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New ITU standard to introduce Machine Learning into 5G networks

By Adeyemi Adepetun
28 August 2019   |   4:05 am
A new International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard has established a basis for the cost-effective integration of Machine Learning into 5G and future networks.

A new International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard has established a basis for the cost-effective integration of Machine Learning into 5G and future networks.

The standard ITU Y.3172 describes an architectural framework for networks to accommodate current as well as future use cases of Machine Learning.

Chairman of the ITU-T Focus Group on ‘Machine Learning for Future Networks including 5G’, Slawomir Stanczak, said Machine Learning will change the way people operate and optimize networks.

“Every company in the networking business is investigating the introduction of Machine Learning, with a view to optimizing network operations, increasing energy efficiency and curtailing the costs of operating a network,” Stanczak said, adding: “This ITU Y.3172 architectural framework provides a common point of reference to improve industry’s orientation when it comes to the introduction of Machine Learning into mobile networks.”

According to him, Machine Learning holds great promise to enhance network management and orchestration. He said Machine Learning can yield predictions to support the optimisation of network operations and maintenance.

He said this optimisation is becoming increasingly challenging, and important, as networks gain in complexity to support the coexistence of a diverse range of information and communication technology (ICT) services.

ITU said network operators aim to fuel Machine Learning models with data correlated from multiple technologies and levels of the network.

The United Nations body in charge of global communications, said network operators are calling for deployment mechanisms able to ‘future-proof’ their investments in Machine Learning. It noted that they are in need of interfaces to transfer data and trained Machine Learning models across functionalities at multiple levels of the network.

The ITU Y.3172 architectural framework is designed to meet these requirements.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, ITU, yesterday began a four-day 1st Digital African Week Conference in Abuja.

Hosted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the event which held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja brought together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, smart city planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts, the academia among others.

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/CEO of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said “this Conference is first of its kind and it will bring together everybody that has a role in the fast growing telecommunications industry in Africa.”

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