ITU Adopted Huawei's Video MOS Proposal

Huawei announced that "During the recent ITU-T SG12 Q13/12 and Q14/12 interim meetings held in Berlin Germany:

• Huawei’s proposed video MOS Umbrella WID project (G.vidmos) was adopted. The project will provide video MOS evaluation guidelines to the industry with consideration of different classification of related factors. 

• Concurrently, the modification of ITU-T Rec. P.800.1 "Mean Opinion Score (MOS) terminology" with the inclusion of video MOS standardized definitions, suggested by Huawei delegates, was agreed in the meeting.

• During the meeting, Huawei made a proposal to differentiate the PC and Mobile scenarios based on extensive market analysis. It was also proposed to proceed with H. 265 and 4K resolution video MOS evaluation as soon as possible as one of the next phases of work priorities for video MOS.

Meanwhile, as one of the active participants among video MOS companies, Huawei submitted the audio, video, and audiovisual MOS evaluation models to ITU-T SG12 P.NATS project. This model can be used for the evaluation of real time encryption/non-encryption-based media stream OTT"

See "Huawei’s Proposed Video MOS Work Item Gains Approval by ITU-T" - here.

Sweden: ISPs Cannot Be Forced to Block Pirate Bay

THE LOCAL SE reports that "In a landmark decision, a Swedish court on Friday ruled that the country's internet service providers cannot be forced to block controversial Swedish file-sharing site Pirate Bay. After considering the case for almost a month, the District Court of Stockholm ruled that copyright holders could not make Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget block Pirate Bay"
 
Related post - "How will Pirate Bay Avoid Blocking?" - here.

"The court found that Bredbandsbolaget's operations do not amount to participation in the copyright infringement offences carried out by some of its 'pirate' subscribers.

The action was brought by Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry, who teamed up in a lawsuit last year designed to force Bredbandsbolaget to block the site. They claimed that, unless it blocks Pirate Bay, Bredbandsbolaget should be held responsible for the copyright infringements of its customers". 

See "Swedish court: 'We cannot ban Pirate Bay'" - here.

US Patent for Distributed DPI Granted to Ericsson

A new US patent was granted to Francisco Cortes Gomez of Ericsson, for "DISTRIBUTED TRAFFIC INSPECTION IN A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK" (here)

DESCRIPTION

Distributed Traffic Inspection in a Telecommunications Network Technical Field

The present invention relates to methods for traffic inspection in a telecommunications network and to corresponding devices. Background

In telecommunications networks, inspection of a payload section of data packets may be used for enabling smarter network decisions, e.g., with respect to controlling data traffic. For example, the inspection may be used as a basis for providing differentiated treatment of traffic based on potentially complex characteristics of the data traffic itself. This differentiated treatment may involve acting on the data traffic itself, e.g., by discarding data packets, modifying data packets, throttling transmission rates, or the like. Further, the differentiated treatment may involve taking actions related to the data traffic, e.g., charging or replication of the data traffic for law enforcement purposes or monitoring. Such inspection of payload may be implemented as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). DPI functionalities may for example be integrated in nodes conveying user plane traffic, e.g., in a gateway or transport node.

However, DPI may require significant amounts of processing resources. Accordingly, implementation of DPI in a node conveying user plane traffic may result in performance degradation of functionalities needed for conveying the user plane traffic. Such performance degradation may be up to several orders of magnitude.

In addition, the processing load caused by DPI may depend strongly not only on the complexity of implemented inspection algorithms, but also on the nature of inspected data traffic. For example, a high proportion of data traffic which is "easy to classify" may lead to relatively low processing load, while a high proportion of data traffic which is "hard to classify" may lead to a processing load which is significantly higher, e.g., up to several orders of magnitude, even if the absolute amount of conveyed data traffic remains unchanged. Although a statistical distribution of data traffic between „easy to classify" and „hard to classify" may be assumed as a general rule, this may alleviate high load variance within relatively short periods of time, but typically does not alleviate impacts from new traffic patterns or addition of complex services. For instance, the dissemination of a new virus/worm requiring complex detection rules, or the success of a new peer-to-peer product may significantly increase DPI load on a rather short time scale.

