Testing

Category: 5G

  • How to enhance accuracy and efficiency of Network Analytics for 5G

    How to enhance accuracy and efficiency of Network Analytics for 5G

    As 5G gains traction, CSPs will look to unearth its potential benefits. However, what 5G will also bring in is a compound effect of the challenges that CSPs face already.

    The Three Challenges CSPs face

    The first of these challenges pertains to the increasing capex intensity which is plaguing the telecom industry, which currently stands at 16%, the highest among any other sector in the world. The second challenge comes from the growing network complexity which is quickly as CSPs continue to pursue network-wide densification and virtualization. The final challenge comes from the fact that customer expectations, as it historically has, is rising in multiples, and with the number of connected devices and subscribers being added to the mix increasing, and leading to the an increase in data volumes, the expectations of customers is rising manifold.

    The above challenges are ones CSPs need to deal with in a 4G environment, and the 5G landscape is only set to accelerate these trends further.

    How will 5G change things

    One of the better-known advantages that come with 5G is the fact that it opens up CSPs to operator in a new arena beyond the usual consumer space: Enterprises. With 5G CSPs will play an integral instrument for driving newer use cases around IoT, industrial automation, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, robotic surgery and a lot more. What this means is that, for CSPs, 5G use cases will now bring in 3 larger use cases:

    1. eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) – which is designed for better user experiences on consumer devices, providing extreme network speeds and capacity

    2. mMTC (Massive Machine-type Communication) – which aims to provide connectivity to a huge number of devices whose traffic profile is typically a small amount of data (spread) sporadically.

    3. URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Services) – which focusses on low latency, high reliability and high availability aspects

    With a focus around these three overarching use cases, 5G promises to deliver superior experience to not just subscribers but enterprises also. From a consumer angle, for close to 60% of smartphone users, the highest expectation for 5G is to deliver speeds faster than current mobile networks. Across the globe, data consumption is increasing by more than 40 percent every year. Video in particular will account for 75 percent of network traffic by 2024, up from 55 percent today. Networks will need to adapt from Standard and High Definition video resolution to 2K and 4K, placing higher requirements on speed and quality. Further into the future, services like AR/VR applications will put even higher requirements on network performance. This demand for better customer experience means that operators must continuously adapt and expand network capacity.

    From an Enterprise standpoint, with 5G having the capability to reduce latency to sub-milliseconds, businesses can start to consider the nexus between cloud, mobile and enterprise applications. More features and functionality can be extended to the mobile fleet and frontline employees. The use cases for ultralow latency apps can be vertical specific. This can include the financial services for high-frequency trading, as well as mining and energy companies rolling out autonomous fleets that are highly responsive to their environments. Moreover, 5G complements other emerging technologies such as AI/ML, robotics and IoT to further drive enterprise digital transformation both internally within an organization as well as externally in customer engagements.  Of course, at the end of the day, 5G is a telecom technology, and hence CSPs will be at the heart of driving 5G within the enterprise. However, this will also mean a new area where CSPs will need to direct capacity.

    What all the above add to is the need to build Superior experiences, which will be the main driver to generate new revenue stream in 5G era.

    The Need for Intelligent Capacity Management

    The main enabler to provide a superior experience will be an   approach based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. With capacity as the main enabler for raising speed to the 10x Gbps mark an Intelligent Capacity Management approach will in-turn help to meet the future growth requirements of massive device volumes.

    In line with this, an accurate capacity management process will help CSPs to differentiate themselves from the competition. Why Accuracy? Accuracy is key in any capacity management process as it directly impacts the Capex and ROI. An Intelligent Capacity Management solution built on Intelligent Data Management, Advanced Automation, and Domain-Driven Data Science, can help network planners achieve accuracy in each phase of capacity management process of Assessing, Planning and Optimizing capacity augmentations.

    Intelligent Capacity Management for Better Network Planning

    To succeed in the 5G journey, CSPs will need to make the right investments to gain competitive advantage and enhance end-user experience. However, such investments are highly cost intensive, both in terms of Capex and Opex. Any inaccuracies in the overall network investment planning can lead to unintended impacts on company financials and can create significant network inefficiencies. Hence, an Intelligent Capacity Management can help ensure accuracy to make the right Network Investment Plans.

    Intelligent Capacity Management for Better Customer Experience

    5G will also enable CSPs to increase revenues due to its potential of not only transforming mobile communications, but also completely replacing broadband internet. Considering most 5G deployments are focusing on FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) as the first use case, this is clearly the intent among most telecom operators. However, this will demand a dramatically broader capacity than CSPs are generally used to providing. This can only be achieved through an Intelligent approach to Capacity Management.

    Business Benefits of Intelligent Capacity Management

    An Intelligent Capacity Management Approach can bring about a:

    • 70%+ Increase in Accuracy
    • 80%+ Increase in Operational Efficiency
    • 7%+ Increase in Capex Efficiency
    • 10%+ Increase in ROI

    Read a case study on how we helped a Tier-I telcos increase their revenues by over 12% through intelligent network investment planning.

    Download Now

  • Subex takes home two TM Forum Catalyst Awards

    Subex takes home two TM Forum Catalyst Awards

    We are very excited to announce that Subex has been announced as a winner across two categories in the prestigious TM Forum Catalyst Awards 2021. The Catalyst project, Measurements of Trust in AI Environment, a joint initiative with Dialog Axiata, Ncell Axiata, Axiata Digital Labs, BolgiaTen, Brytlyt, and AWS was recognized in the Sustainability category. Similarly, the Catalyst project, 5G Digital Marketplace Phase II, with Colt, Verizon, Cognizant, AWS, Servicenow, and STL was selected for the Best use of Open Digital Framework Category.

