Better Data Leads to Automation Which Leads to New Services and Better Support
Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks.
Perhaps it is because last week’s Smart Driving Cars Summit is still top of mind but yesterday’s BASe webinar triggered a thought on yet another parallel between broadband and autonomous driving. That is, automation grows the pie by creating products and services that might otherwise be too expensive to provide. Done well, it removes the friction associated with technology.
The move to automate the network is as much about dealing with the added complexity of new services as it is about efficiency. Being able to collect, analyze, and act on the network data is the asset that enables automation (another parallel to an autonomous vehicle), argued DZS’ Sameer Shah. Automation is also necessary for security, as humans cannot keep up with the pace of attacks from automated bad actors.
Ozmo’s Daniel Fithian echoed Shah’s comments about the importance of data-driven decisions. Paraphrasing Fithian, it is critical that you (the operator) don’t let your customers get behind or else you will be left behind. At the same time, simply adding services without an associated support plan is not enough. He emphasized that the way to differentiate and create loyal customers is to use customer service metrics - Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction, and Resolution Rate, as an organization's sales metrics.
DT’s Volker Effelsberg emphasized the importance of finding the business case for the User Services Platform (TR-369). USP enables a common data set that allows DT to use its home network analytics system whether the home router is from DT or purchased at retail by the customer. The main use cases, at this point, are
Zero-touch provisioning
Customer support
Firmware updates
Effelsberg showed the resiliency of USP whereby one million devices reconnected within 15-minutes after a network glitch.
Building on Effelsberg’s presentation, Vodafone’s Marcel Sponer emphasized that the TR-181 data model associated with USP is a key element in filling their big data ocean. Their use cases include
Big data and telemetry from CPE
Add and manage new services (e.g. security agents, WiFi mesh agent) via USP Software Module Management
Mobile apps to interact with CPE and services
CPE log file access
Diagnostic and testing capabilities (speed/latency tests)
Sponer pointed out that, while happy with the USP journey so far, vendor support is still limited, there are varying interpretations of the standard(s), and there needs to be better alignment between standards groups.
The current state of USP must feel similar to when TR-069 was gaining traction (which Jason Walls has documented so well here). By automating provisioning, the customer no longer had to deal with Compact Disks and the associated hassle. It made it easier for people to get online.
With its enablement of automation and the resulting new services and better support and experience, it will be interesting to see what USP and increasing levels of automation will enable.
Download the slides from yesterday's webinar at