated without affecting other NFs.
- It supports network slicing, which is the ability to create virtual networks with different characteristics and requirements within a single physical network.
- It facilitates network automation and orchestration, as NFs can register themselves and discover other NFs through a centralized network repository function (NRF).
- It improves network performance and scalability, as NFs can be deployed on cloud platforms or distributed edge nodes using microservice architectures.