With the Connected Britain coming up, now’s a good time to consider one of the topics that’s high on the event agenda: Digital Twins. What are they, and why are telcos talking about them? Read on…
Digital twins: a winning strategy for telcos?
What’s a digital twin? Well, instead of a physical device, imagine you could run simulations on a virtual replica of it before the actual device was built and deployed. Then, imagine this replica was able to ingest real-time data and apply AI and advanced analytics that might immediately optimise your performance before you’d invested in the cost of building anything at all. Today, no imagination is required: you can do all that (and more) with a digital twin.
This isn’t – at least conceptually – a new idea. If you thought it was, you’d be around half a century out of date! Perhaps the most famous early example of the twin concept came from NASA, which built models of its space capsules to understand flight performance and anticipate likely problems in orbit, ultimately replacing their earlier physical models with digital simulations (among the first twins).
NASA’s experience points to digital twins’ evolutionary path. Where they were at first virtualized representations of physical things (and some still are) used to optimise the design and performance of an underlying object, today they’re increasingly being applied to systems, processes, behaviours, and other trackable digital phenomena.
Flexibility is their key
This latter fact points towards one of twins’ great advantages, their flexibility or useability. A digital twin can abstract any “thing” (an object or otherwise) based on the analysis of a purpose-defined data set. A sample use case from the world of telco makes this clear: some CSPs are already using digital twins to manage customer relationships and optimise customer care.
It should, bearing the above in mind, now be obvious why digital twins are high on Connected Britain’s agenda (and why the concept is so important). Gartner, the top analyst firm, underlines the trend’s emergence. It has twice named digital twins among it top technology trends noting “digital twins are rapidly becoming a core component of digital business solutions. Data and analytics leaders must engage with operational technology teams to help their organizations capture value while managing risk”. IoT – itself an important driver of connectivity – is also leading to an explosion of data-capturing sensors which is hastening the opportunities for telcos to benefit from digital twinning.
Digital Twins in action
Let’s consider another use case, the domain of Network Inventory Management. An inventory management system (NIM) is essentially designed to provide a complete replica of a telco’s physical infrastructure via a representation of the physical, logical, and virtual communications network including all of its associated services, customer relationships, and more.
For the network operator who deploys it, the NIM thus plays a key role in ensuring efficient operations. As a virtual twin it delivers an environment that can also be used for simulations and testing and, via APIs, is open to the ongoing ingestion of fresh data so the picture it builds is not only kept up-to-date but can also be enhanced. Thus, as (for instance) IoT sensors proliferate in the network, they can be included in a representational map. The takeaway is that anything connected to the network can be modelled and added to existing data feeds – creating a richer and thus more accurate and valuable model of the physical reality.
Operators benefit from Digital Twins
Because Digital Twins help network operators model in virtual environments, they can also help to significantly reduce operating costs, for example by modelling 5G network expansion which for many telcos right now is a key concern. Network build is expensive; it involves site surveys, field trips and similar tasks which can be reduced by using a digital twin using inventory data instead, removing the need to check every parameter at every cell site.
As you head to Connected Britain, keep the Digital Twin opportunity front of mind. The conference will be discussing topics like what role digital twins can play in smart cities, how they can enhance sustainability initiatives, considerations around data sharing, and much more.
E-Contact Services are the leader in Telco Lead Generation. To find out more about how we work and what we can do for you get in touch.
Digital twins: a winning strategy for telcos?
With the Connected Britain coming up, now’s a good time to consider one of the topics that’s high on the event agenda: Digital Twins. What are they, and why are telcos talking about them? Read on…
Digital twins: a winning strategy for telcos?
What’s a digital twin? Well, instead of a physical device, imagine you could run simulations on a virtual replica of it before the actual device was built and deployed. Then, imagine this replica was able to ingest real-time data and apply AI and advanced analytics that might immediately optimise your performance before you’d invested in the cost of building anything at all. Today, no imagination is required: you can do all that (and more) with a digital twin.
This isn’t – at least conceptually – a new idea. If you thought it was, you’d be around half a century out of date! Perhaps the most famous early example of the twin concept came from NASA, which built models of its space capsules to understand flight performance and anticipate likely problems in orbit, ultimately replacing their earlier physical models with digital simulations (among the first twins).
NASA’s experience points to digital twins’ evolutionary path. Where they were at first virtualized representations of physical things (and some still are) used to optimise the design and performance of an underlying object, today they’re increasingly being applied to systems, processes, behaviours, and other trackable digital phenomena.
Flexibility is their key
This latter fact points towards one of twins’ great advantages, their flexibility or useability. A digital twin can abstract any “thing” (an object or otherwise) based on the analysis of a purpose-defined data set. A sample use case from the world of telco makes this clear: some CSPs are already using digital twins to manage customer relationships and optimise customer care.
It should, bearing the above in mind, now be obvious why digital twins are high on Connected Britain’s agenda (and why the concept is so important). Gartner, the top analyst firm, underlines the trend’s emergence. It has twice named digital twins among it top technology trends noting “digital twins are rapidly becoming a core component of digital business solutions. Data and analytics leaders must engage with operational technology teams to help their organizations capture value while managing risk”. IoT – itself an important driver of connectivity – is also leading to an explosion of data-capturing sensors which is hastening the opportunities for telcos to benefit from digital twinning.
Digital Twins in action
Let’s consider another use case, the domain of Network Inventory Management. An inventory management system (NIM) is essentially designed to provide a complete replica of a telco’s physical infrastructure via a representation of the physical, logical, and virtual communications network including all of its associated services, customer relationships, and more.
For the network operator who deploys it, the NIM thus plays a key role in ensuring efficient operations. As a virtual twin it delivers an environment that can also be used for simulations and testing and, via APIs, is open to the ongoing ingestion of fresh data so the picture it builds is not only kept up-to-date but can also be enhanced. Thus, as (for instance) IoT sensors proliferate in the network, they can be included in a representational map. The takeaway is that anything connected to the network can be modelled and added to existing data feeds – creating a richer and thus more accurate and valuable model of the physical reality.
Operators benefit from Digital Twins
Because Digital Twins help network operators model in virtual environments, they can also help to significantly reduce operating costs, for example by modelling 5G network expansion which for many telcos right now is a key concern. Network build is expensive; it involves site surveys, field trips and similar tasks which can be reduced by using a digital twin using inventory data instead, removing the need to check every parameter at every cell site.
As you head to Connected Britain, keep the Digital Twin opportunity front of mind. The conference will be discussing topics like what role digital twins can play in smart cities, how they can enhance sustainability initiatives, considerations around data sharing, and much more.
E-Contact Services are the leader in Telco Lead Generation. To find out more about how we work and what we can do for you get in touch.
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