At Mobile World Congress 2023, the “world’s largest and most influential connectivity event”, Digis Squared showcased a number of solutions. In this blog post Obeidallah Ali, Digis Squared RAN Automation Architect & INOS Product Manager, shares INOS previews from the Digis Squared MWC23 exhibition stand.
INOS preview at MWC23
At MWC23, the Digis Squared team showcased and previewed new INOS kits, and a new graphical user interface (GUI).
Preview: new INOS interface
The live demos on the Digis Squared exhibition stand included 4G and 5G analysis of the live mobile networks in Hall 7 at MWC23, and featured a real-time INOS dashboard with 6x specialist widgets.
Mobile monitoring status: battery status, script status, temperature, and log files. Enables mobile device control, including sending of new scripts, locking on a certain band, or shutting down and restarting the device.
Time charts of serving RSRP (power level) of 5G. (The video shows some spikes which may occur due to mobile movement or activity, which is considered normal.)
Map with satellite view, displays the precise location of the mobile device within Hall 7 at MWC23.
Table of Layer 3 messages, deep signalling layer information from the air interface.
Table of radio and mobile side events, including starting and ending scripts, and multiple radio events, such as attach/detach, RRC setup, and more.
Time charts and multiple KPIs for downlink and uplink throughput. During speed tests, the charts change dramatically and show test results in real-time.”
Preview: new INOS kits
At MWC23 the Digis Squared team previewed 5 new physical INOS kits, for different deployment and measurement scenarios,
Static: in-building continuous active measurement
Single device: highly portable
Backpack: for indoor assessment, or along narrow streets on foot, bicycle or moped, enabling access to tricky-to-reach locations
Compact: cost-efficient, light-weight and holding up to 6 devices
Drive testing: self-contained, rugged and portable kit, holding up to 26 devices.
INOS updates to chipset & handset support
MWC23: With thanks to Obeidallah Ali and the INOS team, and in particular R&D EngineerYahia El-Ghayesh for his significant contribution to this demo and the development of the INOS kits.
Digis Squared’s INOS AI tool, developed in-house, is a vendor-agnostic, multi-network-technology solution delivering automated assessment, testing, benchmarking and optimisation of networks. Generating actionable reports in just 15 minutes, combined with live-view for instant adjustments, INOS significantly reduces the time taken to complete the work and opex cost, to deliver optimum customer experience.
INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.
Mobile World Congress 2023, the “world’s largest and most influential connectivity event”, saw over 88,500 attendees join over 2,400 exhibitors, sponsors and partners, and over 1,000 speakers and thought leaders, in Barcelona at the end of February. Gwen Edwards, Digis Squared Marketing Director, recaps the team’s success, and shares INOS previews from the exhibition stand.
MWC is back, in full force
GSMA Mobile World Congress 2023 saw over 88k people visit the Fira Gran Via over 4 days, and with all the halls and the North entrance re-opened, there was a significant change in energy – the magic of MWC was back in full force!
Digis Squared team at MWC23
Digis Squared team at MWC23, end of day 2 – a busy day!
Participating as part of the UK Pavilion, the Digis Squared team had a full schedule of client and partner meetings – plus plenty of surprise opportunities to catch up with former colleagues and meet new connections in real-life for the first time.
The Digis Squared team at MWC23 with, from top left, clockwise, Chris Lundh CEO of client and partner Africell Angola, Abou Moustafa VP at Du, with partner Invigo, with the Tenacity Works team, with Wei Yeang (Max) Toh at Intel, and bottom left, the Omani Regulatory Team.
Work with our partners is vital to the projects we deliver for clients, and MWC23 enabled the Digis Squared team to highlight their INOS solution on the vast Intel exhibition stand. As a Gold member of the Intel Network Builders Program, and a member of the Intel Partner Alliance, Digis Sqaured collaborates closely with the valued Intel team.
MWC23 Intel Network Builders & Digis Squared
As part of the UK Pavilion at MWC23, and in collaboration with the Department for Business & Trade, Digis Squared participated in a Panel Discussion on “VR, AR & Network Optimization”, alongside Mike Jackson from UK Gov, Ed Greig FRSA from Deloitte Digital, and James Lee Burgess FRSA from UrbanXR.
