100+ companies showcasing 30+ projects solving industry challenges across five weeks of live, interactive sessions.
Sign up for the whole series to get access to live presentations and demos from 100+ leading industry innovators in their proof-of-concept projects. On each live showcase, get ready to engage with the teams through live chats, Q&As and polls.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is the event free?
A: Yes! It is free to register and attend
Q: I missed a live show, can I see a recording?
A: Recordings of sessions will be made available on-demand within a day.
Q: What browser/device should I use to get the best Catalyst Digital Showcase experience?
A: We recommend using latest Chrome browser on a desktop. Chrome on a mobile is also supported. Some features may be unavailable for other browsers.
Please click here for additional FAQ and to contact support.
C20.0.06
This Catalyst will demonstrate a smart energy-saving network which provides a stable customer experience for subscribers, lowers power consumption for telco operators and, ultimately, reduces the overall climate impact of the telecoms industry.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Autonomous-Networks-whitepaper: Empowering Digital Transformation For the Telecoms Industry
C20.0.06
This Catalyst will demonstrate a smart energy-saving network which provides a stable customer experience for subscribers, lowers power consumption for telco operators and, ultimately, reduces the overall climate impact of the telecoms industry.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Autonomous-Networks-whitepaper: Empowering Digital Transformation For the Telecoms Industry
C20.0.16
This Catalyst demonstrates how adoption and enhancements of standards such as TOSCA, Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), Information Framework and Open APIs can help telecom operators provide an integrated experience to enterprise customers across different service components of a managed solution. The project will drive automation and agility in rolling out and provisioning solutions and managed services, as well as providing a better self-service experience.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.16
This Catalyst demonstrates how adoption and enhancements of standards such as TOSCA, Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), Information Framework and Open APIs can help telecom operators provide an integrated experience to enterprise customers across different service components of a managed solution. The project will drive automation and agility in rolling out and provisioning solutions and managed services, as well as providing a better self-service experience.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.03
This Catalyst demonstrates how digital service providers can use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within their business assurance solutions to ensure 5G and edge digital services operate and perform as expected. The project will use several API-based use cases -- for customer experience, revenue assurance, credit management, churn management, fraud management and AI-based 5G slicing – to demonstrate how digital businesses in the 5G ecosystem can be protected.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.03
This Catalyst demonstrates how digital service providers can use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within their business assurance solutions to ensure 5G and edge digital services operate and perform as expected. The project will use several API-based use cases -- for customer experience, revenue assurance, credit management, churn management, fraud management and AI-based 5G slicing – to demonstrate how digital businesses in the 5G ecosystem can be protected.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.28
Communications service providers (CSPs) need to expand and diversify their product lines to remain competitive. To bring new products to market quickly and cost-effectively, they must collaborate with each other and additional partners. This Catalyst demonstrates a standards-based partner ecosystem to enable that, including billing, monetization and privacy, to co-deliver telecom products such as 5G, SD-WAN as well as SaaS and ITaaS products.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.28
Communications service providers (CSPs) need to expand and diversify their product lines to remain competitive. To bring new products to market quickly and cost-effectively, they must collaborate with each other and additional partners. This Catalyst demonstrates a standards-based partner ecosystem to enable that, including billing, monetization and privacy, to co-deliver telecom products such as 5G, SD-WAN as well as SaaS and ITaaS products.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.01
This Catalyst project introduces a Network as a Service (NaaS) platform to enable “complex” network transformations for the purposes of network monetization and decoupling Operations Support Systems (OSSs)/Business Support System (BSSs) from the network. This platform will leverage abstraction layer services to provision wavelength services using TM Forum Open APIs.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.01
This Catalyst project introduces a Network as a Service (NaaS) platform to enable “complex” network transformations for the purposes of network monetization and decoupling Operations Support Systems (OSSs)/Business Support System (BSSs) from the network. This platform will leverage abstraction layer services to provision wavelength services using TM Forum Open APIs.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.50
This Catalyst project is demonstrating how to enable a zero-X customer experience and improved operational efficiency for B2B companies and digital service providers in key Smart-X industries, such as cities, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare and agriculture. They use disruptive “self operating” services and infrastructures based on an Autonomous Networks framework driven by business intent to resource intent.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.50
This Catalyst project is demonstrating how to enable a zero-X customer experience and improved operational efficiency for B2B companies and digital service providers in key Smart-X industries, such as cities, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare and agriculture. They use disruptive “self operating” services and infrastructures based on an Autonomous Networks framework driven by business intent to resource intent.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.23
This Catalyst project is developing a Play Book, or methodology, that uses TM Forum frameworks, as well as common business architecture principles, to simplify the process firstly of describing an ecosystem, then laying out the capabilities a CSP needs, not only to operate, but thrive in that ecosystem.
Additional Resources
LinkedIn Catalyst Project group: Ecosystem Design Catalyst
Ecosystems playbook (online version)
CurateFX template for practitioners (early version under review)
An introduction to the ecosystem playbook initiative representing our participant CSG
C20.0.23
This Catalyst project is developing a Play Book, or methodology, that uses TM Forum frameworks, as well as common business architecture principles, to simplify the process firstly of describing an ecosystem, then laying out the capabilities a CSP needs, not only to operate, but thrive in that ecosystem.
Additional Resources
LinkedIn Catalyst Project group: Ecosystem Design Catalyst
Ecosystems playbook (online version)
CurateFX template for practitioners (early version under review)
An introduction to the ecosystem playbook initiative representing our participant CSG
C20.0.30
In this Catalyst project, personalized service bundles are dynamically created based on AI-driven customer context, incorporating 3rd party services enriched through 5G, and offered to customers with a single bill. By adopting a groundbreaking game-style user experience, customers can unlock premiere services, discounts and improve their loyalty status, whilst experiencing an optimized AI-driven journey.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.30
In this Catalyst project, personalized service bundles are dynamically created based on AI-driven customer context, incorporating 3rd party services enriched through 5G, and offered to customers with a single bill. By adopting a groundbreaking game-style user experience, customers can unlock premiere services, discounts and improve their loyalty status, whilst experiencing an optimized AI-driven journey.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.09
Continuing from Phase I of the Catalyst, that demonstrated closed loop automation with AI/ML, SINA is a network assistant that performs searches and completes actions in response to a network operator’s or a field engineer’s natural voice commands and learns from a user's behavior and routines to provide predictive recommendations and information.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.09
Continuing from Phase I of the Catalyst, that demonstrated closed loop automation with AI/ML, SINA is a network assistant that performs searches and completes actions in response to a network operator’s or a field engineer’s natural voice commands and learns from a user's behavior and routines to provide predictive recommendations and information.
Help this project (survey).
C20.0.33
Cities transforming their digital future require a network that can connect everything today and remain open for tomorrow as new 5G use cases emerge. This Catalyst demonstrates 5G use cases with autonomous networking through a digital transformation platform, enabled by an open architecture with TM Forum APIs and an ecosystem of partners.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.33
Cities transforming their digital future require a network that can connect everything today and remain open for tomorrow as new 5G use cases emerge. This Catalyst demonstrates 5G use cases with autonomous networking through a digital transformation platform, enabled by an open architecture with TM Forum APIs and an ecosystem of partners.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.44
This Catalyst demonstrates an automated zero-touch Edge solution in action, delivering an exceptional experience to event owners/developers (e.g. concert, sporting/gaming event, exhibition). It leverages standardized Edge Computing as a Service (ECaaS) when a crisis occurs, requiring automated and real-time reconfiguration of the edge to deliver public safety emergency services.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.44
This Catalyst demonstrates an automated zero-touch Edge solution in action, delivering an exceptional experience to event owners/developers (e.g. concert, sporting/gaming event, exhibition). It leverages standardized Edge Computing as a Service (ECaaS) when a crisis occurs, requiring automated and real-time reconfiguration of the edge to deliver public safety emergency services.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.21
Getting ahead of future 5G challenges, this Catalyst aims to lay the foundations for the end-to-end digitalization of mobile of network roll-out processes in order to optimize and accelerate deployment and return on investment (ROI).
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.34
The keys to successful 5G network monetization will be collaboration and partnerships ranging from shared infrastructure to B2B2X offering distribution across the value chain. This Catalyst builds on previous phases of the project to create an ecosystem supporting a wide range of physical and digital assets from RAN resources, network slicing, edge clouds to eSIM-based products. It enhances the standard-defining approach by adding new levels of trust, confidence and transparency transparency as a foundation of the Business Assurance Framework.
Help this project (survey)
C20.0.34
The keys to successful 5G network monetization will be collaboration and partnerships ranging from shared infrastructure to B2B2X offering distribution across the value chain. This Catalyst builds on previous phases of the project to create an ecosystem supporting a wide range of physical and digital assets from RAN resources, network slicing, edge clouds to eSIM-based products. It enhances the standard-defining approach by adding new levels of trust, confidence and transparency transparency as a foundation of the Business Assurance Framework.
Help this project (survey)
Email the team: C20.0.51@tmforum.org
4G has powered breakthroughs in the communication, manufacturing and software service industries. Although consumer growth is slowing, the enterprise sector offers fresh growth opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs) – particularly through 5G-powered applications. Through 5G, operators will be central to enabling inter-industry cooperation and solving the pain points of existing enterprise support.
In order to serve these industries at scale, CSPs must establish an end-to-end online digital support system. This Catalyst demonstrates China Unicom’s 5G digital support system for enterprise customers, providing improved customer support experience. It allows vertical customers to search, select, order and monitor the services provided, including AI, network slicing, edge computing and other technologies.
This is enabled through business, operation and management domain data, combined with big data analysis. It provides users with end-to-end solutions and online closed-loop support for customer service processes. These functions and platforms will help to optimize core business processes and accelerate the business support lifecycle.
The solution will be demonstrated in a medical industry scenario but could easily be deployed in many other verticals.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project:
Business process framework eTOM GB921
Email the team: C20.0.51@tmforum.org
4G has powered breakthroughs in the communication, manufacturing and software service industries. Although consumer growth is slowing, the enterprise sector offers fresh growth opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs) – particularly through 5G-powered applications. Through 5G, operators will be central to enabling inter-industry cooperation and solving the pain points of existing enterprise support.
In order to serve these industries at scale, CSPs must establish an end-to-end online digital support system. This Catalyst demonstrates China Unicom’s 5G digital support system for enterprise customers, providing improved customer support experience. It allows vertical customers to search, select, order and monitor the services provided, including AI, network slicing, edge computing and other technologies.
This is enabled through business, operation and management domain data, combined with big data analysis. It provides users with end-to-end solutions and online closed-loop support for customer service processes. These functions and platforms will help to optimize core business processes and accelerate the business support lifecycle.
The solution will be demonstrated in a medical industry scenario but could easily be deployed in many other verticals.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project:
Business process framework eTOM GB921
Email the team: C20.0.06@tmforum.org
The doubling of the number of 5G base stations and the introduction of large-scale Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology have led to a significant increase in 5G power consumption.
The power consumption of 5G base stations is 2.5 to 3.5 times that of 4G base stations, which is a huge test for the construction and maintenance of operators. Building a greener and sustainable 5G network has become one of the hotspots in the field of operation management.
The energy saving solution developed by this Catalyst project consists of three parts: coordination between 4G and 5G for energy saving 5G cell sleep tunnel shutdown strategy in the background of 5G large-scale antenna.
There are three pillars in the solution to improving the efficiency of 5G resource usage.
- First is building the user perception density center using user perception data and user positioning data. - Next is using that as input to perform a 5G coverage simulation. - The third step is dynamic adjustment of the massive 5G MIMO parameter to improve the efficiency of the 5G resource usage.
