Communications industry conclaves around the world are abuzz with excitement about the Next Big Thing: Software Defined Networks. And it really is no wonder: the prospect of near-term reductions in both capital and operating costs and the opportunity to centrally visualize and manage one’s network infrastructure while adroitly launching juicy new offers is, to say the least, pretty exciting. But before we pop open the bubbly, let’s remember this is a journey, not a point-in-time occurrence, making the creation of a well-considered roadmap to that destination the most important action for the present. The utopian view of the SDN-driven infrastructure features centralized network control functions in one virtualized and interconnected software domain. Operator product executives will align services and control activities around market opportunities and propel their offer down a road paved with standardized equipment running at operator speeds and reliability levels. Too good to be true? Proponents say it can and will happen, and standards groups are busily outlining their vision of the future, but critics point to operators’ unique performance and reliability requirements as hurdles yet to be overcome. Still, progress is being made. Network elements previously composed of hardware with control logic embedded in ASICs are now available as a combination of server-resident software running on high-performance standard hardware. Policy, Diameter Signaling Router (DSR), Subscriber Data Management and Online Charging are among those elements enjoying enthusiastic and growing operator acceptance. Simultaneously, discussions around Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are gaining traction as an operator-led initiative to drive control functions to
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During the Management World keynote on May 15th, we got a taste of how an established service provider giant goes beyond its core business to capitalize on new business models. CEO Stephen Shurrock of New Business Ventures, Telefónica Digital, discussed its partnership with Generali, a major global insurance company with whom Telefónica has developed a pay-as-you-drive insurance product. He also discussed partnering with Mozilla to launch a Firefox phone later in the year. This is just another recent example of how operators are exploring new opportunities. Other examples include AT&T saying that new business models will include subsidized data from content providers, potentially supported by advertisements, or news from ESPN that it will consider subsidized models as well. We are seeing more industry examples of content providers and advertisers who are prepared to pay the bills to ensure their customers can view content with a high quality of experience. Of course, Net Neutrality and other regulatory issues will have to be considered, since some of the new business models are prompting criticism from Net Neutrality advocates. Additionally, customer opt-in, privacy and security will also be important factors. Once these issues are addressed, it seems mobile subscribers may be happy that someone else will pick up the tab for their viewing of sports, TV shows, movies or other content. If that becomes the case, there will be considerably more reliance on policy servers, charging systems and Diameter Signaling Routers. Operators would have to track: • Which content providers
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Yesterday, Informa Telecoms and Media reported the volume of OTT messaging traffic is set to be twice that of P2P SMS messaging by the end of the year. Informa also reported that nearly 19 billion chat app messages, from companies like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, were sent every day last year, as compared with 17.6 billion SMS texts. While much of the consequent focus in the media was on whether the “cash cow” of text messaging is dying, the other side of the story is what impact “chatty apps” could have on operator networks. As operators consider the unpredictable or "misbehaving" possibilities for these and other apps, they will want to more intelligently orchestrate and protect the subscriber experience. To protect the data plane and control plane, operators need network, subscriber, device and application awareness. They can no longer rely on congestion-mitigation strategies that force them to design networks for peak usage, leading to underutilization much of the time. The better approach, they will find, will be to extend policy to the mobile device. Then, smartphones, tablets and other devices can become both enforcement points and application functions, thus opening up a world of new use cases that address: • Network congestion management • Application firewalling and security • Application traffic scheduling • Service continuity • Battery life preservation • Chargeable services and mobile payments • Targeted mobile advertising • Customer self care These use cases are detailed in a new white paper, Policy On the Mobile, which describes how operators can move along the continuum from simple cost reduction to more sophisticated use cases for revenue
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There has been more news lately about some high-profile botnets, and the latest was one of the largest ever seen in Internet history, causing Internet slowdowns to hundreds of millions of users. The scale was orders of magnitude larger than anything seen before, affecting the very core Internet routers that make the Internet function. As mobile networks evolve to all-IP networks, these are the very security concerns operators should be focused on. In this latest episode, attackers first targeted Spamhaus, and then the security company hired to break the attack, CloudFlare. A domino-effect ensued for any and all companies and groups associated with either Spamhaus or CloudFlare, peaking with a stream of data as big as 300 billion bits per second, which compromised sites – slowing them down or making them unavailable – for as many as nine days. At the core of the assault was a powerful botnet — a network of thousands of remotely controlled, infected computers that caused a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. That attack is expected to be re-launched in upcoming days, according to Internet chatter, and it is causing security experts like Kaspersky Labs to note that DDOS-type activity is increasing rapidly, and far more malicious than fraudulent service and network security breaches of the past. How Can DSRs and Policy Servers Help Mobile Operators? For mobile operators, the rise in malicious attacks highlights a need to go beyond a socialized approach where one appliance is trusted as a security gateway. It pushes everyone