AR, VR& Network Optimization Panel Discussion: click through for video
MWC always delivers great networking opportunities, and the “Africa Mobile & Digital Economy Leaders Reception” was a special highlight this year.
African Business: Africa Mobile & Digital Economy Leaders Reception
New INOS hardware & GUI preview
Digis Squared used MWC23 to showcase a preview of the new form factors for INOS*, and the new fully-featured user interface. Watch this space for further INOS updates coming soon!
Thank you MWC23
The Digis Squared team were delighted to be back at MWC23 as part of the UK Pavilion, thrilled to be able to preview the new INOS interface and kits, and grateful to the brilliant Tradefair and UK Department for Business & Trade teams for all of their support.
The Digis Squared team are already making plans and looking forward to being back in Barcelona at MWC in 2024 – who knows, maybe next year we can fit the #DeloitteDigitalDog with INOS, and he can test coverage throughout every hall!
Digis Squared’s INOS AI tool, developed in-house, is a vendor-agnostic, multi-network-technology solution delivering automated assessment, testing, benchmarking and optimisation of networks. Generating actionable reports in just 15 minutes, combined with live-view for instant adjustments, INOS significantly reduces the time taken to complete the work and opex cost, to deliver optimum customer experience.
INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV), is becoming increasingly important as mobile networks are being asked to handle an ever-growing number of connected devices and new use cases. In this article, Amr Ashraf, RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer, describes the benefits of NFV, capabilities and deployment considerations. Plus, we take a quick look at how Digis Squared’s powerful AI-tool, INOS, can help in the deployment validation of NFV.
Network Function Virtualization
Mobile virtualization – also known as network function virtualization (NFV) – is a powerful technology that has the capability to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated.
NFV enables the creation of virtualized mobile networks, and the isolation of different types of traffic on the same physical network infrastructure.
The creation of different virtual networks for different types of services or different user groups.
Multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure,
And improves the security of the network.
In this article, Amr Ashraf describes the benefits of NFV, capabilities and deployment considerations. Plus, we take a quick look at how Digis Squared’s powerful AI-tool, INOS, can help in the deployment validation of NFV.
The future of mobile network functions is virtual
Mobile virtualization is becoming increasingly important as mobile networks are being asked to handle an ever-growing number of connected devices and new use cases.
NFV & Infrastructure Sharing. One of the main benefits of mobile virtualization is that it allows for multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure. This can help to reduce the costs and complexity of building and maintaining mobile networks, and can also help to improve coverage and capacity in areas where it would otherwise be difficult or expensive to deploy new infrastructure.
NFV & Security. Mobile virtualization also helps to improve the security of the network by isolating different functions and providing a secure environment for each virtual network. This makes it an ideal solution for enterprise customers who need to maintain high levels of security for their sensitive data.
Deployment flexibility. Mobile virtualization is supported by software-based virtualized network functions (VNFs), which can be run on standard servers and storage systems, rather than specialized hardware. This makes it easy to scale and adapt the network to changing requirements. Additionally, it also makes it possible to deploy mobile virtualization solutions in a variety of different environments, including on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge of the network.
NFV & 5G customisations. It’s worth noting that mobile virtualization is a key technology in building the 5G network. 5G network standards are designed to support network slicing, which can create multiple isolated virtual networks on top of a common physical infrastructure. This makes it possible to create customized solutions for different types of users and use cases, such as providing high-bandwidth services for multimedia applications, or low-latency services for industrial automation and control.
NFV is the future, and the future is now. Mobile virtualization is a rapidly evolving technology with considerable potential to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated. In the coming years, we expect to see more and more operators turning to mobile virtualization to meet the growing demands on their networks and stay competitive in the fast-changing mobile landscape.
Orchestration
Implementing mobile virtualization can present a number of technical challenges, including the management and orchestration of virtualized network functions (VNFs) and ensuring network security. Managing and orchestration of VNFs is a complex task, which involves provisioning and configuring VNFs, as well as ensuring their availability and performance. This is complicated by the fact that VNFs are software-based and can be deployed on a variety of hardware and virtualization platforms.
