As 5G becomes one of the key foundational technologies underpinning the digital economy and Industry 4.0, the global impacts and opportunities are endless. According to Omdia, annual 5G mobile services revenue will reach $540.1bn worldwide and account for 59.2% of global mobile services revenue in 2026.
To successfully plan, build, and deploy new 5G services, mobile network operators must have a holistic view of active and passive assets and maintain an accurate and up-to-date inventory of all physical, logical, and virtual network resources. Unified resource management is the common foundation on which an end-to-end 5G network is built and plays a make-or-break role in activities such as cell site acquisition, merger and acquisition integration, orchestration and automation, network slicing, and managing hybrid networks.
Let’s take a look at the most common 5G network requirements and the key role unified resource management plays in each.
New sites
While the number of macro cell sites held steady through the mid-2000s, 5G is accelerating a trend in cell site additions and cell site densification initiatives, which are primarily based on small cells. As opposed to traditional macro tower sites, small cells are designed to be small and lightweight for deployment on streetlights, utility poles, and sides of buildings.
Small cell densification is required because 5G high band spectrum (also called millimeter spectrum, or mmWave) that delivers gigabit fixed and mobile broadband data rates comes with limitations on transmission distances. Whereas sub-6 GHz mid-band spectrum can cover distances measured in kilometers, mmWave spectrum is limited to hundreds of meters only. Thus, communications service providers (CSPs) investing in mmWave spectrum must also invest in small cells.
Site acquisition and the rollout of equipment, cables, and site connectivity are major tasks for mobile network operators (MNOs) that need to be handled properly from a resource management perspective. A unified resource management solution can accurately document thousands of new sites being added to the network including the active infrastructure (RUs, DUs, CUs, switches, etc.) as well as the passive infrastructure associated with the cell sites (cabling, ducts, batteries, etc.).
Resource management can also play a critical role in the site acquisition process. It begins when a new site is needed in an area, but the physical position is not known. The first step is selecting possible candidate sites, and then purchase and rental information is collected for each. Candidate sites can be documented, geographicallymapped, and analyzed in combination with existing inventory as well as other parameters, such as location conditions for power, climate, radiation, or even contractual topics. When a site is finally chosen, the data can be moved from a planned status into the as-is status in the inventory database.
Orchestration and automation
Service automation and process-driven rollout management are mandates for network operators, which must adapt to communications in the 21st century or face extinction. As such, automation affects all aspects of network operators’ businesses across technologies, business lines, and business functions. This includes migration to 5G, which will provide much of the technology and services underpinning for promising growth opportunities in IoT, healthcare, smart cities, Industry 4.0, automotive, and other use cases. Notably, the promise of automation extends to both internal benefits (such as reducing opex through automating tasks) and external benefits (such as faster time to market and new and differentiated revenue streams).
In 5G, the revenue generating aspect of automation is best encapsulated in the concept of network slicing, which allows multiple virtual networks to be created on top of a common shared physical infrastructure. CSPs view network slicing as crucial for addressing the promising use cases referenced above while still maintaining a single physical infrastructure.
A successful automation strategy requires accurate and consistent inventory data that is linked to the higher layer management and orchestration systems that are configuring, turning up, provisioning, restoring, and implementing any other automated functions in the network. The inventory data must also be unified across domains and dynamically updated by the active network wherever possible.
Additionally, the passive network infrastructure and site data must be kept up to date. Process-driven rollout automation and change handling can ensure the high quality of all planned and documented passive infrastructure and site data.
Multi-vendor and hybrid networks
Breaking vendor lock-in and increasing the diversity of suppliers are two of the main drivers for moving to open networks—including open 5G RAN and open 5G transport. While increasing the number of suppliers provides pricing power in contract negotiations and helps accelerate innovation, it also complicates things on the operations side. Each vendor comes with its own element management system (EMS) and network management system (NMS) specific to its own product lines.
