DPIBench - A Benchmark for Measuring DPI Product Throughput

 

EEMBC, Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, announced "its intent to create a standardized, industry-endorsed method to evaluate the performance of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) solutions".

 

See "EEMBC® Undertakes Design of Industry-Standard Network Security Performance Benchmarks" - here.

"In addition to creating the benchmarks that capture the performance of a system providing DPI, EEMBC will standardize the setup and certification methodology, as well as the standardized run and reporting rules."

“Most DPI product vendors use proprietary methods for measuring and specifying their products’ performance, which makes it very challenging for their customers to do an accurate competitive analysis,” said EEMBC president Markus Levy. “In the customer’s interest, we are encouraging all relevant companies, including the system manufacturers, network processor vendors, and networking and security application developers, to join us in this effort to ensure a meaningful and fair representation.”


While this effort targets security applications of DPI, I believe it may be relevant for traffic management applications as well.

Related posts:

• DPI Announcements - NetLogic 40Gbps Layer 7 Processing Solution  - here
• DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX  - here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tekelec CTO: "Mobile Operators is a Better Business than OTT Services" - Is it?

    
Vince Lesch, Tekelec's CTO (which carries the former Camiant Policy Management offering) explains in a short video (see below) why mobile carriers are and will be doing better than Over-the-Top content providers.

His main arguments are:

• OTT players are totally dependent on mobile operators
   
• The customers are willing to pay for the mobility value much more than they pay for content. Mobile operators are generating $40-50 a month from each customer while an OTT provider generates a quarter of a penny (if I heard right)

I believe that Vince should have also considered the following:

• An OTT provider targets the national or global population, and is not limited to a single carrier's customer base
   
• A mobile operator has to maintain a very expensive infrastructure (see - "AT&T will invest $19B this Year to Upgrade the Network" - here) to provide the mobility - significantly less than the cost of providing content to a much bigger audience.
  
  As a result, mobile operators are facing the challenge of increased costs vs. decreasing revenues ("scissor effect") - only Value Added Services may improve this.
  
  Can the operators provide enough valuable content without cooperating with OTT players?

And as far as Tekelec is concerned - wont they see more business if they encourage the OTT-Mobile operators cooperation? (see "Net Neutrality - AT&T Endorses Amazon's Win-Win-Win Proposal" - here)

Sprint CEO: "we have no plans go to tiered data pricing"

 
  

Unlike what we have seen recently from several mobile operators (Verizon, AT&T, O2 UK) Sprint sees the value in simplicity.

During the Q2 earning call yesterday, Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, said in a response to a question from Simon Flannery (Morgan Stanley):

"With respect to tiering, right now, we have no plans go to tiered data pricing. That doesn’t mean we won’t. We will continue to monitor the situation, but so much of our brand, what we’re showing is, customers will pay a premium of simplicity. Our bundle plans and our simple plans are helping us in churn, are helping our brand, so we won’t take the decision lightly to move away from our current structure to something as you’re discussing around tiering. So I’m not excluding it as a future possibility, but we currently have no plans to do that and see no need currently to move in that direction "

See "Sprint Nextel Corporation Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript" by Seeking Alpha, here.

 

Bytemobile Sees Optimization as Must Also for Next Generation Networks

    

Publishing traffic statistics reports and forecasting the future of networks in a way that will fit the vendor's offering is a common marketing exercise done by most traffic management vendors. The most recent report comes from Bytemobile, a vendor of mobile optimization solutions.

It joins Allot's MobileTrends (here), Cisco's VNI (here) and Sandvine's "Mobile Internet Phenomena" (here).

Bytemobile's report concentrates, naturally, on mobile video - the most attractive aspect of its traffic optimization solutions. See the press release "Bytemobile Releases Global Metrics Report on Mobile Video" - here. The report itself is available for downloading after registration - below are some of the findings.

QoS issues for real-time applications such as streaming video may be resolved in a number of ways - such as DPI based traffic prioritization as well as data (video) optimization. The latter has a major drawback (depending on the device used for viewing the video - see video below on ByteMobile's Lossy Media Optimization) – it reduces the user's quality of experience and requires larger Capex investments from carriers implementing it in a large network.

