ICT is driving change across all industries so how can operators prepare their networks for this huge surge in traffic?

 

Divided in half by a reflective black walkway, dotted with flat screen televisions showing various graphics and videos, and featuring the latest gadgets, including smartphones, wearables and even a robot, Huawei’s booth certainly promised potential. Massive banners separated the booth into areas – SoftCOM Strategy, Evolving Ultra Mobile Broadband, Embracing Open Digital Ecosystem, Enabling ICT Transformation and Device Showroom. Each claimed to have solutions for evolving operators’ networks, lowering their Total Cost of Ownership or delivering new services.

 

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) were among technologies showcased by Huawei. Its solution incorporates four main qualities; it is Data Centre centric, APP-driven, experience orientated and operates on a simplified network approach. While the technology is still emerging, Huawei has deployed its SDN solution for a number of operators, including Telefonica, China Telecom, Shanghai Telecom and Beijing Telecom.  As a result, operators can easily offer new services and lower their total cost of ownership.

 

Proving that SDN is one of the hot topics of the show so far, Huawei’s first keynote presentation was also on this topic. Touching on NFV too, Ryan Ding, President of Products and Solutions, spoke as part of a panel session titled ‘Network Evolution in Practice’. The sessions heard visions for the ideal network of the future, showcasing it as more adaptable, smarter and more efficient. Ding suggested this should be done by using the best elements from the IT and telecoms worlds to support a myriad of services in real time. According to Ding, SDN is the best technology to achieve this. 

 

Moving away from SDN, Huawei has plenty of other insights, strategies and solutions for the mobile broadband industry on show. Adding sustenance to the hype, Huawei was able to demonstrate its solutions with case studies. Deploying LTE, for example, is another challenge which Huawei seeks to make easier for operators. Its SingleSON solution has already been successfully implemented and automatically manages key aspects of multi-RAT, multi-layer and multi-vendor networks to improve overall O&M efficiency and network performance. 

 

Looking to the next step, solutions for LTE-Advanced deployment also attracted attention, as did Huawei’s latest and highly integrated small-sized macro stations, crowd-sourcing small cell, experience-centric mobile backhaul and Cloud, including SD-DC² (Service Driven-Distributed Cloud Data Ce nter) architecture, and FusionCloud solution, which adopt cloud technologies in each layer of the telecom network infrastructure.

 

Elsewhere, at Speaker’s Corner, Huawei’s dedicated theatre for presentations discussing key trends, Senior Business Consultant Mac Taylor, discussed another approach and urged operators to forget traffic.

 

Instead, he said, they need to concentrate on services. 

 

“The digital ecosystem has the potential to transform telcos from big pipe providers into a digitised service market place – this is a crucial next step for telco carriers,” he said. “Operators need to compete on a global level and building a Cloud ecosystem is the first piece in the puzzle to solving this challenge.” 

 

Taylor went on to say that the market for telco digital services is currently estimated to be worth $150 billion. He introduced Huawei’s Global Innovation Cloud Platform as one way which carriers can have their slice of this lucrative pie. 

 

Through partnerships with market-proven vendors, the platform hosts services in up and coming sectors, for example, connected cars and healthcare. Carriers can then plug into this platform and deliver services to their customers.

 

“This isn’t about Huawei making lots of money by selling its own products,” continued Taylor. “This is about Huawei becoming a broker of services and enabling its carrier customers to operate on a global level. With our platform, there isn’t necessarily an upfront cost involved, it can also be about revenue sharing; another new business model operators should be open to exploring.”