FROM KPI DASHBOARDS TO INTENT BASED RAN OPERATIONS

Most RAN teams I know start the day the same way: open the dashboards, look for red cells, decide what to change. It works, but it depends completely on an engineer reading the numbers and translating them into actions. That model does not scale to thousands of cells, multiple layers and Massive MIMO.

Intent based operations flips the order. Instead of watching KPIs and reacting, you state the outcome you want and let the system work out how to keep the network there. Something like: video experience in this stadium must stay above a defined level during events, with limited impact on neighboring cells.

Making that real in a RAN takes some work:

• The intent has to be translated into policies and targets that the SMO can enforce, for example through A1 policies toward the Near-RT RIC.
• KPIs stop being a report and become the feedback signal that tells the loop whether the intent is being met.
• Constraints such as energy budget, interference limits and maximum parameter changes need to travel together with the goal.
• Engineers still validate the results, but they spend their time on exceptions and on improving the intent definitions.

I see this as a natural step after SON and rApps. Those gave us the tools to act automatically. Intent gives us a clean way to tell them what matters.

If you want to start today, pick one use case and write its intent in a single sentence with numbers. If you cannot measure it, the network cannot pursue it.

#5G #RAN #IntentBasedNetworking #SMO #ORAN #AutonomousNetworks #TelecomInnovation