DPI may also be implemented in specialized nodes. Such nodes may be optimized for DPI and offer sufficiently high processing resources. However, as additional devices such specialized nodes typically require high-capacity network ports for transfer of the user plane data traffic. This applies to the specialized node itself, but also to other nodes connected to the specialized node. Such high-capacity network ports may contribute significantly to the overall cost of a node. Further, such specialized nodes are typically designed to offer processing resources which are sufficient to perform also very complex inspection and classification algorithms at high speed, which may result in significant costs for a given throughput of user plane data. In scenarios where the user plane data traffic has a high proportion of "easy to classify" data the expensive hardware of the specialized node would be utilized inefficiently. Moreover, such a specialized node may constitute an additional potential point of failure and add complexity to any high-availability transport network design.

Accordingly, there is a need for techniques which allow for efficiently inspecting traffic in a telecommunications network. Summary

According to an embodiment of the invention, a method of inspecting data traffic in a telecommunications network is provided. According to the method, a node of the telecommunications network receives data packets of a flow. The node also forwards the received data packets of the flow to a downstream node of the telecommunications network. Further, the node takes a decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the node. The node indicates a result of this decision to the downstream node.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a method of inspecting data traffic in a telecommunications network is provided. According to the method, a node of the telecommunications network receives data packets of a flow from an upstream node of the telecommunications network. Further, the node receives an indication of a result of a decision by the upstream node whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the upstream node. On the basis of the indicated result of said decision by the upstream node, the node takes a decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the node. According to a further embodiment of the invention, a node for a telecommunications network is provided. The node comprises at least one first interface for receiving data packets of a flow, at least one second interface for forwarding the received data packets to a downstream node of the telecommunications network, and a processor. The processor is configured to take a decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the node and to indicate, e.g., via the second interface, a result of the decision to the downstream node.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a node for a telecommunications network is provided. The node comprises at least one interface for receiving data packets of a flow from an upstream node of the telecommunications network and a processor configured to receive, e.g., via the interface, an indication of a result of a decision by the upstream node whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the upstream node of the telecommunications network. Further, the processor is configured to take, on the basis of the indicated result of said decision by the upstream node, a decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the node. According to a further embodiment of the invention, a system for inspecting data traffic in a telecommunications network is provided. The system comprises a first node and a second node.

The first node is configured to receive data packets of a flow, forward the data packets of the flow to the second node, take a first decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the first node, and indicate a result of the first decision to the second node. The second node is configured to receive the data packets of the flow from the first node and, on the basis of the result of the first decision indicated by the first node, take a second decision whether to perform inspection of a payload section of at least one data packet of the flow at the second node. According to a further embodiment of the invention, a computer program product is provided, e.g., in the form of a computer readable storage medium, the computer program product comprises computer readable program code that, when executed by a processor of a node of a mobile telecommunications network, causes the node to operate in accordance with any of the above methods.

BICS Implemented BroadForward Diameter Signaling Controller; Replaces Oracle?

BICS announced it has launched a "Next Generation signaling solution delivered and implemented by leading network solutions provider Infradata ..  Infradata has implemented the BroadForward BFX Interface Gateway, a Next Generation Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) with fully integrated Diameter Edge Agent (DEA) and interworking function across BICS' entire global IPX (IP Exchange) network".

It seems that BroadForward BICS deployment replaces the ACME (Oracle) solution used by BICS since December 2012 (here).

Broadforward GUI Based Configuration 

"With the migration to BFX, Infradata has equipped BICS with a state-of-the-art Diameter Signaling Solution to cost-effectively enable innovative IPX services, as well as the ability to faster onboard new customers, generate detailed traffic insight and seamless interworking between Diameter, SS7 and RADIUS networks along with integration with IT systems" 

See "Infradata Implements Next Generation Diameter Signaling Solution at BICS" - here.

GSA: 270 5G Networks by 2025, Driven by Capacity for Video and Ultralow Latency

A new report (here) from GSA predicts "over 270 5G networks will be deployed by 2025 and points to two significant trends that are driving the wireless industry to develop 5G network technology. These are: 

• the explosive growth in demand for wireless broadband services, which require faster and higher capacity networks to deliver video
   
• other content-rich services and the predicted massive growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications – some of which will require ultralow latency and need highly reliable IP connectivity".
  
  

See also "GSA's 5G Consensus Insights" - here.

"The report, from the GSA Executive Committee of Ericsson, Huawei and Qualcomm, is the first of its kind and will be updated twice a year. 

See "GSA predicts over 270 5G networks by 2025 in the first Executive Committee report 'The Road to 5G'" - here.

