In a recent article, we posed many ideas about how future OSS solutions might be re-imagined. We looked into how new approaches and technologies like AR (Augmented Reality) might change solutions and ways-of-working in the near future. This article triggered a conversation about next-generation planning systems with a couple of very clever OSS, orchestration and integration experts.

This conversation thread convinced us to take a closer look at this very important field within telco businesses. When we say important, the larger telcos allocate billions on network upgrades and augmentations every year, and an optimised return on that investment is essential.

But here’s the twist. Our Blue Book OSS/BSS Vendor Directory now has well over 500 listings, but none (that we’re currently aware of) produce a solution that caters for the entirety of the planning challenge:

• New build / greenfield – identifying optimum allocation of capital for return on investment, not just for single network layers / domains, but across all
• Network change management (MACD)
  • Predicted – based on capacity exhaustion or under-use, upgrade / life-cycle management, in-fill builds, specific events (eg catering for large crowds), etc
  • Unplanned – based on won or lost orders, traffic engineering, ramifications of fault-fix activities, widespread damage such as weather events, temporary builds such as COWs (Cells on Wheels), etc
• Network performance optimisation – to cater for the changing demands on the network
• New infrastructure – to evaluate, select and then onboard new technologies, topologies, devices, etc

Nor do they go beyond the planning stage and consider a feedback loop that takes data and optimises planning across Plan, Design, Build, Operate and Maintain phases.

Current state of network / capacity planning tools

Whilst there don’t appear to be all-in-one planning solutions (please leave us a comment to correct us if we’re wrong), there are solutions that contribute to the planning challenge, including:

1. Traditional infrastructure planning and project management tools for PNI / LNI networks  (eg Smallworld, Bentley, Synchronoss, SunVizion, etc)
2. Automated design tools for generating physical access networks (eg Biarri, Synchronoss, SunVizion, etc). Some only do greenfields, but some are now beginning to cope with brownfields / in-fill designs too
3. Service design / planning tools by SOM / CPQ / etc types of solutions
4. SDN (Software Defined Network) planning and automation suites such as Rakuten Symphony for mobile networks
5. Many network performance tools that allow heat-mapping of network topology to show capacity / utilisation of devices, interfaces, gateways, load balancers, proxies, leased links, etc
6. Orchestration type tools that coordinate automated tasks as well as generating work orders for manual tasks (eg design and build)
7. Simulation tools of many sorts that allow network / service designs and configurations to be tested prior to implementation
8. Other tools that are not OSS or telco specific. This includes Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Computer Aided Design (CAD), data science solutions, demographic analyses, regression test suites, etc

Each of these solution sets are comprehensive in their own right. Combining them across all domains, dimensions and possibilities seems like a nearly impossible task – a massive variant-tree. This probably explains the dearth of all-in-one planning solutions.

Opportunities for next-generation network / service planning solutions

Despite the complexity of this challenge, it still leaves us with some really interesting unfulfilled opportunities, including solutions that support:

• Allocation of capital – at the moment, planning tends to be done with a very broad brush (ie update everything in this exchange area) rather than being more surgical in nature (eg, replace individual branches of a network that need optimising). This pulls on the lever of “easiest to plan” rather than “optimal use of capital / time / resources.” A more targeted approach may take up-to-date signals from finance, assurance, demographics, planning, fulfilment, field-worker / skills availability, spares / life-cycle, VIM, etc data feeds to decide best option at any point in time.
• Multi-technology mix – like so many other things in OSS, planning tools tend to work best within a single domain (eg fibre access networks), leaving opportunities for generic, cross-domain, multi-layer planning / design
• Seamless transition from planning, to design, to build instructions – there tend to be a lot of manual steps required to take a design and turn it into instructions for field workers to implement (eg design packs). AR and smart glass technology are likely to completely revolutionise the design-to-build life-cycle in coming years
• Sophisticated capacity prediction – so far, I’ve really only seen capacity planning in two forms. One, as a blunt instrument, such as performing link exhaustion analysis (eg if capacity is trending towards 80% utilisation threshold, then start planning additional capacity). Two, as a customised data science exercise. Sophisticated prediction modelling and visualisation tools could fulfil the opportunity to be more targeted (looping back to the “allocation of capital” point above)
• Scenario planning / modelling simulations – as we know, nobody can predict the future, but we can simulate scenarios that might give us hints about what the future will hold. A scenario pre-COVID could’ve been that we’re all forced or choose to WFH
• Auto-capacity scaling – particularly with SDN, having the ability to turn capacity up/down depending on utilisation in real-time (not to mention pre-planning based on time of day / week / month / special-occasions) across multi-domain networks. We helped design and build a rudimentary threshold-based, multi-domain traffic engineering module for an OSS provider back in 2008, so this capability surely exists in more sophisticated forms today. These days, this might not just consider standard metrics like throughput, utilisation, packet-drops, etc but perhaps even looks at optimisation by protocol / slice / service / etc across much larger network dynamics. But this is more aligned to SON solutions. To bring it back to planning, perhaps an opportunity relates more to policy / intent / guard-rail / shaping management?
• Dynamic pricing – as a result of the previous point, the ability to scale capacity up/down dynamically also provides the ability to provide dynamic pricing to incentivise  preferred customer usage patterns. With increasing focus on sustainability initiatives and energy reduction in the telco sector, smarter capacity allocation is sure to play a part
• Business continuity – Serious issues inevitably arise on every network. We have to expect the worst. This is no longer a case of only defend and protect, but we must also take a detect and recover mindset as well. We haven’t seen any tools that automate Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) to initiate recovery actions (eg switching entire network or segment profiles / configurations / capacities in certain scenarios) to ensure responses are rapid in crises yet though.
• Supply Chain Management – with more of the supply chain becoming software-defined, product catalogs potentially assimilate a long-tail of suppliers for telcos to easily build capacity and capabilities with (eg a marketplace of third-party CNF, VNF, API, etc). Allowing telco product teams to design sophisticated new offerings based on internal and third-party services (eg CFS / RFS)
• Auto Option Analysis – planning often involves considering more than one option and then making a choice on which is optimal. This multi-option approach consumes significant effort, with the unsuccessful options discarded, representing lost efficiency. An algorithmic approach to option analysis has the potential to consider “all” options and auto-generate a business case with options for consideration and approval (eg optimal design for costs, optimal design for implementation time, optimal reduction in risk, optimal minimisation of infrastructure, etc).

Summarising the planning opportunity

Network and capacity planning is a challenging, but vitally important aspect of running a communications network. Whilst there are existing tools and processes to support planning activities, there doesn’t appear to be a comprehensive, all-in-one planning solution. The complexity of building one to support many different client requirements appears to be a significant impediment to doing so.

Despite this, we have identified a number of opportunities for OSS solutions to help solve the planning challenge in new and innovative ways. But this list is by no means exhaustive.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. What solutions have we missed? What could be done differently? How would you tackle the planning challenge in innovative ways? Leave us your comment below.