Monday's Guest Post: Video Optimization can significantly improve QoE

A new guest post will be published on Monday. In his article, "Using Video Optimization to Improve Quality of Experience" my 22nd guest, Indranil Chatterjee, will discuss the new ways video optimization is used by MNOs.

"Video data traffic has been the thorn in mobile operators’ sides for some time – with issues surrounding how to provide high quality video, without compromising other subscribers’ data usage and the video experience itself. Initially, operators sought out video optimization as a blunt instrument to simply cut down the amount of video traffic across the network. By doing this the quality of all video services was compromised – it was a quick fix to a complicated problem. However, since then video optimization has evolved from the blanket solution it once was and has become more flexible, with intelligent congestion-aware solutions capable of significantly improving subscriber’s Quality of Experience (QoE)" says Indranil.

Stay tuned.

Guest posts are welcomed! Please email me for guidelines.

[iSuppli] 1.2B(!) LTE Subscribers by 2016

A new report by Francis Sideco (pictured), senior principal analyst, wireless communications, IHS iSuppli concludes that "Global 4G LTE subscribers this year are forecast to reach 73.3 million, up a whopping 334 percent from 16.9 million in 2011 .. Another round of impressive triple-digit growth, equivalent to 181 percent, is expected in 2013 when 4G LTE subscribers total 205.7 million. By 2016, 4G LTE subscribers will reach nearly 1.2 billion strong, as shown in the figure below .. Subscribers to the older 3G technology will continue to outnumber 4G LTE users, but the pace of growth for 3G will be significantly slower and not exceed 35 percent at any point from this year onward".

Previous reports predicted 802M LTE subscribers by 2017 (Pyramid - here) or 430M by 2016 (older report, Juniper Research - here).

See "Rapid Advance of LTE Spurs Convergence of Electronic Products" - here.

PCC (w/Device Awareness) Win for Comptel

Comptel announced that a "..leading Asian mobile operator has deployed a customised version of Comptel Control and Charge. Leveraging the product for its Online Charging Function (OCF) capabilities, the operator wanted to provide low-cost, device-specific SIM bundles that would allow it to engage a different subscriber segment, as well as create upsell opportunities among existing customers who would pay extra to get separate SIMs for their tablets"

"Comptel’s bespoke device detection solution enables the mobile operator to not only sell data plans at a reduced price to satisfy customers, but also limit subscribers’ usage to specific tablets, so that SIM cards will not be misused and affect its unlimited data plans. The mobile operator has implemented a tiered alert system to notify customers when it finds that the SIM cards have been used on unauthorised devices like 3G modem dongles, and discontinue their data service following a third warning .. Comptel successfully delivered the project, which involved OCF implementation and DIAMETER Gy integration, on time in less than 12 weeks and to the operator’s specifications".

Ulla Koivukoski [picutred], SVP Marketing and Communications, provided me with some more details on the solution:

"This solution is based on Comptel EventLink and Comptel Control and Charge, but part of the implementation has been tailored based on the customer specific requirements. It was using IMEI (no DPI), but Gy Diameter interface with GGSN and using lookups to map to devices and subscriber subscription In SPR to understand whom and when to apply this control". 

Related post - "Why Do Mobile Carriers Need Device Awareness?" - here.

See "Asian Mobile Operator Expands Partnership with Comptel to Develop Bespoke Device Detection Solution" - here.

$2M DPI Win for Sandvine - US DSL Provider

Sandvine announced that it has received a "over $2 million in network policy control orders from a telecom provider in the US. The service provider purchased Sandvine's Policy Traffic Switch (PTS), Fairshare Traffic Management and Usage Management products to increase the quality of experience for subscribers across their DSL network .. Sandvine was selected based on its congestion and policy management capabilities"

See "Sandvine wins $2 million order from telecom provider in US" - here.

Telus Sees 2,700% Signaling Growth Y/Y

 
Perry Hoffman reports to Cartt.ca on the "'tsunami of traffic' resulting from very high levels of social media over wireless devices and the connectivity of an increasingly large number of those devices is forcing mobile operators to deal with growing congestion. This was one of the key messages from Eros Spadotto (pictured), executive vice-president of technology and operations at Telus during a keynote presentation to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) InternationalConference on Communications on Tuesday in Ottawa".
 
