A Digital Twin Model of the Smart City Communication Infrastructure

Introduction

The existing network management models reveal a wide variety of approaches to their construction, but there is no single model that allows network management at all levels - services, transport, and control. This is quite understandable by the difference in the principles of their level operation and management, as a consequence, by the difference in approaches to building models. To create a unified model, it is proposed to rely on the concept of a Digital Twin (DT).

The authors thoughts have found confirmation in two recently emerging concepts: IEM (Intelligent Enterprise Managing System) and Diaspar.

IEM is a concept that involves the evolutionary change of ERP systems for a variety of reasons. The first reason is that the use of disparate separate automation systems does not lead to complete end-to-end automation of the enterprise. This approach only allows you to improve the overall level of automation step by step. This long process most likely, will never lead to a 100% result. When improving individual systems, a bottleneck situation is always possible in one place or another. The attraction and application of the best practices for the automation of one or another part of the enterprise (telecom operator) in isolation will not always give an economic effect. The second reason is that the information space is not common in IT-landscape, and any separate system (for large telecom operator) is responsible for each set of tasks. In this case, there are problems of integration, correct use of data, access to data, etc. The third reason is the absence of a single source of coordinated control action, since each system monitors only its own part of the information space. Such concepts include the approach of the TM Forum organization, which proposed the NGOSS/Frameworx concept as a set of environments and tools for developing Operations Support Systems/Business Support Systems (OSS /BSS) solutions for the automation of Communication Service Providers (CSP). Zongyan (2020) proposed a new concept EIM, which is aimed at eliminating the above-mentioned disadvantages of OSS/BSS approach. The authors of the new approach considered the possibility of creating a unified enterprise management system. The following requirements were put forward for the new system:

• § A common information space of the enterprise;

• § Consistency, reliability, availability of data.

• § Work in real time.

• § Reliability of transaction management.

• § Reliability of the system as a whole.

Then this whole system, unified and complete in the sense of automating business processes, is built on the basis of technologies such as Data Mining, Machine Learning, Block Chain etc.

The authors of the IEM idea identify five basic principles.

• 1.

  Integrity. The integrity (high connectivity) of the IEM System naturally guarantees the reliability of the system data.

• 2.

  Closeloopness. IEM Data Warehouse Systems are a tightly closed container absorbing an information envelope within which an enterprise operates.

• 3.

  Orderliness. Standardization of all business processes introduced into the system circuit. In the correct implementation methodology - all the value chains of the enterprise.

• 4.

  Versatility. The Cybernetics IEM System models an arbitrary enterprise in the abstraction of a node in value chains.

• 5.

  Symmetry. IEM The system implements a symmetric digital model, a one-to-one cybernetic mirroring of the controlled enterprise. From the point of view of the problem we are solving, let us single out the principle of “symmetry”. This principle says that the virtual model of the enterprise should mirror the actual state of the enterprise as accurately as possible. In addition, changes in the virtual part (in the system) must mirror into reality, that is, lead to changes in reality. This property of the IEM system brings us very close to the idea of a digital twin.