Security
As VNFs are software-based, they can be targeted by cyber-attacks just like any other type of software. Therefore, ensuring network security is vital when implementing mobile virtualization.
Additionally, virtualized networks may be vulnerable to new types of attacks that exploit the virtualization itself.
NFVO. One of the key solutions to these challenges is the use of network function management and orchestration (NFVO) systems. NFVOs automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of VNFs, and they help to ensure that the VNFs are highly available and perform well. They also play an important role in the orchestration of VNFs, which involves coordinating the actions of multiple VNFs to achieve a desired outcome.
Strong defences. Another key solution is the use of security solutions such as firewall, intrusion detection and prevention systems, secure VPN, and secure containers to protect the virtualized network, secure communication between virtualized functions, and protect virtualized infrastructure from unauthorized access.
Anomaly detection. Solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning can also be used to monitor and detect anomalies in the network, identify potential security threats, and take appropriate action to mitigate them.
Security strategy. In addition to these technical solutions, it’s also important to have a comprehensive security strategy in place to address any potential vulnerabilities and threats that may arise when implementing mobile virtualization. This can include implementing best practices for network design, conducting regular security assessments, and keeping systems and software up to date with the latest security patches and updates.
Skills & expertise. An often overlooked, yet important security consideration, is the need for skilled personnel who are well-versed in the technologies and best practices associated with mobile virtualization. As mobile virtualization is a complex technology that requires a deep understanding of network functions, security, and software development, it’s crucial to have a team of experts who can design, deploy, and maintain secure mobile virtualization solutions.
INOS & NFV
Drive testing can be used to validate the performance of virtualized network functions and ensure that they are providing the desired level of service. This can help to identify and troubleshoot any issues that may arise, such as poor performance or dropped connections. Drive testing can also be used to compare the performance of virtualized network functions with that of traditional, hardware-based network functions, in order to ensure that the virtualized functions are providing an equivalent or better level of service.
Digis Squared’s AI-solution INOS is an essential tool in the implementation and ongoing optimization of NFV. It helps to validate and troubleshoot virtualized network functions and ensure that they are providing an equivalent or better level of service compared to traditional, hardware-based network functions. Additionally, drive testing provides key information about the environment in which the network is deployed that can be used to optimize the deployment of virtualized network functions.
Conclusion
Mobile virtualization is a powerful technology that has the capability to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated. Key benefits it enables include,
The creation of virtualized mobile networks, and the isolation of different types of traffic on the same physical network infrastructure.
The creation of different virtual networks for different types of services or different user groups.
Multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure,
And improves the security of the network.
However, implementing mobile virtualization can present a number of technical challenges, including the management and orchestration of virtualized network functions (VNFs) and ensuring network security.
The use of network function management and orchestration (NFVO) systems, security solutions, AI/ML-based monitoring and anomaly-detection systems, and a comprehensive security strategy can help to mitigate these challenges.
Finally, NFV is a powerful, yet complex technology – it’s essential to work with an experienced team with deep expertise who can design, deploy, and maintain mobile virtualization solutions.
In conversation with Amr Ashraf, Digis Squared’s RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer.
INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.
See INOS in action at LEAP, Riyadh & MWC Barcelona
Digis Squared will be at LEAP in Riyadh at the start of February, as part of the UK Pavilion H4.G30, undertaking cloud-based INOS demos. Plus the team will be at MWC Barcelona at the end of February, with a full suite of all the INOS solutions and form factors on a dedicated exhibition stand Hall 7 B13.
The Digis Squared team are thrilled to be a part of the Intel® Network Builders Winners’ Circle, and delighted to be awarded GOLD membership this year!
Digis Squared AI telecoms tools deployed as cloud-based solutions utilise Intel® Xeon® Gold processors, delivering optimised performance and enhanced speeds. Digis Squared’s AI-tools are also available as a ‘Radio-Testing-As-A-Service in the Intel Network Builders Edge and Networking Testbed.
The team are excited to be recognised by Intel for accelerating customer excellence and advancing 5G and virtual Network Transformation with the vibrant Intel Builders ecosystem.
“Working together with Intel, Winners’ Circle partners are driving the next generation of solutions and transforming the network from edge to core.”
