AI-Empowered ZTE SBA Delivery Modes Facilitate High-Quality AIS Network Deployment in Thailand

Thailand is currently experiencing rapid digital transformation, with a growing demand for the expansion and upgrade of communications infrastructure. AIS, the largest mobile operator in Thailand, has launched a large-scale network replacement and capacity expansion project to maintain its market leadership and meet the surge demand for mobile data. This launch imposes higher requirements for the speed, coverage depth, and quality of network construction. However, as the project progresses, a series of challenges have emerged, including shortages in human resources, the need to enhance team skills, rapid deployment, wide distribution of sites, high quality standards, and strict requirements for problem handling speed.

As a world-leading provider of integrated communications and information technology solutions, ZTE, with deep industry experience and strong technical strength, has innovatively introduced the Simplified execution+Best practices+AI empowerment (SBA) delivery model for quality management and control. This model integrates risk database identification, promotes  best practices, applies AI computing tools, and has successfully assisted Thailand AIS in completing its major network replacement and expansion project. This achievement fulfills the goal of secure, rapid, in-depth, and high-quality network construction.

Simplified Execution with Risk Map and SOP

Different projects have different risks, necessitating end-to-end identification and response to ensure high-quality project delivery. In the early stage of the AIS project delivery, the project team worked out the end-to-end process in accordance with the ZTE global delivery risk map and hundreds of local implementation risk points. They identified project-based control points and implemented key resource investments to guarantee and prevent control for high-risk items (Fig. 1). These included team training, service scenario identification, and solution verification, supported by vivid training documents with pictures and videos, configuration collection-translation-verification tools, mirroring environment test, pre-debugging, and service verification tools. This refinement aimed to optimize SOP and management regulations, striving to achieve targeted control and meet requirements effectively.

Best Practices for Quality Prevention to Improve Efficiency and Quality

The skill of project team members, especially the capability of the partner team, is crucial for successful project delivery. The Thailand AIS project adopts the best team construction mode and best practice process through workshops to change project delivery from disorderly to orderly parallel operations and cross-check process controls. This improvement enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of project delivery.

To improve team capabilities, a combination of best practices, vivid pictures and videos, and mini workshop training has been employed. This shift from one-way training to interactive bidirectional workshops encourages new teams to reflect on their performance, thereby improving training effectiveness. As a result, the time required for a new team to be fully independent and qualified for construction has been reduced from 20 days to 7 days.

To effectively improve the speed and quality of configuration collection during project delivery, and to effectively utilize various types of data, ZTE has self-developed a project-based configuration collection and translation tool. This tool automatically extracts and translates network service configurations, ensuring the accuracy of configuration scripts and operational security. At the same time, a service verification tool can automatically verify 1:1 service duplication before and after cutover (Fig. 2). The application of these tools has increased the efficiency of the whole service cutover chain by 660% compared with the manual mode. In a single day, the number of cutover sites for an IP project exceeds the industry relocation speed, thereby reducing service interruption time and significantly improving end user perception.

AI Empowerment for Safe Production and Intelligent Operations

During peak periods of the project, more than 200 delivery teams work daily across various sites for high-altitude operations. The innovative ZTE automatic inspection system implements automatic audit management, such as real-time auditing via AI computing cloud, rectification reminders, and approvals, thereby fully ensuring efficient and safe project execution.

The intelligent OSS tool AIMIND integrates data, including historical alarms, performance, and resources from wireless, core, and bearer networks. This enables synchronization of key hardware information across various domains such as links, optical modules, voltage, and temperature. Through AI self-learning, AIMIND establishes a typical fault prediction model to predict sites out of service and faults in wireless base station NEs so as to minimize their impact. In addition, through interconnection with intelligent tools in these domains, it enables end-to-end analysis and fast closed-loop response to complaints, effectively improving network quality (Fig. 3).

In the field of network operation and maintenance, leveraging big data and computing power, the VMAX tool connects network element data related to wireless, bearer, and core networks. It realizes one-click delimitation of problem areas such as terminals, wireless network, transmission network, core network and SP. Furthermore, it implements end-to-end automatic optimization for coverage issues and faults, incorporating self-intelligence functions within individual domains (Fig. 4).

With the innovative SBA integrated quality control management mode and the application of multiple advanced tools, ZTE has successfully achieved important milestones one month ahead of schedule and won the top network quality performance in the third-party network assessment. In addition, the world's latest slicing solution deployed by ZTE lays a solid foundation for the further evolution of 5G technologies in AIS.

Looking ahead, ZTE will continue to uphold innovative ideas and keep improving its technical strength and service level. Amidst fierce competition in the global communications market, ZTE aims to deliver higher quality and more efficient communications solutions and services to customers, contributing to ongoing prosperity of the telecommunications industry in Thailand.