Category: NGMN News

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NGMN Alliance Continues to Grow with New Partners Joining the Alliance

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Frankfurt, Germany, December 15, 2021: The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN Alliance), today announces that Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia have joined the Alliance in 2021. With a new positioning earlier this year, the NGMN Alliance put the focus on the most burning topics of mobile telecommunications today and in the future – thus addressing and embracing the entire industry: Mastering the Route to Disaggregation/Operating Disaggregated Networks, Green Future Networks, 6G as well as the continuous support of 5G’s full implementation.

“We very much look forward to a mutually inspiring and beneficial collaboration with Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia and welcome them to our Partnership. Winning these new Partners clearly indicates that our new strategy pays off. Our focus topics address the mobile telecommunications industry’s biggest opportunities and challenges today and in the future, and we have a clear mission to create impact for the benefit of the entire ecosystem”, says Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN Alliance.

“We are delighted to join the NGMN Alliance and look forward to collaborating with other members to build a roadmap for networks of the future.” says Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

Steve Canepa, Managing Director, Global Communications Sector, IBM, adds: “We firmly believe in the importance of collaboration to accelerate change and innovation – especially in complex topics such as sustainable next generation networks. Joining the NGMN Alliance enables IBM to collaborate with industry stakeholders by leveraging hybrid cloud, AI and automation technologies to drive a sustainable future driven by compute and connectivity.”

With Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia joining the Alliance, NGMN Alliance continues to grow. Today, the operator driven Alliance counts 24 operators among its Partnership, including 79 companies in total, with further growth in progress for 2022.

The NGMN Alliance will be bringing together its Partners and other industry experts at its bi-annual Industry Conference & Exhibition in Paris, September 7-9, 2022. Further details will be announced shortly.

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NGMN Identifies Key Energy Saving Solutions for Mobile Networks

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Frankfurt, Germany, November 9, 2021: Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance released “Green Future Networks: Network Energy Efficiency”, a publication which focuses on best possible ways of reducing the energy consumption of mobile networks, a key concern of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and an important step towards greener networks. In its publication, NGMN studies the different existing and future energy saving features and their potential when rolled out in the networks – among others, the usage of automatic wake-up/sleep modes, virtualisation technology, and the usage of efficient power amplifiers combined with massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO).

Key aspects include:

  • application of energy efficiency techniques across the three levels of next generation network operation – the base station equipment level, the site level and the network level
  • importance of leveraging the spectral efficiency of the 5G air interface and its more advanced sleep modes
  • importance of deploying sleep mode functions that shut off hardware when the load is low (path to zero watt at zero load)
  • usage of renewable energy for on-grid and off-grid sites, smart batteries, power efficient power supplies
  • free and liquid cooling solutions in technical sites
  • flexible cooperation between 5G and LTE
  • positive effects of massive MIMO solutions in 5G
  • advantages of virtualisation technology for energy efficiency of mobile networks
  • benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based energy saving solutions and what it takes to build such algorithms

Laurent Leboucher, SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange states: “Tomorrow, networks will be greener by design! Today, Orange is already working hard to save energy consumption and reduce the carbon footprint of its networks, making continual progress, through its research efforts and operational deployments. However, this needs to be an industry move and this is where the NGMN Alliance plays a strategic role in unifying the industry. With our knowledge and experience in this area, Orange is delighted to co-lead NGMN‘s Green Future Networks project. As an industry, altogether, with the right technologies and skills, we will be able to fulfill our ‘Green’ commitments.”

Anita Döhler, CEO of the NGMN Alliance, says: “To continue improving the energy performance as well as reducing the global networks energy consumption, vendors and operators are encouraged to put a strong focus on the solutions identified by our Green Future Networks project. The path to zero watt at zero load for future network generations is to be continued, especially, considering the use of AI techniques to intelligently coordinate and optimize more precise decisions for activation and deactivation of the sleep-mode and shut-down features, as well as on-demand network dimensioning.”

The publication also addresses server virtualisation technology which allows workloads to be optimally scheduled on hardware, for example by consolidating workloads onto a reduced number of CPUs for energy efficiency. With virtualisation technology, multiple applications and workloads can be run on a single server, thus increasing energy efficiency. This allows multiple network workloads to run in Virtual Machines (VMs) or containers, thus enabling efficient use of the common server resources.