However, Bytemobile does not miss any opportunity to push optimization as the only possible solution and even concludes that "Stalling occurs on the fastest of networks, underscoring the probability that not even next-generation network technology will be sufficient to satisfy user demand for data services."

Nevertheless, Joel Brand, vice president of Product Management at Bytemobile does mention another way:

“As data traffic continues to increase, not only will the user experience deteriorate, but operators will have to implement stringent billing policies to curtail data usage. Bytemobile’s field-proven optimization solutions enable operators to remain competitive by serving more users and traffic within their existing infrastructure, offering a better user experience to reduce churn and requiring fewer policies to control traffic.”

See also - BE (UK): World Cup Without Buffering - here and Airtel Offers "Cricket without Buffering" on YouTube - here.

Some of Bytemobile's findings are:

• Mobile video usage is the single largest factor in reduced bandwidth availability and network congestion
   
• Mobile users opt for lower-quality videos to avoid stalling and enjoy a better media experience (see chart below)
   
• Stalling occurs on even the fastest of networks and a quality user experience requires optimization of video content
   
• On average, 60 seconds of video watched on a 3G network included approximately 10 seconds of stalling, optimization reduced stalling to nearly zero
   
• YouTube accounts for 36% of the total video traffic on wireless networks worldwide, and 4 of the top 10 video domains are adult content-specific sites generating nearly 15% of the total video traffic on wireless networks

Source: ByteMobile

DPI Market/ M&A Rumors: Sandvine, Bridgewater, Redknee on the TEM Radar

 
  

A nice number of the DPI and Policy Management companies are Canadian. M Partners, an independent full service investment bank HQ in Toronto, estimates that some of them are on the M&A radar of biggest telecom equipment vendors.

See Reuters report - "DEALTALK-Tech giants set sights on Canadian mobile software cos" - here.

""Bridgewater, Sandvine and Redknee may be attractive acquisition candidates for network equipment vendors interested in upgrading their capabilities and for enterprise software vendors looking to extend their reach into the mobile broadband vertical," analyst Ron Shuttleworth of M Partners said"

"Bridgewater, which manages mobile data and congestion, could be on the radar of Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA), IBM (IBM.N) and Ericsson (ERICb.ST), while Sandvine could be targeted by Nokia Siemens [NSN.UL], Ericsson and Cisco (CSCO.O). Asian companies like Huawei Technologies Co [HWT.UL] could also be among the potential bidders .. Analysts expect Sandvine and Redknee to get offers that are more than double their current share price .. Redknee, which has mobile billing and charging solutions, could be wooed by Amdocs, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and SAP AG (SAPG.DE)."

"For the network gearmakers, it could take four to five years to build what Bridgewater and Sandvine are doing," M Partners' Shuttleworth said.

Related post:  "Cisco Needs a Policy Server - Is it going to be Bridgewater, Openet or Someone Else? - here

Validas: Usage per User Increased from 96.8 MB to 145.8 MB

   

Validas posted to its Blog a preview for a comprehensive study on wireless data consumption it is going to publish on September 1st.

See "Verizon Wireless Smartphones Consume More Data than iPhones" - here.

Study Highlights Include:


• Growth in data users from 42% to 53% of total subscribers between 2009 and 2010

• Increase in mean MB usage per user from 96.8 MB to 145.8 MB

• New Smartphones, excluding iPhone and Blackberry, drove the greatest increases in usage, with an increased mean consumption per user from 139 MBs to 415 MBs, and 87% of subscribers with usage to 94% of subscribers

• Mean data consumption among aircard users grows 8% from 1,373.3MBs to 1,485.2MBs

• Increase in data users among feature phones from 27.3% to 36.7% with an increase in mean data consumption from 46.1 MBs to 67.9 MBs

• Verizon Wireless posts the largest percentage increase in mean data usage per user from 48.2MB to 147.2 MB; increase from 33.4% to 42.9% lines with data usage

• T-Mobile second largest percentage increase in mean data usage per user, from 44.6 MB to 120.6 MB, but virtually no growth in overall percentage of lines with data usage