The project will show how the technology can be used to create a sustainable 5G future.
Email the team: C20.0.06@tmforum.org
The doubling of the number of 5G base stations and the introduction of large-scale Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology have led to a significant increase in 5G power consumption.
The power consumption of 5G base stations is 2.5 to 3.5 times that of 4G base stations, which is a huge test for the construction and maintenance of operators. Building a greener and sustainable 5G network has become one of the hotspots in the field of operation management.
The energy saving solution developed by this Catalyst project consists of three parts: coordination between 4G and 5G for energy saving 5G cell sleep tunnel shutdown strategy in the background of 5G large-scale antenna.
There are three pillars in the solution to improving the efficiency of 5G resource usage.
- First is building the user perception density center using user perception data and user positioning data. - Next is using that as input to perform a 5G coverage simulation. - The third step is dynamic adjustment of the massive 5G MIMO parameter to improve the efficiency of the 5G resource usage.
The project will show how the technology can be used to create a sustainable 5G future.
Email the team: C20.0.07@tmforum.org
Electric mobility is expanding rapidly due to the declining cost of lithium-ion battery cells and increasing investment in electric vehicle (EV) platforms. By the end of 2023, it is expected that the cost of owning an electric car will be on a par with a traditional gas-powered one, paving the way for mass-market EV adoption. Therefore, EV charging infrastructure is also growing rapidly – it has grown at a CAGR of over 30% for the last three years, and this trend is expected to continue through to 2030.
Reliable communication services between multiple systems and stakeholders are fundamental to commercially operated EV charging infrastructure.
The 5G Ride On! Catalyst harnesses 5G technology and the capabilities of autonomous networks to provide innovative business continuity services for EV charging providers. The project demonstrates both business and operational orchestration to achieve this, illustrated using a severe weather event.
Intent-based management and dynamic adaptation techniques are applied at the 5G core and edge locations. The project uses TM Forum Open APIs and an Information Framework (SID)-based TOSCA model to support the orchestration.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Additional resources
Beyond the plug – finding value in the EV charging ecosystem
TM Forum Inform: How to deliver services based on 5G network slicing
The 5G flexibility and creativity driving BSS modernization.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TR225A TR255 Resource Function Activation and Configuration v5.0.1 Logical Resources Network Function Model
IG1176 TOSCA Guide for Model-Driven Automation v4.0.1
IG1217 Resource Inventory of 3GPP NRM for Service Assurance v1.0.0
IG1194 Focus on Services not Slices
GB999 ODA Production Implementation Guidelines
Performance management APIs TMF641, TMF642, TMF628
IG1167 ODA Functional Architecture
Email the team: C20.0.07@tmforum.org
Electric mobility is expanding rapidly due to the declining cost of lithium-ion battery cells and increasing investment in electric vehicle (EV) platforms. By the end of 2023, it is expected that the cost of owning an electric car will be on a par with a traditional gas-powered one, paving the way for mass-market EV adoption. Therefore, EV charging infrastructure is also growing rapidly – it has grown at a CAGR of over 30% for the last three years, and this trend is expected to continue through to 2030.
Reliable communication services between multiple systems and stakeholders are fundamental to commercially operated EV charging infrastructure.
The 5G Ride On! Catalyst harnesses 5G technology and the capabilities of autonomous networks to provide innovative business continuity services for EV charging providers. The project demonstrates both business and operational orchestration to achieve this, illustrated using a severe weather event.
Intent-based management and dynamic adaptation techniques are applied at the 5G core and edge locations. The project uses TM Forum Open APIs and an Information Framework (SID)-based TOSCA model to support the orchestration.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Additional resources
Beyond the plug – finding value in the EV charging ecosystem
TM Forum Inform: How to deliver services based on 5G network slicing
The 5G flexibility and creativity driving BSS modernization.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TR225A TR255 Resource Function Activation and Configuration v5.0.1 Logical Resources Network Function Model
IG1176 TOSCA Guide for Model-Driven Automation v4.0.1
IG1217 Resource Inventory of 3GPP NRM for Service Assurance v1.0.0
IG1194 Focus on Services not Slices
GB999 ODA Production Implementation Guidelines
Performance management APIs TMF641, TMF642, TMF628
IG1167 ODA Functional Architecture
Email the team: C20.0.16@tmforum.org
Telecom operators want to be true digital partners for their enterprise customers. They are looking beyond individual network connectivity or OTT service offers to provide integrated and managed solution offerings, packaging various connectivity, SD-WAN, security and OTT components.
Today, most enterprise products and offers are custom-built and involve a lot of complex manual processes. Telcos need to embrace agility and automation in their business processes and operations to support these integrated and managed solutions.
In parallel, there is a need to empower enterprise customers with greater self-service experiences.
Telcos should be able to quickly roll out new variants of these solutions as required by different enterprises and they should be able to provide an integrated experience across different components. Telcos need to be able to dynamically onboard customers and partners for managed solutions.
This Catalyst takes “digital workplace” as a reference solution and explores leveraging and enhancing standards such as TOSCA, Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), Information Framework and Open APIs to deliver seamless, dynamic business operations and outcomes tailored to the needs of enterprise customers.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Resource inventory API user guide TMF639
Service catalog API REST specification TMF633
Service activation and configuration API user guide TMF640
Email the team: C20.0.16@tmforum.org
Telecom operators want to be true digital partners for their enterprise customers. They are looking beyond individual network connectivity or OTT service offers to provide integrated and managed solution offerings, packaging various connectivity, SD-WAN, security and OTT components.
Today, most enterprise products and offers are custom-built and involve a lot of complex manual processes. Telcos need to embrace agility and automation in their business processes and operations to support these integrated and managed solutions.
In parallel, there is a need to empower enterprise customers with greater self-service experiences.
Telcos should be able to quickly roll out new variants of these solutions as required by different enterprises and they should be able to provide an integrated experience across different components. Telcos need to be able to dynamically onboard customers and partners for managed solutions.
This Catalyst takes “digital workplace” as a reference solution and explores leveraging and enhancing standards such as TOSCA, Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), Information Framework and Open APIs to deliver seamless, dynamic business operations and outcomes tailored to the needs of enterprise customers.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Resource inventory API user guide TMF639
Service catalog API REST specification TMF633
Service activation and configuration API user guide TMF640
Email the team: C20.0.03@tmforum.org
With the emergence of 5G, Digital Service Providers (DSPs) need to transform their business assurance solutions to support the dynamism and complexity that 5G offers. Business Assurance must adopt artificial intelligence, machine learning and Open API’s for the 5G verticals’ digital ecosystems to support the DSP’s business goals of improved revenue and customer experience beyond the traditional value chain.
This Catalyst demonstrates how DSPs can apply AI and machine learning to credit, fraud and customer experience data to provide key services built on 5G. The project also contributes to innovative industry concepts and practices while providing multiple benefits to the DSP including more efficient AI driven revenue assurance and fraud management to ensure the customers experience quality operations via open APIs using the 5G network.
Three use cases will be demonstrated:
Subscriber enters sports arena and is placed into appropriate slice based on churn, fraud, debt and customer experience scoreCertain subscribers provided offer to temporarily upgrade to better class of service for duration of eventDue to the coronavirus pandemic, government/healthcare providers are paying the CSP on behalf of a patient for a limited-time 5G premium bandwidth slice that enables telemedicine services for at-home patients. Upon recovery, the CSP offers the subscriber an upsell to retain that premium bandwidth
The AI driven business assurance system will determine scores, slices and subscribers to target to ensure the best services are provided to the customers, thus improving the DSP’s business goals of increased revenue and improved customer experience.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.03@tmforum.org
With the emergence of 5G, Digital Service Providers (DSPs) need to transform their business assurance solutions to support the dynamism and complexity that 5G offers. Business Assurance must adopt artificial intelligence, machine learning and Open API’s for the 5G verticals’ digital ecosystems to support the DSP’s business goals of improved revenue and customer experience beyond the traditional value chain.
This Catalyst demonstrates how DSPs can apply AI and machine learning to credit, fraud and customer experience data to provide key services built on 5G. The project also contributes to innovative industry concepts and practices while providing multiple benefits to the DSP including more efficient AI driven revenue assurance and fraud management to ensure the customers experience quality operations via open APIs using the 5G network.
Three use cases will be demonstrated:
Subscriber enters sports arena and is placed into appropriate slice based on churn, fraud, debt and customer experience scoreCertain subscribers provided offer to temporarily upgrade to better class of service for duration of eventDue to the coronavirus pandemic, government/healthcare providers are paying the CSP on behalf of a patient for a limited-time 5G premium bandwidth slice that enables telemedicine services for at-home patients. Upon recovery, the CSP offers the subscriber an upsell to retain that premium bandwidth
The AI driven business assurance system will determine scores, slices and subscribers to target to ensure the best services are provided to the customers, thus improving the DSP’s business goals of increased revenue and improved customer experience.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.26@tmforum.org
At the TM Forum Autonomous Networks Summit 2020 in Beijing, China, General Manager of China Mobile's Network Department, delivered a speech titled "AI Enables Autonomous Driving Network and Practices 5G+", which explained the new challenges brought by 5G and called for intelligent network capabilities. This catalyst project is an in-depth exploration into TM Forum AN, with contributions from both China Mobile and industry partners.China Mobile vigorously promotes the research and practice of autonomous networks:
• Operation + AI: Intelligent mining of mass data helps detect hidden risks, locate the root causes of alarms, and intelligently preprocess faults, improving operation and maintenance efficiency.
• Network + AI: Intelligent analysis of performance indicators helps proactively identify and automatically process poor-quality services, improving network quality.
• Business + AI: Intelligent modeling based on home network characteristics and customer intents helps accurately identify and solve customer complaints, improving customer experience.
Email the team: C20.0.26@tmforum.org
At the TM Forum Autonomous Networks Summit 2020 in Beijing, China, General Manager of China Mobile's Network Department, delivered a speech titled "AI Enables Autonomous Driving Network and Practices 5G+", which explained the new challenges brought by 5G and called for intelligent network capabilities. This catalyst project is an in-depth exploration into TM Forum AN, with contributions from both China Mobile and industry partners.China Mobile vigorously promotes the research and practice of autonomous networks:
• Operation + AI: Intelligent mining of mass data helps detect hidden risks, locate the root causes of alarms, and intelligently preprocess faults, improving operation and maintenance efficiency.
• Network + AI: Intelligent analysis of performance indicators helps proactively identify and automatically process poor-quality services, improving network quality.
• Business + AI: Intelligent modeling based on home network characteristics and customer intents helps accurately identify and solve customer complaints, improving customer experience.
Email the team: C20.0.18@tmforum.org
The success of the digital economy will benefit a lot from a faster 5G network deployment, but it also requires telco carriers to accelerate their digital transformation and innovation.
This Catalyst project explores how Autonomous Networks (AN) can enable more intelligent and robust communication services to drive digital innovations. Artificial Intelligence (AI), as the critical enabling technology, is vital to fulfilling the paradigm of Autonomous Networks.
China Unicom has adopted AI technology in the full life-cycle management of 5G networks, including network planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization. With an open and intelligent 5G network, we achieve a series of business innovations and great success in the market.
In this Catalyst project, we will show how this was achieved and call for collaboration across the industry to further promote the use of AI for AN.
Email the team: C20.0.18@tmforum.org
The success of the digital economy will benefit a lot from a faster 5G network deployment, but it also requires telco carriers to accelerate their digital transformation and innovation.
