CUSTOMER STORY

Tier 1 Service Provider Accelerates 5G Deployments by 75% through Backhaul Network Automation & Orchestration with Itential

INDUSTRY

Communications Service Provider

GOALS

Accelerate 5G Rollout
Minimize Cost of Deployment
Increase Engineer Productivity

USE CASES

IP Backhaul Router Automation

INTEGRATIONS

Key Results

Integrated with multi-vendor technology stack and custom-built automation solutions to avoid disruption.

Accelerated 5G cell site router deployment by 75%.

Decreased network engineering manual effort by 50%.

Integrated configuration management activities with 5G deployment automation.

The Need to Accelerate 5G Deployment

During the height of the race to 5G, a top Tier 1 global wireless service provider needed to accelerate their 5G network deployment to remain competitive and retain their leadership position in the market. However, their existing cell site router vendors could not supply new routers to meet the schedule due to supply chain issues related to the global pandemic. The only way to meet the deadlines would be to introduce a new vendor into the backhaul. In the past, this was not viable due to the cost and complexity of integrating a new vendor into the existing operations systems. Another consideration was the time and expenses related to training and supporting the network engineers so they could deploy devices from a new vendor in the network.

We were spending too much time performing manual activities to deploy new 5G sites, causing us to fall behind our competitors. It was hard to find something that could integrate with everything we needed.

Senior Manager, Network Planning

Why They Chose Itential to Orchestrate the Rollout of their IP Backhaul Routers

This service provider looked at multiple options including Cisco NSO, Ciena Blue Planet, and custom internal IT development to support the deployment and configuration lifecycle of the new and existing cell site router infrastructure. However, none of these solutions were able to provide the level of flexibility and integration needed to accelerate their 5G deployments.

They selected Itential due to our significant advantages in efficiency, ease of use, and speed to deploy new services. By leveraging the Itential Cloud Platform, they were able to seamlessly integrate their existing environment of multi-vendor and multi-domain network technologies with their custom-built, home grown IT solutions. Crucially, this allowed them to avoid any project disruptions that would be required by other solutions due to lengthy and costly integration and IT development cycles.

Rapid integration capabilities that enabled the customer to easily introduce a new vendor, enabling new capabilities and functionality to be exposed within their existing engineering portal.
A library of pre-built assets in the Itential Automation Marketplace allowed users to start automating immediately, dramatically reducing the time associated with deployment and operations.
Low-code ease of use, no need to retrain team further accelerating the project timeline and increasing internal adoption.
Integrated configuration management with 5G automation and orchestration capabilities.

Without the robust integration capabilities of Itential, we would have fallen behind on our 5G deployment. Their products and team made it possible for us to introduce a new vendor and get ahead of schedule, ensuring our end users are always connected.

Senior Manager, Network Planning

Accelerated Time to Market & Increased Productivity

By implementing IP backhaul router automation and orchestration with Itential, this service provider was able to introduce a new vendor into their network at a fraction of the cost and time it would normally take. By adopting an “automation first” mentality with the new vendor, they could embed the expertise of a subject matter expert into the automations, enabling any network engineer to deploy and manage the new cell site routers without the need for extensive training. In addition, the automations eliminated manual errors entirely, ensuring a consistent, predictable deployment process.

The orchestrations decreased the manual hours to deploy new cell sites and aggregation routers by over 50%, increasing productivity of their cell site engineers by 200%. Most importantly, they were able to reduce their project timeline by 75% through the automation and orchestration of the deployment and upgrade process with Itential.