Role of AI in NFV ?

The aim of AI driven autonomous networks is to create a self driving network model with 3 features: agile devices, intelligent control and intelligent analysis

Developing a self-driving network is a long term process that we have divided into 5 phases.

1- AI knows “what happened”

2- AI can determine “why it happened”

3-AI can predict “what will happen”

4- AI judges” what measures need to be taken”

5- Full automation enables self-healing.

Surge in SDN and NFV deployments globally

According to a report by Global Market Insights, the SDN market is expected to grow from around $8 billion in 2018 to $100 billion by 2025.

Hack alert

·       According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), India is one of the most vulnerable countries with regard to cyber attacks.

·       The primary factors responsible for the increased risk to critical digital infrastructure is wider adoption of the internet, smartphones and other connected devices, growing digital interconnectivity across sectors and lack of awareness.

·       Among 60 countries, India is ranked 15^th in terms of cybersecurity.

·       Nearly 39% of these alerts remain unattended due to the lack of required skill sets according to a report by Cisco Systems.

·       In July 2018, an ATM scam was reported in Kolkata, which resulted in losses of over Rs 2 million, affecting more than 75 people.

·       In August 2018, criminals were accused of making fraudulent bank transfers by stealing SIM card information.

·       In the same month, Pune-headquartered Cosmos Bank lost nearly$13.5 million when anonymous hackers stole customer information by installing malware on the firm’s ATM server, and then conducted globally coordinated withdrawals in 28 countries.

·       The bank lost another $2 million when hackers made three unauthorized transfers to a Hong Kong-based company’s account.

·       Aadhar has also fallen prey to multiple breaches.

·       Further, since the digitalization of govt. operations, around 700 hacks into the state and central govt. websites have been reported in the LokSabha.

·       Government measures:

·       3 ways to secure national cyberspace

·       In 2008, Govt. enacted Information Technology(Amendment) Act, 2008—to cater to the cybersecurity needs of the country.

·       In 2013, the Govt. announced the National Cyber Security Policy with the aim of integrating all cybersecurity initiatives and tackling cybercrime.

oT will add $10 to $15 trillion to global GDP in the next 20 years.

           Software defined networking (SDN) and its  complementary technology network functions virtualization (NFV) are helping enterprises globally in improving the agility, automation capability, flexibility and interoperability of their network designs.

·       SDN helps create a virtualized network overlay, which allows the underlying network to quickly respond to network changes and forward traffic efficiently.

·             NFV allows the transition of traditional network functions such as load balancers, firewalls, subscriber policy management, and mobile radio access network from a physical hardware set up to a virtual network.

·           SDN and NFV deployments have started altering operational and service dynamics for telecom operators across the world.

·            Operators are increasingly using SDN an NFV to manage and provision network services from a centralized location, thereby enabling faster and cost-efficient delivery of on-demand applications with minimal disruption.

·       Besides, the bandwidth flexibility, programmability and automation capabilities of SDN and NFV are helping service providers monetize their range of services linked to the internet of things (IoT) and cloud infrastructure.

·                   The global SDN market is expected to grow from $8.8 billion in 2018 to $28.9 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.8%.

·          As per industry estimates, the size of the NFV market will reach $70 billion by 2024 driven by the growing adoption of mobility.

·              At present Bharti Airtel is using SDN/NFV to offer music and on-demand video services.

·              Vodafone Idea Limited is also running trials of SDN and NFV and plans to soon deploy these technologies commercially.

·       Enabling role of SDN and NFV in 5G roll-outs

·            SDN and NFV are expected to accelerate 5G deployment by addressing the major functional needs of 5G networks.

·        SDN and NFV will also help operators scale easily to support 5G expansion and configure their networks to allow seamless interaction among different services inside the core network.

·             NFV will play a critical role in the deployment of 5G services on the third party hosting infrastructures.

·         Meanwhile, SDN can be used to provide an overall framework to enable 5G to function across a normalized control plane.

·           Over the past 2 to 3 years wide-area network (SD-WAN) has emerged as the most popular application of SDN technology.

·       Key Challenges

·     For one until the migration to all virtual networks is completed, enterprises and services providers will have to deal with a combination of legacy networks and new virtualized networks to manage a multivendor environment

·  Further an enterprise cannot fully leverage SDN and NFV unless its operations support systems and business support systems are aligned with the new technologies.

