Networks understanding natural language could transform time-to-market

How can CSPs revolutionize delivering network value to business users by integrating GenAI, API exposure & network slicing? Explore how a finalist catalyst at DTW24 Ignite from Verizon, du, Infosys & Amdocs tackled that challenge.

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Julia Hogarty

Product Marketing Manager


15 Jul 2024

Networks understanding natural language could transform time-to-market

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As networks look beyond the consumer to the potential of B2B and B2B2X for 5G monetization, eliminating the barriers to launching new services and application updates for enterprise users becomes essential. Can new technologies make networks more sentient and responsive for a wider range of users?

The TM Forum Open Innovation Catalyst program isn’t just about developing new technologies: it’s about creating a collaborative environment where companies can come together to drive forward the digital transformation agenda. Recently, Amdocs teamed up with Verizon, du and Infosys to collaborate on “Intent-driven slice management in autonomous network – Phase IV”, an exciting proof of concept designed to bridge the gap between business intent and network capabilities.

Traditionally, translating business-level intent into a real-world service experience has been slow, requiring extensive manual intervention from various stakeholders. But what if an enterprise user could simply type a request into a GenAI-powered chat portal and launch a new service with allocated network resources in minutes? Awarded as a finalist at the DTW24 Ignite event in Copenhagen, our Catalyst aimed to achieve just that, by streamlining the entire process, and making it more efficient and responsive.

Bringing together emerging technologies

Let’s dig a little deeper to better understand our approach.

Advancing technologies such as GenAI, API exposure and network slicing are developing largely in isolation – with varying levels of success. Yet the business case for how to best monetize them doesn’t seem to be immediately apparent to many CSPs. This leaves the question of where the value actually lies.

While individually, each technology represents a significant leap forward in the accessibility of networks, their applications remain limited. Our Catalyst set out to prove that the answer lies in combining each technology’s capabilities to work in concert, thereby supercharging efficiencies in the rollout of new innovative services. Essentially, we proposed that when these technologies are integrated to work towards a shared business objective, their potential is unlocked.

Empowering business users to touch the network

In B2B and B2B2X, the top-of-mind concern has always been how to make networks more “usable” for business users. To date however, this has not moved beyond more intuitive GUIs with rudimentary reach to back-end systems. This means that to get a service update actioned, these business functions need to engage with a multitude of stakeholders and processes. Inevitably though, by the time this is achieved, the market has often moved on to the next shiny thing. Removing as much of the time-consuming overhead of network intermediaries as possible is therefore essential to enabling these customers to make the impact they want on their respective markets.

To achieve this, networks need to be capable of understanding natural language requests from customers. This is where GenAI offers a new way of processing business requests and mediating the communication between the network and the user – all in human language. Combined with an autonomous business-to-service orchestration capability that can resource, launch and maintain the business intent, we believe that this approach, as demonstrated in our Catalyst, could transform the way networks deliver value.

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1. High level solution architecture

How it works

Verizon, the project champion, provided the network component (RAN) on which the network slice was built. Infosys contributed the GenAI component, capturing and relaying the business intent, and simulating the core and edge network components. Amdocs handled the end-to-end service orchestration, including service assurance, by receiving the business intent via the TMF921 API and translating it into actionable service and resource intents. Amdocs utilized TMF921, TMF641, TMF645, and TMF642 APIs to connect and coordinate service delivery and ongoing maintenance, ensuring a closed-loop, autonomously managed network slice.

API

Function

TMF921

Intent Management API

TMF641

Service Ordering Management API

TMF642

Alarm Management API

TMF645

Service Qualification API

                                                                  2. TMForum APIs used

Industry impact

The autonomous operation of network slices offers numerous benefits to CSPs and their customers alike. For customers, it means customized network performance tailored to their specific needs, with dynamic scalability and responsive adjustments. This customization is achieved through intent-driven slices, which respond directly to business intents. Such slices are crucial for forming tailored network connectivity and are essential for realizing innovations like AR/VR, autonomous vehicles, remote healthcare, and massive IoT sensor deployments.

Autonomous slice management also improves network utilization efficiency, reducing the need for manual intervention and increasing asset utilization. Beyond slicing, there are other advanced use cases to consider. For example, Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) and SD-WAN offerings require the network to be somewhat “softwarized” and adaptable to new types of users. Other use cases include Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which provides converged network and security capabilities, and Open RAN, which aims to disaggregate the radio access network into open, virtualized, interoperable elements.

While our Catalyst demonstrates how this approach could positively affect the time-to-market for new services from a cloud gaming enterprise, it could also be applied to the enablement and extension of advanced services such as NaaS, SD-WAN and Open RAN. Indeed, the ability for networks to process requests through natural language and autonomously act on these requests autonomously have the potential to truly revolutionize how CSPs enable business outcomes across B2B and B2B2C verticals.

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