Anomaly detection: efficiently identifying and resolving issues across mobile networks is vital for the success of any CSP or MNO. With 5G network deployment ramping up, and beyond that, work towards autonomous networks, the use of AI to handle anomalies is vital. In this article, Amr Ashraf, RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer, describes how CSPs can more efficiently identify and resolve the real issues hidden amongst all the noise.
This article is also available as a stand-alone paper, here.
Identifying the real issues hiding in all the noise
Data volumes are only going in one direction – there are substantial increases in data volume as more people connect online, with more devices, more solutions move to the cloud, continued changes in customer behaviour and movement of people and information across society, and more and more daily interactions move online. This increased volume of data also provides far greater noise for cyber threats to hide within. Whilst networks continue to perform well, and meet demand, efficient use of resources will become ever more important.
New tools and approaches are needed to be able to identify and resolve issues in all the noise.
AI and ML provide the vital tools to handle this ever-growing volume of data. Soon – if not already – there will simply be too much data to analyse everything – but we can use AI to identify the unusual issues and outliers, and dig deeper into these anomalies.
The AI Hierarchy of Needs, Monica Rogati 2017 “How do we use AI and machine learning to get better at what we do?”. M.Rogati placed anomaly detection as a vital transformational step in providing a solid foundation for data before being effective with AI and ML.
Digis Squared & anomaly detection
Digis Squared’s INOS AI tool is a vendor-agnostic, multi-network-technology solution delivering automated assessment, testing and optimisation of networks, across all technologies. The data collected by INOS is analysed in the cloud-based AI engine, and it is here where anomalies are detected, assessed and actioned.
INOS: Three data collection methods
“INOS collects data in the field by one of three methods – a traditional “suitcase” format for drive testing, or a highly mobile backpack which can be used in narrow streets, or walking through shopping malls for example,” explains Amr Ashraf, RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer. “And this paper focusses on the third method, the static INOS active probe, and how the data it collects is analysed and actioned.”
INOS active probe
“The active probe is a static box which is typically deployed inside a building – maybe a corporate HQ, a high-profile area within an airport, or a new business facility. Perhaps the location is selected because the CSP wants to proactively support a new VIP client, gather KPI data, or improve SLAs. Once deployed, the probe continuously monitors the networks, and data is streamed to the INOS platform in the cloud, where it is analysed by the INOS AI engine.”
“In the first step of the analysis, the data collected by the INOS active probe is used to identify QoE – the quality of experience – problems experienced by mobile devices in the probe. INOS will assess the data and carry out root-cause investigations to identify the fault that led to the problem. This is accomplished by gathering various performance measurements from several layers – the network, hardware, link, and operating system – which are then aggregated and delivered to INOS cloud.”
“To put it more specifically, the probe regularly initiates a test scenario while recording network, hardware, link, and OS measurements. Given that QoE problems can come from a variety of locations along the path, measuring the performance of each layer enables not only the detection of QoE problems, but also the determination of the problem’s root cause. A database on the INOS cloud receives aggregated metrics as soon as they are made available.”
Why use active probes?
“One of the best ways to understand how the end-user perceives the performance from beginning to end is using probes. They offer real-time and historical end-to-end call tracing, KPIs that continuously track network health and customer experience, and proactive alarming (QoE).”
“The two basic methods—probe measurements—that can improve performance and enrich end-to-end analysis (from the user terminal to the core network) are active and passive probe measurements, Because they give detailed information that enables service operators to assess the service quality across various transport technologies, probes play a significant role in the ever-increasing complexity of modern telecom networks.”
“By defining some parameters, the INOS probe uses AI models to detect anomalies in any field KPIs. For example, parameters such as deviation parentage and time windows can be used to calculate the deviation value. The example below for RSRP in LTE takes this approach, and identifies a deviation of 20%.”
INOS report of RSRP in LTE, identifying an anomaly with 20% deviation
“Additionally, INOS is able to assess data from other channels, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter and email, and can assess behaviour of those apps for network anomalies too.”
Telegram Notification for a customer with certain Anomaly Detection
“To achieve the goal of end-to-end quality metrics, these probe measurements should be connected with numerous node-to-node performance data as well as customer data,” explains Amr.
