Technology is advancing faster all the time and becoming more intertwined in our daily lives. The internet is now considered an essential utility, with expectations for always-on access to mobile connectivity everywhere. As computing demands escalate, today’s mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) network architectures are being reinvented in order to keep pace, as well as to enable innovative new opportunities for tomorrow. Where will this reinvention take us in 2024 and beyond?
#1: Reinventing Smarter Cities
As 5G networks densify across urban areas worldwide, they create a blanket of reliable, high-speed coverage that empowers a range of capabilities. This 5G connectivity helps manage smooth traffic flows, intelligent transportation systems, optimized energy consumption, decreased crime and cleaner air quality, making cities cleaner, safer, more efficient and less congested.
Yet, to truly realize this smart city vision, mobile network operators (MNOs) service providers require new technologies and techniques to speed deployment and enable cell sites to be built in areas that have traditionally been off-limits. To accomplish this goal in many city and suburban locations, this requires increased reliance on multi-use cell site infrastructure and concealment solutions, in order to preserve skyline views and minimize street clutter.
This trend is driving the growth of small cells and telecom streetworks solutions, which enable 5G sites to be quickly built out closer to subscribers using existing electricity, fiber and streetworks assets such as light poles, kiosks, trash and recycle bins. To ensure that these networks provide the reliability and seamless coverage needed for smart city use cases, it’s important that streetworks deployments are implemented in a way that all sensors are available and connected, in order to monitor and measure traffic, street lights, public transit, trash bins, and other smart applications.
As future smart city applications grow in number and complexity, mobile and FWA networks will require an open ecosystem of varied connectivity technologies to support IoT connectivity, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications and mobile devices.
#2: Transforming Private Networks
With secure access to high-speed performance, dedicated bandwidth and ultra-low latency connectivity, more enterprises, manufacturers and government entities are beginning to fully understand the value of private 5G networks. As we look ahead to 2024 and beyond, we can expect this trend to accelerate, providing the real-time intelligence and positioning accuracy needed for tomorrow’s revenue-generating Industry 4.0 applications.
To date, private wireless networks have been typically deployed on dedicated proprietary radio, baseband and packet core in a traditional ‘bare metal’ network architecture. However, we are starting to see more private 5G networks leveraging Open RAN technology and cloud RAN, moving beyond simple virtualization of network functions to a cloud-native design. As this evolution matures, this approach will help private networks achieve a new level of efficiency and agility.
#3: Focus on Sustainability
The relentless demand for computing power and ubiquitous connectivity is creating an urgent need for greater sustainability in the telecoms network. In fact, 62 global MNOs have committed to work towards reducing carbon emissions by 2030, representing one of the most important challenges for today’s service providers.
While there have been a number of advancements in RAN technology aimed at improving the sustainability of 5G radios, more efforts are needed to achieve Net-Zero goals. One key advantage of the growing reliance on telecoms streetworks solutions is that these deployments allow sites to be built closer to the user, thereby decreasing the power required for connectivity and significantly reducing carbon footprint.
Another important consideration is whether base stations are optimized for maximum network efficiency and smart use of resources. For example, more MNOs are exploring various dynamic networking features such as Cell Switch Off, self-organising networks (SONs), MIMO muting and radio deep sleep modes, to realize significant energy savings during non-peak times when network demand is low. These energy management features can be further optimized with implementation of advanced network automation toolsets. SONs and the Open RAN intelligent controller (RIC) functionality, as defined by the O-RAN ALLIANCE, are two such examples of network automation in RAN networks.
#4: Harness the Power of Intelligence
As complexity of the mobile network intensifies, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and automation are no longer just ‘nice-to-have’ capabilities, but rather a necessary toolbox in order to provision, manage and troubleshoot the end-to-end network throughout its lifecycle. These powerful tools can help operators improve the performance, efficiency and scalability of their 5G networks, and ultimately reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
A growing number of MNOs are taking advantage of AI and ML to speed and simplify network design, helping them optimize 5G deployment by evaluating various factors such as terrain, traffic, coverage and cost. And once the network is operational, AI also enables operators to dynamically adjust network resources in real-time, including baseband units, radio units and antennas, to meet changing demands and optimize energy consumption. Plus, this intelligence assists with monitoring and analyzing network performance to identify and resolve issues, as well as optimize key performance indicators (KPIs).
As the demand for high-speed data access everywhere continues to drive the growth of cloud applications and multi-access edge computing (MEC), MNOs can now start to embrace greater disaggregation and finally adopt Open RAN architecture. This advancing mobile network evolution will lead to significant virtualization of the radio network, enabling true reinvention of the network to achieve the agile, resilient and efficient infrastructure needed in the age of big tech and big data.