• Sprint increased from 36.9% of lines with data usage to 49.9%, but mean usage per user decreased from 166.5 MB to 133.4 MB due to increase in % of users consuming 50MBs or less per month

• AT&T continues to lead with 71.2% of users with data usage, up from 58.4%, with increase in mean usage per user from 111.9 MB to 149.6 MB

• VZW posted largest increase in aircard/laptop card mean usage per user, from 1.25 GB to 1.6 GB

Related posts:  

• AT&T CTO:"AT&T recently faced a shortage of the components needed to improve its network" - here
   
• Yankee Group: 4G Video is a Killer App, but might be a Network Killer  - here

Net Neutrality - AT&T Endorses Amazon's Win-Win-Win Proposal

  

Paul Misener, VP for global public policy at Amazon.com, published a guest column at Cnet "Politics and Law" section, proposing a way to terminate the Net Neutrality debate.

See "A potential Net neutrality win-win-win" - here. 

Paul says that the problem is with applications and services that are performance sensitive, such as streaming video (i.e. Amazon interest) and VoIP, and suffer from the physical distance between the content provider and user (due to the number of nodes they have to go through). 

In order to solve the distance problem, content providers can, today "moving [the servers], leasing private lines, and edge caching [e.g. use CDN]".

Paul suggest to add another option - "Internet content providers (and consumers) should be able to purchase "quality of service" or "managed services" from network operators on the same basis--equal availability and no harm to other content". In addition he suggests that when capacity is increased "newly available capacity were dedicated to particular content".

Jim Cicconi, AT&T's Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs, quickly posted a supporting message into AT&T's Public Policy Blog - saying "I was particularly pleased to read Paul’s clear recognition that certain quality-of-service (QoS)/network management practices by ISPs are not only necessary but in the best interest of consumers. I couldn’t agree more."

See "The Not So Elusive Middle" - here.

I believe that this is a good compromise which addresses the existing guidelines of Net Neutrality, as long as it is appropriately disclosed to the subscribers. Of course, it gives some advantage to the bigger content provider who may pay the required amounts.

Nevertheless, proving that "no-harm to other content" policy is kept will be extremely difficult as well as deciding what portion of the bandwidth capacity is "basic" (which also has to grow over time) and what is the "newly available capacity" which is subsidized by the content providers/customers paying the extra.

Related posts:

• AT&T CTO:"AT&T recently faced a shortage of the components needed to improve its network" - here
   
• Charging for higher & tiered QoS is the Most Important Potential Strategy - here
   
• Skype: Operators' Tiered Services will Replace Our 3G Surcharge Plans - here

Ofcom – The Difference between Theoretical and Real Life Broadband Speeds

  

On February Ofcom asked the public to help it test the actual broadband speeds so it may be compared to the ISP "up-to" claims (see "Ofcom (UK):Help Us Test Broadband Speed Claims" - here).

Now we get the outcome (updated to May 2010) - See "Research shows increase in average broadband speeds" - here - and the full report - "UK broadband speeds, May 2010" - here.

Some interesting conclusions (the research was done in partnership with SamKnows, who is also supporting the FCC in a similar test - here):

• UK’s average actual fixed-line residential broadband speed has increased by over 25% over the past year.
    
• The move to faster headline speeds has led to a growing gap between the actual speeds delivered and the speeds that some ISPs use to advertise their service
   
• In April 2009, average actual (or download) speeds were 4.1Mbit/s, 58% of average advertised ‘up to’ speeds (7.1Mbit/s). In May 2010, average download speeds were 5.2Mbit/s, 45% of average advertised ‘up to’ speeds (11.5Mbit/s).
   
• The research found that cable broadband services delivered significantly faster actual (or download) speeds than comparable services provided via a telephone line

Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive said:

‘. Actual speeds are often much lower than many of the advertised speeds which makes it essential that consumers are given information which is as accurate as possible at the point of sale; this is what the new Code is designed to deliver.’

Intriguing [DPI] Triangle - Tekelec, Genband, Procera

  

A small detail in Procera's reporting to the SEC (here) in connection with the appointment of Genband's President and CEO, Charles D. Vogt to its board of directors caught my attention this morning. The address for Mr. Vogt shows as Tekelec's address in Calabasas, CA. This probably has historical roots - since his days in public Tekelec (up to 2004) - after which he left to privately held Genband.

