Subscribe
Home Blog Page 107

Samsung gets real about artificial intelligence at MWC 

Simon Dux
-
0
Samsung gets real about artificial intelligence at MWC 

At a pre-event analyst get together the vendor said Shannon’s limit will limit gains from deploying AI

Samsung Networks said it expects only modest improvements from AI when deployed in networks given that many are already close to Shannon’s limit. The vendor, which already has AI embedded in its RAN solutions, sees its advantages to be mainly in managing complexity and reducing power consumption.  

Speaking at an analyst event on the eve of Mobile World Congress the vendor provided a welcome dose of reality to the impact AI will have. According to CCS Insight industry analyst Ian Fogg the managing complexity element is still however pretty crucial for vendors and operators. “The rising complexity is visible from Samsung’s expectations on the evolution of multiple-input, multiple-output technology,” he wrote on a CCS Insight blog. “It sees 128TRx becoming common on 3.5 GHz and 6 GHz spectrum bands, and 256TRx on 13GHz.” 

To its credit, Samsung has never been bigging up Open RAN but instead has focused on building its virtaul RAN (vRAN) client base. Globally, Samsung claims to have reached 38,000 virtual RAN sites compliant with Open RAN. In Europe, it is working closely with Vodafone in the UK and in Romania, plus has trials with the operator in Germany and Spain.  

Fogg pointed out that Samsung had been really concentrating on ecosystem partnerships. “Its public ecosystem relationships have risen from less than 10 last year to 23 across CPU, server, cloud, Open RAN radio units, transport and rApps automation applications,” he wrote. “The company focused on momentum for virtual RAN rather than discussing 5G-Advanced, 6G or AI in its business review, reflecting service providers’ focus on getting a return from today’s 5G, not the future.” 

Chip advantage 

Samsung highlighted its in-house chipset expertise as a competitive advantage. Notably, wrote Fogg, Samsung develops these chipsets in its networks business, meaning it has close control over the requirements and road map, rather than relying on other Samsung business units. 

In core networks, Samsung cited wins with KDDI on a standalone 5G core commercial network; SK Telecom and Telus on virtual roaming gateways that improve responsiveness for roamers through use of Amazon Web Services; and South Korea’s LG U+. Interestingly, but not surprising, the vendor sees greater revenue opportunities from RAN than its core business. 

Fogg said Telus executives attended the event and spoke about choosing Samsung for virtual RAN- and Open RAN-compliant equipment to replace its Huawei kit – similar to Vodafone in Romania. “Telus is midway through replacing Chinese supplier equipment and plans to move the remainder to Samsung by 2027,” he wrote. “It expects the deployment to enable enhanced performance, energy efficiency, flexibility and automation.” 

The analyst believes while Samsung has strong momentum in North America on virtual RAN, in Europe it needs to gain commercial footholds at more operator groups quickly, before all decisions have been made on Chinese equipment switch-outs. 

Samsung Electronics is feeling AI-tastic 

Unlike its slightly dour Networks cousin, Samsung Electronics promised to “unleash” Galaxy AI to unsuspecting visitors at Mobile World Congress 2024. The vendor plans to embed AI in its entire device product line [where compatible] including its Galaxy Book series, intelligent health with Galaxy Watch series and the much-anticipated-by-geeks Galaxy Ring which is being publicly displayed for the first time.  

So, in addition to the flagship Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy AI capabilities are soon to be expanded to existing Galaxy models, including Galaxy Z Fold5, Z Flip5 and Tab S9 series, as well as Galaxy S23 series and S23 FE. The vendor is also showcasing its new Galaxy Book4 series, set to launch globally today.  

 “Our latest Galaxy products and innovations unlock the power of mobile AI to empower users in their everyday lives to open up new possibilities,” said Samsung Electronics president and head of mobile experience business TM Roh (above). “At MWC this year, we’re excited to showcase Galaxy AI across our portfolio, including Galaxy S24 series, proving just how powerful these devices are in enabling a better, more intelligent and connected future.” 

Globalstar launches XCOM RAN solution it said provides 4x capacity of 5G  

Simon Dux
-
0
Globalstar launches XCOM RAN solution it said provides 4x capacity of 5G  

Company thinks the service, coupled with its global terrestrial Band 53 holdings, is going to steal 5G private network market share

Globalstar has launched its new XCOM RAN coordinated multipoint radio system that the company said can handle four times the traffic of 3GPP 5G networks, including in indoor venues like stadiums, campuses and warehouses. The operator said “one of the world’s largest global retailers” is deploying the new service.  

The solution is a coordinated multipoint radio system targeting dense deployments of 5G infrastructure to deliver “significant capacity gains over traditional inbuilding solutions”. XCOM differs from traditional inbuilding solutions, such as small cells and DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems), in that it provides extremely high downlink and uplink capacity that can be both ubiquitous and highly concentrated in nature. It achieves these performance gains within a single logical cell comprised of multiple RRU (Remote Radio Units), meaning that inter-cell interference is non-existent and brief interruptions due to cell handovers “are a thing of the past”. 

Globalstar recruited independent research firm Signal Research Group to give the system the once over and the results certainly give the company a new inroad into the private 5G network space. Signal found the service delivered very high downlink and uplink capacity due to high reuse of nearly all resource blocks on each MIMO layer. Average downlink capacity reached over 4.5Gbps in 100MHz of TDD spectrum (64.6bps/Hz) while in the uplink we documented an average throughput of nearly 770Mbps (38.3bps/Hz) with a spectrum allocation that was biased toward the downlink direction. 