“An integral view from the customer, network, service, or terminal perspective is provided by Digis Squared’s in-house developed INOS and RAI tools. Together these two AI-tools can proactively manage the network by continuously monitoring end-to-end KPIs, created from various perspectives in the network. They can immediately identify any deteriorating trends and anomalies, for example, dropped-call ratio and set-up times.”
“All Digis Squared’s tools are vendor agnostic – networks are such a complex mix of solutions, that our tools simply have to be able to work with and analyse data from all vendors. And, of course, they also handle data from all network technologies, legacy 2G platforms through to 5G, they’re designed for all of this.”
Prioritization: counter-intuitive approaches are sometimes best
The costs and impacts associated with low and medium-severity anomalies may be far greater than the total cost of high-severity issues – smaller issues are often harder to detect, and take longer to identify and implement a fix, so their compounded cost can be higher. AI can help ensure counter-intuitive approaches to assessing priority can be handled without bias.
“A proactive approach can save money in addition to ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction by reducing the number of trouble tickets and so optimizing resource allocation. The pre-defined INOS reports’ ability to show service quality makes root-cause investigation possible across all network layers.”
“Today, the Digis Squared AI tools are able to continuously receive data from active probes in the network, identify anomalies and negative trends. They are also able to identify root cause, and propose recommended solutions to fix the issue. Working with our clients, in some installations we enable those recommended fixes to be automatically implemented, ensuring that frequently occurring minor issues are identified and resolved automatically. Of course, all issues are included in reporting. This approach ensures that staff do not need to intervene in the mundane, predictable issues, and can instead focus on assessing the recommendations the system makes for more complex issues.”
Anomaly handling and autonomous networks
The use of AI in anomaly detection and, critically, resolution, has great value for legacy technologies, and even greater value for new technologies and transformations. It’s a vital step in network function virtualization (NFV), cloud-native computing (CNC) and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies. And provides important preparation for CSPs as they ready their organizations for operations based on autonomous networks.
“The Digis Squared INOS active probes are a vital tool in providing high-quality data on background network behaviour and performance,” shared Amr. “Using this, our AI tools are able to continuously assess the streamed data and identify anomalies, assess their root cause, and then propose and implement recommended actions. AI solutions like this will soon be the only way in which CSPs can efficiently identify and resolve the real issues hidden amongst all the vast quantities of noise.”
Find out more about INOS
INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.
As part of the recent successful commercial launch of Africell Angola, the Digis Squared AI-tool INOS, powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors, was used as a key part of the network cluster testing and acceptance process. Digis Squared’s Key Account Manager for Africell, Ahmed Ma’moon, shares more.
“Digis Squared manages the entire end to end Managed Services for the new Africell Angola mobile network*. Ahead of the commercial launch on 7th April, and working closely alongside our partners, we ensured that the network was tested robustly before launch.” [*Read more about that, here.]
“Whilst the capabilities of our vendor-agnostic tool, INOS, are extensive, in the pre-launch phase of the Africell Angola project, its major role was in field optimization following the SSV (Single Site Verification) and sites acceptance phase. The team used INOS devices out in the field in vehicles to collect network performance data for all live sites. We were able to optimise our resources too – thanks to the ability to remotely update scripts, we didn’t need to send engineers out into the field; the INOS kit can be driven to a specific location and along a predefined route by anyone, and the data is automatically uploaded into the cloud immediately.”
What is a mobile network cluster?
Mobile network coverage is often drawn as a honeycomb-like pattern of neatly meshing hexagons.
In reality, the coverage is not neatly tessellated hexagons, but very irregular shapes, due to the landscape, buildings and other features, and coverage from adjacent cells may overlap, or there may be some thin gaps. Mobile network planning engineers allocate different frequency bands (also called channels) to neighbouring cells – this helps to minimise interference even when coverage areas overlap slightly. The group of cells on different bands is known as a cluster.
INOS for Cluster Optimisation
Ahmed continues, “Working from Digis Squared’s offices, our engineers were able to control and update scripts remotely, push revised routes to drivers, and review data live in the cloud during the tests. During the pre-launch phase we ran field measurements using INOS for Luanda province clusters and sub-clusters, undertook the analysis to identify coverage issues, implemented optimisation changes live on the network, and then re-tested and benchmarked the results against the initial data.”
