Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel net on machine learning, automation for 5G

The chief technology officers (CTOs) of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, two of India’s top telecom operators, believe that machine learning and automation will play a crucial role in optimizing their 5G networks and driving various industry use cases. Shyam Mardikar, President and Group CTO Mobility of Reliance Jio, emphasized the need for heavy infrastructure to support edge data centers, deep connectivity, and hundreds of megahertz of spectrum. He highlighted the importance of using big data and automation to process network data and create an autonomous system that can deliver optimized services to customers.

Mardikar also mentioned that Jio has deployed 800,000 5G cells in just 300 days, a task that would not be feasible without automation. Speaking at the ETTelecom Digital Telco Summit – 2023, he emphasized the growing sophistication of these capabilities and the importance of managing product performance, technology endurance, and security.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Airtel, discussed how their approach to 5G network planning has changed. Instead of deploying antennas in a fixed direction and height as in previous generations, Airtel now focuses on heat maps for users and data consumption. They also use automation to handle rule-based changes and dynamically balance the load between 5G and 4G networks. Additionally, telcos are developing use cases to better plan for sudden spikes in traffic by simulating such scenarios and adjusting network capacity on the fly.

Both CTOs highlighted the role of automation and machine learning in enabling autonomous networks that can seamlessly adapt to changing network conditions and customer demands. These advancements in technology will help telecom operators optimize their 5G networks and deliver enhanced services to end-users. ISP