Engineers’ Forum had an exciting encounter with one of Nigeria’s foremost tech innovators who was willing to share his immense experience with us in a no holds barred interview. Engr. Godswill Oletu is a Principal Member of Technical Staff – AT&T Labs, Georgia Institute of Technology AT&T, Greater New York City, US
A Cisco Certified Internetwork expert (CCIE #16464) with extensive experience in Enterprise, Financial, ISP & Telecommunication Network Designs & Integration, eBusiness Network Designs and integration. Expert level experience in Telecommunication systems Design, Planning, Integration of 2G, 3G, 4G/UMTS, UTRAN, E-UTRAN & LTE packet & switched networks across NodeB, eNodeB, RNC, BSC, SGSN, MSC, LCP, uMGW, pMGW, MME, SGW, PGW, GGSN, LMRS, HSS/HLR, PCEF, SIP-I, VoLTE, Femtocell, Metro cell, etc It is an incisive, informative and educative interview as he treats current issues in the sector.
You studied electrical/computer engineering in Nigeria, on graduation worked with MTech in Lagos, which you led in several innovations before leaving Nigeria for the United States. Can you share what the experience was especially as an early participant in the tech arena?
My experiences in the Nigeria Tech arena were a huge contributing factor to my career successes today in the Information Technology field. The MTech Communications job was unique in that, after the interview with Mr. Chika Nwobi, the MD then; I made up my mind not to accept the position. The position was not squarely in my comfort zone of ISP, Internet, networking, etc. That was in 2001, when GSM just debut in Nigeria; the job gave me the responsibility of leading a group of Engineers to develop the first mobile/GSM and wireless value-added services in Nigeria.
The goal also includes the development of a web-portal backend that will be an intermediary between the internet and phone devices. The web portal’s function will be to intercept, interpret and then render web traffics in the format that will be understood by phone devices, before passing them on to the phone. The job was especially complicated because I just got my first GSM phone and it was not parsing internet traffic correctly. However, the MD believed in me and said I can do it and that he will give me all the supports that I will need. This was in the days before mobile device software was equipped with the ability to understand HTML and other native internet protocols and languages. I also entered into a deal with the MD that, if we can pull this off, he will be turning over the ownership of his GSM phone to me, which he agreed to and that became one of my motivations.
After months of developments, network integrations, configurations and collaboration with MTN at their New Data Center, which was still under construction in Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos Nigeria; the team was able to deliver and actualize the dream and I got my prized Nokia GSM phone, which was my first mobile device.
Going through your profile, your level of certifications is threatening and impressive with hundreds of certifications in your knitting. Is that what is required as a Principal Staff of a major telecom company in the US?
They are not threatening and though all of them are not listed, they are not up to a hundred. I am part of the AT&T Labs; it is mainly the Research and Development (R&D) arm of AT&T corporation.
AT&T Labs history can be traced to the original AT&T Bell Labs and its primary function is to carry out R&D into next-generation technologies and standards, then adapt them for onboarding into either AT&T corporation or released to the public as open-source. One such big releases is ONAP (Open Network Automation Platform). ONAP is a collaboration between AT&T’s OpenECOMP (a version of AT&T’s internal ECOMP platform) and Open-Orchestrator, which was a project under Linux Foundation with China Mobile, Huawei and ZTE. ONAP is open source and accelerates 5G network deployments. It’s a vendor-agnostic approach to 5G VNF orchestration and automation makes it easy to adoption by any telecom operator today.
There are many other projects in the pipeline and in R&D that are looking ahead of 5G with a huge impact on the telecom landscape in the near future. However, one does not need these certifications to be a Principal member of AT&T Labs, but you do have to love the technology and should have a lot of curiosity, with a flair for Research & Development.
Though certifications sometimes assist in opening doors because they are validation from a third party on your expertise, especially the certifications that require hands-on practical with live equipment intending to solve a particular set of problems, however, your experience, ability to innovate, resilience and curiosity are the most important skillset needed in an environment such as AT&T Labs or any R&D environment.
Let’s talk about 5G technology which of recent generated some discourse and in some quarters fears on its effects on human health. From your experience as an expert telecom network engineer is 5G dangerous to human health?
