PRESS RELEASE

At the Autonomous Networks Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 20, 2023, the fifth edition of the Autonomous Networks (AN) whitepaper — Autonomous Networks: Empowering digital transformation – Evolving from Level 2/3 towards Level 4, jointly written by TM Forum and 66 industry partners, was officially released. Many industry partners, including China Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica, Zain, AIS, MTN, EANTC, and Huawei, attended the release conference.

The past four years witnessed five releases of the AN whitepaper and significant progress in the development of systematic AN concepts, standards, implementation methods, and application cases. This has resulted in a widespread consensus within the industry and notable achievements in AN standards, practices, and deployment. The fifth edition of the AN whitepaper made the following progress based on the fourth edition:

1. Social and Business Value of AN

According to the whitepaper, AN can unlock social value by facilitating high-quality development of the extensive ICT industry, empowering digital transformation in many industries, stimulating the digital economy, and fulfilling various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, including zero hunger (SDG 2), quality education (SDG 4), clean energy (SDG 7), economic growth (SDG 8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), and sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11). At the same time, AN is creating tremendous business value to CSPs in four aspects, including enabling network monetization, achieving efficient operations, increasing resource efficiency, and improving customer experience.

2. General Characteristics of AN Levels

In the whitepaper, general L4 characteristics and the key points of L3-to-L4 evolution are summarized from business and capability perspectives. Domain-specific L4 characteristics can be defined based on the guiding principles of the general L4 characteristics to help CSPs and vendors plan more advanced AN capabilities.

3. ANF

The AN framework (ANF) is proposed by TM Forum and many industry partners to help CSPs formulate AN strategies and advance operations practices. It includes four key elements (KEIs, level standards, target architecture, and AN map), operations practices, and industry assessment and certification, helping CSPs quickly fulfil the Zero-X and Self-X vision.

4. AN Business Cases and Key Enabling Technologies

30 cases in the whitepaper offer a systematic description of how to apply key AN concepts, such as the target architecture, closed-loop mechanism, Self-X capabilities, single-domain autonomy, and cross-domain collaboration in the production and service scenarios of CSPs. Furthermore, these cases serve as a valuable reference for CSPs to improve their 2B revenue and enable more services. TM Forum outlined the technologies that will enable the development of L4 and L5. These include network AI foundation model, trustworthiness technology, digital twin, online simulation, cognitive intelligence, human-machine symbiosis, TelcoGPT, and knowledge management. The whitepaper calls on industry partners to collaborate and make technical breakthroughs to develop innovative applications.

The period from 2023 to 2025 is crucial for CSPs to formulate AN strategies, accelerate large-scale AN implementation, and evolve from L2 or L3 to L4. The fifth edition of the AN whitepaper can provide CSPs with methodology guidance, practical reference, and innovative ideas and promote the healthy and prosperous growth of the AN industry.

PRESS RELEASE

— Xinghe Network Large Model, Powering the Network Digital Map

[Shanghai, China, September 21, 2023] At HUAWEI CONNECT 2023, Huawei released the industry’s first large network model — Xinghe Network large model. This future-oriented model empowers the iMaster NCE network digital map, and accelerates network digitalization and industry intelligence.

Huawei Xinghe Network large model is a communication network model trained based on Huawei PanGu models. The large model aggregates more than 20 billion corpuses (such as configuration items and command lines) in the Huawei data communication domain and the experience of more than 30,000 network experts. It has powerful semantic understanding capabilities and professional knowledge, and supports knowledge Q&As, interactive service analysis, and decision-making assistance.

Huawei Xinghe Network large model stands out with three highlights:

Multi-dimensional awareness: Detects multi-dimensional network data and application data in real time and completes hierarchical modeling.
Proactive prediction: Establishes a prediction model to accurately predict the network traffic trends, network and security risks, and impact scope.
Decision-making assistance: Sets up a hierarchical multi-objective decision-making model to intelligently recommend the optimal handling policy and suggestions.

Huawei Xinghe Network large model has three key benefits.

Multi-Dimensional Scanning, Identifying Network Risks in Advance

The model performs hierarchical modeling on parameters in approximately 10,000 dimensions (such as networks, applications, and devices) and implements in-depth correlation inference of abnormal data to predict network faults and risks in real time and automatically recommend optimization policies.

Dual-Model-Driven, Creating Ultimate Network Experience

The application experience prediction model is used to evaluate the application health from six dimensions and predict application experience deterioration. The application-based traffic steering decision-making model automatically learns service level agreement (SLA) requirements of applications and intelligently recommends traffic steering policies based on link loads and tariff packages, thereby achieving optimal application experience on the entire network and minimizing private line costs.

