Zero-touch automation is key to unlocking the full potential of 5G
Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Marco Gatti, 5G Product and Solution Manager, Anritsu Service Assurance, extols the virtues of zero-touch automation
Operators are actively experimenting with new 5G capabilities, and theoretically there could be hundreds, thousands, or even millions of simultaneous network slices – dynamically appearing and disappearing, each with its own customer-defined attributes. However, to date most operators continue to limit the number of slices. In the not-too-distant future of 5G Standalone (5GSA), the full spectrum of 5G use cases such as gaming, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and the Internet of Things (IoT), network slicing, and mobile edge computing will become a reality – unlocking revenue-generating 5G business opportunities, some of which will have transformative effects on certain industries like healthcare and property, plant, and equipment (PPE).
Network slicing can be the enabler for many remote critical services, especially where high availability through guaranteed redundancy are essential characteristic. For instance, given that remote robotic surgery has yet to become a reality, ultra-reliability is more important than low latency to bring to life remote supervision and execution of surgery.
Users of capital-intensive plant and machinery place considerable importance on minimising downtime and circumventing breakdowns, which historically have been managed using physical monitoring methods. The reason for the manual effort is that, until now, wireless connectivity hasn’t been stable enough nor has latency been low enough to support these types of applications. Today, however, embedded monitoring capabilities that connect over a highly reliable 5G slice that offers ultra-low latency can detect issues in microseconds.
These capabilities, however, are dependent on a cloud native core and the service-based architecture of 5GSA. In this new world, customers will be able to choose slice attributes that meet their specific needs, regardless of whether they are motivated by commercial or safety considerations. While today there are literally thousands of potential use cases for 5G slices, few of them are mass market appropriate and even fewer are associated with realistic business cases. With the advent of 5GSA, niche applications will become mass market suitable, unlocking business potential.
From an operations perspective, network management is about to become substantially more complex, as they will need to monitor and manage multiple core networks end-to-end. How will operators effectively manage these new networks that boast infinite flexibility? The answer: zero-touch automation.
Slow the OpEx rise
Although today’s 5G networks slices are limited in number, mostly static, and managed much the same as legacy networks, operators are encountering an increase in complexity. Additionally, even though the introduction of new technologies such as containers and public cloud has been gradual, OpEx is on the rise.
If current management techniques and processes remain the same into the era of dynamic 5G slicing, OpEx would escalate exponentially, eventually becoming unsustainable. And as it becomes increasingly difficult to troubleshoot unforeseeable impacts in a reasonable timeframe, reliability will also likely suffer.
The answer to stemming the rise of network related OpEx is in increased automation. It only stands to reason that by applying process automation to legacy technologies, the cost of network management should decrease, or at least remain stable.
Closing the service assurance loop
Given that it’s only possible to control what is being actively monitored, service assurance is a key enabler for effective automation. To activate something on the network, it’s necessary to know that something needs to be done – whether due to a fault, error, a service level breach, or other defined threshold.
Unlike traditional call detail records (CDRs) that can arrive after an event, effective service assurance relies on the adoption of real-time monitoring. Even in multi-vendor environments, real-time monitoring of the traffic exchanged between network functions allows service assurance to immediately notify orchestration – which in turn can actuate on the core network. By creating a closed loop, service assurance can anticipate a potential issue when a particular metric is approaching a defined threshold, alerting orchestration to take an appropriate pre-emptive measure.
Collaboration between service assurance and orchestration
To manage thousands of concurrent slices in a 5GSA network and achieve end-to-end service automation, close collaboration between service assurance and orchestration is needed. This philosophy aligns with ETSI’s Zero-touch Service Management (ETSI-ZSM).
Currently, service assurance tends to be used as an operational tool, aiding in troubleshooting and monitoring. With support from operators who see operational and cost benefits, ZSM standards promise to make service assurance an integral and integrated part of the OSS landscape. While still a work in progress, it’s an important stepping-stone towards the future automation of 5G networks.
To be compliant with ZSM, a service assurance partner must integrate with the top layer of the Management and Orchestration (MANO), which includes a policy manager, NFV Orchestrator (NFVO), and the knowledge base This allows the NFVO to talk to the virtual network functions manager for each vendor deployed virtualised function. While service assurance can suggest an action, the policy manager will make the decision.
Automation requires a culture change
Operations teams are used to working on live networks: deploying the network, testing it, making it live, and deploying fixes. Going forward, operators will need to adopt a more developer-centric mindset: actions needed to fix an issue need to be developed and repeatedly tested until the operations team are 100 per cent confident that the solution can be reliably activated without setting-off a chain reaction of other issues.
While many 5G MANO solutions have been running in labs for six or seven years, there are currently few, if any, live dynamic network slice deployments. Slow commercial deployment is due to hesitancy about whether automation is ready to deliver x9s reliability, as well as the limited supply of standalone-compatible devices, delaying the development of new use cases.
AI & ML make a powerful contribution
By extracting insights from the multiple data streams collated by service assurance across the network, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) could become a powerful addition to automation. For example, ML based on neural network has the potential to monitor networks: 90-97 per cent reliability of predictions, and anomaly detection that is above current capabilities. This paired with ML based on scripting with 100 per cent reliability in execution has great potential to enable faster and more effective network management in future networks, while maintaining costs.
Final thoughts
With better coordination between ETSI, 3GPP, and TMF to standardise integration and interactions between all Operations Support Systems (OSS), including O&M Network Management applications, and Network Functions, the promise and benefits of ZSM can be achieved.
However, the full potential of 5G to unleash new business opportunities will only be realised when ZSM is mature, OSS environments are ready, and devices that can incorporate 5G SA into diverse consumer and industrial equipment, systems and services are available.
Marco Gatti is the Head of 5G Product, Solutions, and Strategy at Anritsu and is responsible for the strategy and evolution of the Anritsu Service Assurance portfolio for 5G. Marco has 20+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry with Compaq, HP, Ericsson, and Anritsu delivering projects and presales worldwide for Tier 1 Service Providers. Marco began his career as a developer and solution architect and moved to enterprise architecture and business consultancy for OSS and BSS.
His recent focus includes CEM, Orchestration, Network slicing, Cloudification, and of course Service Assurance with the related integrations using industry-standard guidelines. Marco enjoys leveraging IT and automation tooling to make operations easier while focusing on the value to the business. Marco holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Management and an M.Sc. in Trade Marketing and Commercial Strategies from the Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy. He started his developer journey on a Philips MSX in 1989.