Digital Twin (DT): A digital model of a physical object or service

The pairing of virtual and physical worlds allows for planning, analysis, proactive monitoring, control, preventive maintenance, optimization, support technology and business decisions, and the opportunity to create and quantify new opportunities.

Digital twins have historically been limited to addressing only the performance of individual pieces of equipment; lacking the ability to address the big picture or combined network effect.

Given the scale and complexity of both IoT and 5G deployments, entire networks and their assets including sites, towers, network elements and services are ideal candidates for a digital twin. The concept of a Digital Twin was named as one of the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019 by Gartner.

What We Do

Digital Twin Sim is a Telecom business & network modeling advisory firm. We provide a bridge between technology and economics, helping our clients critically assess both established and emerging technologies, identify strategic growth opportunities, and build solid, profitable business models.

We combine deep expertise in telecommunications with expertise in financial modeling, economics, market forecasts and research, strategy, business plan support, and due diligence.

We advise wireline, fixed wireless, and mobile operators, infrastructure vendors, OEMs, investors, regulators, and industry associations around the worldwide on the technical, financial, and strategic implications of technology decisions.

Services

With each new generation of network technology comes along the promises of more speed, capacity, quality and users. Telecom providers are preparing for 5G with a mixture of resignation and anticipation knowing that it will unlock more than 30% in additional revenue opportunities for new 5G use cases and widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT). With the launch of 5G comes major investments in infrastructure and the potential to dramatically change business models across the telecom ecosystem. Digital Twin Sim has the expertise and tools to answer the most important and challenging questions facing telecom.

DTS TOOLS

Terragraph and Microwave planning

Terragraph allows WISP to offer Gbps data rates with rapid deployment at low cost. But at the same time, it brings in planning challenges inherent in 60GHz very similar to what Verizon & AT&T are facing with their mmWave 5G deployments.

OEM/operators have existing tools in place to model few links at a time with very simplified Line of sight validation based on visual inspection using google earth. These traditional planning approaches developed for sub6GHz planning cannot be used and are not scalable.

Planning mmWave networks brings challenges of working with High resolution GIS data and access to tools to allow them to plan these networks with thousands of links.

We now offer a service to help in planning large scale Terragraph and Point-to-Point Microwave Backhaul networks so that our clients can focus their efforts on building and deploying networks.

Please check out the Video demo of our tools and let us know how we can help you.

LOS & View shed

As part of our consulting practice we have developed tools which can work seamlessly with 6 inch resolution DSM (Digital Surface Model) provided by nearmap.

During our conversations with various WISP and Tier-1 operators we have seen significant interest in our tools.

To meet this requirement, we now offer license to our tools in the form of a Docker Image which can be run on your premises/cloud on you data.

The following article describes the inputs needed and the outputs generated by our tools.

Please contact us to license our tools to run analytics on you own premises / cloud.

Market Dynamics

Understanding your total and addressable market size and identifying the who and where of your target customers underlies key strategic choices, including market entry and exit, investment decisions, and marketing and pricing strategy. We provide robust market models to provide an intelligent view of the total addressable opportunity. We use geodemographics to understand subsets of population distribution for customer targeting, campaign planning, network deployment strategy, and site-location analysis. We provide advice to answer key strategic questions, such as:

• “How to find optimal cell site locations?

• “Who is my target customer?”

• “Where do I find people who are most likely to buy my product or service?”

• “How do I find the best location for my business?”

• “How does pricing affect product or service adoption?

• “How big is the market?”

Network Deployment

The majority of 5G deployments will occur at high frequency bands including 3.5GHz in Sub6GHz frequencies & 25GHz/40GHz bands in mmWave. Today, operators use a disparate set of tools typically siloed between departments that do not provide a holistic view of the design, deployment, and operation of networks.This massive increase in site density cannot be supported with existing site selection methodologies.

Digital Twin Sim enables infrastructure providers and network operators a cohesive and intelligent view of their networks at city scale by combining the power of big data, machine learning, GIS, and RF planning in our proprietary digital twin network model. Whether entering a new geographic market, upgrading an existing network, deploying new spectrum bands, or launching a new technology provides network modeling & site selection to pick sites which meet network, user KPI and network economic targets.

Our platform significantly reduces risk and uncertainty in large scale investments, eliminating the need for truck rolls and drive tests while accelerating the time to market, optimizing network investment, and providing an accurate and holistic view of networks.

Spectrum

Spectrum decisions can have a profound impact on coverage, capacity, user experience, and ultimately network cost. Digital Twin Sim goes beyond spectrum valuation and examines the network performance impact of spectrum decisions as well as the economics. We help MNOs prepare for spectrum auctions, understand the benefits of refarming spectrum, quantify the incremental value of network upgrades, and changes in network architecture. We help operators understand the impact of band & bandwidth decisions on your networks by building detailed digital twins.

Device and Subscriber Profiles

We build subscriber and device profiles taking into account churn and device replacement rate to model the diffusion of technology and network features like carrier aggregation. Forecast demand for voice and data traffic by device and technology to build bottom’s up analyses of network traffic at the busy hour. Assess the impact of subsidies on device adoption and the trade-off between enhanced device features and band support on network capacity.

Network Performance Modeling

We build digital twins of new and existing networks to optimize for coverage. capacity, user experience, and network economics. Digital Twin Sim has ability to model proposed changes in both network architecture and/or device procurement.

Our models help reduce uncertainty that executives with their technology strategy decisions.

CapEx & OpEx

Building new telecommunications networks and services is an extremely expensive business. Upgrading existing networks can be just as costly. They both require huge amounts of capital expenditure and ongoing operations and maintenance expenses. A crucial part of any network design and its associated business case is a sound analysis of the investment.

We provide independent and unbiased business case analyses. Our financial models are driven by rigorous and comprehensive projections of market trends, market share and traffic growth. Our capex estimates are detailed and reflect our in-depth understanding of network infrastructure. Our opex models are based upon more than 10 years of cost analyses performed for the industry’s leading telecom providers.

Business Case Analysis, Investment Decision, & Strategy

Whether launching new network products and services or driving synergies in partnerships, extracting value from core, adjacent or new segments, success hinges on making the correct decisions. We develop detailed financial and operational models to enable data driven decisions and scenario planning to provide strategic direction, and maximize profitability.