Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is growing prevalent in Singapore, with the government and businesses alike looking into ways of incorporating this technology into its processes.
One such latest movement is a partnership between Telco M1 Limited and the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), which focuses on creating AI solutions for boosting the operations of mobile networks.
A research collaboration agreement was signed between both groups on Wednesday (Jan 8), to reduce the need for the labour-intensive, manual analysis of a large quantity of network key performance indicators, a process that is prone to errors as well.
The agreement is also focused on meeting the various requirements of new mobile applications and the intricacy of the upcoming deployment of the 5G network.
M1 said that it will incorporate real-world data from its mobile network to offer domain knowledge for data pre-processing, analysis, visualisation and interpretation.
SIT will conduct research and also develop algorithms for AI machine learning for detecting mobile traffic anomalies and predicting the volume of mobile traffic.
M1 and SIT said this partnership seeks to create a performance anomaly detection methodology, using deep neural networks (DNN). It also seeks to use DNN to model and predict active users in mobile networks, using historical mobile traffic data.
The partnership will also see SIT students being awarded opportunities to be a part of an integrated work-study programme and projects.
This joint effort with SIT comes after a similar partnership that M1 had signed with the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), for creating Singapore’s first 5G cellular vehicle-to-everything, or C-V2X, research test-bed and trials.
M1 had also collaborated with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), in July last year, for joint research efforts towards creating advanced robots that use 5G technology.
As part of the research efforts, M1 will be the service provider of the 5G network. SUTD researches and students will use this network as a test platform. It will be an indoor network made of small cells transmitting the network.
This is a new approach taken in the transmission of network services in Singapore.
Small cells are portable miniature base stations that need minimal power to operate and can be placed every 250 meters throughout land spaces. The reason for using small cells is due to their lower-power, short-range wireless transmission systems that span a tighter space area.
Currently, base stations are used to transmit networks across geographical areas. These small cells will allow the network to be transmitted rapidly and widely, thus expanding the network coverage.
The test platform will also focus on features such as:
- security and delivery services
- real-time remote operation of robots and e-scooters
- production of virtual-reality and augmented-reality content for video-streaming
The aim of creating this test platform is to allow for innovations to be created and to be applied in finding practical solutions for government and enterprises. This will allow the formation of a talent pipeline to drive Singapore’s Smart Nation goals said M1 and SUTD.