ALU to Offer Vedicis' Smart Data as a Managed Service

 

Vedicis and Alcatel-Lucent’s managed services business announce an "industry-unique service and business model to put clients and subscribers at the heart of service providers’ decision making process .. Smart Data as a Service is a Managed Information Service that complements or replaces the traditional CAPEX model based on hardware, software, storage and analytics by providing a simple access to information for network, marketing, contact centre stakeholders, based on virtualized software and service platforms. 

The main value proposition of Smart Data as a Service consists of:

• Drive customer centric transformation: Adopt and extend a client 360 degrees view to all customers
   
• One Service Multiple facets: Leveraging consistent and critical set of data
• Subscribers, usage, devices, location, net technology, etc
• Capacity planning, network operations, profiling and marketing, revenue assurance, legal compliance, etc.
• Speed, time to deliver value: operational in weeks, removing technology, skills and geography barriers
   
• Pay for what you focus on: Get what you need, avoid upfront investment, maximize return on investment
   
• Real-time: Cut data collection, processing and editing time to seconds 

See "Smart Data As A service with Alcatel-Lucent Managed Services" - here.

Sandvine Receives (Another) $4M Order

No confusion here - it is the 2nd time in 3 days that Sandvine announces that it has "..received a software license expansion order for more than $4 million".

This time "covering its deployments in the mobile properties of a major multi-national operator group in the Caribbean and Latin America region. The order reflects growth in the customers’ deployments of Sandvine’s Network Analytics, Traffic Management and Usage Management solutions".

See "Sandvine Receives $4 Million Software Expansion Order From Mobile Properties Of Major Operator Group" - here.

Citrix De-invests ByteMobile; Blaming Encryption

Citrix acquired Bytemobile in July 2012 (here) for $435M (see "Citrix Expects $15M Bytemobile Revenues in 4Q12" - here) the then leading vendor of video optimization for mobile networks.

Expectation did not met, and during this year Citrix made several announcements about "Exploring Alternatives" for the product line (see "Citrix: Bytemobile Business Declined by 50%" - here). 

So the final decision has been made. Closing. 

Patrick Lopez, Founder and CEO,{Core Analysis} reports that "Citrix has decided to "de-invest" in the ByteMobile product line that was initially reported for sale. Citrix provided this week an update in an investor's call, on the results of its strategic review that was announced in September.

Executives commented:

"The underlying premises for the acquisition of ByteMobile have now vanished.We acquired the company for its ability to optimize video traffic,but today a significant amount of the video traffic is encrypted and can no longer be optimized. [...] We will transition some of the capabilities in the NetScaler product but for the most part phasing that product line out."The company mentioned that ByteMobile revenue for 2015 were expected around $50m and breaking even. XenServer will also be discontinued (unsurprisingly looking at VMWare and KVM's relative success)". 

Related post from September 2014: "Flash Networks (40%) and Citrix (30%) Lead the Mobile Optimization Market" - here. 

See "Citrix shuts down ByteMobile" - here.

Mellanox Launches Programmable Adapter (Offloads DPI)

Mellanox Technologies announced the "ConnectX®-4 Lx Programmable adapter to enable public and private clouds, Web 2.0 infrastructures, telecommunications, and high-performance computing infrastructures to achieve the highest performance and maximum flexibility. 

The ConnectX-4 Lx Programmable adapter provides users with the maximum flexibility to offload CPU utilization by migrating portions of their data processing logic to an on-board Xilinx FPGA [10/40Gb/s FPGA as ‘bump-on-the-wire’], while taking advantage of Mellanox network controller’s hardware-based application accelerations, unmatched scalability and efficiency.

The ConnectX-4 Lx Programmable adapter can be used to accelerate a wide range of network applications, including Security, Deep Packet Inspection, Compression/Decompression, High-Frequency Trading and many more. Thus, it optimizes and achieves the highest performance in modern data centers, private and public clouds, Web 2.0 infrastructure, telecommunications and high-performance computing". 

See "Mellanox Announces ConnectX-4 Lx Programmable Adapter with Onboard Xilinx FPGA Acceleration" - here.

Sandvine Receives $4M Order

Policy Traffic Switch 32000

Sandvine announced that it has "..received an expansion order for more than $4 million. The order expands the implementation of Sandvine’s solutions for a major fixed line Communications Service Provider in North America that has been a customer since 2005 .. The customer is using Sandvine’s products to provide business intelligence for capacity planning, customer experience measurement, and other strategic initiatives.