Above: Example INOS dashboard for field measurements used for analysis and optimization
“INOS’ AI-capabilities ensure that analysis of vast amounts of data is completed very rapidly – within 15 minutes of uploading data – so we were able to assess the results, implement fixes and re-run the tests very swiftly.”
Above: Sample coverage analysis algorithms in INOS
Comprehensive pre-launch testing to optimise for post-launch excellence
“INOS was a vital tool for us in the pre-launch field optimization activities for Africell Angola, to ensure best network coverage and performance, and excellent user experience after launch. INOS helped to speed up the field optimization process for all Luanda clusters, and complete the work in advance of the scheduled launch date.”
INOS & Intel
“INOS was a vital tool for us in the pre-launch field optimization activities for Africell Angola, to ensure best network coverage and performance, and excellent user experience after launch. INOS helped to speed up the field optimization process for all Luanda clusters, and complete the work in advance of the scheduled launch date.”
INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI-analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimisation and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.
Digis Squared’s team complete INOS migration from local on-premises deployment to first cloud-based installation enabling “Radio Testing as a Service”, with Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N Processor, in the Intel Lab.
Thanks to membership of Intel Network Builders, work undertaken in the Intel Lab has enabled the Digis Squared team to run INOS over the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N processor, in the first cloud-based installation of INOS. This work is the first step in our assessment of INOS as a cloud-based solution with Intel processors. Further work is planned with the Intel Lab team assessing other enhanced processors and benchmarking performance enhancement.
Yasser Elsabrouty, Digis Squared Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder said, “Thanks to Intel Network Builders and membership of Intel Winners Circle, INOS is now providing Radio Testing automation over the cloud, enabling “Radio Testing as a Service” over private or public cloud. The cognitive testing tool can seamlessly manage large amounts of data in a multi-tenant environment, providing full automation and real-time reporting.”
“Delivering INOS Testing as a Service over the cloud will increase efficiency, convenience and scalability, delivering the instant capability to run thousands of radio network tests from anywhere, anytime, in combination with smart automation, real-time reports and KPI deviation alerts. Digis Squared’s cognitive INOS tool just became a whole lot smarter!”
10nm technology, 32 cores, 64 threads, 3.6GHx max turbo frequency, full specification.
Benefits & observations
Running 25 INOS Radio Field Tests in the Intel Lab, the following enhancements were measured, and benefits observed,
1. Increased cores & threads
The Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N processor enabled Digis Squared to setup 2 or more parallel INOS containers serving two (o more) different customer accounts. In the field, this extra capability enabled by the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N processor would mean that,
More copies of INOS modules can run together in parallel, providing higher processing capability
Lower response time and faster handling for APIs and web requests
Duplicating INOS running modules presents high availability
When assessing response time across all 25 tests, the results show that the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N easily handles the volume of data as data payload increases x2.5 over the 25 tests.
2. Max Turbo Frequency: the INOS platform receives high traffic bursts periodically, due to the nature of telecoms. The increased max turbo frequency of the Intel Xeon processor empowers INOS to handle these bursts without any probability of outage.
3. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency: Increases the capability of INOS to receive big sudden bursts of requests, keeping stable progress and high performance (i.e. no delay on data retrieval, no delay on rendering data to maps and tables, and reduced time to prepare reports.)
4. Number of UPI links: INOS consumes a huge volume of processor capability and RAM. To optimise INOS performance, we are looking not just for capacity of the processor, but also how this processor chip interconnects with the rest of the system components. The Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N presents better integration with various I/O devices reflecting in INOS performance, especially when handling large bursts of input data files.
5. Max memory size: For INOS, more memory means more concurrent users, more software threads running in parallel, and an increase in the number of docker containers running simultaneously. The increased max memory size indicated in this table will deliver at least three or more times the number of INOS containers when using the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6338N.
6. Intel® AES-NI & Intel® Trusted Execution Technology: INOS SW runs on sensitive client data, and this capability will save data from any corruption and violation trials.
Conclusions & next steps
Having successfully completed this first assessment with the Intel Lab, the Digis Squared team are confident in the deployment of INOS as a cloud-based solution utilising Intel® Xeon® Gold processors, delivering optimised performance and enhanced speeds.
