Rethinking 5G: The necessity of the cloud
The telecom sector is currently at a turning point. Network management and operation must fundamentally change in response to the needs of 5G, the proliferation of connected devices, and the growing complexity of network topologies.
Autonomous networks will drive efficiency and creativity in the future
Autonomous networks are the way of the future; scale and performance are not enough. By utilising AI, operators can drastically increase productivity, profitability, and open up completely new business options, surpassing their current automation technologies.
Telecom operators need autonomous network operations (ANO) to stay competitive and give customers the “always on, always performant, always secure” mobile network experience they seek. AI-based solutions also protect critical infrastructure like mobile networks that carry sensitive customer data and are increasingly targeted by hackers.
Robust data is necessary for autonomous networks
The availability of comprehensive, detailed mobile-network telemetry data is essential to achieving the revolutionary potential of autonomous network operations for mobile networks. Mobile networks provide massive amounts of telemetry that may improve processes, user experiences, and product development.
Thus, gathering, combining, and evaluating telemetry from RAN, mobile core, and other services is becoming increasingly crucial. Additionally, it necessitates a strong data model that can integrate data from these various sources and provide Artifical intellgence algorithms the context they need to learn, adapt, and optimise network outcomes in real time.
AI, for instance, may predict customer attrition, promote energy efficiency, enable dynamic network optimisation, and give individualised service offerings and preemptive threat detection. Training AI network agents on high-quality data from these pertinent sources is frequently necessary to succeed in these fields.
Unlocking the scalability, flexibility, and processing capacity required for these processes is crucial to successfully use AI and the enormous datasets needed to achieve complete autonomy.
For 5G networks to be fully autonomous, they must change
In order to satisfy strict regulatory requirements and provide carrier-grade scale, performance, and dependability, telecom service providers spent decades designing and constructing on-premises networks. Autonomous operations need a dynamic environment that can efficiently utilise new AI models and offer the adaptable processing capacity required to train these models using vast volumes of telemetry data if they are to produce novel results.
For instance, by using the same telemetry data to train several AI models, an operator can swiftly move from rapid failure recovery to network optimisation. Mobile operators can then access state-of-the-art Cloud TPUs and GPUs that are optimised for AI, global availability, scale, elasticity, and cloud-native AI services with the infrastructure that the cloud delivers. The quick speed of innovation that operators need for self-sufficient operations is also supported by the cloud.
Telecom companies have adopted the cloud to manage their mobile networks in recognition of this. Nevertheless, the initial strategy of merely moving current on-premises systems to the public cloud has not lived up to expectations. The agility required for AI-driven network operations is hampered by this method, which frequently increases operational complexity.
Closing the distance to self-sufficient 5G
In order to fulfil the promise of “always on, always performant, always secure” mobile networks, operators are turning to cloud providers and mobile core suppliers to forge a route that will allow them to fully utilise AI and data-driven intelligence.
Together, Ericsson and Google Cloud are working to bring about a fundamental change in the design and operation of mobile core networks on public cloud infrastructure. It is collaborating to develop the packet core technology stack so that it can operate on independently managed, scalable, and reliable Google Cloud infrastructure.
In order to enable operators to realise their vision of autonomous networks, the firms continue to pool their expertise in a variety of areas, including technological advancements, efficient delivery methods, and above all a common culture of unrelenting innovation.
5G was designed with autonomous networks
The success of telecom operators will be shaped by the shift to complete autonomy, and a major facilitator of that transition is the cloudification of the 5G mobile core network. Google Cloud and Ericsson are dedicated to enabling this change.
Finally, by laying the groundwork for a shift to next-generation technologies like 6G and igniting the future of mobile communication, this revolutionary method helps future-proof operator investments. A new era of mobile connection is being ushered in by Ericsson and Google Cloud working together.
