Exclusive Interview: Abhishek Sinha, COO and Member of the Board, L&T Technology Services

L&T Technology Services are a technology provider, and primarily work in ER&D. The company, a subsidiary of the construction giant Larson & Toubro, recently entered into a partnership with Mavenir for Open RAN and 5G testing and automation. Apart from that, the company has been working in Engineering as a Service, Industrial AI, and so on. In the telecommunications space, LTTS has products and services in 5G, wireless and wireline networks and SDN/NFV.

Leading the operations at LTTS is the spokesperson for the interview, Mr. Abhishek Sinha. An IT-BHU alumnus, Abhishek has held key positions at Infosys, KPIT, and now at L&T Technology Services. He has almost 3 decades of experience in the field.

With Voice&Data, Abhishek talks about 5G, network virtualization, Open RAN, smart cities, and how L&T Technology Services are leading the innovation.

5G has become the fastest adopted telecom standard, with an estimated 500 million users onboarding by 2023. How fast do you see 5G being adopted in India?

We believe that India will become not just a booming market for 5G, but a global leader in 5G technologies. Telecom players are proactively working to build the required infrastructure to support 5G; test trials and related preparedness are also shaping up rapidly. Many Indian telcos have started 5G trials this quarter in both FR1 and FR2 bands. Device makers are well prepared to support mid-range bands as well as the existing ones. Hence, India may have a base of 30-40 million 5G smartphones by the time the first commercial network goes live.

Also, enterprises in India are in discussion over private network-based digital transformation with OEMs, Telcos and SIs; it means that the Enterprise Private Network market may also pick up by 2022. Early adopters in the enterprise community may aim for software upgrade opportunities from 4G private network to 5G.

Engineering and technology companies have a crucial role to play in democratizing 5G adoption and giving it mass acceptance. Many Indian tech companies including L&T Technology Services are making investments to build advanced 5G capabilities over the next 5 years. Given the potential and the size of the Indian market, scalability will also be a major factor; engineering companies who make the right investments, build an ecosystem of partnerships and expand their hi-tech offering portfolio will have a distinct early mover advantage.

The growing momentum of 5G is also fueling demand for talent in both telecom projects as well as enterprise solutions. I believe the next two to four years will see more active work on this front; over this period, 5G will emerge as the preferred mode of connectivity on a mass scale.

What are some of the key industrial use cases that will make 5G a success?

5G promises to trigger a wave of disruption with immediate applications in sectors such as telemedicine, online learning and agriculture. With availability of 5G connectivity, the aero industry can utilize drones for inspection of items with sourcing of real-time feedback on defects. Augmented Reality (AR) devices like smart-glasses demand high-speed mobile network that needs 5G support. The future of AR experience will grow out of AR apps and lean heavily on 5G network.

For manufacturers, 5G can enable drone-based asset tracking & position determination without GPS for plant inspection, monitor critical components and vulnerable touchpoints and help embrace higher level of workforce safety. We also see adoption in factory or venue automation involving, enterprise operational intelligence, intelligent asset optimization, scalable production management, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and remote operations/support.

From an end-user perspective, 5G will enrich the gaming experience, enable attending business meetings while on-the-go, improve ADAS and road commuting through analytics, support Electric Vehicle management as well as proactively secure reliability aspects to ensure superior performance and drive experience.

How important do you feel 5G use cases for Industry 4.0 will be for the factories of tomorrow?

The pandemic-led social distancing norms has accelerated the need for automation process and virtualization, especially in the manufacturing sector.

5G will help in faster adoption of safer and more secured measures for the workforce in a manufacturing set-up. Real-time monitoring of components and assembly line will help mitigate potential breakdowns and enable enhanced uptime as well as productivity. 5G will improve the performance, efficiency and security of data transfer and accommodate more information as compared to 4G technologies. The high throughput, low latency, and high-capacity advantages presented by 5G will certainly fuel industrial use cases such as “Beyond Visual Line of Sight” drone applications, remote surveillance, remote monitoring and machinery control and automated & reliable asset communications.

The concept of Smart Factories can evolve to a higher level including enriched analytics derived from surveillance related parameters. The automation and efficiency enabled by 5G based use cases will help create the factories of tomorrow.

How will 5G help create truly smart cities?