Yasser concluded, “Further work is planned with the Intel Lab team assessing other enhanced processors and measuring performance enhancement, and then, mutual testing with Open RAN market leaders!”
If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .
Yasser ElSabrouty shares the latest news from the team: Digis Squared awarded Intel Winner’s Circle Membership.
“We’re very excited to confirm that Intel Corporation have selected Digis Squared to join their Winners Circle,” Yasser ElSabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder and System Integration Business Unit Director announced.
The Intel Winners’ Circle program rewards the most innovative solutions in the ecosystem, in alignment with Intel’s technologies and strategic objectives. Intel is committed to driving advancement in the networking landscape, and the Intel® Network Builders Winners’ Circle seeks to further align the industry in order to accelerate network innovation. The program drives greater technical enablement in the form of testing and benchmarking of solutions, and it helps strengthen the industry’s relationship with end users.
Ongoing collaboration
This announcement demonstrates the growing collaboration and partnership between Digis Squared and Intel. In February this year, Digis Squared joined the Intel Network Builders ecosystem program, and brought with it the deep experience and expertise of the Digis Squared team in ultra-reliable network configuration and optimisation.
A joint case study with Intel published in May, utilising Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, described substantial enhancements to Video and TCP optimisation achieved utilising Digis Squared’s System Integration capabilities to deliver 30% down link throughput enhancement, thanks to the data traffic optimisation capabilities of INOS.
“The optimisation described in that Intel case study was tested, and customer experience verified, using INOS, Digis Squared’s radio testing and network optimisation solution. INOS works over all data network technologies, including 5G and Open RAN,” Yasser explained. “All our ongoing commercial deployments of INOS utilise Intel technology, as their processing capabilities meet our demanding performance requirements.”
“As part of our partnership with Intel, we’ve also been working within the Intel Lab to characterise the behaviour of INOS with the latest generation of Intel processors, and plan to undertake further work in this facility focussed on Open RAN.”
Thank you
Yasser added, “Thank you to the team at Intel Network Builders and the Intel Lab for their ongoing support and collaboration as we work together to deliver optimised world-class telecom network solutions, and enter the next phase together as a Member of the Winner’s Circle.”
Link to the official announcement on the Intel website.
In conversation with Yasser ElSabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder and System Integration Business Unit Director.
If you or your team would like to discover more about our System Integration capability, video and TCP optimisation, or other elements of mobile network optimisation, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .
Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.
Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.
About Intel® Network Builders
The Intel® Network Builders ecosystem program accelerates network transformation by connecting all of the players that are driving new solutions to the market, including service providers, end users, infrastructure, software and technology vendor.
The ecosystem offers members technical support technology training, technology matchmaking, co-marketing opportunities and more. These programs help companies to optimally utilize Intel technologies in their solutions, and facilitate joint collaboration.
As mobile data usage continues to increase globally, it becomes ever more vital to ensure that mobile network infrastructure is optimised to maximise data throughput efficiently and continue to deliver excellent customer Quality of Experience. This case study looks at some recent System Integration work Digis Squared delivered to a Tier One Operator in the Middle East, which achieved over 30% improvement in mobile data downlink throughput.
Data growth – why optimisation will always be vital
Forecasts of mobile data growth are based on difficult to imagine numbers: exabytes. 1EB = 1 exabyte = 1000000000000000000 bytes = 1,000 petabytes = 1 million terabytes = 1 billion gigabytes
Digis Squared comparison of global mobile data traffic forecasts, source data [1] and [2]
Whilst mobile data forecasts vary significantly – in the data set shown above, Ericsson and Cisco have a 75% variance in their 2026 forecasts – it is clear that mobile data traffic will increase significantly in the next 5 years.
With over 106 5G network launches so far globally [5], 5G is forecast to account for as many as 1.2 billion connections by 2025 [6], and the GSMA estimate over 20% of these mobile connections – a substantial amount of this mobile data traffic – will be carried over new 5G networks by 2026.
