Network slicing has so far promised much but delivered relatively little in the way of benefits to operators in revenue or cost savings. That is not surprising for a technology in its infancy, although overhype has raised expectations prematurely at risk of disillusionment setting in. Nokia, despite or perhaps because of being slower off the blocks than certainly Huawei on this front, has been active in promoting network slicing this year as a crucial differentiator for 5G. Network slicing in fact evolved under 4G through various options for partitioning networks into virtualized segments, underpinned by software-defined network (SDN) and network functions Vvrtualization (NFV) technologies that were becoming available. But 5G will enable greater flexibility and scope for network slicing with…