From optical fiber to artificial intelligence. How Orange is building the network of the future

The network is no longer just a data transmission channel, but is becoming the nervous system of the modern world – it analyzes, predicts, detects threats, supports cities, critical infrastructure, companies and a single user. Orange Polska shows that telecommunications is developing in this direction today.

During this year’s Orange TechDay, the company showed technologies that could have been considered fantasy a few years ago, but today are entering the real world. Some of them are already operational, some are in the pilot phase, and others are concepts that prepare the ground for the next decade of network development. This is not about futuristic demonstrations just to create the “wow effect”, but about solutions that respond to the real needs of users and businesses.

Operators are less and less like “internet” companies and more and more like technological organizations building their own competences in the areas of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analysis.

Orange Polska is a special case here because it is the only operator in the country that has its own large research and development unit – Orange Innovation Poland. This is where most of the technologies presented during TechDay are developed.

The laboratory of the future

Today, Orange Innovation Poland has approximately 300 experts and engineers working on technologies related to, among others: with next-generation networks, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and network process automation. This is not just an analytical or testing facility. This is a team that participates in the entire solution development cycle – from research and prototyping, through validation, to implementation in the real Orange infrastructure.

The Polish R&D center is the largest outside France and one of the key centers in the entire international Orange Group. This means that projects developed in Poland do not end at the local testing stage, but very often go further – to other countries and group structures.

Orange Innovation Poland does not operate in a vacuum – constant cooperation with nine key Polish universities and five research institutes allows it to combine academic research with real applications in networks. In parallel, partnerships with global technology brands are developed. Thanks to this, the solutions developed are embedded both in the operator’s practice and in global technological trends.

Startups are also an important part of this ecosystem. As part of the Orange Fab acceleration program, approximately 200 young technology companies are analyzed each year, and the selected ones gain access to the operator’s infrastructure, mentoring and business contacts. This allows you to test and develop solutions faster in conditions similar to the real scale of the network.

As a result, Orange has created an environment where three perspectives meet: scientific research, market needs and the practice of large telecommunications infrastructure. And it’s not about art for art’s sake. Behind these assumptions there are very specific solutions.

A network that can predict

One of the most interesting directions of development today are the so-called digital twins of networks. Although it sounds quite abstract, the idea itself is relatively simple. Orange is developing the Network Digital Twin solution for the RAN radio network – a digital replica of the infrastructure, constantly synchronized with the real network.

A virtual twin allows you to test changes and anticipate problems before they appear in the real infrastructure. Such a model allows you to check how the network will behave, for example, during sudden overload, large mass events or unusual crisis situations.

In practice, this means fewer experiments performed on a “living organism” and greater resistance of the entire system. This is also a direction that is increasingly indicated as one of the foundations of future 6G networks.

In telecommunications, it is becoming increasingly important not only how fast the network is, but also how intelligently it can manage traffic and respond to changing conditions.

Fiber optic as a sensor

The development of technologies that use the existing fiber optic infrastructure for completely new applications also looks interesting. Orange is working on a Fiber Sensing solution based on DAS technology, i.e. Distributed Acoustic Sensing.

To put it simply: optical fiber can not only perform the function of transmitting data, but also act as a huge sensor stretched for dozens of kilometers. The system can detect vibrations, stresses and changes in the environment. This makes it possible to monitor critical infrastructure without the need to build a separate sensor network. The technology can detect, for example, earthworks near cables, vehicle movement, potential terrain disturbances or other events that may pose a threat to the infrastructure. Importantly, Orange is testing the solution on its own fiber optic network, one of the largest in the country.

This is a good example of how thinking about telecommunications infrastructure is changing. Optical fiber is no longer just an “internet cable”. It becomes a source of data and an element of security systems.

Telecommunications = security

The growing importance of infrastructure resilience means that telecommunications operators are starting to play a new role also in the area of ​​security. One of the projects developed by Orange is MILI-GUARD – a modular system integrating data from cameras, IoT sensors, fiber optics and radio networks.

The goal is to build as complete a picture of the situation as possible in real time. The system can support the protection of critical infrastructure, analyze potential threats and help respond faster to incidents. This clearly goes beyond classic telecommunications services, and the operator in practice becomes a supplier of tools supporting the resilience of the state, industry and administration.

The HAVEN project – an IoT device security laboratory – is being developed in a similar direction. It analyzes equipment connected to the Internet for vulnerabilities that may pose a threat to users or the network.

As the number of devices connected to the network rapidly increases, the importance of such solutions will increase. Cybernetic risk today concerns not only computers, but also home cameras, smart home devices and industrial systems. Orange is already working on tools that will help detect these threats faster.

AI really intelligent

Artificial intelligence has become a permanent part of our everyday life. The projects developed by Orange AI include a specific technological layer that is intended to automate repetitive tasks and really make life easier.

One example of a solution that can support company operations is Missed Call Assistant. The system is intended to automatically answer calls, answer basic questions and help make appointments through integration with calendars. For small businesses, unanswered calls often simply mean losing customers.

The Avatar Host assistant was designed similarly, using language models and an advanced graphic and voice interface. It is intended to enable 24/7, multilingual service, and its knowledge base can be updated by employees using voice commands, without involving programmers.

The direction related to Smart City solutions also looks interesting. The Smart Road – Liczbox project shows how existing urban monitoring can be used to create more intelligent traffic management systems. A small device with built-in AI analyzes camera images in real time and classifies traffic into 22 categories – from pedestrians to trucks. The data then goes to the analytical platform, where it can be used by cities to plan infrastructure, improve safety or optimize signaling, without the need to build new monitoring from scratch.

Telekom as a technology company

The operator of the future is increasingly looking like a technology company. Of course, fiber optics and the development of 5G remain the foundation of this business, but a new layer of digital services is being built around the physical infrastructure.

In this context, even the first mobile transmission tests in the 6 GHz band in Poland – carried out in cooperation with Nokia, during which a speed of 3.17 Gb/s was achieved – are not just a single record. It is a demonstration of the possibilities of technology with the needs of the future in mind.

Orange is already preparing for a world in which the demand for data transfer, reliability and intelligent infrastructure management will be many times greater than today. The future of telecommunications today lies as much in transmitters and cables as in advanced algorithms and security systems.