The telecom industry, a prime requirement of the current globally connected world, is persistently under pressure to reduce its energy consumption. Sustainability, being the need of the hour in every field, is forcing the telecom industry to transform its operations from conventional mode to contemporary one. This article presents a better insight into the phenomenon by emphasizing the importance of Actionable Intelligence.
Actionable Intelligence platform integrates many agile technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Data Analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT). Actionable Intelligence, on the other hand, allows the system an ability to take necessary actions based on the data gathered. It helps to speculate the feasible threats that can hinder the efficiency of mission critical facilities, and aids in developing a suitable strategical plan to mitigate them.
Driving Actionable Intelligence into Action
Advanced sensors and IoT-enabled smart meters deployed at the site can precisely measure different operational parameters like fuel consumption, power dissipation, and battery voltages. This information is subjected to rigorous analysis to obtain the patterns of real-time demand, momentary data traffic, battery operational time, propagation loss, energy consumption, and network resource availability. The processed data can then be transferred to the operators in real-time.
Such Actionable Intelligence greatly facilitates human analysis as it increases transparency along the operational lane, and thus helps to mitigate errors. If any deviation is observed from the ideal condition, corrective calibration actions can be quickly undertaken from remote operating points. This automates the process of network-tuning, avoiding regular physical visits to the site. It in turn reduces the demand for testing and maintenance, associated transportation, and fuel costs.
When data analytics combines with the field of AI, unexpected system faults can be predicted well in advance. The real-time alerts generated can help to reduce the cost and time required to correct the system behavior. AI can even determine fraudulent behavior better than humans by eliminating many false positives. This aids in determining the most-likely data breaching and thus acts as a potential bottleneck for cybercrimes. The direct influence of this would be increased customer satisfaction and trust.
AI can be utilized in telecom industry right at the stage of network planning. Its ability to detect the paths with minimum propagation delays can be exploited to build an optimally configured network that assures huge energy savings. Once built, AI can be used to make quick, automated decisions of determining the parts of the system that can be temporarily put into sleep mode. These real-time decisions made based on data traffic minimize the power consumption without trading for efficiency.
Furthermore, AI can help build efficient telecom networks that make use of virtually operating cloud-based devices. This eliminates the need for custom dedicated hardware as the systems can be shared on a need basis. Further, the data transfer would be quick and efficient enabling instantaneous response to the customer-based requests. The result would be a huge reduction in power utilization leading to minimized carbon emission, lower capital costs, and reduced operational costs.
How can PLC Group help?
Instead of fighting the battle of de-carbonization and sustainability alone, the telecom industry can pair up with Actionable-Intelligence-as-a-Service (AIaaS) providers like PLC Group. Its Actionable Intelligence platform is a data-driven, subscription-based module that offers a comprehensive end-to-end solution that completely automizes the telecom network. It demands no additional hardware and completely integrates with the existing system components to collect precise data at a large scale.
This AIaaS module encompasses an extensive data analytics tool that helps to take quick real- time decisions. This helps to reduce energy consumption, fine-tune the network components, optimally manage the network resources, correct malfunctioning systems, plan the inventory, improvise cooling mechanisms, provide precise forecasting, enhance network efficiency, and produce accurate budgets. The result will be reflected as considerable savings in capital and operational expenditure, moving the telecom industry towards carbon neutrality and self-sustenance.
Conclusion
Despite being a highly energy-demanding industry, telecommunications still has the provision to reduce its carbon footprint and ensure sustainability. However, this demands a transformation in the telecommunication culture that enables the embracement of cutting-edge technologies facilitating a paradigm shift to an Actionable Intelligence platform.
