The project “Cognitive and Automated Network Operations for Present and BeYond” (CANOPY) is now up and running, aiming at delivering AI-driven Smart Operations for the 5G and future telecommunications networks. The project aims the transformation the current paradigm based on reactive-oriented Network Operation Centers (NOC), into a proactive and preventive “Smart” NOC approach.

The project objectives are to help Mobile Networks Operators evolve from the quite rigid architecture of current NOC’s, which relies essentially on humans to perform validation jobs such as diagnostics and post-incident troubleshooting, aiming at an AI-based architecture, which learns from operational data and is able to prevent network failures and reduce service impact, hence reducing customer calls. This step towards a new proactive, self-learning, and automated operation mode will be a demanding transformation, which will only be possible by relying on state-of-the-art of AI, machine learning, and deep learning techniques.

Luís Bravo da Mata from Celfinet and ISEL - Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa will lead the project and will count with the IT research team Pedro Vieira (ISEL/IT), António Rodrigues (IST/IT), Paula Queluz (IST/IT), Paulo Marques (ISEL/IT) and Isabel Praça (ISEP), with the funding of Portugal 2020 program, managed by ANI - Agência Nacional de Inovação.

The project is led by Celfinet, a Portuguese-based Cyient Company those partners locally with Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto and Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), joining the experience of the industrial sector with the knowledge of these prestigious research institutions.

CANOPY embodies a three-year international consortium that has already obtained the EUREKA Clusters “Quality Label” in the AI Call 2021. The international team brings together Portuguese, German and Turkish companies, and research centers.