It also found a high reuse of network resources – up to 16 downlink MIMO layers and up to 12 uplink MIMO layers with nearly full reuse of all resource blocks (RBs) on each layer – largely explains the observed gains. Even more MIMO layers are possible in one or both directions depending on the network configuration and device capabilities. 

Impervious to location or device number 

Signal said in many of its tests it incorporated 1 to 96 devices located adjacent to each other on up to 12 carts distributed across the 8 RRU network – up to 204 devices at a time. In one test they pushed all 12 carts together so there were 204 devices located directly under a single RRU.  

“There were only modest differences in the total network capacity between these configurations. It is one thing to obtain high bidirectional spectral efficiency with distributed devices. Achieving this performance with devices literally on top of each other is another thing altogether,” concluded Signal.  

As a result of the tests Signal said stadiums, arenas, and similar venues would be ideal for the service since there are high concentrations of smartphones generating significant data traffic in both directions. “However, the merits of [the service] are even more important for private inbuilding networks targeting factories, warehouses, and other large building structures where there could be a limited amount of spectrum available and where there is a need for a robust network that provides highly reliable, ubiquitous coverage while satisfying the demands for concentrated capacity that can vary over time and location,” said Signal.  

The research firm added that warehouses and micro fulfilment centres – two areas that can struggle for connectivity due to the aisles and heavy racking, offices and so on – would also suit Globalstar’s service. 

Service this year 

Globalstar is providing its connectivity solution comprising hardware, software, and services, with several systems expected to be delivered in 2024. The company suggestds the kit will be Open RAN complaint and will feature “joint processing algorithms that support superior end-to-end system performance, eliminating handoff boundaries and interference conditions while allowing users to scale quickly and economically.” 

With XCOM RAN, we set out to apply our decades of wireless system design experience into creating transformative and differentiated performance for private wireless 5G networks and beyond,” said Globalstar CEO Paul Jacobs (above). “We have significantly increased the amount of data that can be transmitted over a given spectrum allocation, while improving other performance measures — all within a flexible solution that provides the ability for future performance improvements.” 

“5G private networks are used for many applications,” added Globalstar VP of terrestrial network Tamer Kadous. “While XCOM RAN can benefit the entire spectrum of use cases, it stands out when addressing the most demanding KPIs. I am delighted to see the culmination of our intensive efforts over the past few years with the launch of our first product, and proud that our first commercial sale is with one of the world’s largest retailers.” 

Security automation is an operational imperative

admin
-
0
Security automation is an operational imperative

Partner content: Automation of security processes can boost brand reputation and ensure compliance with increasingly stringent regulatory obligations

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are on a digital transformation journey. It’s a strategic imperative – to boost efficiency and reduce costs as a business, for compliance and to enhance security. Ever more stringent regulation requires new measures to protect against cyber threats. In a new paper, We are CORTEX explores the operational, security, and compliance benefits of automation.

CSPs’ digital transformation is to ensure operational efficiency and the delivery of dynamic, differentiated services with optimum quality of experience while remaining flexible and agile. To remain competitive requires them to transform mission-critical operational processes and architectures – and automation is at the heart of this transformation.

According to Mordor Intelligence, for example, the network automation market will drive CSP spending on software and managed services from $21.1 billion in 2023 to $50.82 billion by 2028, a CAGR of just over 19%[1]. With the increased network and complexity brought by cloud-native networks, CSPs understand that automation is the only way forward.

Cyber security and compliance

At the same time, security must be built into the fabric of this digital transformation, from both an operational and business perspective and to ensure compliance with increasing levels of regulations, such as the UK’s Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 (TSA) and the European Union’s Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2 Directive).

As the number and complexity of cyberattacks and threats grows, security automation is becoming a pre-requisite for CSPs, enabling them to monitor, identify, analyse, and respond to current and future security threats before they impact the end customer. As a result, the security automation market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 15.7% from $1.2 billion in 2022 to reach $5.1 billion by 2032[2].

According to Cisco, 95% of network changes are still performed manually today – this can lead to configuration errors and inconsistencies in the network and, in turn, downtime[3]. Automation eliminates human error and minimises potential malicious human intervention.

According to a study by Analysys Mason, process automation reduces labour time for manual processes by up to 68%, which in turn reduces time-to-market for new services by up to 88%. Time spent processing errors manually is cut by up to 85% and mean time to repair is reduced by up to 71%[4].

Continual risk mitigation

However, it is the sophistication of cyberattacks that is the main concern for CSPs – a manual approach is simply not possible. With threats increasing, there’s no room for error – and removing humans from the loop is a key tactic to ensure protection against cyber threats.

Security is an ongoing process that needs to be monitored continually, and that responsibility is now set out in legislation. For example, one of the responsibilities placed on CSPs by the TSA is continuous evaluation, forcing CSPs to review their security processes and architecture on an ongoing basis, and to proactively search for, and mitigate against, potential future security breaches.

Increasingly, AI is also being embedded into automation and security processes and infrastructure, which brings bottom line benefits (while ensuring compliance). For example, according to IBM, organisations with the most mature security AI and automation capabilities see up to a 40% higher return on security investment and an average reduction in data breach costs of $3.05 million[5],[6]. Importantly, 81% of executives surveyed by IBM view security, assurance, and trust as brand attributes that differentiate their organisations[7].

