“Vodacom adopts Nvidia AI for the automation of its towers.”
Vodacom is piloting a project in Cape Town, utilizing a virtual replica of the city, to dynamically determine optimal configurations for its towers in real-time. In collaboration with American chip giant Nvidia, the mobile operator has implemented an AI-powered virtual network management platform. This system creates a “digital twin” of Cape Town, encompassing all Vodacom infrastructure, leveraging computations within this virtual environment to make informed decisions on enhancing network performance in the physical world.
Ryan van den Bergh, Managing Executive for Group Technology Strategy, Architecture, Spectrum, and Assurance at Vodacom Group, explained that the network must accommodate various devices, from 2G feature phones to 5G smartphones. The AI system assesses factors such as device type and location, ensuring seamless connectivity. As users move, towers must facilitate handovers without disruptions, presenting a complex challenge.
The scale of Vodacom’s operations adds to the intricacy, serving 47.3 million customers in South Africa and 196 million across the continent. Vodacom’s AI-powered network management system combines virtualized environments with real-time data, emulating multiple equipment configurations every six seconds. Due to the substantial computational requirements, the system is hosted in the US, benefitting from Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPUs.
While the AI system offers recommendations to optimize power costs and reduce maintenance hours, human decision-makers still determine whether to implement suggested configurations. The experimentation with this technology aims to explore possibilities and efficiencies, with potential future group-wide deployment pending cost considerations and technological advancements.
