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My guest on today’s show explains how capturing data on the network can not only find problems but improve the network. Let’s welcome Gerard Carroll who is the RAN Solution Manager for Empirix, http://www.empirix.com/, an end to end data analytics solution provider. Gerard is a smart guy who was the CEO of Verios when Empirix acquired them. Data gives us knowledge. Remember that knowledge is power. The best way to learn all Gerard’s secrets to system improvement is to listen to the podcast! He is a brilliant guy! I am grateful and lucky he came on the podcast and would like to thank him for his time up front for taking the time to share real world knowledge with us. Most of us are just looking at one part of the network, we need someone to look at the system end to end and this is a great solution.

The Empirix solution goes beyond just capturing data at one data point on the network, but they have the vision to look at key points in the wireless network to see what is happening at each spot. In other words, they don’t just look at the backhaul, or the core, or even in the RAN or a single handset. They can pull from all of it to see how the data points at each spot. What does this tell you? It tells you all you need to know about the system, the end to end system. Why do this? Let me break it down for you, if you only look at the RAN, then you may think it’s a RAN problem or it isn’t, how do you know? If you only look at the backhaul, then only see the backhaul. How do you know where the real problem lies? I’ll tell you how, you look each section, core to backhaul to RAN to the end-user, then you have the complete picture of where problems are happening.

Gerard tells several stories, but one in particular where the customer could not figure out what the problem was. I am sure that the carrier was beating up some poor RAN tech because they couldn’t get the parameters set for good download speeds. However, when Gerard looked at his all-seeing data, he found out that they had a specific handset manufacturer that had a device that performed poorly! That’s right, it was a specific model of handsets that were bad! Who would have thought of that?

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But wait, there’s more!

Gerard mentions how the data they capture can be used for more than finding problems, but also for improving the system. It can help improve the QoE (Quality of Experience) for the end-user by looking at what they are really doing.

Some background:

I met Gerard up at NEDAS Sprint Summit in NYC, https://www.nedas.com/events/nedas-spring-in-building-wireless-summit-nyc. I was just blown away by how the Empirix solution could really tell you anything about the end to end network. When I looked at the website, they have several solutions, http://www.empirix.com/products/ that make the engineer on any part of the network happy to see. The RF guys and the data guys should all agree that this is the way to look at a network. I saw great possibilities with this solution, such as improvements and planning in optimization, backhaul, end-user QoE, and so much more. Their solutions also help us catch voice problems, like if you’re turning up VoLTE, you see what improvements are needed for the customer to have a quality voice experience!

Do you still think that it’s only the data that matters? Well, they have a RAN Vision solution that helps you look at the data surrounding the RAN so that you can understand if the tilt of the antennas is a problem! You see, it sees the network end to end, not just one part. How cool is that? Go beyond troubleshooting to network improvements that would make the end-user QoE skyrocket! OK, I got a little crazy, but we all want to improve the system, this is your answer to get there quickly so that you can make a plan to be the best network you can be within your budget.

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Who will it help?

Gerard’s solution at Empirix will help all aspects of the wireless carrier or any major network. For instance, the IT and backhaul people will see where they have problems and can improve along with the RF and RAN groups. Any PM would be happy to see where the real problems lie. The carrier will be happy because the real winner will be the end-user, the customer, so that customer service will understand where their pain points are and be able to improve the QoE, (Quality of Experience), for the end-user, the people that pay to be on the system. Why not make them as happy as you can by making the experience as pleasant as possible?

Don’t just take my word for it! Learn more about Empirix case studies at http://www.empirix.com/about-empirix/case-studies/ so that you can see what they did for customers in the real world.