Resolve Systems attended this year’s Mobile World Congress Americas, which featured discussions about major themes in the future of the wireless Communications Services Provider (CSP) industry, including 5G, IoT, and new content and media. If you attended, you likely heard a lot about 5G, with many attendees asking how CSP Network Operations Centers (NOCs) should prepare for it.
3 Use Cases to Plan for 5G
The fifth generation of mobile technology promises faster speed, lower latency, and the capacity to carry many simultaneous connections. As a result, every CSP will need to consider how to support:
- Internet of Things (IoT). Today’s networks struggle to keep up the ever-growing numbers of connected devices, and 5G will blow up scale even more—enabling up to one million mobile connections per square kilometer
- Mission-critical networks. Previous-gen network latency limited IoT adoption in applications needing high reliability. With 5G’s 1-millisecond latency, time-critical industries like healthcare and utilities will rely on more connected devices, demanding unprecedented network reliability
- Enhanced mobile broadband. 5G’s superior performance will unlock a new level of mobile experiences, like high-definition video and virtual reality on the go
Those providers lacking a robust 5G strategy may lose market share to first-mover competitors, or they may expend huge costs on an upgrade that delivers little ROI.
5G Will Increase Network Operations Costs
The above use cases will require massive network performance improvements, with latency, reliability, and throughput at least an order of magnitude greater than today’s standards. This means carriers will need to invest in all network domains to support 5G—from core, wired networks to radio access network infrastructure. Even for those CSPs that delay 5G investments, increased infrastructure costs will be inevitable as traffic levels continue to grow.
See How other CSPs are Controlling Costs and Increasing Productivity
CSPs, especially wireless carriers, will need to develop 5G strategies today to cope with the coming network cost growth.
5G Networks Require Automated Incident Resolution
Now is the time to rethink network operations processes, digitizing and automating wherever possible. The latest software and digital-age management practices will be the answer for operators to achieve cost savings while increasing scale to support 5G. For example, automating network incident resolution will be crucial in a 5G world.
The advent of 5G will mean managing network architecture and equipment that’s become more sophisticated than ever. In addition, wireless operators will need to maintain dense networks of small, high-capacity cells. This increase in quantity, type of network equipment, and network complexity mean:
- More opportunities for performance and connectivity issues
- More difficulty and skill required to diagnose them
- More labor to manually fix them
It’s clear the speed and capacity of today’s CSP NOC relying on manual incident resolution will fail 5G’s low-latency mission-critical networks. The only answer is to bring machine-speed and machine-scale response to bear on the challenge. While some carriers have had success in the past with homespun automations and scripts, 5G networks’ extraordinary complexity and stringent performance requirements will require dedicated, purpose-built automation solutions.
While a number of network automation platforms exist, few focus on delivering network incident resolution excellence. Even fewer have experience in working with CSPs’ unique use cases, scale, and performance demands. Resolve Systems, however, is the telecom automation expert, trusted by some of the largest carriers in the world to accelerate network incident resolution.
CSP NOCs looking to control costs, reduce business risk, capture additional revenue, and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction need to start planning for the 5G transition today.
Kick off Your 5G Network Operations Strategy with a Resolve Automation Expert ›