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has determined based on their studies that, there is no evidence that 5G networks pose any health risk to humans. Many other international standards organizations have also come to the same conclusion.
One of the sources of these fears is that 5G will deploy many telecommunication antennas close to each other and close to people, compare to current technologies. We should note that the reason for these antennas to be close to each other is because the higher frequencies utilized in 5G, emit reduced power compared to current technologies and as such cannot travel very far. Which means these antennas will be transmitting lesser power compare to 3G/4G towers.
Therefore, 5G radio waves are worse at penetrating objects compare to 3G/4G radio waves and are incapable of damaging our body DNA directly or heat our body tissues. More importantly, 5G radio waves are part of the non-ionizing radio frequencies and their frequency spectrum is lower than those seen in infrared on our remote controls, Televisions, and visible light that we encounter every day.
Is today’s telecom networks immune to cyber-attacks and what are the security tools deployed to prevent such given the frequency of attacks in other utilities?
All network entities including telecom networks are not immune to cyber-attacks. However, Telecom networks are better protected, because they are by nature primarily private networks on the access end with multiple interconnections through gateways to either the internet or to other private entities or other telecom providers.
In addition to the above advantage, many telecom providers have started deploying networks with day zero protections, many of which rely on artificial intelligence and the knowledge of natural human behaviours to protect their network. These techniques are constantly been retooled to keep up with the advance in cyber-attacks.
However, the greatest weakness remains Social Engineering efforts by cyber attackers and disgruntled employees. Artificial Intelligence is also been deployed to reduce this risk, by modelling a baseline that reflects the normal interactions of each employee with the network and then triggers an alert if a particular network interaction is not in sync with a prior established baseline or signature.
How objective are the insinuations that some OEM products portend security risk to some national networks?
This is a real and present danger. The controversy that comes to mind on this subject is the one about Huawei in the fight between the USA and China. The USA Government is right to be suspicious of Huawei and her OEM product lines because in 2015; China enacted a National Security Law that states in part that…”That citizens and enterprises have the responsibility and obligation to maintain national security…” and in 2017; there is a follow-up National Intelligence Law enacted by China that states in part that, “..Chinese companies must support, assist and cooperate with the China’s intelligence-gathering authorities”.
To their credit, the Chinese Government and Huawei have been vocal that, the company cannot be forced to spy on other Nations. However, the question remains, why enact these broad National laws, if they will not be used? More so, these laws have not been tested to ascertain if the powers of the Government are as broad as enacted or if there are any limits. Therefore, until a competent Court in China rules to determine the limits of the Government, as it regards to these laws, it is proper to be suspicious; especially when China is known to spy on her citizen and there are histories of multiple espionage allegations between the USA and China.
It can be argued however that, many countries including the United States of America may have similar laws in their books that ask companies in their domain to cooperate with National Security efforts. However, in the case of the United States of America, the courts are accessible, open and do not toll the line of the government and there are also strong personal privacy laws in the United States of America against government warrantless surveillance and abundance of case-laws where courts have ruled against the USA Government on spying against citizens, but this might not the case with China.
Back home in Nigeria, there’s an emerging conflict between computer engineers and scientists on the issue of licensing. Computer Scientists through the Computer Professionals (Registration) Council, CPN is mandated to regulate computer professionals. But computer engineers feel the regulation of engineering and practice is the responsibility of the Council for the Regulations of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN. What is your view on this?
This conflict is understandable and could be traced to the increasing advancement in Computer Science and Computer Engineering that in turn makes the difference between both more blurring.
Fundamentally; Computer Engineering focuses on solving problems, building and design systems, hardware, software interfaces, etc. Whereas, Computer Science focuses on computer programming, cybersecurity, cryptography, building and managing Networks, maintaining computer software, etc.; using existing designs, hardware, designs, and interfaces.
With the above distinction, if a company or an individual is involved in building Computer systems, repair computer systems, creating new designs, interfaces, standards, etc. these are purely Engineering functions, and should come under COREN. However, if their work functions involve computer programming, maintaining existing computer software, operating systems, writing codes, building networks, etc.; these are Computer Science activities and should come under CPN.
Finally, when these regulatory laws were created; these two fields were very distinct and differentiable. However, with the advance in technology, these differences are diminishing, therefore the Legislators should also adapt to these changing dynamics. Legislators should therefore response with updated regulations and laws that are more in sync with the current environment and that will not only bridge this gap but would not serve as a roadblock to entrepreneurship and hindrance to new startups.
