5G Delivery | EXFO launches intelligent network automation platform

EXFO Inc. the communications industry’s test, monitoring and analytics experts, has launched Nova Adaptive Service Assurance (Nova A|SA), the first intelligent automation platform enabling mobile network operators to deliver ultra-reliable, high-quality service experience in a 5G world.

To meet the needs of an industry in which operators have less than 2% visibility into customer experience, Nova A|SA automatically provides the right data at the right time to make sense of big data swamps and reveal previously invisible “little data” on individual user experience.

Unique in the industry, the platform integrates the relevant layers, domains and data sources, including from third parties and EXFO’s own portfolio of service assurance solutions.

At the heart of Nova A|SA, and also launched today, is Nova SensAI: a real-time automated assurance solution that acts as the central nervous system for the platform. The first of its kind to do so, Nova SensAI uses machine learning to analyze the relevant network layers, and provide operators with a comprehensive view of service performance. The solution reveals—and even predicts—previously “invisible” user-impacting events. Its capabilities also include pinpointing who was impacted, where and for how long as well as diagnosing the root cause of issues for rapid resolution.

These solutions were developed by EXFO in partnership with its customers to prepare for a 5G world in which connected devices, rather than cellphone subscriptions, are expected to drive 95% of new revenues for operators. According to the GSMA, there will be five times more connected devices than humans by 2025.

These new 5G machines will fuel Industry 4.0 and fulfill mission-critical applications as diverse as holographic augmented reality communications, real-time remote patient monitoring and synchronized production line robots.

In addition, most customers score their brand experience on network performance, and there is enormous commercial opportunity for operators who successfully deliver on the promise of 5G and win customer loyalty. However, they are facing unprecedented challenges:

· Operators are currently 98.7% blind to subscriber-impacting events, despite their best efforts. They are provided only with performance averages and aggregates, rather than per-subscriber problems with unique service experiences. It is only an approximate view of the health of their networks and how well they are performing.

· 91% of operators say they need service assurance automation to maintain control. As networks continue to virtualize, outages have escalated by 46% in the last three years alone, 65% of which originate in virtualized domains.

· Operations teams are stretched to the limit: On average, operator teams spend 67% of their time fixing network and service issues. Resolution effort and complexity of outages are increasing: it typically takes 12 people from three different teams over three hours to identify the root cause of each outage.

“The combination of more users, more connections, more apps and more convoluted networks has created a perfect storm of complexity for operators,” said Philippe Morin, EXFO Chief Executive Officer. “By delivering only the right data at the right time, Nova A|SA is a unique intelligent automation platform to provide operators with 100% visibility into user experience and network performance. We’re talking about operations teams being able to resolve issues in minutes rather than days—or preventing them entirely.”

“This is the new breed of service assurance the industry requires to deliver 5G successfully. Nova A|SA’s data-driven insights enable operators to proactively resolve network issues and deliver exceptional customer experience,” said Abdelkrim Benamar, EXFO Vice President of Service Assurance, Systems and Services. “The platform was built with the knowledge and expertise derived from the richness of EXFO’s portfolio, which includes fiber monitoring, active and passive service assurance from RAN to core and network topology. What we’re hearing from our customers is that this kind of adaptive service assurance will revolutionize their automated operations, service delivery and customer experience management.”