Taking autonomous networks to the next level
CSPs must automate their networks and operations to deliver rapid service adaption and deployment, with the dual objectives of improving customer satisfaction and increasing revenue. A new TM Forum project is addressing the complex business issues surrounding both, along with solving technical challenges. Read more to find out how you can get involved.
Taking autonomous networks to the next level
One of the main drivers for automation in communications service providers’ (CSPs’) networks is the urgent need to reduce complexity so that they can lower operating costs. This is especially important as networks become software-defined and 5G is deployed. Even more importantly, CSPs must automate their networks and operations to deliver rapid service adaptation and deployment, with the dual objectives of improving customer satisfaction and increasing revenue. A new TM Forum project is addressing the complex business issues surrounding both, along with solving technical challenges.
Read more to find out how you can get involved. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, CSPs are aiming to fully automate the lifecycle of the services they deliver to end customers and of internal network services, which are chains of technical components. Increasingly, both kinds of services are being delivered across a diverse ecosystem of partners that can include not only multiple CSPs, but also many network component suppliers and third-party application providers. The idea is to abstract the network as a set of software services and use policy, automated closed-loop controls and machine learning to make networks and operations self-configuring, self-optimising, self-organising, self-healing and self-evolving.
Implementing automation is both a business and technical innovation challenge which will need some straightforward implementation and integration patterns to achieve self-organising autonomous networks. These must be agreed and adopted by all the players.
To do this work, TM Forum is establishing the TM Forum Network Automation Initiative, which began with publication of a white paper called Autonomous Networks: Empowering Digital Transformation for the Telecoms Industry. Members from BT, China Mobile, Ericsson, Huawei, Orange and Telstra collaborated on the paper and presented it at Digital Transformation World 2019 in May. Last week the team met again in London with other members from BearingPoint, Futurewei and TEOCO to progress the work.
What and how?
The workshop focused on two key areas of discussion: An important outcome was the realization that the current method CSPs and their suppliers use for procurement and integration of hardware and software needs to change. It is simply too slow and cumbersome for CSPs to be able to compete with digital-native service providers such as cloud providers. The industry needs to embrace a much simpler model in which suppliers allow for use of policy and AI by agreeing to implement open architecture principles and open application program interfaces (APIs). TM Forum’s Open Digital Framework, which includes the Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs. For more information or to join the project, please reach out to me directly or contact Alan Pope.