The purchase relates to Sandvine’s Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) 32000 [see "Sandvine Adds a 200Gbps/2RU Appliance w/100GE Interfaces" - here] hardware. Approximately $1 million of the order value is expected to be recognized as revenue in the company’s fourth quarter, with the remainder to be recognized in FY 2016".

See "Sandvine Receives $4 Million Order For Market-Leading 100 GE PTS 32000 Platform" - here.

Openwave: 3 Tier1 Operators Deployed SDM Solution (Verizon?)

  

Openwave Mobility announced that "three Tier-1 operators have deployed its Subscriber Data Management (SDM) solutions: 

• Openwave Mobility maintains the largest SDM/UDR (User Data Repository) deployment in the world with over 130 million subscribers at a Tier-1 operator in North America 
  
  [At the end of Q3, 2015, Verizon had 137.553M and AT&T had 126.406 wireless subscribers - here. Openwave could not  comment due to NDA with the cusotmer].
   
• The SDM solutions are also being deployed with a Tier-1 operator in Japan
   
• One of the largest group operators based in Europe. 

SDM is being utilized by these operators to address critical use cases such as UDR and identity management solutions. Some of these operators are now looking to deploy IoT devices.

In addition, Openwave Mobility has deployed its Smart User Repository (SUR) with several operators. SUR seeks to provide centralized management of all subscriber data. This allows operators to reduce service innovation cycles by exploiting common subscriber information"

See "Three Tier-1 Global Operators Deploy Openwave Mobility’s Subscriber Data Management Solutions" - here.

Akamai Expands HTTP/2 Deployment

Akamai Technologies announced that it is now "..actively working with more than 150 customers to deliver HTTP/2-enabled websites and is expanding its HTTP/2 program to all customers using qualifying products to deliver TLS encrypted web content.

HTTP/2 represents the first major update to the HTTP network protocol in nearly 20 years. Although websites have dramatically evolved during this time, HTTP, the underlying protocol of the Web, has not. Through features and capabilities such as multiplexing and concurrency, header compression, server push, support for the latest cipher suites, and an overall reduction in development complexity, HTTP/2 is intended to significantly improve the performance and security/privacy of today’s Web.

More than 70 percent of requests on Akamai’s CDN currently come from HTTP/2 compliant browsers; however, some older browser versions will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. Therefore, Akamai’s implementation of HTTP/2 has been designed to use real-time network and end-user intelligence to dynamically apply the appropriate performance optimizations to ensure the best performance for each user. In addition, we believe Akamai is well positioned to offer the tools and intelligence required to take full advantage of the move to HTTP/2. For example, easy‑to‑use, self-service and highly granular configurability allows customers to control the deployment of HTTP/2, while built-in monitoring and reporting helps measure the impact"

HTTP/2 attempts to solve many of the shortcomings and inflexibilities of HTTP/1.1. Its many benefits include:

• Multiplexing and concurrency: Several requests can be sent in rapid succession on the same TCP connection, and responses can be received out of order - eliminating the need for multiple connections between the client and the server
   
• Stream dependencies: the client can indicate to the server which of the resources are more important than the others
   
• Header compression: HTTP header size is drastically reduced
   
• Server push: The server can send resources the client has not yet requested

See "Akamai Helps Drive Adoption Of Faster And More Secure Web Protocol" - here.

RAD, Sandvine and CenturyLink Showcase Application–aware Networking Solutions

RAD, in collaboration with Sandvine and CenturyLink, announced that they are "conducting a joint Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstration  .. The three companies will showcase application–aware service level agreement networking solutions, designed for communications service providers (CSPs) .. The PoC will demonstrate powerful three core capabilities, including assured connectivity for Carrier Ethernet and IP, as well as application-aware visibility and policy control

RAD and Sandvine will demonstrate how their award-winning Service Assured Access and Cloud Services Policy Controller solutions are integrated in an application-aware networking architecture designed to help service providers, like CenturyLink, deliver highly reliable and intelligent business services. 

RAD's Service Assured Access

In particular, RAD’s programmable MiNID provides powerful SLA assurances, application aware networking, and packet capture capabilities in a very convenient “plug wherever you need” SFP sleeve form factor that is ideal for introducing innovative service offerings into existing networks without the need for forklift upgrades.
   
