Three factors contributing to the AN Concept
The first aspect is business requirements. Autonomous domains are coordinated to simplify network transformation and assist business activities in order to satisfy service needs.
Secondly: openness The fulfillment of service needs is dependent on cross-domain coordination, which is aided by AI natives inside the domain, which means sharing capabilities and data and being open to coordination. From process design through company operations, closed-loop automation may therefore be established. Hence, ZTE has designed and implemented new APIs for AN, opening the road for an industry-leading open network architecture.
Third aspect: network performance Every effort is made to achieve the objective of “Zero-X services and Self-X capabilities.” In this regard, network performance is crucial. In the situations of production and operation support, ZTE aids CSPs in analyzing autonomous capabilities to determine if the network’s performance satisfies the specifications. Such efforts will aid in achieving a high level of autonomy and contribute to the level-defining criteria.
uSmartNet2.0: Solving CSPs’ pain issues
How shall the three aspects be implemented? In this context, ZTE has created uSmartNet2.0, AN solution, and put it to widespread commercial usage. Now, ZTE has partnered up with over 80 partners and constructed over 100 locations worldwide.
Regarding industrial standards, ZTE hosted the CCSA TC7 plenary conference last year. ZTE has 27 significant positions in worldwide standards organisations and is actively involved in the design of AN standards, including criteria for capabilities at different levels, technological progress, and assessment system. Along with its partners, ZTE has developed three 3GPP standards, eight CCSA standards, and more than ten industry specifications and enhancements for a variety of scenarios. ZTE received the “Outstanding Usage of TM Forum Assets” and “People’s Choice” honours from the TM Forum in 2022.
Some issues are currently drawing the attention of the whole business. How to create and implement optimization techniques in a secure and efficient manner. Using a sensing paradigm for spatial-temporal service distribution, ZTE constructs digital twin networks. So, changes may be predicted in real-time, and the ideal approach for coordination across all domains will be developed automatically. The digital twins will then self-optimize based on the differences with the physical networks that are automatically detected. During the initial trial runs, the digital twin networks properly mirror over 90% of the physical network coverage in real-time, and the accuracy of traffic forecast surpasses 90%. In addition, defective spots may be found five times faster than before with automated identification and AI-based UAV surveying.
Improving the user experience is always a primary objective for CSPs. With uSmartNet2.0, CSPs can successfully handle this issue. This system provides intelligent and real-time identification, prediction based on the sensing model, and automatic problem resolution. Thus, uSmartNet2.0 may considerably enhance user happiness among individuals, households, and businesses. Specifically, the platform’s end-to-end VoNR service system improves the quality of experience (QoE) of video conversations, as assessed by the industry-leading vMOS metric. Moreover, end-to-end home broadband management technology enables the identification of dissatisfied subscribers with an accuracy of over 90 per cent. In the steel and power sectors, uSmartNet2.0 ensures low latency of 5G private networks, enabling CSPs to deliver improved services for verticals.”
This year, ZTE offers open capabilities for NEs and OMCs in various scenarios, supporting the level-3 AN in its entirety. Their open capabilities include an abundance of first-to-market APIs. In addition, OMCs are completely integrated in personal service, CN, and TN, enabling closed loops for voice and data services across and within domains.
AN development: Value creation via practice
To continually realize the benefit of AN in real-world applications, the advancement of AN must be linked with practical experience. With operation support systems, a substantial amount of data is created. ZTE has developed a robust capability for user profiling by integrating data analysis, achieving world-class performance in terms of the speed and precision of data analysis. In fact, the telemarketing conversion rate for mobile applications increases to 15% with uSmartNet2.0, and cross-promotion of video services on mobile apps and smart TVs is accomplished for the first time. Nowadays, ZTE’s user profiling technology is utilized by over 500 business clients.
ZTE has lately made considerable advances in customer-related AN innovations. One such instance is the company’s work with China Mobile to build quality centers, which required the implementation of more than 30 metrics and procedures for L4 software. In Indonesia, ZTE also installed its AN solution for Telkomsel, providing digital and intelligent network management. In addition, the business is continually trying to enhance prior projects, such as those in Thailand and Uganda, with an emphasis on boosting network quality and client experience via AN.
AIS and ZTE have jointly created an “A-to-Z” innovation center in Thailand. This center acts as a research and application center with the goal of developing highly autonomous networks for all circumstances. ZTE will continue to collaborate with partners on the deployment of L3 AN and the development of L4 capabilities.
Wang Qiang is the Vice President of ZTE.
Network Hype Team