Research published by Telecoms.com and Mycom OSI has revealed that the emergence of IoT and increased M2M communications is the biggest driver for mobile operators’ network assurance. 

More than 34% percent of respondents cite IoT/M2M as the main factor, with the increasing need to improve network quality as a market differentiator ranked next with 28% of respondents.  These figures reflect a continuing requirement for CSPs not only to manage growing network complexity, but also to drive competitive advantage through the quality of experience they can deliver to their subscribers.

The findings found a growing demand for automated network assurance, tempered by a reluctance to turn over critical infrastructure completely to algorithms and a need for manual programmability.  The case for automation is clear with 58% of respondents claiming that they “have to trust automated network assurance because it’s too complex and vast to control manually”.  However, they overwhelmingly agreed that there must be a “balance between trust of automation and manual programmability”, with more than 75% wanting to retain control over their network.

Increasing complexity and network risk can also be seen at play in operators’ attitudes to network functions virtualisation (NFV), over which the industry is divided as to the best approach. While 25% believe that NFV will be siloed into various areas of the network, a further 31% predict that it will bring about a new approach to network management, forcing CSPs to effectively start all over again. However, a significant number (44%) do see NFV as part of their end-to-end network assurance strategy, believing NFV management will be absorbed into their OSS systems.

“It’s not surprising that IoT and network quality head the list of drivers for future network assurance and that it should be managed from an end-to-end perspective whilst injecting customer-centricity via analytics,” said Ian Meakin, the global head of marketing at MYCOM OSI.  “But this research also reveals that despite being confronted by ever increasing complexity, operators dare not relinquish control of the network assurance or entrust it completely into the hands of black-box automation and closed algorithms. There is a clear demand for automation with control via open, programmable automation platforms such as MYCOM OSI provides with its ProActor solution.”