Opera Adds Audio to Rocket Optimizer

Opera Software announced that its "Skyfire unit [see "Opera Buys Skyfire for (up to) $155M" - here] has added streaming audio optimization as a new feature to Rocket Optimizer, its NFV-ready video and data optimization platform for mobile operators .. Rocket Optimizer manages streaming audio traffic in the same way that it optimizes mobile video traffic. 

It uses its built-in Experience Assurance functionality to automatically detect when the end-user’s live audio stream is about to stall, buffer or drop off entirely due to a poor connection – in real-time, before the problem starts. Rocket Optimizer then instantly adapts the audio stream to fit the available capacity in the network, in order to ensure the end user receives a smooth, uninterrupted, high-quality streaming audio experience. 

Rocket Optimizer’s streaming audio optimization works with most of the world’s most popular streaming music services, as well as with “long tail” streaming content hosted on myriad web sites. It supports both MP3 and MP4 stream formats, and - unlike competing optimization solutions – can also convert streams to the more efficient AAC+ codec, which is able to deliver high audio quality over a low bitrate connection to any compatible device".

See "Opera’s Skyfire unit adds streaming audio optimization to Rocket Optimizer" - here.

GSA: 16 MNOs Deploying or Trialing LTE Broadcast

According to a new report by GSA ",,confirms that at least 16 mobile network operators, working together with LTE systems providers and broadcast content owners, are currently deploying or trialling LTE Broadcast technology in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, UAE, UK and the USA".

Related post: "Vodafone LTE Status: Traffic, Video, Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE, Video Broadcast" - here.

".. By using LTE Broadcast enabled by evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) technology, operators can manage network assets more efficiently by multicasting popular content sought by multiple subscribers, e.g. live TV broadcasts, or tailored content for sporting events in stadiums or other venues. Operators can utilise off-peak capacity to deliver new service offerings, which could include rich media caching, or managed software updates including applications updates".

See "New LTE Broadcast (LTE Multicast) status report by GSA confirms global traction" - here.

Elitecore Offers Integrated PCC @ $500K/100K Subscribers

Elitecore Technologies announced ".. Pre-integrated LTE RCM an end to end platform comprising; OCS, PCRF, Convergent Billing, Customer Management, Provisioning, Business Analytics and Selfcare Portals for LTE operators at USD 500K for 100,000 subscribers. 

..The platform comes with Integrated Policy and Charging solution enabling launch of innovative plans & services on day one. A centralized product catalogue with Policy, Billing enables quick designing and readiness for new plans and packages and meet dynamic market changes faster than competition. Inbuilt business analytics provides subscriber insights and usage/ plan trend analysis to launch advanced revenue generating plans.

[Related post - "EliteCore Integrates Charging, Billing, PCRF, DSC, AAA and Mediation" - here]

The platform is available on premise or as cloud and virtualization ready. It can be scaled seamlessly to support 10 Mn subscribers and meet the growing demands for future services like HD Video, VoLTE and facilitate the provisioning & management of large subscriber base at reduced operational cost and resources.

Operators can launch various use cases including Shared wallet/family plans ,Day / Event pass, URL/Application/OTT based charging, revenue sharing, ToD based charging, Bill-shock Prevention, unlimited data, Tiered FUP, Turbo-boost/BoD, Time/Device based plans etc"

See "Elitecore Announces Pre-Integrated LTE Revenue and Customer Management Platform at USD 500K" - here.

Procera - $5M Order by European MSO; Replaces Existing Vendor

 
Procera Networks announced "$5 million in initial orders from a Tier 1 European MSO that represents the second largest initial customer orders in company history. Procera was selected primarily due to its Subscriber Experience solutions that enable the multi-system operator (MSO) to deliver high quality broadband services even during times of heavy congestion. 

The Service Plan Assurance solution offered by Procera demonstrated a superior ability to pinpoint subscriber experience issues and resolve them in real time. Most of the revenue from the initial orders is expected to be recognized in the second half of 2014.

This MSO conducted extensive field testing of competitive products to replace the incumbent vendor. Procera was able to demonstrate all of the use cases that were requested by the customer using real traffic at high performance levels with all functionality activated in the PacketLogic solutions. Procera was also able to show superior visibility into the services running on their network through the use of its Insights analytics tools that leverage data from PacketLogic products deployed in their network".

See "Procera Networks Receives $5 Million in Initial Orders from Tier 1 European MSO" - here.

Active Broadband Launches SDN/NFV Gateway

   

Active Broadband Networks announced the ".. industry's first Software-Defined Broadband Network Gateway (SD-BNG), a platform that implements software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of broadband service delivery. 

The SD-BNG unlocks the benefits of SDN and NFV for service providers to streamline orchestration, proactively manage Quality-of-Experience (QoE) and develop new services and applications -- allowing them to significantly increase operational efficiencies, slash capital outlays, and rapidly create, deploy and modify personalized services that increase market penetration and improve customer satisfaction.

