Dr. Attila Hilt
Abstract:
The excursion on the long road of telecommunications is continuously evolving. Newer mobile generations, optimizations, modernizations, technology changes, and various mergers have been experienced in the past decades. Various drivers shift physical network elements continuously towards software (SW) only deployments in all IP telecommunication networks. The decoupling of application SW from hardware (HW) is accelerated by virtualization. The ‘cloudification’ of legacy telecommunication equipment made communication networks not only more flexible, but also opened new doors. Brand new services became available thanks to the ongoing fusion of the two domains of IT (Information Technology) and telecommunications. A new era called ‘Telco-Cloud’ was born. One original goal was to use commercial computing servers as IT HW platform hoping cost efficiency. Another expected benefit was the immediate use of existing experience in the operation and maintenance of IT HW in Data Centers (DC). Nowadays more and more network functions are virtualized on top of IT HW. However, the strict requirements of the legacy Physical Network Function (PNF) based telecommunications mandate special configurations and practices on cloud. The rapidly increasing amount of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and Cloud-native Network Functions (CNFs) introduces new concepts for dimensioning, deployment, operation, management, and monitoring. Some availability and operability requirements and expectations are inherited from the legacy PNF world, meanwhile the telecommunication world itself undergoes a continuous change towards Telco-Cloud and 5G/6G. This paper overviews of the evolution steps to Telco-Cloud; some challenges in the dimensioning and availability design are discussed, and a few concepts and examples are presented on NF and NW levels.
Biography:
Mr. Attila Hilt graduated in Electrical Engineering from BME, the Technical University of Budapest. In 1989 he joined the Research Institute for Telecommunications (TKI), Budapest, Hungary. Until 1999, he led the Telecommunication Test Laboratory of TKI.
In 1999, he received the doctorate degree in Optics, Optoelectronics and Microwaves from INPG, the ‘Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble’, in France. and the PhD degree in 2000 at BME, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Attila Hilt joined Nokia in 2000, where he is currently working as a chief architect. He has been involved in the dimensioning and planning of several fixed, mobile and cloud networks. He participated in the testing, piloting, deployment and optimization of mobile and backhaul networks, including nationwide modernization projects in Europe. For five years he worked in Austria too, for the modernization of Austrian Operators’ mobile and core networks. In 2022 he received the Nokia Bell Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) award.
Since 2019, Attila Hilt is associated professor at BME-VIK, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He gives lectures on mobile networks, optical telecommunications and lightwave system applications. His research interests include measurement techniques, fixed, mobile, wireless and cloud-based networks, including microwave, millimeter-wave and photonic systems. He is an author and co-author of 90+ scientific papers and 300+ research project and test reports, consisting of guidelines, requirement specifications and lecture notes in the field of tele-communications.
Attila Hilt is a member of the Scientific Association for Infocommunications (HTE) and the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers (MMK). Since 2016, he is a member of the Telecommunications Public Body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). In 2018 he was elected to be a member of the Telecommunications Scientific Committee (TTB) of MTA. A.Hilt regularly reviews scientific papers, dissertations and he is one of the editors of the Infocommunications Journal.