Intelligent Deployment: A Better Path to 5G Network Success

Diana Adams
5 min readAug 27, 2021

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Intelligent Deployment for 5G Networks

5G is the fastest developing mobile technology to have ever been rolled out on a global scale. By the end of 2025, 45% of the world’s total mobile data traffic will run through a 5G network. Efficiently deploying, managing and maintaining the vast complexities of 5G networks requires more than traditional deployment and site engineering techniques. I’d like to introduce you to Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment, a better way to manage the entire network deployment lifecycle.

Why Don’t Traditional Network Deployment, Management and Maintenance Work Well on 5G Networks?

5G networks and the cloud-based applications that come along with them are complex and ever-evolving. In Ericsson’s recent Intelligent Deployment blog post, they broke down these complexities into 5 areas.

· Increased spectrum complexity and volume parameters to monitor

· Increased small cell densification, which complicates logistics and integration

· Increased hardware volumes, which add more network elements to put into place

· Increased multi-vendor deployment models (Cloud RAN and edge)

· Increased critical use case performance, which requires increased accuracy and agility

These five areas and more require increased innovation and intelligence in your decision-making. Traditional network deployment, management and maintenance are limited and quickly becoming outdated.

Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment allows you to introduce the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into your network deployment, management and ongoing maintenance. This adds a level of critical data that isn’t present in traditional network management methods.

Coping with the demands of an effective 5G roll-out can be tough. By revising your approach and leveraging these technologies, you’ll be able to continuously optimize your 5G networks for better performance, efficiency and agility.

[Join Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment Webinar to Learn More]

Site Engineering vs. Intelligent Site Engineering

Site engineering has always been an important stage in the network deployment process. But by upgrading your methodology to Intelligent Site Engineering, you can implement a more robust process into your roll-outs.

Site Engineering vs. Intelligent Site Engineering
Site Engineering vs. Intelligent Site Engineering

According to Ericsson’s website regarding Intelligent Site Engineering:

With digitalized sites and the creation of digital twins, engineers can remotely access the site with the highest degree of accuracy and predictability when taking measurements and making engineering decisions.

This includes:

· Modernized Site Surveys (safer and less costly)

· More Accurate, Detailed Site Designs (less errors by eliminating manual processes)

· Better As-Built Documentation (using a data-driven deployment platform to digitalize and automate the process)

The integration of AI and ML capabilities into the Intelligent Site Engineering process not only makes the entire process more efficient, but it also shortens the time to market new services.

7 Advantages of Intelligent Site Engineering:

1. 99% “First Time Right” Accuracy

2. Over 50% more efficiency (from leveraging constantly updated AI and ML algorithms)

3. Allows you to embrace “digital twins”

4. Faster and sustainable deployments

5. 24/7 global remote access

6. Improvement of day-to-day safety standards

7. Effective network maintenance

Why Choose Intelligent Site Engineering

Intelligent Deployment Encompasses Much More Than Intelligent Site Engineering

Although the Intelligent Site Engineering portion of Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment portfolio of services is the most exciting to me, it’s not the only one of course. Think of these services as a holistic approach to network deployment and lifecycle management.

Join Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment Webinar to Learn More

Along with the fast and efficient roll-out and site activation that comes with Intelligent Deployment, you’ll also experience a quicker ROI. It standardizes and digitizes the full network lifecycle.

As explained in Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment blog post:

Intelligent Deployment offers:

  • Fast time to market by standardizing data in a single user interface
  • Lower OPEX through better control of the network lifecycle
  • Transparency through access to data from the end-to-end deployment process
  • Cost efficiency, sending drones instead of engineers for the site surveys
  • Accuracy through capturing more data and adding granularity
  • Flexibility in planning OPEX and CAPEX availability and change management

The Future Possibilities Are Compelling

5G networks are already complex, and that complexity will continue to evolve as new network services and cloud-based applications are developed. The methods for deploying, managing and maintaining 5G networks are evolving along with the networks themselves.

Think about the future possibilities when your network sites become digitalized. Imagine automating the time-consuming parts of the process (i.e. site acceptance, site materials calculations, etc.).

Intelligent Deployment allows you to leverage technology to address the growing (and changing) list of requirements for today’s networks. Ericsson has digitalized around 27,000 network sites around the world over the past few years.

Intelligent Deployment for 5G Networks
The Growing List of Network Requirements That Need To Be Addressed

“Ericsson Intelligent Deployment is designed to enrich and improve our service-delivery capabilities. It represents a modular, future-proof, data-driven, and holistic approach to network deployment and network lifecycle management. As a trusted partner to service providers around the world, we at Ericsson are committed to delivering the most reliable, most efficient, and accurate network deployments, and operations.” -Ericsson

Join Ericsson’s Intelligent Deployment Webinar to Learn More

Register: Intelligent Deployment Webinar

“A New Era for Site Engineering and Maintenance of Network Sites”
September 7, 2021

The webinar will be available on-demand to anyone who registers but is unable to join live.

Intelligent Deployment Ericsson Webinar

As always, thank you for reading my blog post! It means a lot to me. If you’d like to connect on Twitter, you can find me at @adamsconsulting. Till next time…

[Disclaimer: This article was sponsored by Ericsson.]

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Diana Adams

Tech journalist, Apple ACN, Digital Transformation, IoT, 5G, AI and the future of tech.