Gaurav Mohan, VP Sales, SAARC & Middle East, NETSCOUT, explains why AI is the key to 5G technology’s success.
The UAE is moving full steam ahead toward 5G, with Abu Dhabi ranking amongst the fastest cities to adopt 5G globally. While 5G promises better prospects for accessibility and convenience, it is important to understand what is needed to assure its success.
According to Bruce Kelley, CTO and Senior Vice President of NETSCOUT, 5G is a ‘data fire hose’. The analogy of a fire hose captures the speed at which a 5G network receives data. However, it also points to the ongoing difficulty of handling vast amounts of data. The volume of data generated by 5G is only going to grow. According to research from McKinsey & Company, the shortfall of data scientists in the United States alone will reach a quarter-million by 2030. This problem is reflected regionally, as only one-third of UAE firms have teams of data scientists allocated. Simply put, 5G is pulling generating data at a rate with which humans cannot keep up. One way to bridge this gap is through artificial intelligence (AI).
AI will help organizations using 5G networks, by automating routine, time-consuming, and laborious jobs and allowing for the identification of network events that people cannot detect. The UAE’s continuous investment into AI over the past ten years puts the country at a significant advantage in this respect.
Here are seven reasons 5G needs AI to succeed:
1. Optimum customer experiences. To ensure consistent customer experiences, AI can be applied to vast amounts of data to evaluate swiftly, apply reason, data fit, cluster, and optimize findings in a reliable and impactful manner.
2. Exponential data growth. The Internet of Things (IoT) will propel the exponential rise of 5G data from the factory floor to autonomous vehicles, and each IoT device sensor will lead to additional data. AI modules can optimize this vast volume of data to achieve intelligence for business benefit.
3. Diagnostic checklists. A complicated 5G infrastructure could raise a slew of issues. Diagnostic checklists can be automated using AI to facilitate quick troubleshooting of issues such as video quality, latency issues, and audio gaps, allowing staff to focus on higher-value activities for which they are more qualified.
4. Always-on remote operations. Because of the dramatic changes in network service demands and operational processes resulting from the global COVID-19 epidemic, remote operations are critical (e.g., the need for social distancing). AI can automate tedious jobs and improve coordination in-person or over the internet, making 5G networks scalable for the future workplace.
5. Predictive and proactive networks. The 5G ecosystem is drastically more complex than prior technology iterations. Distinct from the varied group of players—service providers, core and edge cloud providers, and enterprises—5G requires diverse and multidimensional session elements, from location to software version, device type, etc. AI routines can quickly navigate the complexity of the 5G networks—and do so more accurately than human recognition can—yielding more-predictive and proactive networks and resulting in viable universal enterprise-grade mobile networks.
6. Cybersecurity and automatic detection. Vectors for attacks have the potential to significantly increase in a decentralized 5G network due to a large attack surface and applications hosted at the “edges.” The applications at the edge are more difficult to protect. Implementing AI modules is vital for supporting automatic detection of potential tampering for 5G-sensitive applications.
7. Visibility and organizational culture. From different cloud categories (public, edge, and so on) to service types, a broad 5G universe must incorporate a visibility strategy with end-to-end capabilities into all AI modules for 5G network components (e.g., video and IoT). Transitioning persons and processes from manual to more automated approaches is likely to present cultural issues. Comprehensive visibility can aid with a seamless and progressive transition from 4G to 5G by providing actionable insights. To get the most out of 5G, businesses should look for a vendor with deep domain understanding across various disciplines who can help them integrate AI into their networks.
Understanding the benefits of AI and its impact on 5G technologies will help governments and companies alike make decisions concerning the size and type of investment to put into developing both technologies and the bond between them. Within the Gulf region, emphasis has been placed on the betterment of both innovations, but only after leveraging the relationship between AI and 5G technologies will the GCC be able to maintain and advance in its position as a leader in technological advancements within the Middle East.
