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KDDI claims world first slicing with guaranteed SLAs via RIC

Annie Turner
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KDDI claims world first slicing with guaranteed SLAs via RIC

Operator worked with Samsung to generate multiple network slices in demo

KDDI conducted “a world’s first” demonstration of network slicing guaranteed by service level agreements (SLAs) via a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) in a commercial base station.

KDDI and Samsung partnered for the trial which took place last November in Tokyo and generated multiple network slices. Samsung said in a statement that it “proved the technical feasibility of multiple user equipment (UE)-based network slices with quality assurance using the RIC, which performs advanced control of RAN as defined by the O-RAN Alliance”.

Real-time resources

KDDI’s statement said this meant in the trial that resources could match, in real time, “changes in the communication environment and… to communication requests in accordance with SLAs” [from a translation of a statement in Japanese].

KDDI intends to continue R&D efforts with different partners toward “the full-scale provision of network slicing” in 2024.

Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, was quoted saying in the Samsung statement, “This demonstration is another meaningful step forward in our efforts to advance technological innovation and enrich network services. We’re excited to have accomplished this together with KDDI and look forward to continued collaboration.”

KX and EnterpriseWeb send SON to tackle DDoS

Nick Booth
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KX and EnterpriseWeb send SON to tackle DDoS

Ransomware villains face network orchestration  

Telecoms automator EnterpriseWeb (EW) and analytic specialist KX claim they can make networks that can be trusted to protect themselves, optimise services and run operations on one ninth of electricity and ten times faster with no human or downtime. The system lets telcos offer faster, better quality service to more customers. The software can run in base stations so minimal extra hardware or software is needed and the alongside an existing system.

KX claims it ‘world’s fastest’ time series database and real-time analytics engine kdb+ drives EW’s automated, but highly visible, systems performance-critical mobile network. EW’s closed-loop control mechanism runs on any distributed network. KX data services and analytics use the kdb+ time series database for pattern recognition and the detection of anomalies. These feed EnterpriseWeb’s intelligent orchestration platform for intent-based network and service management. Together they can interpret events, translate policies and take pre-emptive action to maintain a declared state for a self-scaling, self-healing, self-optimizing network. 

The two companies first teamed a 5G edge network automation test-bed hosted by Intel Network Builders (INB), along with Red Hat, Keysight, Fortinet and Tech Mahindra. Their improvements to the Self-Organizing Network (SON) perfected the processing of secure packets, while significantly reducing energy consumption. To date most SONs have been vendor-centric, narrow in scope, batch processed and expensive to deploy and maintain. 

The EW and KX fixed that by making an open SON that adapts to a wide variety of use cases. To test this they simulated both a large spike in network traffic and a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. KX monitors streaming data to issue alerts where threshold levels are breached. Signals are then sent back to EnterpriseWeb’s intelligent orchestrator, which automatically adjusts the configuration of the service elements as well as the underlying infrastructure to accommodate the additional traffic and respond to the threat. This ensures Quality of Service for customers and maintains network health.

Test results so far indicate that the system could handle ten times more traffic while using around a tenth of the energy. The energy efficiency leapt from 113 kW/h to 1069 kW/h. That automatically identifies anomalies and instantly neutralises them without human intervention. The artificially intelligent interventions are predicted and prevented so quickly that normal service is preserved without ever having to be restored, according to KX growth officer James Corcoran.

“This automated self-optimising approach replaces a difficult manual task with a set of intelligent observability services that require minimal human action,” said Corcoran, “the result is easier, faster, risk-mitigating and service-oriented deployments.”

 The risk-mitigation system can detect cyber threats, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS), the threat of which grounded all American domestic flights recently. Many Canadian institutions have been paralysed by denial-of-service cyber hackers. The speedy resolution of these outages, and the subsequent surge in bitcoin values, have been linked by some speculators who argue that since the FTX scandal nobody would ever buy bitcoin by the millions unless they were being forced to use the currency to pay a ransom to a criminal gang.

