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John Byrne is Director, Strategy, at Netcracker. Here he talks to TM Forum about how organizational adjustments and complete control of the DevOps pipeline are essential for the continuous innovation needed to advance autonomous networks.
John Byrne, Netcracker
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Shifting to a domain-centric model is the key to autonomous networks
More telcos are gaining greater understanding of the importance of autonomous networks (AN) says John Byrne (JB), Director, Strategy, at Netcracker. This means they are increasingly looking to intent-based orchestration and closed-loop operations, using AI in assurance to progress.
JB: We will be talking to our customers about the need to embrace a new operational model centered squarely on AN. However, the approach needs to be holistic, encompassing individual autonomous operational domains as well as automation at the service level that crosses these domains. Each poses its own challenges that we are helping telcos address.
Domain autonomy requires individual, self-contained domains to operate in closed loops, ensuring efficiency and agility. Domain requirements across core, transport, fixed and mobile access can be quite broad; making all these domains more granular can simplify the path to autonomous operations. Whatever the scope of the domain, its boundaries should use TM Forum’s Open APIs to expose services and data to other domains and higher layers.
We’ve seen the greatest advancement with our customers when each domain takes full ownership of its IT stack, requiring significant organizational adjustments taking complete control of the DevOps pipeline to enable continuous innovation. To accelerate adoption, we have developed domain automation solutions that offer the best of both worlds by catering to every telco domain but also emphasizing re-use, recognizing that 80% of requirements are common across all domains.
That is only half the challenge. Much more attention needs to be paid to enable the service-level automation both within and across domains for telcos to guarantee seamless delivery of increasing complex use cases. That requires higher levels of coordination and E2E service orchestration among multiple domains, as well as a vision that extends from planning and design to deployment and testing to ongoing operations.
JB: Yes, we are seeing more operators advancing to higher levels of TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks (AN) framework compared to last year. Progress is evident as telcos increasingly embrace intent-based orchestration, and closed-loop operations with a significant use of AI in assurance. We hear more telcos understanding the need for true autonomy and the value in moving from their current state. And we help them define ways to measure this value as they progress through the different stages.
However, key challenges remain, particularly in organizational alignment – shifting to a domain-centric model requires radical structural changes and new ways of working. Most telcos are still operating in a human-first, AI-assisted environment (sometimes termed ‘humans in the loop’). However, the full value in moving to AN will not be fully realized until they embrace a transformation in which AI and autonomy become the norm and humans are able to take a backseat and assume a supervisory role (‘humans on the loop’).
This will require a strong AI and data analytics foundation to be in place as well as modern and cloud-based domain IT, especially in areas like real-time inventory management and intent-based orchestration.
We help many operators work through the various technology, skillset and cultural challenges that are required to help them achieve the full potential of AN. For example, we are supporting telcos like Swisscom, a finalist for the TM Forum Autonomous Networks (AN) Award together with Netcracker, in the journey to evolve its entire operations to TM Forum’s AN Level 4. Intent-based orchestration is fundamental to AN, and our Service Orchestration and Domain Automation blueprint play a pivotal role in helping Swisscom achieve this goal.
JB: Automation and AI are not the same thing, but AI is critical to the kind of advanced automation needed to support AN. Predictive AI is already playing a crucial role in assurance by detecting anomalies and forecasting future performance to reduce network issues and speed up resolutions. Closing this assurance loop at the service level is the next step in AN, and AI is central to making that happen.
In addition, the progress we are making on AI agents now is an important piece of a broader AI puzzle. GenAI agents will play a key role in the transition to autonomous networks – for example by communicating in natural language the types of alarms and setting into motion the steps required to pinpoint the root cause and activate fixes.
More autonomous AI agents, designed to orchestrate and chain together a spectrum of AI technologies – including traditional AI/ML, data analytics, generative AI, causal AI, behavioral and biometric analytics, neuro-symbolic AI, and digital twin simulations – will advance autonomous networks further. Integrating these diverse capabilities into holistic, business-driven solutions is the key to helping telcos solve complex challenges with measurable impact –from automating multi-step processes to enhancing decision-making across telco IT environments.
JB: We view TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) as the critical framework for telcos looking to orchestrate a multi-domain, multi-system automation journey. Telcos need blueprints and templates to overhaul their operations and embrace the many challenges that must be addressed in order for them to embrace autonomy end-to-end across deployment, assurance, and operations.
ODA provides a roadmap and sets internal standards that telcos will need to have if they want to be truly agile, particularly in coordination with TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks blueprint for getting to AN Level 4. We are seeing dramatic results in terms of efficiency and opex reductions from our customers that have embraced ODA for automation.