"The reality is that while our megabytes of traffic is increasing, the signaling from these devices is greatly overwhelming that. In fact, we can look at a period of time where our growth has been 100% year over year on payload, on how many megabytes, but our signaling has grown 2,700%".

"It’s not just about getting more spectrum .. it’s about making it useable by the operators so they can build faster networks to deal with the onslaught of richer, bandwidth intensive applications being used over increasingly sophisticated mobile devices".

At the end of Q2 2012, Telus had 7.4M wireless subscribers; 39% of its ARPU came from data services during Q2, compared to 33% on the same quarter the year before (see chart).

See "IEEE: Traffic tsunami causing congestion in wireless nets, says Telus' Spadotto" - here.

Telespree Adds Real-time Data Metering Service

Telespree Communications announced "real-time 3G and 4G data metering that enables service providers to more tightly manage data usage on their networks and offers consumers a utility to monitor their own data usage activity on their mobile device.

"Telespree offers service providers an Active Session Monitoring solution to authorize and control access to 3G and 4G data services in real time across a wide range of mobile devices, including smartphones, mobile hotspots, tablets and USBs. Active Session Monitoring meters mobile data services, tracks time and data usage activity, and – if needed – cuts off and redirects data sessions in real time to a self-service portal for consumers to purchase additional sessions or receive new offers".

See "Telespree helps service providers ensure best customer experience" - here.

[F&S]: MSSP Market to Reach $15.6B in 2016

A new research by Martha Vazquez (pictured), Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan concludes that "Enterprises are becoming increasingly exposed to organized cyber crime rings and for many businesses, the complexity of threats have compelled them to turn to managed security service providers (MSSPs). These types of external service providers enable organizations to maintain strong security while improving business efficiencies and minimizing costs".

"Although there are many benefits, MSSP vendors are typically challenged when trying to demonstrate the possible savings accrued through working with a trusted MSSP. MSSPs have to educate end users about the advantages of outsourcing security. In response to the escalating demand for broader platform support and more flexibility, MSSPs should also provide a wide range of new security technologies and enhanced security portfolios"

"..Analysis from Frost & Sullivan , Analysis of the Global Managed Security Service Providers Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $6.66 billion in 2011 and estimates this to reach $15.63 billion in 2016 .. The Frost & Sullivan study covers local, regional and global MSSPs such as Nuspire, IBM, Verizon, Dell Secureworks, Solutionary, BT Global Services, Deutche Telecom, MegaPath, and Windstream (formerly PAETEC)”.

See "Rising Complexity of Cyber Crimes Puts MSSPs under the Spotlight, Finds Frost & Sullivan" - here.

[Dell'Oro]: 14% of Packet Core Spending - Signaling Management, Traffic Classification and Ties to Billing Systems

Dell’Oro Group announced that "Wireless Packet Core market revenues grew eight percent over the last year during the second quarter of 2012. Sales were propelled by the Evolved Packet Core segment of the market as service providers accelerated the deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks"

Chris DePuy (pictured), Analyst of Wireless Packet Core at Dell’Oro Group, said: "Fourteen percent of wireless packet core spending was related to evolved packet core equipment spending that provides signaling management, classifies wireless data traffic and ties to billing systems of LTE networks“.

See also "[Dell'Oro]: PCRF Market to Reach $700M in 2015" - here.

See "Evolved Packet Core Expands 250 Percent in 2Q12" - here.

Universities Research Mobile Video Quality Measurement

   

Fredric Paul reported to ReadWriteWeb that "Intel, Cisco and Verizon are pouring $3.3 million into research at five prominent universities to improve video delivery over wireless networks. The first goal of the Video Aware Wireless Networks (VAWN) program? Find a good way to measure mobile video quality .. The research is important to finding ways to deliver the best video experience to the most people when the networks get overloaded; that is, minimize the problems that annoy people most"
 
"Because viewers perceive quality differently depending on what they're watching - sports versus talking heads, for example - quality isn't about throughput but experience .. Measuring subjective video quality is only the first step toward the larger goal of delivering high-quality video while boosting network capacity to handle the ever-increasing flood of data. The issue can’t be ignored: In 5 years an estimated 90% of Net traffic will be video, and 66% of mobile traffic will be video"
 
"The project is now in year two of its three-year, $1.1 million-per-year plan. By then end of the program, the VAWN team hopes to have a good method to measure perceived video quality, as well as algorithms and software tools to use that measurement to make network decisions".

