April 25, 2024 • 36 mins
Mobile World Congress 2024 unveiled game-changing innovations that will redefine how we connect. Think private mobile networks and AI that learns to optimize performance!
In this podcast, we unpack these exciting trends and explore the future of intelligent networks. Join us to unlock the potential of tomorrow's technology and embrace a world of possibilities.
Join us as we explore these ideas with:
Ian Fogg, Director of Networks, CCS Insight
Wei Yeang Toh, GM of Ecosystem Development Organization, Intel
Christina Cardoza, Editorial Director, insight.tech
Podcast Topics
Ian and Wei answer our questions about:
- Key network trends from Mobile World Congress
- Advances and benefits AI brings to the network space
- How these key trends and themes impact the industry
- Importance of the hybrid model for intelligent networks
- What’s on the horizon for 6G networks
- Ecosystem partnerships for network modernization
Related Content
To learn more about key network trends, read Private Mobile Networks: Options for Scaling the Market and MWC 2024: Private 5G Networks Take Center Stage. For the latest innovations from CCS Insight, follow them on X/Twitter at @ccsinsight and on LinkedIn. For the latest innovations from Intel, follow them on X/Twitter at @Intel and on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(upbeat music)
- Hello, and welcome to the IoT Chat
where we explore thelatest technology trends
and innovations.
I'm your host, Christina Cardoza,
Editorial Director of insight.tech.
(00:21):
And today we're going to belooking at the network landscape
with Ian Fogg from CCS Insightand Wei Yeang Toh from Intel.
But as always, before we get started,
let's get to know our guests a bit more.
Wei, I'll start with you.
What can you tell us aboutwhat you do at Intel?
- Hey, glad to be here, so yeah,
thanks for all the intros.
Hey, my name is Wei Yeang.
(00:42):
I run the ecosystem developments
for 5G and edge computing for Intel.
Right, so this functionreside within the network
and edge solution groups.
The challenge is reallyworking with the ecosystem,
develop the market, makesure that the long tiers
of the value chain will cometogether, working together,
(01:04):
say, to accomplish a commongoal to address the challenges
that the end user is looking for.
And this cut across apretty broad market, right?
So we do need a broad setof ecosystem partnership
to cultivate these solutions
driving towards a form of maturity,
and at the end of the day, tosolve our customer problem.
(01:24):
- Awesome, looking forward to getting
into that a little bit.
At insight.tech,
the articles that we're writing,
there's been this ongoing theme
we're seeing better together.
So excited to get into thatecosystem a little bit more.
But before we get there, Ian,welcome back to the podcast.
For anybody who hasn'tseen the recent episode
that Ian did on predictionsfor the next year and beyond
(01:44):
for the network landscape,
which is, some of them,
we'll get into probably today.
But Ian, what can youtell us about yourself?
- So I'm a research director
at a company called CCS Insights.
We are a advisory and research company.
We track global trends in networks,
and a whole lot of other areas,
included the circular economy on handsets,
(02:05):
in terms of media, in termsof enterprise research.
My coverage area's around whatwe call network innovation.
That's what the practice is that I lead.
So a lot of focus the moment
around things like virtualization,
the Open RAN developments,
private mobile networks.
There's obviously still interest in things
like non-terrestrial networks.
And one of the big trends at the moment is
(02:25):
around how AI is transforming
different parts of the network
and driving greater needsto use cloud services
within the telecom operator.
- Yeah, AI everywhere seemsto be the big theme of 2024,
especially in the network space.
And since we're talkingabout the network landscape
and the different trends andpredictions that we have,
(02:46):
the Mobile World Congressevent recently just ended,
and there was a lot of themesgoing around private 5G,
A lot of network thingshappening in that space.
So Wei, I want to startthe conversation there,
since both you and Ian were at the event.
What were you hearing on the show floor?
You know, what were thetrends and the themes
that you've observed?
And how do you think thoseare going to push the industry
(03:07):
or this space forward overthe next couple of years?
- Yeah, certainly.
I'm pleased to see
how things evolve, in fact,
right, every year.
So yeah, having attendedMobile World Congress
for close to about a decade by now,
things been progressing, right?
And there are few prettyclear noticeable key themes
(03:29):
from this year, right?
That we have to discuss.
Number one, of course, right?
AI is everywhere, right?
Not only during the show floor,
but as well as in any of thecustomer meetings, right?
Towards the end, there's always a question
from the customer,
tell me more about your AI strategy.
It's kind of funny, gettingready for that question.
Oh, you're not going to ask for AI, right?
(03:51):
So yeah, AI is everywhere
and we see this is the beginning, right?
Ecosystem is exploring how to leverage AI
for different type of theusage in the telco domain,
because we're talkingabout Mobile World Congress
over here, right?
So we're talking aboutthings like leveraging AI
in the area, like thenetwork optimization,
(04:11):
predictive maintenance,customer service, right?
And many more others,
the possible use cases.
And again, it is at the beginning
of looking at the formof AI adoption journey
for the telco community, right?
But then there are few more topics
that both dimensions, right,
(04:32):
that surface up during these shows, right?
And again, it's a progressive update,
and telco API is another key topic
that surface up quite,
quite big highlights
during the show as well, right?
And this is all about,
hey, we all, as telco communities here
managed to accomplish quitea lot in 5G deployment,
(04:54):
and then what next, right?
And it's really about, hey,CapEx already invested in,
how do we speed upauthority and monetization,
through edge application,
and therefore telco API
brings a set of the standardization,
if you will, right?
And helping the communityto look at how to capitalize
(05:14):
any form of the emerging opportunity
across multiple industry.
We really talk about crossvertical industry over here,
and telco API will opening upa new era of how connectivity,
how edge computing come together
and able to create a formof revenue generation
not only for telco, but at the same time
for the edge and verticalsecosystem partner
(05:37):
come together to utilize
the API for a betterservices creation, right?
Better customer experience, so on.
And then the third thing
I want to mention real quick is
the entire softwaredefined network transition
is carry on, right?
And we see vRAN as virtualRAN, vRAN, Open RAN
as a continuously asthe next major milestone
(06:00):
to go and accomplish, right?
We have done networkfunction virtualization
for call networks, for OSS/BSS,
and so on, journey continue.
And vRAN continue to make progress.
And we see how much that we manage
to accomplish it together,
stay up to date right now
with our partners and telco operators,
and the commitments remain there, right?
To modernize the infrastructure, right,
(06:23):
to software define the network infra.
And through that, we're able to unlock
the infrastructure constraint,
and get into a truly cloudnative in the future.
And AI will be there meetingat the junction, right?
To unlock the futures capability.
And then lastly is
I'm excited about howthe partners talking more
(06:49):
about collaboration, right?
It's all about synergizing the ecosystem
as a catalyst, right?
To drive innovation and grow, right?
And this is a very clear path
always to accomplish success
because in this world right now,
when we bring 5G edge computing AI.
It is like cross three domain, right?
(07:09):
And we live through the first,
I shouldn't say first,
we live through the pastAI transformation for NFV,
and that involved cloudlayer, IT layer, and so on.
And now we're gettinginto more complex, right?
IT, CT, OT, AI, right?
All the cross domain.
And this will require
very strong ecosystemcollaboration to get that.
(07:30):
So we are excited.
We see company reaching out, right?
They would like to formulatea strategy collaboration
towards a common goal, right?
And it's very healthy sign,
showing that the ecosystem partnership,
how it should look like,
towards a very clear, common goal.
- All exciting stuff.
One thing that I lovethat you mentioned is
this isn't only happeningin the telco space.
(07:52):
This is impacting acrossthe main, across vertical,
across industry, and alsobringing improvements
to edge computing.
I think that's really important
that a lot of these advancements,
they're not happening in silos.
It's really having ahuge impact in all areas.
I want to go back to whatyou were talking about
in the beginning ofyour response about AI.
(08:12):
We opened up that AI is atheme going on everywhere.
So I'm curious, how is AIcoming to the networking space?
