NetX2025: GUIDE to the Future Network
How do operators build a target network for future business success？ Today, I am going to share some ideas on how.
It’s well known that in the 2G era, mobile voice services exploded. In the 4G era, broadband data applications began to dominate our lives. And obviously, business and technology are two key drivers of network development.
As we look at the industry today, technologies are developing even faster. 5G has been commercially launched in over 100 networks. Cloud and big data have already been adopted in many sectors, and AI is currently widely used to boost productivity. At the same time, digitalization is accelerating in all industries.
How is all this changing operators’ businesses?
Customers are changing. Service types are changing. And application scenarios are changing too. How well are operators responding to these challenges and grasping opportunities?
We have to start preparing today by changing our planning from traffic – centric to service-centric.
Target Network 2025
Let’s look at this from both from the business perspective and the technology perspective. According to a World Bank report, if broadband speed doubles, GDP will increase by 0.3%. National broadband infrastructure has become one of the most important government strategies in many countries.
From the perspective of services, video is evolving from HD to 4K (and even 8K) and VR and AR applications will continue to become more popular, which increase traffic by 10 to 100 times. However, a good experience requires seamless network coverage.
As technology keeps advancing, 5G will gradually evolve to 5.5G. GPON to NGPON, and even 50GPON will be commercially deployed in some markets. Countries such as Germany and the UK have already published Gigabit 2025 plans. We’re confident that gigabit is essential for target network 2025.
Second, big data and intelligence have been applied in many industries already. For example, to fight against the pandemic, the Singapore government requires people to install the mobile app Trace Together. You need to check in with this app when you enter a building and again when you leave it. So if anyone is diagnosed with COVID-19, contract-tracing is fast and accurate. The government is also able to formulate proper lock down policies based on the traffic model of this data.
Intelligence has also been used in the telco networks.
New sites can be commissioned easily through plug and play. Users can also accelerate specific services such as online education. In the next 10 years, the scale and complexity of networks, services, and operations will grow greatly. Ultra-automation is a must for target networks, so we can let intelligence handle the complexity and simplify manual operations.
The pandemic is accelerating industrial digitalization, with migration to multi-cloud becoming normal. For example, a logistics company might use Office 365 on the Azure cloud and the WeLink video conference service on HUAWEI CLOUD, and then deploy their production system on a private cloud to ensure security. An estimated 84% of large enterprises and 61% of SME have opted for a multi-cloud strategy.
As a result, this multi-cloud trend drives the need for flexible multi-cloud access. Enterprises want a good experience with high-quality multi-cloud services: one stop to subscribe online to both cloud and connection services, one link to access multi-cloud, and quick provisioning services from cloud to the network connection.
Fortunately, network technology evolution from MPLS to IPv6 also paves a foundation for carriers to meet those requirements, including multi-cloud aggregation, one hop to cloud, and smart route optimization.
Huawei believes that intelligent multi-cloud connection will be one of the key features of the target network. The direct driving force of business is customer requirements, but traditional best-effort experience only supports carriers’ basic business models.
However, customers are willing to pay more for better experience for certain services. For example, a stock exchange company is willing to pay 10 times more for 1-ms less latency. Deterministic technologies such as network slicing, OSU-OTN are becoming mature, which will enable operators to monetize network capabilities much better. We believe that differentiated experience, which includes best-effort and deterministic experience, should be one of the key features of target network.
Today, there are already 120 countries in the process of developing 2050 Net Zero Carbon legislation. “Green” is one of the sustainable development strategies for leading operators. And to be greener, to be in harmony with the environment, is key when we talk about target network 2025. Green should be implemented in ALL dimensions
For instance, 5G can achieve one-twenty-fifth the power consumption per bit than 4G.
Ultra-automation enables the intelligent power saving based on traffic predictions, reducing energy consumption by another 15% to 30%.
Slicing technology can virtualize a physical network into multiple private networks, greatly reducing carbon emissions. So what we are planning is the real greener target network.
The 5 Features of GUIDE
We believe GUIDE can provide guidance for future target network planning.
- Gigabit Anywhere
- Ultra Automation
- Intelligent Multi-Cloud Connection
- Differentiated Experience
- Environmental Harmony
We hope to work with operators to plan the target network to address future challenges and achieve business success.
To request a copy of the Target Network 2025 Technical White Paper, please send an email with your request to jiangshaolin@huawei.com
Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.