Multi-Dimensional Modeling and Analysis, Predicting Unknown Threats in Advance

Huawei Xinghe Network large model performs modeling and analysis from multiple dimensions (such as identify, terminal, and session), identifies abnormal traffic, analyzes the impact scope of network faults, and automatically generates virtual patches. In addition, the model scans all users and terminals to prevent network security risks in advance, thereby making network security threats manageable and controllable.

Huawei iMaster NCE network digital map is the first product and solution to integrate Huawei Xinghe Network large model. Oriented to the campus network, wide area network, and data center network scenarios, the digital map enables network-wide unified management and functions as a digital brain for enterprise networks, accelerating the intelligence of a wide range of industries such as finance, public services, and education.

 

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Viewpoint Article

by Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK

Although the UK got off to a fast start in the 5G era, we have lost our way a bit. However, the race is far from over and there is still plenty to be hopeful for.

While the “race to 5G” is not as simple as winners and losers, there will be those who win more than others. Developing the right environment for business to thrive not only increases the economic potential of those businesses that already exist, but it attracts international investment to create new jobs and new opportunities.

This increased economic prosperity will also have a hugely positive impact on our society and on us as citizens. Generally speaking, the better performing a countries economy, the better its public services function and the happier its people are.

In a world which is increasingly becoming dominated by technology, having the right digital infrastructure is critical to achieve this objective.

That means 5G, and to be more specific, 5G Standalone, deployed at scale across the length and breadth of the UK.

Sitting in the chasing peloton

Vodafone launched 5G Non-standalone services in 2019, becoming one of the first companies in the world to do so. As a result, the UK took a leadership position in the 5G race.

But much has changed in the last four years. The UK has incrementally moved forward, but not at the same pace as other nations. Looking at the statistics from Open Signal, the UK currently sits in 21st for median 5G download speeds compared to other European nations, and 20th for 5G coverage.

During the summer, we announced the launch of the UK’s first 5G Standalone network. While this is another promising step forward, we must be realistic. Until 5G Standalone, the technologically superior and fully upgraded 5G network, is installed at scale, we will not fully realise the full economic benefits of this new digital era.

Currently, the UK is an “also ran” in the 5G race. There will be benefits from the work we are doing, but let’s not settle for mediocrity.

What is the 5G opportunity?

The 5G opportunity is relatively simple when you condense it down to the simplest message – improving what we have today.

We have all experienced the benefits of digital technologies, from online banking through to simply being connected to our loved ones. And even during the toughest of times, the COVID-19 pandemic, technology enabled business and society to function in ways it would have never been able to in previous generations.

5G will build on that foundation and go far beyond it.

For starters, better digital infrastructure means greater efficiencies. Through real-time access to data and embedding AI, we can improve on what we have today. That could mean less energy intensive factory operations, or an NHS that monitors patients remotely in real-time so we can treat symptoms not diseases.

And then we have the ideas that are impossible today. 5G will bring to life ideas that would normally be at home in Sci-Fi movies. Driverless vehicles, robots to deliver packages, hologram video calls or learning through augmented reality.

5G Standalone could be worth £150 billion to the UK by 2030. This is new revenue growth for existing businesses that embrace the new digital era and the creation of new companies and jobs.

Realising the full potential of 5G

At Vodafone, we believe there are still many miles left in the race and significant opportunity to drive both economic and societal benefit. We just have to create the right environment.

Firstly, the proposed merger between Vodafone UK and Three UK would create a more competitive marketplace. Both Vodafone UK and Three UK are subscale operators, meaning we do not have enough customers to drive return-on-investment for the money we are spending on network deployment. This is unsustainable.

By merging Vodafone UK and Three UK together into a single entity, you create an organisation that can compete with BT/EE and VMO2. Both of these companies have greater scale, and as it stands, we believe the UK is effectively a two-player marketplace. We do not believe this is the best way to deliver value for consumers, businesses or the UK as a whole.

Secondly, we have to create the right policy environment for digital to succeed. The UK Government reformed the broadband market and now fibre installation is growing across the UK. The same should be done for the mobile market.

With reforms to spectrum policy, introducing public sector 5G procurement incentives, addressing the challenging with planning permission for new infrastructure and introducing an investment-first approach to regulation, we can get the UK back on track.

Building momentum in the final furlongs

The UK Government and Ofcom have already begun shifting the dial in the right direction with the Wireless Infrastructure Strategy and the Net Neutrality Consultation, but we need to move faster, and we need to create the right environment to succeed. This means creating three, scaled telecoms players that can effectively compete against each other.

5G is a race for economic opportunity and societal benefit across the UK. We’ve fallen off the pace, but we can quickly gather momentum with the right strategic approach.

Andrea (pictured, centre) spoke about this topic at length on the opening keynote panel of Connected Britain 2023, which took place ealier this week. Use the hashtag #ConnectedBritain to catch up with all the action online!