The Intent-driven slice management in autonomous network - Phase IV Catalyst uses APIs and genAI to significantly simplify the process for enterprises to communicate their business needs and ensure the correct allocation of network resources
Automated, intent-based slicing makes it far easier for enterprise to adopt new network technology
Commercial context
Network slicing enables the efficient allocation of network resources and the provision of customized, high-quality services tailored to specific verticals and applications, ultimately unlocking new monetization opportunities. The communication industry's goal of making slicing a staple feature of modern enterprise applications, however, necessitates simplification of its adoption and management. In practical terms, this involves automating the assignment of individual network slices.
Automating slice assignment is therefore the motivation behind the Intent-driven slice management in autonomous network - Phase IV Catalyst. Now in its fourth iteration, the project aims to significantly simplify the process for enterprises to communicate their business needs and ensure the correct allocation of network resources. Crucial to this project is the creation and testing of APIs required to manage a slice across multiple networks, and the APIs required to enable a machine learning algorithm to simultaneously balance multiple intents.
The solution
At the heart of this project lies the TMF921 Intent Management API. While other APIs have attempted to facilitate communication between autonomous domains, this API manages closed-loop operations across business, service, and resource layers. The TMF921A API links the business intent layer, service intent layer, and resource intent layer, which significantly reduces the complexity in automating intent. Other TMF APIs, such as TMF641, TMF645, and TMF642, are used to connect components, enabling orchestration and assurance of services.
Of course, the project factors in the need to make it easy for such enterprises to communicate their needs in more straightforward terms. The solution simplifies enterprise interactions both at the outset and during the deployment phase by using genAI to translate business intent into service intent through a chatbot portal. This approach enables enterprise to effectively create dedicated network slices with minimal effort, unlocking new application possibilities that were previously too complex to implement.
The Catalyst also gives CSPs a method for proactively assuring their SLA commitments, ultimately providing enterprises with more reliable customer guarantees of their own. The project demonstrates these through a variety of advanced business scenarios, such as future scheduling of services, illustrating how enterprises can proactively respond to service changes and notify their customers accordingly.
Wider application and value
The autonomous operation of network slices offers numerous benefits to CSPs and their customers. For customers, it means customized network performance tailored to their specific needs, with dynamic scalability and responsive adjustments. Enterprises can schedule the creation of autonomous network slices to deliver dedicated access, defined bandwidth, and SLA parameters through a genAI assistant or chatbot. This process simplifies the traditionally long and complex task of updating connectivity parameters, encouraging enterprises to make beneficial changes for their customers.
For CSPs, intent-driven slices are crucial to forming customized network connectivity as a whole and essential in realizing innovations like autonomous vehicles, remote healthcare, and massive IoT sensor deployments. Autonomous slice management also improves network utilization efficiency, reducing the need for manual intervention and increasing asset utilization. This efficiency also translates into environmental benefits, as greater CSP efficiency results in a greener, less electricity-intensive industry. Intent-driven slice mangement results in a far more energy efficient RAN, which as GSMA Intelligence highlights, accounts for 73% of energy consumption in the overall network infrastructure.
As the connected infrastructure becomes increasingly automated, some advancements in this process will be more impactful than others. This project, which has defined and tested the APIs necessary for the broader adoption of intent-based slicing, marks a significant stride forward for the industry. The fundamental achievement of making customized networks readily available to various sectors that rely on them for next-generation products is a remarkable success - the benefits of which will be realized for years to come.
To find out more about how this Catalyst is using APIs and genAI to optimize network resource usage through intent-driven slice allocation, please see the project space on the TM Forum website here.