Despite the fact that operators are already increasing the use of energy saving features, forecasts point to a significant rise in energy consumption over the next couple of years due to considerable increase in traffic across a vast range of use cases, new technologies and spectrum, a great deal of connections, and network densification. Here, AI could play an important role. By predicting and learning the traffic behaviour, AI algorithms define the activation/deactivation of sleep mode functionality and site energy management without impacting the overall performance including Quality of Experience (QoE). AI is still in an early phase and more development and research is needed to reach its full potential. AI based energy saving solutions can greatly increase the energy performance of cellular networks.

The NGMN Alliance emphasises the importance for all vendors and operators to continue the implementation and activation of advanced energy saving features supported by the 5G standard. In a next step, NGMN will look at further opportunities in phase 2 of its Green Future Networks project. Interested parties are invited to contact the NGMN Office for further information and how to join the Alliance.

The present publication is the third deliverable of the NGMN Green Future Networks project following two publications in July 2021. The first, “Sustainability Challenges and Initiatives in Mobile Networks” introduces the subject of sustainability in mobile networks and provides context of this broad and complex topic, the second, “Network Equipment Eco-Design and End to End Service Footprint” gives an overview of the existing procedures and visions for eco-design of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) network equipment. The next publication in this context will be published later this month and will focus on ”Metering for Sustainable Networks”.

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ODiN webinar “Success on the Road to Disaggregation”

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Our Operating Disaggregated Networks (ODiN) webinar “Success on the Road to Disaggregation” took place on Thursday, October 14th, 2021.
NGMN operator members informed about and actively discussed the objectives, timeline, the first deliverable, and next milestones of one of the key initiatives of our NGMN Work Programme:
Operating Disaggregated Networks (ODiN)

Speakers and Panellists of the NGMN ODIN webinar:

  • Carlos Fernandes
    (VP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom)
  • Franz Seiser
    (VP Access Disaggregation, Deutsche Telekom)
  • Marc Fiedler
    (Chief Product Owner SMO Development, Deutsche Telekom)
  • Javan Erfanian
    (Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Bell Canada)
  • Lennart Olaivar
    (Senior Manager, Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, Smart/PLDT)

We are also happy to share the presented slides with you. You can download the slides to the presentations here:
NGMN ODiN Overview
NGMN ODiN Webinar RAN Disaggregation by Deutsche Telekom

The webinar was based on the recent publication of the first ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks” White Paper , which provides a first operator’s view on the appealing opportunities and the expected challenges arising from the disaggregation of mobile networks. In its next phase, the project will address the mentioned challenges.

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NGMN Green Future Networks Project Update at 5G World

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Ana Maria Galindo Serrano, Orange and Saima Ansari, Deutsche Telekom provide an update on the status of the NGMN Green Future Networks project at 5G World.

Topics they touched on:

  • Carbon neutrality strategies and the use of renewable energy to reduce energy carbon footprint
  • Use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to improve the eco-design of products, lean packaging, critical raw material usage optimization and other topics to reduce the sector’s impact
  • Measurement of operators’ end-to-end service environmental footprint including scope 3, to provide information regarding CO2 equivalent emissions of their data consumption to end users
  • Green features overview to allow the network to better adapt to the traffic demand and to consume electricity only when needed
  • Measuring the energy consumption at different levels of networks to optimise the energy efficiency of the network as a whole
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Disaggregated Networks and Green Future Networks at 5G World

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A strong trigger for NGMN’s transformation was the imperative to address the industries’ major challenges, now and in the upcoming years. That is why our focus topics are: How to master the route to disaggregation concentrating on the E2E operating model, green future networks and 6G.

Arash Ashouriha and Anita Döhler discuss two of  NGMN’s focus topics: Disaggregated Networks and Green Future Networks at 5G World. Arash also shares insights from the Deutsche Telekom perspective.

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NGMN is Paving the Way for Effective End-to-End Operation of Disaggregated Networks

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Frankfurt, Germany, October 5, 2021: Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance released a new White Paper: “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks” – which explores the appealing opportunities and the expected challenges arising from the disaggregation of mobile networks. NGMN puts an emphasis on the perspective of mobile network operators for the expected benefits and challenges of Network Disaggregation: a more resilient ecosystem and supply chain, lower barriers to enter the market, enabled increased competition and innovation, agility and flexibility, hand in hand with expected challenges such as increasing complexities in interoperability, system integration, efficient and resilient operation. All these aspects lead to the need for a significant operating model transformation. Going forward, NGMN will develop blueprints for end-to-end operating models, enabling operators to make their individual choices, and to address the industry to develop solutions for the identified gaps. This White Paper is NGMN’s first deliverable on this topic. NGMN invites parties across the whole value chain to collaborate in its ODiN project on solutions for this extremely important subject.