This Catalyst project explores how Autonomous Networks (AN) can enable more intelligent and robust communication services to drive digital innovations. Artificial Intelligence (AI), as the critical enabling technology, is vital to fulfilling the paradigm of Autonomous Networks.
China Unicom has adopted AI technology in the full life-cycle management of 5G networks, including network planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization. With an open and intelligent 5G network, we achieve a series of business innovations and great success in the market.
In this Catalyst project, we will show how this was achieved and call for collaboration across the industry to further promote the use of AI for AN.
Email the team: C20.0.41@tmforum.org
Automation is already deployed in some parts of communications service providers’ (CSPs) network infrastructure via script. End-to-end AI-empowered operational architecture is essential to deliver the 5G network required by the emerging enterprise 5G customer market.
This Catalyst will focus on delivering this and reducing the cost of coding in automation. This includes deploying AI to translate customer intent into a network requirement; designing the network infrastructure; closed-loop automation of root cause analysis and fault detection; and workflow generation for fault management.
Email the team: C20.0.41@tmforum.org
Automation is already deployed in some parts of communications service providers’ (CSPs) network infrastructure via script. End-to-end AI-empowered operational architecture is essential to deliver the 5G network required by the emerging enterprise 5G customer market.
This Catalyst will focus on delivering this and reducing the cost of coding in automation. This includes deploying AI to translate customer intent into a network requirement; designing the network infrastructure; closed-loop automation of root cause analysis and fault detection; and workflow generation for fault management.
Email the team: C20.0.22@tmforum.org
Autonomous and intelligent operations are required to meet growing network speed, quality and capacity requirements, as well as to manage increasing infrastructure complexity and optimize operational costs. AI is the enabling force to make this a reality.
This Catalyst demonstrates how AI can drive closed-loop service assurance in communications service providers’ network services, building the foundations for autonomous networks.
The project will demonstrate concrete AI-based use cases covering vital assurance processes, including: - Prediction of potential faults and prevention of impacts on business services - Prevention of service degradation through optimal compute resource allocation diagnosis and identification of root causes behind faults and bad customer experience fault-fix automation - Optimization of the energy footprint of virtualized network functions (VNFs) while maintaining service-level objectives - Automated feedback loop to continuously improve the service assurance process.
Email the team: C20.0.22@tmforum.org
Autonomous and intelligent operations are required to meet growing network speed, quality and capacity requirements, as well as to manage increasing infrastructure complexity and optimize operational costs. AI is the enabling force to make this a reality.
This Catalyst demonstrates how AI can drive closed-loop service assurance in communications service providers’ network services, building the foundations for autonomous networks.
The project will demonstrate concrete AI-based use cases covering vital assurance processes, including: - Prediction of potential faults and prevention of impacts on business services - Prevention of service degradation through optimal compute resource allocation diagnosis and identification of root causes behind faults and bad customer experience fault-fix automation - Optimization of the energy footprint of virtualized network functions (VNFs) while maintaining service-level objectives - Automated feedback loop to continuously improve the service assurance process.
Email the team: C20.0.28@tmforum.org
Rapid advancements with each generation of technology have not necessarily improved margins for CSPs. In some cases, especially in the retail sector, it has driven CSPs into a vicious cycle of ‘more investment – more data – lower rates.’ Hence across the world, CSPs are forced to embrace digital disruption as a survival tactic, rather than a differentiator. Compared to its predecessors, 5G promises to expand the user base from ever-saturated humans to machines and truly act as a disruptor in the B2B segment.
CSPs have a unique position in the market with their infrastructure assets while sitting on a gold mine of connected and trusted customers. So, the solutions which are proposed in this Catalyst project will enable them to use their strong trusted customer relationship and connectivity-base as a competitive advantage to bring out a new wide range of services including IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and NaaS solutions.
The project will demonstrate a marketplace that is empowered by CSP’s capabilities and success stories which could be shared with other CSPs from noncompetitive geographies. Also, it will focus on how the marketplace can be leveraged to collaborate with enterprises and CSP capabilities to enable new B2B services. The overall objective of the project is to demonstrate an end-to-end platform that will enable CSPs to align to TM Forum Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs standards and embrace the Digital Platform Ecosystem Business to become a digital champion in delivering new digital services and assets to consumers and enterprise customers.
The award-winning Phase 1 of the project demonstrated seamless partner onboarding, product onboarding, the configuration in the product catalog, and end-user consumption.
Phase 2 features extended use-cases, complexity, and partners and is focused on the B2B opportunity for enterprises and CSPs with 5G related use cases. It demonstrates how SD-WAN could be used to facilitate smart surveillance. 5G is a true enabler of SD-WAN because it provides high bandwidth and (ultra) low latency in locations where fixed-line networks may not be available. It also offers advantages to enterprise because it can be made available almost immediately, without the standard wait times for connection to service providers’ fixed-line networks.
Phase 2 also features new capabilities and offerings in the marketplace including native SaaS and ITaaS products. The goal of Phase 2 is to provide end-to-end marketplace capabilities based on TM Forum standards with support for partner and CSP self-serve onboarding and the ability to create or re-define SaaS, ITaaS, and telecom services according to marketplace standards.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.28@tmforum.org
Rapid advancements with each generation of technology have not necessarily improved margins for CSPs. In some cases, especially in the retail sector, it has driven CSPs into a vicious cycle of ‘more investment – more data – lower rates.’ Hence across the world, CSPs are forced to embrace digital disruption as a survival tactic, rather than a differentiator. Compared to its predecessors, 5G promises to expand the user base from ever-saturated humans to machines and truly act as a disruptor in the B2B segment.
CSPs have a unique position in the market with their infrastructure assets while sitting on a gold mine of connected and trusted customers. So, the solutions which are proposed in this Catalyst project will enable them to use their strong trusted customer relationship and connectivity-base as a competitive advantage to bring out a new wide range of services including IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and NaaS solutions.
The project will demonstrate a marketplace that is empowered by CSP’s capabilities and success stories which could be shared with other CSPs from noncompetitive geographies. Also, it will focus on how the marketplace can be leveraged to collaborate with enterprises and CSP capabilities to enable new B2B services. The overall objective of the project is to demonstrate an end-to-end platform that will enable CSPs to align to TM Forum Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs standards and embrace the Digital Platform Ecosystem Business to become a digital champion in delivering new digital services and assets to consumers and enterprise customers.
The award-winning Phase 1 of the project demonstrated seamless partner onboarding, product onboarding, the configuration in the product catalog, and end-user consumption.
Phase 2 features extended use-cases, complexity, and partners and is focused on the B2B opportunity for enterprises and CSPs with 5G related use cases. It demonstrates how SD-WAN could be used to facilitate smart surveillance. 5G is a true enabler of SD-WAN because it provides high bandwidth and (ultra) low latency in locations where fixed-line networks may not be available. It also offers advantages to enterprise because it can be made available almost immediately, without the standard wait times for connection to service providers’ fixed-line networks.
Phase 2 also features new capabilities and offerings in the marketplace including native SaaS and ITaaS products. The goal of Phase 2 is to provide end-to-end marketplace capabilities based on TM Forum standards with support for partner and CSP self-serve onboarding and the ability to create or re-define SaaS, ITaaS, and telecom services according to marketplace standards.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.01@tmforum.org
This Catalyst project introduces a Network as a Service (NaaS) platform to enable “complex” network transformations for the purposes of network monetization and decoupling Operations Support Systems (OSSs)/Business Support System (BSSs) from the network. This platform will leverage abstraction layer services to provision wavelength services using TM Forum Open APIs. With NaaS, complex hybrid networks consisting of multi-vendor Physical Network Functions (PNFs) and Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs), including transformations to white box offerings, can be managed by OSSs/BSSs without disruption to the network.
NaaS allows outsourcing of OSS/BSS components to third-party providers through the decoupling of the OSS/BSS space from the hybrid network. This drives simplicity from a provisioning perspective and enables the introduction of new network services in an automated fashion without having a major impact on the costs of managing the network. It also helps Communications Services Providers (CSPs) that are employing a “buy” vs. “build” approach as it will become more important for OSSs/BSSs to support industry standard TM Forum Open APIs.
This will enable CSPs to: Offer internal clients and third-party solutions partners access to wavelength services offerings via network abstraction layer services Hide network complexities and differences by providing only the functionality that is needed without exposing the “how” or “what” (e.g., what resources to assign) Automate the lifecycle of the given service(s), and Realize the potential of NaaS in shorter development cycles.
To demonstrate the benefits of NaaS, complex, wavelength services using ROADM technology have been selected for this project. There is a high degree of manual effort currently required to provision wavelength services and this is exacerbated by the multiple service variations that exist – Metro Open ROADM and vendor-specific ROADM services. By implementing a NaaS platform, it will be demonstrated with a complex service how interoperability using TM Forum Open APIs can be achieved and drive toward the definition of common service models that can be utilized as part of service catalogs.
This project is to implement a subset of the TMF909 NaaS Open API component suite to retail and wholesale/third party customers of CSPs. These TM Forum Open APIs include: TMF633, “Service Catalog Management REST API” (R18.5) TMF640, “Service Activation and Configuration REST API” (R18.5), and TMF641, “Service Order Management REST API” (R18.5). The introduction of a NaaS architecture is expected to deliver the following benefits: Faster time to deliver new services and service modifications to market, Reduced delivery costs across systems, and Significantly less testing time as features can be rolled out quicker due to network decoupling Finally, this Catalyst will define and expose reusable, common service payloads, which can be contributed back to the TM Forum and other standards bodies.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project:
TM Forum User Guide and Swagger
IG1169, “Network as a Service (NaaS) Requirements R18.0.1
IG1170, “Network as a Service (NaaS) Package R18.0.01
TMF909, “API Suite Specification for NaaS”, v3.0.1
TMF909A, “Network as a Service (NaaS) API Component Suite Profile, v3.0.1
Domain Services/Rules-Based Translation Animation Video
Email the team: C20.0.01@tmforum.org
This Catalyst project introduces a Network as a Service (NaaS) platform to enable “complex” network transformations for the purposes of network monetization and decoupling Operations Support Systems (OSSs)/Business Support System (BSSs) from the network. This platform will leverage abstraction layer services to provision wavelength services using TM Forum Open APIs. With NaaS, complex hybrid networks consisting of multi-vendor Physical Network Functions (PNFs) and Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs), including transformations to white box offerings, can be managed by OSSs/BSSs without disruption to the network.
NaaS allows outsourcing of OSS/BSS components to third-party providers through the decoupling of the OSS/BSS space from the hybrid network. This drives simplicity from a provisioning perspective and enables the introduction of new network services in an automated fashion without having a major impact on the costs of managing the network. It also helps Communications Services Providers (CSPs) that are employing a “buy” vs. “build” approach as it will become more important for OSSs/BSSs to support industry standard TM Forum Open APIs.
This will enable CSPs to: Offer internal clients and third-party solutions partners access to wavelength services offerings via network abstraction layer services Hide network complexities and differences by providing only the functionality that is needed without exposing the “how” or “what” (e.g., what resources to assign) Automate the lifecycle of the given service(s), and Realize the potential of NaaS in shorter development cycles.
To demonstrate the benefits of NaaS, complex, wavelength services using ROADM technology have been selected for this project. There is a high degree of manual effort currently required to provision wavelength services and this is exacerbated by the multiple service variations that exist – Metro Open ROADM and vendor-specific ROADM services. By implementing a NaaS platform, it will be demonstrated with a complex service how interoperability using TM Forum Open APIs can be achieved and drive toward the definition of common service models that can be utilized as part of service catalogs.
