- Beijing’s Tsinghua University has been running its network in Level 4 autonomous mode since September
- China Mobile will activate its L4 autonomous production network serving over a billion users in 2025
- Laissez-faire networking has arrived a decade earlier than originally anticipated
When I first wrote about the concept of a fully autonomous network running without human involvement back in 2017, most considered it an interesting idea that might happen “someday” in the distant future. Some said it would never happen at all. Well, the future is now. Tsinghua University in Beijing began operating its network in autonomous mode, also known as “Level 4 network autonomy,” in September this year, I have confirmed.
It’s an impressive achievement. But reader, I come bearing a second bulletin of autonomous network news — and this one will cause a sharp intake of breath among Western comms vendors, service providers and governments. China Mobile recently completed successful trials of Level 4 autonomous networking in Guangdong province (population: 122 million) and will begin its three-year program to deploy it nationwide in 2025.
This is beyond big — it is momentous. For perspective, Tsinghua University operates a not-for-profit 16,000-node network, but China Mobile is a $160 billion company with over a billion users.
China Mobile’s plan will prompt other carriers around the world to deploy hands-free autonomous networks faster than they would prefer to. The astonishing cost savings and performance benefits of fully autonomous networking mean they have no choice but to play catchup as fast as possible. And, while the telecom industry is extremely conservative and famously wary of moving quickly to adopt new tech, it also moves as a herd. When one beast sets off for greener pastures, the others always lumber after it.
Both Tsinghua and China Mobile are using Huawei’s Xinghe Intelligent Solution to run their autonomous networks. Huawei’s software features a three-layer architecture that includes intelligent network elements (NEs), digital twins and a central cyber brain.
It integrates key capabilities, such as a telecom artificial intelligence model supporting 10 billion parameters and cloud-map algorithm simulations, to establish an L4 “autonomous driving network” capable of independently identifying risks, resolving faults and verifying changes.
Huawei has also developed customized versions of the Xinghe Intelligent Solution for other sectors, including finance and healthcare.
The TM Forum has defined a fifth level (L5) of autonomous networking but, rather like Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), it doesn’t actually exist yet. In L4 the network runs itself, but humans still check in on it — giving it a virtual fist bump or sharing an hilarious meme; when L5 gets here it will render human oversight obsolete.
But for now, the people still play a role in China Mobile’s L4 network, said Wang Hui, President of the NCE Domain at Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, in an exclusive conversation with Fierce Network. “Almost 80% of problems can be solved by AI automatically,” he said.
The remaining 20% require human technicians onsite to check or replace hardware or lines. At some point, even those tasks will be undertaken autonomously, by robots. Sound far-fetched? Never say never, as Huawei, Tsinghua, and China Mobile are proving.
Op-eds from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff are opinion pieces that do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.