C-NODE: Cloud-Native Orchestration of Distributed Services for network planning and optimisation

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on mobile network operations: 1) network loads have surged far beyond capacity; 2) network energy consumption has increased, resulting in a higher CO2 emission; and 3) engineers have limited access to sites, in particular, for in-building wireless networks, which has caused significant problems on network deployment and maintenance.

The above points emphasise that: 1) mobile networks must be able to adapt to changes; 2) the planning, commissioning, and operations of networks, need to be automated so that the number of physical site visits, can be minimised.

To this end, many what-if scenarios need to be carefully evaluated before changes of network parameters are commissioned. This calls for the development of 'perfect computer replicas of the real world' -- aka as a digital twin - reflecting the environment, the network components, and radio network simulation.

In this project, Ranplan will develop a digital twin of environment, network device and radio network simulation based on a microservice architecture to enable automatic network planning and optimisation in the cloud.

Mobile networks are a key enabler for economy, social connectivity, remote working/ teaching. As the use of network increase, so does energy consumption. Recent studies suggest that mobile networks will produce 320 million Tonnes of CO2 by the end of the current decade. Ranplan believes that the proposed project can enable 30% savings on mobile network CAPEX/OPEX, resulting in a substantial reduction of use of equipment and CO2 emissions.