This project is to implement a subset of the TMF909 NaaS Open API component suite to retail and wholesale/third party customers of CSPs. These TM Forum Open APIs include: TMF633, “Service Catalog Management REST API” (R18.5) TMF640, “Service Activation and Configuration REST API” (R18.5), and TMF641, “Service Order Management REST API” (R18.5). The introduction of a NaaS architecture is expected to deliver the following benefits: Faster time to deliver new services and service modifications to market, Reduced delivery costs across systems, and Significantly less testing time as features can be rolled out quicker due to network decoupling Finally, this Catalyst will define and expose reusable, common service payloads, which can be contributed back to the TM Forum and other standards bodies.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project:
TM Forum User Guide and Swagger
IG1169, “Network as a Service (NaaS) Requirements R18.0.1
IG1170, “Network as a Service (NaaS) Package R18.0.01
TMF909, “API Suite Specification for NaaS”, v3.0.1
TMF909A, “Network as a Service (NaaS) API Component Suite Profile, v3.0.1
Domain Services/Rules-Based Translation Animation Video
Email the team: C20.0.12@tmforum.org
In order to avoid major IT transformation of their legacy OSS and BSS stacks, as they seek to become more agile and responsive to changing market conditions and the evolution of new technologies, digital service providers can deploy a Network as a Service (NaaS) API wrapper to support industry-standard APIs with minimal disruption to their standard operations.
This Catalyst project models a multi-site IoT customer service and demonstrates the choreography of NaaS Service Problem Management API messages between the IoT service customer, the IoT service providing CSP and a last-mile connectivity supplying CSP. It illustrates how a CSP can integrate those API exchanges with a legacy OSS stack that continues to be used for service assurance. The Catalyst also assesses the IoT Information Framework (SID) model to identify its appropriateness for use in this scenario.
The solution enables a dynamic & self-service-based digital environment for the CSPs with the following features:
- Provider CSPs’ ability to offer and assure network services via a network abstraction layer that ensures only the appropriate functionality and data is exposed, decoupling the interface to customers from the internal implementation within the CSP;
- Improved visibility by Customers of Service Problems; standardizing the creation, tracking and resolution of Service Problems with their Provider CSPs reduces the cost of operations for the customer and lowering their barrier to exit
- Improvements in MTTR for Service Problems by standardizing the exchange of relevant data between Customer, Providing CSP and Supplying CSP
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Additional resources
Email the team: C20.0.12@tmforum.org
In order to avoid major IT transformation of their legacy OSS and BSS stacks, as they seek to become more agile and responsive to changing market conditions and the evolution of new technologies, digital service providers can deploy a Network as a Service (NaaS) API wrapper to support industry-standard APIs with minimal disruption to their standard operations.
This Catalyst project models a multi-site IoT customer service and demonstrates the choreography of NaaS Service Problem Management API messages between the IoT service customer, the IoT service providing CSP and a last-mile connectivity supplying CSP. It illustrates how a CSP can integrate those API exchanges with a legacy OSS stack that continues to be used for service assurance. The Catalyst also assesses the IoT Information Framework (SID) model to identify its appropriateness for use in this scenario.
The solution enables a dynamic & self-service-based digital environment for the CSPs with the following features:
- Provider CSPs’ ability to offer and assure network services via a network abstraction layer that ensures only the appropriate functionality and data is exposed, decoupling the interface to customers from the internal implementation within the CSP;
- Improved visibility by Customers of Service Problems; standardizing the creation, tracking and resolution of Service Problems with their Provider CSPs reduces the cost of operations for the customer and lowering their barrier to exit
- Improvements in MTTR for Service Problems by standardizing the exchange of relevant data between Customer, Providing CSP and Supplying CSP
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
Additional resources
Email the team: C20.0.50@tmforum.org
Advancements in simplified networks, agile IT and intelligent IoT solutions powered by end-to-end Autonomous Networks enable a zero-x (zero-wait, zero-touch, zero-trouble and zero-friction) experience for end customers and communications service providers (CSPs), unlocking new offerings and potential revenue streams for Smart-X industries, including city, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture.
This Catalyst demonstrates how application of Autonomous Networks (AN) facilitates seamless management, deployment and operations and promotes TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Framework by testing some of the key concepts related to autonomous domain, intent-based automation, closed loops and self-operating capabilities (self-service, self-fulfilment and self-assurance etc).
The project illustrates a full life cycle of Autonomous Networks solutions and its requirements for dynamic business processes and models by leveraging cutting edge technologies like 5G, edge, AI, and virtualization.
Once Autonomous Networks are in place, B2B companies like smart cities and service providers, B2C customers, digital service providers and telecom service providers will benefit from enhanced quality of seamless experience and improved operational efficiency with end to end life cycle complexity hidden behind the scenes and with experience assurance built in.
The new Autonomous Networks framework enables greater agility and provides best practices for much faster launch of new services and solutions.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
Docs: AN Whitepaper: TMF whitepaper (Release 1.0): Autonomous Networks: Empowering Digital Transformation For The Telecoms Industry.
Vision: Cross-Industry Autonomous Networks – Vision and Roadmap TMF IG1193
AN Business architecture: TMF IG1218 “Autonomous Networks – Business requirements & architecture” (to be published in July)
Email the team: C20.0.50@tmforum.org
Advancements in simplified networks, agile IT and intelligent IoT solutions powered by end-to-end Autonomous Networks enable a zero-x (zero-wait, zero-touch, zero-trouble and zero-friction) experience for end customers and communications service providers (CSPs), unlocking new offerings and potential revenue streams for Smart-X industries, including city, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture.
This Catalyst demonstrates how application of Autonomous Networks (AN) facilitates seamless management, deployment and operations and promotes TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks Framework by testing some of the key concepts related to autonomous domain, intent-based automation, closed loops and self-operating capabilities (self-service, self-fulfilment and self-assurance etc).
The project illustrates a full life cycle of Autonomous Networks solutions and its requirements for dynamic business processes and models by leveraging cutting edge technologies like 5G, edge, AI, and virtualization.
Once Autonomous Networks are in place, B2B companies like smart cities and service providers, B2C customers, digital service providers and telecom service providers will benefit from enhanced quality of seamless experience and improved operational efficiency with end to end life cycle complexity hidden behind the scenes and with experience assurance built in.
The new Autonomous Networks framework enables greater agility and provides best practices for much faster launch of new services and solutions.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
Docs: AN Whitepaper: TMF whitepaper (Release 1.0): Autonomous Networks: Empowering Digital Transformation For The Telecoms Industry.
Vision: Cross-Industry Autonomous Networks – Vision and Roadmap TMF IG1193
AN Business architecture: TMF IG1218 “Autonomous Networks – Business requirements & architecture” (to be published in July)
Email the team: C20.0.13@tmforum.org
The telecoms industry needs to increase the percentage of revenues coming from the B2B market, where there is great competition due to large internet companies moving into infrastructure and business services. To address that, communications service providers (CSPs) must seek revenues beyond simple connectivity-based services and move toward a NaaS, service-based portfolio.
This project facilitates the cost-effective end-to-end management of the network services lifecycle. It supports the delivery of NaaS services for B2B clients through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the network operation (AIOps), enabling, for example, the automatic prevention of failures and outages.
Boosting AIOps for Full Hybrid NaaS will allow telco operators to own the customer relationship for the B2B market, which generates more than half of company revenues. This will boost customer loyalty and allow telcos to proactively respond to incidents or business interruption threats – ultimately, reducing customer complaints.
The project will deliver a NaaS platform, using mainly open source components, for on-boarding, fulfillment, assurance and billing of NaaS services. It will also demonstrate how telco operators can expand their networks by using shared networks from third-party partners to meet B2B clients’ high expectations.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Business Process Framework (eTOM) GB921
Resource inventory API user guide TMF639
Through a single interface SOM or Design and Assign processes are enabled to manage inventory lifecycle
Service catalog API REST specification TMF633
Definition of specification allowed us to create granular processes and let us reuse components on other implementations
Resource catalog management API user guide TMF634
Definition of specification allowed us to create granular processes and let us reuse components on other implementations
Service qualification API user-guide TMF645
This adaptor allowed to implement standarized feasibility for CRM queries
Resource pool management API REST specification TMF685
Specification allowed us to apply Blockchain as trustworthy and security mediator between retailer and 3rd party infrastructure
Digital Platform Reference Architecture IG1157
Frameworx Open Digital API Business Guide TR241
Email the team: C20.0.13@tmforum.org
The telecoms industry needs to increase the percentage of revenues coming from the B2B market, where there is great competition due to large internet companies moving into infrastructure and business services. To address that, communications service providers (CSPs) must seek revenues beyond simple connectivity-based services and move toward a NaaS, service-based portfolio.
This project facilitates the cost-effective end-to-end management of the network services lifecycle. It supports the delivery of NaaS services for B2B clients through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the network operation (AIOps), enabling, for example, the automatic prevention of failures and outages.
Boosting AIOps for Full Hybrid NaaS will allow telco operators to own the customer relationship for the B2B market, which generates more than half of company revenues. This will boost customer loyalty and allow telcos to proactively respond to incidents or business interruption threats – ultimately, reducing customer complaints.
The project will deliver a NaaS platform, using mainly open source components, for on-boarding, fulfillment, assurance and billing of NaaS services. It will also demonstrate how telco operators can expand their networks by using shared networks from third-party partners to meet B2B clients’ high expectations.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Business Process Framework (eTOM) GB921
Resource inventory API user guide TMF639
Through a single interface SOM or Design and Assign processes are enabled to manage inventory lifecycle
Service catalog API REST specification TMF633
Definition of specification allowed us to create granular processes and let us reuse components on other implementations
Resource catalog management API user guide TMF634
Definition of specification allowed us to create granular processes and let us reuse components on other implementations
Service qualification API user-guide TMF645
This adaptor allowed to implement standarized feasibility for CRM queries
Resource pool management API REST specification TMF685
Specification allowed us to apply Blockchain as trustworthy and security mediator between retailer and 3rd party infrastructure
Digital Platform Reference Architecture IG1157
Frameworx Open Digital API Business Guide TR241
Email the team: C20.0.38@tmforum.org
In the previous phase of BOS project, we implemented a Business Operation System for CSPs to focus on innovation instead of cost savings and integration issues. For this, the Catalyst paved the way for the development of targeted reference implementation while showcasing basic use cases around “catalog management”, “welcome” and the beginning of the “order capture” process.
In Phase II of the BOS project, we are implementing practical use cases around online charging, usage-buckets, and usage management as well as implementing a federated product catalog to drive the order capture and orchestration processes. The product catalogs will productize blockchain-based infrastructure and contracts management components and the use cases will be consumed in multiple channels that will provide a consistent user experience. The reference implementation will capture the Core Commerce Management, Production, Party Management and Engagement Management blocks of the Open Digital Architecture (ODA) functional architecture and will highlight the interoperability of glass-box and black-box components between multiple vendors that will showcase the integration benefits to be gained by CSPs with BOS.
Phase II will also introduce TMF701, Process Flow API, that will capture the complex business processes and expose Open APIs to front ends for consumption. This will allow the simplified integration between multiple components in the backend.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TMF634 Resource Catalog Management API
TMF654 Prepay Balance Management API
TMF667 Document Management API
TMF678 Customer Bill Management API
Email the team: C20.0.38@tmforum.org
In the previous phase of BOS project, we implemented a Business Operation System for CSPs to focus on innovation instead of cost savings and integration issues. For this, the Catalyst paved the way for the development of targeted reference implementation while showcasing basic use cases around “catalog management”, “welcome” and the beginning of the “order capture” process.