However, this made me thinking about the recent M&A activities in the Traffic management space- DPI and policy management, associated with these 3 companies:

• Vogt was President and CEO of Taqua, which was acquired by Tekelec in March 2004.  Before joining Taqua, Vogt held executive leadership positions at Santera Systems which was acquired by Tekelec in 2005
   
• 3 years ago, Genband acquired from Tekelec both companies (Santera Systems and Taqua - see "Tekelec and GENBAND Sign Agreement for Sale of Tekelec's Switching Solutions Group" - here).
  
  "Charles D. Vogt, President and CEO of GENBAND said “The combination of the two companies creates an enviable gateway and applications product portfolio and enables GENBAND to strengthen our relationship with our existing customers and business partners.”
   
• Earlier this year, Tekelec acquired Camiant, a leading Policy Management vendor, commonly deployed with DPI devices (see "Tekelec CTO on DPI Plans" - here)
   
• Last week, Genband signed an OEM agreement with Procera (see "DPI Market: GENBAND OEMs Procera" - here)

So - is all this part of a grand plan from Genband to build with ultimate IP gateway possibly with some involvement of Tekelec?

DPI Deployment (15) : TalkTalk Uses Huawei to Detect Malware (or Parental Control?)

Chris Williams from The Register describes how TalkTalk (UK) is implementing a DPI system from Huawei to detect security threats from web sites accessed by its subscribers.

See "TalkTalk turns StalkStalk to build malware blocker" - here.

"The new system is provided by Chinese vendor Huawei, and customers can't opt out of the data collection exercise. As they browse the web, URLs are recorded and checked against a blacklist of sites known to carry malware. They are also compared to a whitelist of sites that have been scanned for threats and approved in the last 24 hours. If a URL appears on neither list, Huawei servers follow the user to the page and scan the code. ... A spokeswoman for the firm told The Register "Our scanning engines receive no knowledge about which users visited what sites (e.g. telephone number, account number, IP address), nor do they store any data for us to cross-reference this back to our customers"

"When the blocking features and parental controls of the system are activated, customers will be asked if they want to opt in at no extra cost, TalkTalk representatives said. The service will launch in the second half of this year once testing is complete, the spokeswoman added"

(picture: Clive Dorsman (right), Managing Director, TalkTalk Technology and Athena Wang, General Manager of Fixed Line, Huawei UK)

Value-Added Services, such as paternal control or malware detection could be also a monetization opportunity for ISPs - see "Cisco: "New Capabilities, New Business Models, New Revenues" - here.

Note that Talktalk demerged from Carphone Warehouse in March 2010 (here). Carphone Warehouse is an old customer of Sandvine (here), which could potentially offer the above solution.

Related posts:

• Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality  - here
• DPI Solution: KindSight's Security VAS - here 

Why Do Mobile Carriers Need Device Awareness?

  

Procera's VP of Product Management, Cam Cullen, posted a good review on device awareness - the needs, benefits and means to detect the subscriber's device type in real time.

See "Device Awareness: The Key to Service Planning" - here. 

Cam lists the ways in which the device type could be detected. Beyond the ability "to include this information in the BSS/OSS for each user account" - other methods require DPI capabilities.

However, one can wonder why a DPI system is needed if the information could be simply provisioned?

The answer is that mobile internet subscribers may use the SIM provisioned for a certain device with a different device they own. I believe that this is the main reason for the need to detect the device type, and DPI could certainly help here. Verifying the device type will allow the operators to offer device-dependant service plans, without fear of abuse (such as using a 3G/smartphone SIM in a laptop). I've seen this as the main reason in a number of RFPs - but unfortunately haven’t seen a reliable solution yet.

Similarly, some operators do not allow tethering (using a phone as a modem - see "AT&T - No More Unlimited Mobile Data" - here).

. 

