Why CSPs Need To Re-Architect And Implement 5G And Cloud Computing?

Hello and welcome back to yet another blog, and today we are going to discuss, how Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are re-architecting their networks, and what is the need of doing so? We've all heard about 5G networks. They mean faster connections and enormous bandwidth. That's great for consumers, but it also opens an opportunity for communications service providers - or CSPs - to introduce more media-rich services, more advanced services, and a better quality of experience. But how are CSPs re-architecting their networks to deliver these cool services?

Importance of Cloud Computing for CSPs

Well, it's no surprise that, like the rest of the IT industry, cloud computing is changing how CSPs work. In this article, I'll explain how they are moving from costly, proprietary hardware, and manual processes of the past to today's hybrid cloud service delivery model. Looking towards the future, I'll close with why this is driving the telecommunication industry's interest in increased automation and cloud adoption.

How did CSPs get here?

In the past, operators maintained an inventory of proprietary communication appliances, similar to other companies that manually installed and maintained an inventory of servers. The biggest drawback of this approach was that updates and service additions often took weeks, if not months! Instead, CSPs are replacing this service delivery model with a more efficient, less capital-intense alternative that leverages cloud computing this brings us to today's story for CSPs.

Forward-thinking Communication Service Providers have adopted hybrid cloud integration and programmable telco services as their go-to delivery model. As the word "hybrid" implies, this approach is not a "rip and replace" strategy. Instead, they've embraced a VNF architecture - "Virtualized Network Functions" - and extended it with containerized applications running on the cloud.

Investment in virtual environments

This investment in virtual environments also simplifies the addition of custom cloud-native applications. However, in working with service providers, IBM telecom experts hear that their CSP partners face a serious challenge: managing change and innovating their services at the pace expected by today's customers. The good news is that the virtualization of their network functions has reduced the time to implement new services to days instead of weeks compared to their past hardware-driven model.

But moving to virtual network functions alone on a cloud-based infrastructure isn't a cure-all. To gain development and deployment efficiencies, CSPs must also embrace a cloud operating model that's centered on CI/CD and pipelines, consistent with modern DevOps best practices. That's what's next for CSPs and where the real excitement begins. The future CSP service delivery model is taking shape; IBM believes it includes open, standardized components, as well as an autonomous service deployment and maintenance.

VNFs on a cloud-based infrastructure

Intelligent automation can address the network demands of today's businesses and consumers. It helps CSPs adopt VNFs on a cloud-based infrastructure. That enables CSP customers to define the network services they want on demand. Behind the scenes, intelligent automation deploys the required services on the cloud - practically eliminating the need for human intervention! Keep in mind that if operators just virtualized their environment in a hybrid cloud model, but still standardized on a vertical stack, they wouldn't get the full value out of their network that a horizontal deployment model brings. And operators also want the flexibility to mix and match standardized VNFs, so they're not tied to a single vendor.

Of course, adopting automation for new network services may eliminate manual deployment steps, but to work at scale traditionally manual operations like service monitoring must be automated, too. Since operations monitoring generates lots of performance data and logs, it's tailor-made for automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence for IT Operations - or AIOps - for problem resolution - and when necessary, automated routing to the on-duty operations staff.

IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager

For years, IBM has worked closely with telecommunication partners to define how a telco network software portfolio would address these concerns. Instead of manual deployments, IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager offers intent-based automation. Intent-based automation is not a workflow engine. Like the Kubernetes' orchestration model definition, this is a declarative model of orchestration where the operator defines where the service needs to be running, what the desired network service state should be, and how to manage and monitor its health.

Based on the desired end state, intent-driven software can automatically create an execution plan, taking into consideration the existing topology, and then execute standard lifecycle tasks that will deliver the required changes. This automation helps with day-zero operations for designing network services, day-one operations for putting new services into production, and day-two operations for dealing with complex change scenarios.

With intent-based automation, forward-thinking Communication Service Providers can bring new telecommunication services online in minutes! Communication services providers are embracing the cloud and virtualization as they modernize their operations support systems and evolve to 5G, opening up the opportunity to reduce costs and improve customer responsiveness.

Conclusion

To summarize, this telco network cloud transformation comprises of 3 key features: 1. Intelligent automation based on intent, not a workflow, 2. Proactive AIOPs-driven operations, and 3. Autonomous monitoring at scale. With this I would like to wrap up the article, I hope it was useful to you, also do comment down below and share with your friends.