Regis Lerbour, VP of Product, Network Testing and RAN Engineering at Infovista, said that traditional RF testing approaches will need to evolve given the current RF environment
The RF environment of cellular networks is currently going through a significant evolution. 5G is leveraging many more frequency bands than previous technologies. Higher frequencies, especially in the mmWave bands are driving a step increase in the number of sites, and technologies such as MIMO and beamforming require new approaches to designing and optimizing networks. While 5G has added another technology layer to the network, engineering headcount has typically not increased in line with this network expansion due to cost pressures on the business and the general lack of available RF skills in the market. This means engineers are being asked to do much more in the same amount of time.
In a recent presentation at RCR Wireless News’ Test and Measurement Forum 2023, Regis Lerbour, VP of Product, Network Testing and RAN Engineering at Infovista, analyzed how can operators leverage automation, AI/ML and the cloud to cope with the increased demands in testing and ensure the successful deployment and operation of their 5G network.
“There are a number of business challenges that operators are facing today. And given the current RF environment this means traditional RF testing approaches will need to evolve. And it can be summarized with a few considerations. Demand is increasing, as 5G rollouts are introducing massive amount of new sites and none of these sites need validating and tuning. In addition, new services are being introduced through new dedicated slices. And regulators are placing demands on operators to report on subscriber [quality of experience] in specific physical locations. That means that the volume of network testing is increasing and we need solutions for engineers to get more done in the same amount of time,” the executive said.
“A second aspect is what we call operational pressures. Basically, 5G added a new layer of technology to the network on top of existing layers of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and IoT, but the network optimization headcount has typically not increased in line with the demand and the network expansion, because of the cost pressures that the businesses and the operators are putting on every single departments to make savings. So we need solutions that reduce the overall costs, and perhaps more importantly, reduce the reliance on highly skilled engineers with a lot of experience,” Lerbour said.
The executive also explained that network operators now understand the importance on evaluating the network performance not just based on KPIs, but based on how the end users experience the network, especially when it comes to retaining corporate customers and VIP users. “So you need a solution that tests the network as your subscriber seats, so that you can improve their experience. Also, management needs to be kept up to date with how the rollout is progressing and how the 5G network is performing. You need to have the ability to automatically, in near real time provide status reports to senior management directly from the solutions,” he added.
Lerbour noted that the best way to improve efficiencies in this field is through automation. “The idea here from a network testing point of view is that you no longer need skilled RF engineers in the field. Typically an app should guide users where to test automatically runs the required tests, as defined by an expert in the back-end and notifies the tester on the field when tests have been successfully completed, or when they need to be redone. Another approach to deal with these testing challenges through automation is remote testing. It allows you to deploy test devices in the field at key and strategic locations to configure the test run on a 24/7 basis, so that you have a view of the subscriber experience all the time and you can react extremely quickly when the degradation occurs,” he added.
Lerbour went on to say that another key element would be cloudification of network testing solutions. “Cloudification of network testing solutions has many benefits that are aligned very well with the cloudification of the network itself, such as reliability, scalability, agility, but the primary benefit of cloudification is that it allows you to centralize the management of network testing. So engineers sitting in the back office can orchestrate, monitor, analyze and report on network testing projects. And by removing the burden for engineers to actually collect the data on the field, they can manage many more projects.”
Lerbour also explained that another key element is that network testing should be carried out taking into account the customer focus.