We've written about oninsight.tech using AI
in manufacturing forpredictive maintenance,
like you mentioned.
But what are the advances thatAI can bring to networking?
And what did you see at theshow within the Intel ecosystem?
(08:33):
How were they showcasing someof their AI advancements?
- Yeah, yeah.
The whole show is a big highlight again,
for sure is about AI, right?
And telco is at the different stage
of the AI adoption journey, right?
And what I meant is
depending at which stage ofthis network modernization
(08:59):
and monetization as well, right?
The different telcos,
they're really atdifferent stage right now.
But regardless what we are going to see
across various of theobjective and intention, right?
It is still within the same objective
of how do we harvest the bestoutcome of the AI, right?
(09:20):
And we are talking about
whether it's to orchestratethe intelligent network,
or do we looking at gainingmore insight about the network?
Or creating a new business opportunity?
Right?
So most of the conversation
that we run into, right?
I could structure it down to probably
like threefold, right?
(09:40):
To make it slightlysimple to follow, right?
Telco, they're planning theAI adoption journey, right?
And again, based onmaturity, based on the KPI,
they intend to accomplish,
because any form of investment,
it costs CapEx, it costs a OpEx.
And there isn't a lot of extra,
excess CapEx to spend, right?
With a lot of CapExalready invested in 5G.
(10:03):
So therefore every single step
will have to be well planned, right?
With a KPI in mind,
and the maturity of the certain use cases
to get into production, right?
All those in mind, right?
So we see three major areas
that telco is looking at, right?
One across, the board wesee a lot of the discussion
(10:24):
and showcasing, right?
Around the inserting AI intothe network layer, right?
And we're talking aboutuse cases like vRAN, right?
With AI coming in, right?
To help things like powermanagements, wind farming,
antenna selections, channelestimation, and so on.
There are tons of other, sayopportunities could look at,
(10:44):
but it is about making vRAN, TCO,
look better, right?
Comparing with traditional RAN, right?
And Intel itself.
We do take this opportunity
to introduce the vRANtoolkits, AI toolkits
that we've been working onfor really a while, right?
It's a great timing
that we release it, announce it, right?
(11:05):
It is again, all about helping partners
who already have the strong
Intel install base withIntel vRAN platform,
and helping partners to unlockthe AI capability, right?
Within the same platforms
that they're already using, right?
Again, it's a journey, right?
So adopting AI, it will bejourney, don't rush it, right?
Look at the KPI and adoptbased on the maturity.
(11:28):
So we are doing that,right? That's one, right?
Inserting the AI into the network layer.
And then we see the secondthing is GenAI, right?
Because a ChatGPT
and so on, GenAI become a big topic.
But for player thatworking on AI for long,
AI is not all about GenAI, right?
GenAI is one form, right?
Yes.
(11:50):
It's very much needed technology, right?
It could do goodness.
But GenAI,
it's not the only part about AI, right?
GenAI will bring benefitfor different parts
of the telco network,
and if there's a set of KPI defined,
the implementation could bedone in more cost effective way
by enabling the GenAI capabilityat the right location,
(12:13):
and with more sustainable way, right?
Because it will requiretheir power consumption
as well, right?
So we have a lot of conversationwith the customer around
how are you going toactivate GenAI, right?
Is it all aboutconsolidating, concentrating
the centralized computing for GenAI?
Or taking advantage of what have learned
(12:35):
through the OpenAI right now, right?
And able to select theright language models,
and fit that into thelocation to do the job
that require for what you need, right?
Rather than get into abig centralized AI, right?
And get to know what toget out of it, right?
It going to cost investment, right?
So GenAI, we have a lotof discussion, right?
(12:55):
How to get there, don't rush, right?
How to get there, wewe're here to help you
to unlock the GenAI by phase, right?
And then third piece of itis something not too new,
but get blend intocross domain discussion,
which is this telco edge use case
that talk about API and so on early on.
Right?
As the deployment of the 5G
will need each use caseto come along, right?
(13:18):
We see telco is embracing themself
as a channel and as a platform, right?
Telco as a platform todeliver the services, right?
To the vertical customer,enterprise customer,
and all form of serviceswill require AI capability
as well, right?
And again, AI capabilitywill involve things like
computer vision, right?
(13:39):
We're talking about a lot of cameras,
installation out there,
and all the video feed coming back, right?
It will require form ofcomputer vision, right?
To do video analytics and so on.
And telco's they're data network pipe.
In fact is video is one ofthe biggest traffic, right?
Occupying the pipe, right?
So telco have the rightinfrastructure to go
(13:59):
and not only helping the deployment,
but able to look at way to monetize it,
through the data analytic and so on.
And then plus GenAI, right?
All in all become a more complete,
edge solution that require it, right?
So yeah, all those arethree big areas, right?
AI, inserting the networks,introducing GenAI, right?
(14:23):
Within the telco differentlocation, new use cases, right?
With different form of AI,computer visions, right?
machine learning, data analytics.
- Yeah. One thing thatI love that you said
was AI is a journey and not to rush
and that this is, you know,
still an early adoptionfor the telco space.
I feel like we've beentalking about AI so much
and the benefits it can bring
in all of these different areas,
but it's still early on in some instances.
(14:46):
And not to rush that application of it,
to be really strategic abouthow we want involve it.
Ian, last time we spoke,we were talking about
how AI is coming to the network space,
maybe bringing someself-healing capabilities
to the networks.
And you had some predictions there.
You mentioned in thebeginning that AI was actually
one of the big themesyou were seeing, too.
So since you were at the event,
curious from a research perspective
(15:08):
and from CCS Insight,
what themes and trends did you see you?
Do you want to touch onanything that Wei mentioned,
or add anything to that?
- So yeah, I mean I think Open Gateway
was clearly one of the massiveinitiatives of the show,
as Wei mentioned.
I mean that particularlydriven by the operator side.
I think there was vendor support, too,
but really the operatorswere really the main drivers
of that side of things.
(15:30):
AI was everywhere at the show.
What struck me about many of the AI demos
and stands was thatnot everything was new.
Like, a lot of thestuff I'd seen last year
when there were demos on the stand,
but AI wasn't such a big thing.
They didn't have massive AI labels on it.
So for example, I saw a demo
(15:51):
of RAN optimizationorchestrating cells together
to reduce energy uses in the RAN,
but still maintaining a goodenough level of performance.
And that demo I saw last year.
This year I think itwas actually a launch,
and it had AI plasteredall over it in big letters,
but it was there last year, too.
(16:11):
So one of the things about AI is
although it's really high profile
at the show this year,
it's built on a kind of along runway of foundations.
This hasn't happened overnight,
it's just that this year
because of what's happened with ChatGPT,
and Anthropic, and Cohere, and Gemini
and all the rest of it,
it's a lot more high profile than it was
a year ago or two years ago.
(16:31):
There was also AI in differentparts of the network.
We toured the RAN optimization piece.
You know, you talk with the BSS/OSS people
and there are people there using AI tools
for revenue optimization,
and maximizing revenue generation.
There's stuff happeningin the operations domain.
There's stuff on the security domain.
One of the things that wasnew this year was GenAI
as Wei mentioned.
(16:51):
And what is generative AI?
Well, descriptive APIcategorizing information
like categorizing photoshas been around for years.
Generative AI doing thingslike large language models,
creating photos, creating videos,
creating fluid textinteractive interfaces,
that is a much newer trend.
But where I saw theGenAI models being used
(17:14):
was often to democratize knowledge.
So it wasn't doing ChatGPT
and training on the whole of the internet.
It was vendors taking GenAI models,
training them on verydefined data sets about say,
vendor tools or regulatoryrequirements, or whatever.
And basically democratizingthe information
and making it something more accessible
(17:35):
to more people than an organization.
So that particularly,
that was happening in the security space,
but not just that.
It was also happening inthe operations domain.
It was happening in a wholeload of different areas.
And I think that was one ofthe really interesting things
was seeing that use of GenAI tools
to democratize information.
I chaired a panel at theSecCon event at MWC this year.