Disaggregation demands a new way of working, most likely significant additional integration efforts, changes to the operational model to embrace new processes as well as new skills and tools. All such efforts are required to eventually ensure the expected service levels, operational efficiency, performance, resilience and security, plus the opportunities to offer new and affordable services in order to meet an ever-increasing demand for high performing and cost-effective mobile networks. Whether the benefit of lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) can be achieved for operators, is yet to be proven.

Carlos Fernandes, VP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom and NGMN ODiN project lead says: “Disaggregation is the biggest challenge and opportunity mobile operators face today. Eventually, each individual operator will need to make its own choices, depending on its strategy, its starting point – greenfield or brownfield, its geolocation, local competition and many more. However, there are many topics which need to be analysed and solved, which are possible and worth being addressed jointly in the pre-competitive area, to support global standards, economies of scale and hence to enable competition for the benefit of the end-user.”

Arvin Siena, Vice President & Head – Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, Smart Communications, Philippines adds: ”We are very excited to work together with the operators and the entire value chain on industry solutions, paving the way for disaggregation’s success.”

The NGMN ODiN project invites the entire NGMN Partnership – vendors, system integrators and other interested parties – to jointly analyse potential gaps and work on industry solutions to meet the identified challenges. The project will also work with other relevant organisations and submit requirements to the industry.

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NGMN Green Future Networks Project Demands Network Equipment Circularity and Increased Efforts in Global Sustainability Standardization

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In two White Papers, the Alliance emphasizes the necessity of Life Cycle Assessment methodology and a collaborate approach for ICT industry players.

 

Frankfurt, Germany, July 20, 2021: Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has released two new White Papers: “Green Future Networks: Sustainability Challenges and Initiatives in Mobile Networks” and “Green Future Networks: Network Equipment Eco-Design and End to End Service Footprint” – of which the first is exploring the data-driven assessments and research of the environmental footprint of digital goods and services, while the second focuses on eco-design and its implications.

In its White Papers, developed by 24 companies working jointly on the Alliance’s Green Future Networks project, NGMN requires to put the focus on assessing the environmental footprint of the Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) sector. This should be done at the different levels of the supply chain and with emphasis on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method as the basis of circularity. The overall goal is to reduce the use of materials with high environmental impact – i.e. critical raw materials – in order to achieve a significant reduction of the environmental impacts and align with a 1.5°C trajectory in line with the ITU recommendation L.1470. NGMN encourages operators, vendors, research institutions and other ecosystem players to participate in standardization efforts on the equipment environmental footprint reduction in order to share knowledge, develop and adopt common approaches. For further details see here and here.

Further, NGMN sees a strong need for the industry to increase the efforts in developing common methodologies to bring solutions to the complex question of assessing services’ environmental footprint. This might be realized for example through collaborative partnerships between actors with different expertise.

Anita Döhler, CEO at the NGMN Alliance, says: “In order to succeed in the implementation of real circular economy in the ICT sector, different sectors need to work together with global optimization goals as a common strategy. We at NGMN invite operators, vendors, research institutions and other interested ecosystem players to take part in our Green Future Networks project to help further enlarging its global impact – for the benefit of human.”

With its White Papers, the Green Future Networks project presents the method of Life Cycle Assessment, which allows to more accurately assess the network equipment’s environmental footprint – among others providing a view on the materials’ footprint and the role of critical raw materials as part of the products’ sustainable design (eco-design). Furthermore, the benefits of network equipment re-manufacturing and refurbishment as well as innovation in packaging inspired by eco-design principles are exemplified. Also, the White Papers present a list of recommendations for operators and vendors on how to expand their activities regarding the eco-design of products – showing how measures in different areas help reducing the environmental footprint.

Jeroen Cox, Strategic Lead Energy & Environment at KPN, says: “Critical raw materials are significant in the design of network equipment. Circular economy strategies like reducing, refurbishing or recycling should be considered to lower the supply risk of the materials in collaboration with partners in the value chain.”

Arash Ashouriha, SVP at Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Board, stresses: “At Deutsche Telekom, we lay a great deal of emphasis on reducing waste and recycling of resources. Our approach of ‘sharing instead of owning’ contributes to resource conservation which is not only good for the environment but also brings along cost savings, and reduced waste of material. We are very excited to be a part of NGMN’s eco-design initiative and we further encourage the industry to keep circular economy as a central focus point in all the activities.”