The SD-BNG platform consists of :

• APG/80 Active Programmable Gateway, a pure software switch for high-performance packet processing that is fully programmable via OpenFlow control, and the Active Resource Controller (ARC), an SDN controller optimized for broadband service orchestration and delivery with real-time, dynamic QoE management.
  
  
• The Active Resource Controller (ARC) is an intelligent broadband edge service controller that enables service orchestration using simplified web services programmability. Controlling the APG/80 with OpenFlow, the ARC facilitates autonomous, simplified, traffic-driven service activation. The ARC gains its intelligence by collecting, mediating and further processing real-time IP flow information provided by the APG/80 .. Based on Big Data technology, the ARC computes and displays experience metrics that provide both operators and their customers with visibility into service utilization and network conditions, as well as application usage. The ARC's Big Data technology provides a platform for data scientists to either directly analyze broadband service information or to integrate broadband service information into a larger analysis platform. The ARC leverages technology developed for legacy OSS-based service management, and is a proven, robust platform that can be deployed as a virtual appliance or as software components on operator-managed physical or virtual platforms".  

See "Active Broadband Announces Availability of Industry's First Software-Defined Broadband Network Gateway" - here.

cPacket New Product Monitors and Correlates Links, Virtual Tunnels, and Applications

cPacket Networks announced "cClear technology for performance monitoring and optimization across physical and virtual realms of modern networks .. Existing network performance monitoring tools only provide limited information of average link utilization, which masks reliability issues like bottlenecks, spikes, microbursts, jitter, and inconsistent user experience.

cClear is the first technology to provide a correlated performance mapping of physical links, virtual tunnels, and applications behavior in real-time .. At the heart of this novel architecture are cPacket’s Smart Ports, which are high-speed and cost-effective distributed sensors based on the company’s algorithmic chip. cClear technology correlates information from multiple Smart Ports to identify intricate dependencies between the virtual overlays and the underlying physical network connectivity. Having a granular view of the performance of both the physical and virtual environments allows Network Managers to monitor traffic behaviors, identify critical bottlenecks, and make fact-driven decisions".

Unfortunately, I could not find or obtain any additional information on the new technology.  

See "cPacket’s Novel Technology Delivers Unified Performance Monitoring For Today’s Cloudy Virtual Network Environments"- here.

Israel: Will ISPs have to Send Detailed Surfing Records to Subscribers?

Gilad Erdan,Minister
of Communications 

Earlier this month, Israel's Ministry of Communications (the local regulator) published 2 calls for hearing about new parental control services to be provided by broadband ISPs (here) and MNOs (here, both in Hebrew).

According to the documents, only a small number of the subscribers have signed for the filtering services of harmful sites. These services should be provided by all licensed ISPs and MNOs for free.

Related posts:

• [Israel]: Why were ISPs Fined for not Promoting Free Parental Control Services? - here
• [Israel]: ISPs will have to Offer Free Web Filtering Service - here
• UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?  - here

In order to increase public awareness to the risks, and to the SPs solutions, the Ministry is considering requiring SPs to add the following services to the filtering service:

• Allowing subscribers to manage the time of day and duration of surfing, with an option for flexibility and changes
   
• The SP will send, on a daily weekly or monthly basis, a report by Email a report on all sites visited by the subscriber
   
• The SP will allow the use of "user names" on a single device, enabling the service to some of the user names
   
• The filtering service will not affect the browsing QoE
   
• The subscriber will be able to select between a device based or a network-based service 

And again - all the above is expected to be provided for free!!!

[TechNavio]: Transparent Cache Market to Grow at 31% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio finds that ".. Transparent caching is a solution that enables the service provider to offload a significant amount of content traffic by storing a cached copy of the popular content close to the edge of the network, which is delivered to the user directly from the edge of the network rather than from the source. It is invisible to both the content originator and the end user, hence the name. 

TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Transparent Caching market to grow at a CAGR of 31.3 percent over the period 2013-2018".

TechNavio identifies Blue Coat Systems (here), Juniper Networks, PeerApp (here) and Qwilt (here) as key vendors and Akamai, Alcatel-Lucent (here), Allot Communications (here), ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems (here), Cisco Systems (see "Cisco Partners with PeerApp" - here), Fortinet, Google (here), Huawei (here), Level 3 (here), SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve (here), VidScale as prominent vendors

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2014-2018" - here.

[ABI]: Mobile Internet Services to Generate 45% of MNOs Service Revenues by '19

A new report by Marina Lu [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that "In 1Q 2014, the worldwide mobile service revenue increased 0.58% year-on-year (YoY) to US$264 billion .. the aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9% YoY to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market. 

Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network capacity will drive global mobile Internet service revenue to US$456.7 billion by 2019—44.7% of total mobile service revenue. Despite global service revenue growth, the Western European market is declining: 1Q 2014 service revenue declined 5.2% YoY".

