PRESS RELEASE: Along with the 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF 2023) that recently concluded in Dubai UAE, an Intelligent RAN Summit was held. Themed on “Towards L4 Advanced Intelligent Network and Enable 5.5G Native Intelligent Network”, this summit gathered operators, analysts, and industry organizations from all over the world to share the state-of-the-art technologies and commercial practices of intelligent wireless networks and discuss the important goals and paths for achieving L4 autonomous network.

It is widely recognized in the industry that with capabilities such as intent-driven management, intelligent sensing, multi-target decision, and prediction and prevention, L4 autonomous wireless networks will allow operators to deliver an experience that is far better than any of the earlier generations of mobile technologies. This sees human-machine interaction transform from policy-based to intent-driven, service experience assurance from best-effort to deterministic, performance optimization from optimal energy efficiency alone to both optimal energy efficiency and user experience, and network O&M from responsive to prediction-/prevention-based and proactive.

Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director of ABI Research, said, “RAN intelligence is a key foundation for future networks and is critical for toC and toB networks. Huawei’s IntelligentRAN solution is valuable for helping operators deal with their challenges and free them from some of the operation complexity. Mainstream device vendors are well on their way to develop intelligent RAN solutions, but there is still work to be done in terms of system integration and product development for RAN intelligent controllers (RICs) of Open RAN.”

Mohamed Yehia ElSayed, Director of Wireless from du in the Middle East, shared the application of WTTx Suite 2.0 for their FWA service in the context of rapidly developing wireless home broadband in the region. To address poor Wi-Fi coverage and user experience in indoor environments typified by villas, they introduced Huawei’s WTTx Suite 2.0 to provide experience-based service provisioning and last-meter (CPE-to-terminal) experience visualization. This strategy proved to be effective, for they can now provide deterministic FWA service experience to customers, which in turn drives their service development.

Fan Ningjun, General Manager of Network of China Unicom Anhui, noted that, “We have been actively innovating intelligent networks to continue the evolution of autonomous networks. We have achieved tangible results in O&M and experience with our systematic autonomous networks. Our networks are now capable of predicting risks such as high temperature on optical links and equipment. We have also made important breakthroughs regarding real-time analysis and cause identification of poor network quality.”

Wang Xi, a senior expert of China Mobile Fujian, spoke about building an autonomous network capability map layer by layer in a three-layer architecture that comprises the NMS, OMC, and NEs. As for experience assurance and coastal network optimization, he suggested that service-network collaboration and digital twin technologies effectively improve 5G video experience. He mentioned how virtual marine survey has slashed survey costs by more than 80%.

Zhao Zhenlong, Vice President of Huawei MAE, said, “Our three-layer IntelligentRAN architecture is where key capabilities of L4 autonomous networks can be built upon, including intent-driven management, intelligent sensing, multi-target decision, and prediction and prevention. On this basis, we have developed our i-series solutions. And in the meantime, we are actively developing and innovating open APIs in collaboration with industry and ecosystem partners to support the GSMA Open Gateway initiative. Our bigger vision is for the industry at large to grow and the ecosystem to thrive.”

The summit concluded with Huawei releasing its IntelligentRAN L4 i-series solutions, which include:

  • iLiveStreaming: Through intelligent SLA trend prediction and dynamic allocation of time, frequency, and space resources, visualized management of service experience is achieved, delivering a reliability higher than 95% for uplink livestreaming.
  • iKeyEvent: Based on a spatiotemporal traffic prediction technology, risks can be predicated and emergency plans can be automatically generated for big events so network risks can be monitored and loop-closed within seconds.
  • iPowerStar: Energy efficiency is improved from the time, space, frequency, and power dimensions. The multi-target collaboration technology allows operator networks to maintain optimal balance between performance and energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions by 30%.