Mobile network operators globally are inundated with network bandwidth issues emanating from events that hog the mobile bandwidth. These unplanned events and spontaneous spikes are as much a challenge for network planners as they are for the customer service desk, resulting in service erosion in specific hotspots which impact the customer experience. Service calls flood the call centers, overwhelm network agents and, depending on mean time to repair, may cause higher than normal customer churn rates.
Examples of severe performance degradation can regularly be seen in mass sporting events such as football champions league final or music festivals such as Glastonbury Festival etc. The concentration of fans in and around the event spaces using their phones for data-intensive activities (streaming, social media, video calls) can lead to congestion and slowdowns and impact customer experience.
Years of transformation by CSPs (Communication Service Providers) in Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Functional Virtualization (NFV) and investments into cloud platforms has significantly modernized the network stack. It has enabled relatively easier access to data and ability to automate network operations.
Despite the advancements and availability of multiple network monitoring systems, root cause analysis of network performance drops has largely been a manual intensive effort. The analysis normally involves several engineers and SMEs sifting through logs, trouble tickets and reports to converge on the exact cause. This is time consuming and requires close coordination across various parts of the organization, traversing disparate systems and processes, thus delaying the resolution.
GenAI's unique ability to leverage NLP for processing structured and unstructured data, identifying patterns and generating coherent summaries and dynamic visualizations presents a transformative opportunity for the industry.
We at HCLTech recognized this opportunity to create an AI led solution that addresses the above network challenges and offers a user friendly conversational interface to customers across different personas.
NetSight: Decoding network complexities
HCLTech NetSight is powered by Gemini for Google Cloud solution, developed to optimize network performance. NetSight is a GenAI partner for the engineering team, capable of analysing vast amounts of data in real-time to identify anomalies, pinpoint root causes and provide valuable assistance to proactively resolve issues that impact customers. NetSight can bring predictive insights based on historical demand patterns, ticket logs and external sources of data and correlates faults from fault management systems with network performance spikes.
NetSight solution brings market differentiated features and functionality to mobile network operators:
- Dynamic reporting and issue summarization: NetSight generates visualization graphs and reports dynamically, providing network teams with a clear and detailed understanding of network performance issues. The solution summarizes complex network issues noting severity, providing timelines and identifying key impacted areas.
- Real-time anomaly detection and root cause analysis: NetSight leverages advanced machine learning algorithms to continuously analyze network data streams to detect anomalies in near real-time. Whether it's an unexpected latency spike or an unusual traffic pattern, NetSight instantly identifies these deviations. NetSight doesn't just flag issues; it delves deeper into pinpointing the root cause, leveraging its knowledge base and understanding of network behavior. It then goes on to correlate any mass events in the network cluster with performance spikes. This feature significantly reduces diagnostic time which enables faster resolution and minimizes the impact of service disruptions on the customer's quality of experience (QoE).
- Proactive recommendations and network configuration modifications: NetSight suggests specific corrective actions, such as recommending modifications to the network configuration. This eliminates time-consuming trial and error, reducing the time required to restore optimal network performance.
By implementing NetSight, mobile network operators (MNOs) can:
- Enhance network performance: Proactive issue resolution and optimization improve network stability, reliability and overall performance.
- Reduce operational costs: Automation and intelligent insights help optimize resource allocation, minimize downtime and reduce operational expenses.
- Improve customer experience: Enhanced network performance translates into a better quality of experience for customers, fostering loyalty and driving revenue growth.
- Drive data-driven decision-making: NetSight's real-time insights empower operators to make informed decisions based on data, leading to more effective network management and strategic planning.
- Gain a competitive edge: In a rapidly evolving market, embracing GenAI-powered solutions like NetSight allows telecom operators to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate themselves through superior network performance and customer satisfaction.
- Nurture new talent: Experienced engineers want to maintain their market value by using new technologies like GenAI. Engineers often report they take new jobs to learn about and use new technology.
To learn more about NetSight visit https://www.hcltech.com/cloud/google-cloud.
