ANALYSIS & OPINION: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


A SMART FUTURE


LOOKING INTO TELECOMMUNICATIONS' FUTURE, IT COULD BE ARGUED AI AND TELCOS WILL EFFECTIVELY TRANSFORM EACH OTHER


RAF MEERSMAN


L


ast year was one of countless changes. Changes that have been happening in the past 10 years took a quantum leap in the past 10 months. Can you believe


that a year ago, many of us flew halfway around the world for a one-day meeting? Tat remote education, remote first-line health advice, or even working from home (or anywhere) seemed like a distant future? Te world has adapted rapidly. Operators


worldwide reported overnight increases in bandwidth usage between 20 and 50 per cent. It is our sector that was able to provide the infrastructure, services, flexibility to support this change without any major hiccups.


Look in the mirror Te telecom sector was ready for this sudden ‘fast forward’. Just like AI is ready for its breakthrough. Companies have been adopting AI faster, to minimise the spread of the coronavirus by human contact. Our industry is the catalyst of this adoption.


But have we looked in the mirror? Are we aware of how these AI innovations affect our own industry? If we are willing to embrace the benefits of digitisation through AI, I see an industry that can become an innovation leader. Today, there is already a myriad of AI


applications available in all stages of the network lifetime. If you remember, even back in 2010,


Swisscom claimed that its robot-driven fibre grid deployments yielded a 50 per cent cost saving. If cars can drive autonomously, why can’t digging machines do the same?


www.fibre-systems.com @fibresystemsmag


Moreover, on the monitoring side, there


are AI techniques being developed which can predict faults and even make equipment self-heal, like the automatic restart of a server. AI capabilities can also be used to enable network function virtualisation (NFV), which allows infrastructure owners to offer access to its equipment to altnets. Tis means the birth of infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Let us not forget about AI possibilities to


protect networks. Self-learning algorithms can discover how to beter detect and block intrusions on devices embedded in the network. As 5G introduces countless new antennas and connected devices, it will become much more vulnerable to atacks.


Practical optimisation is key Tere is also the planning and design stage of network deployments. Tis is a subject I care a great deal about, and I am sure we will see radical changes here as well. We already see AI-based innovation in the


gathering and cleaning of digital data where field surveys, for example, could be replaced by virtual reality sessions. Walking the streets from behind your desk, combined with automated recognition of sidewalk borders, survey types, poles, etc. Intrigued yet? We have been on the AI track for more than


15 years now. As a next step we are adding AI technologies based on machine learning to the soſtware. Practical optimisation is key here: optimising cabinet and closure coverage and sizes; optimising cable and duct routes; optimising demand point connections by


IT IS OUR SECTOR THAT WAS ABLE TO PROVIDE THE INFRASTRUCTURE, SERVICES, FLEXIBILITY TO SUPPORT THIS CHANGE WITHOUT ANY MAJOR HICCUPS


finding the right cost-coverage threshold per connection, etc. All this can be underpinned by smart


algorithms that understand more than just the logic of mathematical formulas. Tey need to learn from the best network designers about the balance between cost optimisation and constructability. Here lies our investment, our desire to improve. Te role of the telecom industry has grown


significantly this year. And it has the potential to continue to do so. Let's implement new technologies and inspire the rest of the world. How is your organisation contributing to the future of the telecom industry? n Raf Meersman is CEO at Comsof


Issue 30 n Winter 2021 n FiBRE SYSTEMS 21


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