Cisco is seeking several pivotal roles in 5G. It is stopping short of going head-to-head with the base station giants in the RAN (though an acquisition of one of the O-RAN start-ups is surely quite likely). But it is locking horns with Nokia and Ericsson in several other significant 5G areas, and of course, is the obvious keystone for the USA’s attempt to build a homegrown 5G supply chain to counter Huawei. Areas where Cisco will worry the traditional mobile vendors more than it has in the past include the core, transport and orchestration domains. In the core, it made limited headway with a RAN-neutral EPC based on its acquisition of Starent. But in 5G, the evolution of that platform,…