So SecCon is a securityevent filled with CISOs.
(17:56):
And AI was the key theme
of that event within an event.
So it's an event within MWC.
And all the sessions were AI focused,
and what was becoming very apparent
was from a security point of view,
GenAI increases thevelocity, the sophistication,
and the quality of those security threats.
(18:18):
Why does that matter on what we're seeing
on private mobile networks and IoT?
Well, if you think about
what are the main benefits
of private mobile networks,
it is that security element around it.
That if you have a dedicated network,
you have total controlover how that behaves.
If you go to a hybrid model
where you're using themacro network as well,
and you are tying that backinto the enterprise security,
(18:39):
again, a lot of that advantages.
It's not just about the performance
and the reliabilityand the predictability.
It's about a security element, too.
And you can see withthose AI based threats,
security's becoming higherprofile in the market.
It's also one of theother things we're seeing
in the private mobiles network space.
It isn't just the growthof the hybrid model.
It's also the increasing use of 5G
(19:00):
over older technologies forprivate mobile networks.
And that's important because 5G
is a more modern standard
and it has more robust security
than legacy mobile technology.
So there's a benefit there, too.
I think.
The other benefit of 5G
is you can tap into things like REDCap.
So reduce capacity, lower cost 5G devices.
(19:21):
They're still able totap into the benefits
of that 5G core network,
and are still able touse 5G specific spectrum
that isn't available for 4G or 3G,
but they're much cheaper devices.
And that's something we cansee coming down the pipe
based on those 5G standalone roll outs,
which again, was one ofthe other things we saw
momentum around at MWC this year,
(19:41):
was this shift to a second wave of 5G.
5G advanced, which requiresa standalone network,
not a non-standalone network.
So it's purely 5G.
It's not using the old 4G core network,
what you have in a non-standalone world.
You're moving onto real 5G, complete 5G.
And I think that was one ofthe other trends we're seeing.
(20:02):
And that enables things like REDCap.
And that will give us a greater momentum
in having 5G IoT devices.
5G devices suitablefor private 5G networks
in all kinds of areas.
You know, different formfactors, different cost elements,
different performance profiles.
And that will cause anacceleration I think
in the private 5G space.
- Great.
(20:22):
You know, I'm not surprised
that you mentioned at the event, you know,
AI was obviously very prominentall over the show floor,
but a lot of things thatyou were seeing were demos
that you saw last year,
or weren't necessarily new things.
I think this industry, youguys probably both have
experienced it throughoutyour years in technology.
We love our buzzwords,
and AI is one of thebiggest buzzwords right now.
(20:44):
But I think what makes it different
from all the otherbuzzwords we may have seen
is just all the benefitsyou were just mentioning.
It's real, it's not going anywhere.
It's more than just a buzzword.
So excited to see how itcontinues to progress.
Like you said, it's nothappening overnight.
So we're going to continue to see more
of these advancements and changes.
But talking out a littlebit outside of AI,
(21:06):
you mentioned second waveof 5G and other things.
I'm curious because I know at the event,
CCS Insight was also talking about
the private mobile networks report
that you guys recently put out,
which is available on insight.tech.
I'll make sure to provide alink for any of our listeners
who want to dig deeper into that.
But what were some of
the findings that came out of that report,
(21:26):
and were you seeing any of those
on the show floor actually, you know,
in real life, in real time?
- Yeah, sure.
So we were seeing that momentum
around the hybrid model.
That was very, very noticeable,I think, at the show.
I think one of the other things
that was striking at the show
in the private mobile network space
was we've still got a very large number
of vendors in the privatemobile network space.
(21:47):
But there's still consolidation happening,
there's pressures happening
and I think there's a kind of momentum
around bigger players in the space.
I think that's one of theother dynamics we're seeing.
I don't think it'snecessarily flowing through
yet into the numbers behind the report,
but I think it's something
that was very apparent at the show,
and what's happened just after the show
is this shift of consolidation.
This shift to greater scale
(22:10):
in some of the vendors coming through.
This hybrid model is very important, too,
because historically, privatenetworks were just dedicated.
You put in your core,
you'd put in your equipment.
You'd have some spectrum.
You'd have your devices connecting to it,
and that's what it would be.
And it would be in a factory on a port,
on a logistics facility.
The hybrid model, what that does is
(22:30):
potentially extend
a lot of the benefits to private network
onto a macro network.
Now that could be dedicated spectrum,
say 450 megahertz or something.
Or it could be a networkslice on the macro 5G network.
Now what a network slice is,
is a way for an existing mobile operator
or mobile carrier to havean end-to-end quality
(22:51):
of service managed experience
that's segregated from othertraffic on the network.
So it has a security segregation as well,
as different quality performance metrics.
That's a characteristicthat's possible with 5G.
Once you have this 5G standalone network.
And as we're seeing operators finally
deploying standalone networks,
(23:12):
finally having 5G calls,
we see increasing opportunityfor this hybrid model.
Now where that's useful is, say,
take that logisticssituation for a second.
You have your logistic hubs,you have maybe lorry drivers,
or couriers or somethinggoing outside of that.
Maybe you want them to stayconnected to your network
with many of the securitybenefits of that.
(23:35):
But you can't have yourprivate dedicated network
everywhere around the country.
So what you can do is haveyour dedicated network
in the logistics hub in that facility,
but when those transportationworkers leave that,
they could be on a networkslice on the macro network.
On the main mobile operatorsnetwork infrastructure.
And that's something that,
(23:55):
we're seeing that momentumaround standalone.
We're seeing that momentumin our data already
around the hybrid modelalongside the dedicated model.
It's one of the big growthareas at the moment.
And we can see these 5G technologies
enabling that opportunity.
So that will open upsome different dynamics
in the private mobile network space.
- So still no 6G yet out there.
(24:16):
- Plenty of things happening
on 6G at the moment.
It's just, you know, thesethings all happen in parallel.
The 6G work is allhappening behind the scenes.
We had the WRC last autumn talking about
spectrum usage of 6G.
The R & D guys are all working on it.
I think one of the thingsthat's interesting about
the 6G discussion,
which is relevant back to this,
is a lot of the effortsare to have a 6G standard
(24:38):
that is simpler than 5G.
Because one of the things thatI think everyone's noticed
on the vendor community around 5G is that
there has been this non-standaloneaccess rollout of 5G,
which is sort of,
it's kind of hybrid 5G and 4G.
But it's being called5G by all the operators.
And a lot of complexity around that.
(24:58):
And it's slowed down theavailability of real 5G features
where you need that standalone experience.
So one of the things thatthat's hitting around
when you talk to people about 6G is
a general consensus to keep 6G simple.
And to only have astandalone version of 6G.
Because I think everyone in the industry
in the technology spacehas been frustrated by
(25:20):
how long non-standaloneaccess hung around on 5G.
And probably the damage it's done
to people's perceptions ofwhat 5G technology can do.
So the focus on 6G is we'rejust going to do standalone.
- Great, yeah, I agree.
I think with all these technologies
and advancements coming out,
everybody sees how it can make
their lives a little bit more simple.
So that is going to beinteresting how it goes,
(25:41):
and impact some of the technologies
and standards that are going to come out
to make it more simple,
to make it easier for peopleto adopt or to access.
I want to change theconversation a little bit.
We've been talking about all the benefits
that we can get fromthese core technologies,
and from the network going forward,
but I think it's interesting to talk about
(26:01):
how we actually get to those benefits.
We talked about the collaboration aspects,
we've alluded a little bitto the Intel ecosystem.
So Wei, I am curious, you know,
how can companies partner together
and partner with Intel to take advantage
of some of these latest innovations,
and to really be able to get
(26:22):
to network modernization,edge monetization,
and these AI advancementswe keep talking about?
- We believe it's betterto gather in the journey
of creating journey the connected world
that almost,
we need the different player, right,
across industry to come together.
And this been at the heartof our ecosystem program.
Like, the network builders program,
(26:43):
that'll be running for close to decade,
as well as the newly introducedIntel solution builder
just this week in software,
doing embedded work, right?