The benefits of security automation for CSPs are clear:

  • Reduced attack surface – automation reduces the attack vectors that people might use.
  • Faster threat detection – automated alerts help to identify real security threats faster.
  • Quicker time to resolution – automated tools can automatically execute defined remedies on finding a threat, which can eliminate the need for human intervention completely.
  • Improved productivity – eliminates time spent on arduous manual processes.
  • Standardisation of security processes and responses – ensures security standards and policies are applied consistently throughout the organisation.

There are several layers of security automation. For example, low-level process automation can scan continuously for security vulnerabilities, run monitoring tools, record data, and perform basic threat mitigation (such as blocking malicious IP addresses at the firewall).

Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platforms (as named by Gartner), meanwhile, provide a stack of solutions that can monitor security threats and respond to incidents without human intervention.

At the most complex level, AI automation (sometimes referred to as eXtended Detection and Response systems) uses machine learning (ML) to identify threats based on previous patterns and orchestrate responses through multiple third-party security tools using rich API interfaces. Of course, AI algorithms can also improve detection efficiency over time.

We Are CORTEX can help

We Are CORTEX have spent 20 years developing and honing our class-leading automation platform, which has been specifically designed to help CSPs automate and orchestrate complex security and operational processes. As a seal of approval, our first-ever customer is still using We Are CORTEX, having travelled alongside us through our automation journey and evolution. Today, CORTEX performs millions of automations every day – helping them to defend against cyber threats.

Our platform offers hierarchical exception handling, which allows automation developers to define CORTEX’s response to both known and unknown errors and threats. Multiple exception handlers can be chained together, each triggering a response to a specific exception scenario, ensuring broad coverage of multiple threat scenarios. Our platform also provides role-based access to enforce internal security, which removes the risk of accidental, malicious, or unapproved changes being made – and supports efforts to ensure compliance with emerging legislation. 

To find out more about how automation can enhance security, streamline business efficiency, boost productivity, and ensure compliance, download our latest paper.

About We Are CORTEX

We Are CORTEX are global leaders in advanced automation and orchestration. Established in 1999, and focused exclusively on the telecommunications sector, the experience, and unrivalled, purpose-built capabilities make CORTEX the choice for some of the world’s largest operators. CORTEX help CSPs automate at scale, achieving strategic automation objectives, providing a commercial edge in a highly competitive world.

[1] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/network-automation-market

[2] https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/09/24/2748281/0/en/Security-Orchestration-Automation-and-Response-Market-is-Anticipated-to-grow-at-a-CAGR-of-15-7-Aiming-to-Reach-a-Valuation-of-USD-5-1-Billion-by-2032.html

[3] https://www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/solutions/automation/network-automation.html

[4] https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/10/05/nokia-study-finds-operators-can-avoid-65-of-operational-costs-with-ip-network-automation/

[5] https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/9NGZA7GK

[6] https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach

[7] https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/J6N8WRGG

How 5G innovation is addressing 2024’s biggest challenges 

Faisal Zia, Technical Director for GSMA Foundry
-
0
How 5G innovation is addressing 2024’s biggest challenges 

It’s almost six years since 5G’s first deployments and time it made good on its transformative potential and delivered returns on the investment in it

There is clear promise in the way 5G has started to underpin many of the solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges. Additionally, the GSMA’s Mobile Economy report forecasts the number of licensed IoT connections will more than double to 5.3 billion by the end of the decade, but this adoption at scale must be accompanied by innovative uses of the technology.

Such uses are being trialled, including the widespread enablement of drones. They are being used for everything from delivering lifesaving supplies and acting as first responders in accidents, to improving the cost-effectiveness of agriculture through precision farming and farming at scale. 5G is being used to cut energy consumption and facilitate the greening of both the telecoms and other sectors.

Intelligence for the drone ecosystem 

The drone ecosystem is evolving fast, driven by both an understanding of the technology’s capabilities and commercial demand. In particular, the beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone applications are underpinned by the connectivity, latency and speeds 5G facilitates, and a thriving market is emerging in the unmanned aerial vehicle space.

At its core is an ecosystem developed through a collaborative effort between Ericsson Drone Mobility and TDC NET, along with our GSMA Foundry innovation team. The ecosystem has helped create a 5G-enabled communication infrastructure to make telecom intelligence accessible to drone developers and encourage innovation.

A great example is in Spain where drones are being used for surveillance and security when specialist personnel are unavailable. Telefónica worked with autonomous robotics experts Unmanned Life surveil headquarters in Las Tablas, Madrid. Two drones, functioning autonomously, stream video back to Telefónica’s security centre where a person recognition system automatically detect any unauthorised entry to the site. The recognition system was developed with edge computing.

The collaboration has resulted in a solution for indoor surveillance for stock management, improving efficiency and accuracy. More frequent checks are possible compared to previous processes carried out by people.

Producing greater output and less waste 

Another prominent example comes from China, where ZTE and China Mobile are using 5G connectivity paired with drone technology to fully automate rice production on 12,000 acres of marginal land near Da’an City, Jilin Province. This farm management solution means someone in the farmhouse can control up to five machines simultaneously.

