Decoupling of hardware and higher software integration are today’s operational mantra: Cyient Rohit Kumar

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) need to evolve into Digital Service Providers (DSPs) and provide innovative use cases to new-age subscribers. An agile, scalable, flexible, and programmable network is a prerequisite to achieving this and staying competitive in an increasingly complex landscape.

Equipping those prerequisites for telcos around the world is global network engineering service provider Cyient. With over 25 years of experience in working with global telecom leaders, Cyient has helped connect 40% of telecom end-customers and businesses worldwide through its engineering and management systems for converged fixed and mobile networks. Its technology enablers and accelerators allow telecoms to automate operations, build agility into their networks, and deliver superior customer experiences.

In an interaction with Rohit Kumar, General Manager – Strategy & Partnerships, Communications of Cyient, Voice&Data understands how the company is in the business of helping telcos streamline processes during COVID-19, helping CSPs prep for the 5G rollout, and its capabilities in integrating open-source, cloud-native SDN/NFV applications with the hardware.

Excerpts of the interaction: 

V&D: COVID-19 has brought in new normal trends with technologies deployed to enhance user experience and also meet increased demands of digital needs. What is Cyient's role in this new normal condition and how is the company supporting the new demands?

 Rohit Kumar: Digital tools have emerged as the lifeline of our professional and personal lives in the ongoing COVID-19 scenario. People across the globe are depending on communication networks to advance business continuity and to remain connected with their family and friends even as they are forced to maintain social distancing.

There has been a massive shift in consumption patterns. With new models for enterprise users evolving, the requirement of ultra-high-speed robust connectivity for people working from home has increased. We are helping our telco clients with network up-gradation and as they deal with the massive increase in data consumption and changes in the consumption patterns.

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the dynamics of the communications industry. Some CSPs are accelerating their network expansion and modernization plans to meet the growing demand. We are supporting our clients worldwide to enhance quality and coverage to deal with the new normal. Cyient is also helping the CSPs in preparing the networks for new clients.

V&D: What is Cyient's LiDAR and how does this service help 5G rollout?

Rohit Kumar: The Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology helps CSPs to make informed decisions by providing an extremely detailed digital twin from a single capture source. It gives an incredibly realistic and accurate location and height of vegetation and street infrastructure, and with 3D technology, it is the closest representation of what it looks like in the real world.

We, at Cyient, offer LiDAR data acquisition, mapping, data processing, and feature extraction services. Our solution brings down the need for site visits, which is crucial in the present circumstances. It helps the organization in saving time and financial resources while at the same time, bringing down safety risks.

With LiDAR, there is no need to make multiple visits to zero in on the right location or do a manual survey each time to set up small cells.

LiDAR is especially relevant for 5G rollout because densification is key to the success of 5G. A network of small cells, placed closer to the end consumer, helps bring down latency and enhance speed. With LiDAR, there is no need to make multiple visits to zero in on the right location or do a manual survey each time to set up small cells.

The technology makes it possible to identify the right places to deploy small cells, thus bringing down capital expenditure. We are working with CSPs across the globe to help them realize the vision of 5G upcoming technologies. We are geared to meet the changing needs of our CSP technology.

 V&D: How do you envision the growth of India's telecom industry and how will Cyient's services be placed in sync with the growth?

Rohit Kumar: The Indian telecommunications industry is at the cusp of the next phase of growth. The Indian consumer is now used to basic connectivity and demands new and innovative services and products. The service providers need to modernize and upgrade their networks to address the evolving demands. The 5G spectrum auction is scheduled for the coming year and this is the perfect time to start preparing the networks for the upcoming technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), Industry 4.0, Augmented Reality (AR), among others.

On the other hand, India still has a large proportion of unconnected areas and people. CSPs will be expanding the networks to connect the unconnected. Cyient provides ‘Intelligent infrastructure rollout’ and ‘Smart operations’ services that combine our proven global experience and engineering capabilities to help the service providers build robust networks of the future.

V&D: It is believed that Communication Service Providers need to evolve into Digital Service Providers. Why so? How is Cyient helping CSPs evolve into DSPs?

 Rohit Kumar: The CSPs need to evolve into DSP to address the evolving needs of their enterprise and retail subscribers. Several new technologies, including Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities, also demand an agile and programmable network. The legacy networks are unable to meet the subscribers' demands as they require better speeds, capacity, and innovative services.

Cyient is ideally placed to support the telecommunications industry to modernize the networks to build a scalable, flexible, and programmable network to support the new age requirements. With several decades of rich global network engineering experience and a portfolio of digital solutions, we empower the CSPs to develop new competencies and simplify the networks for better management.

Today, we connect 40% of the telecom end-customers and businesses worldwide. Our technology solutions help telecoms automate operations, build network agility, and enhance the customer experience.

The cloudification of communication networks is increasingly happening and moving to the edge for 5G, but there’s also a transformation in B2B services from wide area network services to software-defined WAN.

V&D: Cloud is now viewed as the best solution for several cost-effective work processes in the telecom industry. What is your take on this? Can you explain this with facts and figures?

Rohit Kumar: Cloud helps service providers optimize their processes for greater efficiencies and the faster introduction of new services. As a cloud user, CSPs stand to bring down their network maintenance cost even as they enhance operational efficiencies. The cloudification of communication networks is increasingly happening and moving to the edge for 5G, but there’s also a transformation in B2B services from wide area network services to software-defined WAN.

The telecom cloud market is projected to grow at a rate of almost 19.7% in terms of value as compared to 2019, accelerated by these trends. The cloud technology is helping CSPs in gaining competitive advantage and in scaling their operations.

V&D: Decoupling of hardware and higher interaction of software are today's operational mantra for telcos. How does Cyient enable this for the telcos?

Rohit Kumar: The service providers across the globe are disaggregating the software and hardware components to build faster capacity buildout and enhance the operational efficiency of the networks. The disaggregation of hardware and software is increasingly getting adopted in cRAN and vRAN based architectures. This is now being extended through Open RAN deployments in significantly bringing down the overall cost of network management and maintenance. It allows the service providers to move away from the monolithic hardware-centric networks to more agile and programmable software networks.

We bring in the necessary expertise in planning and designing the high speed, resilient architecture for the mobile fronthaul that facilitates such a model for CSPs.

V&D: In the coming years, how has Cyient planned to build on its resources (workforce, financial, business)?

Rohit Kumar: Cyient continues to grow its communications business across the globe. Today we have 300 customers and 13,000 associates spread across 14 countries. We bring in efficiency gains to our customers through innovative tools and techniques and will continue to add to our workforce as we partner with our customers in their success journey.

In this financial year, we hope to add to our product and service offerings to acquire new clients and to enhance our engagement with the existing customers. Our customer pipeline continues to be healthy and we are confident of recording robust growth in the current and coming financial year.

V&D: PM Narendra Modi has urged Indian companies to align with his Make for World and Make in India move. What is Cyient's role in this and how will this shape the sector?

Rohit Kumar: We are committed to supporting our Government's vision to build a more Atmanirbhar India. Cyient comes with a strong electronic and mechanical manufacturing competencies, and we are already manufacturing for our domestic and international customers. Our DLM facility in Mysore is dedicated to electronic manufacturing processes, and we also produce high-precision low volume mechanical manufacturing products from our Bengaluru facility.

We will continue to grow our manufacturing capabilities and competencies in aligning with the Government's policies and vision for the country's overall social and economic growth.

(Anusha Ashwin:  x-anushaa@cybermedia.co.in)