The sooner threats can be detected, the better chance there is to mitigate those risks. This process is carried out automatically and has become priceless in reputational risk and maintaining quality of service. “It can lead to loss of service and perhaps reputational damage,” said Corcoran. Europe’s mobile network operators (MNOs) are particularly vulnerable.

Installing the database and real-time analytics engine kdb+ can automatically keep the network at peak performance at minimal cost, which is a fine balancing act given the number of complicated ‘instances’ that need to be purchased across the cloud, “from edge to fog to cloud command and control”, according to Corcoran.

“The results have been excellent,” said Corcoran, “we’re processing ten gigabits per second rather than one, on around one ninth of the energy. The system lets telcos offer faster, better quality service to more customers. The use case in the test is very specific but we see this being of immense benefit to telcos looking to automate and drive efficiency over edge-to-cloud architectures and increase quality of service while also lowering costs,” said Corcoran.

Ericsson warns network profit margins will continue to fall

Annie Turner
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Ericsson warns network profit margins will continue to fall

Investors are not impressed by Q4 earnings and positive longer term outlook

Ericsson posted weaker than expected earnings for the full year, resulting in its shares falling 7%. Although in Q4, Ericsson’s revenues increased 21% to SKr86 billion (€7.706 billion), operating profit fell by a third to SKr7.9bn, below expectations.

CEO Börje Ekholm warned he expected profit margin for network equipment to continue shrinking in the first half of the new financial year and that group adjusted operating earnings would be lower in the first quarter than 2022’s SKr5 billion.

Fortunes tied to network

While Ericsson made promoted the growth potential of its enterprise, cloud and intellectual property units at its Capital Markets Day in December, the fact is more than 70% of its revenue in Q3, which ended on 30th September, came from network equipment with falling margins.

In its Q4/full-year earnings statement, Ericsson said, “We expect operators to continue to sweat assets in response to macroeconomic headwinds. In addition, we expect operators to adjust inventory levels as supply situation eases. These trends started to impact Networks in Q4 and we expect them to continue at least during the first half of 2023. At the same time, we expect good growth from market share wins, albeit not fully offsetting the near-term headwinds. In the longer-term, capex is driven by traffic growth.”

However, “Given near-term macroeconomic headwinds, we expect Enterprise to grow somewhat slower than during 2022.”

The shadow of scandal

The Swedish vendor’ shares had already halved over the last year after it acknowledged it could have made payments to terrorist group Isis in Iraq almost a year ago. Investigations are ongoing.

The acknowledgement came just as Ericsson was finally hoping to move out of the shadow of scandal, having agreed in late 2019 to let the US Department of Justice (DoJ) oversee its trading for three years, ending in June 2023. This was part of the settlement it reached regarding corruption charges for activities in China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Kuwait and Vietnam.

Last week it made a $220 million provision for breaching the 2019 deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice.

Board games

Cevian Capital, Europe’s largest activist investor, and stakeholder in Ericsson has harshly criticised its board for being weak and lambasted the lack of corporate governance which it says are costing shareholders billions. It is seeking to gain greater influence

Earlier this month, chair Ronnie Leten announced he will step down. He is to be replaced by Jan Carlson who has been on the vendor’s board for the last six years. Kurt Jofs and Nora Denzel, who served on the board since 2018 and 2013 respectively, are also leaving.

Jonas Synnergren, a senior partner at Cevian Capital, has been nominated for a place on the board.

Vodafone to offer Standalone 5G trials to select smartphone set

Nick Booth
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Vodafone to offer Standalone 5G trials to select smartphone set

Urban Galaxy or OPPO owners only

Vodafone UK is holding live trials in metropolitan areas with select customers on the ‘standalone’ sections of its 5G network. Members of the elite group of 5G SA, who live in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Bath, Glasgow and Birmingham, identified by their ownership of Samsung Galaxy S21/S22 or OPPO Find X3/X5 Pro smartphones, will be discretely informed of their appointment for trials by SMS messages from their handler at Vodafone control room.