See "RAD, Sandvine and CenturyLink Will Conduct Application-Aware Networking with SLA Assurance Joint Proof of Concept at GEN 15 Conference" - here.

Guavus Launches New Customer Experience Analytics Apps

Guavus announced the "..launch of a new suite of applications to enable the next generation of contextual customer experience analytics that fully illustrate the customer journey across networks and services.

The new application suite enables Service Providers to correlate and fuse petabytes of streaming and operational data with customer data in real-time transforming the Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Marketing functions towards real-time, contextual customer care and proactive business processes. 

The Customer Experience Analytics suite leverages the same data framework as Guavus’ Service Reflex application, which provides insights into service operations, thus providing customers with a complete end-to-end view of the operating environment.

The next-generation Guavus Customer Experience suite is built around two core analytics applications that leverage a common framework for maximum reusability and extensibility:

• Care Reflex: provides customer care agents with unprecedented and granular near real-time insights to determine the precise impactful events affecting the quality of experience at critical points in the customer journey by subscriber. As a result, problems are identified and resolved faster and subscribers receive personalized service that improves customer satisfaction and reduces churn. 

• Marketing Reflex: enables operators to gain a greater understanding of subscribers’ interests to strengthen their competitive position against digital providers and find new revenue opportunities to overcome flat ARPU. 

See "Guavus Introduces a New Customer Experience Analytics Suite Powered by Fast Data Operational Intelligence" - here.

Procera Launches Virtual Experience Probe

Procera Networks announced the release of its ".. game-changing Virtual Experience Probe, eVolution. 

Engineered to deliver intelligence to real-time analytics systems, eVolution is an all-virtual data enablement solution that empowers fixed, cable, mobile and WiFi operators to enhance the subscriber experience, by providing contextual intelligence they can act upon immediately. 

Rather than simply providing raw byte counts that are delivered by traditional probing systems, eVolution provides a broader subscriber view that enables an operator to take advantage of the intelligence in real-time with discount or turbo offers or for customer care problem resolution .. eVolution is available for purchase now. 

The eVolution data probe runs in VMware or KVM virtualization environments on COTS hardware, and is the world’s first fully scalable real-time big data source for network intelligence based on native DPI technology. eVolution is differentiated by:

• Infrastructure and Vendor agnostic data acquisition
• Real-time virtualized software with highly optimized performance on COTS hardware
• Deployment flexibility for a broad ecosystem of customers: carriers, enterprises, system integrators, OEMs, channel partners, and third party big data providers
• Flexible data and KPI formats for use by big data repositories
• Best cost per subscriber value designed to augment or displace cumbersome and expensive passive probing solutions

eVolution’s base solution enables traditional DPI visibility through Traffic Perspectives, with additional Perspectives available to provide a comprehensive view into Subscriber, Routing, Device, Score, RAN, and Content data. These Perspectives are used to enhance the subscriber-focused data feed even further and give a holistic view of the subscriber experience. 

   

See "Procera Networks Launches eVolutionTM Virtual Experience Probe for Broadband Operators" - here.

DNA [Finland] to Roll-Out Comtel's New Mobile Data Purchase SaaS Solution

Comptel Corporation unveiled a "disruptive solution that both simplifies how consumers purchase mobile data, and gives operators the power to maximise mobile data revenues ..  The company’s new FWD solution consists of a native application (app), which lets users buy mobile data packets directly from their Android smartphones whenever they want. Rather than purchasing an inflexible plan based on megabytes or gigabytes, consumers can select a simple, time-based data option, ranging from as short as a minute to as long as a month, and enjoy full use of the Internet 

.. FWD is Comptel’s first SaaS solution and was developed within NXT, the company’s very own start-up incubator.

For example, as soon as a consumer opens up Twitter, or any other app requiring an Internet connection, on her mobile device, she gets a list of available mobile data offers. The consumer selects her desired option, and FWD connects her to the Internet within seconds. Now, she can browse her Twitter feed and explore the Internet without boundaries. She can also check her mobile connection status and extend it at any time.

FWD includes a versatile tool, empowering operators to create, sell and market mobile data offers in real time – without needing to modify their network at all. The tool embeds insightful and actionable analytics, so operators can understand their customers like never before. They may price mobile data dynamically, for example, during peak usage times or “happy hours,” enabling them to better monetise mobile data and to efficiently utilise their existing network infrastructure.