    TM Forum’s Catalyst Awards recognize the world’s leading companies for their outstanding proof-of-concept solutions to challenges facing communications service providers and their technology partners. The award for Sustainability recognizes the team whose project demonstrates the greatest potential to make our world a better place, based on the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). On the other hand, the Best use of Open Digital Framework award recognizes the team that shows the most powerful use of TM Forum’s Open Digital Framework (ODF) assets in their solution and can quantify the benefits of using these assets.

    Steffen Roehn, Chairman of TM Forum and [StR] Partner of Bain & Company comments: “Throughout the past 18 months, the tech communications industry has mastered the challenge to keep the world connected. This meant to overcome a multitude of obstacles to ensure success for customers. We were extremely impressed by the incredible standard of the demonstrations and true innovation throughout the Catalyst projects this year as we reviewed the creativity of the teams in developing solutions to evolve our industry. I was privileged and proud to be a part of the process and I extend my congratulations to all the winners.”

    John Gillam, Chief Digital Officer, TM Forum comments: “Through the power of collaboration, we can connect, inspire, and ignite change for good to tackle some of the biggest barriers in telecoms. The TM Forum Catalyst Awards are a chance for us to honor the innovative and creative minds within our industry. This year, through the 41 Catalyst teams, we have seen evidence of the way in which we can unite to drive transformation within society, business, and the wider world. I’m delighted to congratulate this year’s Outstanding Catalysts, and the proof-of-concept solutions they have developed together.”

    To see the winners from this year’s TM Forum Catalyst awards, please visit the website here

    About the Catalyst Programs:

    Measurements of trust in AI environment

    Subex joined hands with Catalyst champions, Axiata, Ncell Axiata & Dialog to address the trust issues in AI systems by building a comprehensive framework to measure trust. As part of the catalyst program, the team explores how to bridge the AI trust gap across three use cases: Churn Prediction, Maintaining Model Trust in Real-Time Analytics, and Credit Rating.

    5G Digital Marketplace – Phase II

    Subex collaborated with Catalyst champions Colt and Verizon to demonstrate a digital marketplace involving cross-industry service compositions and the provisioning of appropriate 5G network slices to provide low-latency services faster. As part of the project, Subex’s Capacity Management solution will provide its proprietary predictive Machine Learning models to predict capacity needs. It will also apply advanced analytics on network slices to understand the impact on QoS (quality of service) and QoE (Quality of Experience) and provide an immersive customer experience.

  • Las 3 dimensiones principales en la evolución de los riesgos en 5G

    Las 3 dimensiones principales en la evolución de los riesgos en 5G

    A medida que el mundo se prepara para ver que la promesa de 5G se hace realidad a escala, también tiene sentido que los profesionales de la gestión de riesgos piensen “out of the box” (fuera de la caja). No es una hipérbole llamar al 5G un punto de inflexión en la historia de las telecomunicaciones. Con capacidades técnicas sin precedentes, 5G también permite la realización de modelos comerciales muy innovadores.

    Pero junto con estas capacidades sin precedentes, conlleva un riesgo significativo. En un mundo hiperconectado impulsado por identidades digitales, algunas de estas nuevas ofertas introducen vulnerabilidades significativas que pueden traducirse en pérdidas directas o pérdidas de oportunidades. En Subex, algunas de las dimensiones clave que estamos rastreando para construir la matriz de riesgo para 5G son:

    Socios digitales

    Una gran cantidad de nuevas ofertas en el universo 5G están impulsadas por múltiples socios (por ejemplo, deportes virtuales, videojuegos, paquetes de realidad aumentada, estudios virtuales, etc.). Si bien estas ofertas pueden cambiar las reglas del juego en la combinación de ingresos de un operador, los puntos de integración de los entornos heredados a los digitales y de múltiples pilas han mostrado tradicionalmente un gran potencial de fugas. Es importante señalar que en la industria de las telecomunicaciones, específicamente en Revenue Assurance, los problemas de integración del sistema siempre se han identificado como una razón crítica para las fugas.

    Ofertas empresariales

    No sería un error llamar a 5G la primera “generación centrada en la empresa”. Si dividimos la promesa de 5G en sus conceptos básicos (banda ancha móvil mejorada, comunicaciones de tipo de máquina masiva y comunicaciones ultra confiables y de baja latencia), será más fácil imaginar los posibles casos de uso empresarial de 5G. Sin embargo, la empresa siempre ha sido un área de telecomunicaciones, que tiene importantes desafíos relacionados con la garantía. Problemas como el inventario dinámico, las modificaciones manuales del contrato, el servicio de verificación de facturación, el margen de cuenta y el análisis de rentabilidad, etc., solo se agravarán en el mundo 5G.

    Gestión y aprovisionamiento de pedidos digitales

    Si bien esto puede parecer un área relativamente fácil, es importante recordar que los nuevos modelos comerciales se basarían en el acceso y no en el uso. Las empresas impulsadas por Internet ya siguen este modelo (p. Ej., Netflix), y es lógico suponer que con un gran paquete de productos, los operadores podrían pasar a modelos similares basados ​​en niveles de paquetes de múltiples servicios. Por ejemplo, podría estar pagando $ 30 / mes por el paquete de comunicaciones básico (VoLTE, aplicaciones OTT) o $ 50 / mes por el paquete de medios (Video Conferencing + Basic) y así sucesivamente. En tales modelos, podríamos estar aprovisionando API de socios, activando perfiles basados ​​en la incorporación digital, verificando identidades digitales, etc. Además, las capacidades de “autoservicio” proyectadas para los suscriptores de todas las empresas de telecomunicaciones crearán la necesidad de controles de garantía de tiempo, que mitigarían las fallas sistémicas.