The relevance of 5G Edge Computing in creation of smart cities is unmatched. 5G will not only ensure the highest degree of citizen safety with faster connectivity; it will also help with real-time monitoring of multiple components of a city surveillance system. Utilities such as water, electricity consumption, and related aspects can be streamlined for better usage optimization. Similarly, utility services such as electricity and gas can be automated. In the Indian context, pressing issues such as traffic congestion and flooding can be monitored effectively under smart city frameworks operated over 5G.

5G-driven medical ambulance and enhanced digital health services can be a boon for citizens of a smart city and help provide immediate medical assistance and support.

Applications supported by 5G (both on public and private networks) enable innovations in connected & autonomous mobility, always-on entertainment, remote education, mixed reality-based tourism and digital public services. These numerous features will positively impact digital experiences and help in the creation of smart cities.

Given how new 5G use cases are being developed, which ones do you feel are the most relevant for the individual consumers?

The role of 5G in disrupting the consumer tech landscape is immense. The extraordinary speed, greater capacity and unlimited connectivity opportunities presented by 5G network will allow price-sensitive consumers globally to enjoy a smarter, more connected world with (among other things) better mobile service, safer streets and enhanced entertainment.

5G promises to expedite technological transformation in the areas of high-speed gaming, education, tourism, video communication, in-car entertainment, and connected vehicle ecosystem.

However, the way 5G will transform healthcare domain will be unprecedented. Some of the new-age innovations in this area will include; 5G-assisted remote robotic surgery, mixed reality-based healthcare system, video-enabled remote patient monitoring, connected ambulance network and real-time high throughput computational processing.

All of the above will help open up new opportunities for Indian engineering services companies to bring in the product & application engineering and design capabilities, prototype testing and managed services.

Network virtualization and network on the cloud are all the talk right now among the telcos. Do you feel access technologies like Open RAN and vRAN will be decisive for the success of 5G?

L&T Technology Services is part of the Open RAN ecosystem and we foresee Open RAN to drive rapid growth and development in the 5G segment. vRAN and Open RAN based solutions will help accelerate the adoption of an anticipated 14 million 5G private networks globally. In case of public 5G networks, many telcos have already initiated work on 5G network gears; consequently, Open RAN adoption may be limited to the next refresh cycle which will be in the years to come.

Open RAN plays a critical role in the development of 5G technologies and L&T Technology Services has set up an Open RAN lab for 5G equipment and devices testing. This Mysuru-based lab has garnered keen stakeholder interest including from global clientele for its benefits.

L&T Technology Services has recently entered into a strategic partnership with US-based Mavenir to deliver end-to-end 5G automation services that will include Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) automation of the 5G ORAN portfolio of RU/DU/CU products, in conjunction with Cloud Native 5G NSA and SA core network products.

L&T Technology Services has played a prominent role in developing 5G use cases, network virtualization and testing and validation. How does L&T Technology Services plan to cater to the Indian market?

With our diverse 5G offerings, we are geared up for any potential opportunity in the domestic and international markets. With established infrastructure for the 5G and telecom ecosystem, we have already made considerable progress in the developed markets.

Our preparedness for emerging demand for 5G related services includes ramping up our 5G team. We are aggressively building network components in our dedicated 5G lab to enable our global clientele in faster go-to-market strategy. The lab, an R&D development facility which caters to many of our Fortune 500 companies, is extensively being used for testing of various components for multiple OEM suppliers.

5G is one of our 6 strategic investment areas; we are in talks with major 5G players to provide them with end-to-end engineering services. Some of our key offerings include, 5G Network Service Enablement, 5G Virtualization, OAI-based 5G RAN, Network & Service Automation, Field Trials, Service Monetization and Transforming 4G networks to 5G. We have successfully carried out various 5G programs including field implementation of 5G trials, lab set-up, testing and automation deployment.

We intend to leverage our expertise and enforce the best practices to offer optimized solutions to the domestic market. LTTS also aims to develop use cases particularly in the areas of manufacturing, automotive, industrial and healthcare domains. Our understanding of the Indian enterprise market and its unique challenges and expectations aids in our conversations with clients. Our partnerships in both industry & academia and investments in cutting-edge labs & solutions will provide us with levers to cater to the Indian 5G market.