By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Switzerland’s ADB has launched its new ‘PRISME’ broadband services management platform that now includes a vast array of AI-based features to drive ISP OPEX down and subscriber QoE up. Unique to the platform is that it supports ISP services for the home as well as for enterprises and that it is CPE hardware agnostic. And of course Wi-Fi QoE optimisation is a business-critical component of the new solution, ADB says.
One of the hardest problems for ISPs to crack is working with a varied installed base of CPEs – and (believe it or not) some operators are not even entirely aware what CPEs are running on their network. ADB’s new PRISME platform offers the remedy: Automatically ‘discovering’ all CPEs and devices connected to each CPE. This is part of PRISME’s long list of features designed to support the management of both legacy and new CPE hardware, the company says.
A further unique feature of PRISME is that the platform supports not only home broadband services but also SMB and even large enterprise deployments. Included in ADB’s current client list are several home broadband CSPs also delivering high-quality managed Wi-Fi for enterprises, which is typically a smaller but important higher-margin source of revenue, the company says.
“The purpose of PRISME is to reduce the reliance on customer support call center staff for troubleshooting issues. Meanwhile the first step is to make sure all hardware types can be managed effectively by the ISP to deliver the quality connectivity services that subscribers want. We’re already managing more than two million CPEs consisting of nearly a dozen brands and many more models, and now we’re making this knowledge base available to everyone via PRISME. No dedicated middleware or software agent is required,” says Philippe Lambinet, CMO at ADB.
PRISME manages gateways, Wi-Fi mesh, and set top boxes either through its own UI (and associated self-service app) or as integrated via APIs into the operator’s own tools, including CRM systems and existing mobile apps, ADB says. Ultimately the AI-based system resolves critical QoE issues such as slow and unreliable Wi-Fi, which otherwise could lead to ballooning support costs including truck rolls and needless CPE equipment swaps.
“One of the costliest issues to avoid for CSPs is the ‘NFF’ or ‘No Fault Found’ situation – where CPEs are swapped because of some issue, but where no fault can be found in the old CPE, meaning the hardware turned out not to be the problem. The customer support staff now has all the most advanced and effective test and management tools to remedy such issues remotely and avoid ‘NFF’,” he says.
Another common and costly quality issue is when the Wi-Fi is not good enough to deliver high-quality video, which is why PRISME includes a speed test scheduler featuring a dedicated server and connectivity quality measurement of selected content including both video and browsing, Philippe Lambinet says.
PRISME quantifies Wi-Fi quality with a ‘Wi-Fi Health Score’ metric representing the Wi-Fi QoE. A ‘Wi-Fi self-healing’ Cloud-based algorithm then adjusts network parameters to drive up quality and deliver the best score, ADB says. Add to this a self-management module for subscribers to resolve connectivity issues without needing to contact customer care, and finally an ‘AI Manager’ for network-wide analysis with a human-language interface assistant.
PRISME’s main functions are available at launch while some value-added modules such as the ‘Wi-Fi self-healing’ and ‘AI Manager’ will be released during 2025, ADB says. The company is already involved in several proof-of-concept projects with prospective new PRISME clients, Philippe Lambinet says.
/Claus.
