PARTNER FEATURE: 2019, large-scale deployment and commercial use of 5G officially initiated, providing optimal experience to pioneers. However, as networks become more complex and brand new 5G services pose new network requirements, an array of new network operations and maintenance (O&M) challenges are emerging in the 5G era. Industry predictions indicate that telecom network O&M will embrace a new era, in addition to driving network O&M to evolve towards network automation.

The Autonomous Driving Network (ADN) Will Become a Trend in the 5G Era.

2019 marks the year that the communications industry reached consensus on 5G network automation. Industry organizations such as TeleManagement Forum (TMF), GSMA, and AI Industry Association (AIIA) have released white papers describing the automation levels and classification standards of the ADN. For example, AI in Network Use Cases, released by the GSMA, points out that automation capability is the 4th dimension of the 5G era (the other three dimensions are eMBB,   `mMTC, and URLLC), and defines L0 to L5 autonomous networks. These white papers lay out the 5G era’s future and implied how evolution to the ADN will be inevitable.

The ADN Accelerates Business Success in The 5G Era.

Advanced 5G technologies should eventually contribute to a positive business cycle, and thereby drive the sound development of the industry. The ADN helps reduce OPEX, optimize CAPEX, and enable new services, continuously balancing mobile operators’ revenues and costs. This advances a positive 5G business cycle and fast 5G rollout.

Helping With Fast Roll Out of 5G Network

With large-scale 5G deployment, numerous base stations are being deployed in batches, forming a 5G network that provides ubiquitous coverage. 5G network rollout efficiency is dependent on the efficiency of base station deployment and initial optimization. The introduction of automation and intelligent technologies leads to a more efficient process, enabling operators to gain the first-mover advantage in 5G.

For example, with automatic hardware detection and identification as well as scenario-specific parameter adaption, it realizes the adaptive parameters configuration in site deployment.. With open programmability, the base station commissioning process becomes autonomous, improving the parallel deployment capability by x-fold.

Upon the completion of 5G deployment, users still cannot use 5G networks. Initial optimization is required for better key performance indicators. Taking massive MIMO, a typical 5G technology, as an example: It has various and scenario-specific pattern parameter settings that determine network coverage. As it is difficult to set these parameters for optimal coverage based on human experience, AI-based performance prediction can quickly identify the optimal parameter configuration combination of massive MIMO and enable automatic intelligent iteration after numerous users access the network. In this way, the parameter combination will be automatically adjusted to dynamically adapt to scenarios.

Ushering in Intelligent O&M of 5G Networks

5G networks operate in running mode after officially being rolled out. Taking the industry chain and user migration into account, most global mobile operators provide 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks simultaneously. However, coexistence of multi-RAT networks leads to some challenges. For example, difficulty locating network faults. Fault recovery is time-consuming and requires a substantial amount of invalid and repeated site visits. In addition, numerous carriers are enabled simultaneously, increasing network energy consumption. Therefore, intelligent factors are injected into networks, such as intelligent algorithms. The root causes of network faults can be quickly located for accurate site visits and quick recovery. Furthermore, networks can dynamically detect user traffic changes; precisely shut down cells, carriers, as well as symbols; and even proactively adjust transmit power, saving energy without compromising user experience. 

Enabling Agile Provisioning of 5G services

In the 5G era, industry digitalization is a new demand and the key to 5G business success. Core network requirements  from various industries is to guarantee service SLAs, which is the basis, and achieve agile service provisioning simultaneously, which is critical to business success. The ADN can automatically map service SLAs to network resources and precisely predict experience. In this way, multiple service SLAs can be guaranteed in a dynamic network environment, and network providing services tailored for different industries can be automatically provisioned in an agile manner.

For example, the fixed wireless access (FWA) home broadband service, which is one of the initial 5G services, can provision home address-based packages with guaranteed rates (x Mbit/s+CPE type) in a matter of minutes based on the prediction capability of the AI-based spectral efficiency feature database.

In 5G campus scenarios, service SLAs can be automatically mapped to spectrum, hardware, and transmission resources precisely based on service intents to automatically deploy a dedicated campus network in an agile manner.

5G OSS Modernization Delivers a Bright Future.

Automation and intelligence are the future of industries. Automatic network O&M lags behind during evolution from 1G to 4G. In the 5G era, network automation should be highly valued.

At MBBF 2019, Huawei released the ADN Mobile solution, including the MBB management and control unit iMaster MAE, cross-domain unit iMaster AUTIN, and training platform iMaster NAIE. The introduction of the management and control unit clarifies the network automation trend. As the architecture is ready, OSS modernization is realized from the very beginning of 5G deployment. The traditional device management system EMS has been upgraded to an integrated network management and control system.

Huawei ADN Mobile Solution: Scenario-based Closed-loop Automation, Full-stack Intelligence, And Intent-based Openness

Network automation has evolved across the mobile industry. For example, the self-organizing network (SON) feature has been evolving since the 4G era. Compared with such features, the Huawei ADN Mobile solution offers unique value:

Scenario-based closed-loop automation: Huawei ADN Mobile provides scenario-based solutions (applications) for O&M scenarios, including planning, deployment, maintenance, optimization, and operation to realize closed-loop automation.

Full-stack intelligence: Full-stack AI collaboration (Site AI-MAE-NAIE) provides powerful data processing and analysis capabilities based on the unified data base and five AI formulas.

Intent-based openness: Scenario-based APIs and programmable environments are provided, enabling customers to customize automatic applications and build a new O&M ecosystem.

5G is now the reality! It brings forth brand new service experience for consumers, digitalization for industries, and opportunities as well as competitions for operators. Huawei ADN helps operators implement agile operations and accelerate 5G business success.