• Autonomous Networks Manifesto sets standards and best practice to speed up the adoption of autonomous networks to help ignite industry growth
• AIS, China Mobile, MTN Group, Orange and Telefonica commit to achieving level 4 autonomous networks by 2025
• 63 CSPs and vendors contribute to the new Autonomous Networks Journey Guide, demonstrating the latest case studies and developments using TM Forum standards

DTW23 – Ignite, Copenhagen, Denmark – TM Forum, the leading global alliance of telco and tech companies, today launched its Autonomous Networks (AN) Manifesto to accelerate the widespread adoption of ANs. At launch, the manifesto has 30 signatories from leading, global communication service providers (CSPs) and vendor companies. It marks an industry-wide commitment to enhance network resilience, agility and efficiency to underpin a new wave of telecoms growth. Specifically, CSP signatories will be able to accelerate their digital transformation, further monetize their networks, deliver outstanding customer experience and enable greater efficiencies through improved cost structures and increased asset utilization.

The 30 signatories are:

Accenture, AIS, Amdocs, China Mobile, China Telecom, Chunghwa Telecom, Ericsson, Futurewei, Huawei, IBM, Inspur, Intraway, Iquall Networks, Makman Technology Consulting, Microsoft, MTN Group, Netcracker, Nokia, NTT, Orange, SAS, Telecom Argentina, Telefonica, Telenor, Telkomsel, TTG International, UBiqube, Verizon, Wipro and Zain.

The founding AN Manifesto signatories have united under a common vision to rapidly accelerate the implementation and development of TM Forum’s ODA-aligned AN architecture. This includes intent in ANs, closed-loop-control, Open APIs and self-healing domains to accelerate the adoption of network automation. CSP signatories will also adopt the Autonomous Networks Levels Evaluation Methodology to assess current and future levels of network automation. The vendors have committed to building and marketing their products and capabilities in a manner consistent with the AN architecture, APIs and AN Levels.

Major CSPs around the world have already started their AN journeys:

• Orange has used the TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Business Requirements and Framework as part of its strategic target to automate network operations and maximize the value of its network infrastructure. It is measuring AN transformation using TM Forum’s AN levels, aiming to achieve level 4 for some processes by 2025 and is putting in place group-wide initiatives to deliver new on-demand network services, operating in network-as-a-service mode. This will create new business opportunities and strengthen the resilience and security of its networks by allowing faster operations. In addition, Orange believes greater automation will help the company to reduce network power consumption by up to 20%.
• MTN Group is implementing AN as part of its Ambition 2025 Strategy. All MTN operating companies are aligned with the company’s AN strategy and target architecture, which is based on TM Forum’s AN Framework, and are using TM Forum’s AN levels and evaluation methodology.

“Our vision for autonomous networks is to enable CSPs to unlock over $700bn of growth by accelerating digital transformation,” said Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice President, AI, Labs & Innovation at TM Forum. “Autonomous networks aim to provide zero-wait, zero-touch and zero-trouble customer experiences for vertical industry users and consumers. They do this through intelligent infrastructure, agile operations and all-inclusive services of fully automated networks and ICT. This masks complexity and makes services easier to consume. By providing a common framework and implementation methodology, we are enabling our industry to transform faster and enter a rapid period of revenue growth, coupled with greater efficiency”

“We strongly believe the network operating model needs to change dramatically to support new, agile business opportunities and leverage the full capabilities of 5G SA, slicing, cloud, edge and network-as-a-service,” said Laurent Leboucher, CTO and Senior Vice President of Orange Innovation Networks. “We have started our journey to achieve level 4 autonomy on two key processes: deployment and fault monitoring and maintenance. It’s an exciting journey for our team and partners to address the related challenges, reach the automation target and bring value for our customers.”

“Telefónica launched its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) in 2021. The goal is to strive for autonomy across the whole network & IT lifecycle, changing dramatically the current architecture, the way we manage data, the way we do things and the way we are organized. It is a complete revamp of our ways of working, but always keeping in the center our customers, security and sustainability.

We fully embrace the common vision presented in AN manifesto to rapidly accelerate the implementation and development of TM Forum’s ODA-aligned AN architecture,” said Enrique Blanco, Global CTIO, Telefónica.

A Guidebook for the AN Journey

To help its members on their AN journey, TM Forum has launched an end-to-end implementation toolkit for CSPs. The toolkit outlines best practice for deploying and managing AN operations in order to provide the greatest RoI and business value.

It has been created in partnership with 63 companies, of which some are already implementing AN operations into their processes. This includes China Mobile which is using AN to build the world’s largest private 5G network, resulting in more than $14 million in business growth for its private network customer, CATL; and MTN Group which has developed an all-optical autonomous-driven network and introduced the new “T-AUTO” concept to improve network reliability to 99.999% and reduced troubleshooting time from 8 hours to 15 minutes.

Autonomous Network Catalysts

To demonstrate its commitment to ANs, TM Forum will showcase 19 AN Catalysts at DTW23 – Ignite in Copenhagen, Denmark 19th-21st September 2023.

To find out more about TM Forum’s AN Manifesto, Catalysts or AN Toolkit, visit the TM Forum Industry Showcase stand at DTW23 – Ignite, or visit https://www.tmforum.org/opendigitalframework/introducing-ai-and-an/