 

 See "Engineers Struggle to Move Mobile Video Without Ruining It" - here.

sFlow Vs. NetFlow - Which is Better?

  

A post by Adam Powers (pictured) compares the two dominant traffic monitoring protocols - NetFlow/IPFIX (based on IEFT RFCs 3954, 5101 and 5102) and sFlow.

"The only people that ever say 'sFlow is better than NetFlow' are those that haven’t used both and seen the difference for themselves".

"If all you have are sFlow-enabled devices you should still look into turning on sFlow exports. It’ll give you traffic stats and other bits of info that are better than nothing at all .. The NetFlow vs. sFlow war is over. Someone should let them know. Perhaps this will help"

See "NetFlow vs. sFlow for Network Monitoring and Security: The Final Say" - here.

Tekelec Comments on Verizon's PCC Source

Following my earlier post on Verizon Wireless' home grown PCC solution for its Shared Data Plans (here), I asked Tekelec (PCRF and DSR supplier for Verizon) for a comment.

Tekelec spokesperson, Joanne Steinberg (pictured), provided me with the following statement:

"Operators are hoping to play a big role in personalization of services and it is critical that they start leveraging what they know (or can know) about subscribers’ usage patterns, preferences, locations, and circumstances.

Based on our experiences with over 55 Policy customers globally including 43 Tier 1s, most operators will opt to source solutions from outside vendors, but some may have the wherewithal at the early stages to do some of it in-house. Of paramount importance will be access to real-time data from networks and subscriber data management (SDM) systems. The goal is to balance data and signaling traffic in a way that optimizes the customer experience based on customer preferences and the value they place on the services. Central to that will be Policy solutions (PCRF), which define the rules for new services for different subscriber segments based on operator network requirements and marketing strategies".

Light Reading: Verizon Uses Home Grown PCC for Shared Data Plans

Analysts say that Shared Data Plans are important for MNOs business, but require significant IT (PCC) infrastructure (see "OVUM: Shared Data Plans are "here to stay"; Require Management Tools" - here and "Infonetics: Shared Data Plans - an Opportunity with OSS Needs" - here).

So who leads this market? for example which vendor was selected by Verizon Wireless, one the world's largest MNOs and strong believer in shared data plans (see "Verizon: Why Shared Data Plans are Good for Our Business" - here)?

Sarah Reedy (pictured) reports to Light Reading that Verizon Wireless recent shared data plans  are based on its own development!

   

"Behind the scenes, as it manages almost 100 million subscribers on its network, Verizon's Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) must be tied to its billing systems and the data from all the devices on all the plans it manages must be compiled, managed and reconciled to avoid billing mistakes. The cost of making things easier for consumers is that you make things complicated somewhere along the way .. And what vendor is Verizon entrusting with this complex policy management? No one, actually. We asked, and a Verizon spokeswoman led us to believe the move to share data plans, and all the complexity it brings, is handled by Verizon". 

  

Sarah also mentions Tekelec, as a PCRF (and Diameter signaling router) supplier to Verizon's LTE network (see "How does/will Verizon Wireless Use Tekelec's Diameter Router?" - here).

See "Verizon Manages Its Own Data Destiny" - here.

Resource: Overview of GSMA VoLTE Profile

Document by Itsuma Tanaka (pictured) and Takashi Koshimizu, Core Network Development Department, NTT DOCOMO.

Uploaded by Zahid Ghadialy, editor of the 3G and 4G Wireless Blog.

KPN Belgium Enables Differentiated Services with ZTE

 
ZTE Corporation announced that "... KPN Group Belgium .. will deploy ZTE’s packet switched CN equipment which supports unified radio access .. ZTE helps operators to build a smart pipe that supports service differentiation and traffic distribution, and enables a flexible policy mechanism. This will help KPN deliver differentiated services, further enhancing its service innovation capability and network competitive strength".

At the end of Q2 2012, KPN Belgium had 4.4M subscribers and ~19% market share (see chart).

See "ZTE Partners with KPN Group Belgium to Deploy Packet Switched Core Network" - here.

How do CSPs Spend IT Budget?

   
A new report by Johanne Mayer (pictured), Senior Analyst, and Larry Goldman, Partner, Head of Telecoms Software Research, Analysys Mason concludes that "Communications service providers (CSPs) spent USD119 billion on telecoms IT worldwide in 2010, which represents 6.2% of the telecoms revenue of USD1.9 trillion". 