A smart irrigation system is helping make the depleted soil fertile again, while remote controlled machinery and drones have made the farm operations more efficient, productive and sustainable.

A trial of this has already generated a 10% increase in output – an estimated value of 3.3 million yuan (€450,000) – alongside materials and labour cost savings, while the irrigation system uses 40% less water.

Cutting networks’ energy consumption  

The mobile industry, led by the GSMA, is committed to the IT sector’s 1.5⁰ pathway and to being carbon net zero by 2050. 5G has a crucial role to play in achieving these goals, both for the mobile sector but also in the way smart technologies will be central to other sectors’ approaches to their own green strategies.

5G allows more data to be moved with less energy than previous generations of mobile networks but this is double-edged – the exponential growth in 5G adoption also means the volume of traffic is escalating rapidly and, with it, the potential for increased energy requirements and associated carbon emissions.

To counter this, Huawei, together with partner operators, is implementing diverse measures to bolster energy efficiency, while safeguarding the end-user experience. These measures include the deployment of all-optical network architectures, increased use of outdoor equipment to reduce the reliance on air conditioning within buildings and cabinets, and the implementation of ‘deep dormancy’ for network elements, allowing them to power down when not in use. 

Huawei is also implementing dynamic frequency adjustment, highly integrated radio frequency equipment modules, optimised antenna positioning, passive antenna techniques and AI tools for data-driven generation and execution of network energy efficiency policies. 

Our 5G-driven future

The building blocks for innovation are in place and are already being utilised as these examples show.

MWC Barcelona will provide the perfect showcase for the way key industry challenges are being approached with imagination and practicality, from sessions like the Innovation Panel to our GSMA Foundry demos being shown throughout the week – including from the European Space Agency and World Mobile.

The challenge now is to encourage more widespread innovation and to support the scaling and commercial viability of 5G-based projects. Initiatives like the Foundry are essential in facilitating the collaboration and knowledge sharing that underpin these successes. If we can continue uniting key players from the extended telecoms and tech industry and developing next-generation solutions to key societal challenges, 2024 can be a springboard for 5G to start delivering on its true potential.

Turkcell partners to boost edge content delivery

Annie Turner
-
0
Turkcell partners to boost edge content delivery

Working with Qwilt and Cisco, it wants to improve streaming quality and data delivery for its 38.2m mobile and 3.1m fixed broadband subscribers

Cisco and Qwilt announced a strategic partnership with Turkcell to enhance the quality of and capacity for digital content and applications. The aim is to improve streaming experiences and speed data delivery to Turkcell’s 38.2 million mobile users and 3.1 million fixed broadband customers. It also supports the constantly growing traffic levels.

Coverage and capacity

Turkcell’s adoption of Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud for Content Delivery platform is powered by Open Caching and enabled by Cisco’s edge computing and networking infrastructure. The joint solution is embedded in and integrated with Turkcell’s network edge.

Turkcell’s network covers 99% of Turkey across 9,000 towers. The new deployment activates Open Caching services at distributed points of presence (PoPs), so Turkcell can provide content publishers with the tools they need to deliver the highest quality content throughout the country. 

Further, the partnership turns Turkey into a content and Internet hub which aligns with Turkcell’s Superonline vision of transforming ”the Silk Road into the Fiber Road”.

Bridge between East and West

Emre Erdem, General Manager of Turkcell Superonline, commented: “Turkiye’s position as a digital bridge between East and West is getting stronger. By embracing Cisco and Qwilt’s Open Edge model, we’re fortifying our network to meet the demands of content publishers, ensuring Turkiye’s and the region’s digital population remains constantly connected, entertained, and informed.

“Our fiber roll-out strategy has enabled us to provide fiber internet to over 5.7 million home passes across 28 cities in Turkiye, and we continue our investments to expand our infrastructure further.

“Additionally, in our new generation data centers, backed by international Tier 3 certifications, we provide our customers with faster and higher quality access to global content. By attracting more companies, Turkiye’s digital landscape will change for the better. This influx of attention will strengthen our existing ecosystem and serve as a crucial step towards Turkcell Superonline’s vision of positioning Turkiye as the internet and content hub of region and transforming the Silk Road into the Fiber Road”.

Theodore Tzevelekis, VP, Cisco, said: “Our Open Edge solution, in collaboration with Qwilt, positions Turkcell directly within the content delivery value chain and increases their monetization opportunities. This partnership…lays the foundation for future edge computing applications. We are delighted to welcome Turkcell to join our global partnership of service providers and are eager to contribute to delivering the highest quality digital experiences to subscribers across Turkiye.” 

Empire building

Alon Maor, CEO at Qwilt, said: “Turkcell’s partnership marks the latest milestone in our mission to build the world’s largest, highest-performing all-edge network”.

More than 175 service providers and content publishers have worked with Qwilt to implement Open Edge in their networks, collectively serving over 1 billion unique subscribers worldwide. They include BT, Fastweb, Telefónica and Vodafone in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Qwilt collaborates with five out of the top six US media companies to deliver their content via Qwilt’s global federated network.

Nokia, Telenet trial NaaS at Port of Antwerp

Annie Turner
-
0
Nokia, Telenet trial NaaS at Port of Antwerp

The trial is a part of Liberty Global’s Network as a Service (NaaS) programme and shows GSMA’s Open Gateway in action

Telenet is using Nokia’s Network as Code platform to improve the operational efficiency and services offered at the Port of Antwerp, one of the world’s largest. Telenet is Liberty Global’s Belgian subsidiary.

