Modernizing telecom networks with AI-powered Azure for Operators

I’m wanting ahead to becoming a member of our clients and companions at Cell World Congress (MWC), February 26 to February 29, 2024, in Barcelona. Developments in generative AI proceed to speed up the tempo of business transformation, with telecommunications rising as a pacesetter in AI adoption.

Learn the weblog Accelerating Telco Transformation within the Period of AI by Jason Zander, Government Vice President, Strategic Missions and Know-how, to find out how operators are utilizing Microsoft’s AI and Copilot options to raise buyer experiences, streamline enterprise operations, monetize 5G investments, and modernize their community.

On this weblog, I’ll share plenty of thrilling updates about our Azure for Operators portfolio of cloud-based options that allow operators to drive innovation and effectivity within the community. We’re proud to announce an increasing buyer base and the infusion of AI throughout Azure for Operators merchandise.

Modernize networks with a hybrid carrier-grade platform and AI-powered automation and insights

Deep integration of the community with the Azure cloud is basis to utilizing AI-powered automation and insights to unlock improved effectivity, scalability, safety, and reliability. Because the common availability announcement of Azure Operator Nexus—our service grade, hybrid platform, our progress contains:

• Extra Operator Nexus deployments supporting 5G standalone roll outs as main platform.
• Increasing capabilities to handle nationwide safety necessities in a number of areas.
• Rising assist for widespread operational necessities and refining strategy to the DevSecOps fashions supporting multi-vendor community operate deployments.
• Extra type components to assist RAN and extra workloads.
• As a service mannequin to assist buyer and associate lab deployments in Microsoft datacenters.
• Expanded Nexus Prepared program with over 20 licensed companions and over 80 community features.

Operator Nexus allows operators to run workloads on-premises or on Azure, seamlessly deploying and managing all the pieces from the naked metallic to the community to the tenant. Objective-built for and validated by tier 1 operators to run mission-critical workloads, Operator Nexus:

• Accelerates time to marketplace for new companies.
• Lowers complete price of possession (TCO).
• Drives operational effectivity and resiliency.
• Critically, improves the safety of extremely distributed, software-based networks.

“As a part of e& UAE’s transformation to turning into a digital telco we’re excited to collaborate carefully with Microsoft as we drive innovation in our companies and excellence in our buyer expertise. Using Azure Operator Nexus and Azure Operator 5G Core to assist our core community will higher allow us to leverage the ability of AI and automation and supply new avenues for monetization.”

—Khalid Murshed, Chief Know-how and Info Officer, e& UAE.

“AT&T is transferring to the following section of our cloud migration that features deploying Microsoft’s Azure Operator Nexus platform in our community as a part of the following section of our 5G SA deployment. Persevering with its management in cloud networking, AT&T is utilizing cloud native DevOps instruments to drive enhancements reminiscent of one-touch deployment, vendor-agnostic framework, CI/CD integration, automated community testing, in-service upgrades, and superior safety and compliance administration. Azure Operator Nexus’ API-driven answer helped us to considerably simplify, automate, and enhance the deployment cycle time for cloud infrastructure software program and configuration in our information facilities.”

—Yigal Elbaz, Senior Vice President, Community CTO.

Learn our tech group weblog to be taught extra about Azure Operator Nexus.

AI-enabled insights for operators

Azure Operator Insights and Copilot in Azure Operator Insights empower operators to drive effectivity, pace, and accuracy in community operations. Copilot in Azure Operator Insights, now in restricted preview, represents a game-changer for community engineers. Copilot in Azure Operator Insights will empower community engineers to spend extra time fixing and fewer time diagnosing buyer issues by effectively figuring out, mitigating, and resolving community points. This service brings operator-focused gen AI-infused product allows operators to maneuver from reactive, to proactive, and predictive community administration. Community well being may be repeatedly monitored throughout a number of underlying administration methods, permitting for anomalous well being metrics to be detected and the interplay of complicated companies to be extra simply visualized. Community well being alerts proactively inform the LLM-based prompts, accelerating the flexibility to mitigate utilizing recommendations analyzed from information sources reminiscent of product manuals, assist web sites, consumer boards, and troubleshooting guides. Collected experiences are used to additional tune the AI mannequin utilizing data maintained within the operator’s subscription.

Right now, Azure Operator Insights and Copilot in Azure Operator Insights are delivering AI-infused insights to drive community effectivity for purchasers like 3UK and taking part companions together with Amdocs, Accenture, and ServiceNow.