Their mission is to explore the possibilities of the purist’s version of the signalling technology, which is ringfenced away from previous generations of networking, such as LTE, by specially designed 5G signalling techniques. These special subscribers will penetrate the Metaverse and gather intelligence about augmented and virtual realities. Vodafone is keen to test video streaming, telemedicine and online gaming. 

The cover for entering the special area is interest in how the new network infrastructure, built by Ericsson, Vodafone’s people in Sweden who have all been given clearance by GCHQ, is helping to improve customer battery life and creating a smoother experience for services. In March 2022, Vodafone and Ericsson completed lab trials for network slicing. “Eligible customers who opt into the trial will benefit from even better reliability, improved battery life and improved coverage,” said a message from the Vodafone agency.

It’s thought that the intelligence that Vodafone keenest on gathering is about network steering. This is a technology that allows the network to direct a device automatically towards the right connectivity, be it 4G, 5G non-standalone or 5G standalone, depending on the services in use. “Network steering will improve the efficiency of Vodafone’s network, providing a better experience for all customers,” said Vodafone. 

An investigation by Telecom TV found that Vodafone UK’s chief network officer, Andrea Dona, has been talking. In a blog Dona said that extending the métier of the 5G SA core platform to the rest of the UK would require support from Number 10 and Ofcom (the UK regulator). According to Dona net neutrality is acting like a handbrake on creativity. UK telcos will need funding too, which could be facilitated with low interest loans. Encouraging public procurement of 5G services and removing the barriers to rollout would be helpful too. “Industry consolidation also has an important role to play in providing the scale necessary to invest,” said Dona, referring to the planned merger of Vodafone UK and Three. 

Vodafone’s 5G SA is a rare example in the world, according to US analyst The Dell’oro Group. Its latest quarterly bulletin, Mobile Core Network & Multi-Access Edge Computing, revealed that only 39 operators in the world but predicted that business would reach $50 billion within four year (2027). 

Douwe Egberts’ network has never ‘bean robusta’ 

Nick Booth
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Douwe Egberts’ network has never ‘bean robusta’ 

OBS’s SD-WAN for JDE 

Coffee company Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) put complete faith in Orange Business Services (OBS) to network its 120 depots, plants and offices across the world. OBS earned its trust through its track record of software defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) testimonials, reported in Mobile Europe. By creating a bespoke cadre of code Orange Business Service has created the sensitivity and intelligence that turned a framework of hardware devices, such as switches, routers, satellites and subsea cables, into a flexible infrastructure that is only a few Turings short of omniscience.

JDE wanted the unique character of its organisation to be tailored for with a unique ‘suit’ that fit it perfectly and left room for growth. OBS created an omnipotent globally connected comms and computing super-automaton using managed Flexible SD-WAN across 40 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. 

In addition, OBS provided a range of managed network security services across the core infrastructure of JDE’s data centres in Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Singapore. There are also multiple cloud-based security systems that constantly re-shape themselves to match the flow of traffic and computing needs of the business.

The wisdom of choosing the flexible SD-WAN was soon proved when JDE’s merger and acquisition activity increased after it bought a company in the Asia Pacific region. JDE was supported by its technology and it instantly integrated the new teams and sites into its global IT infrastructure. This allowed the new staff to get up to speed quickly by gaining rapid access to corporate applications and the network. This saved a significant amount of time and allowed for rapid onboarding.

“Orange Business Services built us a strong, scalable and secure connectivity infrastructure. This quickly put us on a solid path to transformation, with the digital services our business needs to reach our expansion goals,” said Alexander Min, IT Director of Global Information Systems at JDE. “The end-user experience has improved too.”