In Phase II of the BOS project, we are implementing practical use cases around online charging, usage-buckets, and usage management as well as implementing a federated product catalog to drive the order capture and orchestration processes. The product catalogs will productize blockchain-based infrastructure and contracts management components and the use cases will be consumed in multiple channels that will provide a consistent user experience. The reference implementation will capture the Core Commerce Management, Production, Party Management and Engagement Management blocks of the Open Digital Architecture (ODA) functional architecture and will highlight the interoperability of glass-box and black-box components between multiple vendors that will showcase the integration benefits to be gained by CSPs with BOS.
Phase II will also introduce TMF701, Process Flow API, that will capture the complex business processes and expose Open APIs to front ends for consumption. This will allow the simplified integration between multiple components in the backend.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TMF634 Resource Catalog Management API
TMF654 Prepay Balance Management API
TMF667 Document Management API
TMF678 Customer Bill Management API
Email the team: C20.0.60@tmforum.org
The Mega Catalyst builds on a vision of a completely trusted Business Ecosystem where Telco’s, together with supply chain and channel partners, can interact together to deliver trusted industry 4.0 solutions.
Until now, industry 4.0 smart solutions have been bespoke, expensive, brittle and susceptible to cyber-crime. Business expectation (as per digital consumers) is to be able to buy, use and manage “anything-as-a-service” on smartphones, safely and securely. Therefore, a highly automated and repeatable approach is required.
Three Catalysts have joined together to test plug and play capabilities around industry 4.0 business assurance:
· AI driven business assurance for 5G
· Vertical Industry Telcos: a Federated DLT-based Marketplace
The Mega Catalyst explores how these three Catalysts can partner “back to back” to illustrate how their different foci and ‘layers’ can together deliver a repeatable patterned and assured approach for all the partners in industry 4.0.
1. The Federated DLT Catalyst provides an immutable trusted data record of the physical tracking of devices leveraging the IOTA Tangle.
2. In DBM, R3 Corda manages the FIDO (Intel SDO) based x.509 ownership certificates to secure the DBM plug and play virtual supply chain, whilst business ecosystem orchestration is managed by Accenture, Salesforce, Digiglu, BearingPoint//Beyond’s Digital Business Platform, BT’s ZTO and Intel’s SDO. Together, these two capabilities deliver secure, end-to-end, hardware and software, industry 4.0 solutions.
3. To enable the Mega catalyst, the IOTA Tangle data together with other relevant data from the companies in the supply chain are extracted by R3 Corda and then exposed to the ‘AI driven Business Assurance Catalyst’.
4. The AI driven business assurance Catalyst provides ecosystem trust and transparency by assuring revenues and business goals, identifying new controls that assure the completeness, correctness and trust of the marketplace, and using the distributed ledger as a data trust mechanism for these controls.
In this process of developing a new Business Assurance approach to ecosystems, the three Catalysts have offered powerful insights to how the individual ‘layers’ can deliver the required capabilities to expose the necessary services and data at control points for ecosystem assurance. These control points define the demarcation between the ‘layers’ and could be operationalized as potential assurance & governance APIs in the implementation of the supply chain use case.
The Mega Catalyst concept has been created by BT and managed by TCS and includes the following participation from operators and vendors as well as TM Forum.
Email the team: C20.0.60@tmforum.org
The Mega Catalyst builds on a vision of a completely trusted Business Ecosystem where Telco’s, together with supply chain and channel partners, can interact together to deliver trusted industry 4.0 solutions.
Until now, industry 4.0 smart solutions have been bespoke, expensive, brittle and susceptible to cyber-crime. Business expectation (as per digital consumers) is to be able to buy, use and manage “anything-as-a-service” on smartphones, safely and securely. Therefore, a highly automated and repeatable approach is required.
Three Catalysts have joined together to test plug and play capabilities around industry 4.0 business assurance:
· AI driven business assurance for 5G
· Vertical Industry Telcos: a Federated DLT-based Marketplace
The Mega Catalyst explores how these three Catalysts can partner “back to back” to illustrate how their different foci and ‘layers’ can together deliver a repeatable patterned and assured approach for all the partners in industry 4.0.
1. The Federated DLT Catalyst provides an immutable trusted data record of the physical tracking of devices leveraging the IOTA Tangle.
2. In DBM, R3 Corda manages the FIDO (Intel SDO) based x.509 ownership certificates to secure the DBM plug and play virtual supply chain, whilst business ecosystem orchestration is managed by Accenture, Salesforce, Digiglu, BearingPoint//Beyond’s Digital Business Platform, BT’s ZTO and Intel’s SDO. Together, these two capabilities deliver secure, end-to-end, hardware and software, industry 4.0 solutions.
3. To enable the Mega catalyst, the IOTA Tangle data together with other relevant data from the companies in the supply chain are extracted by R3 Corda and then exposed to the ‘AI driven Business Assurance Catalyst’.
4. The AI driven business assurance Catalyst provides ecosystem trust and transparency by assuring revenues and business goals, identifying new controls that assure the completeness, correctness and trust of the marketplace, and using the distributed ledger as a data trust mechanism for these controls.
In this process of developing a new Business Assurance approach to ecosystems, the three Catalysts have offered powerful insights to how the individual ‘layers’ can deliver the required capabilities to expose the necessary services and data at control points for ecosystem assurance. These control points define the demarcation between the ‘layers’ and could be operationalized as potential assurance & governance APIs in the implementation of the supply chain use case.
The Mega Catalyst concept has been created by BT and managed by TCS and includes the following participation from operators and vendors as well as TM Forum.
Email the team: C20.0.15@tmforum.org
In this Catalyst project, the perspective is shifted to the developers who operators depend on to provide compelling applications for their customers. By addressing the needs of the developer ecosystem, including APIs, infrastructure and business models, operators will benefit from a tremendous reduction in time-to-market and cost to introduce new applications.
Further, operators could also attract developers to co-create compelling applications that are easily portable. This is particularly beneficial for operators who are running business operations in multiple geographies.
Email the team: C20.0.15@tmforum.org
In this Catalyst project, the perspective is shifted to the developers who operators depend on to provide compelling applications for their customers. By addressing the needs of the developer ecosystem, including APIs, infrastructure and business models, operators will benefit from a tremendous reduction in time-to-market and cost to introduce new applications.
Further, operators could also attract developers to co-create compelling applications that are easily portable. This is particularly beneficial for operators who are running business operations in multiple geographies.
Email the team: C20.0.56@tmforum.org
The telecom industry is under pressure to constantly and quickly evolve networks to meet customers’ growing expectations. This is challenging for telcos such as STC, due to a complex mix of systems and services, including fixed line, broadband and mobile. Further, many products and services are delivered using legacy tools, processes and procedures and in partnership with a variety of suppliers and partners.
This scenario makes it difficult to ensure network infrastructure is being deployed in the right place at the right time and to manage the roll-out effectively.
Further, the lack of digital interfaces with partners’ systems and processes, as well as manual methods for updating databases, reviewing documents and securing approvals, typically lead to network deployment delays.
This Catalyst explores how business process management software (BPMS), Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and Open APIs can support digital integrations between STC and partners to enable fast, efficient and effective deployments of infrastructure.
Email the team: C20.0.56@tmforum.org
The telecom industry is under pressure to constantly and quickly evolve networks to meet customers’ growing expectations. This is challenging for telcos such as STC, due to a complex mix of systems and services, including fixed line, broadband and mobile. Further, many products and services are delivered using legacy tools, processes and procedures and in partnership with a variety of suppliers and partners.
This scenario makes it difficult to ensure network infrastructure is being deployed in the right place at the right time and to manage the roll-out effectively.
Further, the lack of digital interfaces with partners’ systems and processes, as well as manual methods for updating databases, reviewing documents and securing approvals, typically lead to network deployment delays.
This Catalyst explores how business process management software (BPMS), Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and Open APIs can support digital integrations between STC and partners to enable fast, efficient and effective deployments of infrastructure.
Email the team: C20.0.04@tmforum.org
The world is being dominated by the digital natives – and people now expect to be able to buy and manage “anything-as-a-service” on their smartphone.
This Catalyst explores how companies in traditional industries can be digitally transformed by abstracting and digitizing their products and services, which leverage IoT, LTE/5G, Secure Device Onboarding (SDO), SD-WAN, edge computing, NFV, AI, cloud, SDN, etc.
This Catalyst project secures the supply chain through frictionless multi-partner Zero-Touch Orchestration (ZTO), Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and trading, delivering customer self-service and new revenue generating products and services.
Phase 1 of the project demonstrated how self-service ZTO saved 500 person-years of skilled manual pre-provisioning when deploying 3 million IoT devices, as well as delivering and monetizing secure endpoints and remote in-life management (previously equating to 25% of project costs).
Phase 2 expanded the multi-partner ecosystem around a repeatable use of configurable and packaged IoT, LTE, AI and various edge devices, leveraging ZTO and demonstrating security, scalability and interoperability capabilities.
Together with the capabilities to manage in-life, as well as monetization and settlement, phase 2 provided the patterns for CSPs, vendors and service providers to enable product managers from industry-verticals to leverage the Digital Business Marketplace to shape, deliver and manage Smart scenario offerings for their customers.
Phase 3 is conceived to harden the platform and services for production and to create specific solutions for the landscape of Industry 4.0 customers. Using a “team of teams” approach, phase 3 will provide an enhanced matrix of ecosystem capability “horizontals” and Smart Industry 4.0 “verticals”.
Ecosystem capability horizontal examples include service assurance, federated identity management, distributed ledgers, network mapping, business assurance, secure device onboarding, 5G and fibre, SLAs and contracts, SDN and NVF, digital experience, core platform governance and management, digital negotiation and orchestration, zero-touch device orchestration, multi-edge and cloud, and Industry 4.0 vertical-specific devices and services.
Smart Industry 4.0 vertical examples, which will make use of a subset of ecosystem capability horizontals, are Smart Grid, Smart Factory, Smart Vehicles, Smart Theatre and Smart Logistics. The combination of repeatable commercial efficiency and secure delivery of the Digital Business Marketplace will have a profound implication on Industrial IoT and the 4th industrial revolution.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
GB921 Business Process Framework
**GB922 Customer v20.0 GB922 Business Partner v20.0 GB922 Product v19.5.1 GB922 Service v20.0 GB922 Resource v19.5.1
Email the team: C20.0.04@tmforum.org
The world is being dominated by the digital natives – and people now expect to be able to buy and manage “anything-as-a-service” on their smartphone.
This Catalyst explores how companies in traditional industries can be digitally transformed by abstracting and digitizing their products and services, which leverage IoT, LTE/5G, Secure Device Onboarding (SDO), SD-WAN, edge computing, NFV, AI, cloud, SDN, etc.
This Catalyst project secures the supply chain through frictionless multi-partner Zero-Touch Orchestration (ZTO), Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and trading, delivering customer self-service and new revenue generating products and services.
Phase 1 of the project demonstrated how self-service ZTO saved 500 person-years of skilled manual pre-provisioning when deploying 3 million IoT devices, as well as delivering and monetizing secure endpoints and remote in-life management (previously equating to 25% of project costs).
Phase 2 expanded the multi-partner ecosystem around a repeatable use of configurable and packaged IoT, LTE, AI and various edge devices, leveraging ZTO and demonstrating security, scalability and interoperability capabilities.
Together with the capabilities to manage in-life, as well as monetization and settlement, phase 2 provided the patterns for CSPs, vendors and service providers to enable product managers from industry-verticals to leverage the Digital Business Marketplace to shape, deliver and manage Smart scenario offerings for their customers.
