Gurobi Optimization
Better Business Decisions with Mathematical Optimization

The telecom industry has been acclimatizing to the shift in market conditions brought on by the emergence of 5G, satellite internet, and many other innovations. Telecom providers need to leverage these technologies to stay ahead of the competition, but many of them are struggling to capitalize on the opportunities. This struggle comes from organizations not being able to make optimal decisions when it comes to the planning, operation, and implementation of these emerging technologies. The need of the hour is simplification and optimization of the decision-making process.

Gurobi, one of the leading providers of prescriptive analytics technology, is assisting the telecom industry in solving their business problems by converting those into mathematical models and using the models with its math program solver to find the best possible outcome. Their flagship solution, the Gurobi Optimizer, allows businesses to deploy these models locally or on a private or public cloud. The solution also facilitates the development of optimization models through its Python API’s high-level model construct and turns them into full-fledged applications.

“The mix of predictive analytics and mathematical optimization enables users to automate decisions and reduce risk, assisting businesses to gain control of their processes,” states Dr. Gregory Glockner, vice president, Gurobi. What makes it versatile is its ability to function as a toolkit that can be used with third-party software packages in two ways: as a decision support system or as an analysis tool. The decision support system can be utilized by telecom providers to create bespoke applications for their unique needs, and the analytics tool can be wielded by analysts to create policy recommendations that would support the investment and roll-out of new technology.

The toolkit offers flexible deployment of mathematical optimization models and performance tuning for determining the right setting to improve model performance. The solution also has state-of-the-art algorithms that help improve the overall efficiency of the optimizer.
Using Gurobi’s solution, major industry leaders, telecom carriers, and government regulatory organizations have been able to gain a holistic view of their process inefficiencies, thereby simplifying the mitigation of their unique challenges.

For instance, the Gurobi Optimizer was used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct the world’s first two-sided “incentive auction” to address the rising demand for cellular services by reclaiming the low-band spectrum from television broadcasters. The difficulty came when the FCC had to figure out the amount of spectrum available for repurposing while determining channel availability for nearly 3,000 stations across the U.S. and Canada and new channel assignments that would be viable substitutes for television broadcasters who would stay on the air after the auction. Using Gurobi Optimizer-powered analysis to create optimization and feasibility models, the FCC was able to rearrange digital TV networks inside the low-band electromagnetic spectrum and provide the rest of the recovered spectrum for mobile broadband use. The auction was able to generate $20 billion in revenue as well as enable wireless carriers to increase mobile broadband coverage and deploy next-generation 5G services. This use case is particularly relevant now because many CSPs will release 5G services in different bands and will need to optimize each of them for the best use, location, and technology.

The firm’s continued development of these tools and solutions helps ensure that it is future-proof. “Our optimizer is a tool of the future that is available today, and we are inviting everybody aboard,” remarks Manuel Rassi, account director of Gurobi Optimization, while discussing the solution’s ability to adapt quickly to problems. Keen on constantly innovating, Gurobi, with its mathematical optimizer, is helping the deployment of 5G and other potential innovations that will come to be in the telecom industry.