In these complex, multi-vendor networks, a “single source of truth” database is needed for all of the network assets and supporting the basic processes in network operations. Other network systems, such as OSS and orchestration, can then draw from this unified and accurate database when performing their own functions.
The same principles hold true for hybrid networks consisting of both physical and virtualized network domains. A central database is essential for CSPs to see all of the dependencies between active physical, logical, and virtual resources, as well as the passive infrastructure, such as cabling.
Mergers and acquisitions
Historically, merging operator inventory systems for a network migration has been a manual process. After a deal is signed, the hard work of merging disparate networks and assets begins - this includes different networks, physical buildings, vendors, technologies, and business/ operations support systems (B/OSS). Today, automated, real-time network discovery across domains can provide major benefits such as faster migration processes, lower costs, and accurate inventory systems.
Reducing downtimes during migration is also critical for network planning and operations. Therefore, zero down time migration approaches must be applied during thetransition phase.
The digital twin concept
A digital twin is a virtual representation that serves as the real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process. The concept of a digital twin is becoming increasingly popular in the IT and communications industry.
A true digital twin of the hybrid network infrastructure comprising the physical, logical, and virtual network resources must be synchronized with the original so that changes in the network are quickly reflected in the digital representation or model. Automated tools are required to interact regularly with active resources to obtain the current state and parameters and update the database regularly. Therefore, the vendor must have broad and deep integrations across suppliers, including both physical and virtual elements.
What to Look for in a Unified Resource Management Solution
A Central System of Record
Although historically static, vendor EMS and NMS are increasingly adding levels of automation (sometimes being rebranded as “controllers” in the process). However, even with automation, these element and network management systems remain vendor-specific; therefore, they cannot provide the required end-to-end view. Third-party vendors are moving to fill this end-to-end management void by focusing on vendor-agnostic management of virtual resources, but CSPs must be careful in their selection. It’s important to choose a complete solution that can effectively manage the entire hybrid infrastructures that will exist for many years to come.
A complete, end-to-end network resource repository is required for the database to fulfill its function as the single source of truth in the network. As a 5G network consists of many domains, technologies, sites, suppliers, and active physical, logical, and virtual resources as well as passive infrastructure, unified resource management is essential to gain a holistic view across the entire hybrid network infrastructure to manage the different operational processes efficiently.
Integration Capabilities
As noted earlier, a unified resource database is a prerequisite for the rollout of automation and orchestration use cases in the network, whether it is on the physical equipment rollout level, a logical connectivity layer, or a virtualized 5G network (including network slicing).
SDN control and orchestration systems (and other IT systems) draw on data stored in the unified database to perform provisioning, activation, and other automated functions. Thus, tight integration between the database and multiple control/orchestration systems, using open REST APIs, for example, is crucial.
Northbound data sharing can be implemented on an event-driven basis. This means the digital twin shares its data with other orchestrators and OSS/BSS in near-real time.
Complex Visualization
Lastly, a full network database is extremely complex, with a single cell site having thousands of configuration parameters, for example. Automated orchestration systems may be able to quickly glean network data on-demand, but the database must also be usable by human operators.
A graphical user interface (GUI) is ideal, with complex visualization of the entire network—from the physical building layout down to the individual equipment port level, along with logical and virtual network resources. GUI representation at the vendor EMS/NMS level has been standard for many years, but the new requirement is for a single, unified user interface for everything in the network.
Overall, when selecting a unified resource management solution for your 5G network deployment, consider the following features:
- Near-real-time synchronization between the database and all active network resources is required to maintain the highest level of accuracy at all times.
- A central, end-to-end repository to cover all active physical, logical, and virtual resources as well as passive infrastructure.
- A variety of open interfaces for integration with higher layer management, control, and orchestration systems that interact with—and make decisions based on—the unified database foundation.
- A high level of configuration options to support customer-specific data and processes and to prevent vendor-lock-in.