"In ABI Research’s profitability analysis, Verizon Wireless beat China Mobile for the first time, carrying the top position for most profitable mobile carrier in aggregate for 1Q 2014, followed by China Mobile and AT&T respectively. Strong growth in retail postpaid subscribers, increased smartphone customer base, enhanced 4G LTE smartphone line-up, and attractive pricing plans have contributed to Verizon’s profitability. In addition, Verizon also moved up one position to second in the ranking for quarterly gross profit per subscriber, at US$77.1".

See "Mobile Internet Will Continue to Drive Mobile Revenues, Contributing to 31% of Global Service Revenue in 1Q 2014" - here.

[TechNavio]: The DPI Market will Grow at 36% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio forecasts that ".. the Global DPI market will grow at a CAGR of 36.45 percent over the period 2013-2018 .. Although at present the EMEA region is a major contributor to the market, the APAC region is expected to emerge as a strong contributor to this market. ISPs and government organizations are the biggest adopters of DPI technology in the market .. with the increase in the use of bandwidth-intense applications such as P2P traffic and real-time multimedia content over the last few years, ISPs are increasingly adopting DPI solutions to manage and monitor the network".

The report identifies Allot Communications, Cisco, Procera Networks and Sandvine as "key vendors" and Arbor Networks, Bivio Networks, Endace, Huawei Technologies, ipoque, Quosmos and Tableau Software as "Other Prominent Vendors" (although some are no longer players in the DPI/traffic management market).

A year ago TechNavio had a similar forecast (see "[TechNavio] DPI Market to Grow at 35% 2012-16" - here).

See "Global DPI Market 2014-2018" - here.

PCC Deployments [319]: Vodafone [Australia] to Deploy (Virtualized) Ericsson

Ericsson announced that "Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has chosen Ericsson as a sole supplier to replace and upgrade the complete core network for their national network. With the latest core technology, including Ericsson's solutions for Evolved Packet Core and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), policy control and circuit-switched core, VHA will further enhance network robustness, performance and resiliency .. Over the period of the 5 year agreement Ericsson and VHA have committed to fully virtualize their core network". 

Vodafone Hutchison Australia was formed in June 2009 following a merger between Vodafone Australia and Hutchison. VHA provides mobile services to 4.9 million customers in Australia (June 2014). 

See "Vodafone Australia selects Ericsson for network evolution"- here and "Vodafone to build network of the future" - here.

[Dell’Oro Group]: CSP Equipment Market - Grow at 2% CAGR to 2018

   

A new report by Dell’Oro Group finds that ".. the combined service provider telecom equipment market comprising the Access, Carrier IP Telephony, Microwave, Mobile RAN, Optical, SP Routers, SP WiFi, and Wireless Packet Core markets, are set to improve between 2013 and 2018—by approximately $30 billion. 

• After recording a CAGR of -1% between 2008 and 2013, Dell’Oro Group forecasts the combined service provider equipment markets to grow at a CAGR of 2% between 2013 and 2018
   
• Wireless and Wireline Telecom Markets to grow at a CAGR of 1% and 3%
   
• Microwave, Optical, SP Routers, and Wireless Packet Core to drive the majority of the growth in the forecast period 

See "Telecom Equipment Sales to Increase $30 Billion, by 2018" - here.

[Infonetics]: VoLTE Slows down the IMS Market (led By Huawei)

A new report by Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that deployments of VoLTE services slows down the IMS equipment market - "The global service provider VoIP and IMS market totaled $878 million in 2Q14, down 6% from 2Q13, and down 12% sequentially .. Huawei and Metaswitch are the standout IMS/VoIP vendors in 2Q14, bucking the down quarter"

"To date, nationwide launches of voice over LTE (VoLTE) have taken place only in small countries and city-states such as South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong .. Larger nationwide launches of VoLTE in the U.S. and Japan are expected to begin toward the end of 2014; this, in addition to the activity of operators in Europe, Canada, and other parts of Asia, will fuel IMS equipment related to VoLTE in 2015.

The large network equipment vendors—Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia—are benefitting from VoLTE-related activity and product sets that extend beyond IMS". 

See "Service provider VoIP and IMS market enters period of correction after ramp-up to VoLTE" - here.

Telefonica O2 Shines in Spirent's UK QoE Study

A new "Independent Review of Mobile Voice and Data Services Commissioned by Telefonica O2" by Spirent finds that ... Telefonica provides the best QoE for data services in the UK in almost every aspect of the test! 