The NGNM Green Future Networks project was launched in October 2020. It works actively with standardization organizations related to sustainability efforts relevant for telecom networks and issues new recommendations focusing on metrics, eco-design and energy efficiency – to provide guidance to the telecommunication industry in order to significantly reduce the environmental impacts and align with a 1.5°C trajectory in line with the ITU recommendation L.1470.

 

Further Information

The NGNM Alliance recommendations include:

  • Companies are recommended to develop and increase awareness of the challenges related to Green House Gas emissions and resources depletion (scarce or critical materials) of network equipment. To this end, the technical skills on eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) need to be expanded, specially from vendor side.
  • NGMN strongly recommends all mobile network operators and equipment manufacturers to use circular economy principles (for instance, according to ITU-T L.1023) and environmental footprint assessment (using LCA method, for instance with ITU-T L.1410) and to integrate them in the procurement process.
  • Investigating new business models related to circular economy paradigm is advised. For instance, switching to Product-Service-System (PSS) could reduce the environmental footprint, leading to different hardware design strategies, considerations about product life expectancy, modularity and upgradeability. There is evidence that applying this kind of business model can lead to significant improvements and we encourage companies to look for this kind of solutions.
  • In order to continue advancing in the networks environmental footprint reduction, NGMN calls the industry to increase the efforts to collaborate in order to develop common methodologies to bring solutions to the complex question of assessing services environmental footprint. Collaborative partnerships between actors with different expertise will also help to overcome a lack of skilled experts to this end.
  • NGMN recommends that vendors, operators, research institutions and other ecosystem players participate in standardization efforts on the equipment environmental footprint reduction to share knowledge and to develop and adopt common approaches.
  • Also, NGMN strongly encourages vendors to expand their activities regarding eco-design of products, taking the environmental footprint into account as well as critical materials usage, refurbishing and re-manufacturing.

 

TelecomTV ODiN Panel

Managing the Route to Disaggregation

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Disaggregation is a key topic for mobile network operators and the entire industry. For MNOs and their CTOs, one of the most burning questions is how to master the operation of disaggregated networks.

Therefore, one of our core projects of this strategic pillar is “Operating Disaggregated Networks” – ODiN. This pillar also embraces network automation as well as cloud native projects.

The objective of this project is to focus on the end-to-end operating model. The project ODiN will consider, amongst others, the following key aspects: processes, technology/tools and skill requirements. It will also provide guidance towards the industry players regarding roles and opportunities provided by disaggregation.

 

CTOs need to start preparing now for future-proof operating models that are built on:

  • Orchestration of powerful ecosystems of solution partners
  • Openness and flexibility to integrate new partners and technologies
  • Highly diverse set of skills and capabilities to drive innovation and efficiency

 

Why? Because disaggregating or breaking the network components into more parts and opening the interfaces will allow more companies, new and smaller ones, to develop solutions as well as hardware and software products. This will allow faster development cycles as more minds, teams and companies are working towards one goal – improving solutions, performance, making the network more efficient and ultimately improving customer experience. This implicates faster development and quicker time to market of new functions, features and products.

However, to master disaggregation, including to master most efficient and performant operation of disaggregated networks, requires the introduction of new processes, skills and tools, among other.

Collaborating in the pre-competitive environment, our ODiN project will generate valuable input for MNOs and the entire ecosystem to master that challenge and also support the selection of most fitting operating models,  related to MNO’s specific situation.

The NGMN projects will enable vendors to develop better and more efficient products. Operators will extremely benefit as technology will keep on getting better in a shorter span of time. In addition, disaggregation will also allow more and better customisation of products based on the specific needs of each operator.

For additional insights, please listen to three of our member project leads representing the regions of Americas, Asia and Europe and what they share on #DisaggregatedNetworks and #NetworkAutomation and their regional characteristics. Our „Operating Disaggregrated Networks” Panel Discussion with Carlos Fernandes (Deutsche Telekom), Lennart Olaivar (Smart/PLDT) and Sebastian Thalanany (UScellular) was streamed on Wednesday June 30th on TelecomTV. Please find the on demand recording here:

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Press and Industry Briefing 2021

NGMN Press And Industry Briefing

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During the last year, NGMN went through a significant transformation – jointly driven by our new Chairman of the Board Arash Ashouriha from Deutsche Telekom, our new CEO Anita Doehler, as well as by the entire NGMN Board.

Disaggregation, cloudification and virtualisation, amongst others lead to significant changes in the industry and the whole ecosystem requiring operators and the entire value chain to change in order to successfully manage these challenges. Hence, we felt a strong need to transform our strategy and focus topics.

We decided to build upon our strengths and remain operator driven with a focus on requirements level.

