Abstract
Most telecommunications organizations use physical laboratories and traditional methods of testing to test and validate their network products. These traditional methods have become inefficient as networks grow complex and technology is evolving. This has led to high testing error rates, longer deployment times and inaccuracies in the network, due to the laboratories’ failure to reflect real live network in testing. Network digital twins (NDT) are proposed as a solution to this, to enhance the testing environments. A digital twin is a virtual replica of an object or system intended to accurately mirror a physical object. It covers the object's entire lifecycle, receives updates from real-time data, and employs simulation. The aim of this research is to investigate how NDTs can potentially improve telecommunications testing environments. The qualitative research employed in this study through semi-structured interviews with individuals in the field has provided some insight into how a network digital twin could potentially improve the testing environments. The research collected qualitative data using semi-structured interviews of fifteen telecommunications professionals. The interviews provided insight into real workplace challenges in the testing procedures, highlighting some examples where their testing tools have failed in live production. Based on their knowledge of NDTs, they also provided requirements that they think would be necessary for implementing them. The research participants include individuals who have work experience ranging from 3 to 21 years in the telecommunications industry, working as network engineers and operations specialists. Thematic analysis of the interview data was performed with the help of the approach developed by Braun and Clarke to find the recurring patterns and insights. Findings in the study have demonstrated that lack of realistic testing environments and limited automation are some of the leading challenges. Moreover, results show that using the network digital twin needs advanced telemetry and real time data synchronization, simulation and virtualisation technologies as well as enforced security and data privacy. Alternative strategies to improve network testing included employing automation and artificial intelligence. It is concluded that the network digital twin technology is seen as a viable solution to enhance testing environments within the telecommunications industry in the near future, taking into consideration all the requirements, technical and organizational.