As we enter 2022 and our third year of the pandemic, it is easy to recognize that how we live, work, learn, and play has changed forever. Our world has become increasingly digitalized and broadband connectivity is critical to ensuring access to education, healthcare, and participation in the global economy - no matter where you live. Service providers and enterprises must continue to accelerate their transformation in a digital post-COVID world.
#1: The new network is built with open access solutions to meet current and future demands
Today’s networks are under pressure to keep up with growing capacity demand to meet the connectivity requirements of high-bandwidth services such as HD video conferencing and gaming, video surveillance, and AR/VR applications.
Open and disaggregated radio access networks (RAN) and broadband access networks are both required to meet this demand; and globally, we are seeing an accelerated rise in the deployment of 5G and fiber-to-the-premise (FTTx) networks for high-bandwidth applications. We predict that the solutions powering these deployments will increasingly transition to open components as open standards and the multi-vendor ecosystem matures. These RAN solutions will be compliant to O-RAN architectures and Small Cell Forum (SCF) FAPI specifications, while broadband access solutions will comply with standards from the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and Broadband Forum. As a proof point, Radisys along with Airspan, Blu Wireless, and the University of Glasgow in a consortium led by Dense Air recently won a Future RAN competition to deliver a Coordinated Multipoint Open Radio Access Network. The joint solution will leverage Radisys’ 5G software portfolio that is compliant with O-RAN architectures and the SCF FAPI specifications.
The supply chain crisis of 2021 will also drive service providers to diversify their vendor base and seek to utilize open components that can be sourced from a broad variety of software and hardware vendors.
#2: The telco cloud rises high and moves to the edge
We will continue to see the accelerated deployment of software-defined and programmable networks. A major benefit of open disaggregated access solutions is the ability to move the network control and management to the cloud. In the new telco cloud ecosystem, service providers, infrastructure vendors, application providers and cloud companies will all have a significant role to play in delivering high-performance, low latency networks that are needed to enable the growing Industry 4.0 ecosystem.
As such, there have been a number of partnerships announced between leading mobile operators and hyper-scalers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. By leveraging the cloud computing capabilities of hyperscalers, and moving processing closer to the edge, service providers can support ultra-low latency applications as well as scale their network capacity up and down on demand.
#3: CPaaS enables telco service providers to deliver innovative digital engagement solutions
One of the key trends that will continue into 2022 and beyond is strong growth in Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offerings with increasing adoption by communications service providers. This new business model will create a more collaborative ecosystem between telcos and OTT players. An API-based CPaaS solution enables CSPs to leverage application developers’ innovation using programmatic access to fixed and mobile network services.
This ability to differentiate service offerings is key to maximizing network investment value, while the ability to customize applications gives telco service providers an advantage over OTT providers as they transition to the role of digital experience providers. Service providers can use a CPaaS platform with development tools to abstract the complexities of the underlying network. They can thereby open their networks to take advantage of artificial intelligence, computer vision, speech analytics and more to create unique applications that will attract and retain consumer and business customers. Service providers are also empowered to expose their network capabilities to the growing community of software developers globally.
Radisys envisions that service providers worldwide that leverage a cloud-native CPaaS offering will benefit from increased service innovation while reducing network infrastructure investments and costs.
#4: Immersive applications gain ground in a post-COVID world
Today, the convergence of multiple advanced technologies - 5G, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, haptics, IoT, and edge computing - is enabling a new breed of immersive applications for enterprises and consumers. Video technology is driving AR and VR experiences and even holograms, while speech has become a preferred interface to interact with the digital world and enable intelligence in applications.
Service providers can leverage their networks’ media processing capabilities to gain deeper insights into their customers’ needs by analyzing live video and audio traffic in their networks. These media processing solutions can be used to process large volumes of data, and thereby enable new applications that require “on-demand” processing while also analyzing it to adapt services and available resources. Key uses cases for these immersive applications could include virtual classrooms and virtual doctor visits, or even presenting via hologram at an industry event on the other side of the world.
#5: Service providers differentiate on customer experience
Customer care is also getting a makeover in a new digital world. Service providers that simplify the end user experience with intuitive solutions that automate care can provide a scalable, yet personalized, consistent, and world-class customer experience. We expect to see the trend towards digital customer engagement continue with the deployment of intelligent virtual solutions – video and chat bots – that support speech-enabled programmable IVR functions to omnichannel customer engagement. Service providers can offer these services as an extensible solution that brings together all communications and digital engagement into a single application to their enterprise and contact center customers, simplifying their customer care.
#6: Sustainability is as important as connectivity
One of the key learnings from the pandemic has been the realization that the ability to digitally “be” anywhere might save more than just our time – it could help save our planet, too. Work-from-home policies have kept commuters off the roads, contributing to reductions in carbon emissions. Service providers around the world have stepped up to commit to reducing their global footprint with publicized goals to reach net-zero emissions. New 6G research initiatives such as the Next G Alliance must put an equal focus on building networks that are more power efficient as well as delivering higher speeds.