    Por supuesto, la matriz de riesgo real se extiende mucho más allá de las tres áreas de control enumeradas anteriormente con nuevas complejidades que surgen en términos de administración de datos, acceso a tablas de configuración dinámica, movimiento de CDR al análisis de señales, plataformas de caja negra y volumen y velocidad de datos. En Subex, estamos renovando tanto nuestro dominio como nuestras capacidades técnicas para estar listos para “Más allá de 5G”. Con un marco de riesgo completamente nuevo que aprovecha nuestro enfoque de “Inteligencia de riesgo activo” complementado con una plataforma de próxima generación (NGP) preparada para Big Data y habilitada para inteligencia de máquinas, Subex sería su socio ideal tanto para la garantía empresarial como para la protección efectiva para el futuro.

    ¿Quiere analizar cómo puede impulsar un negocio rentable en la era 5G?

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  • Top 3 evolving dimensions of risks in 5G

    Top 3 evolving dimensions of risks in 5G

    As the world prepares to see the promise of 5G being realized at scale, it also makes sense for risk management professionals to think outside the box. It is not hyperbole to call 5G an inflection point in the history of telecom. With unprecedented technical capabilities, 5G also allows for the realization of very innovative business models.

    But along with these unprecedented capabilities comes significant risk. In a hyper-connected world driven by digital identities, some of these new offerings introduce significant vulnerabilities that can translate to direct loss or opportunity loss. At Subex, some of the key dimensions we are tracking to build the risk matrix for 5G are:

    Digital Partners

    A large number of new offerings in the 5G universe are multi-partner driven (e.g., virtual sports, video gaming, Augmented Reality packages, virtual studios, etc.). While these offerings can be potential game-changers in an operator’s revenue mix, the integration points from legacy to digital as well as multi-stack environments have traditionally shown large potential for leakages. It is important to note that in the telecom industry, specifically in Revenue Assurance, system integration issues have always tracked as a critical reason for leakages.

    Enterprise Offerings

    It wouldn’t be a mistake to call 5G the first “Enterprise-centric generation.” If we break down the promise of 5G into its basics (Enhanced Mobile Broadband, Massive Machine Type communications, and Ultra-Reliable, Low-Latency Communications), it becomes easier to imagine the potential enterprise 5G use-cases. However, the enterprise has always been an area in telecom, which has significant assurance related challenges. Issues like dynamic inventory, manual contract modifications, service to billing verification, account margin & profitability analysis, etc. will only be compounded in the 5G world.

    Digital Order Management & Provisioning

    While this might seem a relatively easy area, it is important to remember that new business models would be access-based as opposed to usage-based. Internet-driven companies already follow this model (e.g. Netflix), and it is a logical assumption that with a large product bouquet, operators might move into similar models based on multi-service bouquet-tiers. For example, I might be paying $30/month for the basic communications package (VoLTE, OTT apps) or $50/month for the media package (Video Conferencing + Basic) and so on. In such models, we might be provisioning partner-APIs, activating profiles based on digital on-boarding, verifying digital identities, etc. Furthermore, the projected “self-service” capabilities for the subscribers of all telcos will create a need for real-time assurance checks, which would mitigate systemic breakdowns.

    Of course, the actual risk matrix extends far beyond the three control areas listed above with brand new complexities coming up in terms of data management, access to dynamic configuration tables, moving from CDR to signal analysis, black-box platforms, and volume & velocity of data. At Subex, we are revamping both our domain and technical capabilities to be “Beyond 5G” ready. With a brand-new risk framework that leverages our “Active Risk Intelligence” approach complemented by a Big Data ready, Machine intelligence-enabled Next Generation Platform (NGP), Subex would be your ideal partner for both Business Assuranceand effective futureproofing. By leveraging our advanced cyber-security capabilities (Subex Secure) and our expertise in Anomaly Detection (CrunchMetrics), our new Business Assurance product is the ideal application to help you keep pace with business in the Digital Era.

    Want to discuss how you can drive a profitable business in the 5G era?

    Request Demo Now

  • A rewind of the evolution from 1G to 5G

    A rewind of the evolution from 1G to 5G

    From 1G to 5G

    The journey from 1G to 5G seems to recent and time has really flown. By means of the below blog, I have attempted to provide a quick summary of the journey and how we fared.

    Towards the end, you can also see the revenue impact on a select few Telcos handpicked from across the globe with the evolution of each Generation of Telecom.

    1G Era 1987-1991

    “It was PHENOMENAL but was not enough.”

    What Happened Here?

    • Engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS on December 3rd, 1992, when he wrote “merry Christmas” on a computer and sent it to the cell phone of Vodafone director Richard Jarvis
    • Inception of AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) technology from the pre-existing IMPS (Improved Mobile Telephone System) for voice transmission.
    • Connectivity established seamless mobile connectivity introducing mobile voice services.
    • 1G Introduced Analog voice.

    What went wrong?

    • Poor voice quality
    • Poor battery life
    • Large phone size
    • No security
    • Limited capacity
    • Poor reliability

    The Revenue Impact:

    Since the call rates were too high & the users too less, this was only the beginning of the Telecom revolution and at this point, service providers were focused on technological strides as success stories over revenue generation or acquiring subscriber base. This was essential for the operators as it defined their level of readiness to capture the market faster and better in the coming days.