Phase 3 is conceived to harden the platform and services for production and to create specific solutions for the landscape of Industry 4.0 customers. Using a “team of teams” approach, phase 3 will provide an enhanced matrix of ecosystem capability “horizontals” and Smart Industry 4.0 “verticals”.
Ecosystem capability horizontal examples include service assurance, federated identity management, distributed ledgers, network mapping, business assurance, secure device onboarding, 5G and fibre, SLAs and contracts, SDN and NVF, digital experience, core platform governance and management, digital negotiation and orchestration, zero-touch device orchestration, multi-edge and cloud, and Industry 4.0 vertical-specific devices and services.
Smart Industry 4.0 vertical examples, which will make use of a subset of ecosystem capability horizontals, are Smart Grid, Smart Factory, Smart Vehicles, Smart Theatre and Smart Logistics. The combination of repeatable commercial efficiency and secure delivery of the Digital Business Marketplace will have a profound implication on Industrial IoT and the 4th industrial revolution.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
GB921 Business Process Framework
**GB922 Customer v20.0 GB922 Business Partner v20.0 GB922 Product v19.5.1 GB922 Service v20.0 GB922 Resource v19.5.1
Email the team: C20.0.23@tmforum.org
This Catalyst project is developing a useful set of tools for communication service providers (CSP) professionals in the areas of enterprise architecture, strategy, business modelling and product management.
It aligns with the digital industry in its adoption of the methodologies used to evaluate opportunities and provides a pragmatic way of bringing together TM Forum assets into action plans that can be adopted by CSPs of all sizes.
The project has been prompted by the fundamental shifts that are happening in the telecom industry, just as they are in other business verticals around the world, where the lines are starting to blur within and between industries, as media, telecoms, eCommerce and IoT overlap across dozens of verticals.
This amalgamation of verticals is giving birth to complex ecosystems that govern the rules of engagement between participants, rather than the siloed classifications that applied in the past.
Today, it is our business to become familiar with adjacent industries and technologies to discover where the opportunities of the future may lie.
In this context, this Catalyst project sets out to guide CSP professionals on how to visualize an ecosystem at a high level; to study its players and their interdependencies, but without becoming buried in so much detail that the big picture is obscured.
The project solution starts by identifying the ecosystem participants; their roles are key to understanding how the ecosystem currently works and how value is created. However, it layers this picture with constraints that expose the rationales governing the current status quo.
More often than not, this gives rise to opportunities that can be visualized for CSP participation in the ecosystem. Once the opportunity has been isolated, the project solution frames it in terms of its potential, its impact on stakeholders and the intrinsic value it can create for them. It then models it out to come up with the key value being generated.
This allows identification of value streams; a multi-stage value exchange that happens to support a predicted outcome and which unlocks the opportunity that has been identified. The final step is to help map capabilities and identify the various portfolio combinations that can be considered by CSPs as an approach to prioritising their enterprise architecture decisions.
Ultimately, the aim is to demonstrate how CSPs can start evaluating new business ideas, regardless of whether they are situated within their existing domain or whether they are elements related to an adjacent industry.
The rapid analysis that is hopefully enabled by the play book should reduce the excessive time that can often cause ideas to die before a sufficiently rigorous inspection of them can be undertaken.
Additional Resources
LinkedIn Catalyst Project group: Ecosystem Design Catalyst
Ecosystems playbook (online version)
CurateFX template for practitioners (early version under review)
An introduction to the ecosystem playbook initiative representing our participant CSG
Email the team: C20.0.23@tmforum.org
This Catalyst project is developing a useful set of tools for communication service providers (CSP) professionals in the areas of enterprise architecture, strategy, business modelling and product management.
It aligns with the digital industry in its adoption of the methodologies used to evaluate opportunities and provides a pragmatic way of bringing together TM Forum assets into action plans that can be adopted by CSPs of all sizes.
The project has been prompted by the fundamental shifts that are happening in the telecom industry, just as they are in other business verticals around the world, where the lines are starting to blur within and between industries, as media, telecoms, eCommerce and IoT overlap across dozens of verticals.
This amalgamation of verticals is giving birth to complex ecosystems that govern the rules of engagement between participants, rather than the siloed classifications that applied in the past.
Today, it is our business to become familiar with adjacent industries and technologies to discover where the opportunities of the future may lie.
In this context, this Catalyst project sets out to guide CSP professionals on how to visualize an ecosystem at a high level; to study its players and their interdependencies, but without becoming buried in so much detail that the big picture is obscured.
The project solution starts by identifying the ecosystem participants; their roles are key to understanding how the ecosystem currently works and how value is created. However, it layers this picture with constraints that expose the rationales governing the current status quo.
More often than not, this gives rise to opportunities that can be visualized for CSP participation in the ecosystem. Once the opportunity has been isolated, the project solution frames it in terms of its potential, its impact on stakeholders and the intrinsic value it can create for them. It then models it out to come up with the key value being generated.
This allows identification of value streams; a multi-stage value exchange that happens to support a predicted outcome and which unlocks the opportunity that has been identified. The final step is to help map capabilities and identify the various portfolio combinations that can be considered by CSPs as an approach to prioritising their enterprise architecture decisions.
Ultimately, the aim is to demonstrate how CSPs can start evaluating new business ideas, regardless of whether they are situated within their existing domain or whether they are elements related to an adjacent industry.
The rapid analysis that is hopefully enabled by the play book should reduce the excessive time that can often cause ideas to die before a sufficiently rigorous inspection of them can be undertaken.
Additional Resources
LinkedIn Catalyst Project group: Ecosystem Design Catalyst
Ecosystems playbook (online version)
CurateFX template for practitioners (early version under review)
An introduction to the ecosystem playbook initiative representing our participant CSG
Email the team: C20.0.17@tmforum.org
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a diverse population comprising of citizens and expats from over 100 different nationalities. These digitally engaged individuals expect tailored products and services instantly, on the platform(s) of their preference.
It is obvious that the future belongs to whomever owns and manages the interactions with the customer. STC’s digital transformation is about primarily identifying synergies across internal functions, neighbouring industries and untapped growth potential in partner networks while digitizing the customer journeys.
CEMA (Customer Engagement & Monetization) is simply the platform to improve or reinvent business models, while engaging customers contextually using digital channels and social media networks, powered by data-driven insights and artificial intelligence.
STC intends to personalize the customer experience from outside-in with a deep understanding of customer lifestyle and behavior leading to an end to end digital experience.
This Catalyst project shares the STC journey and success stories and gives a glimpse of how the platform will evolve in the coming years to achieve one of the key pillars of STC’s digital strategy i.e. reinventing the customer experience in digital platforms.
In this Catalyst project, STC is partnering with SAS for end to end marketing flows and complex event processing, Teradata is empowering the data driven analytics platform while Nokia delivers integration with social media advertisement platforms for an increased customer reach. TCS is the systems integrator, ensuring integrations for the relevant framework as well as for analytical capabilities.
Email the team: C20.0.17@tmforum.org
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a diverse population comprising of citizens and expats from over 100 different nationalities. These digitally engaged individuals expect tailored products and services instantly, on the platform(s) of their preference.
It is obvious that the future belongs to whomever owns and manages the interactions with the customer. STC’s digital transformation is about primarily identifying synergies across internal functions, neighbouring industries and untapped growth potential in partner networks while digitizing the customer journeys.
CEMA (Customer Engagement & Monetization) is simply the platform to improve or reinvent business models, while engaging customers contextually using digital channels and social media networks, powered by data-driven insights and artificial intelligence.
STC intends to personalize the customer experience from outside-in with a deep understanding of customer lifestyle and behavior leading to an end to end digital experience.
This Catalyst project shares the STC journey and success stories and gives a glimpse of how the platform will evolve in the coming years to achieve one of the key pillars of STC’s digital strategy i.e. reinventing the customer experience in digital platforms.
In this Catalyst project, STC is partnering with SAS for end to end marketing flows and complex event processing, Teradata is empowering the data driven analytics platform while Nokia delivers integration with social media advertisement platforms for an increased customer reach. TCS is the systems integrator, ensuring integrations for the relevant framework as well as for analytical capabilities.
Email the team: C20.0.29@tmforum.org
This third iteration of the project will expand on the work in the previous Catalyst, named Skynet, focused on enabling a diverse ecosystem of partners, including multiple operators from different geographies, to seamlessly provide a set of end-to-end hybrid services, based on virtualized and physical networks as well as wireless and fixed networks.
By collaborating with the medical Universities located in Milan, Paris and Tokyo and leading medical equipment vendors, the team will focus on delivering services to the medical and academic sectors via 5G slices for use cases related to medical simulation, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, introducing the service and network assurance aspects of the solution.
Network assurance will be combined to the remote medical use case in order to prioritize and secure mission critical traffic based on external social information at the time of the epidemic or disaster situations. We will also expand the inter-carrier fulfilment and settlement aspects of what was analyzed in Skynet.
One of the goals is to enable operational automation and dynamic scalability of network resources.
The Catalyst will expand the previous work of mapping all the components in TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) using Open APIs. On the business layer, the Catalyst will design the business scenario in CurateFx and propose a model for the deployment of the APIs in the business applications themselves in order to support, for example, the remote management of medical mannequins.
Email the team: C20.0.29@tmforum.org
This third iteration of the project will expand on the work in the previous Catalyst, named Skynet, focused on enabling a diverse ecosystem of partners, including multiple operators from different geographies, to seamlessly provide a set of end-to-end hybrid services, based on virtualized and physical networks as well as wireless and fixed networks.
By collaborating with the medical Universities located in Milan, Paris and Tokyo and leading medical equipment vendors, the team will focus on delivering services to the medical and academic sectors via 5G slices for use cases related to medical simulation, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, introducing the service and network assurance aspects of the solution.
Network assurance will be combined to the remote medical use case in order to prioritize and secure mission critical traffic based on external social information at the time of the epidemic or disaster situations. We will also expand the inter-carrier fulfilment and settlement aspects of what was analyzed in Skynet.
One of the goals is to enable operational automation and dynamic scalability of network resources.
The Catalyst will expand the previous work of mapping all the components in TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) using Open APIs. On the business layer, the Catalyst will design the business scenario in CurateFx and propose a model for the deployment of the APIs in the business applications themselves in order to support, for example, the remote management of medical mannequins.
Email the team: C20.0.10@tmforum.org
Last year, China Telecom and China Unicom announced an agreement to jointly build and manage a 5G radio access network (RAN) in China.
Other communications service providers (CSPs) around the world are following suit to boost efficiencies and speed of deployment.
This Catalyst will address some of the key challenges relating to the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of shared 5G network infrastructure. The Catalyst deploys three digital twins –customer, network and spatial. They work both individually and together via a knowledge graph on a big data platform.
The digital twin is implemented as a container-based distributed object with a cloud-edge collaboration mechanism. Dynamic perception capabilities track real-time changes in the shared network infrastructure while artificial intelligence (AI) simulates and predicts future events.
The project will show how the insights from these digital twins will support 5G base station location planning for cross-operator networks; pinpoint potential performance bottlenecks through predictive analysis; and speed the resolution of network issues that can contribute to poor customer experience – even when network and customer data belongs to different operators.
