Technological Transformation of Telco Operators towards Seamless IoT Edge-Cloud Continuum

Area of Science:

• Telecommunications Engineering
• Computer Networking
• Cloud Computing

Background:

• The telecommunication industry faces significant technological transformation challenges.
• Evolution from traditional IT infrastructure to virtualized environments and cloud-native architectures is ongoing.
• The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates new service delivery models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and discuss telecommunication challenges from academic and industry perspectives.
• To survey technological transformations toward the edge-cloud continuum from a telco operator's viewpoint.
• To analyze the impact of DevOps, SDN, NFV, and AI on network evolution and service delivery.

Main Methods:

• Review of technological advancements including cloud-native computing, SDN, and network automation.
• Analysis of the cultural shift towards DevOps and micro-services architecture.
• Investigation of AI/ML applications in data centers for intelligent decision-making and network management.
• Exploration of Zero-Touch Networking and Service Management (ZSM) concepts.

Main Results:

• DevOps culture enabled significant advancements in network equipment, application development, and orchestration.
• SDN and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are revolutionizing network infrastructure.
• AI/ML techniques enhance data center control planes for predictive capabilities and automated capacity adjustment.
• Edge computing has been successfully implemented, driven by IoT demands and the need for low-powered solutions.

Conclusions:

• The integration of various communication technologies facilitates the successful adoption of edge computing.
• The edge-cloud continuum paradigm addresses the demands of diverse IoT applications and mass device connectivity.
• Future telecommunication networks will be characterized by increased automation, intelligence, and distributed computing capabilities.