    2G Era 1991-2001:

    “A revolutionary milestone in telecommunication sector”

    What Happened here:

    • 2G: First Wireless digital transmission came with 2G in 1991.
    • GSM – Global Systems for Mobile Communication enabled Data transfer on top of voice at a speed of 30-35 kbps (A joke in modern telecommunication terms).
    • 2G was developed, primarily, to transfer voice, fax, MMS and SMS services.
    • By use of digital voice compression, the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) standards supported three times as many voice channels in the same bandwidth as the old analog systems.
    • The ‘E’ & ‘G’ Symbols on the mobile network were seen first during the 2G era.
    • Data was responsible for constant spike in revenues in telecom operators in addition to the voice revenues. 40% of the revenues were collected for Data.
    • 2.5G saw the introduction of GPRS as enhanced Data services. GPRS can be viewed as a boosted data service for GSM users, but using packet switching and multiplexing techniques. The maximum transfer speed that can be reached via GPRS is approximately 170 Kbps.
    • 2.75G saw the entry of EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technology.
    • Data transmission rate saw 4X increase from 170kbps to 500kbps (practical application). In theory it was said to be 1mbps.
    • EDGE transferred data in fewer seconds if we compare it with GPRS Technology. For example, a typical text file of 40KB was transferred in only 2 seconds as compared to the transfer from GPRS technology, which was 6 seconds.

    What went wrong?

    • Required strong digital signals to help mobile phones work. If there was no network coverage, digital signals weakened.
    • Systems were unable to handle complex data like videos.
    • As the generation moved towards 3G, the user requirement was too complex for 2G to satisfy.

    The Revenue Impact:

    While the biggest highlight of the era may have been the introduction of data transfer capabilities on a mobile device, the maximum revenue impact seems to be created by SMS services. Telecom operators across the globe saw multi-fold increase in their revenue in this period, with some operators reporting 5X growth.

    3G Era 2001-2009

    “Showed us the unending potential of Data yet did not fulfil its own potential”

    What Happened Here?

    • 3G network was introduced in 1998, we saw its establishment in the early 2000s.
    • The max speed of 3G was estimated to be around 2 Mbps for stationary devices and 384 Kbps in mobile phones. The theoretical max speed was 21.6 Mbps.
    • It was based on CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) & EDGE technologies. (EDGE was superior enough to support 3G on its own).
    • 3G introduced media streaming.
    • Data in 3G was broken down into small pieces or packets and then sent to the destination, unlike 2G which used circuit switching.
      • This was revolutionary as users paid only for the data they spent rather than the time spent online.
    • “Data is money” probably started its inception in the mid-2000s as there was a surge in data utilization by consumers.
    • Multimedia, navigation, mobile apps, browsers, conference calls, mobile TV all saw their inception in the early 3G era.
    • 5G was conceptualized and released with HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) marking the iconic ‘H’ symbol on the mobile network.
    • It was all about data in the 3.5G. Data transmission rates went up to 14mbps
    • Saw the release of HSPA+ or as we know it ‘H+’ symbol on the network.
    • Data speeds went up even further with max speed of 42mbps
    • Although 3G did not see operators exponentially increase revenue as the 2G era, tier 1 operators saw significant growth as Data consumption increased.

    What Went Wrong?

    • Messy Architecture
    • Demanded 3G compatible handsets
    • Cost of upgrading to 3G device was too high
    • Power consumption was high

    The Revenue Impact:

    During the mid-2000s towards the dawn of 4G, operators focused on increasing their subscriber base. From 2002 to 2009, they saw an increase of ~4.1Bn. But since data dominated over calls, the spike in revenue was not satisfactory. This period turned out to be a huge revenue booster for device manufacturers as the need to have a 3G compatible device/handset became a necessity as it enabled the transformation of phones into smart phones.

    4G Era 2010-2019:

    “4G introduced us to a faster world with a greater Data capacity”

    What Happened Here?

    • 4G saw an overlap of itself with the 3G as in 2008, 4G technology started to roll out but had issues to commercially announce the then communication system as 4G due to minimum standard requirements which were not fulfilled.
    • The speed of 3G quickly became insufficient as technology & smartphones evolved resulting in heavier files and bulkier data flows.
    • It provided a quality that enriched user experience with advancedgaming services, HD mobile TV, Video Conferencing, 3D TV, IP telephony and other services that demand higher speeds.
    • With the implementation of 4G, some 3G features are removed, such as the radio spectrum technology.
    • A term MAGIC is used to explain the 4G technology.
      • M – Mobile multimedia
      • A – Anytime Anywhere.
      • G – Global mobility support
      • I – Integrated wireless solution
      • C – Customized Personal Service
    • 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) was a complete redesign and simplification of 3G network architecture, resulting in a significant reduction in transfer latency and thus, increasing efficiency and speeds on the network.
    • Users encountered a problem in accessing data while on a voice call with the 4G LTE, hence the inception of 4G VoLTE which simply meant voice over LTE enabling users to access 4G data and still be able to make calls.
    • 4G carries 3X the data 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) carried and 6X the data 2G GSM network carried.
    • 4G bandwidth is 200 Mbps, which meant that one could download a full-length movie in under 10 minutes!

    What Went Wrong?

    • 4G LTE network needs complex hardware
    • 4G technology use many antennae & transmitters resulting in poor battery life.
    • In areas without 4G coverage, consumers downgraded to 3G while still paying the cost of 4G.
    • Higher Data consumption

    The Revenue Impact:

    In 2018, almost 300 million people connected to mobile internet for the first time, bringing the total connected population to more than 3.5 billion people globally. Revenues did not see a drastic increase for the operators especially in the tier 2 & 3 segments, as consumers demanded better connectivity, greater capacity & lower latency. This could only be afforded by the tier 1 operators, who could simply afford splurging on improving their network.

