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Ericsson Technology Review 2021 issue 1

The unprecedented events of 2020 have provided us all with ample evidence that the technology and solutions Ericsson delivers in partnership with our customers are fundamental to the functioning and future development of both industry and society as a whole.

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March 9, 2021

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Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden’s view on the key role of connectivity

The unprecedented events of 2020 have provided us all with ample evidence that the technology and solutions Ericsson delivers in partnership with our customers are fundamental to the functioning and future development of both industry and society as a whole.

As governments and enterprises prepare to “build back better” post-pandemic, we at Ericsson are excited about using our technology platform to help communication service providers (CSPs) develop innovative solutions that are smarter, faster and more efficient than ever before. The ability to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and automate as much as possible will be key to our mutual success.

While telecom AI is still very much a work in progress, our research indicates that it is already possible to reach a high degree of practical autonomous operation in networks by combining existing AI techniques within a flexible architecture to form what we at Ericsson call a cognitive layer. The article on page 30 highlights the critical role intents play in creating this new layer and enabling autonomous operations.

Building the next generation of autonomous systems will also require AI-powered automation of the RAN. The article on page 42 presents a comprehensive framework of the key software enablers of AI-based RAN automation, along with two proof-of-concept examples executed in real RAN contexts.

While autonomous operations are going to be of great value in a broad range of different applications and scenarios, the industrial automation use case is definitely one of the most rigorous due to its stringent timing requirements. The 5G synchronization article on page 52 explains the main categories of 5G synchronization requirements and presents a toolbox of solutions for all relevant scenarios, the most challenging of which can often be addressed within the RAN domain.

Private 5G networks created with the help of network slicing techniques are likely to become very popular with both private enterprises and public agencies in the years ahead. The article on page 64 highlights the benefits of these types of networks and explains how CSPs can use an evolving set of enablers in cloud infrastructure, the RAN, the core and transport networks, and OSS/BSS to create appropriate slices for each use case.

The final two articles in this issue of the magazine explore recent breakthroughs in video compression technology and take a closer look at the requirements of mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) systems in terms of QoE. To ensure a consistently high level of customer satisfaction in these types of systems, we have created a Machine QoE framework that is specifically designed to measure the QoE of IoT devices.

We hope you enjoy this issue of our magazine and we’d be delighted if you share it with your colleagues and business partners. You can find both PDF and HTML versions of all the articles here.

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Articles in this issue:

Monitoring IoT application performance with Machine QoE

Awareness of the QoE that the network delivers is essential for all mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) systems. To reliably predict QoE in IoT applications, we have developed a generic Machine QoE framework and tested a vertical-specific version of it in a smart-grid scenario.

Versatile Video Coding explained – the future of video in a 5G world

Versatile Video Coding – the new video compression coding standard that was recently approved by MPEG and the ITU-T – represents state-of-the art video coding and is certain to play an important role in supporting a wide range of 5G use cases.

Cognitive processes for adaptive intent-based networking

Extensive automation will be necessary to cope with the unprecedented flexibility and dynamic adaptation that 5G networks are introducing into service delivery and network resource utilization. Our intent-based networking approach combines several artificial intelligence (AI) techniques within a flexible architecture and uses intents to specify what the autonomous system is expected to do.

Artificial intelligence in RAN – a software framework for AI-driven RAN automation

When used correctly, AI and machine learning techniques have tremendous potential to help overcome complex cross-domain automation challenges in radio networks. Ericsson has identified the key software enablers for AI-based RAN automation and integrated them into a comprehensive framework that provides a solid and flexible technological foundation.

5G synchronization requirements and solutions

Achieving proper network synchronization in 5G requires more planning than it did in previous generations due to the fact that there is no single synchronization requirement in 5G. A solid understanding of 5G timing needs and their associated solutions is essential for an efficient and cost-effective implementation.

Applied network slicing scenarios in 5G

Many new and emerging 5G use cases require network slicing, an outcome that is achieved through the use of an evolving toolbox of enablers in five areas: cloud infrastructure, RAN, core, transport and operations support systems/business support systems. Depending on the scenario, different combinations of enablers are needed to engineer the appropriate network slice(s).

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