DNA, the leading provider of prepaid mobile subscriptions in Finland, is expected to roll out the service soon to prepaid customers in Finland, making Finnish consumers among the first in the world to enjoy FWD" 

See "Comptel Unveils FWD to Help Mobile Operators Win the Race for the Next Two Billion Internet Users" - here.

Amdocs on Network Optimization Competition

During Amdocs' Q4 2015 earning call, a question was asked about the network optimization market, to which the company has entered using several acquisitions - Celcite (2014, $129M, here) and Actix (2013, $120M, here)

[related post - "Amdocs CEO: 'Network Optimization Business is Slow'" - here]

[Q]  Tom Roderick [pictured], Stifel Nicolaus, Analyst

.. Eli. Curious for your additional thoughts on the competitive landscape and the network optimization business. You mentioned, I think, obviously you guys have been the disruptor in that market. I know Cisco has made some moves competitively. Some of the other NEPs have, as well. What are they doing, what are the traditional network equipment providers doing to protect their position, whether it's through pricing or bundling or things of that nature and how, what are they doing as a response to your disruption in the market?

[A] Eli Gelman [pictured], President & CEO. Amdocs:
    

To be honest, the first thing they do is they try to use a lot of fear against us, because we are the new guys in this area. They will try to slow this thing as much as they can. They will not announce it necessarily, but we see from everywhere. It's not like a specific company I can tell you all the guys that are producing a lot of boxes are trying actively to slow down this trend. I don't think they can do it. Even if they slow it down, it would not take, let's say, five years to come to full fruition. Maybe it will take seven years. You can not slow this down.

And I'll tell you more than that. Carriers cannot afford not to do it, because otherwise, the big guys will do it themselves. Level 3 will do it. Amazon would do it. They will build their own networks. And if the carriers are not careful, both, by the way, MSOs, the Comcasts and the Charter of the world, and the AT&T and Verizon of the world, if they would not do it, other people will do it for them or to them. So they have to do it.

The providers will try to slow it as much as possible. They say that they are investing in it and all of that. I don't think so. And every time that they see that they are a buying company, we've seen in several cases like this, they kill the company. In other words, they buy companies that have some momentum in this area and especially to kill them and not to build them. And we have a very different opinion. We have a different opinion that we have infrastructure and new components and new theory and new approach to this entire thing. And we'll see. We'll have the best man win.

See "Edited Transcript of DOX earnings conference call or presentation 10-Nov-15 10:00pm GMT" - here.

Telecom Italia Deployed Qwilt to Improve OTT Streaming Video QoE

Qwilt announced that "Telecom Italia has deployed Qwilt's award-winning open caching solution to boost network capacity and improve quality of over-the-top (OTT) streaming video for its more than 30 million customers. Telecom Italia implemented Qwilt's solution to provide enhanced quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers using online video and live streaming services from OTT content providers in Italy.

 .. The operator deployed the Qwilt open cache solution over a year ago to create a scalable architecture for its network and has experienced improved performance that meets the needs of its customers.

Qwilt's solution is delivered as a fully managed service to speed deployment and streamline ongoing operation. The broader operator organization -- including network planning, engineering and operations teams -- benefits from comprehensive media analytics, which offer insights into growth trends, content sources and consumer preferences.

By relying on open caching for online video delivery at the network edge, operators can substantially reduce network capital and operational costs -- a typical open cache deployment yields a return on investment (ROI) in less than 12 months.

The open caching deployment at Telecom Italia was supported by local systems integrator Proxy.

See "Telecom Italia Deploys Qwilt to Optimize Over-the-Top Video Content for Improved Customer Quality of Experience" - here.

C&W [Caribbean] Deploys Tektronix' Geoanalytics Platform

Tektronix Communications announced that "Cable & Wireless Communications will deploy its TrueCall® platform to reduce operating expenses and improve network and subscriber services.

TrueCall will be deployed for CWC networks operated under the LIME/Flow brand in the company’s Caribbean coverage area, and under the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) brand in the Bahamas.

With TrueCall, CWC can decrease its operating costs in a variety of ways, including:

• Remote analysis of network performance in order to minimize travel and drive-test costs and increase efficiencies
• Deep, rapid analysis and troubleshooting of subscriber and device performance
• Planning and optimization of network capacity
• Analysis and optimization of roaming-device performance on its network, translating directly into revenue benefits
• Network planning based on historical event insight, identifying trends to better plan for expansions and services"

See "Cable & Wireless Communications to Deploy TrueCall® Geoanalytics Platform to Decrease OpEx, Improve Subscriber Experience" - here.

