INTERVIEW

Kento Hayata, who joined KDDI and was in charge of 5G base station planning, demonstration testing, and international standardization, will continue to work on standardization and planning after being assigned to xGN in April 2023, while taking on the challenge of establishing a “Std-Dev-Ops” cycle to incorporate standardized specifications into development and operation.

Participating in international standardization while also gaining on-the-job experience.

At KDDI, I was in charge of planning work such as 5G base station planning, demonstration tests, and standardization activities. Around my third year at KDDI, I began to think, “If I can understand the real technical issues and difficulties in development and operation, I will be able to plan more closely with the development side. To achieve this, I wanted to gain on-site experience in development and operation. When I expressed this desire during the career interview, I was assigned to xGN as the person in charge of planning and development for further deployment of virtualized base stations.

Currently, I am in charge of two responsibilities at xGN.
The first is the planning and development of virtualized base stations. In the area of virtualized base stations, in which virtualized software is installed on a general-purpose server to realize base station functions, I am involved in the entire process from planning to development work, including product selection and network design.

Second, we work for a standardization organization called O-RAN ALLIANCE, which has the objective of formulating an international standard that will become a global standard. This organization promotes the virtualization and openness of base stations, and I work directly with operators and vendor experts around the world to identify future technology trends and propose specifications that are lacking in the current standards.

Through these two tasks, I have experienced processes from the very upstream of global standardization activities to the actual on-site planning, development, and operation, and have not only truly understood the real issues faced by the field, but also broadened my expertise and perspective.

An environment where outstanding technical skills can be acquired.

There are many people around me who are taking on the challenge of entering a new field with no experience, just as I did when I first jumped into development work with absolutely no experience at all.
Because xGN is a company working on the advanced technology, there are not many areas that are known to us. For example, many people have experienced development work before, but “virtualized base stations are new” to most of them. Each of us is taking on new challenges while utilizing the skills and expertise we have developed to date.

xGN’s mission is to provide “outstanding technical capabilities,” and we have established an environment that encourages us to enhance the skills and expertise.

In addition, there are experts nearby who are familiar with various technical areas such as networks and infrastructure, in addition to base stations, so it is easy to consult with them and learn from them.
In the unit I belong, we have weekly study sessions where each member shares his or her knowledge and expertise, and I sometimes learn about network design in general from someone from CTC (ITOCHU Techno-Solutions), and I explain the O-RAN ALLIANCE standardization trend to the unit members. I believe that we draw on each other’s perspectives and skills, leading to the growth of all of us.

Also, because of the compact size of the company, the decision-making process is short and the speed of decision-making is quick. Compared to before I was assigned to this company, I spend less time on administrative tasks such as coordinating between departments and preparing for approvals, and I have more time to concentrate on technical considerations, which is what I should be focusing on.

I believe that the openness and speedy project management that comes from the small organization is also a major strength in enhancing our technical capabilities.

Experiencing the upstream and the field through the ” hybrid” of two companies.

At large companies, it was difficult to be involved in the entire process of planning, development, and operation. I believe it is a very valuable experience to be able to participate in the international standardization that is being worked on mainly by large global companies, while also being able to do this in the field.
I think this is possible because we are in an environment where we are able to “get the best of both worlds”-KDDI as a large corporation and xGN as a start-up company.

In the future, we would like to realize a “Std-Dev-Ops” cycle, in which we first standardize technologies that will be needed in the future (Std), reflect the standardized contents and global technology trends in development (Dev), and then reflect the feedback we get while operating (Ops) in standardization again.
Integrating standardized content into the DevOps cycle is not an easy process in a large organization where the planning, development, and operations departments are subdivided into their own divisions.
However, this can be achieved with xGN, which is a compact organization that can handle everything from planning to development to operation.

I’m sure that xGN will be able to implement an appropriate “Std-Dev-Ops” cycle by conducting not only planning work on the desk, but also actual field development and operations in a seamless process. I believe that this will further expand the solutions that xGN can provide.