ZTE has partnered with market research firm IDC for a jointly issued whitepaper titled "Expediting AI for Operations in Networks of the Future" which details some of the expected AI automation benefits for telecoms service providers.
The whitepaper predicts that by 2020, organizations able to analyze relevant data and deliver actionable information will achieve an extra $430 billion in productivity benefits over their less analytically oriented peers. “The ability to harness AI will become imperative for operators of future 5G networks,” said ZTE in a statement.
The main application prospects include three functional areas:
• Network operation and maintenance
• Security, network configuration, orchestration and optimization
• Business operation and support
Network operation is the immediate area for AI based automation to create value, said ZTE. Network configuration, orchestration and optimization will see the most benefit from AI in the 5G context. Business operation and support will be vastly upgraded with AI embedded in customer engagement interfaces, knowledge bases, and job dispatch systems.
A fully autonomous network with coverage and capacity optimized offers high value application scenarios for continuous research and development, said ZTE. Among the predicted benefits: AI-aided 5G massive MIMO beamforming can amplify the capacity of wireless networks without requiring extra spectrum, and smart mobility load balancing will improve the ability of future networks to uniquely identify physical transmitters.
The whitepaper says that upcoming 5G networks will be heavily dependent on AI capabilities to cover infrastructure management, network and business function management and operation support, said ZTE.