Cisco: "New Capabilities, New Business Models, New Revenues" (for mobile internet)

     

A new white paper from Cisco provides a good review on mobile monetization opportunities for mobile operators, by using intelligent infrastructure to offer policy-based tiered and value-added services. None of the ideas is new, but it seems that the market is ready now to implement such solutions - keeping in mind that some of the ideas are threatened by Net Neutrality (e.g. QoS) or privacy concerns (e.g. ad insertion).

See "Monetizing the Mobile Internet" - here  (pdf)

"To raise ARPU beyond basic subscription revenue, mobile operators now have an opportunity to differentiate themselves from over-the-top providers and other third-party vendors by deploying intelligent, IP-based network solutions. .. Such real-time session- and subscriber-state intelligence is not available through the cookies in a web browser interaction but only through the intelligent capabilities of the operator’s mobile Internet core. This intelligence includes correlation of subscriber subscription plans and preferences with awareness of time of day, location, usage pattern, type of application running, available bandwidth, roaming status, and other factors to enable features such as:

• Service-aware charging
• Access control
• Policy control
• Content filtering
• Quality of service (QoS)
• Application detection and control
• Filtering, caching, and ad-insertion
• Security

For tiered services, Cisco shows the theory of how it increases over-all revenues:

Source: Network Strategy Partners, LLC, 2010

"The figure shows that as prices increase, the number of subscribers declines. In this example, a single flat-rate plan of US$12 per month attracts 1.5 million subscribers and produces revenue of $18 million per month. However, the demand curve shows that many subscribers are willing to pay more for a higher-tier service. This is premium revenue that can be captured through premium pricing plans. Additionally, the demand curve also shows that some additional subscribers would subscribe to a service if it were priced below $12 per month. The study found that the introduction of service tiers added $22.9 million per month in additional revenue and a net increase in total subscribers from 1.5 million to 2.2 million with an ARPU increase of $6.85 per month."

See recent examples from Telkomsel and Elisa

And so they explain all other monetization opportunities. Of course , Cisco emprises the need for "intelligent mobile Internet infrastructure" and DPI to do that, referring to Cisco's ASR-5000 (See also "DPI Announcements - Cisco/Starent PGW - DPI, QoS, LI" - here), the GGSN product of former Starent and the use of a PCRF (See - "Cisco Needs a Policy Server" - here) for policy management.

Welcome China!

   
It is almost half a year since I started my Broadband Traffic Management Blog (January 30, here). This is my 224th post, and Google Analytics reports very nice growth in traffic to the blog. It seems that traffic management, DPI, policy management, Net Neutrality and other related issues are hot topic these days among vendors and service providers.

I am using a great tool - Excellent Analytics to analyze Google Analytics' information in Excel. An interesting piece of information is visitors' demographics - so far I had visits from 107 countries. The Top3 are the homelands of the DPI industry: USA (Cisco, Procera), Israel (Allot) and Canada (Sandvine) - together accounting for more than 50% of the visits to the blog. Nevertheless I had visits from Åland Islands  (population: 27,000), Aruba, French Polynesia and so many other places I wish to visit one day.
 

However - up to this morning - China was missing from the list. Today, at 3AM GMT someone from Beijing was my first Chinese visitor. Welcome! 

Since I am using Google's Blogger platform -this first visit today may represent further changes to Google availability in China - see "Google gets its license to operate in China renewed" - here - as it seems that Blogger is now available.

DPI Market: GENBAND OEMs Procera

     

Genband announced today that it signed with Procera "an OEM agreement under which GENBAND will incorporate Procera’s PacketLogic™ DPI technology into GENBAND’s industry-leading portfolio and enable further innovation with GENBAND’s current and future products."

See a press release "GENBAND Bolsters Industry-Leading Portfolio with Deep Packet Inspection Technology from Procera Networks" - here.

In addition, Charles D. Vogt, President and CEO of GENBAND, joined Procera board of directors (here).

"GENBAND also today unveiled the P Series™ product family, which leverages Procera’s PacketLogic advanced DPI technology .. Based on Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA), Procera’s DPI technology, integrated with GENBAND’s data products on the ATCA-based GENBAND GENiUS™ platform, will deliver new broadband data solutions for enhanced business intelligence, traffic management and security protection, as well as enable new applications and business models. Procera’s market-leading technology, coupled with GENBAND’s evolving IP portfolio and innovative design, will empower operators to quickly deliver new, revenue-generating services such as time-based video streaming, more efficient mobile roaming and personalized data service plans."