The partnership is exploring new network use cases. Developers will use the APIs and software development kits (SDKs) on the developer portal of the Network as Code Platform to access network functionality and data.

This will enable developers to build applications they can sell to their own customers.

In a recent trial at the port, Telenet’s 5G Standalone network with slicing capabilities allowed ships’ captains to operate vessels more safely and efficiently. They used real-time data provided by the low latency network capabilities and zero-touch automation. 

Proven performance

It proved the performance of dedicated network slices which are far less expensive than building a separate, dedicated communications infrastructure. Also, customers only pay for what they needand gain a granular level of control offering maximum flexibility.

The trial is a part of Liberty Global’s Network as a Service (NaaS) programme. It was conducted with Belgian partners Seafar NV, a shipping entity, and Imec, a research and innovation hub for nanoelectronics and digital technologies.

Nokia’s Network as Code Platform combined with Imec’s edge application middleware bridges the gap between the vessel’s real-time requirements and the 5G network. Both were integrated with Seafar’s Shore Control Centre to provide the specialised connectivity that is not available on commercial networks. 

Dynamic geofencing

High-definition cameras and sensors onboard vessels combined with AI and machine learning algorithms formed dynamic geofences. They were deployed by IMEC to identify where situational awareness is most crucial.

As vessels approached areas that require increased situational awareness, network capacity was automatically prioritised to guarantee high-quality live video feeds. This allowed Seafar’s captains to manoeuvre vessels through the areas safely, without having to slow down or waste time during loading and unloading thereby improving efficiency and reducing fuel consumption.

It also enabled the Port to work across multiple vessels at the same time.

Open Gateway initiative

The partnership says it is a real-life implementation of the Open Gateway initiative, launched last year by the GSMA. NaaS technology helps create an ecosystem which integrates standardised CAMARA APIs on Imec’s applications for the effective and reliable use of network resources on demand.

Madalina Suceveanu, Managing Director Mobile & Cloud Technologies, at Liberty Global said,“This multi-faceted trial simultaneously leverages the power of 5G Standalone, cloud, edge computing and AI-driven computer vision applications. 5G-era networks are rich in capabilities that can now drive improvements to customer experiences for both enterprises and consumers in ways that were simply not possible just a few years ago.

“The framework we have developed in partnership with Nokia will give us the opportunity to access a large untapped market here, plus realize the development of even more use cases in many other sectors beyond shipping.”

Proximus chooses Tech Mahindra to build a service activation hub 

Simon Dux
-
0
Proximus chooses Tech Mahindra to build a service activation hub 

The Belgian operator also intends to integrate its B2B IT activities into a dedicated affiliate to strengthen its IT position in the Benelux market

Proximus has signed a strategic partnership with Tech Mahindra that will work together to will and build a technology platform, ‘Tech Hub’ that will provide next-generation connectivity offerings for business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and business-to-business-to-any (B2B2X) segments. 

The new ‘Tech Hub’ platform, will enable consumers and businesses to explore, purchase and activate the services from Proximus as well as their partner ecosystem with self-service options and take advantage of the range of next-generation digital offerings. 

“We are pleased to partner with Tech Mahindra to build this new innovative platform,” said Proximus CDIO Antonietta Mastroianni (above). “At Proximus, we are leading with our superior fibre/ 5G network, that is becoming more software-based and can deliver innovative features ‘as a Service’, eg 5G Slicing.” 

She added: “We are building strong software assets across the Group. This new platform, the ‘Tech Hub’ will be able to blend these unique assets in new value propositions for our customers, in B2C, B2B and B2B2X. The onboarding, purchasing, and activation will be digital-first and offer a similar experience as the world’s leading cloud platforms.” 

The ‘Tech Hub’ platform to be built by Tech Mahindra is powered by Comviva BlueMarble – currently used by Vodafone Germany. The win is an interesting one for the company given Proximus already has a 20+ year relationship with Tata Consultancy Services.  

“As the telecom industry continues to evolve, telcos are finding new ways to reinvent themselves and adopt newer monetization streams,” said Tech Mahindra president EMEA business Vikram Nair. “Through this strategic partnership, Tech Mahindra will deliver a future-ready platform that will be instrumental in accelerating Proximus’s ‘Telco to Techco’ journey.” 

He added: “The partnership will leverage Tech Mahindra’s extensive telecom expertise, 5G capabilities, AI proficiency, and cutting-edge IT services to revolutionize customer experience and drive business growth.” 

Enterprise IT transformation  

Earlier this week, Proximus announced plans to integrate its B2B IT activities into a dedicated affiliate in the Benelux market. The company presented a plan to the social partners to transfer the Proximus SA B2B activities in IT to its affiliate PICT SA (Proximus ICT) and transform this unit into an “end-to-end IT integrator” leveraging its strong Benelux footprint. 

Six months ago, Proximus launched the Proximus NXT brand, and the operator said this was the next step but left it with a two-fold ambition: on the telco side, to growth fibre, 5G and IoT in the enterprise market and on the other side, to further strengthen its IT activities utilising its position in domains like workspace, cloud, sovereign cloud, security and AI. 

To meet these priorities, the B2B activities of Proximus in IT will be transferred to the existing affiliate PICT SA and merged with the existing teams. This would allow for a clearer focus on the particularities of the IT business, develop an own B2B IT identity and bring it closer to the ecosystem of Proximus’s affiliates and partners.  