OBS’s Evolution system is designed to expedite digital transformation and propel businesses faster, explained Nemo Verbist, Senior Vice President Europe for Orange Business Services. Jacobs Douwe Egberts has already seen major performance benefits as new sites can join the network without it having to break step. “This is hopefully the beginning of a fruitful partnership,” said Verbist. 

Telxius, NJFX offer diverse sub-sea links across the Atlantic and LatAm

Annie Turner
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<strong>Telxius, NJFX offer diverse sub-sea links across the Atlantic and LatAm</strong>

Agreement extends the Marea, Dunant and Brusa subsea cable systems to New Jersey

Telxius, the telecoms infrastructure firm owned by Telefonica, has teamed up with NJFX to give customers on-demand access to redundant subsea cable infrastructure across the Atlantic and Latin America.

NJFX is a carrier-neutral cable landing station (CLS) colocation campus in Wall, New Jersey, US.

Telxius says the deal means it will be able to offer its customers “diverse global solutions through submarine cables landing at or nearby NJFX and serve subsea cable restoration needs between cable systems landing at NJFX and the Telxius’ Virginia Beach cable landing station”.

Telxius offers a direct terrestrial fibre route between its CLS in Virginia Beach and NJFX’s campus – the most direct link between the two sites, extending the capabilities and services of its Marea, Dunant and Brusa subsea cable systems.

Customers using hubs in Chicago, Montreal, New York, Richmond and Toronto will be able to plug into multi-terabit capacity and range of services.

This vital link bypasses Ashburn in the state of Virginia to bring diversity to the routes and avoid Ashburn’s “overly dense infrastructure”.

Telxius’ new presence at NJFX will provide NJFX’s customers with direct access to the Telxius global submarine network consisting of over 80,000 km of high-capacity fibre optic submarine cables with diverse terrestrial backhauls.

This will allow NJFX’s customers access to Telxius complete array of services Including Tier-1 IP Transit, global capacity, colocation and security solutions. Telxius’ low latency, diverse and robust Atlantic routes are powered by almost 100 PoPs in 18 countries, 25 landing stations and two communications hubs connecting to world-leading data centres.

By joining the NJFX interconnection platform, Telxius and its customers gain direct, on-demand interconnection with Havfrue/AEC-2, Seabras-1, TGN1 and TGN2, providing diverse connectivity across both the Atlantic and to Latin America.

Customers include enterprises, content and media provider, government and other telecoms operators.

Give us full 5G spectrum or someone’s gonna get hertz – say DT and O2 CEOs

Nick Booth
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Give us full 5G spectrum or someone’s gonna get hertz – say DT and O2 CEOs

German telcos signal a 600 MHz battle

The CEO of Telefónica Deutschland (O2) has demanded more spectrum for 5G services in Europe, reports Anne Morris in Light Reading. Markus Haas told German newspaper Tagesspiegel that frequencies such as 600MHz should be allocated to 5G signalling in Germany especially now that 1&1 has crowded the 5G market. It’s a battle that all European telcos should get behind, according to Haas.

Though 600MHz is currently used for broadcasting by the programme making and special events (PMSE) sector, Hass cited the annexing of the 700MHz and 800MHz frequencies by mobile operators as proof of the greater need. “If we had listened to broadcasters we would still be living in the stone age of mobile communications today,” said Haas. It’s OK for the metropolitan elite perhaps, but these days the rural areas of Germany have to get their mobile Internet via the alternative frequencies. 

Telefónica and other mobile network operators (MNO) in Europe won’t get access to 600MHz frequencies for years, unless priorities change. The 470-960MHz band will be among a number of bands that will be considered for mobile use in Region 1 (which includes Europe) at the next World Radio Conference in 2023 (WRC-23), according to Analysys Mason.

Haas isn’t the only CEO hoping that 600MHz frequencies will be released for mobile communications in 2030. Analysys Mason says there’s “broad support” from other MNOs for a co-primary mobile allocation in the 600MHz band in Europe. After all the US and Canada have done it, as have Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and India.