And the idea is really tobring the cross domain,
ecosystem partner to come together, right?
So I think couple examples, right?
For a network space, right?
(27:04):
It's a perfect opportunityfor the cross industry
to look at a way toupscale themselves, right?
By working with their partners,
and at the same timethrough the collaboration
help to upscale their workforce, right?
To understand the crossdomain knowledge, right?
Bring the technology in, right?
(27:25):
Adopt the technology.
And are able to hire andretrain the workforce, right?
So that it will blendin the technology into
the respective domain.
And it will look and feel
and emit the right KPI as well, right?
Within their own domain, right?
You cannot just look at thesolutions, the cross domain,
try to take it and, and stab it into it,
(27:46):
and make sure that it works, right?
It might be the beginning,
but across different phases,
where you have to blendinto your own needs, right?
So we see a couplethings happening, right?
And Intel's been cultivating, right?
Pushing this forward,supporting the ecosystem,
making sure that happen, right?
I point back to Ian said.
(28:07):
Earlier example, right?
For private 5G, right?
This is how we see
a pretty strong maturity, right,
of private 5G software.
Our partners from US,
from Europe, from India,from AsiaPac, right?
They're different pocketsof partners, right?
They come with a prettywide selection, right?
So this no longer be just abig equipment vendors like
(28:29):
Classic Ericsson, Nokia,Juniper, and so on.
A play field, right?
It is a market that
because of the technologiesof the barrier entry lower,
we see a lot of the innovator coming in,
and over past few years, right?
We see this solution gettinginto a form of maturity, right?
So I'm amazed when I stopped by
(28:50):
and my partner both look at
the out of the box experience, right?
The different capacity of the private 5G.
It's just getting betterand better right now, right?
You have this radio distributed 5G call,
network blending right?
And of course,
they will plus AI as theIan mentioned, right?
It looks the same last year, now plus AI.
But I was amazed by the maturity
of a different set of solution
(29:11):
that will help therespective vertical market
player to lower down, right?
Their barriers to entry becauseit speak the same language.
Some of the player,
they more tuned towards onevertical than the other, right?
And it's really to help tounlock the adoption rate
of private mobility asa form of connectivity,
just like Wi-Fi over the password
(29:31):
into the system itself.
So we see that happen, right?
It's coming together, right?
This year is way more mature than last,
and every year we just gettingbetter and better, right?
So we see that happen, right?
And we need this side of the ecosystem
to continue to come up with a solution
to help the industry move forward, right?
One example, right?
We see ecosystem partnersstepping in as well.
(29:51):
Stepping up and steppingin as well to offer
like telco API gateway, right?
So we have couple partnerscoming up from Europe,
US and India, right?
Particularly three pocketsof the country, right?
They're offeringinteresting solution, right?
It's a form of API gateway.
And from edge perspective,
we see interestingthings happening as well.
We see some of the edgeverticals, their ecosystem,
(30:13):
they participate at MWC, right?
They're not classic telco, right?
But they come herebecause we see the trend
of the edge or IoT verticals.
They are enterprise verticals, right?
They are at the middle ofdigitizing their solution, right?
Software defined.
And by de-coupling thedifferent layer of the solution.
(30:33):
It is the same journeythat we we going through
with telco as well.
How to put it back together, right?
And by putting that together,
when you take it out andput it back together,
there's opportunity to insert
the right solution they want right
into the software defined, right?
So we're talking aboutagain, connectivity, right?
Private 5G now have a opportunity
to insert into the softwaredefined environment.
(30:55):
We see security, right?
Cross domain collaboration,they're reaching out to Intel,
asking about the softwaredefined security solution
that can insert into the stack, right?
And then the player figureout how to integrate
that all together andit's a better solution.
It's an evolved solutionfrom the previous one, right?
And we see those trendshappening in retail,
manufacturing, healthcare,
media, entertainment, and so on, right?
(31:15):
It's exciting, right?
So working with the right leader
in the industry is important
because the leader will bring you
the rest of the ecosystem, right?
And Intel is one the leader here, right?
Yeah, we're proud about it, right?
And I would love to share more, right?
When partners say gettinginto these journeys, right?
And we always welcome more partners.
(31:35):
Come and knock on the door,hey, we need help, so yeah.
- Yeah, it's always so powerful
to see that ecosystem
and see how partners can work together
and can work with Intel.
We've been talking about alot of different advancements
and solutions going on in this space.
And I think it's clear
that no one partnerorganization can be the expert
in all of these different in innovations.
(31:56):
So it's great to seethem leverage on Intel,
and leverage other partners
to really connect the dots
and to bring a bigger solution together,
and to market.
And to, you know,
help with some of these advancements
that we see going.
I know we are running outof time, but before we go,
I just want to hear from each of you again
if there's any final thoughts
or key takeaways you wantto leave our attendees with,
(32:17):
or you know, where you guys anticipate
the next significantfocus of the network space
or the next challenge to beover the next couple of years?
So Ian, I'll start with you.
- Sure, so I think
there's a whole lot of things here.
I think, you know, many of these buzzwords
that we hear, all these technologies,
we're still really at the start.
So Open RAN, virtualization RAN,
is still really quite early.
(32:37):
ATT made that massiveannouncement in December.
Vodafone in Europe'sgot some Open RAN stuff.
In Japan, it's called Open RAN.
But really, it's really rightat the early stages of that.
There's a lot of runway ahead of us.
A lot of opportunity for growth in that.
As you virtualize the RAN,
you alter the hardware infrastructure,
you order the software play.
The vendors can change.
(32:58):
Lots of things happening there.
AI is still very early in the RAN,
and in the core, andeverywhere else as well.
I think the takeawayI'd have on AI is that
AI has fundamental benefits,
which is why it's beenworked on for so long
before this hype kind of rose.
And I think the key thingI'd say there is that
if and when, probably more like when,
(33:20):
there is this collapsein perception of AI,
don't stop working on AI.
It is something that'sgoing to be important.
It's going to stay important,it's going to be fundamental
to many different areas for the future.
And I think that's
one of the big takeaways from this.
And then how do you choose
to use AI in your networks
or in your solutions is also important.
(33:42):
It's not always clear where the best way
and how to best to apply it is.
So it's going to be around long term,
even if sentiment movesagainst it, you know,
the bubble collapses.
- I'm excited to see that evolution,
and how we'll get there.
And then what will be the next big thing
we'll be talking about,
or how AI will sort ofgo behind the scenes.
(34:05):
Wei, is there anything elsethat you wanted to add,
or any final thoughts or keytakeaways you have for us?
- I'll probably just hitthree tricky point, right?
I say a lot just now, right?
And to Ian's point, right,
vRAN is making progress, right?
Continue to, it will continueto make progress, right?
And it's a part of thenetwork modernization
that will happen, right?
(34:26):
But then do execute
in a more sustainable way as well, right?
Because power consumptions, yeah.
The carbon footprints willbe still top in mind, right?
In everyone's head, right?
That we have to collectivelymake it happen, right?
So vRAN continue to make progress, right?
But as execute the network modernization
in more sustainable way, right?
(34:47):
And therefore, whenever every step,
plan it ahead, right?
In terms of adoption rate.
Second, right?
Starting to unlock the5G business value, right?
I have couple conversationswith the telcos
that some of telcos,
they been telling me that, hey,
if we can't unlock the 5G,
there will not be 6G, right?
It's going to run out the cash, right?
(35:09):
So it is in all best interests, right,
among the telco community tounlock the business values
for 5G faster.
And telco API, right?
It represent the opportunity, right?
To speed it up, right?
In terms of the pathto monetization, right?
So start with that, right?
And then the third things is
(35:29):
the telco AI adoption journey, right?
The reason I use the wordtelco AI adoption journey,
because it is a journey, right?
And it is a journey that helping telco,
becoming a techco right?
Telco been talkingabout for quite a while,
becoming a techco by combining
the network modernization, right?
Monetization and AI,
it will help the telcosthat are transforming
become a techco and goingto be an adoption journey.
