During the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, Zhao Dong, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line and Chief Marketing Officer, unveiled the AI Network Opening Plan at the 5G-A & AI Roundtable. This ambitious plan aims to collaborate with global operators to significantly enhance network productivity by creating a wireless intelligent ecosystem founded on co-creation, co-existence, and co-growth principles.
Empowering Engineers and Expanding Coverage
The initial phase of the AI Network Opening Plan is set to empower 1,000 site engineers within six months. These engineers will manage over 10,000 sites across five cities: Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan, and Shenzhen. This marks a substantial step towards the plan’s goal of fostering a more efficient and intelligent network management system.
The Journey of 5G-A
Over the past three years, continuous innovation has transitioned 5G-A from a visionary concept to a commercial reality. With the first year of its commercial use underway, 5G-A has already achieved notable successes in network, service, and terminal applications. To address the increasing complexity of network operation and maintenance, Huawei has introduced the “Intelligent Network” strategy. This strategy focuses on creating a wireless intelligent body to revamp operation and maintenance, enhance user experience, and inject intelligence into the 5G-A network, thereby improving the quality and efficiency for operators.
Revolutionary Network Management
Huawei’s initiative includes the world’s first intelligent assistant for site engineers, designed to simplify and enhance their work. Leveraging extensive professional knowledge and experience, this assistant autonomously generates problem-solving strategies, significantly boosting operational and maintenance (O&M) efficiency. For instance, in optical path troubleshooting, repair efficiency can be improved tenfold.
Moreover, the wireless intelligent body enables autonomous network optimisation through multi-dimensional, high-precision real-time perception, generating and distributing strategies for optimal experience and energy saving. A pilot project has already demonstrated success, with 223 cells operating autonomously for thousands of hours.
Enhancing User Experience and Business Operations
Huawei’s AI-driven network approach also aims to diversify business experience management. Real-time evaluation of network resources facilitates zero-wait activation of new services and guarantees a deterministic experience, significantly enhancing user satisfaction. The ongoing 5G-A super live package pilot offers users guaranteed uplink experience rates, paving the way for innovative business models such as experience monetisation.
A Vision for the Future
Zhao Dong emphasised Huawei’s transition from a solution provider to a co-creator of intelligent networks for operators. “Through the symbiosis of intelligent entities and networks, we will provide operators with more extensive business value, accelerate the intelligent transformation of networks, and lead the wireless communications industry into a new intelligent era,” he stated.
The 2024 MWC Shanghai, held from June 26 to June 28, showcased Huawei’s advancements in 5G-A technology. With the first year of 5G-A commercialisation underway, and the dawn of F5G-A marked by 10G optical networks, the coordinated development of network, cloud, and intelligence is driving richer digital experiences and more pervasive intelligent applications. Huawei’s collaboration with global operators, industry leaders, and opinion makers is set to expand new revenue opportunities and accelerate progress towards an intelligent world.
