NTTDATA Unlimited Future

9 • Network inventory , providing real time insights about the operational status and usage patterns of all the separate elements and components in the network. As we move faster into a new reality, where self-service techniques are used to provision targeted, customized services and capabilities, so the need to manage asset inventory becomes more urgent. • Workforce management, enabling network providers and their partners to identify the position, availability and workload of each team and individual within their extended workforce. • Assurance solutions, enabling resilience and effective security at each connection point and for every component. • Automation and orchestration , with solutions designed to use the growing options in smart algorithms, ML and AI to bring automation into every process, enabling transformational improvements to efficiency, and Active Topology to help operators understand the complex relationship between network components. The networks now being developed are increasingly complex, and they need to be in order to deliver the rich variety of services that customers want (and that networking companies need to provide in order to maximise revenue potential). Open OSS helps companies understand and manage their networking infrastructures, as the world grows more complex still. Managing network complexity So why exactly is the networking landscape becoming so difficult to understand and manage? To answer this question we need to be clear about how emerging services are leading to the need for exponential growth in bandwidth and data traffic. Consider the technologies and services we now see as being entirely normal, as enablers of our society today, and which will become even more important as services evolve into the future: We depend on real time data flows between IoT & IIoT devices. These are massive sensor arrays that report in real time on everything from specific events (when an installed system breaches normal operating levels), to emerging issues (development of unusual patterns of behaviour), right through to the most everyday, mundane of activities (switching remote systems- like central heating boilers- on or off). In reality, disaggregated and distributed systems would not work without IoT, while proactive and predictive systems maintenance would be impossible without IIoT and the analytics systems that go with them. Once we start aggregating these systems to create highly responsive Smart Cities , the scale of the data management task grows exponentially. As we also move to development and use of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles we again add dramatically to the need for fast and effective management of data across networks. We must add to this the growth in use of Vision Systems , video and images of other kinds, within management solutions, AI and user interfaces, all of which drive data flows to higher levels. Efficiency and speed through open Standards There is a growing consensus on the need for major improvements to efficiency in order to handle the growing scale and complexity of data use across our networks. We have already looked at the importance of open standards for enabling rapid configuration of personalized services, but open access is just as important, and this is why the Open RAN Alliance is such a vital contribution to managing complexity. Radio Access Networks connect user devices to the cloud, providing the essential point of access for any user to any service.