(35:52):
- Great. Well, I wantto thank you both again
for joining the conversation.
I urge our listeners toget in contact with Intel.
See how you can partner together.
And also take a lookat some of the reports
out of CCS Insight, like I mentioned.
The recent private mobile networks report
that just came out.
Because we've talked alot in this conversation,
but I feel like we'vebarely scratched the surface
(36:13):
of what's going on andwhat's still to come.
So dive deeper into some of those reports
to see what other innovationsand trends are happening.
And you know, again, thankyou both for joining us.
So until next time, thishas been the IoT Chat.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
- Hello, and welcome to the IoT Chat
where we explore thelatest technology trends
and innovations.
I'm your host, Christina Cardoza,
Editorial Director of insight.tech.
(00:21):
And today we're going to belooking at the network landscape
with Ian Fogg from CCS Insightand Wei Yeang Toh from Intel.
But as always, before we get started,
let's get to know our guests a bit more.
Wei, I'll start with you.
What can you tell us aboutwhat you do at Intel?
- Hey, glad to be here, so yeah,
thanks for all the intros.
Hey, my name is Wei Yeang.
(00:42):
I run the ecosystem developments
for 5G and edge computing for Intel.
Right, so this functionreside within the network
and edge solution groups.
The challenge is reallyworking with the ecosystem,
develop the market, makesure that the long tiers
of the value chain will cometogether, working together,
(01:04):
say, to accomplish a commongoal to address the challenges
that the end user is looking for.
And this cut across apretty broad market, right?
So we do need a broad setof ecosystem partnership
to cultivate these solutions
driving towards a form of maturity,
and at the end of the day, tosolve our customer problem.
(01:24):
- Awesome, looking forward to getting
into that a little bit.
At insight.tech,
the articles that we're writing,
there's been this ongoing theme
we're seeing better together.
So excited to get into thatecosystem a little bit more.
But before we get there, Ian,welcome back to the podcast.
For anybody who hasn'tseen the recent episode
that Ian did on predictionsfor the next year and beyond
(01:44):
for the network landscape,
which is, some of them,
we'll get into probably today.
But Ian, what can youtell us about yourself?
- So I'm a research director
at a company called CCS Insights.
We are a advisory and research company.
We track global trends in networks,
and a whole lot of other areas,
included the circular economy on handsets,
(02:05):
in terms of media, in termsof enterprise research.
My coverage area's around whatwe call network innovation.
That's what the practice is that I lead.
So a lot of focus the moment
around things like virtualization,
the Open RAN developments,
private mobile networks.
There's obviously still interest in things
like non-terrestrial networks.
And one of the big trends at the moment is
(02:25):
around how AI is transforming
different parts of the network
and driving greater needsto use cloud services
within the telecom operator.
- Yeah, AI everywhere seemsto be the big theme of 2024,
especially in the network space.
And since we're talkingabout the network landscape
and the different trends andpredictions that we have,
(02:46):
the Mobile World Congressevent recently just ended,
and there was a lot of themesgoing around private 5G,
A lot of network thingshappening in that space.
So Wei, I want to startthe conversation there,
since both you and Ian were at the event.
What were you hearing on the show floor?
You know, what were thetrends and the themes
that you've observed?
And how do you think thoseare going to push the industry
(03:07):
or this space forward overthe next couple of years?
- Yeah, certainly.
I'm pleased to see
how things evolve, in fact,
right, every year.
So yeah, having attendedMobile World Congress
for close to about a decade by now,
things been progressing, right?
And there are few prettyclear noticeable key themes
(03:29):
from this year, right?
That we have to discuss.
Number one, of course, right?
AI is everywhere, right?
Not only during the show floor,
but as well as in any of thecustomer meetings, right?
Towards the end, there's always a question
from the customer,
tell me more about your AI strategy.
It's kind of funny, gettingready for that question.
Oh, you're not going to ask for AI, right?
(03:51):
So yeah, AI is everywhere
and we see this is the beginning, right?
Ecosystem is exploring how to leverage AI
for different type of theusage in the telco domain,
because we're talkingabout Mobile World Congress
over here, right?
So we're talking aboutthings like leveraging AI
in the area, like thenetwork optimization,
(04:11):
predictive maintenance,customer service, right?
And many more others,
the possible use cases.
And again, it is at the beginning
of looking at the formof AI adoption journey
for the telco community, right?
But then there are few more topics
that both dimensions, right,
(04:32):
that surface up during these shows, right?
And again, it's a progressive update,
and telco API is another key topic
that surface up quite,
quite big highlights
during the show as well, right?
And this is all about,
hey, we all, as telco communities here
managed to accomplish quitea lot in 5G deployment,
(04:54):
and then what next, right?
And it's really about, hey,CapEx already invested in,
how do we speed upauthority and monetization,
through edge application,
and therefore telco API
brings a set of the standardization,
if you will, right?
And helping the communityto look at how to capitalize
(05:14):
any form of the emerging opportunity
across multiple industry.
We really talk about crossvertical industry over here,
and telco API will opening upa new era of how connectivity,
how edge computing come together
and able to create a formof revenue generation
not only for telco, but at the same time
for the edge and verticalsecosystem partner
(05:37):
come together to utilize
the API for a betterservices creation, right?
Better customer experience, so on.
And then the third thing
I want to mention real quick is
the entire softwaredefined network transition
is carry on, right?
And we see vRAN as virtualRAN, vRAN, Open RAN
as a continuously asthe next major milestone
(06:00):
to go and accomplish, right?
We have done networkfunction virtualization
for call networks, for OSS/BSS,
and so on, journey continue.
And vRAN continue to make progress.
And we see how much that we manage
to accomplish it together,
stay up to date right now
with our partners and telco operators,
and the commitments remain there, right?
To modernize the infrastructure, right,
(06:23):
to software define the network infra.
And through that, we're able to unlock
the infrastructure constraint,
and get into a truly cloudnative in the future.
And AI will be there meetingat the junction, right?
To unlock the futures capability.
And then lastly is
I'm excited about howthe partners talking more
(06:49):
about collaboration, right?
It's all about synergizing the ecosystem
as a catalyst, right?
To drive innovation and grow, right?
And this is a very clear path
always to accomplish success
because in this world right now,
when we bring 5G edge computing AI.
It is like cross three domain, right?
(07:09):
And we live through the first,
I shouldn't say first,
we live through the pastAI transformation for NFV,
and that involved cloudlayer, IT layer, and so on.
And now we're gettinginto more complex, right?
IT, CT, OT, AI, right?
All the cross domain.
And this will require
very strong ecosystemcollaboration to get that.
(07:30):
So we are excited.
We see company reaching out, right?
They would like to formulatea strategy collaboration
towards a common goal, right?
And it's very healthy sign,
showing that the ecosystem partnership,
how it should look like,
towards a very clear, common goal.
- All exciting stuff.
One thing that I lovethat you mentioned is
this isn't only happeningin the telco space.
(07:52):
This is impacting acrossthe main, across vertical,
across industry, and alsobringing improvements
to edge computing.
I think that's really important
that a lot of these advancements,
they're not happening in silos.
It's really having ahuge impact in all areas.
I want to go back to whatyou were talking about
in the beginning ofyour response about AI.
(08:12):
We opened up that AI is atheme going on everywhere.
So I'm curious, how is AIcoming to the networking space?
We've written about oninsight.tech using AI
in manufacturing forpredictive maintenance,
like you mentioned.
But what are the advances thatAI can bring to networking?
And what did you see at theshow within the Intel ecosystem?
(08:33):
How were they showcasing someof their AI advancements?
- Yeah, yeah.
The whole show is a big highlight again,
for sure is about AI, right?
And telco is at the different stage
of the AI adoption journey, right?
And what I meant is
depending at which stage ofthis network modernization
(08:59):
and monetization as well, right?
The different telcos,
they're really atdifferent stage right now.
But regardless what we are going to see
across various of theobjective and intention, right?