·   On the technology front the lack of mature technology, consensus on multiple open source standardization initiatives and proven business cases also pose significant challenges.

5G Testing

It will bring a paradigm shift towards a user and application centric technology framework to support 3 key use cases:

1.) Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) supporting the ever-increasing end-user data rate and system capacity

2.) Massive machine type communications (mMTC) ensuring cost efficient and robust connectivity among billions of devices without overloading the network.

3.) Ultra – reliable low latency communication (URLLC) that supports the new needs of vertical industries like autonomous driving, remote surgery for eHealth and cloud robotics for Industry 4.0

                   

·       Therefore to get 5G equipment to market quickly, efficiently and economically, T&M vendors will have to work closely with top-tier equipments makers and the standards authorities to resolve technical challenges and provide T&M solutions that are fil for purpose and have a low cost of ownership.

·       5G Testing Scenario

·       Since both 4G and 5G technologies are based on OFDM, the existing equipment for 4G can often be upgraded , in some cases just with software to make them suitable for 5G.

·       This is the case with signal generators, and spectrum and signal analysers manufactured by leading T&M equipment vendors.

·       In other cases hardware evolution is required.

·       This is the case for eg. Vector network analysers, which are required to have multiport test capabilities to support massive multiple input, multiple output MIMO

Apple

Looking for a larger slice of the Indian Smartphone market

·       Apple forayed into the Indian mobile handset market in 2008 with its iPhone 3G smartphone.

·       According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s India sales increased from $100 million in 2011 to $1 billion by 2015

·       On the basis of this growth the company had set a goal of taking sales in the country to $5 billion by 2020.

·       As of 2018, Apple has achieved only $1.8 billion in India revenues.

·       According to Canalys, Apple market share in India has reduced from 2 % in 2017 to around 1% in 2018.

Underwater Wireless Communication 

It is possible for radio frequency waves to propagate longer distances through sea water at very low frequencies(30 to 300 Hz). But this requires larger antenna and higher transmit power. This is not feasible. Moreover very high attenuation occurs using RF wave propagation technique in the ocean.

Optical waves are also affected by scattering losses. Moreover they can be used for shorter distances in the ocean.

As underwater wireless communication is not feasible using radio frequency(RF) and optical light based communication systems, it is carried out using acoustic waves.

As mentioned in the table-1 below, underwater acoustic communication links are classified based on range. Table mentions bandwidths used for different ranges in this type of communication. Acoustic links used in underwater wireless communications are of two types viz. vertical and horizontal. This is based on direction of the sound ray. Acoustic frequencies from 10Hz to 1MHz are used in underwater wireless communication.

Link Type	Range in Km	Bandwidth in KHz
Very Long	1000	<1 td="">
Long	10 to 100	2 to 5
Medium	1 to 10	~ 10
Short	0.1 to 1	20 to 50
Very Short	<0 .1="" td="">	>100

Table-1: Acoustic communication range and bandwidth

There are two network topologies which can be used for underwater communication system viz. centralized and decentralized. In centralized architecture all the nodes(i.e. underwater(uw) sink) communicate using a central station(onshore sink or surface sink/station). Centralized architecture is very similar to cellular network architecture. In decentralized architecture, nodes communicate using their neighbors. Decentralized architecture is also known as adhoc network.

Underwater wireless communication network using acoustic waves

Figure-1 depicts centralized architecture of underwater communication system. As shown a group of sensor nodes are installed at the bottom of ocean. These nodes communicate with one or more underwater installed sinks(uw-sinks). These uw-sinks operate as relays between underwater nodes and surface station. As shown surface station communicates with surface sink and onshore sink using satellite links. Like land mobile communication, bottom area of ocean is divided into clusters. One uw-sink is installed or anchored in each of the clusters.

In order to achieve communication with both underwater nodes and also with surface station, uw-sink is equipped with two transceivers namely horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal transceiver provides communication between uw-sink and sensor nodes. Over these links commands/configuration data is sent from uw-sink to sensors. Moreover sensors collect the monitored data from uw-sink using these links. These horizontal transceivers are short range transceivers.

Vertical transceivers are used for long range communication between uw-sink and surface station as shown. These transceivers can cover distance of upto 10 km