Azure Operator Insights removes information silos and delivers actionable enterprise insights by enabling the gathering and evaluation of huge portions of community information gathered from complicated multi-vendor community features. Leveraging ingest and question expertise designed to assist Azure itself, Azure Operator Insights can analyze information streams sized at a number of petabytes per day in timeframes that can’t be achieved with standard toolsets. Operator Insights helps operators deal with complicated eventualities reminiscent of community well being, efficiency, safety, end-to-end buyer expertise, and operations effectivity.

Azure Operator Insights makes use of a contemporary information mesh structure enabling complicated domains to be damaged into manageable sub-domains referred to as information merchandise that combine huge datasets from completely different sources and distributors. This new functionality, information product manufacturing unit, allows operators, community tools suppliers, and answer integrators to develop distinctive information merchandise that may be revealed to Azure Market or for particular person buyer use. We’re excited to be working with Accenture and Amdocs as our preliminary collaborators with the Azure Operator Insights information product manufacturing unit.

“3UK is utilizing Azure Operator Insights to leverage the newest AI developments by way of the Copilot in Azure Operator Insights product. That is an thrilling growth that brings collectively the newest in generative AI and helps our dedication to raised connectivity, daily, for each buyer.”

—Iain Milligan, Chief Community Officer, 3UK.

Go to our tech group weblog for extra use instances.

Trendy cellular packet core

Azure Operator 5G Core, now in public preview, is designed to fulfill the evolving wants of cellular community operators, providing a totally containerized carrier-grade, any-G, hybrid cellular packet core with absolutely built-in community features that run on-premises or in-cloud. It’s a fashionable structure confirmed within the area at scale based mostly on acquired packet core expertise from our Affirmed Networks acquisition.

Key options since non-public preview embody:

• Inline consumer airplane companies present operators with environment friendly community useful resource utilization in a lowered footprint whereas bettering general consumer expertise.
• APIs for repeatable and constant automation for fast, error-free service rollouts.
• Micro service structure helps 2G to 5G in single deployment.
• Containerization drives excessive efficiency and effectivity.
• Built-in with cloud-based companies for zero belief safety, AI based mostly automation, and superior analytics.
• Speedy time to market with DevSecOps-based strategy.

For extra details about these enhancements for Azure Operator 5G Core, go to our tech group weblog.

Safety and compliance for telecom workloads

We’re dedicated to supporting our clients’ safety and compliance obligations. In deepening our dedication, now we have joined the GSMA Community Gear Safety Assurance Scheme (NESAS) to assist make sure the safety and compliance of our merchandise. Particular to the UK (UK), we assist the UK Telecoms Safety Assurance (TSA) code of apply.

“We’re delighted to welcome Microsoft Azure for Operators to the Community Gear Safety Assurance Scheme (NESAS). By becoming a member of NESAS, Microsoft demonstrates its management to offering safe and reliable options for the telecom business. NESAS gives a typical safety framework that enhances transparency and confidence within the community tools provide chain. We sit up for working with Microsoft and different members of the scheme to advance the safety and reliability of telecom networks world wide.”

—Samantha Kight, Head of Trade Safety, GSMA.

Monetize 5G investments and improve buyer experiences with fashionable linked functions

For operators, the flexibility to monetize a differentiated community expertise requires exposing key capabilities to builders and ISVs, whose efforts speed up the event of recent linked functions, dashing adoption, and worth creation. The bulletins on this part make it potential for operators to monetize AI, programmable community, and edge compute.

Saying Azure Operator Name Safety in public preview

We’re asserting a brand new service that makes use of AI to guard shoppers from phone rip-off calls. Azure Operator Name Safety makes use of real-time evaluation of voice content material, alerting shoppers when there’s suspicious in-call exercise. Operator Name Safety works on any endpoint (cellular or landline) and is totally network-derived (no app obtain required) making for easy monetization of the service as both a premium function or a part of a service bundle. It’s constructed on Azure Communications Gateway, which allows connectivity between an operator voice community and Microsoft Groups and different cloud communication companies. Operators taking part in preview embody British Telecom Group and Far EasTone.

“We’ve already carried out varied measures to guard our buyer base from many hundreds of thousands of rip-off calls and texts, however with fraud a rising drawback within the UK, we’re at all times taking a look at how we will take shopper safety to the following stage. That’s why we’re collaborating with Microsoft to pilot Azure Operator Name Safety and analyze how, through the use of superior (AI) capabilities, we will additional improve our defenses towards fraudulent exercise.”

—Reza Rahnama, MBE, MD Cell Networks, BT Group.

Go to our tech group weblog for extra details about Azure Operator Name Safety.

Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC) is now out there in public preview as an Azure service. Now absolutely built-in into the Azure Market, APC empowers operators to commercialize their community APIs and simplifies their entry for builders. APC gives seamless entry to Open Gateway for builders to create cloud and edge-native functions that work together with the intelligence of the community. By offering a unified, customary interface throughout operator networks, builders can create cloud and edge-native functions that work together with the intelligence of networks.

We’re actively collaborating with world operators integrating their community APIs to develop a robust associate ecosystem (reminiscent of AT&T, BT, Claro, Deutsche Telekom, MEO, Orange, Rogers, Singtel, Telefonica, T-Cell, TIM Brasil, Verizon, and Vivo). We additionally proceed working with community expertise companions and community programmability aggregators, reminiscent of Ericsson and Vonage, in addition to Nokia and Nokia’s Community as Code platform, making concrete progress accelerating the ecosystem on community programmability.

“Verizon’s community APIs allow builders to create new experiences, ease ache factors in buyer interactions, and enhance buyer safety by enabling entry to Verizon community APIs by way of Azure’s APC, builders throughout the globe can profit from Verizon’s deep data of the information setting and expansive community useful resource.”

—Srini Kalapala, Senior Vice President of Know-how and Product Improvement, Verizon.

Learn the way APC is revolutionizing the best way builders work together with community API companies and find out how enterprises are making the most of network-aware functions.

Azure non-public MEC allows operators to assist fashionable linked functions with high-performance, ultra-low-latency edge options. Listed here are a couple of examples of how enterprises are reworking operations with 5G:

• Noble Company, one of many largest offshore drilling contractors on this planet, is deploying Azure non-public MEC to offer mobility options for the crew whereas growing effectivity. “With Tampnet’s Personal Offshore Community and Azure non-public MEC, onsite connectivity is now not a problem for Noble. Related employees, and secure and safe networks are accelerating implementation of digital initiatives for improved offshore operations.”—Juan Vesga, OTG Undertaking Supervisor, Noble Company.
• Trinity Broadcast Networks (TBN), has put in a personal 5G community deployment from our associate, Trilogy NextGen Networks, within the Dallas-Fort Price metroplex. “As the brand new dwelling for a lot of of TBN’s hottest information and leisure packages, in addition to ‘Dr. Phil Primetime,’ it was important to create a facility that delivers the final word state-of-the-art expertise. Our partnership with Trilogy NextGen helps us invigorate the world of broadcasting, as we push the boundaries of content material creation to encourage, inform, and uplift audiences world wide.”—Russell Corridor, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, TBN.
• 5G PORTAL–the Offshore Renewable Power (ORE) Catapult, along with Microsoft and a wider consortium of companions, have created an offshore 5G geared up testbed, masking the Port of Grimsby and the  operational Lynn and Inside Dowsing Wind Farm.

Increasing associate ecosystem for contemporary linked functions

Our companions are actively growing fashionable linked functions that run on Azure non-public MEC. We have now onboarded greater than 20 ISVs and dozens of SI and operator companions. Be taught extra under about a few of the new associate options out there on Azure Market.

• Glartek’s Augmented & Related Employee platform makes use of AR to assist enterprise operations.
• Scenera’s MAIstro software program as a service (SaaS) presents a complete answer for orchestrating AI analytics seamlessly from edge to cloud.
• Tampnet’s offshore non-public networks present safe connectivity for offshore operators and vessels.
• Taqtile Manifest® Blended Actuality Work Instruction Resolution leverages combined actuality to enhance operational workflows.
• T-Cell’s 5G Superior Community Options gives “right-sized” options for enterprises.
• Zebra Applied sciences Company’s Workcloud Communication platform allows safe and dependable communication for front-line employees.

See how ISV companions are powering AI-enabled functions.

Get began in the present day

Microsoft and our ecosystem companions are constructing a really “higher collectively” structure that holistically addresses the wants of community operators as they remodel their networks. Wanting forward, we stay dedicated to being probably the most trusted co-innovation associate by way of each stage of the digital evolution, working with operators and enterprises to future-proof networks and unlock new income streams in a cloud- and AI-native future.

Invitation to operators, system integrators, and community managers

Invitation to enterprises, builders, and ISVs

• Whether or not you’re an enterprise seeking to leverage our options, a developer desperate to create network-aware functions, or an utility ISV in search of to collaborate with Microsoft on MEC options, we invite you to take the following step. Enroll now to affix us in constructing the way forward for telecommunications with Azure for Operators.
• To find out how Microsoft helps organizations embrace 5G with fashionable linked functions, join information and updates delivered to your inbox.