Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 45 | Page 77

/////////////////////////////////////////////////// t cht lk UNLOCKING INTELLIGENCE WITH THE ADAPTIVE NETWORK With network operators under increased pressure to maximise efficiency and scale up to meet the ever-growing bandwidth demands, Virginie Hollebecque, Vice President and Managing Director for Western Europe and Middle East at Ciena, tells us how the autonomous network enables cost savings and increases in efficiency. W ith the imminent arrival of high- speed 5G networks, the advent of the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics, network operators in the Middle East are under increased pressure to maximise efficiency and scale up to meet the ever-growing bandwidth demands. The gathering momentum behind Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) and individual Virtual Network Functions (VNF) is helping mobile network operators move out of rigid proprietary environments. The resulting automation of network-related processes enables cost savings and increases in www.intelligentcio.com efficiency. The autonomous network is a trend that has been building for some time. They run with nominal human intervention and can configure, monitor and maintain themselves independently. This is ideal from a cost-saving perspective but is less useful from an innovation standpoint. To enable innovation, networks must also be adaptive. An adaptive network enables service providers to evolve their current infrastructure into a communications loop that relays information from network elements, instrumentation, users and applications to a software layer for review, analysis and action, rather than bogging down the network itself. “ THE ADAPTIVE NETWORK MUST SCALE FROM BOTH CAPACITY AND OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES. INTELLIGENTCIO 77