How 5G and network slicing is enriching business and enabling innovative use cases
Senior Business Advisor
Solution Marketing Manager
Senior Business Advisor
Solution Marketing Manager
Senior Business Advisor
Solution Marketing Manager
In our last blog post we explored how Chunghwa Telecom worked with Ericsson to transform and extend the capabilities of their in-house OSS and BSS. The end result of this collaboration was nominated for TM Forum’s 2021 Excellence Awards, making it to the finals in the autonomous operations category.
CHT’s transformation process enabled the communication service provider (CSP) to become even more relevant and valuable from a broader customer perspective. It also extended the capabilities of their in-house OSS and BSS by leveraging TM forum standards and Ericsson’s portfolio, such as Ericsson’s Order Care and Catalog Manager and Ericsson Orchestration.
With their new OSS and BSS stacks in place, CHT wanted to focus on using 5G to create new revenue sources. CHT chose to focus on three use case areas to start their 5G business journey:
- Smart factories
- Remote medical consultation and healthcare
- 4K multiangle live streaming
These areas were specifically chosen because CHT’s new solutions gave them the network slicing capabilities required to target the services and connectivity needed in each of these verticals. Below we explore in more detail each of these use cases.
Smart factories
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE)
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), the leading global provider of semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test, wanted to automate their robotic processes for the highly complex packaging of semiconductor – thereby optimizing factory operating processes.
The packaging process requires a tight control of quality, detecting defects and ensuring process precision to optimize the yield of the end product. At the same time, the software being used by robots during the process needs to have inter-process communication amongst them, and large quantity of data needs to be carried in this 5G infrastructure.
To serve their needs, network slicing capabilities – providing connectivity with low latency and high reliability – is essential. With delay sensitive robotic processed automation within the factory – the software, sensors and data processors for the machinery – this type of network is needed. CHT is able to fulfil this need by instantiating supporting network slices for the service requirement. This gives ASE (Advanced Semiconductor Engineering) the flexible and intelligent production line required to serve their SLA (Service Level Agreement)
A second problem CHT solved for ASE was the task of remote assistances. With remote locations experts collaborating with site technicians in the factory, the high reliable network ensures their communication and collaboration. This solves issues with reduced mean time to repair (MTTR) and improves first time fix rate (FTFR), which is critical for efficient flow and production in the factory.
Figure 1: Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) use case overview
Remote medical consultation and healthcare
Yuan Rung Medical Hospital
In 2020, CHT and Ericsson had a close collaboration with the Yuan Rung Medical Hospital to develop a 4G/5G remote consultation solution.
This solution was significant as it provides the flexibility needed for consultation in the healthcare space – a need that has become even more in-demand following the outbreak of Covid-19. By implementing network slices with low latency and high bandwidth, a remote medical consultancy service could be provided. This helps is providing timely, remote medical diagnosis, and reduces the workload for hospital staff by providing additional support from remote medical consultants.
Discover how Chunghwa telecom brought automation to their operation and business stacks. Read more here
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Chunghwa Telecom also partnered with National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University to address the growing need for remote advanced medical education for students.
The CHT and the University jointly developed medical innovations – utilizing 5G and artificial intelligence of things (IoT) technologies – to provide students with remote tuition from leading experts in the field. For example, the development of virtual reality (VR) glasses, are allowing students to see things from the ‘eyes of the expert.’ Essentially, this allows educators to virtually share what they are looking at while communicating and performing certain tasks. This solution is providing high quality education in a timely and effective manner.
In addition, the partnership also led to the joint creation of an application used during the Covid-19 pandemic. The application was able to track the location and movements of people to help curb the spread of the corona virus. If an individual became infected, the application could collect and display a general outbreak location. Postprocessed data was also used to identify areas where there were higher Covid-19 infection rates. The application was also able to aggregate data to warn of areas that were too crowded in real time, allowing people to avoid these areas.
Figure 2: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University use case overview
4K multiangle live streaming
SanlihE-Television Group
Covid-19 didn’t just change the medical industry, it has also drastically altered the world of entertainment. Events and concert were completely shut down during outbreak peak times: significantly impacting companies, artists, organizations, communities etc.
CHT and Ericsson partnered up with SanlihE-Television Group, a broadcasting company in Taiwan. Together they have created innovative 5G entertainment content by taking advantage of 5G’s high-speed transmission and low latency capabilities, alongside holographic technology. This has enabled live streaming capabilities that can be watched comfortably at home and event sites.
In 2020, CHT and Ericsson also partnered with KKBOX, a music streaming service in Taiwan, to hold multiple virtual concerts. These concerts attracted a large number of younger viewers, with almost 30000 people streaming each concert.
Figure 3: SanlihE-Television Group use case overview
The future of 5G and automation
The Chunghwa Telecom and Ericsson partnership has highlighted how CSPs are developing new ways of creating business – not only during the pandemic period, but also moving forward as we enter a new era of 5G for enterprise. Chunghwa and Ericsson will continue to work together: bringing value to their customers and discovering new 5G business opportunities.
Discover the latest on 5G and automation and how we are finding ways to drive this in the industry by attending our closed events. Join our upcoming OSS summit and the Digital leadership roundtable at DTW.
Learn more
- Read more on our blog: Why intelligent RAN automation is going to rock your world
- Discover more about how you can automate your network for success