It is still within the same objective
of how do we harvest the bestoutcome of the AI, right?
(09:20):
And we are talking about
whether it's to orchestratethe intelligent network,
or do we looking at gainingmore insight about the network?
Or creating a new business opportunity?
Right?
So most of the conversation
that we run into, right?
I could structure it down to probably
like threefold, right?
(09:40):
To make it slightlysimple to follow, right?
Telco, they're planning theAI adoption journey, right?
And again, based onmaturity, based on the KPI,
they intend to accomplish,
because any form of investment,
it costs CapEx, it costs a OpEx.
And there isn't a lot of extra,
excess CapEx to spend, right?
With a lot of CapExalready invested in 5G.
(10:03):
So therefore every single step
will have to be well planned, right?
With a KPI in mind,
and the maturity of the certain use cases
to get into production, right?
All those in mind, right?
So we see three major areas
that telco is looking at, right?
One across, the board wesee a lot of the discussion
(10:24):
and showcasing, right?
Around the inserting AI intothe network layer, right?
And we're talking aboutuse cases like vRAN, right?
With AI coming in, right?
To help things like powermanagements, wind farming,
antenna selections, channelestimation, and so on.
There are tons of other, sayopportunities could look at,
(10:44):
but it is about making vRAN, TCO,
look better, right?
Comparing with traditional RAN, right?
And Intel itself.
We do take this opportunity
to introduce the vRANtoolkits, AI toolkits
that we've been working onfor really a while, right?
It's a great timing
that we release it, announce it, right?
(11:05):
It is again, all about helping partners
who already have the strong
Intel install base withIntel vRAN platform,
and helping partners to unlockthe AI capability, right?
Within the same platforms
that they're already using, right?
Again, it's a journey, right?
So adopting AI, it will bejourney, don't rush it, right?
Look at the KPI and adoptbased on the maturity.
(11:28):
So we are doing that,right? That's one, right?
Inserting the AI into the network layer.
And then we see the secondthing is GenAI, right?
Because a ChatGPT
and so on, GenAI become a big topic.
But for player thatworking on AI for long,
AI is not all about GenAI, right?
GenAI is one form, right?
Yes.
(11:50):
It's very much needed technology, right?
It could do goodness.
But GenAI,
it's not the only part about AI, right?
GenAI will bring benefitfor different parts
of the telco network,
and if there's a set of KPI defined,
the implementation could bedone in more cost effective way
by enabling the GenAI capabilityat the right location,
(12:13):
and with more sustainable way, right?
Because it will requiretheir power consumption
as well, right?
So we have a lot of conversationwith the customer around
how are you going toactivate GenAI, right?
Is it all aboutconsolidating, concentrating
the centralized computing for GenAI?
Or taking advantage of what have learned
(12:35):
through the OpenAI right now, right?
And able to select theright language models,
and fit that into thelocation to do the job
that require for what you need, right?
Rather than get into abig centralized AI, right?
And get to know what toget out of it, right?
It going to cost investment, right?
So GenAI, we have a lotof discussion, right?
(12:55):
How to get there, don't rush, right?
How to get there, wewe're here to help you
to unlock the GenAI by phase, right?
And then third piece of itis something not too new,
but get blend intocross domain discussion,
which is this telco edge use case
that talk about API and so on early on.
Right?
As the deployment of the 5G
will need each use caseto come along, right?
(13:18):
We see telco is embracing themself
as a channel and as a platform, right?
Telco as a platform todeliver the services, right?
To the vertical customer,enterprise customer,
and all form of serviceswill require AI capability
as well, right?
And again, AI capabilitywill involve things like
computer vision, right?
(13:39):
We're talking about a lot of cameras,
installation out there,
and all the video feed coming back, right?
It will require form ofcomputer vision, right?
To do video analytics and so on.
And telco's they're data network pipe.
In fact is video is one ofthe biggest traffic, right?
Occupying the pipe, right?
So telco have the rightinfrastructure to go
(13:59):
and not only helping the deployment,
but able to look at way to monetize it,
through the data analytic and so on.
And then plus GenAI, right?
All in all become a more complete,
edge solution that require it, right?
So yeah, all those arethree big areas, right?
AI, inserting the networks,introducing GenAI, right?
(14:23):
Within the telco differentlocation, new use cases, right?
With different form of AI,computer visions, right?
machine learning, data analytics.
- Yeah. One thing thatI love that you said
was AI is a journey and not to rush
and that this is, you know,
still an early adoptionfor the telco space.
I feel like we've beentalking about AI so much
and the benefits it can bring
in all of these different areas,
but it's still early on in some instances.
(14:46):
And not to rush that application of it,
to be really strategic abouthow we want involve it.
Ian, last time we spoke,we were talking about
how AI is coming to the network space,
maybe bringing someself-healing capabilities
to the networks.
And you had some predictions there.
You mentioned in thebeginning that AI was actually
one of the big themesyou were seeing, too.
So since you were at the event,
curious from a research perspective
(15:08):
and from CCS Insight,
what themes and trends did you see you?
Do you want to touch onanything that Wei mentioned,
or add anything to that?
- So yeah, I mean I think Open Gateway
was clearly one of the massiveinitiatives of the show,
as Wei mentioned.
I mean that particularlydriven by the operator side.
I think there was vendor support, too,
but really the operatorswere really the main drivers
of that side of things.
(15:30):
AI was everywhere at the show.
What struck me about many of the AI demos
and stands was thatnot everything was new.
Like, a lot of thestuff I'd seen last year
when there were demos on the stand,
but AI wasn't such a big thing.
They didn't have massive AI labels on it.
So for example, I saw a demo
(15:51):
of RAN optimizationorchestrating cells together
to reduce energy uses in the RAN,
but still maintaining a goodenough level of performance.
And that demo I saw last year.
This year I think itwas actually a launch,
and it had AI plasteredall over it in big letters,
but it was there last year, too.
(16:11):
So one of the things about AI is
although it's really high profile
at the show this year,
it's built on a kind of along runway of foundations.
This hasn't happened overnight,
it's just that this year
because of what's happened with ChatGPT,
and Anthropic, and Cohere, and Gemini
and all the rest of it,
it's a lot more high profile than it was
a year ago or two years ago.
(16:31):
There was also AI in differentparts of the network.
We toured the RAN optimization piece.
You know, you talk with the BSS/OSS people
and there are people there using AI tools
for revenue optimization,
and maximizing revenue generation.
There's stuff happeningin the operations domain.
There's stuff on the security domain.
One of the things that wasnew this year was GenAI
as Wei mentioned.
(16:51):
And what is generative AI?
Well, descriptive APIcategorizing information
like categorizing photoshas been around for years.
Generative AI doing thingslike large language models,
creating photos, creating videos,
creating fluid textinteractive interfaces,
that is a much newer trend.
But where I saw theGenAI models being used
(17:14):
was often to democratize knowledge.
So it wasn't doing ChatGPT
and training on the whole of the internet.
It was vendors taking GenAI models,
training them on verydefined data sets about say,
vendor tools or regulatoryrequirements, or whatever.
And basically democratizingthe information
and making it something more accessible
(17:35):
to more people than an organization.
So that particularly,
that was happening in the security space,
but not just that.
It was also happening inthe operations domain.
It was happening in a wholeload of different areas.
And I think that was one ofthe really interesting things
was seeing that use of GenAI tools
to democratize information.
I chaired a panel at theSecCon event at MWC this year.
So SecCon is a securityevent filled with CISOs.
(17:56):
And AI was the key theme
of that event within an event.
So it's an event within MWC.
And all the sessions were AI focused,
and what was becoming very apparent
was from a security point of view,
GenAI increases thevelocity, the sophistication,
and the quality of those security threats.
(18:18):
Why does that matter on what we're seeing
on private mobile networks and IoT?
Well, if you think about
what are the main benefits
of private mobile networks,
it is that security element around it.
That if you have a dedicated network,
you have total controlover how that behaves.
If you go to a hybrid model
where you're using themacro network as well,
and you are tying that backinto the enterprise security,
(18:39):
again, a lot of that advantages.
