Disaggregating Telco in 5G Era
Evolution of Infrastructure Services

PrefaceTelcos” have been driving key technologies of the future to provide better connectivity for society. 5G is thelatest and yet the greatest version of this evolution in the field of Mobile Networks addressing the need forconnectivity.
Technology advancements with 5G have made it possible to provide connectivity beyond people, which
includes Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), Including different industrial needsfrom very low latency communication to supporting a large number of connected devices. The advancement
to 5G is making it possible to position 5G for vertical industries where Telco & IT have become closer [1]. Asa result, collaboration needed in the area of some diverse domains and best-of-breed technologies isinfluencing standards, complex technical integration and implementations to further corporate strategies indigitization and as well modernization of Telco infrastructure in this journey. Network modernization anddigitalization is an example of these collaboration areas now deemed as a pre-requisite for Telco tocollaborate and compete with IT in the area of new business opportunities,[2].

In the early 2010s, digitalization initially emerged with the help of smart phones and broadband internetaccess, where operators started to explore newer, greater ways to communicate with their customers.
Furthermore, Communication Service Providers (CSP) were aggressively forced to digitalize due todisruptors positioning themselves in the asymmetric competition, [3]. However, 5G (Standalone) and its
capabilities made digitalization mandatory for Telcos where any CSP needed to have a Digital Service
Provider (DSP) strategy with 5G connectivity enablement. In this paper, we define a structured strategy ofdigital transformation in line with disaggregation enablement and the role of Telco infra in this journey.
Infrastructure Solutions Group Sales Support

23/11/2023

Telco Digital Transformation
The digitalization of the telecom industry
necessitates business-oriented transformationthat extends beyond technology but also tostreamline processes and people. Technologyaims
toenablebusinesses
tobeagile, innovative and customer centric for asmoother customer interaction and experience.
The journey towards digital transformation inTier-1 Telcos commenced in the latter half ofthe 2010s. Over last decade, the Telco segment
has realized that digitization is a must-have tosurvive in the bi-modal Telco convergence inthe 5G era.

Digitalization Success Factors
Transforming the legacy within Telco is acomplex activity, given that telcos haveoperated and evolved on those processes andtechnologies for decades. People and process
dimensions of digitalization makes this journeyeven more complex. Telcos have faced failed orunderachieving journeys, [4] in the last ten
years especially in the phase of triple/quad-playservices enablement of DSPs. Those aremainly due to the lack of well-defined expected
outcomes,performanceindicators
androadmaps with short/mid-term achievements.
This resulted in lack of team motivation as theprograms progressed, and incredibility was builtwith C-Level sponsors.
In this journey it is crucial to define the strategic
drivers and common goals that are directlymapped to the enablement strategy. Despite
having diverse motivating factors and a myriadof priorities that may be different market bymarket, there exists a common agenda for most
telecom operators to digitalize with the need toaccommodate customer demands and the everevolving need to accommodate game-changing
technologies like Artificial Intelligence andMachine Learning. Despite the drivers (or thepriorities of those) would change in different
markets, those can be given as below
applicable for most telecom operators:

Vendor Dependency: Disaggregation
horizontally, vertically achieving diversity
in ecosystem, unified supply chains.
Security: Avoiding any vulnerability inthe era of cloudification, disaggregationand open interfaces.
Sustainability: Maintaining sustainable
solutions not only limited to energy
efficiency but also E2E carbon footprint

DSPs should establish clear strategies thatalign to market specific dynamics introducing
incremental tangible improvements driven by
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in a stepwise
progressive manner. Implementation of newtechnologies are needed where data andautomation are at the core of this journey tooperate increasingly complex networks with
reduced effort and to ensure future-proofing.
This shall further be supported by introductionof proper processes used by trainedprofessionals.

Disaggregation and Cloud as
the Enabler of Digitalization
DSPs strive to achieve a “Micro” Service
Oriented Architecture with clear separation ofconcerns to avoid limitations as services scale
and maintain those in a cost-efficient manner.
This brings the necessity of disaggregation
where services and platform layers can bescaled independently.
Advancements in Cloud Computing andimplementations in IT influenced Telco have
impacted standardizations
and practicalimplementations.
Thisempowers
disaggregation, [5] as one of the criticalenablers of digitalization. It brings certain
benefits over monolithic implementations assome can be given as below:

Nowadays, disaggregation is being discussed
in two planes; vertical and horizontal.