    5G Era 2019 and beyond:

    “5G is more than a generation, it is a promise to wonderland”

    • 5G looks at us with a new experience in faster data rates, higher connection density, much lower latency, among other improvements.
    • 5G is not an upgrade to 4G, but is in a league of its own, because it provides us the ability to connect thousands of devices at once giving the user the true sense of ‘real-time’ experience.
    • This means the computing & processing can move to cloud and resulting in smaller IoT devices, reducing the cost of manufacturing & maintenance by optimizing network for the telecom operator.
    • IoT will mean a lot different with the growth of 5G, as self-driving cars may yet become a reality even in India.
    • Since increasing subscriber base in tier 1 cities is no longer an enticing prospect for Telcos, they will look at generating new streams of revenue with the maturity of MU-MIMO and achieving data speeds of up to 35Gbps.
    • 5Gtechnology may use a variety of spectrum bands, including millimetre wave (mmWave) radio spectrum, which can carry very large amounts of data a short distance.
    • 5G mobile technology can usher in new immersive experiences such as VR and AR with faster, more uniform data rates, lower latency, and lower cost-per-bit.
    • 5Gcan enable new services that can transform industries with ultra-reliable, available, low-latency links like remote control of critical infrastructure, vehicles, and medical procedures.
    • Here are some revolutionary use cases 5G will bring in:
      • Fuelling precision agriculture — even the cotton found in a simple dress uses 5G.
      • Enabling reliable wireless IoT connectivity at transport hubs
      • Essential to the future autonomous vehicles with V2X & smart logistics within our grasp.
      • For closer collaborations at the workplace using real time insights & XRs.
      • Bringing immersive, virtual customized shopping experiences anywhere to the consumer.
      • Driving the next industrial revolution with flexible manufacturing with XR guided execution, smart surveillance, real time supply chain visibility using blockchain & predictive maintenance.
      • With real-time asset tracking and efficient delivery using drones.

    The Revenue Impact:

    As per Qualcomm, 5G will extend its arms out into the enterprise and will see a massive growth. 5G is driving global growth.

    • $13.2 Trillion dollars of global economic output
    • 22.3 Million new jobs create
    • $2.1 Trillion dollars in GDP growth

    Penetration into OEMs, operators, content creators, app developers, and consumers) could alone support up to 22.3 million jobs, or more than one job for every person in Beijing, China.

    Here is a revenue gradient chart for Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3 operators for comparison.

    Revenue value depicted in USD $ Million

    References:

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/226065/global-mobile-subscriber-forecast/

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/advanced-mobile-phone-system

    https://mse238blog.stanford.edu/2017/07/ssound/1g-2g-5g-the-evolution-of-the-gs/

    https://www.gsma.com/aboutus/history

    https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Documents/WTDC_1994_FINAL_REPORT.PDF

    https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_99/material/wtdr99s.pdf

    https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-WTDR-2006-SUM-PDF-E.pdf

    https://www.qualcomm.com/media/documents/files/download-the-evolution-of-mobile-technologies-1g-to-2g-to-3g-to-4g-lte-qualcomm.pdf

    https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/5g/economy

    https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/5g/what-is-5g

    https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/evolution-technologies-standards-deployment-networks/17444

    http://protei.me/blog/telecom-news/the-mobile-wireless-communication-technology-journey/

    Official Annual Revenue Reports:

    Verizon: 1993-2019
    Telstra: 1993-2019
    Sprint: 1993-2019
    Batelco: 1993-2019
    Tigo: 1993-2019

  • Anomaly Analytics: It’s Role in 5G and Assurance

    Anomaly Analytics: It’s Role in 5G and Assurance

    Introduction

    According to the latest trends and reports published by industry forums, by mid-2021 5G adoption would have reached around 250 million active subscribers from this year’s 80 million accounting for an increase of almost 200%. Though this increase is substantial, in the larger scheme of things, 250 million subscribers only account for 3% of the total mobile subscription globally. Furthermore, revenue predictions for 5G also state that 5G technology will not boost revenues but give a telecommunication service provider far more flexibility in the business models that can be deployed within the larger eco-system.

    This fact also means from an assurance perspective; the telecommunication service provider will need to invest in far more hardware and the associated services to onboard 5G services into the revenue assurance practice. While this may not be a significant investment initially considering the low adoption of 5G. However, this trend takes a significant turn as we go into the year 2022 to 2025, wherein the 5G service is expected to account for 30% adoption, thereby exponentially increasing your data volume, the hardware footprint and the OpEx required to perform daily revenue assurance activities for 5G services. At the end of the day with falling ARPUs, the discrepancies quantified will not justify the investment made towards onboarding 5G services into the traditional revenue assurance practice.

    You will need to look for a newer approach that provides a better cost vs benefit.

    Pressure on ROI from RA investments Traditionally revenue assurance involves the process of taking two or more datasets between the switch and billing and reconciling them to identify usage that was not billed due to issues in the data sent downstream. During 2G services, this volume for a tier 1 operator was anywhere between 100 million to 500 million xDRs, which required to be reconciled daily. However, with 3G and 4G service, this volume exponentially increased due to the larger mobile service adoptions and the associated services being provided. Today for a tier 1 operator with 100 million subscribers, the revenue assurance tool is required to reconcile anywhere from 5 billion to 10 billion xDRs daily. With ARPUs falling year on year, there is a significant pressure on the revenue assurance practice to justify the return on the investment made by the organization to plug leakages, a goal that will become significantly harder to reach.

    5G will only carry forward this trend at an even faster pace.

    Role of Anomaly Analytics

    As an example, let us look at a hypothetical revenue assurance setup. For an operator with 100 million subscribers, you will have anywhere from 10 billion to 5 billion xDRs generated daily. This data is then either stored in your data warehouse or your big data lake. Here the revenue assurance practice will require data to be processed individually, loaded in the tool, reconciled daily, and retained for 30 days with the goal being to identify revenue leakages. This setup would require significant investment on hardware which can run into millions of Dollars on its own, excluding the cost of license, deployment, support and manpower.

    Here we employ an Anomaly Analytics methodology, which significantly simplifies the TCO and the complexity of reaching the end goal. Taking the same hypothetical revenue assurance setup as above. The data stored in the data warehouse or big data lake can be aggregated accordingly to specific dimensions such as type of subscribers, cell site, rate plans, type of services, and measured against various metrics. In this hypothetical approach, only the aggregated data is processed using anomaly detection to monitor millions of KPIs, identify discrepancies quicker and correlate with other associated datasets. The approach here significantly uses lesser hardware and provides near real-time insights to only KPIs wherein the solution derives as a genuine discrepancy. More importantly, we achieve the same goal of identifying discrepancies.