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The ability to “virtualize” is critical for operators evolving toward ThinkingNetworks™. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) implementations and virtualization of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), as well as systems outside the EPC (e.g., billing), can significantly reduce network costs and help operators become more efficient in matching resources to network and service demands. NFV gives service providers the ability to elastically assign compute and storage resources through a software-only approach. Assigning resources only where needed is important when it comes to Diameter network elements, especially the Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) and Policy Server (PCRF), which have to be “cloud ready” in order to successfully control LTE EPC functions. Virtualization will essentially partition the resources of a hardware platform into unique “virtual machines.” These virtual machines replicate standalone functions currently supported on separate hardware. If more compute resources are needed to support a Diameter function, any available hardware can be chosen and a new instance of the virtual machine created by the hypervisor. The same hardware could also be used to support instances of a policy function at the same time, if enough compute resources exist. It’s that ability to dynamically allocate additional compute and storage resources when needed – using a common pool of hardware – that makes virtualization so important. The move to NFV implementations will mean operators expand virtual functions to support multiple regions, or extend functions to other partners as part of their cloud offerings. For example, MVNOs or multinational operators looking to put their packet core
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Mobile operators will continue to invest heavily in their relationships with customers, as they want to champion their brands as Apple, Samsung and Google have done. They also want to ensure their revenues and profits are not further eroded long term by third-party applications and over-the-top providers. To create positive consumer perceptions about their brands and to deepen their customer relationships, operators know they have to differentiate according to more sharply defined customer wants and behaviors. This means offers and supporting network resources must evolve to dynamically adjust according to how people behave as individuals and in groups. This may include sharing data in real time with advertisers, or optimizing Quality of Service according the needs of an over-the-top application. In short, operators are are becoming “digital-lifestyle providers.” The most critical element of this transition to digital lifestyle provider status is an adaptable, dynamic and flexible network, one that understands the customer in detail and responds to their actions with personalized, informed reactions. In short, operators require ThinkingNetworks™. This is not a ‘rip-and-replace’ proposition; rather, it is a phased evolutionary approach that adds and changes technological resources as the operator’s business changes according to market demand. To evolve today’s mobile networks toward this more effective end state, we see four key overlapping phases, including: • The New Diameter Network (NDN) • Virtualize through the Cloud • Monetize in mobile and social-networking environments • Realize a policy-driven, software-defined ThinkingNetworks™ end state In the first phase, operators tame the ‘signaling storm’ that could compromise their investments in
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Everyone is busily preparing for GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, the theme for which is "The Mobile Horizon". No doubt many operator discussions will focus on what’s next in LTE networks, and there most certainly will be an endless stream of “cloud” announcements. These are exciting developments for the industry that hold great promise for better overall delivery (leading to improved customer satisfaction) at a reduced cost, but there is a cautionary tale in the background: you can’t scale your network through LTE upgrades or ‘cloud’ virtualization alone; your signaling environment has to be equally robust. To understand this better, let’s unpack the market and network dynamics that got us to this point. As consumers rapidly adopt mobile devices and applications as part of their immersion into a digital lifestyle, the demand for bandwidth becomes outsized, leading to traffic chokepoints, even on important traffic. Soon everyone is unhappy. In an effort to remedy this problem, operators have adopted strategies such as WiFi offload and creative offer packaging and pricing. These are good “holding actions,” but are not sufficient in the long term. Operators know this and are deploying LTE network capabilities in the hopes of being able to better serve these same demanding consumers with a more cost-effective (and eventually all-IP) network. Finally, there is a great flurry of data center activity to put everything in a cloud environment for on-demand access to resources. Likewise, software-defined networking (SDN) holds promise as a means to virtualize network
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Signal Research Group carries out a Tekelec-sponsored study to decipher how 3,476 mobile broadband users in five countries use mobile broadband services, what pricing models they prefer, what services they prefer, and what factors influence their mobile broadband purchasing decisions. Smartphones and mobile devices are becoming an extension of who we are – as individuals, as members of groups and of social-media environments. Depending on where “we” live in the world, and what economic and social factors shape our perceptions and drive our decisions, we all have varying affinities for different pricing models and service bundles. In order to bring actionable insight to our mobile-broadband operators across the globe, Tekelec sponsored “Mobile Broadband Pricing and Bundling – The Voice of the Consumer,” a Signals Research Group study of unparalleled scope in quantitative and statistical analyses of both developing and mature markets. The report slices and dices data from 3,476 mobile broadband consumers spanning five countries: Brazil, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States – the result of which is a 65-page report now distilled in a 14-page preview for service providers and analysts. Intricate, in-depth information is conveyed in easily consumed tables, charts and “heat maps” that detail demographic, device and service-experience indicators. This all comes together in composite and regional breakouts so that operators can better match subscriber desires and circumstances with actual service bundles and pricing models, region by region. Some key takeaways from the report include: Usage-Based Pricing and Paying for Specific Applications are the preferred
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