5G is coming, enabling more use cases, more bandwidth, more video… and with it? More complexity.
Even in 4G, as carriers roll out VoLTE and other IMS services, complexity is upon us. Today's environment comprises of multiple users doing different things, with different devices and with different data performance needs…all while sharing the same datapipe that is comprised of 2G/3G/4G interworking across multiple frequency bands.
How do you plan for and manage all of that whilst at the same time making sure scarce Capex dollars are invested just in time in places where they are needed the most?
Infovista has a capacity planning and management solution that can help engineers plan and manage capacity expansion at the market level with national coordination, visibility and the ability to prioritize.
In a shared pipe data environment, it's critical to add capacity when user experience on various different applications and services starts to drop below targets due to insufficient data performance. The TEMS Capacity Manager solution uses performance and configuration data, along with a sophisticated scheduler simulation to model user experience, and applies forecast growth to identify when additional capacity will be needed.
Users can log in and see the sectors and carriers they are responsible for, how they are loaded, and time to expansion. Managers can see the overall network health and can prioritize and allocate limited Capex resources nationally.
Scenario analysis provides visibility into the impact of forecast variances, changes to QOE target KPI's, and, perhaps most usefully, spectrum migration from 3G to 4G. As one tier one operator area planner said “there is never a good time to carve spectrum. With TEMS Capacity Manager we have visibility into carve impact and can at least identify ‘the least bad time'. ”
There are lots of ways to approach capacity planning — but as everything goes IP and complexity increases, new approaches are needed to ensure that the network is “right sized” to deliver customers the experience they deserve (and need, if you don't want them to consider switching carriers).
To learn more about TEMS Capacity Manager, visit our page:
