• Nokia AVA 5G Cognitive Operations to help communication service providers (CSPs) transform their network, service and business operations through extreme automation enabled by AI and machine learning  
• AI insights utilized to inform network slice creation and help CSPs comply with committed service level agreements (SLAs) for massively scaled 5G networks and enterprise services
• Service degradations can be predicted and prevented up to seven days in advance and solved up to 50 percent faster through AI

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has today announced the launch of a complete AI as a service offering: Nokia AVA 5G Cognitive Operations. The framework and its underlying AI-based solutions enable CSPs to transform their network, service and business operations through the application of AI, automation and cloud scalability. The solution will provide CSPs with insights to assist with slice creation and assurance to meet committed SLAs.

With 5G and the explosion of IoT devices unfolding, CSP operational teams are challenged with having to manage an ever-growing complexity through new use cases, service requirements, virtualization and network slicing. Traditional network and service management approaches are no longer sustainable, thus requiring AI and automation.

Nokia AVA 5G Cognitive Operations is a complete AI as a service offering, combining data science, machine learning as well as telco and cloud expertise to bring AI to life. It anticipates network and service failures with a high level of precision and accuracy up to seven days in advance. If failures arise, Nokia 5G Cognitive Operations can solve them up to 50 percent faster and accurately assess the impact on customers and services.

By taking pre-emptive, automated actions to resolve issues before they affect subscribers and enterprise applications, CSPs trialling the service have seen a 20 percent reduction in customer complaints and a 10 percent reduction in costly site visits.

The insights provided will help support CSPs with their slice creation, with an intelligent provisioning system identifying network resources, what SLAs can be committed and where new revenue opportunities can be found. Future capability will also enable CSPs to customize slice creation, providing different SLA levels based on unique user requirements.

Nokia AVA 5G Cognitive Operations is underpinned by Microsoft Azure cloud technology - with other public and private cloud options possible. In addition, Nokia’s Cognitive Collaboration Hubs will help CSPs to operationalize AI solutions through the work of cross-functional teams around the world, while the Digital Network Architecture provides common digital tools and proven landscape to ease data collection and enable digitized methods of procedures (DigiMoPs).

This framework provides an end-to-end service view with near real-time impact correlation for better visibility and control, supported by Nokia’s extensive library of AI use cases that have been proven to solve business challenges. The solution delivers intelligent fault diagnosis, failure localization and dynamic impact analysis. CSPs can leverage this functionality to shift away from incident-driven operations to a more proactive data-driven maintenance approach.

The “AI-as-a-service” commercial model means upfront costs are minimized, linking payments to usage and outcomes. A large part of this solution is already commercially available and expected to be completely available in the second quarter of 2020.

Don Alusha, Senior Analyst at ABI Research, said: “AI and 5G network slicing will be fundamental for new value creation in the industry, particularly for enterprise verticals that need reliable, low-latency communication networks to support their business operations.  Nokia AVA and Microsoft Azure capabilities present CSPs with an option to obtain the ‘intelligence’ they need to monitor and maintain their networks in a bid to ensure compliance with strict SLAs in an elegant and consistent fashion.”

Dennis Lorenzin, Head of Network Cognitive Service unit at Nokia, said: “Operators face a perfect storm of rising traffic and consumer expectations, so it is crucial to be able to predict and prevent service degradations at an earlier stage, while solving issues that arise significantly faster. Nokia AVA 5G Cognitive Operations enables CSPs to operate and assure latency for 5G use cases through AI, ultimately delivering an enhanced customer experience for consumers and enterprises.”