Spirent's Datum QoE
Analytics Application

"The study included over 47,000 calls and 170,000 data tests over a three month period from May to July [using Spirent's User Experience Analytics System, Datum] :

• .. the web browsing speeds for Telefonica O2 on the 5 tested websites ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average time of 2.7 seconds, with the lowest ranked network at 3.4 seconds
   
• the file download speeds for Telefonica O2 and one other network were jointly ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks with average speeds of 11.3 Mbps and 11.6 Mbps, respectively, and with the lowest ranked network at 6.4 Mbps (the difference between the top 2 measured networks was not statistically meaningful, leading to a joint ranking)
   
• the file upload speeds for Telefonica ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average speed of 5.5 Mbps with the lowest ranked network at 3.0 Mbps
   
• the web browsing success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 97.9%, with the highest ranked network at a 98.6% success rate and the lowest ranked network at 96.4%
   
• the file download success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 98.6%, with the highest ranked network at a 99.5% success rate and the lowest ranked network at 97.4%
   
• the file upload success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at 99.2%, with the lowest ranked network at 97.6%.

Spirent's Datum QoE Reports

 

See "Spirent Releases User Experience Study of Britain’s 4G Mobile Services' - here.

[Research]: VoLTE is Better than OTT VoIP

Mobile networks vendors continue to claim that their built-in VoIP (VoLTE) beats OTT's VoIP in all aspects - efficiency,performance and quality.

We saw internal research from Nokia - see "NSN: VoLTE Beats OTT VoIP 4:0 !" - here and "Nokia: VoLTE is Doing Better than OTT's VoIP Under Load" - here.

Alcatel-Lucent joins the trend and announces "the results of an independent research study [Signals Research Group, here] which found that its commercially deployed Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology provides better service than 3G Circuit Switched (CS) voice and Internet calling services and Skype software. The analysis found that VoLTE users enjoyed considerably better call quality, faster connectivity and substantially less drain on the batteries of their mobile devices"

• VoLTE call quality greatly exceeded that of 3G CS voice and was measurable higher than the HD voice service offered by Skype
   
• With network loading, and in particular with background applications running on the mobile phone and transferring data with the network, the VoLTE results were considerably better than Skype
   
• VoLTE call setup time was nearly twice as fast as 3G Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) call setup
   
• VoLTE used substantially fewer network resources than Skype voice, which in turn resulted in longer estimated device battery life for the subscriber and a more efficient network for the operator
   
• When leaving LTE coverage, VoLTE calls were successfully handed over to 3G CS voice. The network’s enhanced Single Radio Voice Call Continuity ensures calls continue without interruption

See "Signals Research Group study shows commercially deployed VoLTE service better than 3G and Internet calling services such as Skype™" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: NMS Market to Reach $5.6B by 2018; Driven by LTE

A new report by Shanthi Ravindran [pictured], Senior Analyst, Gorkem Yigit, Research Analyst and Glen Ragoonanan, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The worldwide network management systems (NMS) market is forecast to grow from USD4.6 billion in revenue in 2013 to USD5.6 billion in 2018, at a 3.9% CAGR, starting to recover from the 4% decline in 2012 and 2% growth in 2013". 

These are much lower numbers than forecasted in the past by the Analysys Mason team.

2 years ago, they saw a $6.4B for 2016 (see "[Analysys Mason]: NMS Market - $4.7B in 2011, $6.4B in 2016" - here], and compare the two charts below:

"LTE roll-outs will still be the major driver of mobile NMS investments, followed by network upgrades and small cell deployments in the mature LTE networks. TD-LTE spending in emerging Asia–Pacific (APAC) – particularly China and India – will compensate for the decline in LTE spend in developed APAC.

Video, new digital services (such as home security and m-health) and small cells will sustain residential broadband NMS revenue at a low rate of growth, while national broadband network (NBN) FTTx spending, which has been focused in APAC,
declines".

Note the position of SDN and NFV as both drivers and inhibitors (see chart below).

See "NEPs' network management systems: worldwide forecast 2014–2018" - here.

T-Mobile to Shape Misusage Over LTE

  

Years after P2P identification and shaping was almost the only business for DPI products in the fixed market (starting with music files going to video), it is back again - to LTE networks.

Cam Bunton reports to TmoNews that In an "..internal memo to staff, it’s been revealed that T-Mobile is going to clamp down on users taking advantage of their unlimited 4G/LTE plans for peer-to-peer file sharing and other misuse of their data allowance" (see the leaked document below) 

Misuse, a-la T-Mobile, includes P2P file-sharing, but also other popular uses, such as M2M (here) "using the Service in connection with server devices or host computer applications, including continuous Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications that are broadcast to multiple servers or recipients, “bots” or similar routines that could disrupt net user groups or email use by others or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality"

Will the FCC send now a new set of questions to US MNOs, based violating the open Internet principles by discriminating content?  (see "FCC Expands Traffic Management Policies Questioning to all MNOs" - here) 

See "T-Mobile to throttle customers who use unlimited LTE data for torrents/p2p" - here.

