In Parts 1 & 2 of our series we looked at “What is Open RAN?” and how “Open RAN is sowing the seeds of innovation” as the momentum grows globally for Open RAN technology. In this third and final part of our series, we look at the critical role built-in intelligence will play to ensure […]

My grandpa used to say “It’s easy to be good in good times, the heroes are recognized in hardship”. This is exactly what is going on in the telecom world right now. Network resources as well as operators’ budgets are simultaneously becoming more limited as the user’s/application’s demands keep growing exponentially.

In Part 1 of our series "What is Open RAN?" we outlined how Open RAN is a disruptive technology/framework which is moving the telco infrastructure from a static, vertically integrated, propriety ecosystem to one that is dynamic and horizontally integrated which is removing vendor lock-in and broadening the supply chain. With this disruption come many opportunities but perhaps the key one is the opportunity for Innovation.

OpenRAN is the telecom industry’s most recent buzz word, although it’s been around for a while, there’s a convergence of events from geo-political moves, the dawn of 5G and cost-pressure on operators leading to a timely importance of this technology in the telecommunications ecosystem.

Whenever I think about evolution of mobile communications, a quote by Henry Ford comes to my mind. Once upon a time he said the following: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Indeed, if you think this through, numerous parallels can be drawn between the car industry and mobile telephony today. What connects them is the continuously growing need for speed, ever-present strong level of innovation, great momentum for both industries today and a massive shift that is underway.

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was introduced to provide a reliable connection-oriented communication channel between two end hosts, making sure that the data gets through to the other host. It was and essentially has been the very basis of the internet as we know it. Since then, the TCP/IP protocols suite has evolved to meet the changing requirements of the Internet.

There is a lot of excitement in the Telecommunication community about Open RAN, with more and more trials and deployments being announced with network operators in various parts of the world.  But what is Open RAN?

The best way to prepare a multi-course meal of one’s choice within budget is all about smart play with ingredients already available in the kitchen. As quoted by François de La Rochefoucauld “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”, so a chef who can turn the available ingredients to budget friendly multi-course meal, which is healthy and also delightful to the taste buds, is the real master. Similarly, re-farming the pricey frequency spectrum according to the customer’s demands is a job which can only be carried out by experienced radio frequency master chefs.

Who would have thought 25 years ago that today's Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) customer service centres would be getting calls from an 8-year-old and grandma complaining that they don’t have enough Throughput to watch 4K Netflix? Well, be prepared because in the years to come grandma will be calling again demanding better latency because she can’t get Mario to move when she wants him to!

Despite furious fibre deployment by operators, microwave deployments are still growing both as permanent last mile solutions and as medium-term temporary bridges for fibre spans or backup/redundancy solutions. 

How is mobile network performance assessed and improved with collected data? Good estimation of network performance requires a huge amount of data to be collected and analysed. Engaging with our customers over the past number of years, they’ve confirmed that enormous time is spent for both Drive Testing and the analysis of the logs.

Is your network capacity correctly dimensioned for sudden traffic spikes during special events or extraordinary scenarios? Are you sure those key performance indicators are reflecting real end-user experience? How will your network perform during the next public bench-marking campaign? Those questions are continuously bothering many CTOs and CEOs around the globe. Answers aren’t that easy.

How can you know how many more customers your Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network can handle in a specific geographical area while still guaranteeing a good speed for everyone? To keep your customers happy and to minimize churn, your mobile network needs to be high performing.

The road to realizing the negative downtime concept in mobile networks is not straightforward and there are many challenges. Automation and AI/ML techniques are forming a key part of the solution in the early detection and prevention of issues at network level scale that will help to deliver a real positive for customer experience.

Oh, how I remember the good old days, working as a support engineer in telecoms during the late nineties, early two thousands. The demand for mobile phones seemed endless as did the money available to build and support the networks.

In operations/network support the goal of many teleco’s is a 'zero-touch' network– a fully autonomous network that can operate, optimize and heal itself without the need for human maintenance or intervention.  If you’re reading this blog, this goal is of interest to you too.

The evolution of the connected world over the past 10 years has been mind blowing. It’s had a massive impact on people’s lives, mostly positive one might say. The impact for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) has not been that positive though.