It's not just about the performance
and the reliabilityand the predictability.
It's about a security element, too.
And you can see withthose AI based threats,
security's becoming higherprofile in the market.
It's also one of theother things we're seeing
in the private mobiles network space.
It isn't just the growthof the hybrid model.
It's also the increasing use of 5G
(19:00):
over older technologies forprivate mobile networks.
And that's important because 5G
is a more modern standard
and it has more robust security
than legacy mobile technology.
So there's a benefit there, too.
I think.
The other benefit of 5G
is you can tap into things like REDCap.
So reduce capacity, lower cost 5G devices.
(19:21):
They're still able totap into the benefits
of that 5G core network,
and are still able touse 5G specific spectrum
that isn't available for 4G or 3G,
but they're much cheaper devices.
And that's something we cansee coming down the pipe
based on those 5G standalone roll outs,
which again, was one ofthe other things we saw
momentum around at MWC this year,
(19:41):
was this shift to a second wave of 5G.
5G advanced, which requiresa standalone network,
not a non-standalone network.
So it's purely 5G.
It's not using the old 4G core network,
what you have in a non-standalone world.
You're moving onto real 5G, complete 5G.
And I think that was one ofthe other trends we're seeing.
(20:02):
And that enables things like REDCap.
And that will give us a greater momentum
in having 5G IoT devices.
5G devices suitablefor private 5G networks
in all kinds of areas.
You know, different formfactors, different cost elements,
different performance profiles.
And that will cause anacceleration I think
in the private 5G space.
- Great.
(20:22):
You know, I'm not surprised
that you mentioned at the event, you know,
AI was obviously very prominentall over the show floor,
but a lot of things thatyou were seeing were demos
that you saw last year,
or weren't necessarily new things.
I think this industry, youguys probably both have
experienced it throughoutyour years in technology.
We love our buzzwords,
and AI is one of thebiggest buzzwords right now.
(20:44):
But I think what makes it different
from all the otherbuzzwords we may have seen
is just all the benefitsyou were just mentioning.
It's real, it's not going anywhere.
It's more than just a buzzword.
So excited to see how itcontinues to progress.
Like you said, it's nothappening overnight.
So we're going to continue to see more
of these advancements and changes.
But talking out a littlebit outside of AI,
(21:06):
you mentioned second waveof 5G and other things.
I'm curious because I know at the event,
CCS Insight was also talking about
the private mobile networks report
that you guys recently put out,
which is available on insight.tech.
I'll make sure to provide alink for any of our listeners
who want to dig deeper into that.
But what were some of
the findings that came out of that report,
(21:26):
and were you seeing any of those
on the show floor actually, you know,
in real life, in real time?
- Yeah, sure.
So we were seeing that momentum
around the hybrid model.
That was very, very noticeable,I think, at the show.
I think one of the other things
that was striking at the show
in the private mobile network space
was we've still got a very large number
of vendors in the privatemobile network space.
(21:47):
But there's still consolidation happening,
there's pressures happening
and I think there's a kind of momentum
around bigger players in the space.
I think that's one of theother dynamics we're seeing.
I don't think it'snecessarily flowing through
yet into the numbers behind the report,
but I think it's something
that was very apparent at the show,
and what's happened just after the show
is this shift of consolidation.
This shift to greater scale
(22:10):
in some of the vendors coming through.
This hybrid model is very important, too,
because historically, privatenetworks were just dedicated.
You put in your core,
you'd put in your equipment.
You'd have some spectrum.
You'd have your devices connecting to it,
and that's what it would be.
And it would be in a factory on a port,
on a logistics facility.
The hybrid model, what that does is
(22:30):
potentially extend
a lot of the benefits to private network
onto a macro network.
Now that could be dedicated spectrum,
say 450 megahertz or something.
Or it could be a networkslice on the macro 5G network.
Now what a network slice is,
is a way for an existing mobile operator
or mobile carrier to havean end-to-end quality
(22:51):
of service managed experience
that's segregated from othertraffic on the network.
So it has a security segregation as well,
as different quality performance metrics.
That's a characteristicthat's possible with 5G.
Once you have this 5G standalone network.
And as we're seeing operators finally
deploying standalone networks,
(23:12):
finally having 5G calls,
we see increasing opportunityfor this hybrid model.
Now where that's useful is, say,
take that logisticssituation for a second.
You have your logistic hubs,you have maybe lorry drivers,
or couriers or somethinggoing outside of that.
Maybe you want them to stayconnected to your network
with many of the securitybenefits of that.
(23:35):
But you can't have yourprivate dedicated network
everywhere around the country.
So what you can do is haveyour dedicated network
in the logistics hub in that facility,
but when those transportationworkers leave that,
they could be on a networkslice on the macro network.
On the main mobile operatorsnetwork infrastructure.
And that's something that,
(23:55):
we're seeing that momentumaround standalone.
We're seeing that momentumin our data already
around the hybrid modelalongside the dedicated model.
It's one of the big growthareas at the moment.
And we can see these 5G technologies
enabling that opportunity.
So that will open upsome different dynamics
in the private mobile network space.
- So still no 6G yet out there.
(24:16):
- Plenty of things happening
on 6G at the moment.
It's just, you know, thesethings all happen in parallel.
The 6G work is allhappening behind the scenes.
We had the WRC last autumn talking about
spectrum usage of 6G.
The R & D guys are all working on it.
I think one of the thingsthat's interesting about
the 6G discussion,
which is relevant back to this,
is a lot of the effortsare to have a 6G standard
(24:38):
that is simpler than 5G.
Because one of the things thatI think everyone's noticed
on the vendor community around 5G is that
there has been this non-standaloneaccess rollout of 5G,
which is sort of,
it's kind of hybrid 5G and 4G.
But it's being called5G by all the operators.
And a lot of complexity around that.
(24:58):
And it's slowed down theavailability of real 5G features
where you need that standalone experience.
So one of the things thatthat's hitting around
when you talk to people about 6G is
a general consensus to keep 6G simple.
And to only have astandalone version of 6G.
Because I think everyone in the industry
in the technology spacehas been frustrated by
(25:20):
how long non-standaloneaccess hung around on 5G.
And probably the damage it's done
to people's perceptions ofwhat 5G technology can do.
So the focus on 6G is we'rejust going to do standalone.
- Great, yeah, I agree.
I think with all these technologies
and advancements coming out,
everybody sees how it can make
their lives a little bit more simple.
So that is going to beinteresting how it goes,
(25:41):
and impact some of the technologies
and standards that are going to come out
to make it more simple,
to make it easier for peopleto adopt or to access.
I want to change theconversation a little bit.
We've been talking about all the benefits
that we can get fromthese core technologies,
and from the network going forward,
but I think it's interesting to talk about
(26:01):
how we actually get to those benefits.
We talked about the collaboration aspects,
we've alluded a little bitto the Intel ecosystem.
So Wei, I am curious, you know,
how can companies partner together
and partner with Intel to take advantage
of some of these latest innovations,
and to really be able to get
(26:22):
to network modernization,edge monetization,
and these AI advancementswe keep talking about?
- We believe it's betterto gather in the journey
of creating journey the connected world
that almost,
we need the different player, right,
across industry to come together.
And this been at the heartof our ecosystem program.
Like, the network builders program,
(26:43):
that'll be running for close to decade,
as well as the newly introducedIntel solution builder
just this week in software,
doing embedded work, right?
And the idea is really tobring the cross domain,
ecosystem partner to come together, right?
So I think couple examples, right?
For a network space, right?
(27:04):
It's a perfect opportunityfor the cross industry
to look at a way toupscale themselves, right?
By working with their partners,
and at the same timethrough the collaboration
help to upscale their workforce, right?
To understand the crossdomain knowledge, right?
Bring the technology in, right?
(27:25):
Adopt the technology.
And are able to hire andretrain the workforce, right?
So that it will blendin the technology into
the respective domain.
And it will look and feel
and emit the right KPI as well, right?