Trade body the GSMA says that typically 2GHz of mid-band spectrum will be needed by each market to support the growth of 5G by 2030, with the low-band spectrum being used to raise the speeds of delivery in rural areas. Will the German MNOs get their way? If so, could this set a precedent for the rest of Europe? Haas is frustrated by the expensive spectrum auctions that demotivate investors in network building. Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, was similarly upset when the German regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) proposed yet another spectrum auction in 2024, as part of a delicate balance of the 800MHz and 900MHz frequencies.

Höttges said DT is “totally against” a spectrum auction in 2024. “With all the buildouts which our industry is carrying out, with all the cost increases [caused by] energy prices, with all the challenges we face from our construction companies: now the German regulator thinks it’s a great idea to have an auction in 2024 on this spectrum,” said Höttges.

BNetzA will continue holding the industry to auction, but it needs to expedite the process as usage rights in Germany for 800MHz, 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz bands expire at the end of 2025. As things stand, it is proposing a spectrum swap, as a compromise. This would involve extending 800MHz usage rights from 2025 until the end of 2033. In turn, 900MHz rights would expire at the end of 2025 rather than at the end of 2033. The 900MHz spectrum would then be awarded instead of the 800MHz spectrum.

“Such a swap would secure the existing LTE coverage on the basis of the 800MHz spectrum for the longer term, while also giving new entrants an opportunity to receive spectrum below 1GHz,” said BNetzA. Since its consultation period finished in November 2022, the next steps should be revealed soon, said Light Reading.

Laser diverts lightning strikes to protect Swisscom antenna

Annie Turner
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Laser diverts lightning strikes to protect Swisscom antenna

Scientists claim the Laser Lightning Rod could avoid billions of euros of damage to critical infra annually

In 2021, a group of scientists used a helicopter to land their laser equipment on top of a Swiss mountain, 2,500m high. They focused a laser beam in the sky above a 124-metre-tall transmission tower belonging to Swisscom.

Over a period of two months, the equipment emitted intense laser pulses at 1,000 times a second to redirect lightning strikes. Four were successfully diverted.

Researchers initially used high-speed cameras to record deflecting the lightning by more than 50 metres. Three others were documented with different data.

Safeguarding critical infrastructure

The scientists say their work shows how to safeguard critical infrastructure, including power stations, airports, wind farms and launchpads. Lightning causes billions of dollars in damage on buildings, communication systems, power lines and electrical equipment annually, as well as killing thousands of people.

“We have demonstrated for the first time that a laser can be used to guide natural lightning,” physicist Aurelien Houard of Ecole Polytechnique’s Laboratory of Applied Optics in France, was quoted saying in an article published this month in nature photononics. She is project coordinator and lead author of the research.

She added, “We have shown here that these plasma columns can act as a guide for lightning…It is important because it is the first step towards a laser-based lightning protection that could virtually reach a height of hundreds of metres or a kilometre with sufficient laser energy.”

Ericsson’s AI brains expedite 5G domains in Ooredoo Qatar

Nick Booth
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Ericsson’s AI brains expedite 5G domains in Ooredoo Qatar

Microsoft cloud provides the brawn

Ericsson of Sweden and Ooredoo Qatar are using artificial intelligence (AI) to make 5G fit the expectations of the Qatari population. They are using Ericsson Cognitive Software to fine tune the connectivity between Microsoft’s cloud data centre and the devices of the customers. 

Ooredoo is one of the first users of Ericsson’s new optimization system, which uses digital twinning and deep reinforcement learning to analyse the Radio Access Network (RAN).This instantly resolves specific network performance issues and makes constant balancing tweaks that ensure peak network performance and user engagement while minimising running costs.

