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Read how Jio transitioned its vast and complex 4G network to cloud native and 5G thereby reducing network management annual maintenance costs by 90%, and provisioning more than 5,000 sites with zero-touch.
A platform-based approach turbo-charged Reliance Jio’s move to cloud native and 5G
Who: Reliance Jio and Jio Platforms
What: Transitioning its vast and complex 4G network to cloud native and 5G
How: Jio Platforms designed, built and deployed new tech on cloud native platforms that is backwardly compatible with all BSS/OSS functions
Results: Network management reduces annual maintenance costs by 90%, provisioning more than 5,000 sites with zero-touch; fulfilment management delivers an estimated 50% rise in operational efficiency
The Indian mobile network operator Reliance Jio faced unique challenges in transitioning a 4G network of tightly integrated physical network functions to a cloud-native infrastructure. While it was paramount to encourage migration to container-based applications, it was also important to make it as pain free as possible for the operations team which manages such a large network.
Jio Platforms designed and deployed new technology capabilities using cloud native platforms built from scratch to ensure backward compatibility with all OSS/BSS functions.
The new platform required many key capabilities:
The cloud native approach is transformative: It will support automated lifecycle management of network functions, instant deployment of 5G core network slices at any scale, configuration management, portability across private and public cloud stacks, and DevOps-style continuous innovation. Together they bring stunning improvements to the efficiency of network operations and customer-facing responsiveness. Jio Platforms designed and developed assurance and fulfilment platforms to provide operations support for an existing network, a network in transition and transformed 5G infrastructure. The platforms act as a backbone for business support systems (BSS) to enable Agile operations. The platforms’ designs are aligned with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) The key capabilities of a modern OSS
The diagram below shows that southbound the platforms integrate with network functions deployed in hybrid infrastructure for direct provisioning and fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security management. Northbound, the platforms provide standard interfaces to integrate with the management and orchestration layer, and are integrated with the existing AI and machine learning platforms that provide insights into network data.
The Jio Network Management System (Jio NMS) facilitates the operation and management of network nodes. It provides a foundation on which to implement Operations Support System (OSS) architectures. The Jio NMS is fault tolerant by design, so stays operational 99.999% of the time.
It serves more than 110 different types of 4G and 5G nodes, more than 5,000 sites are provisioned with zero touch, and it delivers a 90% reduction in annual maintenance costs. All the 5G Nodes are pre-integrated and more than 80 4G nodes are integrated in production network, which accelerates deployment.
Jio Management and Orchestration Platform (Jio MANO) manages network functions and the lifecycles of network slices. This Jio MANO platform is a microservices-based, distributed, scalable and extensible framework for rapid integrations and service implementation. It speeds time to market for new services and capabilities while supporting scalable operations that reduce IT’s complexity and costs.
The platform can scale resources on demand, support services across distributed cloud – also known as edge cloudlets – for fixed and mobile users. It monitors and takes intelligent action to manage and orchestrate its distributed resources. It supports virtualized and containerized workloads without needing open source solutions like Kubernetes.
Jio Platforms has deployed 500 cloud native pods for Reliance Jio’s 5G core network and deployed CPE capacity at 100,000 sites across four zones in India. It has also integrated more than 100 live, multi-cloud, virtualized infrastructure manager sites in the network.
The Jio OSS Fulfillment Management System (FMS) orchestrates workflow, and is a provisioning and activation platform designed to simplify operations by replacing high-touch management with a programmable, virtualized model. All Reliance Jio’s 5G nodes are pre-integrated and more than 80 4G nodes are integrated in production for provisioning and configuration which accelerate deployment at less cost.
Reliance Jio has also seen an estimated 50% improvement in operational efficiency.
The cloud native solutions are built on the top of TM Forum’s Open APIs, which are a strong starting point for designing microservices because they define a consistent and simple-to-use resource model. The solutions also use the Forum’s Open APIs for product inventory management, service activation and configuration, service inventory and resource inventory management.
It also used business entities from the Forum’s Business Process Framework (eTOM) as well as aggregate business entities contained in the Information Framework (SID).