Global 5G network rollout, [5] [7]
Data varies by source, but today video traffic is estimated to account for over 60% of all mobile data traffic, and some forecasts project it will increase to 77% by 2026 [1]. Therefore, the ability to optimise mobile data traffic, particularly for video usage, is of great importance to Communication Service Providers (ComSPs), and this is primarily achieved via the optimisation of TCP.
Video & TCP optimisation: vital for delivering excellent customer QoE
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), is the key transport protocol for all internet traffic; it drives video streaming, file transfers, web browsing, and communications. Additionally, it establishes and manages traffic connections and congestion, handles transmission errors, and enables us to share resources with billions of connected devices, globally, simultaneously.
TCP is ever-evolving, to address new issues and continually improve optimisation as new technologies are deployed. Without efficient tuning, TCP can cause more optimisation issues than it solves. An optimised TCP implementation delivers increased goodput (lower error rate in data throughput), improved network efficiency, high TCP transfer speeds, lower retransmission rates, and more consistent TCP round-trip times – and who doesn’t want all of that?! All of this translates into improved Quality of Experience for customers, and as our expectations of device experience continue to rise, TCP becomes ever more vital.
With mobile data traffic rising exponentially, the increasing pace of 5G deployment, and growth in data-intensive video calls, video content and online gaming, the need for CSPs to optimise their network has never been greater.
Intel case study | Video & TCP optimisation for a Tier One Operator in the Middle East
In 2020 Digis Squared was selected by a Tier One Operator in the Middle East to manage the entire System Integration of end-to-end services and implementation for video and TCP optimisation on top of the packet core, over 3 core sites.
Yasser ElSabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder and System Integration Business Unit Director, explained that “Selecting Intel processors ensured we could confidently deliver the performance and reliable scalability that is vital for efficient and demanding TCP optimisation. Customers’ expectations of QoE continue to escalate. The pandemic has normalised video interactions far faster than any forecast. We are all experiencing more video calls for communication to mitigate lack of in-person interactions with friends, family, clients and colleagues due to lockdowns and changed working practices. Plus, there is far greater use of video on social media and content platforms as we try to alleviate boredom and entertain each other. As 5G rolls out, people will expect continued improvements – buffering, patchy connectivity, dropped video calls all immediately impact network reputation. Maintaining efficient and optimised TCP requires solutions built on expertise, investment and the right equipment.”
“Working for this Tier One client, the Digis Squared team project managed the integration of this solution, selecting and managing vendors, implementing all elements of hardware and software, and optimising the solution to deliver the maximum efficiencies across the data network.”
“The project delivered considerable benefits to the client, and end customers. The Digis Squared project team benchmark data measured,
a 27% increase in processing cores [3]
50% increase in bandwidth over previous generation Xeon processors [3]
30% down link throughput enhancement, thanks to the data traffic optimisation achieved. [4]
We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve for this client, knowing that their end-users will benefit from improved QoE that they can really see.”
In conversation with Yasser ElSabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder and System Integration Business Unit Director.
Additionally, it is available as a stand-alone white paper here.
If you or your team would like to discover more about our System Integration capability, video and TCP optimisation, or other elements of mobile network optimisation, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .
Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.
Yasser Elsabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder and System Integration Business Unit Director announced, “We are delighted to collaborate with Intel, and become a Partner within the Intel Network Builders ecosystem program, as we work together to deliver optimised world-class telecom network solutions.”
“Digis Squared joins Intel Network Builders ecosystem program and brings with it the deep experience and expertise of the Digis Squared team in ultra-reliable network configuration and optimisation. In addition to our commercial work on virtual network enhancements, our system integration capabilities are a great fit with Intel’s objective to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth. As the pandemic has brought into sharp focus, our ability to collaborate internationally, and nurture the health and well-being of colleagues, friends and family, relies on strong and reliable mobile network communications.”
To learn more about how the Digis Squared team can help you with multi-vendor network optimisation, reliable infrastructure configuration and more, please use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com.
Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.
Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.
About Intel® Network Builders
The Intel® Network Builders ecosystem program accelerates network transformation by connecting all of the players that are driving new solutions to the market, including service providers, end users, infrastructure, software and technology vendor.
The ecosystem offers members technical support technology training, technology matchmaking, co-marketing opportunities and more. These programs help companies to optimally utilize Intel technologies in their solutions, and facilitate joint collaboration.
