AT&T Is Using an Advanced Video Game Feature to Improve Your Phone Coverage
When you think of cellular networks, you probably consider radio tricks and invisible data flows. But AT&T, out of necessity, must see everything else: buildings, trees and the multitude of obstacles that can interfere with wireless signals going to your phone.
The cell supplier turns to key technology for games and computer graphics to obtain a precise image. AT&T Wireless Geo Modeller is a new system that uses tracing of the shelves and AI to generate detailed representations of the areas covered by its network and improve connectivity. In doing so, AT&T says that it can react quickly to service interruptions and better predict how its network can be configured in response to major social events or during natural disasters.
Do not miss any of our impartial technological content and laboratory criticism. Add CNET as a favorite Google source.
How the tracing of the rays works in a cell context
GEO AT&T Modeler uses the tracing of the rays and other data to build a 3D model of the area surrounding a cell tower.
In infographic, tracing of rays is a technique for making scenes three -dimensional. The software simulates the light beams emanating from a virtual camera and calculates how light affects the objects and materials of the scene. The tracing of the rays is remarkable for making shadows and reflections, leading to more realistic environments.
In the past, the tracing of the shelves was difficult to calculate. The first examples, such as the original Toy Story film, required parts filled with treatment equipment and up to 24 hours to make a single sequence frame. The graphics processor in high -end smartphones can now make photorealist scenes and traced by radius in real -time games.
According to Velin Kounev, the main inventive scientist at AT&T Labs, the cellular application of technology works in the same way. “Whatever Nvidia does for games, everything Disney does … We do on a much larger scale,” he said.
In the context of Geo Modeling of AT&T, Kounev explained, the radio propagation of cell towers is a high frequency light that our eyes cannot see. The towers measure how the shelves react to the surrounding environment, such as colliding with structures or thinking about surfaces. These data collected is processed and analyzed by several internal AT&T systems and automatic learning models to determine whether modifications or optimizations must be made, in what AT&T calls “a scaling time”.
These changes may include daily adjustments to the corner of neighboring antennas or compensate for a tower that has been offline during a natural disaster. The changes can be deployed automatically in seconds or minutes, ideally in a way that does not have an impact on customers.
“We don’t want [customers] Note, “said Jennifer Yates, Deputy Vice-President of Inventive Sciences, Network and Automation of Services at AT&T Labs.” The network is self-healing [and] Autonomy behind the scenes so that they don’t have to think about it. “”
The advantage can also be a technical challenge that you would never notice as AT&T abnig. “When you reach Lincoln tunnel traffic at 5 am and you can load your website, that’s where we are entering,” Kounev said. “We optimize network traffic … at peak time, where you can get your connection.”
Predict where to deploy resources
Playing Destiny Rising Video Game on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. The phone supports the tracing of the rays to create lighting, reflections and more realistic shadows, which makes the game more immersive.
Although optimization of the daily network is an advantage of using the GEO Modeller, it is also a tool to determine how and where the company should deploy resources in situations such as weather events. For example, if a prominent tree is blown during a storm, tracing the shelves can quickly build a new representation of the way the towers should compensate.
For major events such as music festivals, where tens of thousands of phones access the network or imminent natural disasters, technology can be used to predict the future changes that are necessary; Kounev said that Geo Modeller had been applied in April to the Coachella festival.
Kounev also explained that if a hurricane arrives, for example, knowing its estimated size and timing, “we can enter and in two minutes [within the model] The towers which, in our opinion, will be affected, then see what the network coverage will look like. “Knowing where to expect holes in the network allows AT&T to position resources, such as generators or mobile cell towers, in place before the hurricane strikes.
Most predictive tools said Kounev is based on existing measurement data. “Because we use the tracing of the rays, we can predict in places where there is no measurement data.”
AT&T has built the geo modeling for a year and has accumulated enough data from different use cases during this period to have confidence in deployment more widely. Yates said that AT & T had made an in -depth validation of data, comparing the models of the modeling person with measurements in the field.
“In the past year,” said Kounev, “we had to convince people that this thing can really work in real time with the many tour stations they have.”