"Our analysis shows that incumbent CSPs with fixed and mobile services spend seven times more than any other type of CSP (that is, fixed- or mobile-only) and that mobile CSPs in developed countries spend USD26 per subscriber per year on IT, compared with USD4 per subscriber per year for those in emerging countries".
 
"Spending on OSS/BSS accounted for half of total IT spending worldwide – USD59 billion in 2010 .. One-third of the money CSPs spent on IT in 2010,USD38 billion, was spent by the CTO or network/product group on SDPs and apps, and on network management systems (NMSs)".

See "A large portion of IT spending does not fall under the traditional IT budget: a third comes from the network or CTO budget" - here.

Ericsson to Launch New Video Encoder for Live TV over Mobile

Ericsson announced it will launch ".. the world’s first HEVC/H.265 encoder for the delivery of live and linear TV over mobile networks, to mobile devices. Capable of real-time encoding at resolutions up to HD, the new Ericsson SVP 5500 HEVC encoder greatly reduces bandwidth requirements for current and future services. It enables operators to deliver consistent, high quality TV experiences on mobile devices and to meet growing consumer expectations for TV Anywhere services, whether in the home or on the move"

"High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) promises to reduce the bandwidth requirements for video delivery by over 50 per cent compared to leading H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC implementations and to revolutionize delivery of TV services to all devices. Ericsson has recognized the first applications for this next-generation compression standard are for TV service delivery over mobile networks, to mobile devices, and the launch of this industry-first encoder responds to real customer needs"

See "Ericsson announces world’s first HEVC encoder for live TV delivery to mobile devices" - here and "The HEVC Promise - How Can Compression Standards Deliver New Video Services to Consumers?" - here.

FCC Presents: US Broadband Progress Report Map

Michael Byrne (pictured), Geographic Information Officer, reports in the FCC Blog that the US regulator has "released an interactive, web-based map that illustrates our Broadband Progress Report. This congressionally mandated report assesses how well broadband deployment and adoption is progressing in the nation. With this new map, our report is more responsive to both Congress and the American people .. you zoom into the map or pan around, you can explore the intricate details of broadband availability in each and every county in the United States. These details include not just the population, and income numbers from the census, but the percentage of each county that has access to the major fixed technologies providing broadband service".

See "Broadband Progress Report Map – Another Digital First" - here.

[Pyramid]: 802M LTE Subscribers by 2017; US, Japan and South Korea Lead

 
A new research by Pyramid Research forecasts much higher growth for LTE adoption than previously forecasted.

The report concludes that "LTE subscriptions globally increased more than fourteen fold, to 11.4m, and Pyramid Research expects that figure to reach 54 million by year-end 2012, representing less than 1% of total subscriptions. By 2017, Pyramid expects the number of LTE subscriptions to reach 802.2 million, a 72% CAGR over 2012 levels, growing to almost 10 percent of global mobile subscriptions"

Previous reports were more modest - see "[Juniper Research]: 430M LTE Subscribers by 2016" - here.

"Although LTE subscription penetration in the Asia-Pacific region will remain lower than the global average, two countries in the region — Japan and South Korea — are leaders in LTE adoption, surpassed only by the US in current and expected new subscriptions in the next three years. By 2017 China and Indonesia will be important growth markets. Latin America will also continue to show lower LTE penetration than the global average. We expect almost 7% of mobile subscriptions in Brazil to be LTE by 2017, making the regional giant an important driver of global growth in LTE, despite lower than average adoption". 

See "LTE Opportunities Revealed in New Research Series" - here.

PCC/Bill Shock Prevention Win for Comptel in Europe

Comptel Corporation announced that a ".. leading European operator has deployed Comptel Control and Charge to provide its subscribers with greater control and transparency into their service plans. The deal, which was completed in 2011, enables the operator to quell subscriber concerns of exceeding data usage by providing real-time balance inquiries and alerts .. By providing this robust balance management and data monitoring, the solution empowers the operator’s subscribers with insight into how much they are spending. As a result, the concern of bill shock – especially pervasive among post-paid customers – is greatly reduced; encouraging subscribers to more readily take advantage of broadband services".

See "European Operator Utilises Comptel Control and Charge for Enhanced Customer Experience" - here.

AT&T Says it doesn't Violate Net Neutrality with its Facetime Policy

A blog post by Bob Quinn (pictured), SVP Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer, AT&T claims that AT&T does not violate FCC' Net Neutrality rules when it will block Facetime over 3G for customers not subscribed to the shared data plans (here).

