Blue Planet Blog

AI-based automated assurance is a 5G necessity

In a 5G world, automation is mandatory because it is impossible for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to meet customer requirements for dynamic ultra-low latency and high availability services using manual provisioning and management processes. CSPs need assurance solutions that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automate the trouble-to-resolve process in order to deliver the cloud-like network experiences customers want.

Want to Monetize 5G? Start with Dynamic and Federated Inventory

Network inventory management has become a huge pain point for CSPs because they have so many legacy systems operating in silos. Blue Planet's Sandra Lowenstein details how federation technology can unify inventory data to provide a single 'source of truth' in an evolutionary approach to OSS.

Telefónica aims to turn OSS silos into a data democracy

Telefónica is undertaking a massive effort to digitally transform into a data-driven company. One of the first steps is turning silos of Operations Support Systems (OSS) into a “data democracy,” which means making data available to anyone in the company who needs it, according to José Antonio Lozano López, Telefónica’s Head of Service & Network Management Architecture.

Why automation is key to delivering digital experiences everywhere

From ordering groceries online and having them delivered to your doorstep to streaming the latest box office movie directly to your phone, people want real digital experiences everywhere, including from their CSPs. At our recent Blue Planet Virtual Insiders Forum (VIF), we heard from customers, partners, and industry analysts who explained how CSPs are embracing automation to deliver these digital experiences. Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson highlights some of his learnings and takeaways below.

An AI/AR Approach to Inventory Network Synchronization

I was recently invited to present a paper on the topic of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for inventory network synchronization at SCTE Cable-Tec 2021. Given the level of interest by participants in the use of these advanced technologies, I thought I would share a summary below.

The benefits of edge computing for telcos

From speed and bandwidth to security and adaptability, edge computing offers a host of innovations for telcos. But in order to realize these benefits, they'll need to fundamentally rethink their OSS architecture and embrace automation. Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson details how telcos can get started.

Winning at the edge: How openness and automation help clear the biggest hurdles standing in the way of delivering edge cloud services

Our industry is still in the process of clearly defining what and where “the edge” is, with multiple stakeholders both competing and cooperating in this high-stakes race. This makes openness and automation vital for service providers to successfully manage and deliver new edge cloud services to end-customers, says Kailem Anderson, VP of Blue Planet.

How Telefónica is evolving its OSS to support network automation

Omdia's James Crawshaw details how Telefonica is working to apply SDN and automation capabilities across its network and OSS, and the results of several use cases that were successfully tested.

The future of 5G: How services will evolve

How enterprises understand, interact with, and derive value from their networks is being redefined. 5G, IoT, and the edge are working together to position CSPs, enterprises, and consumers to benefit, says Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson.

How Network as a Service is transforming the customer experience

Communication service providers must upgrade their infrastructures to cope with accelerating technology development and customer demand. Networks as a Service (NaaS) is the key to redefining network infrastructure to be more agile and responsive, giving network customers the same level of service that they have come to expect from cloud infrastructure companies.

What's Powering CSP Digital Transformation in 2021?

Digital transformation is altering business before our eyes, and companies are relying on their communication service providers to support it. That means CSPs must undergo a transformation of their own, says Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson, with profound ramifications for technology infrastructure.

Omdia: Migrating OSS to the Public Cloud

Public cloud was once seen as suitable for hosting websites, maybe some customer-facing portals – but not OSS. That mindset is shifting, with service providers taking a variety of approaches as they migrate their operations software to the public cloud. Omdia analyst James Crawshaw discussed this trend with Blue Planet's Kailem Anderson and Microsoft's Rick Lievano.

When it comes to Digital Transformation, service providers choose Blue Planet

Service providers and network operators are finally breaking the cycle of failed attempts to modernize and automate their network services. Joe Cumello details how a growing list of global CSPs and network operators are using Blue Planet to create a transformative customer experience.

Blue Orbit Partner Spotlight: Tech Mahindra’s drive to become a Continuous Integrator

In Blue Orbit Partner Spotlight blogs, we will highlight innovative solutions from Blue Planet’s partner ecosystem and discuss the market trends that are driving them.

Service automation: For customers, the details matter

For the sometimes frustratingly over-hyped topic of service automation, it can be hard to discern between real capabilities and marketing fluff. Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson cuts through the hype and focuses on the key details that make for a truly differentiated service automation solution.

