The 5G era is here. An increasing number of solutions being launched are harnessing the power of 5G to create new services in factories, hospitals and homes. 5G is also providing the extra bandwidth needed to support the new reality of working, learning and shopping remotely.
However, as the adoption of 5G dramatically increases, tracking performance and tweaking network resources to maintain acceptable service levels is becoming a challenge. Managing demand requires the ability to access huge volumes of data and perform analytics quickly and reliably. Especially where software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) utilized by 5G enable network operators to ‘slice’ the network for different use cases or quality of service requirements.
The promise of 5G
The 5G transformation has already begun. There were over 63.6 million global 5G connections as of Q1 2020, which represents 308.66% growth over Q4 2019.
Services running on 5G are popping up all over the US from smart parking systems in San Francisco to virtual high speed lanes in Louisville Kentucky. In Amsterdam, visitors can hire smart lockers on demand using their mobile phones. In Kyushu Japan, a smart meter installed in each household enables residents to save on energy bills by using electricity when it is in low demand.
BMW, Daimler, Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen, Tesla and Toyota have all announced the development or pilots of 5G-powered self-driving vehicles. Autonomous cars can communicate with each other in as fast as 1 millisecond using 5G - that's about the same time taken by a camera flash!
At the same time, telehealth, which has experienced an increase in demand against the current pandemic, uses 5G networks to share huge data files for remote check-ups and enables patients’ health to be monitored using data received from wearable devices.
Challenges to implementation
Many of these applications require 5G networks to ensure high reliability. If network orchestration fails at the critical moment, systems can fail, and in the case of autonomous vehicles or telemedicine apps, this means that lives can be put at risk. To prevent this, more and more processing will most likely be brought to the edge, and network and computing resources will need to be monitored and continuously optimized to provide the performance required.
Specialized niche networks carved out for these services using SDN and NFV will require fast and reliable data analysis to determine how to deploy virtual network assets and fine tune parameters to meet performance requirements. Machine learning models need to ingest huge volumes of data to predict demand shifts for network resources based on historical fluctuations, and to perform real time accurate positioning.
All of these require rapid analytics to provide actionable insights quickly. These data requirements go above and beyond traditional databases. If a query regarding the quality of service takes hours to execute, by the time the results are received they are no longer relevant.
One possible solution is to implement a data acceleration platform. By speeding up access time and reducing query time, telecom firms can analyze the date more quickly, and take immediate action. Cellcom, a leading mobile operator used an accelerated data platform to analyze billions of raw base station events, and was able to reduce dropped calls on problematic cells by 90%. Another messaging communication provider increased customer satisfaction while complying with government regulations by using an acceleration platform to enable customers to execute rapid queries in short timeframes for historical information. With the ability to ingest, read, and analyze huge quantities of network events, mobile operators are able to intelligently and in many cases proactively redirect network resources, acheiving the best results and making the most out of 5G capabilities.
Telecom operators must ensure there is a strategy in place to analyze the huge volume of network events, and to provide a foundation for 5G transformation. As networks evolve to support smarter factories, homes, and cities, mobile operators need a fast flowing information highway that can orchestrate and manage data at all points, and make the 5G promise a reality.