Anne-Sophie Lotgering, currently enterprise market lead of Proximus, will be the new leader of this entity. The B2B telco activities will remain in Proximus SA and will be led by Renaud Tilmans, the current customer operations lead of Proximus. 

The plan, which would imply the transfer of around 350-400 employees working in the enterprise business unit of Proximus SA to PICT SA as of 1 July 2024, has been presented to the social partners and colleagues involved have been informed. Proximus said it will now leave the time “to an open and constructive social dialogue”, with the aim to come back with more information in April and the intention to implement the new structure as of the second half of this year. 

Europe to toughen up subsea cable protection stance  

Simon Dux
-
0
Europe to toughen up subsea cable protection stance  

Similar to what happened with 5G networks, the Commission’s new report recommends phasing out risky providers of subsea cables

The well-documented subsea cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea by a Chinese vessel last October, plus cable anomalies in the Nordics spurred the EU Council to task the Commission to make some recommendations to protect Europe’s subsea cable infrastructure.  

Earlier this week, these recommendations arrived in the form a report on the cybersecurity and resiliency of Europe’s communications infrastructures and networks – essentially joint work from EU Member States, with the support of the European Commission and ENISA, the EU Agency for cybersecurity. 

A key recommendation is to reduce risks, vulnerabilities and dependencies on high-risk suppliers, and this means creating transparency on the landscape of suppliers and used for fixed networks, fibre technology, submarine cables, satellite networks and other important ICT suppliers. 

According to Euractiv, the Commission suggests creating a “Submarine Cable Infrastructure Expert Group” that would be tasked with “putting forward a Cable Security Toolbox” like the EU Toolbox on 5G cybersecurity which in effect led to the decision to replace Huawei kit in many EU MNOs. Having a toolbox for cables could have big implications for Huawei’s HMN Tech, which could be equally restricted or banned from rolling out submarine cables. The report points out the EU only has one indigenous cable builder, ASN.  

The report said national “competent authorities” in the Member States should exchange information about suppliers, and together with ENISA and in consultation with BEREC, should prepare an aggregated mapping of the supplier landscape for fixed (fibre) networks, satellite networks, submarine cables, and other important ICT suppliers. This would allow for a discussion about if there is a need to look at the risk profile of suppliers in these sectors and potential risks of dependencies. 

Euractiv points out the Commission wants to task the expert group, working jointly with the Commission, with setting up a prioritised list of “Cable Projects of European Interest” based on the following criteria: enhanced resilience of infrastructure, supply chain security, geostrategic importance, and public necessity. 

Cable ownership  

The report recommends Member States assess resilience of international interconnections and clarify mandate, specifically which national authorities have the mandate to supervise these international interconnections and who has the mandate to supervise the cable operators. To complement those developments, Member States should map foreign jurisdiction obligations imposed upon operators which have submarine cables on their territory. 

In general, according to the report, it seems that there is a lack of information and understanding about the criticality, resilience, and redundancy of core Internet infrastructure, including submarine cables. For instance, as regards submarine cables, there is little information about their capacity, if the current network architecture is sufficiently redundant, if there is failover capacity when an incident happens, if there is sufficient repair capacity, if submarine cable operators are taking appropriate security measures and so on. The Commission pointed out works has already been done in December 2022 but more needs to be done. 

A further recommendation was that Member States should exchange good practices about the resilience of submarine cables, for instance within the NIS Cooperation Group and with the CER authorities. Good practices from the energy sector for the protection of submarine power cables should be considered. Based on this exchange of good practices, ENISA should develop technical guidelines for national competent authorities in the Member States to support them in supervising the security of submarine cables and landing stations. 

Threats and vulnerabilities 

Some Member States rely on a few main international backbone connections and have limited and suboptimal solutions to redirect traffic. A coordinated sabotage action could have a significant impact on the functioning and continuity of the networks. 

The report said a large-scale coordinated attack on submarine cables which would damage several cables at once could be difficult to mitigate and may have long-lasting impact. Firstly, repairing submarine cables is difficult when they are in deep waters or under the ice. Secondly, the number of cable repair ships is limited, and their availability-on-demand is not guaranteed. Power cuts could also affect submarine cables which rely on repeaters.  

At national level, the responsibility for protecting these submarine cables is not always clear and typically involves several different national authorities, including the telecom regulator, the cybersecurity agency, but could also include the coastguard or the military. The intent of any attacker is to cause large-scale network outages, affecting Internet connectivity of an entire region in the EU that depends mostly on submarine cables. The submarine cable attack take place in international waters, where it is unclear who has legal jurisdiction. The incident lasts several days, because repair is slow and there is a limited number of repair vessels. 

Another identified risk is where a state actor interferes with a supplier or a consortium operating several (land and submarine) cables and landing points, which are critical for international connections of some EU Member States. The state actor exercises pressure on the supplier of these cables to gain access to sensitive data transmitted over the cable, for the purpose of espionage. While tapping of submarine cables on the seabed is difficult, tapping at the landing points is feasible. 

Wider network recommendations in the report 

The report covered a gamut of threats and mitigations for telco networks. Other recommendations included: creating transparency on the landscape of suppliers and managed service provider or managed security service provider used for fixed networks, fibre technology, submarine cables, satellite networks and other important ICT suppliers; and implement the recommendations related to suppliers in the second Progress Report on the EU Toolbox implementation. 

