Networks are at the center of today’s world, so  understanding how the network is performing is critical—not just for technical  peace of mind, but for the operation of the business itself. Now, in pursuit of  serving customers more effectively and looking for every possible competitive  edge, network operators are utilizing analytics to gain a deeper understanding  of the network. As a result, they are able to make smarter, data-driven  decisions about their operations that help them achieve their desired business  outcomes.

Network analytics, in its simplest definition,  involves the analysis of network data and statistics to identify trends and  patterns. Once identified, operators take the next step of ‘acting’ on this  data—which typically involves a network operation or a set of operations. For  example, if a network operator finds that there may be a congestion problem in  a certain area of the of the network, traffic can be routed through a different  part of the network to meet service performance objectives. Typically, this  type of operation has been a manual process. But now, vendors are augmenting traditional  analytics with automation and artificial intelligence technologies to enable the  next generation of highly intelligent networks—a network capable of dynamically  self-configuring or self-optimizing based on changing network conditions. At  Ciena, we call this the Adaptive Network.

Making Intelligent Automation a Reality with Advanced Analytics

Utilizing artificial intelligence and automation technologies, network analytics helps operators make smarter, data-driven operational and business decisions.

As networks become increasingly complex and intertwined  with user experiences, ever-present devices, and  critical applications—each requiring a share of the network resources—the ability  to dynamically adapt is crucial for maintaining and improving quality of  service. Using network analytics, providers can act before service disruptions occur and penalties start accruing. This kind  of intelligence—anticipating a disruption before it even happens—not only  improves quality of service, an important metric by itself, it also results in  higher net promoter scores, which help providers understand their customers’  loyalty.

Some other key benefits of network analytics  include:

  • Optimized use of network resources: Analytics can help you understand your  network, and balance and utilize resources in the best way possible so you can optimize  network performance and lower cost structures.
  • New revenue streams: Analytics plays a critical role in mining  insights that can identify new revenue streams and build data-driven business  cases for quick action.
  • Accelerated time to market: Analytics  can help make capacity planning easier for new services. As a result, the  resources required for a new or expanded service can be calculated and then  provisioned well in advance of going live, ensuring products get to market on  time.

How Ciena  Helps

Ciena offers a breadth of analytics solutions  that enable network providers to gradually adopt analytics. They can start with  basic analytics insights by using Ciena’s Analytics-as-a-Service solution then  gradually move on to incorporate automated network control toward the more  advanced implementation of adaptive networking.

Our Analytics-as-a-Service solution, Ciena  Insights Service, provides hosted analytics for customers that need deeper  visibility into their network operations and health. It focuses on Layer 0  through Layer 2 network functionality, with the goal of providing better  visibility into the transport network. It then translates this raw data into  actionable insights. These insights drive predictions derived from Ciena’s  machine learning and AI analytical platforms. Fulfillment of these predictive  optimizations can be carried out by human intervention or platform automation.

Blue Planet Analytics Data Sheet

Learn  more about Ciena Insights Service.

Blue Planet Analytics (BPA) and Ciena’s AI-powered  applications provide closed-loop automation capabilities to solve a wide range  of network analytics use cases. Using today’s best-of-breed technologies, BPA  helps unleash the true power of big data and enable network providers to offer  superior customer experiences in services.

BPA ensures customers reap the benefits of the five  Vs required of advanced network analytics (volume, velocity, variety, value,  and visualization) through an advanced big data processing engine and a  two-tier architecture that enables operators to focus on solving problems at  hand versus spending time on data management. It provides an open and  extensible architecture optimized for adaptive networking when combined with the  Blue Planet policy engine, and actionable systems like Blue Planet Multi-Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) and Blue  Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) to  enable end-to-end intelligent, closed-loop automation across any type of physical  and/or virtual network.

Learn  more about Blue  Planet Analytics.

Subscribe to get more articles on this topic