In the current era, AI and 5G are generating a lot of hype due to their transformational potential. Both technologies are groundbreaking because they are applicable across a wide range of businesses and are likely to transform the way many of them operate. There are numerous areas where 5G and AI overlap and benefit from one another.
AI can assist increase 5G system speed and efficiency, while the proliferation of 5G connected devices can promote dispersed intelligence with continuing AI learning and inference improvements. While 10% of CSPs deployed commercialized 5G services in 2020, Gartner estimates that this number will rise to 60% by 2024, similar to the rate of adoption for LTE and 4G in the past.
What is 5G?
The fifth and most recent generation of wireless technology is known as 5G. It’s an upgrade from 4G and provides significantly quicker rates for everything we do online, including downloading movies and streaming music, as well as video calls and gaming.
“Generation” is what the “G” in 5G stands for. The first generation of cellular service was analog. The initial generation of digital cellular technologies was known as 2G. Speeds increased from 200kbps to several megabits per second thanks to 3G technology. Currently, 4G technologies offer rates of hundreds of megabits per second (Mbps) and even gigabits per second. Bigger channels for faster speeds, lower latency for better responsiveness, and the ability to connect more devices at once are all features of 5G.
Let’s take a look at how telecommunications businesses may take advantage of AI’s incredible capability in their 5G networks:
Benefits of AI to 5G Networks
Network planning and optimization
Telecom Providers will need to plan and operate their networks efficiently to meet increasing traffic needs and varying latency requirements in 5G networks. AI has the potential to provide insights into the network and user experiences. It can provide real-time visibility into customer interactions, allowing Telecom Providers to quickly adjust to changing network conditions and enhance performance while also lowering the overall effort required.
Huawei uses AI in every level of 5G network building to improve network planning accuracy and speed up deployment. Multiple data points from areas covering the 5G company, customers, and development of current tech are combined with machine learning and iterative computing to create plans for many occasions fast and efficiently.
Automation
Telecom Providers are making their 5G networks programmable and adaptable, allowing for the activation and delivery of on-demand services in a matter of seconds. AI is at the core of 5G automation, making judgments as a new service is activated and an old one is turned off. When AI is integrated into an automation platform, it can autonomously identify network faults, correlate them with past activities, and then take an action, leading to self-remediation.
Take the approach by Ericsson. The growing number of 5G applications places a variety of demands on networks, including availability, low latency, and security. As society becomes more sophisticated, more automation is required. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a subset of machine learning that is particularly well adapted to this task.
The approach used in RL is that the agent learns about the dynamics of the environment through a variety of interactions that might have good or bad effects based on how technically skilled they are.
Swisscom used RL to achieve a 20 percent reduction in cell downlink transmission power while gaining 5.5 percent throughput.
Improves customer service
Providing captivating customer experiences is an effective approach for Telecom firms to set themselves apart from the competition. Using AI-enabled chatbots or automated responses during customer support engagements to swiftly handle customer issues, providing round-the-clock service, and minimizing calls to call centers, is one way to help achieve this. Sentiment analysis, for example, can be used to assess a user’s emotion from textual and speech data, allowing the chatbot to direct the flow of talks accordingly. Many such instances show how AI not only improves customer experiences but also increases the likelihood of client retention.
Ooredoo Qatar uses Nokia’s customer engagement technology to improve digital engagement and customer services for its 3 million users.
Nokia’s customer engagement solution enables Ooredoo Qatar to better monetize 5G which includes AI capabilities for real-time processing and analysis of client data. It enables the service provider to supply the appropriate service at the right time. Ooredoo Qatar will be able to cut the time it takes to provide new services and promotions to its subscribers from days to minutes due to the Nokia solution.
As a result, Ooredoo can now deliver an offer to a specific target group shortly after a sporting event ends, for example. Nokia’s solution will enable Ooredoo Qatar to extract more value from customer data and deliver the best offer via the right channel at the right time when the subscriber requires it.
Home Surveillance
Artificial Intelligence of Things, or AIoT, is another area where AI enhances 5G. Home surveillance is one application of AIoT, which mostly communicates over Wi-Fi, with some devices integrating 4G LTE sim cards as an emergency backup. The problem is that it relies on a home broadband connection to upload video for processing and/or storage, as well as enough Wi-Fi access point coverage throughout the house.
Multiple video streams may be transferred to the cloud for storage and processing without overtaxing a home broadband link, and access point coverage is not a concern with 5G-enabled home surveillance systems.
Reduces interruptions and downtime
According to Verizon, While the majority of 5G network slicing and administration tasks are assigned to AI systems, 5G network automation reduces the risk of human error when provisioning and implementing networks at scale. Companies should be able to achieve greater service efficiencies with less interruptions and downtime. As network providers become more capable of proactively putting out fires at cheaper costs, customer service metrics should improve.
Conclusion
Telecoms are in a tight situation right now, with shrinking revenues, and demanding customers. They may, however, turn things around by introducing 5G, AI, and software-defined connectivity, altering their networks to provide quicker, smarter, and more efficient service to a rapidly growing base of consumers.