How to Unleash Digital Transformation with Network Modernization

Competition is fierce across today’s telecommunications landscape. Communications service providers (CSPs) operating legacy equipment networks find themselves competing not only with greenfield fiber and fixed wireless network operators, but also entirely new network technologies such as low earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband networks. With competitors all around — and even above them — CSPs are under pressure to offer innovative services to attract new subscribers.

As a result, digital performance, speed and agility are more critical than ever. Yet, as CSPs strive to introduce next-generation services, many often fail to deal with legacy network equipment that is holding them back. With infrastructure nearing end-of-life, or already past it, this equipment takes up valuable floor space, power availability and HVAC resources.

In addition to being costly, maintaining outdated equipment limits CSPs' capabilities to adopt profitable new digital technologies due to capacity constraints, outdated technology and oversized equipment. Specifically, legacy equipment is difficult to scale horizontally, outdated technology cannot communicate with agile cloud-native controllers, and oversized equipment consumes valuable central office (CO) space, hindering new infrastructure deployment. Implementing network modernization enables the digital transformation required to deliver next-generation services, but how can these operators achieve this while minimizing costs and improving performance?

Network modernization is key to achieving the digital transformation required to deliver next-generation services. To achieve this, it is essential not only to refresh the infrastructure, but also to modernize the element management system (EMS) and network element (NE) craft tools that support operations. Legacy EMS/NE craft tools limit network scalability and performance, as well as increasing security risks. EMS/NE craft tool consolidation maximizes the effectiveness of network modernization by streamlining operations and enabling integrated network management.

Focus on sustainable progress

As artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI continue to become more mainstream, network operators have an ideal opportunity to enhance profitability by implementing intelligent automation. This transition to a smarter network enables reduced churn and greater cost-efficiencies resulting from predictive maintenance, advanced network management and an optimized customer experience.

Yet, outdated infrastructure nearing end-of-life most likely has network components that are no longer supported by the original manufacturer, which means that CSPs are missing out on software updates and component upgrades that are a key aspect of digital transformation. This increases the risks of extended service outages and security breaches as well.

Furthermore, legacy network architecture is costly to maintain, occupying valuable floor space, while consuming massive amounts of power and producing excessive heat. In recent years, CSPs have seen increases in energy costs outpacing sales growth by 50 percent or more. And with the demand for increasing network densification, as well as the growing reliance on AI-powered applications among both consumers and businesses, power consumption will make up an increasing percentage of operating expenditures (OpEx).

Continuing to operate older, inefficient equipment not only drains energy resources, but also hinders CSPs’ efforts to meet sustainability objectives. Plus, many state and local governments have enacted various laws aimed at specific greenhouse gas reduction targets, with considerable fines levied for non-compliance with these emissions regulations.

Empower business evolution

Although increasing OpEx costs are a primary concern for CSPs in today’s competitive telecommunications market, other factors related to operating outdated equipment can have a significant impact on business profitability. An equally important consideration is the ability to deliver the latest in-demand digital services and fast data speeds to satisfy customers.

Because legacy components tend to perform less efficiently, they typically operate well below maximum traffic capacity, with numerous ports sitting idle. Due to this unused capacity, CSPs may be challenged at times to meet peak bandwidth and performance requirements, diminishing customer experience and contributing to subscriber churn as well as higher total cost of ownership (TCO).

Additionally, with the growing frequency and severity of cyberattacks, network integrity and resiliency are increasingly critical in order to bolster cybersecurity. Operating outdated infrastructure that is no longer receiving software updates can greatly increase network vulnerabilities, particularly in a multi-vendor architecture.

By replacing legacy infrastructure, CSPs can leverage advanced networking solutions empowered by increased virtualization, containerization and microservices, enabling new levels of scalability, flexibility and cloud migration. This paradigm shift empowers delivery of next-generation services and an optimized customer experience, as well as helping to improve efficiency and security, reduce operating costs, save space and conserve power.

Plan true transformation

Starting with a comprehensive network modernization and consolidation plan is a key step to enable a smooth digital transformation process. It’s important to define business priorities, key performance indicators (KPIs) and expected outcomes. With a thorough plan and a frank assessment of future needs, the network manager can ensure that the end result is a modern network operating at peak performance and maximum efficiency.

For the most part, the details of an implementation plan will largely depend on the project size and business goals. For example, the objective might be to meet sustainability goals, or to execute a larger system-wide network modernization strategy. Is there a desire to vacate a network site to reduce costs? By reselling legacy equipment, reclaiming equipment spares and giving up the lease on under-utilized real estate, CSPs can quickly realize savings.

Whether performing a modernization project or site exit, migration of live traffic presents challenges. Planning should include the collection and analysis of network data, such as regional traffic needs, to ensure the best overall traffic consolidation strategy. Once the traffic analysis is complete, implementation can be performed either sequentially or in parallel.

Management system upgrades

In addition to hardware updates, a comprehensive network modernization project should also encompass needed software updates as well. As the number of legacy EMS platforms and NE craft tools in the network increases, so does operational complexity. Maintaining a wide range of disparate, outdated systems becomes more challenging.

As vendors cease to support these systems, or they continue to run on unsupported legacy IT infrastructure, many EMS platforms and NE craft tools are essentially frozen in time. This can affect thousands of network elements, limiting network scalability and performance, and further increasing the risk of security breaches and service outages.

Carrying out an EMS and NE craft tool consolidation project allows CSPs to transfer element management functions from obsolete EMS software to next-generation systems. This reduces the number of legacy and underutilized EMS platforms in service, eliminating old servers and application programming interfaces (APIs), streamlining operations while maintaining seamless functionality for critical systems such as network fault and performance management, configuration management (e.g. backup and restore) and security.

By combining multiple EMS and NE craft tools, CSPs can achieve a consolidated, multi-domain view of network elements. This approach helps keep legacy equipment in service as long as needed, minimizing capital investments, while reducing TCO and simplifying operations.

Modernize tomorrow’s network, today

In order to maximize project success, network modernization requires access to the right tools. With today’s AI-powered automated tools and analytics, engineers can reduce manual effort by leveraging optimization algorithms, which is particularly useful when migrating live network traffic.

Access to AI-powered optimization algorithms also enables labor-intensive data harvesting and analysis to be automated. This means that CSPs can gather valuable intelligence about energy use, security and network performance in real-time, helping to identify problems and risks, while gathering insights that support decision-making for enhanced profitability.

Proactive network modernization paves the way for greater use of AI, facilitating true digital transformation. This, in turn, empowers CSPs to recover floor space, reduce power consumption, improve operational efficiency, reduce TCO and increase sustainability, as well as deliver profitable, next-generation cloud services, for greater overall return on investment.

However, getting from here to there is a marathon, not a sprint. Network modernization requires a measured, organization-wide approach to reinventing how people, data and systems come together to create new value.