Horizontal and Vertical Disaggregation
CustomerExperience:
Enhancingcustomer experiences with the help of
data and AI/ML
Time to Market: Agility of bringing newservices, offers or tech to the market,
being competitive against disruptors
Total Cost of Ownership: Reducing thecost of owning the tech end-to-end (E2E)
for lifecycle, empowered by automation
Disaggregating Telco in 5G Era – Evolution of Infrastructure Services

While there are significant differences inarchitecture and implementation methods
between horizontal and vertical disaggregation,
both aim to achieve benefits stated in theprevioussection.
Currently,horizontal
disaggregation is more mature and easier toimplement
duetotheadvancements……………….…..
2

Integrated

Agnostic Mgt Tools

Custom ASICs

Open Protocols & APIs

Integrated HW Platform

Independent OS

Vendor Specific OS

Programmable Silicon

Propriety Protocol Stacks

White Box or COTS HW

Proprietary Mgt Tools

DisaggregatedFigure 1 – Vertical Disaggregation;
Integrated Systems vs Disaggregated Systems

Setting the Right Strategy for
Vertical Disaggregation
Planning,
deployingandmanaging
disaggregated workloads requires a mindset
shift both for processes and people skills.
Adaptation of the new technology into thecorporate framework is not a straight-forward
process in the telecom sector. Therefore,
establishing the right strategy with step-wiseenablement of certain capabilities are crucial tomeet short-to-long term goals. A proven method
applicable for this scenario is to start withinternalIT
Cloudification,
followedbyDisaggregating Telco Workloads and finallyenable Profitable Scaling with Edge Computing
business cases.

Cloudify Internal IT: Starting with nonbusiness critical IT workloads to adapt
DevSecOps practices, processes adaptations
and upskilling marks a solid begining. Furtherroadmap
planningofthoseservicemodernizations are critical to minimize
disruptions to the business particularly in thevery early phases. Services scoped in thisphase would include ERP, SCM and CRM thentelco-specific workloads as OSS, BSS. At thisstage readiness of data centers are as wellcrucial to get prepared for further cloudificationof network functions at scale.

than previous phase. Besides, it is the criticalstage to fully embrace new technologies toavoid customer impact. Network functions
disaggregation would start with Core Network
functions especially with 5GC launches, further
planned for RAN regardless of vRAN/oRAN.
Datacenters planning and network functions
placement optimization are important activities
to avoid bottlenecks as network scale.
Furthermore, hybrid/multi cloud strategies shallbe set in the early stages of this phase.

Profitable Scale at Edge: Use cases
at the edge are still evolving for Telco.
Selective use cases enablement with market
interest is suggested. Potential initiatives
include IoT aggregation, AI & Analytics at edge,industrial-grade 5G Private Wireless, NonTerrestrial Networks (NTN) oRAN and radio
data optimization.

Role of Infrastructure Services
The Telecom industry has been grappling withthe drawbacks of black-box platforms and thechallenges of keeping pace with the rapid
innovation seen in the IT sector to meet today’s
business needs. This pain point has driven
operators
toexplore
newalternative
approaches especially around white-box andopen platforms. Nowadays technologies like
openRAN, Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
introduce openness and flexibility with the helpof programmable hardware as General-Purpose
Processors (GPP), Field Programmable Gate
Arrays(FPGA). This eliminates the bottleneck ofmultiple vendors developing all new networkfeatures which historically would have taken atleast couple of months. Disaggregation enables
decentralized and open software-development
where feature development sprints aremeasured in weeks rather than months.
Digital BSS
Network Management & Orchestration
Radio System
AccessNetwork

Transport

Cloud
Core

Cloud
Communication

Enterprisein standardization being driven by Standards
Developing Organizations (SDOs). Moreover,vertical disaggregation is still seen as aconcern. However, it represents the last mile
Telco needs to take especially in today’s cloudera. This approach makes it possible to deploy
telco workloads with agility under complete
control of TCO and supply chain, [6].

Hardware & Cloud Infrastructure
Security

Disaggregate Network Functions:This is the phase bringing mass scale benefits
stated in the previous section as the number ofworkloads expected to shift is greatly higher……………

Disaggregating Telco in 5G Era – Evolution of Infrastructure Services

Automation

Figure 2 – Telco Blueprint Architecture in Cloud Era

Regardless of cloud enablement strategy,disaggregating infrastructure and platform
………

3

CaaS

IaaS
BMaaS

CaaS
BMaaS

Local Virtualization,
Containerization

CaaS

IaaS
SDI

CaaS
SDI

Private Cloud

VNFs

CNFs

VNFs

CNFs

VNFs

CNFs

VNFs

CNFs

VNFs

CNFs

services from network functions is a critical
milestone, [7] for next-gen Telco to overcome
challenges mentioned earlier. Apart from that,enterprise level strategies for infrastructure yield
greater benefits to supply chain, operational
excellence, lower lifecycle costs and vendor
independency.
Recentdevelopments
inwireless communication technologies enables
this disaggregation for entire telco blueprint
except antennas, Radio Units (RU), in AccessNetwork.

