Maximizing India’s 5G potential by leveraging AI

Over the last few years, India’s digital economy has emerged as a significant contributor to the country’s overall economy. It is growing almost three times faster than the regular GDP, and there are indications that the country will not only be able to sustain this growth, but also expand it over the next few years.

The growing 5G ecosystem in the country promises to play a crucial role in the growth of the digital economy. The combination of extremely low latency and ultra-high speed opens up new possibilities for the country’s digital economy. 5G can potentially benefit the Indian economy by Rs 36.4 trillion (USD 455 billion) between 2023 and 2040, according to GSMA.

This anticipated growth demands a foundation of ultra-reliable, agile, flexible, intelligent, and programmable network infrastructure geared to not just seamlessly deliver new and exciting 5G use cases but also ensure exceptional customer experience for both people and machines (IoT).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is thus emerging as a critical factor in helping enable 5G-based use cases at scale and speed. Communication service providers (CSPs) are realizing AI’s vast potential in addressing network-related challenges and unlocking the full potential of 5G technology. A recent global Ciena survey found that 60 percent of CSPs believe AI will help them improve network operational efficiency by as much as 40 percent.

AI to ensure superior and more effective network operations
Complex and heterogeneous 5G networks require AI-powered automation to gain new capabilities and simplify network management. By enabling dynamic bandwidth provisioning, optimizing available resources, or processing a large amount of network and service data, AI can help significantly improve network efficiency and pave the way for network transformation.

AI-driven software control and automation in network infrastructure can significantly enhance efficiency, reliability, scalability, and sustainability. In addition, data-driven analytics and machine-learning algorithms monitor network performance in real time, allowing CSPs to proactively address network-related issues before they even start to impact the user experience.

Since a 5G network typically supports a greater number of connected devices and data traffic, it is beneficial for the network operations team to be able to utilize AI to analyze available data to predict and manage approaching failures. It is safe to say that AI-powered tools help the network be more reliable, enabling the operations team to resolve any network-related problem faster.

In addition, AI will play a critical role in enabling networks that self-drive, self-heal, and self-optimize. The technology also plays a role in facilitating intelligent closed-loop automation and accelerates root-cause analysis, leading to faster resolution of network problems.

Delivering services improving customer experience
The era of one-size-fits-all communication services is truly passé, as the mature digital consumer not only demands personalization but also expects a best-in-class experience at all times. This puts pressure on the network infrastructure, thus compromising speed and flexibility. This means that the traditional approach to providing services is no longer effective and possibly prevents telcos from maximizing the benefits of new technologies.

In this scenario, AI is helping telcos analyze available data to offer end-users, people and machines, what they need just when they need it. It allows them to be more predictive about what their end-users might want now or in the future. It is also helping CSPs analyze data in real time to offer personalized services, which, when delivered efficiently and promptly, can significantly help telcos improve 5G monetization.

Simply put, AI introduces cognitive capability in business functions to enable data-driven decision-making and deliver operational efficiency, business innovation, and a new customer experience.

In closing
Utilizing AI in network infrastructure enables CSPs to make 5G networks more intelligent, efficient, and adaptive. It is empowering telcos worldwide to better manage 5G network complexities while enabling them to deliver compelling service quality to the end users. In essence, the connectivity networks of the future need to be adaptive and intelligent, and this is helped by AI.

As India aims to take its digital economy to the next level, it is crucial to leverage AI to boost 5G networks’ operational efficiency, accelerate innovation, and ensure an optimal and sustainable network performance for consumers and business customers.