"Providers of mobile broadband Internet access service are subject to two net neutrality requirements: (1) a transparency requirement pursuant to which they must disclose accurate information regarding the network management practices, performance, and commercial terms of their broadband Internet access services; and (2) a no-blocking requirement under which they are prohibited, subject to reasonable network management, from blocking applications that compete with the provider’s voice or video telephony services.

AT&T’s plans for FaceTime will not violate either requirement. Our policies regarding FaceTime will be fully transparent to all consumers, and no one has argued to the contrary.

There is no transparency issue here. Nor is there a blocking issue"

Read the awkward reasoning for the latter at - "Enabling Facetime Over Our Mobile Broadband Networks" - here.

NI Announcements: Neustar Launches Web Performance Management Solution

Neustar announced the release of "Neustar® Web Performance Management, a new solution that brings together Neustar Website Monitoring and Neustar Website Load Testing for the first time in a single, comprehensive platform. With this offering, companies that rely on web performance to drive revenue now have a simple, easy-to-use platform to consistently monitor site performance and quickly mitigate performance-related issues, ultimately protecting their customers’ online experience".

"The benefits of Neustar Web Performance Management are: Automated Issue Escalation and Resolution .. Real-user or Synthetic Monitoring .. Full-service or On-demand Load Testing ..External Views and Rich Reporting"

See "Neustar launches New Web Performance Management Solution to Protect Customer Experience and Online Revenues" - here.

[Update 57: Aradial <-> ipoque] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

  

Aradial Technologies informed me that "We also support ipoque and have installation with it".

The PCRF-DPI comparability matrix (here) was updated to reflect this information.

Follow-up: Does BSNL (India) Use DPI?

Several months ago Indian ISPs were ordered by the Calcutta High Court to block access to certain web sites - "The ISPs have been given 36 hours to comply, by either blocking domain \ IP addresses or by using Deep Packet Inspection to ban the offending URLs" (see  "Indian ISPs need to Block Sites - Will they Use DPI?" - here).

The Center for Internet & Society (CIS) "filed requests under the Right to Information with the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, BSNL and MTNL, asking a number of questions related to the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology by Internet Service Providers (ISP) in India and corresponding regulations".

DoT response (here): "as per the present License for provision of Internet Services, based on Internet Guidelines dated 24/08/2007, there is no direction/reference for DPI as mentioned in your RTI application".

CIS also asked BSNL/MTNL "As a national Internet service Provider, does BSNL deploy DPI on any Internet network in India?"

"MTNL has responded to the application, while the response from BSNL is awaited. In response to the above questions, MTNL sent the following reply: 'MTNL does not do any DPI'".

See "Use of DPI Technology by ISPs — Response by the Department of Telecommunications" - here.

Procera Receives $1.5M Appliance Order from US MSO

   
Procera Networks annouced it has received "a $1.5 million follow-on order from a leading North American MSO. The order includes the delivery of Procera’s PacketLogic 8920 (here) ..  Procera expects to recognize the revenue from this in the third quarter of 2012 .. The PL8920 is a highly scalable 2RU appliance supporting up to 50 Gbps of network traffic throughput accessible through six modular I/O slots that are configurable with up to 12 x 10GE or 24 x 1GE interfaces. This configuration represents 25 Gbps of throughput per rack unit, setting a new industry benchmark for IPE/DPI platform throughput density".

A known US MSO customer of Procera is Cox Communications (see "Procera: Cox Generated $2.2M in 2010" - here and "Procera Gets $3M Follow-on from US MSO; Customer Monitors Netflix and IPV6"- here).

Cox was also indirectly mentioned as a customer for Procera's high-end platform, the PL-20000 (here).

See "Leading North American MSO Selects Procera’s PL8920 for Network Expansion" - here.

Optimization Deployments[171] Tele2 [Russia] Selected Citrix/Bytemobile

Citrix announced that "Tele2 Russia .. has selected its ByteMobile integrated traffic management platform (Bytemobile's Unison platform) for mobile video and web optimization".
 

"This deployment will enable Tele2 Russia to deliver faster internet and multimedia services and improve subscriber quality of experience for mobile web surfing .. Reksoft, a leading provider of systems integration services for the telecommunications industry, is the reseller partner for this deployment and will provide deployment and local support services".

