Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:05):
Hello, you're watching Telecom tv. I'm Guy Daniels. Now a key component of Telco's digital transformation programs is the development and deployment of autonomous networks. However, not all telcos are at the same point in the journey towards automation, and challenges do still remain well. Joining me now to explain more is George Glass, who is Chief Technology Officer for TM Forum. Hello, George. Good to see you again. Now, if I could ask, first of all, what role does autonomous networking play in telco's Digital transformation?

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (00:42):
We've been working with our members on their digital transformation journey for probably the last 10 years, and that was largely focused on the IT space and what would've been known as the business support systems or operational support systems of that telecoms operator. But what we're actually seeing is that as infrastructure has been virtualized, we've seen the arrival of cloud computing. We've seen software or networks becoming software. We've seen it and network assets becoming programmable. We've seen the emergence of AI and we've seen the evolvement of industry standard open APIs. We've actually seen the perfect storm. That means the digital transformation that was largely restricted to the IT space is now expanding down into the network space. And that's driven by the business requirements of both the customers of the operators and the operators themselves. So the customers are wanting what we would call the zero X experience, the zero touch, the zero weight experience, whereas the operators want the self X experience, the self-service, self-optimizing self configuration, and that produces the perfect combination of delivering digital efficiency, but also creating digital enablement in the network space so that network services can actually move forward and start to become programmable software components of the operators.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:22):
So as I understand it, George, autonomous networks have been defined with different levels. On a scale from zero to five, what's the methodology of these different levels and do we need a common industry definition?

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (02:38):
Well, right from the very outset, we define the autonomous network levels from level zero, which is manual operations of a network right through to level five, which is the fully autonomous network. And the whole idea was that we would define an industry standard so that our members, the operators and the network equipment manufacturers and software vendors that sold solutions into the telco space could actually very clearly define and articulate where they were on that transformation journey. And we actually define the different levels, not only just to describe them, so you could say it was at AAN level two or AAN level four, but we would enter the details within each level to specify what the key effective indicators were for that level, be it to do with throughput or latency or performance or volume statistics so that you could very accurately and unambiguously describe and prove that you are at am level three or AM level four, for example.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (03:48):
So how far along are CSPs with their autonomous networks programs generally, and what challenges are they now facing?

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (03:59):
So as part of the work that we've been doing on autonomous networks, we developed what we called our autonomous networks levels evaluation tool. And that's built on the key effective indicators, and also it is applied then to specific use cases in particular technology demands. And we've just piloted that and completed the first phase of the pilot by June 24, sorry. And the results of that showed that the average autonomous network level was in and around 2.5. Now we looked at a number of domains, we looked at the RAN and we looked at several other domains, and it was quite consistent across the piece. Some operators may be moving to the upper twos into the low threes, but the majority of operators centered in and around the a n level 2.5. That's very interesting because we have done a survey of our members and produced our digital transformation report, which we publish each year, and we've noticed that over 50% of those members surveyed actually had aspirations to achieve autonomous networks level three or four in the next two to three years. So that's a big challenge for our industry because they're currently sitting on average at 2.5, they've aspirations to get to a N level four, and that's going to be a big jump in terms of the technology they have to build and the implementation and rollout of that technology so that we can prove the concepts and then scale those concepts for operational deployment.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (05:42):
So as you said, your members have high aspirations there. So how is TM Forum helping them to overcome these challenges and how are you working with the CSPs to accelerate their commercialization efforts?

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (05:55):
So rather than trying to boil the in one go, what we've done is we've identified a number of high value use cases. So we've subdivided the network into particular technologies, we subdivided the technologies into Pacific domains, and then we said for that domain, for that technology, for example, fault management in the IP space or service activation in the ran, what are their aspirations for the service providers in that area? And based on the high value use cases, they're determined taking into consideration the return on investment from the service provider. So is it worth doing? What's the price, if you like, of achieving an level four in that domain?

(06:44):
Is the technology mature enough to actually deliver that capability for that domain? And then measuring their current assessment level, doing a gap analysis between what they've got and their aspirations. Typically for AAN level four, designing the solution for AAN level four, but rather than doing that on their own, working within a collaboration project under the TM forum banner to work with their peers to collectively define the standard for the industry. And then as they prove and scale those solutions, share those back through the TM forum to actually allow the industry to move together collaboratively and achieve a and level four, not just in single domains, but eventually across all domains for all technologies.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (07:38):
Final question, George. What's the level of involvement from TM Forum members? Who's contributing, who's providing the necessary momentum?

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (07:46):
So the way we drive a lot of our work is we form a manifesto where our members sign up to commit to helping us find the solutions and adopt those solutions. Over 60 of our members have actually signed the A manifesto. That's the large network equipment manufacturers, it's the tier one telcos, it's the software vendors that sell into that solution space. And they're working with us to define the concepts such as intent-based operations, closed loop controls, self-healing demands, intelligent orchestration, all key aspects of an autonomous network, and all supported by the major players in the telecoms industry today.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (08:29):
Thank you, George. Wayne, let's leave it there for now. It was really good talking with you again, and thanks so much for sharing your insights with us today.

George Glass, CTO, TMForum (08:36):
Thank you very much, guy.