In the transition to 5G-Advanced and 6G, dynamic digital twin networks help carriers manage growing network and service complexity
Digital twins are not a new concept, but telcos will benefit from leveraging real-time network data and incorporating it into a user-friendly interface that makes it easier to dynamically manage and adapt to network changes. There is a possibility that it will be. Given the increasing complexity of networks and services as we evolve from 5G to 5G-Advanced and eventually 6G, digital twin networks will help carriers move from coverage and capacity planning to the actual operation of their networks. It can help simplify everything.
“The whole concept is to reduce network costs and ease deployment and management,” explained Xiaoxia Zhang, Qualcomm’s senior director of technology. The idea of a digital twin network (or digital twin of a manufacturing system, city, etc.) is to launch a digital version of a physical network or process. “With this, you can do a lot of analysis of network operations,” she said.
She gave the example of an operator looking to deploy additional base stations on the infrastructure or service side to instantiate another network slice. A digital twin network allows operators to understand whether the network can sustain additional requirements. Experimenting with digital twin networks instead of the physical world can help avoid user impact. “In some situations, that operation may not be recommended,” she says. “But initially we can operate it in the digital world. And we will only recommend surgery if it meets the requirements.”
At its headquarters in San Diego, California, Qualcomm has built an open RAN-compliant 5G radio access network (RAN) using the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and Qualcomm Edgewise Suite for RAN automation. The company is also building a digital twin network that mirrors this setup in a virtual environment, with the ability to help operators answer “what if” questions such as how many users a network node can support while maintaining certain quality of service parameters. has been demonstrated. In the context of AI-based automation, digital twin networks can help develop operational strategies and provide a deeper understanding of the real-world contexts that will benefit (or not) from AI capabilities.
In the transition to 5G-Advanced, and ultimately 6G, more use cases, more service level requirements, more frequency bands, and more overall system and service complexity will require digital twin networks to Zhang predicted that the need would increase. “All of this is going to create more and more challenges and considerations,” she says. “With this digital twin, we can manipulate things in the digital domain. Then we can say, for example, ‘Okay, now that we have 6G, what if we want to do spectrum sharing on 5G?’ This allows us to ensure that the 5G user experience remains intact while still satisfying the 6G user experience.”