See also "DPI Deployments (65): Tele2 Expands the Use of Procera to its LTE Network" - here.

The following slides are taken from Tele2 Q2 2012 investors’ presentation.

See "Tele2 Russia to Enhance Mobile Data Experience with Citrix ByteMobile" - here.

Israel Expands Net Neutrality to Fixed Networks

The Israeli Ministry of Communications published a draft amendment to the Communication Law, expanding Net Neutrality regulation to fixed services.

Israel adopted NN regulation to wireless services in December 2010 (see "Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality" - here).

The draft proposal ("Telecommunication operators will be obliged to guarantee the principle of network neutrality and telecom equipment neutrality - here in English; full proposal here in Hebrew) demands that communication service providers of all kinds will not limit or block any service or application provided over the internet (including VoIP, file sharing and video), limit or block features of communication equipment (including by setting special fees), limit or block the use of communication equipment in any licensed network.

Exceptions are limitation or blocking of service or application done in ensure proper and fair network management, or when the Minister of Communication allowed it "in special cases".

In addition, the draft says that all importers, distributors or sellers of communication equipment will also conform to Network Neutrality and will allow consumers to use all features the equipment they sell or maintain.

[Analysys Mason]: DPI and PCC Needed in the RAN

A new report by Patrick Kelly (pictured), Research Director, Analysys Mason, concludes that "IP and Ethernet technology provides networks with flexibility to scale up in order to support traffic growth as mobile operators deploy lower-cost IP-based radio access technology. Furthermore, growth in mobile data services has also put pressure on mobile operators to reduce their backhaul cost, and many mobile operators are dealing with the difficulty of assuring quality of service and keeping operational costs under control".

".. deep packet inspection probes in the radio access network working together with the policy charging and rules function helps regulate traffic coming through the backhaul network, enabling mobile operators to avoid network congestion problems"

See "MANAGING BACKHAUL TECHNOLOGIES WITH FEWER TOOLS AND TECHNICIANS WILL REDUCE TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP FOR OPERATORS, ANALYSYS MASON REPORTS" - here.

How to Build DPI Products? (Part XVIII - Multi-pattern Matching Algorithm for DPI)

  

A paper by D.Sahithi and Dr.P.Harini (pictured), Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering St.Ann’s College of Engineering & Tech, Chirala, India.

Abstract

  

Detection engines capable of inspecting packet payloads for application-layer network information are urgently required. The most important technology for fast payload inspection is an efficient multipattern matching algorithm, which performs exact string matching between packets and a large set of predefined patterns. This paper proposes a novel Enhanced Hierarchical Multipattern Matching Algorithm (EHMA) for packet inspection. Based on the occurrence frequency of grams, a small set of the most frequent grams is discovered and used in the EHMA. EHMA is a two-tier and cluster-wise matching algorithm, which significantly reduces the amount of external memory accesses and the capacity of memory. 

 
Using a skippable scan strategy, EHMA speeds up the scanning process. Furthermore, independent of parallel and special functions, EHMA is very simple and therefore practical for both software and hardware implementations. Simulation results reveal that EHMA significantly improves the matching performance. The speed of EHMA is about O.89-1,161 times faster than that of current matching algorithms. Even under real-life intense attack, EHMA still performs well.

See "Enhanced Hierarchical Multipattern Matching Algorithm for Deep Packet Inspection" - here.

[Signals and Systems] SDM Market to Reach $2B in 2016

A new report by Signals and Systems Telecom concludes that "..As Carriers worldwide devise emergent strategies on network modernization including LTE (Long Term Evolution), Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) investments, SDM is rapidly gaining popularity. The SDM software and services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 30 % from 2011 through 2016, eventually accounting for nearly 2 Billion USD in revenue".

Compare to "[Infonetics]: SDM Market to Reach $1.9B by 2016" - here.

See "The Subscriber Data Management (SDM) Market: 2012 - 2016" - here.

DT: QoS for VoLTE Available - Needs PCRF

 
Interesting presentation by Roland Schott, Project Manager and Architect, Deutsche Telekom, made during LTE World Summit (Barcelona, May 2012).

Brought by Zahid Ghadialy, editor of the 3G and 4G Wireless Blog.

One of the conclusions is that "PCRF is required to handle QoS on the mobile access link"

AT&T will Block Facetime/3G to non Shared Data Plan Customers

AT&T goes for a more complex application and subscriber-based policy framework.
 