Let’s look at the issue of cyber threat, recently Twitter accounts of some prominent persons in the US were compromised. How can the issue of cyber-attacks be contained globally?
I would not necessarily attribute the recent security issue that Twitter experienced as a Cyber-attack. Based on the information coming from Twitter and the Cyber actors, they did not necessarily attack Twitter’s network to gain access, rather insiders at Twitter gave them access to Twitter control panel, through which they were able to change passwords and email addresses of the targeted accounts. Thereby gaining control of these accounts and were then able to send out their twits soliciting for bitcoins.
This goes a long way to show that, the degree of the security of your network depends on the strength of your weakest link and many businesses in their zeal to budget and spend heavily on Cyber Security tools and software have forgotten that, their employees are also part of the link in protecting their network.
Companies and entities should also think inward when planning or spending on network security. They should also protect the network against security threats from insiders, employees, and vendors that have access to even a small portion of the network.
Nigeria is rated along with South Africa as the foremost tech hub destinations in Africa, given the fact that you were one of the early players, what is the future of tech innovation in Nigeria and how can the nation stem brain drain in the sector.
Nigeria has the technical know-how, there are many young talented, and innovative information technology minds in Nigeria today.
These young talents need an enabling environment and this can only be provided by the government. The government should focus on making internet access ubiquitous and permanently solve the issue with the poor electricity generation and distribution. Nigeria laws should also be friendly and stable to encourage foreign investment.
Many foreign investors took loans from foreign banks to invest in Nigeria; a situation where they cannot take back part of their profit to refinance or repay these loans in their foreign countries will discourage many from investing. The Nigeria government can fight money laundering and at the same time allow these types of cash flows by tracing and monitoring these foreign transactions.
Internet access is still very expensive in Nigeria today and it is not widely distributed and accessible. Gone are the days, when you have to rely on what you know to be successful. Your knowledge of where to access information and abilities to quickly access that information is key to success. Apple-Fi promises to make high-speed internet access ubiquitous through communication satellites.
Electricity will also help in powering the next technology revolution in Nigeria. Constant and stable electricity supply ensures continual access to information and interconnectivity to devices and people for collaborative work. Many foreign Information Technology companies are willing to enter into the Nigerian space and invest more in part because labour is still inexpensive in Nigeria, but for the lack of enabling infrastructures. Investors love stability, especially in enabling laws and the government’s steadfastness in playing by these laws themselves.
Sometimes our youths are not doing us proud especially those engaged in cybercrime. Is there anything that the government can do to redirect this enormous energy and potential to positive gains?
The truth is, the issue of cybercrime and fraud is not only limited to Nigeria. Agreed, the Government should play her part in enforcing existing cybercrime laws in the Country and prosecute those found at fault, but it should also be noted that this is a global problem and not peculiar to Nigeria.
In the case of Nigeria, it appears to be in part as a result of the fallout from the escalating joblessness and economic hardship in the country. The government can do more by enabling the public and private sectors to create more jobs. Improvement to communication, transportation, and internet infrastructure can also empower entrepreneurship in the country and take many out of unemployment and fraud.
Agriculture can be made attractive to youths by encouraging small scale businesses around agricultural derivative products. This way youths that find agriculture unattractive can engage in business startups that utilize agricultural derivatives and produces to package finished agricultural goods and services.
Can you foresee the future of technology in the next 30 years and what would be your advice to policy planners?
It is very difficult to determine with a great degree of certainty what the technological landscape will be in the next five years, so thirty years is an eternity with a lot of unknowns.
However, we know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) with big data will play a huge role in technology in the years ahead. Therefore, Policymakers have to be flexible and accommodating and it is okay to invalidate old policies and laws that are no longer in line with reality and formulate new ones in their place.
There should also be a focus on policies and programs that will prepare the citizens for these changes, because the adverse effect of AI and big data is that, more jobs will be lost to intelligent machines and algorithms, the big question becomes; what happens to the workers? We saw the industrial revolution, then the Technology revolution, now it appears that this revolution will be the combination of Industry and Technology to power us into a new workforce age.