[Infonetics]: Ericsson Scores as Best SDP Vendor

A new vendor scorecard report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research (new logo on the right) "ranks the 5 largest global vendors of service delivery platform (SDP) software: Ericsson, HP, Huawei, OpenCloud, and Oracle"

The report finds that “Based on completely quantitative metrics, including financial information, product capabilities and service provider feedback, we named Ericsson the top vendor in the service delivery platform (SDP) software market, with Oracle following close behind .. Ericsson scored particularly well on service and support and product reliability, and Oracle received high ratings on financial stability and solution breadth. Both companies, however, scored below average when it came to pricing .. Key to #2 Oracle’s continued success in the SDP software market will be its ability to capitalize on the demand for enterprise applications and services, including machine to machine"

See "Ericsson and Oracle shine in new service delivery platform scorecard" - here.

$17M PCC Deal for RedKnee w/EMEA Group

Redknee Solutions announced that a ".. leading group operator in EMEA has signed multiple software and services orders totaling more than $17 million with Redknee ..Utilizing Redknee Unified, Redknee’s real-time monetization and subscriber management software solution, the CSP can launch innovative data services and personalized offers and generate new revenue streams". 

Lucas Skoczkowski [pictured], CEO, Redknee said: "We are very pleased to support this group operator in enhancing their competitiveness across multiple countries. This demonstrates the confidence this group operator has in Redknee’s expertise to support the aggressive growth strategies of communications service providers across the world”.

See "Leading EMEA Group Operator Signs $17 Million of Orders with Redknee" - here.

SoftBank Uses Ericsson's Mobility-based Policy to Relief Congestion

Ericsson and SoftBank Mobile announced that they are ".. working together to further improve the user experience in even the most congested network environments with new Mobility-based Policy .. Ericsson's new software feature, the Mobility-based Policy creates a direct connection between Ericsson SGSN-MME and Ericsson Service-Aware Policy Controller. 

This connection enables mobility management information from the SGSN-MME to go directly to the Service-Aware Policy Controller, while selected policy decisions from the Service-Aware Policy Controller can then go directly to the SGSN-MME. By off-loading the gateway, Mobility-based Policy supports an enhanced, location-based mobile user experience while reducing signaling traffic in the network. This is especially important in highly congested user environments such as Tokyo busy-hours".

See "Ericsson and SoftBank demonstrate mobility-based policy to improve performance" - here.

FCC Expands Traffic Management Policies Questioning to all MNOs

Alina Selyukh and Marina Lopes report to Reuters that "The top U.S. communications regulator on Friday said he is asking all large U.S. wireless carriers to explain how they decide when to slow download speeds for some customers, after questioning Verizon Wireless about such a plan"

This follows the letter sent earlier to Verizon (See "The FCC "Deeply Troubled" by Verizon's LTE Optimization" - here) following the MNO's decision to expand its "optimization" policy to LTE and limit unlimited users in congested locations (see "Verizon Expands "Optimization" to LTE Subs to Fight Cell Congestion" - here).

Verizon's response to FCC worries was (here, by TheRegister) that it is the right thing to do and everybody does that (try to claim that in a trial):  "The Commission Has Recognized the Reasonableness of this Form of Network Management .. Such Practices Are Widely Used Throughout the Industry and Have Been Widely Accepted [we are] Managing our 4G LTE to Ensure the Best Wireless Experience [and] With network optimization, our customers continue to be free to go where they want on the Internet and to use the applications, services and devices of their choice"

So ... if everybody does it, need to ask them as well.

Back to Reuters report - "AT&T Inc representatives did not immediately comment. A Sprint Corp spokeswoman said her company "goes to great lengths to be transparent about its network management practices," and will respond to Wheeler's letter as appropriate. "Our network practices are consistent with the Commission’s rules on the open Internet, are innovative and are good for consumers and competition," a T-Mobile US spokeswoman said." 

 

See "After Verizon, U.S. FCC quizzing other carriers on data management" - here.

Openet Launches Virtual, Partners Enabled, BSS Infrastructure

Openet announced that it has "..virtualized its real-time charging system. This builds on the existing virtualization of Openet’s policy and mediation systems, its secure API gateway technology and its Fusionworks platform .. By fully virtualizing its BSS infrastructure, Openet will enable mobile operators to more rapidly monetise new capabilities including VoLTE QoS management, shared data plans and sponsored data in a matter of weeks (rather than months or in some cases years with traditional legacy systems). 

By removing the need to create a full hardware-based environment, Openet has simplified the deployment process, enabling operators to focus on creating new revenue streams without having to deal with issues around integration, deployment and infrastructure management".

Related post: "Openet to Use VoltDB In-Memory DB for NFV" - here.

Openet's Virtualized BSS architecture

For several years, service providers have been interested in enabling a multi-sided business model where the operator acts as an enabler between upstream partners (software developers, content providers, OTT, M2M, Healthcare etc.) and downstream consumers and enterprise customers.

