The Concept of Building a Network of Digital Twins to Increase the Efficiency of Complex Telecommunication Systems

Abstract

The technical literature actively discusses ideas for creating digital twins to solve a wide range of problems that arise for enterprises of various kinds. Advances in the areas of information technology and the development of the necessary software really make it possible to obtain important new results through the creation of digital twins. This paper proposes the concept of building a network of digital twins, used to solve a number of actual problems in complex telecommunication systems. Two applications are considered examples of such tasks. The first application is the organization of information feedback for enterprises involved in the life cycle of a telecommunication network: “elaboration of modernization principles, development of equipment, design, construction, and operation.” The second application is monitoring traffic, including its atypical behavior, in order to avoid the recurrence of erroneous actions in case of emergency situations. Another important feature of the digital twin network is that it will become an effective tool for conducting interdisciplinary research.

Empowering Digital Twin for Future Networks with Graph Neural Networks: Overview, Enabling Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…Finally, a dynamic transmission simulation system based on bidirectional Long short-term memory (LSTM) [42] that could replace a traditional block-based optical transmission simulation system. Another approach proposed by Seilov et al [43] involves building networks of digital twins to tackle problems in complex telecommunication networks with two specific examples in feedback loops and traffic monitoring. In the former case, the network of digital twins allows the developer the tracking of all changes made and intervention in the development of the telecommunication system.…”

“…The capabilities of a GraphNDT to analyze system states over time can be leveraged for predictive maintenance, including predicting failure points, tracing back to root causes, and making maintenance decisions [28,31,43,44]. By providing two-way communication, an NDT not only allows synchronizing the digital twin with the actual network infrastructure, but also provides a means to apply remote reconfiguration, simulate potential changes or maintenance activities, and validate their impact on network performance.…”

Cyber Security Issues in the Industrial Applications of Digital Twins

“…Telecommunications: In order to provide end customers with high-quality services, it is imperative to optimize network performance [40]. A virtual picture of the network infrastructure is provided by digital twins, which enables operators to track and examine real-time data from multiple network components.…”

Digital Twins in Civil Infrastructure Systems

“…A network of several DTs has been proposed to solve problems in complex telecommunication systems, with each twin serving as a model of one object, such as a switching node. The network of DTs will employ big data, data mining and neural networks to accumulate information and set up a good base for the development of telecommunication networks [68]. An important feature enabled by this network is traffic monitoring, which proves valuable during emergency situations where equipment tends to fail and traffic experiences avalanche-like growth.…”

“…The selected literature on waste management systems and telecommunication systems features conceptual as well as real use case DT solutions. Research in [65,68,69,75] propose the implementation of DTs to simulate processes for an array of benefits. These proposals harmonise with the general agreement within the survey that a DT can simulate systems and processes, not only a physical asset.…”