From connectivity and beyond

Behind the curtains, there has been persistent pressure on Telcos to define new development possibilities in the footsteps of enterprises as the telecom industry undergoes a fast transformation. Telcos have always capitalized primarily on capital-driven return on investment (ROIC). However, a recent event (pandemic) has increased the need for telecoms to accelerate the development of value-based solutions by shifting from capital-based to software-oriented inventiveness. Let's examine the most critical network investment priority drivers.

Beyond the veil of connectivity

With the rise of digital-native companies (Uber, Netflix, etc.), Cloud-native oriented networking functions and cloud-providing companies (hyperscalers), and the rapid visibility of service ecosystem providers (metaverse), the telecom industry had been managing over a decade of disruptive changes for years. It has now reached a tipping point when service enhancement is provided not just by physical assets, but also by software-integrated components such as AI/ML, data intelligence, and software-defined networking capabilities such as SD-WAN or Security-capabilities at the network's edge (SASE).

Moving beyond connectivity, telcos are of the opinion that revenue growth will increasingly come from a larger number of SaaS-based applications and platforms offered to customers, thereby shifting from a CAPex-based model to an OPex-based model in which connectivity and physical assets are not central to the service construct. However, this new service curve would necessitate the development of a new set of skills and talents.

NaaS (Network as a Service) and NaaP (Network as a Platform) are excellent examples of enriched services, for which the core principle is based on underlay (MPLS, Carrier-Ethernet) or overlay (SR-VPN, SD-WAN, EVPN) networking services, but enriched with shuffled, categorized capabilities (mobility, applications, billing, services, etc.) made accessible via APIs.

However, such disruptive solutions are only possible with BSS & OSS capabilities that can be applied from a cross-domain perspective (hyper-automation).

The importance of hyper-automation

As service operations become more complex than ever before, this is largely attributable to the concept of an era in which solutions straddle several operational borders. As a matter of fact, CSPs aim to supply distributed solutions comprised of services from many but distinct domains. Complex operations would ensue as CSPs/enterprises would artificially extend their operation (OSS) and business (BSS) footprints with hyperscalers to reach more of their present and future consumers.

A digital transformation of this nature can significantly assist a business in reducing operational costs, increasing fulfillment efficiency, and enhancing its competitiveness in such a challenging environment. By integrating AI/ML models, transfer learning, closed-loop automation, and data analytic functions, hyper-automation utilizes the correct ingredients that naturally lead to Zero-Touch and Intent-based Networks. ZTN and IBN add significant capabilities to the next generation of networking solutions, including drastically lowering human involvement in the fulfillment process, accelerating the time to revenue, and modifying service composition upon detecting events and degraded service quality. Nonetheless, achieving this level of competence demands extensive service integration.

The crucial role of end-to-end service integration

The rapid spread of digital technology resulted in a profound upheaval of the old organizational and operational structure of telecom companies and businesses that were ill-equipped to tackle the formidable task of multi-domain orchestration capabilities. A vertical service integration of BSS (Business Support Systems) and OSS (Operation Support Systems) would improve their operations and service infrastructure backbone's synergy to avoid such limitations. From the horizontal perspective, a similar service integration was required, as organizations such as telcos and companies pursued system transformation that would enable the efficient delivery of converged services (telephone, video, and data) for fixed, voice, and data convergence as a first step. More recently, OSS/orchestration platforms based on open standards (cloud-native) have been horizontally integrated across several domains, including wireline, mobile, and even third-party ecosystems such as hyper scaler and the metaverse.

Conclusion

There are, in fact, several critical reasons that could encourage telcos and companies to go the extra mile and continue their transformation path toward a genuinely cross-domain capable service architecture. It won't get very far without obstacles, hiccups, and difficulties, but it won't reach its target without a clear visionary perspective, a true partner with the correct attitude, and open standards technologies, and it won't get there efficiently without a well-defined service integration capability.

For more on network services, please visit the Amdocs Networks website.