Ericsson has announced that Malaysia’s Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) has become the first mobile operator in the world to be officially validated by TM Forum for achieving Level 4 autonomy in service assurance on its 5G network.
According to a statement from Ericsson on Thursday, the validation highlights DNB’s abilities in 5G automation and intelligent network operation, which are powered by Ericsson’s AI-powered Intent-based Operations (IBO) solution, which DNB deployed in its multi-operator core network (MOCN) in late 2023 to help it manage the competing needs for radio network resources from the mobile operators that use its network to offer 5G services.
TM Forum validated the DNB 5G network under its recently introduced Autonomous Network Level Assessment Validation (ANLAV) programme, which analyses and certifies levels of autonomy in specific high-value telecom scenarios. Under that assessment, DNB and Ericsson achieved a full Level 4 score in the Service Assurance scenario for the specific individual service of throughput management.
Under TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Levels model (where Level 0 is fully manual operations and Level 5 is fully autonomous), a Level 4 autonomous network uses AI to predict issues and automatically adjust itself to maintain optimal performance. It can monitor, analyze, and optimize in real-time, making it more reliable, agile, secure, and easier to manage.
Ericsson said the score confirms that the DNB/Ericsson system can operate highly automated systems independently.
Moreover, the vendor added, its validated IBO solution enables DNB and its telco investors to support industrial and enterprise-grade services, particularly for mission-critical applications in areas such as public safety, healthcare, smart cities, autonomous transport and manufacturing.
“Achieving Level 4 autonomy in such an important area boosts the ability of Malaysia’s network operators to offer its customers new and valuable differentiated connectivity services, based on the very latest advances in autonomous networks,” said Bradley Mead, Head of Ericsson Managed Network Services, in a statement.
DNB CTO Ken Tan added that DNB has included network autonomy in its core design principles from the start of its rollout.
“By integrating automation and AI capabilities as the technology matured, we’ve built a highly efficient network that delivers world-class 5G connectivity at one of the lowest costs globally,” he said.