Deutsche Telekom CEO: OTT providers should pay for High Quality

     

In an interview to Simon Hage from the German manager magazin, Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann repeated his view on the future mobile internet business model.

See "Telekom will Apple und Google zur Kasse bitten" - here. [I am using an automatic translation service here, so it might not be 100% accurate].

"Obermann announced new business models for the mobile Internet, which may affect providers like Google and Apple, which use the cellular network so far largely free of charge for their data-intensive services .. When DY offers special network security or high quality service, for example, for music or video, it must be according to Obermann "priced well differentiated. Such discussions with service providers such as Google are triggered"

[see who is happy and who is not so happy at DT's iPhone launch  :-) ]

This is consistent with things Mr. Obermann said 3 months ago - See "Net Neutrality Discussion in Germany (II) - DT Position" - here.

Skype: Operators' Tiered Services will Replace Our 3G Surcharge Plans

    

Two days ago I was wondering why AT&T does not implement a traffic management solution to cope with its bandwidth demand-supply challenge (see "AT&T to Apple: "Please Throttle iPhone Traffic" - here). One of the suggestions I made was about implementing tiered services like Telcomsel (here) and Elisa (here) did recently.

Now we get some guidance from Skype that this may be the case. Just 6 weeks ago Skype said that "We Will Charge 3G Calls to Ensure QoS Stays High" (here) and now they decided to cancel the plan. In conjunction with the announcement of a new software version of Skype for iPhone, Skype’s blogger-in-chief, Peter Parkes says:

"At Skype, we believe that better call quality and better availability (which is achieved with an app capable of multitasking and/or making calls over 3G) lead to increased call frequency and longer calls. We also believe that the mobile world is in a period of significant change, for example, with some operators starting to move to tiered pricing models.
  
In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. We’re delighted to make it easier for you to talk for even longer and do even more together using Skype."

See "iPhone update: now supports multitasking, no additional charges for calling over 3G" - here.

So the charging burden goes from the OTT application provider to the carrier. Can we conclude that:

1. AT&T will offer tiered services, including a plan that will ensure QoS for Skype traffic? (see "DPI Deployments (10): AT&T Uses Openet for iPad Monetization" - here)
    
2. Does AT&T think that this plan complies with Net Neutrality guidelines? (I believe it does, as long as they transparent to the subscribers about the plan they are purchasing, and will treat all other VoIP traffic equally)  

And how AT&T will share the extra revenues collected from the new tier between itself and Skype? Of course, Skype maybe talking about operators in other countries ...

In any case, these are good news for DPI and policy management vendors.

AT&T to Apple: "Please Throttle iPhone Traffic"

 
Fred Vogelstein, from Wired Magazine, brings the story behind AT&T's effort to meet the demand from bandwidth generated by Apple's iPhone.

The story of AT&T and its efforts to answer the demand for mobile bandwidth, mainly in larger US cities, is not new. I covered this in a number of posts (here and here) and the common feeling was that AT&T will spend $B's (here) to increase its network capacity - as well as adding free WiFi services (here), moving away from unlimited service (here) and more. All these are local or longer term plans.

Now we hear that AT&T also tried to convince Apple to make changes to their applications, so bandwidth consumption will be reduced. Here's how Wired describes what AT&T tried to do. See "Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown" - here:

".. In a bid to avert the looming problem, a team headed by senior vice president Kris Rinne met with Apple to ask for help. Of course AT&T was planning to upgrade its network to handle the increased demand, Rinne’s team told Apple executives, but that was going to take years. In the meantime, would Apple take measures to help throttle back the traffic? Perhaps Apple could restrict its YouTube app to run only over Wi-Fi. Maybe the iPhone could feature a smaller, lower-resolution videostream or cut off YouTube videos after one minute".