Other recommendations included involving the sector in cyber exercises and operational collaboration and foster information sharing and improve situational awareness about threats for operators. Although no amount was mentioned, operators should also be provided with funding support for technical measures against cyber-attacks in their networks. This may link to extending physical stress testing of critical infrastructure to include digital infrastructure. National authorities are also urged to exchange best practices among national authorities about physical attacks on digital infrastructure. All the recommendations should be carried out sooner rather than later. 

This most recent report follows on from the 5G recommendations made to Member States in 2022. On 9 March 2022, the informal Council meeting of Telecom Ministers organised in Nevers (France) resulted in a joint call to reinforce the EU’s cybersecurity capabilities. Point 4 of the call asks relevant national authorities, such as the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), ENISA, and the NIS Cooperation Group to make recommendations to EU Member States and the Commission based on a risk assessment to reinforce the resilience of the EU’s communications infrastructures and networks. 

Is GenAI a panacea for the operational complexities of telco networks?

Sandeep Raina, MYCOM OSI
-
0
Is GenAI a panacea for the operational complexities of telco networks?

Partner content: A look at why the technology is expected to be such a gamechanger for the telecoms industry in the next three years

Hakan, a Network Operations Centre (NOC) engineer for a large mobile network, reports for work at 9am. He begins to chat with his network.

Hakan: What will be the busiest cells in my mobile network at 4pm today?

Network: Here are the 3 busiest cell sites, by subscriber numbers: London RS, Manchester CM, and Leeds UB.

Hakan: Do you see problems impacting any cell sites in Leeds?

Network: Yes, there are developing performance impacts on 14 cells in Leeds. Do you want to know what these problems are?

Hakan: Yes, what are the worst 5 alarms for network vendor X in the 14 cells?

Network: Here are the top 5 alarm types and the number of times they have occurred in the last 24 hours…

This chat between NOC engineer Hakan and his mobile network happens within seconds. Within a few minutes, Hakan identifies impending problems, and identifies weak spots in the network. So, rather than scanning auto-generated (push) reports in a NOC, Hakan can pull responses to his niche questions, and prioritize his actions.

He does not use query language or write complex commands. He chats in plain English and receives responses from the network in plain English. This is the simplicity of generative AI in a telco network environment; it recognizes and communicates using natural language.

Let’s take another scenario.

The Head of Products at a leading Communications Service Provider (CSP) wants to know how a newly launched service is doing on the second day of the launch.

Deborah: We launched a new mobile data service on 5G yesterday. It is called Holiday Entertainment package. How many subscribers have registered for it?

Network: There were 12,000 registrations on the first day

Deborah: Have any customers used video streaming? How many accessed Spotify and Instagram Live through this service?

Network: I have all this information, and I can tell you how the new service performed for Spotify and Instagram. Would you like to know this as text or graphs?

This is what Generative AI (GenAI) is capable of – supporting network engineers and offering business insights.

In a recent Gartner report, Artificial Intelligence, GenAI was named as top game-changing technology in the next three years. Gartner reports that 79% of survey respondents (all of whom were from CSPs) voted for GenAI as the technology most likely to be implemented by 2026.

An AWS study (carried out by Altman Solon) shows that mobile network operators (i.e., LTE/5G) find a particular use case a ‘clear win’: guided employee assistance for installation, troubleshooting, and maintenance. This use case allows to retrieve and respond to network service engineers with information to aid in installation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of network devices and infrastructure.

The appeal of GenAI

Now, what makes GenAI so interesting for the CSP technical teams?

First, it uses different forms of data to make its outcomes intelligent, analytical and effective for network operators. If the CSP allows GenAI to crunch multi-source data, (Network performance, Quality of Service, billing, sentiment analysis from social media, point of sale and CRM data) it can generate responses to complex data queries which would otherwise be highly difficult to correlate.

Second, it offers deep, generative models within the artificial intelligence (AI) umbrella, in comparison to Machine Learning, which focuses on predictions and enabling of actions. GenAI creates new content after crunching the multi-source data, thus establishing itself as a simple tool for human-to-network communication.

In the mobile industry, the rapidly developing high interest in GenAI adoption is triggered by the network complexities posed by 5G and its applications. 48% respondents in the AWS survey said that they would adopt GenAI use cases within a year and a half from now. In MYCOM OSI’s conversations with CSPs, we hear that network optimization is a very strong use case for GenAI.

NOC applications

An ideal GenAI NOC application would supply Hakan with all the information that he needs, and, in the near future, as detailed multimodal reports. It will intelligently report on the network health, network utilization, identify the root causes of incidents and provide high-quality diagnostic information in text, charts, and graphs, which enable Hakan to resolve problems faster.

GenAI gives him real-time advice on the next best action, and predictive insights on what is round the corner. It could even generate code for him, which could be transferred via APIs to systems that can use it for new applications.

Other than the network optimization aspect, there is a strong commercial angle to GenAI. Instead of producing daily reports for the C-level (and other business users in the company) GenAI can free Hakan of overheads and let him focus on critical operational tasks, where his skills will be best used.

GenAI can instead have daily conversations with the product strategists and business planners to generate new business insights for them, inform them of revenue impacting issues and their extent, generate customer usage/footfall/behaviour, billing insights and recommend new offerings. All using simple text-based natural language chats.