    Traditional Reconciliation vs Anomaly Analytics Approach

    The point of concern between the traditional reconciliation and the anomaly analytics approach is that with the latter, the missing data identified by the prior is not readily available. In the anomaly analytics approach, one must dive into the data in the data warehouse or the data lake to identify the granular data. So we arrive at the question if it is worth investing is an anomaly analytics approach even if one does not have ready access to the granular data?

    As mentioned earlier, as a trend,we see a drop in ARPU; regardless of the service, the value of a single unit of measure, in this case, xDR, is trending downwards. As of last year, the ARPU dropped by 2% in the developed market (America and Europe) and by 18% in the developing market (South East Asia). This translates to the fact that if one identifies say 10,000 xDRs missing at a value of $1000, this value drops by a percentage every year due to the growing service usage and the drop in prices. Ultimately the question of going with an anomaly analytics approach for revenue assurance reconciliation is a question of “cost vs benefit.”

    Conclusion

    With newer 5G services, we see  a significant shift in our approach to revenue assurance and especially reconciliations. The term “single source reconciliation” has taken birth due to anomaly detection allowing the business to analyze the data and obtain insights on service, quality, billing, and service orchestration from a single source of data processed over a short period. While we are in the early stages of this approach, we are certainly expecting anomaly analytics to take the initial steps within a revenue assurance function and grow to become the mainstay within a couple of years.

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  • D-Partner unchained with Blockchain in the 5G era

    D-Partner unchained with Blockchain in the 5G era

    If you have to identify the most important element of the telecom ecosystem in the 5G era that can fuel multi-fold growth for operators, what it is going to be? If you ask for my answer, it’s D-Partner (The Partner).  Let me explain how the partner will play an important role in setting up a successful 5G ecosystem.  I will cover two aspects here:

    1. Why and how partnerships can only fuel success in 5G?

    2. Blockchain – How it brings digital trust in data exchanged between partners?

    The Potential that 5G holds

    5G ecosystem will give rise to a big parallel ecosystem of partnerships. A successful rollout of 5G will need collaboration between many partners who will fulfill different gaps in the ecosystem and eventually deliver the 5G promises. As the ecosystem develops, Telcos are expected to focus beyond just connectivity towards collaboration across the telecom value chain and different sectors, leading to the creation of new and innovative business models.

    This is the right time to unchain and unleash the power of partnership and empower the partners to build a strong ecosystem to realize the true potential of 5G.

    Different partners that telco need to collaborate can be broadly classified into below categories:

    1. Suppliers (Infrastructure, Software Vendors, Innovative service providers, etc.)
    2. Aggregators
    3. XVNO*
    4. Sales & Resellers
    5. Enterprise Partners (Enterprises in Healthcare, Smart Cities, Banking, Manufacturing, etc.)

    *XVNO=MVNO, IVNO(IoT-VNO), etc. Anyone can take a Network Slice and run innovative services on it. IoT has a big future on 5G platform and hence IoT-VNO.

    All these partners will build a strong ecosystem to deliver the best result to end consumers, be it in B2C or B2B space. Delivering value will no longer be a play of the centralized entity, instead, this will be a decentralized ecosystem in which delivering value and the trust will be dependent on multiple entities/partners i.e. the trust itself will be decentralized. The below diagram clearly highlights how much decentralization is important going forward.

    Creation of a Trusted Decentralized Ecosystem to Deliver Value

    All these partners will be connected with different economic models to do billing and settlements. In the 5G ecosystem, SLA & QoS based economic models will be the key factor for all the billing and settlements. SLA & QoS is the key factor for 5G to be reliable, which will add a new parameter to the equation of billing and settlement which is currently transactional in nature. The 5G value chain will be dependent on many of these partners playing different roles at different points and all or related ones, are interconnected with cascading SLA’s & QoS.

    Having cascading SLA’s and with its dependency on multiple partners, who will deliver and ones who will consume the same, the need for a transparent & trustworthy environment becomes the key, which can:

    1. Update the SLA’s and delivered QoS to all relevant and impacted touchpoints in ecosystem
    2. Rating the services of each partner based on delivered SLA’s and QoS as agreed in the contract
    3. Compare and alert SLA breach based on the contracts with each partner in ecosystem
    4. Help in addressing disputes in near real-time, hence avoiding conflicts during payments and settlements

    Each of the above points translates to:

    1. Near real-time updates in a connected the ecosystem
    2. Near real-time contract monitoring
    3. Triggered events based on contractual models
    4. And above all, creation of a trustworthy the ecosystem

    Blockchain = Collaboration + Cryptography + Smart Contracts = Decentralized & Trusted Ecosystem

     

    The above diagram depicts how a decentralized setup will look, with multiple partners working towards building a reliable & connected ecosystem delivering the required SLA/QoS.

    For now, I leave you with this thought process and will get back to you on how we can wrap this overall decentralized environment with an E2E Partner Lifecycle Management system and its importance.

    The Decentralized Way Of Digital Partnerships

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  • From 4G to 5G, keys to digital transformation

    From 4G to 5G, keys to digital transformation

    The journey of digital mobile communications began with the inception of 2G technology in the 90s. In retrospect, the technology evolved multi-fold, mainly due to the promising growth the industry witnessed. One of the prime reasons for evolution was the constant progression of technological enhancement to overcome legacy technology challenges. One such challenge that has served as an impediment for a smooth technological transformation has been the need to do a hard transition from one standard to the next. I personally witnessed it as the technology evolved from 2G to 3G, as well as 3G to 4G, throwing multiple challenges to network professionals as we sought to ensure service continuity while maintaining user experience targets.