Within their own domain, right?
You cannot just look at thesolutions, the cross domain,
try to take it and, and stab it into it,
(27:46):
and make sure that it works, right?
It might be the beginning,
but across different phases,
where you have to blendinto your own needs, right?
So we see a couplethings happening, right?
And Intel's been cultivating, right?
Pushing this forward,supporting the ecosystem,
making sure that happen, right?
I point back to Ian said.
(28:07):
Earlier example, right?
For private 5G, right?
This is how we see
a pretty strong maturity, right,
of private 5G software.
Our partners from US,
from Europe, from India,from AsiaPac, right?
They're different pocketsof partners, right?
They come with a prettywide selection, right?
So this no longer be just abig equipment vendors like
(28:29):
Classic Ericsson, Nokia,Juniper, and so on.
A play field, right?
It is a market that
because of the technologiesof the barrier entry lower,
we see a lot of the innovator coming in,
and over past few years, right?
We see this solution gettinginto a form of maturity, right?
So I'm amazed when I stopped by
(28:50):
and my partner both look at
the out of the box experience, right?
The different capacity of the private 5G.
It's just getting betterand better right now, right?
You have this radio distributed 5G call,
network blending right?
And of course,
they will plus AI as theIan mentioned, right?
It looks the same last year, now plus AI.
But I was amazed by the maturity
of a different set of solution
(29:11):
that will help therespective vertical market
player to lower down, right?
Their barriers to entry becauseit speak the same language.
Some of the player,
they more tuned towards onevertical than the other, right?
And it's really to help tounlock the adoption rate
of private mobility asa form of connectivity,
just like Wi-Fi over the password
(29:31):
into the system itself.
So we see that happen, right?
It's coming together, right?
This year is way more mature than last,
and every year we just gettingbetter and better, right?
So we see that happen, right?
And we need this side of the ecosystem
to continue to come up with a solution
to help the industry move forward, right?
One example, right?
We see ecosystem partnersstepping in as well.
(29:51):
Stepping up and steppingin as well to offer
like telco API gateway, right?
So we have couple partnerscoming up from Europe,
US and India, right?
Particularly three pocketsof the country, right?
They're offeringinteresting solution, right?
It's a form of API gateway.
And from edge perspective,
we see interestingthings happening as well.
We see some of the edgeverticals, their ecosystem,
(30:13):
they participate at MWC, right?
They're not classic telco, right?
But they come herebecause we see the trend
of the edge or IoT verticals.
They are enterprise verticals, right?
They are at the middle ofdigitizing their solution, right?
Software defined.
And by de-coupling thedifferent layer of the solution.
(30:33):
It is the same journeythat we we going through
with telco as well.
How to put it back together, right?
And by putting that together,
when you take it out andput it back together,
there's opportunity to insert
the right solution they want right
into the software defined, right?
So we're talking aboutagain, connectivity, right?
Private 5G now have a opportunity
to insert into the softwaredefined environment.
(30:55):
We see security, right?
Cross domain collaboration,they're reaching out to Intel,
asking about the softwaredefined security solution
that can insert into the stack, right?
And then the player figureout how to integrate
that all together andit's a better solution.
It's an evolved solutionfrom the previous one, right?
And we see those trendshappening in retail,
manufacturing, healthcare,
media, entertainment, and so on, right?
(31:15):
It's exciting, right?
So working with the right leader
in the industry is important
because the leader will bring you
the rest of the ecosystem, right?
And Intel is one the leader here, right?
Yeah, we're proud about it, right?
And I would love to share more, right?
When partners say gettinginto these journeys, right?
And we always welcome more partners.
(31:35):
Come and knock on the door,hey, we need help, so yeah.
- Yeah, it's always so powerful
to see that ecosystem
and see how partners can work together
and can work with Intel.
We've been talking about alot of different advancements
and solutions going on in this space.
And I think it's clear
that no one partnerorganization can be the expert
in all of these different in innovations.
(31:56):
So it's great to seethem leverage on Intel,
and leverage other partners
to really connect the dots
and to bring a bigger solution together,
and to market.
And to, you know,
help with some of these advancements
that we see going.
I know we are running outof time, but before we go,
I just want to hear from each of you again
if there's any final thoughts
or key takeaways you wantto leave our attendees with,
(32:17):
or you know, where you guys anticipate
the next significantfocus of the network space
or the next challenge to beover the next couple of years?
So Ian, I'll start with you.
- Sure, so I think
there's a whole lot of things here.
I think, you know, many of these buzzwords
that we hear, all these technologies,
we're still really at the start.
So Open RAN, virtualization RAN,
is still really quite early.
(32:37):
ATT made that massiveannouncement in December.
Vodafone in Europe'sgot some Open RAN stuff.
In Japan, it's called Open RAN.
But really, it's really rightat the early stages of that.
There's a lot of runway ahead of us.
A lot of opportunity for growth in that.
As you virtualize the RAN,
you alter the hardware infrastructure,
you order the software play.
The vendors can change.
(32:58):
Lots of things happening there.
AI is still very early in the RAN,
and in the core, andeverywhere else as well.
I think the takeawayI'd have on AI is that
AI has fundamental benefits,
which is why it's beenworked on for so long
before this hype kind of rose.
And I think the key thingI'd say there is that
if and when, probably more like when,
(33:20):
there is this collapsein perception of AI,
don't stop working on AI.
It is something that'sgoing to be important.
It's going to stay important,it's going to be fundamental
to many different areas for the future.
And I think that's
one of the big takeaways from this.
And then how do you choose
to use AI in your networks
or in your solutions is also important.
(33:42):
It's not always clear where the best way
and how to best to apply it is.
So it's going to be around long term,
even if sentiment movesagainst it, you know,
the bubble collapses.
- I'm excited to see that evolution,
and how we'll get there.
And then what will be the next big thing
we'll be talking about,
or how AI will sort ofgo behind the scenes.
(34:05):
Wei, is there anything elsethat you wanted to add,
or any final thoughts or keytakeaways you have for us?
- I'll probably just hitthree tricky point, right?
I say a lot just now, right?
And to Ian's point, right,
vRAN is making progress, right?
Continue to, it will continueto make progress, right?
And it's a part of thenetwork modernization
that will happen, right?
(34:26):
But then do execute
in a more sustainable way as well, right?
Because power consumptions, yeah.
The carbon footprints willbe still top in mind, right?
In everyone's head, right?
That we have to collectivelymake it happen, right?
So vRAN continue to make progress, right?
But as execute the network modernization
in more sustainable way, right?
(34:47):
And therefore, whenever every step,
plan it ahead, right?
In terms of adoption rate.
Second, right?
Starting to unlock the5G business value, right?
I have couple conversationswith the telcos
that some of telcos,
they been telling me that, hey,
if we can't unlock the 5G,
there will not be 6G, right?
It's going to run out the cash, right?
(35:09):
So it is in all best interests, right,
among the telco community tounlock the business values
for 5G faster.
And telco API, right?
It represent the opportunity, right?
To speed it up, right?
In terms of the pathto monetization, right?
So start with that, right?
And then the third things is
(35:29):
the telco AI adoption journey, right?
The reason I use the wordtelco AI adoption journey,
because it is a journey, right?
And it is a journey that helping telco,
becoming a techco right?
Telco been talkingabout for quite a while,
becoming a techco by combining
the network modernization, right?
Monetization and AI,
it will help the telcosthat are transforming
become a techco and goingto be an adoption journey.
(35:52):
- Great. Well, I wantto thank you both again
for joining the conversation.
I urge our listeners toget in contact with Intel.
See how you can partner together.
And also take a lookat some of the reports
out of CCS Insight, like I mentioned.
The recent private mobile networks report
that just came out.
Because we've talked alot in this conversation,
but I feel like we'vebarely scratched the surface
(36:13):
of what's going on andwhat's still to come.
So dive deeper into some of those reports
to see what other innovationsand trends are happening.
And you know, again, thankyou both for joining us.
So until next time, thishas been the IoT Chat.
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