HCPSDI
PublicCloud

Figure 3 – Disaggregated Deployment Options

Operators have the flexibility to decide on
deployment options per architecture strategy,
workload needs or infrastructure readiness.
However , it is crucial to enable certain services
from the infrastructure layer.
Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) or BareMetal as a Service (BMaaS) layers exposed byHardware & Cloud Infrastructure domain shallbe robust, highly available and achieve very
low latency between its components andtowards upper layers. Secondly, those shall not
be specifically customized per workload,
domain needs or vendor strategy; Commercialof the Shelf (COTS) approach shall be madeenabled for greater benefits. On the other hand,those shall be made verified for telco workloads
preferably with multiple vendors to achieve
maximuminteroperability.
Automation
supported with Artificial Intelligence/Machine
Learning (AI/ML) is another key feature to
manage telco like highly complex and dynamic
environments.
Auto-discovery,
zero-touch
deployments & provisioning, firmware updatesare important for SDI, BMaaS layers. Similarly,
those layers shall simplify operation andmaintenance providing a single pane of glass
to monitor and manage individual tenants orcomplete data centers. Finally, the infrastructure
layer shall provide maximum energy efficiency
to optimize Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) andreduce carbon footprint.

Vendors or Partners?
Disaggregation simply means a richer
ecosystem and at least tens of new vendors foreach service layer provider. However, awarding
contracts to numerous vendors consumes
extensive number of resources in case of timeand effort, rendering it a not cost-effective
process. In the meantime, complex system
integrations expose risk to operators whereprocured technology does not always meet theE2E expectations during deployment phases.
This would result in re-iteration of RFx process
which might not fulfill the agility needs of today’s
business expectations. Hence, selecting
technology partners to innovate together via
leveraging proof of concepts, embracing agile
methodologies by breaking projects into smallertasks and modernizing procurement practices
around disaggregation is key to lead in thehighly competitive environment.

Figure 4 – Partner Selection Process, TM Forum [8]Lenovo as a Trusted Partner
Lenovo aims to become the most trusted
partner for telcos, empowering operators’
intelligent transformation and helping to solve
humanity’s
greatest
challenges.
Lenovooperates in 180 Markets globally, having 18
R&D locations and 35 manufacturing sites
globally. Infrastructure Solutions Group in
Lenovo provides latest technology server,
storage, networking and SDI solutions at scale:

Think

Agile:
Hyperconverged
solutions that simplify IT infraand accelerate time to value, freeing teams tofocus on core business and new capabilities.
………………………………………… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ….…… ……… ….

Think

System:Sustainable
computingplatforms
offering
unmatched value, flexibility, andindustry-leading efficiency to meetenterprise workloads’ mission-critical demands
with legendary quality and reliability.
………………………………………… ………

Think Edge: Designed and builtwith the unique requirements forEdge Computing, it is versatile………..….

Disaggregating Telco in 5G Era – Evolution of Infrastructure Services4

enough to stretch the limitations of server
locations, providing a variety of connectivity andsecurity options.

TruScale:

Infrastructure as aService enhances ability to scale
hardware, software and support
capabilities as rapidly changing infrastructureneeds evolve.
Lenovo‘s infrastructure solutions and on-top
services deliver Smarter Technology for All from
Edge to Cloud, Analytics and AI being
reliable, open, secure and sustainable tailoredfor Telco specific needs.
Lenovo further supports its infrastructure
solutionswithstate-of-the-art
softwarecomponents enabling future proof technologies.

XClarityisthecentralizedsystemsmanagement suite to monitor, manage,optimize and automate infrastructure whereLenovo Open Cloud Automation (LOC-A) is an
automated platform to deploy, optimize andmanage cloud infrastructure regardless of baremetal, containerized or virtualized deployments.
Neptune liquid cooling enables performance
without compromising energy efficiency goals.
Providingthemostcomprehensive
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AI software natively integrated its services,Lenovo is committed to delivering technologythat improves human outcomes. Lenovo is notdeveloping tech for tech’s sake; it is purposeful
in delivering human-centered innovation.

Conclusion
Digitalization is not a goal, rather a journey for the Telco and disaggregation is a key enabler for it.
Future’s DSPs need to achieve both horizontal and vertical disaggregation with infrastructure
solutions forming the core of their architecture whether situated in the data-center, near or far edge.
A proven infrastructure solution shall be open, robust, highly automated and energy efficient to meet
Telco specific needs.
Lenovo’s tailored AI-optimized technology infrastructure solutions with best-in-class software
capabilities are committed to deliver the latest technologies harmonized with excellence; helping
Telco to boost their digitalization journey. Notably, Lenovo distinguishes itself as the sole data
center provider with end-to-end manufacturing owning the entire supply chain for everything built todeliver a level of security and seamlessness that no one else can, anywhere in the world.

References[1] The Future of Technology in a Tumultuous World, ABI Research, September 2022
[2] Radar: Digital Transformation in a Post-Pandemic Future, GSMA Intelligence, June 2022
[3] Ecosystem strategy essential for CSP Success in B2B 5G, Omdia, May 2020
[4] How to Reduce Risk in BSS Transformation, TM Forum, March 2020
[5] Operating Disaggregated Networks, NGMN, September 2022
[6] Forecast of Open RAN operator spending and vendor revenue, Analysys Mason, April 2021
[7] Cloud Native Manifesto, An Operator View, NGMN, September 2023
[8] Time to Kill the RFP? Reinventing IT Procurement for the 2020s, TM Forum, May 2019

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