The birth of autonomous networks aims to lead the automated and intelligent transformation of communication network infrastructure and operation systems. 2023 is a year of rapid development of autonomous networks, and the industry has achieved fruitful results in standard development, industrial chain collaboration, deployment practices, application innovation, and service optimization, and autonomous networks have become a new driving force for the high-quality development of China's communications industry.
As the key to unleashing the unlimited potential of digital infrastructure in the intelligent world, autonomous networks have entered a period of application from strategy to execution, and are making great strides towards the goal of reaching L4 level of high-level autonomous intelligence by 2025.
Standards organization collaboration
Accelerate the evolution of autonomous networks to higher orders
TM Forum, together with 66 industry partners, officially released "Autonomous Networks Enabling Digital Transformation - Evolving from L2 to L4 Autonomous Intelligence" at the "Autonomous Network Global Industry Summit" in September 2023**50, and signed the "Autonomous Network Declaration" with 38 of the world's leading operators and equipment manufacturers, including China Mobile, China Telecom, Vodafone, Telefónica (Germany), ZAIN, AIS, MTN, and Huawei. This marks a new height in the development of the global autonomous network industry, and global operators will further accelerate network automation and intelligent transformation, improve network efficiency, create the ultimate user experience, and realize network service monetization.
At present, domestic and foreign standards organizations such as TM Forum, CCSA, 3GPP, ITU-T, ETSI and other domestic and foreign standards organizations have carried out standardization work related to autonomous networks, and actively promoted the standardization layout of autonomous networks.
At the same time, TM Forum has also set up a working group for the Autonomous Network Collaboration Project (ANP) to promote related work, focusing on the five standard directions of "grading standards, evaluation systems, architectures, interfaces, and key technologies" of "general + professional" collaboration, and has released a series of best practice guidelines and relevant standards on autonomous networks in recent years.
The CCSA has formed a joint collaborative working group with "TC7+TC610" (Technical Working Committee and Promotion Committee) as the main body, leading more technical committees to collaborate in depth, initiating more than 40 standards and research topics related to autonomous networks, and promoting the rapid formation of autonomous network standard layout. The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and CCSATC610 actively promote the "Autonomous Network Navigator Program 2".0", launched the service experience grading evaluation such as cloud-optical private lines, guided industry partners, standardized the service experience grading standards of autonomous networks, jointly promoted the evolution of networks in the direction of high-level autonomous intelligence, and provided users with more convenient and intelligent network services.
ITU-T SG13 established the Focus Group on Autonomous Networks (FG-AN) and published standard recommendations for Autonomous Networks use cases, institutional frameworks, and trusted assessments. In the next step, ITU-T SG13 will continue to promote the construction of relevant standards such as digital twin networks, intent-driven networks, and autonomous network effectiveness indicator evaluation.
The industrial chain is working together
Build a new ecosystem of digital and intelligent networks
China Mobile actively undertakes the national scientific and technological innovation work, and bravely undertakes the important task of "chain leader" of the modern mobile information industry chain. As a key technology direction in the modern industrial chain of mobile information, autonomous network has become one of the first "ten sub-chains" set up by China Mobile. China Mobile has strengthened the traction of "five pole values", improved the top-level design, and gradually built a complete and effective theoretical system of autonomous networks, continuously leading the development of the industry. China Mobile, together with more than 80 partners of the autonomous network sub-chain, has led the establishment of more than 60 standards, participated in the compilation of 14 industry standards, actively promoted international exchanges, and enhanced its influence at home and abroad.
China Telecom has thoroughly implemented the cloud-network integration strategy, promoted the digital transformation of cloud-network operation with cloud-network operation self-intelligence, and put forward the goal of "three-pole vision + three-zero-nine self", and drew a self-intelligence blueprint for cloud-network operation to accelerate the in-depth integration of autonomous network and "cloud transformation and digital transformation", including 1 general view, 2 major guarantees, 3 projects, 5 domains, 7 networks, 12 scenarios, as well as 46 capability improvements and 131 performance indicator improvements. At the same time, China Telecom actively participates in and leads the formulation of international and domestic autonomous network standards, and jointly implements the "Catalyst" project with partners, contributing to the ideas and excellent cases of telecom cloud network operation autonomous planning.
China Unicom has built an autonomous network system with intensive, digital, intelligent and agile characteristics, built the world's largest network resource center, O-domain data warehouse, integrated fault center, etc., and realized the "five points" core capabilities of "data aggregation, resource visualization, network capability call, communication capability integration, and application deployment", and integrated network basic capabilities to serve 31 provinces. China Unicom's network operation platform has realized the digital operation of more than 120 scenarios such as mobile, broadband, and data networks, with a nationwide coverage rate of 95, fully supporting the integrated operation services of "four high-quality networks".
As an advocate and practitioner of the concept of autonomous network, Huawei continues to build the underlying technology of "root-rooted" and build an L4 autonomous network foundation under the framework of the TM Forum autonomous network system. Huawei has released a series of intelligent solutions, helping operators achieve fruitful business results on the road to high-end autonomous intelligence. At the same time, Huawei also released the "Towards an Intelligent World 2023 Series - ADN", which elaborates on industry development trends, action suggestions and solutions, and publishes the book "Network Architecture in the Autonomous Era", which elaborates on the exploration of autonomous networks from the aspects of theory, reference architecture, and key technologies.
Autonomous network construction is a challenging systematic project, which requires operators to carry out unified planning and implementation across layers and domains based on service value. It is also necessary for all parties in the industry to follow a unified standard, actively cooperate from technological innovation, product research and development to application implementation, and jointly formulate a unified value measurement standard for autonomous networks. In the future, all parties in the industry need to work together to promote breakthroughs in core technologies of autonomous networks, such as converged sensing, digital twins, AI large models, and intelligent decision-making, to drive industrial technology upgrading. Explore L4 high-end self-intelligent business application scenarios, focus on value creation, practice whole-process innovation, and accelerate the formation of a closed loop of industrial value.
This article was published in Communication World, Issue 936, January 25, 2024, Issue 2, Original title: "Industrial Collaboration, Integration and Innovation, Helping the Intelligent Upgrade of Communication Networks".Past Recommendations:
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