The carrier issued a statement (below) denying it will surcharge Apple's Facetime over 3G (planned for iOS6), but will provide it only to its shared data plans customers. Other customers will be able to use Facetime over Wi-Fi only.

(background - "ATT CEO on FaceTime Surcharge and Toll-free Data; Launched Shared Data plans" - here)

"AT&T will offer FaceTime over Cellular as an added benefit of our new Mobile Share data plans, which were created to meet customers’ growing data needs at a great value. With Mobile Share, the more data you use, the more you save. FaceTime will continue to be available over Wi-Fi for all our customers".

[Dan Rayburn]: AT&T is Giving up on Carrier CDN

In recent months it looked like the "carrier CDN" trend is picking up (see - Infonetics, Ericsson/Akamai solution, ALU customers).

According to Dan Rayburn (pictured), EVP StreamingMedia.com, at least one major carrier may have changed his strategy - "After many years of AT&T trying to sell their own CDN services into the enterprise, multiple sources tell me that AT&T has decided that it makes more sense for them to simply re-sell CDN services from either Akamai or Limelight. Both vendors are currently in negotiations with AT&T bidding on the business and while AT&T has not yet picked a winner, I’m hearing that even though Limelight had been favored to win the deal, the reseller business is now Akamai’s to lose".

  

".. AT&T has always been using EdgeCast’s licensed CDN platform for their wholesale CDN services (here) and federation model, so I would expect AT&T would still manage this portion of their CDN business".

See "AT&T In Talks To Re-Sell Akamai or Limelight’s Enterprise CDN Services" - here.

DDoS DNS Attack Disrupted AT&T Data Traffic

 
Martyn Williams (pictured) reported to PC Advisor on Wednesday that "A distributed denial-of-service attack aimed at AT&T's DNS servers has disrupted data traffic for some of the company's customers .. The multi-hour attack began Wednesday morning West Coast time and at the time of this writing, eight hours later, does not appear to have been mitigated .. The attack appears to have affected enterprise customers using AT&T's managed services DNS product".

AT&T said to the press on Thursday that the DNS issues have been resolved.

See also "US ISPs Agreed to Combat Major Cyber Security Threats" - here.

See "AT&T hit by DDoS attack, suffers DNS outage" - here.

Ad Insertion Deployments [170]: Etisalat Deploys ALU's Optism

Etisalat Nigeria announced the launch of a "..permission- and preference-based mobile advertising service, in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent. Etisalat Nigeria is to deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism, the software-based mobile marketing solution which allows subscribers to share their interests and preferences with their mobile operator and ‘opt-in’ to receive personalized, relevant advertising and special offers on their mobile phones from their favorite brands"

Etisalat Nigeria has 13M subscribers and is one of the 17 operations of the Etisalat Group, serving a total of 172M subscriebrs (end of Q2, 2012).

Wael Ammar, Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, said: “Optism is enabling us to achieve a number of exciting and important objectives. First, we are bringing the power of permission-based mobile advertising to the Nigerian market with our EasyAdz service. This simply means that we will provide customers with advertising content relevant to their specific locations and choices. We are also providing a large and highly profiled audience base for brands and advertisers as well as creating an avenue to connect with our most important asset – our growing base of over thirteen million subscribers”

See "Etisalat Nigeria introduces permission-based mobile advertising to over thirteen million customers using Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism™" - here.

Openet and Huawei Partner to Promote New MBB Business Models

    

Openet and Huawei announced the "signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly explore opportunities within the growing telecommunications market. Openet becomes the latest company to partner with Huawei‘s mLAB to create new business models for global operators in the MBB (mobile broadband) era"

" .. Openet and Huawei will be committed to creating, validating and promoting new business models. With these business models, operators will be able to optimize network resources, offer differentiated services to end users, and increase sales revenues to achieve greater success".

"Huawei’s mLAB (see "Huawei mLAB, a Platform for Innovation, Experience and Cooperation on MBB" - here) is a MBB solution research laboratory that facilitates close cooperation with industry players. It will benefit from Openet’s deep understanding of business innovation and rich telecoms industry experience. Openet will provide its leading Policy and Charging Control (PCC) solutions working with Huawei’s wireless and EPC networks to determine tomorrow’s most valuable MBB business models".

See "Openet and Huawei Announce Mobile Broadband Research Partnership for Huawei’s mLAB" - here.