The team will also show how this multi-operator network and customer data be used to improve customer experience management in shared 5G networks, with effective privacy safeguards in place.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
1. Customer Centricity
Customer experience management lifecycle metrics GB962a -
Customer experience management maturity model GB962b
Customer experience management lifecycle model GB962c
2. AI Toolkit
The CSPs Guide to AI-Driven 360 Degree Customer Profiles IG1182 R18.5.1
Service Management Standards for AI IG1184
3. Open Digital Framework
ODA Functional Architecture IG1167
IODA User Stories and Use Cases IG1197
4. Smart City
City as a Platform Architecture and Supporting Capabilities TR272
Email the team: C20.0.10@tmforum.org
Last year, China Telecom and China Unicom announced an agreement to jointly build and manage a 5G radio access network (RAN) in China.
Other communications service providers (CSPs) around the world are following suit to boost efficiencies and speed of deployment.
This Catalyst will address some of the key challenges relating to the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of shared 5G network infrastructure. The Catalyst deploys three digital twins –customer, network and spatial. They work both individually and together via a knowledge graph on a big data platform.
The digital twin is implemented as a container-based distributed object with a cloud-edge collaboration mechanism. Dynamic perception capabilities track real-time changes in the shared network infrastructure while artificial intelligence (AI) simulates and predicts future events.
The project will show how the insights from these digital twins will support 5G base station location planning for cross-operator networks; pinpoint potential performance bottlenecks through predictive analysis; and speed the resolution of network issues that can contribute to poor customer experience – even when network and customer data belongs to different operators.
The team will also show how this multi-operator network and customer data be used to improve customer experience management in shared 5G networks, with effective privacy safeguards in place.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
1. Customer Centricity
Customer experience management lifecycle metrics GB962a -
Customer experience management maturity model GB962b
Customer experience management lifecycle model GB962c
2. AI Toolkit
The CSPs Guide to AI-Driven 360 Degree Customer Profiles IG1182 R18.5.1
Service Management Standards for AI IG1184
3. Open Digital Framework
ODA Functional Architecture IG1167
IODA User Stories and Use Cases IG1197
4. Smart City
City as a Platform Architecture and Supporting Capabilities TR272
Email the team: C20.0.39@tmforum.org
Technology service providers have operations technicians/assurance engineers working on thousands of jobs daily in unstructured environments, and ensuring their safety is paramount. Further, safety protocols must be tracked to ensure and demonstrate regulatory compliance.
Manual safety inspections add costs and can only be applied to a limited number of jobs. Non-adherence to recommended safety measures can result in safety incidents with significant costs.
This ‘virtual safety assistant’ solution integrates AI-enabled cameras, body-worn sensors, drones and natural language processing (NLP) based technology into field-ops’ workflows to trigger actions, alerts and notifications that enable active safety awareness and eliminate manual inspections.
The virtual safety assistant makes the network field operations smart by providing tools and intelligence to improve safety and productivity while automating data collection and compliance-tracking. Additionally, the cost savings resulting from reducing safety incidents and workers’ compensation make it an attractive business case for implementation.
Email the team: C20.0.39@tmforum.org
Technology service providers have operations technicians/assurance engineers working on thousands of jobs daily in unstructured environments, and ensuring their safety is paramount. Further, safety protocols must be tracked to ensure and demonstrate regulatory compliance.
Manual safety inspections add costs and can only be applied to a limited number of jobs. Non-adherence to recommended safety measures can result in safety incidents with significant costs.
This ‘virtual safety assistant’ solution integrates AI-enabled cameras, body-worn sensors, drones and natural language processing (NLP) based technology into field-ops’ workflows to trigger actions, alerts and notifications that enable active safety awareness and eliminate manual inspections.
The virtual safety assistant makes the network field operations smart by providing tools and intelligence to improve safety and productivity while automating data collection and compliance-tracking. Additionally, the cost savings resulting from reducing safety incidents and workers’ compensation make it an attractive business case for implementation.
Email the team: C20.0.30@tmforum.org
Ready Telco One presents a radical new approach to redefining the relationship between communications service providers (CSPs), partners and consumers.
The Catalyst project will demonstrate how CSPs can continuously adapt offers to match the ever-changing services that consumers use daily. It shows how CSPs can become an integral part of their customers’ lifestyle, creating new revenue opportunities and benefiting from the rapid evolution of service verticals.
The Engagement Marketplace proposed by the project provides a platform to create dynamic, contextual service offers, enabling CSPs to combine 3rd party partner products/services with their own into versatile bundles that can be enriched with 5G network capabilities.
Targeting and customer outreach is driven by AI-tools, giving CSPs and partners optimal and effective engagement with the customer base, taking into consideration audience profiles, contextual data including usage and channel interactions.
A game-style user experience incites customers to unlock premium services, discounts and improve their loyalty status, whilst experiencing an optimized AI-driven customer journey that continuously moves from phase to phase and from one outcome to the next.
Service charges are presented to the customer in a consolidated and simple-to-understand bill format which hides the complexity of back-end partner settlements. Behind the scenes revenues are intelligently split and attributed to the respective service partner.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.30@tmforum.org
Ready Telco One presents a radical new approach to redefining the relationship between communications service providers (CSPs), partners and consumers.
The Catalyst project will demonstrate how CSPs can continuously adapt offers to match the ever-changing services that consumers use daily. It shows how CSPs can become an integral part of their customers’ lifestyle, creating new revenue opportunities and benefiting from the rapid evolution of service verticals.
The Engagement Marketplace proposed by the project provides a platform to create dynamic, contextual service offers, enabling CSPs to combine 3rd party partner products/services with their own into versatile bundles that can be enriched with 5G network capabilities.
Targeting and customer outreach is driven by AI-tools, giving CSPs and partners optimal and effective engagement with the customer base, taking into consideration audience profiles, contextual data including usage and channel interactions.
A game-style user experience incites customers to unlock premium services, discounts and improve their loyalty status, whilst experiencing an optimized AI-driven customer journey that continuously moves from phase to phase and from one outcome to the next.
Service charges are presented to the customer in a consolidated and simple-to-understand bill format which hides the complexity of back-end partner settlements. Behind the scenes revenues are intelligently split and attributed to the respective service partner.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.09@tmforum.org
Speech Interpretation has been used in numerous domains with considerable success. However, applications using speech recognition are still rare for automating Operational Support Systems. Successful systems ensure top productivity for the relatively few highly skilled network engineers using them.
Introducing a Speech Interpreation network assistant (SINA) within network operations reduces operational expenses by automating otherwise manual tasks and complex functions through voice commands.
The system is smart enough to learn from the user’s behavior and suggest recommendations or additional information regarding the monitored network.
This Catalyst project demonstrates a digital transformation approach within network operations using TM Forum Open API standards and helps with seamless integration of heterogeneous networks for daily operational support.
There are numerous other potential use cases that can be achieved outside the scope of this proof of concept, using simple speech to automate network operational commands.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Trouble ticket management API REST specification TMF621
Out of the box the API calls are straight forward. Only disadvantage is the ability to make Lucene based searches within the API would be ideal.
Service activation and configuration API user guide TMF640
Lucene based search support within the API
Alarm management API user guide TMF642
Additional tagging on the specific rest end points would help us converge to the right end point using NLP engine.
Performance threshold API REST specification TMF649
Lucene based search support within the API.
Email the team: C20.0.09@tmforum.org
Speech Interpretation has been used in numerous domains with considerable success. However, applications using speech recognition are still rare for automating Operational Support Systems. Successful systems ensure top productivity for the relatively few highly skilled network engineers using them.
Introducing a Speech Interpreation network assistant (SINA) within network operations reduces operational expenses by automating otherwise manual tasks and complex functions through voice commands.
The system is smart enough to learn from the user’s behavior and suggest recommendations or additional information regarding the monitored network.
This Catalyst project demonstrates a digital transformation approach within network operations using TM Forum Open API standards and helps with seamless integration of heterogeneous networks for daily operational support.
There are numerous other potential use cases that can be achieved outside the scope of this proof of concept, using simple speech to automate network operational commands.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Trouble ticket management API REST specification TMF621
Out of the box the API calls are straight forward. Only disadvantage is the ability to make Lucene based searches within the API would be ideal.
Service activation and configuration API user guide TMF640
Lucene based search support within the API
Alarm management API user guide TMF642
Additional tagging on the specific rest end points would help us converge to the right end point using NLP engine.
Performance threshold API REST specification TMF649
Lucene based search support within the API.
Email the team: C20.0.33@tmforum.org
Cities that want to transform their digital future can’t justify the cost and disruption of replicating or modifying resources each time they deploy a new network solution. Existing networks typically don’t support the new requirements for high-bandwidth, ultra-reliable and latency-sensitive use cases.
Smart cities need agile networks capable of rapidly integrating new services with minimal operational complexity.
The Smart networks for smart cities Catalyst demonstrates true digital transformation through an open network architecture with TM Forum APIs and an ecosystem of partners to deliver autonomous networking in an end-to-end connectivity service.
It showcases an open IoT framework, virtualized applications, automated operations and orchestration between multiple resource domains. By supporting new 5G use cases, cities will enable better citizen services and economic opportunities for cities and new revenue opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs).
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Service Ordering Management TM641
Service Inventory Management TM638
Activation and Configuration TM640
Events TMF688
Email the team: C20.0.33@tmforum.org
Cities that want to transform their digital future can’t justify the cost and disruption of replicating or modifying resources each time they deploy a new network solution. Existing networks typically don’t support the new requirements for high-bandwidth, ultra-reliable and latency-sensitive use cases.
Smart cities need agile networks capable of rapidly integrating new services with minimal operational complexity.
The Smart networks for smart cities Catalyst demonstrates true digital transformation through an open network architecture with TM Forum APIs and an ecosystem of partners to deliver autonomous networking in an end-to-end connectivity service.
It showcases an open IoT framework, virtualized applications, automated operations and orchestration between multiple resource domains. By supporting new 5G use cases, cities will enable better citizen services and economic opportunities for cities and new revenue opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs).
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Service Ordering Management TM641
Service Inventory Management TM638
Activation and Configuration TM640
Events TMF688
Email the team: C20.0.08@tmforum.org
The airline industry is under pressure, with increasing passenger and freight traffic, growing customer expectations, competition and tightening margins. Exceptional passenger experience will be key to success and even survival.
5G could enable the aviation industry and its partners to reimagine the overall air travel experience, making the journey more enjoyable and efficient for passengers and creating new revenues and loyalty for airlines, as well as an expanded market for communications service providers (CSPs).
5G’s slicing capability could unlock this vision as it gives CSPs the new ability to offer differentiated services, guaranteed quality, bandwidth and security for unique requirements, such as those in the aviation industry.
This Catalyst will show how 5G can redefine the customer experience at every stage of the traveler’s customer journey, with premium VR business services and more.
This Catalyst will demonstrate how complex, multi-partner 5G services can be designed; mapped to slice types; ordered in a few clicks via a marketplace; deployed successfully using orchestration and predictive assurance; and monetized/billed. It will showcase how these functionalities can be implemented using TM Forum Open APIs, 3GPP Integration Reference Points and other industry standards and specifications.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
ONAP - two AI functions (trained through Linux ACUMOS/ ONAP )
Email the team: C20.0.08@tmforum.org
The airline industry is under pressure, with increasing passenger and freight traffic, growing customer expectations, competition and tightening margins. Exceptional passenger experience will be key to success and even survival.
5G could enable the aviation industry and its partners to reimagine the overall air travel experience, making the journey more enjoyable and efficient for passengers and creating new revenues and loyalty for airlines, as well as an expanded market for communications service providers (CSPs).
5G’s slicing capability could unlock this vision as it gives CSPs the new ability to offer differentiated services, guaranteed quality, bandwidth and security for unique requirements, such as those in the aviation industry.
This Catalyst will show how 5G can redefine the customer experience at every stage of the traveler’s customer journey, with premium VR business services and more.
