At MWC 2024 you can be forgiven for thinking you were seeing double. Everywhere you turned, someone was promoting their digital twin technology. Most were focused on the Radio Access Network (RAN) but Ceragon doubled down on transport links and infrastructure.
Whether it was Qualcomm explaining that a RAN digital twin “can bring a full gamut of benefits to the network, including its design, operation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance.” Or,
Mobile World (MW) Capital and Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), who debuted a digital twin prototype for personalized health care. Or, KDDI, who, at their first MWC appearance, highlighted the multiple uses of digital twin technology for shopping and entertainment. Or many, many other exhibitors.
Digital Twins Were Everywhere You Looked
So, what is a digital twin, and why all the noise about digital twins at MWC 2024?
The concept is straightforward, as explained by McKinsey & Company,
“A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object, person, or process, contextualized in a digital version of its environment. Digital twins can help an organization simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing it to make better decisions.”
Digital twins have been around for years, and almost all of us use a digital twin daily when we drive from place to place with the help of Google Maps. Google Maps is a digital representation of the transportation network (AKA roads) that enables us to get from point A to point B more efficiently. It is collaborative, collecting inputs and updates from other sources, dynamically showing the changing traffic conditions, and exactly fitting the definition above by helping us “simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing it to make better decisions”.
While most digital twin exhibitors at MWC focused on telecom networks, specifically the RAN network, Ceragon featured its transport-oriented Ceragon Digital Twin solution, which provides customizable, detailed modeling of multi-vendor and multi-technology transport links and infrastructure.
Tracking Transport Trends
Whether they are microwave or millimeter wave links by Ceragon or any other vendor, or if they are optical DWDM links, again, by any vendor, the Ceragon Digital Twin develops a detailed, digital representation, enabling drilling down into service circuits right down to the single network element in order to uncover and analyze various performance and operational measurements.
See the Sites and Save
Because we know that a well-performing network is not just about its transport technology, Ceragon enhanced the solution with detailed site modeling, enabling operators to keep track of the physical installation sites, covering cabinets, servers, racks, slots, and a host of energy-related equipment including generators and heating and cooling elements.
Ceragon’s Solutions
Ceragon Digital Twin was developed with and for organizations operating complex networks, in consultation with a leading university research lab, and validated by multiple top-tier service providers. It provides an up-to-date, unified visualization of transport elements and sites. By analyzing performance and operational parameters, Ceragon Digital Twin is able to proactively uncover hidden topology risks, minimize downtime, and reduce both OPEX and CAPEX by:
- Ensuring that expansion is only done when and where it is needed
- Significantly lowering the need for costly on-site survey visits
- Reducing energy bills and overages
- Helping to meet government-mandated sustainability targets
Visitors to our booth at MWC2024 were also very excited to learn about our end-to-end solutions and services, including advances in Microwave and Millimeter wave transport, highlighted by a 25 Gbps live demo of our soon-to-be 100 Gbps link. We also presented our lightweight, cost-effective, high-capacity radios and switches, our new Point-to-Multipoint MESH backhaul and access solutions for CSPs, ISPs, and Private Networks, and our professional and managed services offerings. Yes, it was a great show, with many exciting meetings, conversations, and demos.
The telecom world has clearly caught on to the concept of digital twin technology. As everyone seeks to meet the twin goals of keeping costs down while better monetizing their costly networks, digital twinning can be doubly beneficial.
Learn more about The Ceragon Digital Twin
