stc Group, the digital enabler in the region, announced the collaboration strategy today, which includes a partnership with Huawei to build the industry’s best cloud infrastructure and deliver the highest service experience to its end users.
This cooperation with Huawei is part of the evolution of Intelligent Telecom Network O&M and the agile network architecture. The first CDCT (Continuous Delivery Continuous Testing) Validation under Telco cloud Partnership program in KSA was completed via stc lab capabilities, which accelerates the 5G Standalone Core vision of an optimized telecom network architecture with intelligent operation and maintenance.
stc completed the 5G Core Network Functions automatic upgrade test case with the Huawei MBB Autonomous Engine (MAE) solution and associated team. This signifies a giant step taken forward under the stc Network Cloudification and Automation Strategy that aims to support Saudi Arabia's vision of economic diversification in 2030. The stc strategy aims to deploy an agile cloud-native, next-generation platform, including 5G edge computing and convergent and digital networks, through a sustainable, shortened TTM and optimized TCO approach. As the first practice of the CDCT use case validation project in KSA, stc Group demonstrated VNF/CNF onboarding and upgrading scenarios with a cloud detector — a simulator to perform automatic function test cases, thus successfully achieving O&M transformation from the NE-centered manual mode to the service-centered adaptive mode.
The traditional network functions upgrade mode brings challenges to core network O&M mechanisms and to network security. As the digital enabler in the region, stc Group has always been focused on innovation and evolution. By exploring the concept of ADN (autonomous driving network) with Huawei, an advanced automatic workflow engine is introduced to orchestrate automation capabilities, such as agile service onboarding and tools, for quickly implementing automated process orchestration in scenarios such as NE upgrade, capacity expansion, scaling, and reconstruction.
Furthermore, with the new technology, CDCT AI-based intelligent O&M is introduced, including a unified pipeline engine, an orchestrated and self-defined pipeline, workflow visualization and automatic upgrade. The automated workflow engine effectively solves three core issues: 1) pre-upgrade high-security risks and complex operations associated with manual transferring of software versions; 2) during the upgrade, low efficiency with manual attendance in a short maintenance window; and 3) post-upgrade manual verification of alarms and service validation.
Compared with traditional NE upgrade methods, CDCT provides a unified operational interface to eliminate traditional upgrade breakpoints. Such scenarios of E2E automation will enhance service evolution progress on the live network. Driven by the vision of an authentic autonomous driving network, stc’s and Huawei’s dedication to innovation will enable NFVI infrastructure dynamic orchestration and a variety of telco cloud automation scenarios. stc Group and Huawei will continue to innovate in service reliability, agility and automation, bringing advanced and mature business practices to the stc network that better meet the requirements of various industries and help the digital telecom transformation better cope with the development of the 5G era.