Ericsson AI experts, data scientists and customer engagement experts are working with Ooredoo Qatar’s network engineers to create and market a multitude of use cases based on variables such as better mobile broadband reliability, network speeds, minimal latency and data capacity. The system finds out the needs of the consumer, whether they are ‘low volume high velocity’ IoT types, or high screen resolution blockbuster scale movie streamers – and works out the requisite quality of service needed.

“Qatar’s telecoms industry has taken years to reach this major milestone,” said Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Bin Nasser Al Thani, Chief Commercial Officer at Ooredoo Qatar. “Together with Ericsson we are working bring 5G to millions, networking them at remarkably high speeds, low latency and large capacity.”

Artificial Intelligence is the Ageeli on the Bundt cake that is the Ooredoo network infrastructure with its layers of network enhancements. “We focused our efforts on supporting Ooredoo Qatar and in providing top-notch performance,” said Kevin Murphy, Vice President and Head of Ericsson Levant. “Since we began operations in Qatar, we have been committed to enhancing the nation’s cellular infrastructure and fostering an environment that drives innovation and technological adoption to support Qatar’s national agenda.”

With the processing power of Microsoft cloud at their disposal telecom operators can transition to a more flexible and scalable model, said Masroor Hamid, Telecom Sector Lead at Microsoft Qatar. The cloud can drive down infrastructure cost if you use AI and machine learning to automate operations and create service differentiation, Hamid advised. “Through our hyperscale datacentre in Qatar, Ooredoo Qatar and Ericsson are enabling organizations across industries to rapidly innovate with new 5G services,” said Hamid. 

The Ericsson Performance Optimizers suite is part of the Cognitive Software pack in Ericsson Operations Engine. It can be implemented through licensing, software as a service (SaaS) or as part of services packs.

Ukraine needs €1.6 billion to rebuild telecoms sector, says official

Nick Booth
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Ukraine needs €1.6 billion to rebuild telecoms sector, says official

Running on 40% capacity at times

Ukraine needs €1.58 billion ($1.79 billion) to rebuild its telecoms infrastructure after ten of its 24 regions were damaged by Russian forces, according to Yurii Shchyhol, head of the State Special Communications Service (SPCC). Mobile comms in Ukraine was running at about 77% of its overall capacity on the morning of January 17, since many base stations in affected regions are not operating while active fighting continues, reported The New Voice of Ukraine.

“After the first massive missile attacks by the Russians, the uptime indicator was at 40%, so this indicates an increase in the stability of our networks,” said Shchyhol. Part of that improvement came from the 20% of the base stations operating in Kherson Oblast se map above) before the full-scale invasion took them out. These were restored after the region’s partial liberation from the Russian invaders.

According to Shchyhol, the rest of the territory of Ukraine provides at east 70% network signal availability from its base stations as Ukrainian mobile operators promptly restored service and stabilised their networks. The operators are providing backup power not just to the base stations but the entire network’s subsystems. “That’s tens of thousands of [devices],” Shchyhol said, “and so far all the key elements of the operators’ networks [have been maintained].”

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, mobile operators have restored a total of more than 3,200 kilometres of fibre optic lines. They have also restored 1,200 base stations and built more than 1,500 new stations. In addition, over 8,000 stations have been upgraded. The SPCC agency said that investments in the development of mobile networks in 2022 would amount to at least 8 billion Ukrainian Hryvna (€203 million or $218.7 million).

The State Special Communications Service said the infrastructure of IT and telecoms in Ukraine became one of the main targets of enemy attacks after since Feb 24, 2022. Cyber-attacks have been particularly intense, with 1,123 state sponsored hacks aimed at all sectors of Ukraine’s economy, including IT and telecommunications, were recorded in just six months of full-scale war.

Even if there is no mobile internet or there’s a full blackout for several days voice calls and SMS services will continue to work in some locations, said Olga Ustinova, CEO of mobile operator Vodafone. There may be times when the network can only provide point coverage, during which mobile communication will be partially available, said Oleksandr Komarov, CEO of mobile operator Kyivstar.

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