    More recently, with the inception of 5G technology, the approach of network standard replacement has vanished away.  Early adoption of 5G technology doesn’t need 4G replacement. As a matter of fact, it gradually builds upon the LTE network. Let’s get into a little depth on this:

    • 5G technology primarily has two deployment strategies, refer to figure 1. Non-Standalone (NSA) is the first version currently being used by all existing 5G networks. NSA has its own limitations when compared to full standalone or SA, the other version of 5G.
      Setting aside the limitations and noting the fact that the time span taken for complete transition of previous generation technologies was quite high, I see the introduction of NSA deployment strategy as a good pragmatic move. 5G NSA lays a strong foundation to prevent such a repeated flaw in standards development, facilitating smooth transition from 4G to the full 5G SA standard.

    standalone deploymentFigure 1: Non-standalone and standalone deployments

    In practical terms, the early implementations of 5G will use a combination of 4G and 5G technologies to function. This combination will evolve across geographies and the ratio will vary across the regions, depending mainly upon the availability of spectrum and CSPs’ digital transformation strategies.

    • The latest GSMA mobile economy 2019 report predicts that by 2025, 4G will remain the predominant technology with a market share of 59%. 5G will continue to grow but will only cover a market share of 15% by that time. The fact that 4G will remain the dominant technology by 2025 is not surprising, considering 3GPP standards for 4G is being developed and enhanced to LTE-advanced pro, which is often termed 4.9G (or the more dramatic “Road to 5G”).

    This will lead us to a very interesting phase in the mobile communication industry and eventually to a very important question: “How should a CSP plan for 5G networks or most importantly how should it plan the transition from 4G to 5G technology?”. Frankly, there is no fool-proof guiding principle but there are some real-world use cases that I would like to take you through.

    • Case 1: Rakuten network in Japan will not initially offer 5G services. Instead, it will leverage its 4G LTE network with macro and small cells. Most interestingly, it will be fully virtualized from the radio access networks (RAN) to the core, with end-to-end automation for both network functions and services. This approach is intended to construct a network quickly and cost-effectively, which should put them in the pole position when it comes to launching and monetizing 5G. Obviously, Rakuten has had the luxury of being a greenfield operator, however, there are still some key lessons that other CSPs can take from their approach. These will come handy towards balancing the Capex lift of 5G while fighting an uphill ARPU battle.
    • Case 2: US operator AT&T, from the current state of 5G deployments, is encouraging the upgrade of 4G networks to its most advanced versions. LTE advanced and LTE advanced-pro have been available for some years now and CSPs like AT&T in the US are referring to it as “5G Evolution” (5GE), even though it is most definitely not an official 5G standard, but rather the latest version of 4G.

    Each of the above cases demonstrates that consolidating the existing LTE network and gradually making it 5G ready may be the most optimal and cost-effective way of evolving from 4G to 5G. Moreover, as the technology itself provides this smooth and seamless transition capability, CSPs should leverage it.

    The bottom line is, while 5G clearly points the way forward, it’s the foundation of 4G that will be a critical part of its planning, operation, and success. Additionally, the strength of the current 4G foundation depends on how seamlessly and smoothly content on LTE networks (primarily data-driven) is delivered to the end-users. Mobile users want both smooth experiences and obvious incremental improvements in network speeds to feel satisfied with network performance. Evolving networks toward 5G is crucial to keeping up with the appetite for higher speeds and quality user experience.

    Subex network analytics offerings take into account the key aspects of digital transformation and help a CSP consolidate its current 4G LTE network and plan for 5G network in a most cost-effective way with focus on enhancing the customer experience and maximizing returns on network investments.

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  • Not just another “G”, how 5G is Already Disrupting the Communications Industry

    Not just another “G”, how 5G is Already Disrupting the Communications Industry

    In the early days of any transformative technology, there’s often an interesting mix of hype, anticipation and confusion.  At risk of exposing my long tenure in telecom, I’ll ask if anyone else recalls ISDN?  In a 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times, the author presciently said that ISDN “is the first thing that’s going to come along that begins to give people a taste of what the future will be like.”  For those of us on the inside (I was at MCI at the time), ISDN stood for “I Still Don’t Know”!

    Fast forward to 2019 and what’s different is not only the technical advances themselves, but the pace of disruptive change.  And yes, there is still confusion.  If you have an AT&T phone in the US, and have noticed a 5G E symbol, you know what I’m talking about.  But hey, this is not a post about confusion (that would be too easy for me).  I’d like to focus on 5G disruptions, but not the disruptions that you have likely heard about.

    The “disruptions” that come to mind for many industry observers when it comes to 5G are faster speeds, significantly lower latencies, a dense communications matrix for IOT, mmBand spectrum, etc.  Sure, there will be many headline benefits from 5G.  What I find more intriguing about 5G is its role as a catalyst for change reaching far beyond the radio network.  Let’s briefly explore some of these.

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    The whole world is starting to look like a data center – Historically, operator networks are full of dedicated telecom equipment rack-mounted in central offices, wire centers, and customer points-of-presence.  This contrasts with Web scale companies like Amazon, FB and Google who operate their networks from vast data centers full of commoditized hardware.  There will come a time soon when the two worlds merge, and 5G is helping to accelerate this.  A couple of key influences are 5G edge clouds and the emerging popularity of cloud-native applications.  These are prompting operators to rethink their networks and where they locate compute, storage and network equipment to enable the super low latencies of 5G.  Under the auspices of ONF, there is an project called CORD (Central Office Re-architected as a Data center) and the sub-project M-CORD which are loci for 5G virtualization and cloud-based initiatives like vRAN and vEPC.

