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Moving Towards a Virtualised, Open and Automated Network

Moving Towards a Virtualised, Open and Automated Network Image Credit: Zazamaza/Bigstockphoto.com

The networks of Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are becoming more dynamic in line with the requirements of constant change in network parameters and configurations to meet customer expectations. Today, the ultimate goal of CSPs is to become digital service providers (DSPs), exposing their network to on-demand consumable services: flexible, fast to provision and manage, with tailored quality of service and service level agreements that deliver on the promise of 5G with enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable low latency and massive machine-type communications.

For CSPs to unlock the true potential of 5G networks, automation is mandatory, as it will dynamically manage and orchestrate all the above services at large volumes while at the same time coordinating a multitude of data and technical domains, which would never be feasible if based on manual human operations.

In this 5G era, AI, Open RAN, Edge Computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) will lead the telecom automation charge, allowing providers to offer innovative new services while improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.

#1: Moving to a single virtualised and automated network

Network automation is often used in conjunction with network virtualisation. Virtualisation is the key technology that enables a completely new approach to telecoms because it allows disaggregating hardware and software. This move towards disaggregation allows telcos to put the expertise in the right place and bring new, agile vendors into the supply chain, moving away from complex, closed, legacy network infrastructures. CSPs, can achieve end-to-end network automation using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to reduce manual tasks, improve service experience, enable efficient network resource utilization, and allow faster roll-out of innovative services.

Ultimately, automation is the goal of virtualization. Open RAN is just one part of the wider move towards virtualised networks.

#2: Adopting ‘Open’ approach to networks

When an operator decides to make the transition to a virtualised and automated network, another crucial requirement is to be open. Radio access accounts for about 60% of the cost of an operator’s mobile network. This is a difficult market volume for traditional vendors to give up.

Today, Open RAN is changing that ‘lockin’ situation and is allowing new innovative vendors to bring advanced and open technology. When we talk about Open RAN, we call it an Open virtualised RAN, or Open vRAN, because openness and virtualisation go hand in hand.

“5G Standalone technology is set to enable network slicing, which refers to the creation of virtualised network slices that can support different applications with varying characteristics. But network slicing can only truly take place if the entire network is virtualized,” explains Sanjay Bakaya, Country Head - India & Regional Vice President South Asia at Mavenir.

Mobile network operators have traditionally deployed equipment from different vendors in separate areas of a country because legacy RAN solutions don’t tend to mix very well. For example, they might use equipment from one vendor in the southern region, and another vendor in the northern region. With Open RAN, the operator doesn’t have to worry about that anymore, because the Open RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) can be the same for all vendors. That is a significant advantage.

Open RAN utilizes several technology trends including cloud-native software, distributed edge computing and AI-driven automation and all of these can help push Open RAN from being just a cool new idea to becoming a key contributor to flexible and cost-effective network infrastructure.

A further consideration in the move to 5G is that mobile network operators will have to think about different ways of deploying infrastructure to support services that require low latency and high capacity.

5G is a low-latency network, but that low latency is not just achieved through the specification but also geographical distribution. The core is still centralised, but some functions can be pushed to the edge of the network to support industrial applications, private 5G networks or gaming services, for example.

Therefore, having network automation is the future. Open RAN helps there with its cloud-nativeness because one can apply those automation tools and make these networks truly predictive rather than being reactive.

#3: Cloudification and flexible network infrastructure

Cloudification is a further important aspect to ensure a flexible network infrastructure. The public cloud plays a significant role as cloud providers have already built data centres on a more distributed basis.

Some telecoms operators are now creating network functions on public cloud services to offload mobile data traffic during events and peak times. Operators may decide to use a mix of private and public cloud (often referred to as a hybrid approach) and start to distribute the network functions closer to the end-users, like enterprises, and they will start to see benefits in the total cost of ownership (TCO) and create new opportunities for applications or vertical segments.

In Bakaya’s view, there are a lot of people who have not made up their minds about their virtualisation strategy. They jump from one platform to the other without understanding really what they’re going to get out of it. He further adds that the number one task is to get the hardware and software working. The ultimate goal with virtualisation is to work together and implement automation throughout the network. Open RAN is quickly catching up with the features of legacy networks. But in the future, the legacy technology will not be able to catch up with Open RAN because the architecture will not allow it.

It is important to note which strategies are being embraced by greenfield operators such as Rakuten Mobile in Japan, Dish in the United States and 1&1 in Germany, all of which are currently involved with Mavenir.

In the last two years, new operators have opted to take a virtualised, open network approach rather than choosing legacy technology, given the advantages of the virtualised, open approach over the legacy one.

Mavenir is helping Rakuten Mobile combine the capabilities of internet-based communications services with the reliability of telecoms voice and messaging services, by using the Rich Communications Services as the basis.The result is the Rakuten Link smartphone app that supports instant messaging and group video calls as well as chatbots and online shopping. For Dish, Mavenir is providing cloud-native Open vRAN software to support its 5G network rollout.

Bakaya further empathized, “Most mobile network operators are brownfield operators that will need to consider legacy networks. Indeed, 2G and 3G will still be relevant in many markets for years to come, with some regions such as Europe now using 2G to support IoT services and other regions still reliant on 3G as mobile data networks. This is something that Mavenir has taken on board, and is providing solutions that take into account both the 2G and the 3G stack and feature what Mavenir calls multi-G capability.”

Also, Mavenir has recently integrated 2G and 3G technologies into its existing broadband suite for 4G and 5G. The cloud-native solution covers the complete stack of all mobile technologies in both radio access and packet core and aims to provide a containerised solution enabling mobile network automation and webscale agility.

#4: Future-proofing

CSPs’ approach to network management automation and overall business digitalization depends on several factors, the most important of which include strategic priorities, competitive pressures, region of operation, and the state of existing infrastructure. Some of the biggest bottlenecks in a CSP’s digital transformation journey are the existing systems and architectural structures.

To tackle the challenges, automation is a key to manage the end-to-end (E2E) user experience. Those who do not want to be left trailing are heavily investing in automation and its underlying technologies such as service orchestration, automation solutions such as (in the radio access) Self Organizing Networks (SON) and Machine Learning (ML), as well as network virtualization.

Mavenir believes that a virtualised, open and automated network will be key to unleashing the vast array of new applications, services and speeds promised by 5G. It is focusing on the vision of a single, software-based automated network that runs on any cloud.

Author

Sanjay Bakaya is the Country Head, India & RVP South Asia at Mavenir.

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