Large language models (LLMs) are at the heart of GenAI. They are the underlying technologies on which to build and scale GenAI applications, suitable for use by both technical and business users. While GenAI use cases are extremely promising and there is high interest in them, the LLMs need to be trained for the desired outputs for specific domains.

CSPs are more interested in defining niche LLMs for their use cases or their domains, rather than use generic LLMs, and rightly so. These fine-tuned models (or Foundation Models) and niche expert models will deliver more reliable, accurately summarised and sophisticated responses to natural language queries.

MYCOM OSI is working on developing use cases using GenAI for NOC users and for business users of CSPs. Collaborating with their teams on multi-source data helps us understand the vast possibilities that GenAI offers. And how it can transform the analysis, distribution and consumption of network and non-network data to simplify operations and create new business insights.

About the author

Sandeep Raina is VP – Global Head of Marketing at MYCOM OSI

Turkcell calls on Mavenir’s CI/CD tech for VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling

Annie Turner
-
0
Turkcell calls on Mavenir’s CI/CD tech for VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling

The vendor has a slew of contracts in the Middle East, and central Europe; teams up with Qualcomm on high density Open vRAN

Turkcell has stepped up its network automation to improve VoLTE services using Mavenir’s technology. Turkcell is Turkey’s largest converged network operator with 20 million VoLTE subscribers. It will deploy Mavenir’s Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) automation framework.

Mavenir says the framework is based on open source components and “seamlessly integrates” with a customer-defined software delivery process, using Mavenir’s own APIs,

Further, the framework “supports Day 1 Initial Deployment and Day 2 life cycle management” of Turkcell’s IMS network functions (NFs) at scale across multiple clusters and multiple types of NFs according to the vendor.

Its GIT-based software delivery model promises version control with history and automatic traceability of current and past deployments, upgrades and rollbacks with enhanced security and validation through CD pipeline.

Automation’s business advantages

The automation is designed to reduces the time, the cost and the resource required to implement new software and features in the network. In turn this should translate into less time to market for new services and competitive advantage.

It will be used to improve Wi-Fi calling and SMS over IP (ToIP) as well as VoLTE services.

Professor Dr Vehbi Çağrı Güngör, Chief Network Technologies Officer at Turkcell, said, “Network operations tend to become more complex with the increasing release frequencies and network integrations. Applying these changes in accordance with CI/CD best practices is vital for more sustainable network operations. Our partnership with Mavenir catalyzed the lifecyle management of IMS network functions, and created an important milestone in our network automation journey.”

Brandon Larson, SVP, Cloud, AI & IMS at Mavenir, said: “…this new automation…will further streamline network operations for Turkcell as well as delivering notable savings on operational expenditure and reinforcing network quality for their customers.”

Core partnership with DT group

Slovak Telekom has chosen Mavenir’s containerised Converged Packet Core solution, making Mavenir its sole network core technology partner.

Mavenir already provides voice and messaging services for the Slovakian operator. Now it will deliver data services across the packet core domain for all the generations of mobile technologies, using Slovak Telekom’s private Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) cloud platform. Mavenir will also integrate cloud-native 5G standalone (SA) capabilities.

Mavenir previously announced it will roll out its Converged Packet Core solution DT group’s subsidiaries in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic) and in Hungary (Magyar Telekom).

Quick on campus

Mavenir’s Converged Packet Core is designed to accelerates the move to 5G and deployment of new enterprise applications and services that harness 5G, including low latency and network slicing. The vendor says its cloud-native architecture offers “easy scaling, hardware decoupling, agility, portability, and resilience across public, private, and hybrid clouds”.

According to the vendor, its approach is unique, uniting the macro and enterprise cores to encompass central deployment and additional remote locations or 5G core solutions implemented on-site.

Put another way, the network tech supports local breakout as require, leveraging Mavenir’s remote User Plane Function (UPF) to deploy campus solutions rapidly. Users’ data is transmitted directly to the UPF and made available to application servers to reduce latency and increase data security.

High density Open vRAN

Mavenir has teamed up with Qualcomm Technologies to deliver energy-efficient solutions for high-density cell site configurations to expand and improve 5G coverage and capacity in urban areas.

The ongoing collaboration leverages the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card and Mavenir’s Open virtualised Radio Access Network (Open vRAN). The intention is to speed up operators’ adoption of cloud-native Open 5G networks for better scalability, sustainability, capacity and efficiency.

Lightening the load

The two say their joint solution offers more fronthaul port capacity and “substantially” reduces the use of the CPUs/core, and therefore their energy consumption. This makes them suitable for deployment at scale, such as for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).

The Qualcomm X100 5G RAN acceleration card is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express-based (PCIe-based) solution that offloads compute-intensive tasks from the CPU to the card. The solution is integrated via a standards-based financial-grade applications programming interface or FAPI.

The collaboration has demonstrated the integration of in-line acceleration, with the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN accelerator card and Mavenir’s cloud-native virtualised Distributed Unit (vDU) software solution in a live massive MIMO use case. This generated a capacity of 3Gbps in a multi-user environment.

1...106107108...1,639Page 107 of 1,639
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP
DOWNLOAD OUR NEW REPORT

5G Advanced

Will 5G’s second wave deliver value?

DOWNLOAD REPORT