Vodafone: 75% Growth in Mobile Traffic During H1 2015

Vodafone published its H1 results (here), with some interesting stats its services:

• 30m 4G customers (+10m in H1) in 19 markets
• H1 mobile data traffic up 75%
• record 400 petabytes of mobile data carried in Q2.

See "Vodafone Group Plc Half year results" - here.

EdgeConneX Shows 12-20% Improvement in Quality of Experience

EdgeConneX announced a "Conviva white paper that validates the EdgeConneX business model. The white paper quantifies significant improvements in Quality of Experience metrics for end-users of Internet content and the content creators themselves. 

 

Conviva, the leader in Over the Top (OTT) video experience optimization for the world’s top media companies, measured the video data streams of multiple publishers that distributed EdgeConneX-enabled streams for a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in San Diego, CA. These measurements were compared against a peer network that did not utilize an edge localization strategy with EdgeConneX.

Conviva found that EdgeConneX-enabled streams produced a 12 to 20% improvement in re-buffering rates, which is a measurement of the percentage of the time a video is loading versus playing on an end-user’s device. Re-buffering rates are a clear indicator of the quality of a video. These rates are directly related to lengthier customer engagement times, greater customer satisfaction, and as a result, lower customer turnover and abandonment.

See "White Paper Confirms EdgeConneX Delivers Superior Video Experience" - here.

Comcast Expands Usage Based Billing (Don't Worry - it's 300 GB)

Karl Bode reports to DSLReports that "Comcast continues to ignore customer backlash, and continues to dramatically expand the company's broadband usage caps and overage fees. A close look at Comcast's usage cap "trial" FAQ indicates that the company plans to quietly expand caps into Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Tennessee; and Galax, Virginia starting December 1. 

In all of these markets users now face a 300 GB monthly usage cap, with $10 per 50 GB overage fees.

..A copy of the notice being sent to users informs them that they shouldn't worry about the caps, because the "median usage for XFINITY Internet customers is 40 GB of data in a month" and "it appears this new 300 GB data plan will not impact you."

See "Comcast Dramatically Expanding Usage Cap Areas December 1"- here.

GSA's 5G Consensus Insights

Some slides from a presentation given in Hong Kong at the Global Mobile Broadband Forum on November 4, 2015

source:GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association www.gsacom.com) 

See "5G: CONSENSUS INSIGHTS FROM GSA EXECUTIVE MEMBERS" - here.

Astellia - $1M Contract with Econet Wireless [Zimbabwe]

Astellia announced "..the signature of a €1 million contract with Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s number one operator. Under the agreement, Econet will deploy Astellia’s vendor-independent solution on its 2G and 3G networks and will also get expert support from Astellia’s consulting team.

The Astellia solution allows Econet to closely monitor network performance, as the company takes concrete steps in its pledge to improve the quality of both its broadband and voice services"

Econetr's market information (Aug 31st, 2015):

"Astellia’s comprehensive monitoring solution features Packet Service Monitoring. This advanced module is designed to evaluate the quality of experience perceived from an end-user perspective for data services such as MMS, emails, video streaming and Internet. It will enable Econet’s optimization team to detect and investigate problems such as slow web browsing due for instance to congestion, inefficient transaction procedures or faulty handsets.

See "Econet Wireless calls upon Astellia's expertise to accelerate mobile broadband adoption" - here.

Virgin Media [Ireland] Partners with Webroot for Free, Opt-in Parental Control

 
Virgin Media Ireland announced that it is  "launching a new way to help parents protect their children from age inappropriate material on the web - Virgin Media Parental Controls. 

Free to all Virgin Media broadband customers, this new opt-in service is a first in Ireland and offers a one click solution to automatically restrict access to websites containing age inappropriate content. When parents activate the Parental Controls service, Virgin Media will automatically restrict access to websites under categories including - Adult and Pornography, Hate & Racism & Violence. Once activated, the restriction will become effective across all devices connected to the Virgin Media network in the home.

Virgin Media has partnered with Webroot, a market leader in intelligent cybersecurity for endpoints and collective threat intelligence, to deliver granular URL classification data for Virgin Media Parental Controls through integration with the Webroot BrightCloud Web Classification Service.