Software-defined transport provides the basis for 5G network slicing

5G network slicing empowers communication service providers (CSPs) to offer a new suite of differentiated services featuring on-demand, customer controlled self-service options. A network slice is an end to end, logically separate network partition with unique network performance and latency characteristics to serve a particular use case or enterprise. To deliver true network slicing, CSPs need a cross-domain network slice orchestration architecture that stitches together domain-level slices to form an end-to-end slice spanning the RAN, edge, transport, and the core network domains. In the architecture implemented by Telefonica iFUSION, the software-defined transport network (SDTN) controller is used to provide the domain-level slice management capability. Anil Rao is the Research Director and Lead Analyst for network and service automation research at Analysys Mason, covering a broad range of topics on the existing and new-age operational systems that will power operators’ digital transformations. His main areas of focus include automation of service creation, provisioning and service operations in NFV/SDN-based networks, 5G, IoT and edge clouds; the use of analytics, ML and AI to increase operations efficiency and agility; and the broader imperatives around operations automation and zero touch networks.

Leading Digital Transformation with Business Value Mapping

For service providers looking to find success with digital transformation, conducting a Business Value Mapping (BVM) exercise can be key in quantifying and achieving the full impact of a Digital Transformation initiative, says Blue Planet’s Sam Torrente.

The TM Forum NaaS framework decouples network and OSS to enable dual-speed digital transformation

The TM Forum-proposed Network-as-a-service (NaaS) framework is designed to help communication service providers (CSPs) accelerate digital transformation and enhance service agility by decoupling the Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) from the underlying networks. This framework leverages model-driven abstraction and open APIs to expose all network capabilities and resources – virtual and physical – into a service catalogue so that CSPs can compose services dynamically and automate service lifecycle management. Another concept of NaaS has emerged, which is a business model that is similar to the popular Software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, where CSPs expose network services to offer enterprise business services and put the end-customer in control of when, what, and how much of those services they want to consume using digital channels such as self-service portals. However, these seemingly different concepts of NaaS are aligned and complimentary. By simplifying and standardizing communications between the OSS/BSS and the network, they will bolster CSPs’ ability to make on-demand services like 5G network slicing a success. Anil Rao is the Research Director and Lead Analyst for network and service automation research at Analysys Mason, covering a broad range of topics on the existing and new-age operational systems that will power operators’ digital transformations.His main areas of focus include automation of service creation, provisioning and service operations in NFV/SDN-based networks, 5G, IoT and edge clouds; the use of analytics, ML and AI to increase operations efficiency and agility; and the broader imperatives around operations automation and zero touch networks.

TIP’s transport SDN workstream, MUST, puts CSPs in control of network automation

Six leading communication service providers (CSPs), Deutsche Telekom, MTN, Orange, Telefónica, Telia Company and Vodafone, have joined forces to standardise the open transport SDN architecture and achieve vendor-agnostic network programmability. The prevailing diverse SDN standards and automation frameworks have caused confusion and have slowed down network automation progress. This collaboration is therefore an important milestone; CSPs are taking control of the standardisation process, to not only accelerate transport network automation, but also to prepare for 5G network slicing. The CSPs are working together as part of the Telecom Infra Project Open Optical and Packet Transport (TIP OOPT) project group and have launched a new workstream titled Mandatory Use Case Requirements for SDN for Transport (MUST). The group will create technical use case specifications, focusing on key topics such as partial optical network disaggregation, IP and optical multi-domain and multi-layer co-ordination and network slicing. It has already released a white paper (Open Transport SDN Architecture Whitepaper), which provides an in-depth explanation of the MUST initiative.

Blue Planet powers your cloud-first strategy

Cloud-native intelligent automation software provided in a SaaS-based consumption model is required to help service providers maximize their business agility and fully realize the advantages that moving their OSS to the cloud offers, says Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson.

Blue Orbit Partner Spotlight: How Infosys is building a blueprint for digital transformation

In Blue Orbit Partner Spotlight blogs, we will highlight innovative solutions from Blue Planet’s partner ecosystem, and discuss the market trends that are driving them.

Tier-1 Pan-Asian service provider assures MPLS services and ensures customer satisfaction with Blue Planet

Blue Planet’s Don Jacob details how one service provider was able to assure their MPLS services and, more importantly, cut down SLA payouts by proving the root cause of service reachability issues.

Implementing real-time service assurance, a customer case study from Crown Castle

Integrating AI and machine learning into network and service operations centers can help service providers evolve from reactive to proactive operations. Here's how Crown Castle is using these technologies for real-time assurance, and the related business.

New Blue Orbit partner program brings more than just technology to digital transformation

The path to digital transformation and network automation is about more than intelligent software – you also need intelligent people to help guide you through this complex journey. Read how the Blue Planet team has been working diligently with the world’s leading system integrators within our new Blue Orbit partner ecosystem.