The recently published survey report by Telecoms.com Intelligence which looks at the mobile network of the future entitled ‘Future of Mobile Networks Outlook 2015’ makes for an interesting read and highlights key priorities expressed by surveyed experts in the areas of security, 5G broadband access and quality assurance.In this blog, I will provide an overview of the key characteristics of future networks and the consensus around them as outlined by the survey, says Mounir Ladki, president & chief technology officer, MYCOM OSI.
Future Networks are commonly referred to as the networks that will underpin our connected society for the next 20 years. As agreed by 75.9% of respondents, these future networks are expected to foster a major societal and industrial transformation by connecting the billions of objects that surround us enabling a frictionless world. Examples of this frictionless world include tactile internet, driverless cars, virtual retail and delivery, immersive learning and augmented reality. Some statistics predict that in the next ten years there will be more than 30 billion connected objects, serviced by more than 200 billion connected sensors. As an example, a single connected ship will be equipped with more than 4000 sensors.
In my opinion, the key differentiation that will characterise future networks is that they will be “machine networks” as opposed to current “human networks”. They will be operated and managed automatically by software systems instead of technicians and engineers; they will connect machines and robots more than people and they will even be attacked by other automated servers rather than hackers wearing hoods.
In this context, these future networks will probably feature the following capabilities:
- Order of magnitude improvement of capacity, throughput and latency, thanks to 5G and MIMO standards in addition to advanced signal processing. Coverage will be improved thanks to device-to-device communication.
- On the access side, networks are expected to become more hybrid than today. Static sensors will be connected through Low Power Networks such as the LTE variant NB-IOT, Sigfox or LoRa that provide 1000 times more device capacity and 10 years device power autonomy, while higher throughputs and lower latency will be provided by 5G with WiFi, 4G+ and 3G set to provide additional voice and data coverage and capacity. The core network will use flat IP architecture with IPv6, and backhauling will rely on fibre networks and Gfast technology.
- To achieve more agility and cost effectiveness, future networks will be virtualised using NFV and SDN architectures. The processing, networking and storage hardware resources will be hosted on standard IT platforms in cloud data centres. This poses the challenge of orchestration and management of such hybrid networks, especially the quality of experience assurance which was seen as a key priority by 43.6% of respondents.
- The operation model of future networks will also witness a radical evolution. Not only end-to-end cross-domain management and operation will be the norm according to 81.5% of respondents, but also the complexity, volumes and real time imperative will dictate a much greater degree of automation and self-orchestration (72.2% of respondents)
- Future networks will be contextual and customer centric according to 77.6% of respondents. Instead of offering the same uniform level of connectivity and Quality of Service as today, these networks will be able to offer tailored connectivity and QoS dynamically based on user experience requirement. Also, the network slicing will allow offering complete packaged network connectivity for a particular customer domain. This customer context awareness will largely come for the extensive use of big data. However, for obvious latency and cost saving reasons, part of big data analytics capability will be distributed at the edge of the network.
- Network Security – as agreed by 58.9% of respondents, the very concept of these future networks is not compatible with current concept of isolating the telecom networks behind thick firewalls at Gi interface among others. This poses the question of securing these networks against DNS attacks, intrusions and malwares especially at the edge (CPE, etc) as prioritised by 41.1% of respondents. New concepts for proactively securing these networks and especially the vital systems they will connect will be fundamental. This will include enhanced segmentation to prevent navigation from one connected domain to the other, IPv6 security architecture (76.2% of respondents) advanced vulnerabilities detection and intelligent exploit prevention architectures.
While providing all these advanced capabilities, future networks have an imperative of sustainability and environment protection. This includes power efficiency and carbon footprint reduction.
Finally, and most importantly these future networks are expected to take the quality of experience to new levels. The reliability and availability of service is expected to match the best utility networks, while speed and quality will be tailored for the various use cases, customer contexts and connected objects requirements. This is regarded as the most important driver for investment in future networks according to 79.5% of respondents. It also highlights an imperative for real time automated management of quality assurance, seamless integration between the customer, service and network layers and heavy reliance on big data.
The author of this blog is Mounir Ladki, president & chief technology officer, MYCOM OSI, Sponsor of the Telecoms.com Intelligence ‘Future of Mobile Networks Outlook 2015’ Report.
About the author:
Mounir Ladki, President & chief technology officer
Mounir.ladki@mycom-osi.com
Mounir Ladki joined MYCOM in 2001 to start and lead the software business and since then he has led the company’s product strategy, development R&D, go-to-market. Mounir has 18 years international experience in technical and business leadership roles. An industry visionary with expertise in Mobile Telecoms, IT and Software, he is actively participating in shaping the future of OSS and Networks Management, and has been sitting at the advisory board of TM Forum. Mounir was recognised twice by ‘Global Telecoms Business’ as one of the leading 40 under 40 executives in the Telecoms industry worldwide. Prior to joining MYCOM, Mounir worked at Nortel where he set up and managed the advanced engineering services group and played a key role in the definition and market delivery of Nortel’s advanced mobile solutions including a number of world firsts. During this period he designed solutions for more than 20 mobile operators worldwide in APAC, EMEA and US, and obtained many distinctions. Mounir gained a master’s degree in Telecom engineering with distinction from Supélec, a business degree from Sorbonne University and executive education at INSEAD.
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