Digital Twin Network

Harnessing real-time network data and putting it into a user-friendly interface to facilitate dynamic management and adaptation to network changes could prove a boon to operators. Given the increase in network and service complexity coming with the evolution from 5G to 5G-Advanced and eventually to 6G, digital twin networks could help simplify everything from coverage and capacity planning to actual operation of the network. 

Qualcomm Senior Director of Technology Xiaoxia Zhang explained that “the overall concept is to reduce network cost, and also make it easier to deploy and also manage.” With a digital twin network—or a digital twin of a manufacturing system, city, etc…—the idea is to stand up a digital version of a physical network or process. “With this you can do lots of analytics of the network operation,” she said.