Virtualization makes this possible. The ease with which virtualization allows different combinations of BSS components to be deployed in a multi-tenant fashion on a common platform allows an operator to create “tailored” solutions for specific market segments. By exposing this capability to external entities such as MVNO or Enterprise customers, the operator can enable new business models and revenue opportunities

Opening Virtualized BSS to Partners / New Service Enablers

See "Openet virtualizes its entire BSS infrastructure" - here.

Netflix Prevents DPI-based Rating Measurements

Peter Kafka [pictured] reports to re/code that "Netflix doesn't want anyone to know how many people watch its original shows, like “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black .. But until a few months ago, at least one company had a pretty good idea — and shared it publicly. Now Netflix has plugged that leak.

Procera Networks .. says it was able [see "Procera: Netflix' House of Cards Stats; Need 27GB to See it All" - here and chart below] to track individual shows Netflix users streamed on multiple Internet networks for several days at a time .. [Procera] couldn’t provide overall viewership numbers for Netflix’s shows, but could at least provide directional information, by showing how they performed on several of its client’s networks. 

Procera anlytics for a US MSO network, on "House of Cards" Season 2
Release day, Feb 14, 2014,  

..[Netflix] appears to have tacitly acknowledged that Procera’s data was accurate, because it has taken steps to cut Procera off .. That happened in late spring, when Netflix began anonymizing its files. You can see evidence of Netflix’s plans via release notes the company sent to broadband providers that work with the company’s Open Connect data network [see "Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun" - here]; Netflix told partners that new software would “further protect content and utilization information,” and “may minimize the accuracy of devices that perform DPI or traffic reporting ..Netflix declined to comment".

See "How One Company Figured Out How Many People Watch Netflix’s New Shows — And How Netflix Stopped Them" - here.

Cache Deployments [318]: kbro [Taiwan] Selected Qwilt

Qwilt announced that :it has been "chosen by kbro, the largest cable operator in Taiwan, to provide a solution for the staggering growth of over-the-top (OTT) video on demand (VOD) and live video traffic, including Twitch, the largest live video site in Taiwan

kbro serves over 400,000 customers—who expect high performance—and Qwilt’s solution allows kbro subscribers to view high quality content almost instantly in addition to support for unique video sites in Asia including Youku, FC2.com and QQ.com. Qwilt’s unique media signature approach to video classification and caching is part of the reason its caching efficiency is so high when compared to legacy caching solutions".

See "Taiwan’s Largest Cable Operator Implements Qwilt, Sees Up To 385% Increase in Customer Quality of Experience" - here.

Procera Sees Increased Interest in US Mobile (3 Trials)

Procera Networks published its Q2 results (revenues of $20.6M, here), and provided some additional information during the earning call - mostly by James Brear [pictured], CEO shown below, with some quotes from Procera's SEC filing (here).Similarly to Allot Communications (see "Allot: Expects US Growth" - here), Procera is positive on the US mobile market.

• About the recently announced RAN perspectives (see  also "More on Procera's Device-based Solution" - here): "We're excited that we have a number of Tier-1 mobile operators testing this technology, and we plan to announce further RAN Perspectives enhancements in the coming quarters .. [it] really extend our reach into the RAN, but even specifically onto the device. We are going to have our technology embedded in the SIM that allows us to get location awareness. And for the service provider, that's very valuable, when you can combine RAN intelligence with packet intelligence".
   
• Trial activity is strong. We have 14 direct trials with Tier-1 global service providers. These trials are underway or plan to begin in the next 60 days. It should be noted that we continue to see increased interest from U.S. mobile operators and are in or plan to begin trials with 3 U.S. mobile carriers .. [RAN Perspective] has not been presented to them yet"

• Based on our bookings, current funnel and expected orders, we are maintaining our full year revenue guidance of 15% growth compared to 2013 .. over the last 24 months, we definitely seen an increase in our mobile, and I would expect that to continue".
    
• For the three months ended June 30, 2014, two customers represented 11% [$2.3M] and 10% [$2M], respectively of net revenue with no other single customer accounting for more than 10% of net revenue. For the six months ended June 30, 2014, no single customer accounted for more than 10% of net revenue
   
• OEM business - For the three and six months ended June 30, 2014, Vineyard contributed approximately $1.1 million and $2.1 million in revenue

See "Procera Networks' (PKT) CEO James Brear on Q2 2014 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", By SeekingAlpha - here.

Allot: Expects US Growth; VAS Could Reach 50% of Revenues

Allot Communications published its Q2 results (revenues on $28.2M, here). During the earning call, the new President and CEO, Andrei Elefant [pictured], who assumed the CEO position on July 1st, provided some observations on the DPI business:

• Revenue from EMEA where 62% and bookings from this territory during the quarter indicates a continuous pull up from the 2012 flows. APAC and Americas were each 19% of revenues.
     
