Telefónica has tapped Juniper for a multi-stage project to automate its network with the aim of eventually creating what the pair calls a "self-driving network."

"The goal is to evolve Telefónica's infrastructure into one that can self-analyze, self-discover, self-configure and, ultimately, self-correct," Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) said in a statement Tuesday.

Telefónica will be testing out the Juniper Extension Toolkit (JET) with programming interfaces (APIs) that it make it possible to institute more automation at the network level. It will be using the Junos Telemetry Engine to analyze data and detect the status of the network. Finally, Juniper will deliver to Telefónica artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can use the data to enable the network to "suggest or even take actions appropriate to the demand and its state."

Beyond self-diagnosis and self-correction, and the allocation of network resources, Telefónica and Juniper say they are working on developing a use case that would allow the system to create services based upon specific quality of service agreements.

Telefónica is describing the self-driving network concept as the next phase of its "Fusion" project, which Juniper is already a part of. Neither Juniper or Telefónica have disclosed an expected timeframe for their network automation efforts.(See Telecom Not Big Part of Juniper's Good News, Telefónica Bets on IT Transformation and Telecom Not Big Part of Juniper's Good News.)

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading