Our client, one of the world’s leading telecom service providers, faced challenges managing its widespread infrastructure and a few other considerable challenges, including limited real-time visibility, manual processes, human error, theft risks, and reactive maintenance practices. To overcome these hurdles, they turned to ThinkPalm’s NetvirE, a cloud-native, low code, configurable IIoT platform that delivers real-time asset monitoring, asset tracking, activity detection, and proactive management of assets.
Key challenges
- Lack of Real-time Visibility: Lack of manual monitoring methods led to delays in identifying and responding to infrastructure issues.
- Manual Processes: Without automation, key operations require significant manual effort, increasing the risk of human errors and inefficiencies.
- Human Errors and Theft: Theft of critical resources, such as fuel, and human errors remained constant challenges.
- Reactive Maintenance: The absence of predictive maintenance resulted in unexpected downtimes, leading to operational disruptions.
- Compliance Issues: Meeting compliance requirements was difficult due to the lack of real-time reporting and monitoring capabilities.
Solution provided
To address these challenges, ThinkPalm introduced NetvirE, an IoT-enabled infrastructure management solution engineered for the ever-evolving telecom industry. Key components of the solution included:
- NetvirE edge gateway integration: Data was collected directly from MSC sites using an IoT gateway. This facilitated seamless real-time data transmission from various telecom assets.
- Sensor deployment: Sensors were introduced to monitor key parameters like temperature, power, oil levels, and more.
- NetvirE cloud platform: The platform was deployed in the client’s data center, offering centralized control over all sites for enhanced visibility and management.
Solution overview
NetvirE provided one of the world’s leading telecom providers with a scalable solution that centralized infrastructure monitoring and introduced automation across operations:
- Real-time visibility: With NetvirE’s centralized dashboard, the client gained global visibility across all sites. The system tracked critical metrics, including alarms, power status, scheduled maintenance, and space availability.
- Digital twin technology: Using digital twins, they replicated each site’s layout digitally, enabling granular visibility into rack space, device positioning, and space utilization.
- Power and fuel monitoring: NetvirE enabled the monitoring of diesel generators, including fuel levels and usage history, with AI-driven theft detection and predictive analytics for proactive resource management.
- Live streaming and AI-powered video processing: Live camera streams, integrated with AI, helped trigger alarms and prevent operational anomalies. These features enhanced security and compliance monitoring.
- Health monitoring of IoT gateways: Real-time health statistics of IoT gateways, such as memory and CPU usage, ensured uninterrupted operations.
- Customizable dashboards: Custom dashboards were configured for specific assets, activities, and incidents, providing personalized monitoring.
- Maintenance and incident management: NetvirE’s dedicated dashboards allowed them to schedule maintenance, monitor incidents, and maintain comprehensive audit trails for regulatory compliance.
- Role-based access: The platform provided role-based access to the leading provider’s team, ensuring secure management and control across operations.
Key features delivered
- Global infrastructure visibility: The solution provided a high-level view of sites globally, allowing users to drill down into specific assets andre receive detailed updates on site conditions.
- Real-time monitoring: Real-time monitoring of assets, including racks, power supply units, and sensors, giving users immediate access to critical data such as temperature, power status, fuel levels, fuel usage, and alarms.
- Space utilization: Floor views and rack-level details enabled the maximization of space utilization, tracking free and occupied slots, and planning new deployments effectively.
- Proactive maintenance: Predictive maintenance capabilities allowed for proactive equipment maintenance, which reduced downtime and operational risks.
- Fuel and power management: AI-driven predictions managed fuel levels and detected theft, while real-time power capacity calculations prevented potential power failures.
- Alarms and notifications: Customizable alarm rules ensured that anomalies were detected immediately, triggering alarms and generating tickets for swift resolution.
- Automatic report generation: To provide a thorough understanding of operating parameters, automated daily, weekly, and monthly reports were delivered. These reports included Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Consumption Per Hour (CPH), Units Per Liter (UPL), and Alarm summaries.
- Incident reporting: The platform facilitated the tracking and reporting of incidents, such as water leaks and unattended equipment, granting comprehensive control over site management.
Results
- Enhanced operational efficiency: Automating manual processes reduced human errors and improved overall efficiency.
- Improved security: AI-powered video analytics and real-time alarm notifications enhanced security, minimizing theft and operational risks.
- Proactive maintenance: Predictive tools ensured equipment issues were addressed proactively, leading to a significant reduction in downtime.
- Better compliance: Automated reporting allowed them to meet regulatory standards effortlessly, avoiding compliance-related issues.
Conclusion
The deployment of NetvirE has revolutionized our valued client, one of the world’s leading telecom providers, in infrastructure management, transforming a traditionally manual, reactive process into a highly automated, intelligent system. The advanced features of NetvirE, including real-time visibility, predictive maintenance, AI-driven monitoring, and customizable dashboards, have not only enhanced operational efficiency but also improved the client’s asset management across its global MSC sites. This case study highlights how IoT-enabled solutions like NetvirE can set new industry standards for remote telecom infrastructure management, paving the way for more connected and secure operations in the future.