Together with the entire NGMN Board, we actively developed and approved our New Strategic Focus Topics, addressing the industries’ main challenges today and in the next years.

Alongside with projects supporting 5G’s full implementation, the focus of the NGMN Work Programme in 2021 and beyond is on three main equally important pillars with different time horizons:

 

1. Mastering the Route to Disaggregation with a focus on the End-to-End Operating Model

Disaggregation is a key topic for mobile network operators and the entire industry.

For MNOs and their CTOs, one of the most burning questions is how to master the operation of disaggregated networks.

Therefore, one of our core projects of this strategic pillar is “Operting Disaggregated Networks” – ODiN. This pillar also embraces network automation as well as cloud native projects.

 

2. Green Future Networks

Sustainability is a topic of general and global concern gaining increasing attention from many companies.

The “carbon handprint” or “enabling effect” provided by the ICT sector can efficiently contribute to lower the “carbon footprint” of a high impact industry. ICT represents 2% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions according to the ITU with mobile and fixed networks representing 24% out of the ICT emissions.

Our Green Future Networks project focuses on the identification and mitigation of environmental impacts generated by the network part of the ICT sector such as:

  • Sustainability Challenges, Initiatives in Mobile Networks and End-to-End Service Footprint
  • Network Equipment Eco-Design
  • Network Energy Efficiency and
  • Metering

 

3. 6G

NGMN has a proven track record in substantially paving the way for 4G’s and 5G’s success, its mass-market and end-user adaptation. We are determined to provide the same impact for 6G, in order to achieve harmonised global standards and to contribute to a healthy global ecosystem for the benefit of end-users.

As a global organisation representing the entire value chain, NGMN is set to take the lead in providing impactful guidance for global 6G activities responding to the needs of end users, societies, mobile network operators and the ecosystem as a whole.

We published the first 6G White Paper focusing on the 6G Drivers and Vision in April this year, in which NGMN Operators identify the key drivers for 6G and outline our vision for 6G and the future transition of networks enabling differentiated services with expanded market opportunities and novel experience. Furthermore, the paper outlines the key challenges to be considered in a journey towards 6G, and emphasises the need for a healthy and unified global ecosystem and for global standards.

This is the first of a series of deliverables that NGMN will publish within the next years. In the next steps, use cases and end-to-end system requirements will follow.

 

Our New Brand

In addition, we have introduced a new NGMN brand that builds upon and extends our new strategy.

The new NGMN is fresh and energetic, standing for the duopoly of our brand idea of unity and practicability. The dual colour scheme symbolises human touch (red) and technology (blue). We unite our human touch with technology! Our new logo contains several nice features, underpinning our new way of working. Curious to find out more?

 

Discover our transformation and access the TelecomTV recording of the „NGMN Press & Industry Briefing“ with the following NGMN Board member participants:

  • Arash Ashouriha (SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Board)
  • Carlos Fernandes (VP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom)
  • Anita Döhler (CEO, NGMN Alliance)
  • Yuhong Huang (Deputy General Manager China Mobile Research Institute, China Mobile)
  • Luke Ibbetson (Head of Group R&D, Vodafone)
  • Michael S. Irizarry (EVP and CTO Engineering and Information Technology, UScellular)
  • Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon (SVP Orange Labs Networks, Orange)

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For further information please download the NGMN Press & Industry Briefing presentation here.

OPERATING DISAGGREGATED NETWORKS

Operating Disaggregated Networks – Panel Discussion

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If you missed the live show, you can watch the on demand recording from TelecomTV here.

 

Please join us on Wednesday June 30th at 3pm CEST to hear about one of the most exciting industry topics this year and how it is addressed by NGMN.

Disaggregation is a key topic for mobile network operators and the entire industry. One of the most burning questions for MNOs and their CTOs is how to master the operation of disaggregated networks.

NGMN therefore selected the topic of E2E operating disaggregated networks as one of their new key strategic focus pillars, with focus on short-to mid term impact. This pillar also includes network automation and cloud native future networks.

In this panel:

Carlos Fernandes
VP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom

Lennart Olaivar
Senior Manager, Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, Smart/PLDT

Sebastian Thalanany
Technologist, Adviser, and Author, UScellular

Three NGMN Members actively working on “Operating Disaggregated Networks” and “Network Automation” and representing the regions of Americas, Asia and Europe, will provide insights into these important topics, related NGMN projects, their objectives and current findings.

To join us please follow this link https://www.telecomtv.com/content/ngmn/ngmn-disaggregation-e2e-operating-model-41752/