• In the U.S., we feel that the interest from the side of service providers in application-centric solutions is growing, as the industry approaches the final phase of the new net neutrality rules formation. The FCC will vote on accepting the new net neutrality rule during the second half of September, once the period of comment submission by industry participants is terminated. We believe that the interest in application-centric solutions will grow thereafter. 
  
  Related post: "Sandvine to the FCC: Internet Fast Lanes are not Needed" - here.
   
• We note that the progress to win new customers in the U.S. may be lengthy, but might expedite once the regulatory framework is completed .. we already have projects, a Tier 1 operators in the U.S. And this is something that we won 2 years ago and we have some very nice customers in North America. The comment that I was making [above] is mainly to explain that we believe that the environment is going to look better for us because of the recent changes that we see .. We have some projects in the pipeline ..

Regarding Value-Added services:

• Our funnel consists of major portion of value-added service projects and we continue to view this segment, spearheaded by revenue-generating services such as analytics, network security and application-centric services, as key catalyst for our ongoing growth
   
• we see between 20% to 30% of our booking coming from the value-added services .. [Q: So you're saying it could go 50-50?] A: Yes
   
• ..these value-added services are helping us also to penetrate and helping us on the competitive front to differentiate ourselves versus competition
   
• Examples for these directions are application-centric services such as zero-rated plans and personalized security services. We are seeing an increased demand for such applications from the side of leading global mobile service providers, and our offering in this space is gradually becoming a meaningful focus of our overall value-added services suite

See "Allot Communications' (ALLT) CEO Andrei Elefant on Q2 2014 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", by SeekingAlpha, here.

Israel: Wi-Fi Offload Allowed!

A year ago the Israeli Ministry of Communications decided that MNOs will not be allowed to offer Wi-Fi offloading in public areas (see "Israel: MNOs won’t Offload to Wi-Fi" - here).

This has changed today, and the Ministry announced (here, Hebrew) that any organization may offer such services, in any location (private or public). Some municipalities, such as Tel Aviv, are offering free Wi-Fi services for sometime now.

MNOs will not be able to charge extra from their customers for the Wi-Fi access, and will not be able to count the usage towards their monthly quota.

[MarketsandMarkets]: CDN Market to Grow at 27% CAGR

 
A recent report by MarketsandMarkets finds that "CDN adoption is increasing due to its increasing implementation globally specially in North America (NA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions. 

The media and entertainment vertical has the highest share in the overall content delivery networks (CDN) market. Other than the media and entertainment vertical, CDN has a wide portfolio in advertising, gaming, e-commerce, ISP, mobile operators, consumer electronics, online music retailers, and healthcare, higher education, and government verticals.

The Content Delivery Networks market is expected to grow from $3.71 billion in 2014 to $12.16 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.8%. The APAC region is growing rapidly with a CAGR of 38.2%, from 2014 to 2019

See "Content Delivery Networks (CDN) Market (Delivery Technologies, Hardware, Analytics, Monitoring, Encoding, Transparent Caching, DRM, CMS, OVP) – Trends, Geographical Analysis & Worldwide Market Forecasts (2014 – 2019)" - here.

More on Procera's Device-based Solution

I had a short Q&A session with Cam Cullen [pictured], Procera Networks' VP of Global Marketing following their recent announcement (see "Procera Revolutionizes Location-based Mobile Traffic Management" - here).

Q: I understand that this is a device-based solution (App ?). Which platforms are supported?
A: This is a SIM-based application, so device and OS independent

Q: What does the device measures - how does it calculate the QoE?
A: It measures signal strength and quality on the device, and the PacketLogic measures the IP QoE on the network. One of the things missing from the operator’s visibility today is what signal is actually being received by the device (I have three bars!). With RAN Perspectives, we are able to get the signal strength and quality directly from the device, and measure this in other real-time (for customer care) as well as historically for service availability measurements for each subscriber.

We can also do what we call “out-of-coverage” detection, and store when a subscriber falls out of coverage with their location and time, and then report when they come back on the network, helping the operator detect coverage holes proactively, and ensure that high value subscribers are receiving a high quality of experience. This is part of our Crowd Sourced Minimized Drive testing solution offering with the product.

Q: Will you measure higher-level, application-related KPIs?
A: We will, but that will happen in the network with PacketLogic. We do not want to impose device limitations by going up to the application layer, which brings up privacy issues as well as limits the usefulness of the solution. The SIM does not have full access to that type of information easily.

Q:  How it will be distributed to the users?
A: This is distributed via OTA servers on the mobile network

See also a blog post by Cam: "From the Handset to the Internet: Enhancing the Subscriber Experience" - here.

Procera Revolutionizes Location-based Mobile Traffic Management

Current congestion management and analytics solutions for mobile networks are usually based on core network located products, and are only partially aware to the real time location and congestion status of each user and base station. 