    “Where ever you are on your 5G journey, Subex is an essential partner to help you plan, operate, secure and optimize your network.  Our solutions will grow with you and guide you into the more open and automated future network.”

    Open everything – Speaking of open source, 5G and open source software are tightly intertwined.  I recently attended the Linux Foundation Open Networking Summit and many of the sessions were devoted to community projects focused on establishing 5G infrastructure and enabling 5G use cases.  At the recent Big 5 Event in Denver, the first day was devoted to an open source track.  5G is the engine behind many early implementations of SDN and NFV.  “Open” doesn’t just mean software—so called “white boxes” start as bare metal hardware with operator or community-sourced software & firmware that turn them into routers or CPE or even ROADMs!  Why this trend?  Operators are looking to community-driven innovation to accelerate delivery of advanced use cases, lower costs and avoid vendor lock-in.

    Start with use cases – Well, that’s a novel concept!  With 3G and 4G, there were clear expectations that simply enabling faster and more reliable mobile data would lead to various applications which leveraged that data.  The industry has taken a different approach to 5G.  At the Denver Big 5G Event, Ibrahim Gedeon, TELUS CTO, described 5G as “the first ‘G’ to be driven by use cases”.  These include AR/VR for factories, industrial automation, massive IOT sensing, connected cars and telemedicine.  5G is creating a rich mobile communications fabric with various speed and latency requirements that align with the specific needs of each use case.  Network slicing is another buzz-worthy aspect of 5G that allows operators to allocate portions of their networks to specific customers and use cases.

    Break it apart, then put it back together – In industry parlance, this is called disaggregation and convergence.  Step 1: Take key network functions like PCRF, HSS and MME and peel them from the monolithic platforms on which they are currently hosted.  Step 2: Apply NFV to virtualize the functions into VNFs and make them portable. Step 3: Host the VNFs within converged platforms like COMAC, which is an ONF project that combines mobile, access and core networks under one umbrella.  This is part of a broader industry trend to package many telco functions and infrastructure components into massive all-in-one platforms.  Another good example, of course, is ONAP.  For many of these initiatives, the race to enable 5G is a driving force.

    I’ve only scratched the surface of network and software trends that are precipitating extraordinary change in the communications industry.  The world is becoming more complex, not less.  Each promising new innovation usually has unforeseen issues that can increase costs and pose operational challenges.  Early NFV implementations offer such a cautionary tale.  Where ever you are on your 5G journey, Subex is an essential partner to help you plan, operate, secure and optimize your network.  Our solutions will grow with you and guide you into the more open and automated future network.

    As for ISDN, I guess we do know now.  It really did help usher in the modern data-driven era.

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  • 5G and the dawn of “age of inventions” – Key Takeaways from MWC19! – Subex Limited

    5G and the dawn of “age of inventions” – Key Takeaways from MWC19! – Subex Limited

    I am just back from MWC 2019 and am really excited to share my thoughts. The mood at this year’s MWC was of general enthusiasm and exuberance, particularly with respect to 5G and the possibilities it opens up for telcos.

    When 3G and 4G happened telcos were slow to evolve and transform their business models. Global internet giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook made most of the mobile internet revolution in the last decade, whereas telcos saw continued pressure on margins, revenue and customer experience.

    5G is yet another chance for telcos to #makeithappen if they can get their acts together. I firmly believe telcos have learnt from their previous experiences and are much better prepared for the next wave.

    Here are my top three takeaways from MWC 2019

    1. The dawn of “age of inventions”: 5G has finally broken through the hype and we saw some groundbreaking innovations being displayed around at MWC 2019. This is after the last few years where there was, in my view, a higher degree of tentativeness. We saw low latency, reliable connectivity-based use cases such as:

    a)  Remotely operated medical surgery/ emergency medical treatment

    b)  Ushering of “second great inflection point” # in transportation with autonomous cars, cars with natural language interface, cars with cognitive interface

    We also saw several announcements in the area of IoT and Industry 4.0 with SAP, AT&T, Vodafone, Ericsson, Telstra etc. launching new solutions.

    From Subex’s point of view, these are exciting times as our IoT Security solution is well positioned to help operators, smart cities and autonomous cars by providing much needed security cover.

    2. 5G means intense Capex: While developing economies will continue to focus on monetizing 4G networks, developed economies will start rolling out 5G networks starting 2019. 5G rollouts will be Capex heavy needing massive investments in Radio Access Network with network densification, mmWave network rollouts etc. and in core network to support high speed, high capacity, low latency use-cases which 5G promises.

    Subex showcased its Network Analytics portfolio driving smart spend, smart asset management and AI/ML driven network capacity planning use cases and these were very well received by both customers and prospects alike.

    3. Digital Trust key to success in 5G: According Vittorio Colao, Ex CEO Vodafone one of the main challenges facing telcos is “the lack of a genuine customer orientation, which, if you have it, makes customers truly love your services and thereby drives value” (McKinsey Quarterly).

     As the 5G juggernaut rolls out, telcos will need to do aggressive network build outs, forge new partnerships, and offer far more critical services. Customers will expect ubiquitous connectivity of very high quality, investors will expect better management and ROI.

    All this means telcos will need to really focus on building digital trust – a mechanism that creates trust in their offerings, processes and information systems. Failure would mean yet again handing over advantage to the internet giants who already benefit from global scales, not having to invest in expensive networks, and who have shown to be far more nimble in responding to customer needs. Subex with its focus on enabling digital trust through privacy, security, risk mitigation, predictability and confidence in data, is yet again well positioned to work closely with operators in building this much needed digital trust.

    What do you think of dawn of age of invention powered by 5G? Let me know in the comments section below.

    # Mckinsey Quaterly 

    PS: Oh! Here is a bonus takeaway for those among you planning to be at MWC 2020. Wear comfortable shoes. One easily clocks 20,000 steps each day.