This Catalyst will demonstrate how complex, multi-partner 5G services can be designed; mapped to slice types; ordered in a few clicks via a marketplace; deployed successfully using orchestration and predictive assurance; and monetized/billed. It will showcase how these functionalities can be implemented using TM Forum Open APIs, 3GPP Integration Reference Points and other industry standards and specifications.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
ONAP - two AI functions (trained through Linux ACUMOS/ ONAP )
Email the team: C20.0.20@tmforum.org
The Dynamic Architecture Catalyst project dynamically federates service definitions between (1) Model Driven Networks (2) Catalog Driven BSS and (3) ITIL CMDB so a service of any type may be productized, sold, ordered, activated, self-managed & assured using a visual catalog experience enabled through the use of TM Forum Open APIs.
Significant business outcomes include building ITIL service management into dynamic telco architecture’s and providing fast-to-market outcomes for service providers which include enabling assurance teams and flow through to the network elements.
Email the team: C20.0.20@tmforum.org
The Dynamic Architecture Catalyst project dynamically federates service definitions between (1) Model Driven Networks (2) Catalog Driven BSS and (3) ITIL CMDB so a service of any type may be productized, sold, ordered, activated, self-managed & assured using a visual catalog experience enabled through the use of TM Forum Open APIs.
Significant business outcomes include building ITIL service management into dynamic telco architecture’s and providing fast-to-market outcomes for service providers which include enabling assurance teams and flow through to the network elements.
Email the team: C20.0.44@tmforum.org
The Edge holds the promise of adapting compute and network in real time to optimize content and application delivery that efficiently exceeds experience expectations of consumers and enterprises.
5G, cloud native, and AI initiatives may provide the infrastructure, but the truck-roll telco edge operational model and the lack of standards to connect the Edge to the software that will leverage it threaten the target Edge outcomes.
What is required is an automated, zero touch Edge solution enabling service providers, developers, applications, and content providers to deliver tiger-like agility to their customers’ needs with a standardized Edge Compute as a Service (ECaaS).
This Catalyst project demonstrates this solution in action as an exceptional experience is delivered to event developers/suppliers (e.g. concert, sporting/gaming event, exhibition, etc) leveraging pre-scheduled ECaaS packages (e.g. capacity, image recognition, surveillance, doors lock/unlock, emergency services, etc.) at a venue when a crisis occurs, requiring real-time reconfiguration of the edge to deliver public safety emergency services.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TMF909 NaaS API Component Suite
IG1141 Procurement & Onboarding of Virtualization
GB999 ODA Production NaaS focused
IG1157 ODA Ecosystem Enablement (DPRA)
API Domain Context Specific Contract Rule
Email the team: C20.0.44@tmforum.org
The Edge holds the promise of adapting compute and network in real time to optimize content and application delivery that efficiently exceeds experience expectations of consumers and enterprises.
5G, cloud native, and AI initiatives may provide the infrastructure, but the truck-roll telco edge operational model and the lack of standards to connect the Edge to the software that will leverage it threaten the target Edge outcomes.
What is required is an automated, zero touch Edge solution enabling service providers, developers, applications, and content providers to deliver tiger-like agility to their customers’ needs with a standardized Edge Compute as a Service (ECaaS).
This Catalyst project demonstrates this solution in action as an exceptional experience is delivered to event developers/suppliers (e.g. concert, sporting/gaming event, exhibition, etc) leveraging pre-scheduled ECaaS packages (e.g. capacity, image recognition, surveillance, doors lock/unlock, emergency services, etc.) at a venue when a crisis occurs, requiring real-time reconfiguration of the edge to deliver public safety emergency services.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
TMF909 NaaS API Component Suite
IG1141 Procurement & Onboarding of Virtualization
GB999 ODA Production NaaS focused
IG1157 ODA Ecosystem Enablement (DPRA)
API Domain Context Specific Contract Rule
Email the team: C20.0.21@tmforum.org
5G will present new challenges for network executives (CTIOs, CTOs, engineering directors & managers). They will need to at least double capacity, compared to 4G, due to the cell densification required to reach coverage and market needs.
Today’s roll-out methodologies rely on manual processes, email-based communication and isolated office tools. This isn’t optimal and it definitely won’t be fit for 5G – digital solutions are required to speed up efficient deployment, reduce CapEx and avoid issues such as long, daily meetings; repeated site visits; lack of clear, real-time oversight and more.
This Catalyst will address four key use cases to overcome these challenges:
- Objective 1: Speed up site survey processes and automate network inventory resource reservation using mobile apps and images
- Objective 2: Deploy augmented reality, machine learning and analytics for image interpretation to accelerate site verification during the installation process, thereby reducing costs and repeated work
- Objective 3: Implementing robotic process automation (RPA), big data and analytics to support closed-loop ‘over the air’ processes, reducing manual work and time
- Objective 4: Combining self-organizing networks (SON), single-site verification tools, machine learning, big data and analytics to speed up the initial cluster tuning phase.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.21@tmforum.org
5G will present new challenges for network executives (CTIOs, CTOs, engineering directors & managers). They will need to at least double capacity, compared to 4G, due to the cell densification required to reach coverage and market needs.
Today’s roll-out methodologies rely on manual processes, email-based communication and isolated office tools. This isn’t optimal and it definitely won’t be fit for 5G – digital solutions are required to speed up efficient deployment, reduce CapEx and avoid issues such as long, daily meetings; repeated site visits; lack of clear, real-time oversight and more.
This Catalyst will address four key use cases to overcome these challenges:
- Objective 1: Speed up site survey processes and automate network inventory resource reservation using mobile apps and images
- Objective 2: Deploy augmented reality, machine learning and analytics for image interpretation to accelerate site verification during the installation process, thereby reducing costs and repeated work
- Objective 3: Implementing robotic process automation (RPA), big data and analytics to support closed-loop ‘over the air’ processes, reducing manual work and time
- Objective 4: Combining self-organizing networks (SON), single-site verification tools, machine learning, big data and analytics to speed up the initial cluster tuning phase.
Help this project (survey).
Email the team: C20.0.19@tmforum.org
The Covid-19 outbreak is stress-testing cities’ emergency response abilities. In this fast-moving, dynamic scenario, cross-domain big data is crucial to efficient government decision-making. At the same time, privacy and trust must be ensured.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have built a trust-based data-sharing platform which uses edge computing, blockchain, a data fabric and secure multi-party computation to support collaboration among all emergency response stakeholders.
The platform provides real-time global data to support governments with epidemic prevention and control, as well as delivering public information for citizens. Whenever the coronavirus is identified and reported by urban hospitals, the platform allows the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to use telecom data to analyze where patients have been and who they have been in close proximity to so that at-risk contacts can be traced and urged to isolate to curb the spread of the virus.
Data can also be aggregated from the CDC, police, transportation companies and telco operators to analyze and manage crowd flows and logistics to minimise virus transmission. ‘Heat maps’ based on telco data can provide real-time monitoring to understand how people are moving around and to prevent crowds gathering. The big data platform can also enable targeted support for vulnerable people such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
This Catalyst will demonstrate how the global coronavirus pandemic could speed up digital transformation for cities through trusted data-sharing. The team will show how the platform can be useful for managing not only the immediate emergency and its lasting impacts, but also for addressing future challenges and opportunities.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
1. Frameworx
2. Trust, Security & Privacy Toolkit
Trust and traceability in Digital Ecosystems IG1175
3. Analytics Toolkit
Email the team: C20.0.19@tmforum.org
The Covid-19 outbreak is stress-testing cities’ emergency response abilities. In this fast-moving, dynamic scenario, cross-domain big data is crucial to efficient government decision-making. At the same time, privacy and trust must be ensured.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have built a trust-based data-sharing platform which uses edge computing, blockchain, a data fabric and secure multi-party computation to support collaboration among all emergency response stakeholders.
The platform provides real-time global data to support governments with epidemic prevention and control, as well as delivering public information for citizens. Whenever the coronavirus is identified and reported by urban hospitals, the platform allows the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to use telecom data to analyze where patients have been and who they have been in close proximity to so that at-risk contacts can be traced and urged to isolate to curb the spread of the virus.
Data can also be aggregated from the CDC, police, transportation companies and telco operators to analyze and manage crowd flows and logistics to minimise virus transmission. ‘Heat maps’ based on telco data can provide real-time monitoring to understand how people are moving around and to prevent crowds gathering. The big data platform can also enable targeted support for vulnerable people such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
This Catalyst will demonstrate how the global coronavirus pandemic could speed up digital transformation for cities through trusted data-sharing. The team will show how the platform can be useful for managing not only the immediate emergency and its lasting impacts, but also for addressing future challenges and opportunities.
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum (and other) assets used, contributed or created in this project
1. Frameworx
2. Trust, Security & Privacy Toolkit
Trust and traceability in Digital Ecosystems IG1175
3. Analytics Toolkit
Email the team: C20.0.34@tmforum.org
Partnerships, ecosystems and marketplaces are becoming crucial instruments that help CSPs in building their Digital transformation strategies. This ecosystem-driven approach along with new technological drivers such as AI, 5G are opening up new business opportunities that accelerate the ability of CSPs to engage with new sectors and markets.
CSPs view verticals (such as automotive, Industry 4.0, smart cities) as a critical segment for driving new revenue in the future, making the role of partners and ecosystems even more crucial. In the medium to long term, CSPS will face a huge CAPEX issue in deploying 5G infrastructures. This is the reason why they seek new investment models to overcome those challenges.
This Catalyst project will explore new business models and value propositions with the main goal to deliver and assure new digital services (network slices) in an agile, cost effective and profitable manner to all partners of the ecosystem.
This implies building by design an ecosystem of network platforms supporting key capabilities that ensure increasing trust, reducing settlement time and reducing risks and frauds. Therefore, distributed ledger technology (DLT), also called blockchain, is gaining traction as a potential candidate for building in CSP environments and in the whole ecosystem.
Building upon the previous phases of the Catalyst, known as “Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace”, this project is working to create new open standards for interactions in distributed marketplaces and to offer a variety of practical use cases to cover the new needs of CSPs of any kind.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Product Catalog Management API TMF620
Email the team: C20.0.34@tmforum.org
Partnerships, ecosystems and marketplaces are becoming crucial instruments that help CSPs in building their Digital transformation strategies. This ecosystem-driven approach along with new technological drivers such as AI, 5G are opening up new business opportunities that accelerate the ability of CSPs to engage with new sectors and markets.
CSPs view verticals (such as automotive, Industry 4.0, smart cities) as a critical segment for driving new revenue in the future, making the role of partners and ecosystems even more crucial. In the medium to long term, CSPS will face a huge CAPEX issue in deploying 5G infrastructures. This is the reason why they seek new investment models to overcome those challenges.
This Catalyst project will explore new business models and value propositions with the main goal to deliver and assure new digital services (network slices) in an agile, cost effective and profitable manner to all partners of the ecosystem.
This implies building by design an ecosystem of network platforms supporting key capabilities that ensure increasing trust, reducing settlement time and reducing risks and frauds. Therefore, distributed ledger technology (DLT), also called blockchain, is gaining traction as a potential candidate for building in CSP environments and in the whole ecosystem.
Building upon the previous phases of the Catalyst, known as “Blockchain-based Telecom Infrastructure Marketplace”, this project is working to create new open standards for interactions in distributed marketplaces and to offer a variety of practical use cases to cover the new needs of CSPs of any kind.
Help this project (survey).
Vote for the best Catalysts in the people's choice award.
TM Forum assets used, contributed or created in this project
Product Catalog Management API TMF620