Q&A With David Lu, VP, D2 Platform & Systems Development, AT&T

By Ed Biller, Editor, RF Globalnet

David Lu, VP of the D2 Platform & Systems Development at AT&T, currently oversees development and engineering of AT&T’s next-gen ECOMP platform and Open ECOMP (ONAP) to enable the AT&T network virtualization (SDN) and target OSS/BSS transformation. 

In June, Lu discussed his company’s perspectives on 5G services — as well as his own — at IMS 2018’s 5G Summit in Philadelphia. Here, he delves a little bit deeper into 5G’s development and future, and discusses his own career.

RF Globalnet — You touched on automation during your presentation at IMS’ 5G Summit this year. Can you elaborate on its current role in the build-up to 5G, as well as how you envision automation advancing to enhance 5G technologies, drive down their cost, or make them more user-friendly?

David Lu —Automation is a very important aspect of 5G advancement. In fact, the last part of my talk covered the various challenges, including wireless network coverage and interference. I used an example of deep learning to automatically detect anomalies. Automation is the foundation on which we build our 5G plan. Given the 5G advancements and improvements enabled in speed, latency, and coverage, automation will be even more critical; not only to drive down cost, but also to achieve speed of deployment that can only be provided by automation.

RFG — The “traditional” career path in this industry usually seems to start with an electrical engineering degree. Your education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (and the talents justifying your acceptance there) likely could have led to a music career; why did you steer toward telecommunications?

DL — I always had broad interests during my pre-college and college years, in the fields of mathematics, science, history, medical science and, of course, music performance. After I came to the U.S., I continued my music performance education in college, but also expanded my fields of study to include math and computer science minors. I do love performing music and to this day; I have kept a strong passion for music, and perform and teach music whenever I find time.

During my final year in college, I seriously considered my career and what I would like to do. My Christian faith leads me to think about serving people and the community more than just a professional career. After much thought and prayer, I decided to pursue my graduate degree in computer science, which set me on my current career path with my first job at AT&T Bell Labs.

RFG — As a follow-up, in reading “A Technological Symphony” on the AT&T Innovation Blog, I was fascinated by the parallels you drew between musical performance and technological development. How has your nontraditional career path helped you to excel in this industry?

DL — I think it has definitely helped me in my career path. First, in the technology field, one must be passionate about your goals and work — the same is true in music. In addition, music requires hard work; there is a common saying in the professional music field, “practice makes perfect.” This idea is also present in the technology field, as we often say, “there is no single silver bullet” (i.e., no shortcut).

In addition, music often requires us to perform in a chamber music group or orchestra, so we need to follow the “single sheet” of music; musicians are trained to be collaborative to produce the most beautiful and harmonious sound. This type of collaboration also leads to trust and transparency. One of the most important aspects of music composition is orchestration, which assigns music to various instruments of an orchestra. This is exactly what a good software architect does in assigning different functions of a software platform to various components and making sure it all works together as a whole. As you may know, one of the most critical components of ECOMP is its MSO – Master Service Orchestrator, which orchestrates service flows via various components. Many of these principles find good practice in the technology field, as well as developing leadership and collaboration skills.

RFG — Also mentioned in “A Technological Symphony” was the 24-hour work/development cycle (in that case, for ECOMP) that a workforce spread around the globe both enables and necessitates. How is this torrid pace of work a boon, and how is it burdensome? Additionally, is this 24/7 work/development cycle essentially a requirement as different providers race to publicly claim “firsts” in 5G?

DL — Today’s technological and economical advancements are truly global in nature. To be successful in our field, one must operate in a global way, from investment, business applications/users, labor resources, and innovation. A workforce spread around the world certainly creates some challenges in language, culture, co-location, and time difference, to name a few. However, it also brings the benefits of a 24/7 work cycle, in addition to lower costs. It also helps create the diversity that represents our global customer base.

 Virtual meeting technology can alleviate the co-location issue helped by our own industry’s global network. The global economy helps to eliminate the language and culture barrier. I do not look at this as a one-size-fits-all solution, but as a carefully designed and integrated work plan. In the past decade, the U.S. has pretty much led 3G and 4G technology deployment. As you are aware, 5G may be the very first mobile technology that will see Europe, Asia, and North America moving forward at a similar pace. The global workforce will benefit in the development and deployment of 5G.

RFG — Regardless of the technologies being developed, nothing will work properly without adequate infrastructure in place. Are the greatest barriers to successful rollouts technological, regulatory, or societal (i.e., people have health concerns or are concerned about the aesthetics of cell sites)?

DL — Technologically, we still need to make progress in standardization and take the lab technologies to field production at a faster pace. Additionally, we need to overcome the balance of speed, latency, and coverage, as well as spectrum interference, etc. We also would like more spectrum made available by the government, so the United States can continue leading in wireless technology.

Many IoT applications dependent upon 5G technologies will drive societal change, such as drones and driverless automobiles. All of these will have profound impact to our social systems and social behaviors. Finally, 5G investments — including network infrastructure investments — need to be backed up by strong business and consumer applications.

RFG — While overall systems needs are well-defined for 5G rollouts, are there specific components whose lack of progress has created bottlenecks in development? What can component makers do to better work/partner with providers?

DL — The fundamental technologies have proven [their] potential in speed, latency, and coverage. The main challenge is to translate lab-proven technologies to large-scale production deployment. The component makers can work together to test the capabilities in field deployment, close the gaps discovered in production, and speed up the ETE ecosystem deployment.