With traffic management solutions, AT&T could have done this (and more) without Apple's help (see the Belgacom example - here). They could also go for a tiered services concept like Telkomsel (here) and Elisa (here) - and maybe they are going there -see "AT&T Seeks Unified Policy Management for Wireline and Wireless" - here)

DPI/QoS Deployments (14): Telkomsel (Indonesia) Uses Ericsson for Service Differentiation and Traffic Control

  

Ericsson announced last week that Telkomsel is using its solution for "Dynamic End-to-End Policy Control solution enabling service differentiation"

See "New business models possible for mobile broadband" - here.

Telkomsel, a subsidiary of state owned PT TELKOM, the PSTN incumbent (65%) and SingTel Mobile (35%), is the biggest mobile operator in Indonesia, with 82M subscribers (end of Q1), of which 2M are post-paid subscribers. Telkomsel operates over 32,000 base stations
 "Telkomsel's efficient utilization of radio and transport networks will be enhanced through deployment of the policy control solution. .. Data traffic is prioritized so that higher-paying subscribers get access, high speed and quality even during network peak hours, while other users receive different priority".

More on Ericsson's policy product - here

Sarwoto Atmosutarno, President Director of Telkomsel, says: "As traffic is growing with more capacity-demanding services and higher download speeds, we must adjust to our users' different expectations and needs. With our new solution, subscribers will be able to choose a pricing option that best suits their individual needs, depending on what services or applications they're using and how much they're willing to pay."

Earlier this month we saw a similar announcement from NSN - see "Elisa (Finland) Uses NSN for Quality of Service Differentiation" - here.

[Update13 - DigitalRoute MediationZone] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

 

A new PCRF vendor is added to the matrix - Digital Route. The company provides enabling technology - "Partnerships are a fundamental part of our business. We partner with the leading vendors in the industry to provide the latest technology and business solutions meeting our end customers’ demands". The partner page (here) shows an impressive list of technology partners  - integrators and vendors (including NSN, Comverse, and Convergsys) - but does not say which is using the PCRF technology.

The product, MediationZone Policy Control (here) is presented as "an extremely flexible and high-performing policy control solution for 3GPP and non-3GPP environments, delivering control of the network resources based on service, subscriber segment or context.

Policy control with MediationZone:

• Fully-featured Policy and Charging Rules Function
• Dynamic allocation of bandwidth and quality of service (traffic shaping)
• Priority to higher revenue services
• Prevent harmful exploitation of the network
• Access control to premium-services
• Ensure fair bandwidth usage
• Online or batch interaction capability between any systems.
• Interaction with configurable SPR or any external SPR, HSS or subscriber database."

DPI interoperability is not mentioned.

In a recent press release "Policy Control with DigitalRoute’s MediationZone®" (here) Digital Route says that "one of its partners has deployed a MediationZone based Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) solution at one of the world’s largest communication service providers .. “Profitability and Quality of Service is the main driver for policy control”, said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute"

PCRF Vendor	PCRF Product	Allot	Arbor	Cisco	Procera	Sandvine
Alcatel-Lucent	5780 Dynamic Services Controller (DSC)
BandWD	BwDRC - Dynamic Resource Control	●		●		●
Bridgewater Systems	Policy Controller/PCRF	●	●	●		●
Broadhop	Quantum Policy Server		●	●
Comability	ComAbility neXus			●
Comptel	Comptel Policy Control™			●	●
Cisco (Starent)	Policy and Charging Control
Digital Route	MediationZone Policy Control
Ericsson	Service-Aware Policy Controller (SAPC)
Flash Networks	POLICY MANAGER
FTS	Leap™ Policy Control	●		●		●
HP	HP Policy and Charging(IUM)	●
Huawei	Open Control & Charging Gateway	●
Kabira (Tibco Software)	Policy Server			●
Mobixell (724)	X-treme Framework Platform (XF)	●		●
Nokia Siemens Networks	PCS 5000	●
Openet	FusionWorks™ Policy Manager			●		●
Redknee	Policy Manager (PCRF)			●		●
Tekelec (Camiant)	Multimedia Policy Engine	●	●	●	●	●
Telcordia	Telcordia Bandwidth Manager
Volubill	CONTROL-IT Policy Manager
ZTE	ZXUN RCP	●