Some DPI and PCRF vendors announced solutions and partnership to overcome the lack of real-time  information, usually with the help of probes deployed in the access network (Sandvine; Flash Networks; Allot-Amdocs; Sandvine-RADCOM ; Amdocs-RADCOM; HP-RADCOM).

Procera Networks is announcing today a new solution and concept, based on QoE and real time location measurements taken at the User's device - in a crowd sourcing fashion. Subject to cooperation by the users, this can lead into a much more accurate traffic management solution, implementing a real "reasonable network management" policy with real-time and long-term capacity management options. 

Procera announced the "..launch of RAN Perspectives, a ground-breaking new Subscriber Experience solution for mobile broadband operators that delivers real-time location and RAN QoE awareness. RAN Perspectives is a software solution that provides real-time location and radio access network (RAN) quality of experience (QoE) data that can be leveraged to enhance the mobile broadband experience for consumers .. dramatically reducing their deployment of probes and the costs associated with drive testing while expanding their visibility into the RAN in real-time to gain insight and take action .. RAN Perspectives is available for beta testing, and is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 2015"

Shira Levine, directing analyst, Service Enablement and Subscriber Intelligence, Infonetics Research said: “A device-based solution such as RAN Perspectives has the potential to more effectively manage congestion while enabling a broad array of additional services, solutions and applications, which could have dramatic implications for mobile networks.”

"Unlocking real-time location awareness and RAN signal quality measurements opens up a number of operational and service opportunities that Procera will roll out over the next 12 months, with the initial offerings including:

• Customer Care Insights solution with integrated RAN and IP mobile broadband-centric subscriber diagnostics for customer care teams
• RAN Perspectives-based view for Insights that delivers analytics for quality, congestion, applications, and out-of-coverage hotspots in the mobile network for marketing and engineering teams.
  
• RAN congestion management based on real-time location awareness to identify and take action on congested areas, enhancing subscriber QoE.
  
• Location-based service plan offerings including location-specific policy enforcement and charging for marketing teams.
  
• Crowd-sourced minimized drive testing and out of coverage registration for RAN engineering teams"

See "Procera Networks Launches Groundbreaking RAN Perspectives Solution for Mobile Network Operators" - here.

Apple's CDN Goes Live; Increases Capacity 10x

 
Dan Rayburn [pictured] reports to Streaming Media that "Recently, Apple’s CDN has gone live in the U.S. and Europe and the company is now delivering some of their own content, directly to consumers. In addition, Apple has interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast and others, and has paid to get direct access to their networks .. From ISPs I have spoken with, they tell me Apple has put a massive amount of capacity in place, with many saying that Apple has more than 10x the capacity they are using today, all ready to go."

[related post: "CDN Helps ISP to Manage iOS5 Update Traffic" - here]

"While Apple will probably never completely move away from third-party CDNs, like Netflix did, they will rely less on third-party CDNs over time, just like we have seen with Microsoft, YouTube and others. Level 3 will be able to make up for lost CDN business as they are one of the vendors that Apple is buying wavelengths, IP transit, fiber and other infrastructure services from .. It is also important to point out that decisions around who (Apple/Akamai/Level 3) delivers what (updates, streaming, apps, radio) to whom (ISP customers, different devices etc.) are under Apple’s control"

See "Apple’s CDN Now Live: Has Paid Deals With ISPs, Massive Capacity In Place" - here.

Courtesy of Facebook: Zero-Rated Apps for Airtel Zambia

Facebook launched its first "Internet.org" service, based on the acquired Onavo technology [see "Facebook Acquires Onavo for $100M" - here] in Zambia.

Internet.org defines "Efficiency" as one of the solution they look for: "Transmitting data—even a text message or a simple web page—requires bandwidth, something that’s scarce in many parts of the world. Partners will invest in tools and software to improve data compression capabilities and make data networks and services run more efficiently" - this is where Onavo fits [See "Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service" - here].

Guy Rosen, Product Management Director, updates about the new service to Airtel subscriber, in Zambia:

"today we are introducing the Internet.org app to make the internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services. With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges. By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise.

The Internet.org app will be available first to Airtel subscribers in Zambia [enabling] basic access to: AccuWeather, Airtel, eZeLibrary, Facebook, Facts for Life, Google Search, Go Zambia Jobs, Kokoliko, MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action), Messenger, Wikipedia, WRAPP (Women’s Rights App). Zambia uReport
 

See "Introducing the Internet.org App" - here.

Qwilt: 400% Y/Y Increase in NA Cable Customers

Qwilt announced "over 400 percent growth in new North American customers over the past 12 months. New customers include regional and national Cable System Operators who are deploying Qwilt’s Open Caching Architecture in their networks across North America to solve the problem of insatiable demand for live and on-demand streaming video into the home". 

Customers in the release are Clear Lake (Iowa) and Yucca Telecom.


See "Qwilt Solves Online Video Bandwidth Challenges for North American Cable System Operators" - here.