The classification data from Webroot enables Virgin Media Parental Controls to establish granular policies that selectively allow, block, or isolate websites based on 10 categories, which include Adult and Pornography, Nudity, Abused Drugs, Marijuana, Hate & Racism, Violence, Hacking, Weapons, Questionable and Gross.

See "Virgin Media launches new one click ‘Parental Controls’" - here.

Major Wireshark Release Announced

Riverbed Technology "sponsor of Wireshark® – the world’s most popular open source network and protocol analysis tool ongoing development project" announced "a major Wireshark release that’s been nearly two years in the making .. Wireshark 2.0 now uses a new application framework to deliver a significantly better user experience on all platforms, particularly Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Key Wireshark 2.0 New Features:

• Language support: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish
• Configurable conversation types
• VoIP player improvements
• New wireless toolbar
• Intelligent scrollbar
• Faster column display
• Filterable expert items
• More conversation filter options
• SSL dissector improvements
• Streamlined menu items
• IO graph, TCP stream graphs, throughput graph, window scaling graph improvements
• IPv6 statistics and address compression
• First column shows Related Packets and Conversation Spans
• Windows stick around for easy comparison of graphs and statistics between captures
• Background dissection makes sorting and other features faster
• Streamlined menu items consolidate different capture and interface dialogs

See "Riverbed Announces Wireshark 2.0" - here.

Telefonica [Argentina] Selected Gigamon for Visibility and Optimization

Gigamon  announced that "Telefonica Argentina, a subsidiary of the Telefonica Group, has selected Gigamon’s visibility solutions to help optimize its subscriber service offerings.

Telefonica Argentina is utilizing a number of Gigamon solutions and technologies including several GigaSMART® applications for traffic intelligence: Adaptive Packet Filtering, Application Session Filtering and Header Stripping as well as Gigamon’s patented Flow Mapping. 

By combining Gigamon´s Aggregation Solution, GigaVUE-TA1, and the GigaVUE-HD8 Fabric Node with the GigaSMART applications implemented as part of a Visibility Fabric™ architecture

Telefonica Argentina gained visibility into more than 32 x 10Gbps IP/MPLS links. The GigaSMART feature set significantly reduced the traffic that needed to be processed by the tools, resulting in a 10:1 cost savings ratio for Telefonica. With Gigamon’s solution in place, Telefonica Argentina can streamline the introduction of new technologies such as VoLTE, IMS and CDN to its network and reduce operational and performance impact.

   

Alberto Bernal, Telecom Network Planning Engineer, Telefonica Argentina said: “Gigamon has also helped us gain greater visibility across our entire network and identify and address issues as soon as they arise. In fact, during the deployment process, Gigamon helped us to troubleshoot a DNS Cache Server Farm performance issue, resolve it remotely avoiding a possible service outage. It really helped us to streamline the performance of the DNS system”.

See "Telefonica Selects Gigamon to Gain Network Visibility and Optimize Customer Offerings" - here.

Exinda Enhances Wan Optimization w/DPI, Diagnostics, Shaping, Acceleration

Exinda announced the release of their "WAN Application Performance Solution ExOS 7.4. With improved diagnostics, shaping and acceleration techniques, this new release will help network administrators guarantee business critical applications perform as promised for all users across the extended enterprise.

.. ExOS 7.4 also enhances Exinda’s application classification engine with new and enhanced application signatures and improved Layer 7 application identification for reporting and policy creation of all traffic in your network. These enhancements include:

• New and updated VoIP
• real-time and conferencing applications
• better control of recreational traffic with enriched BitTorrent detection. 
• the new Google protocol QUIC

Kevin Suitor [pictured], VP of Product Management, Exinda said. “.. this is the first release in a series of releases that will focus on improving acceleration and control of each of the key Microsoft protocols with a goal of creating an Office 365 Solution Pack in 2016.”

See "Exinda Delivers Superior Application Performance in the Branch Office" - here.

FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his views on the Net Neutrality debate in India (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality" - here). Facebook is promoting its  intewrnet.org initiative to allow affordable access to developing countries around the world (see "Update to Internet.org Free Basic Services - here).

Press Trust of India reports that ".. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg [pictured] on Wednesday said his company is committed to net neutrality but supported zero-rating plans which have been criticised by many as violative of the principles of free Internet

When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said: "Absolutely. Net neutrality is important principle. We do a lot to support both in terms of regulation and in our own work building an open platform that any developer can build something for regardless of who they are if they follow the basic rules ..  Internet.org and Facebook are 100 per cent supportive of net neutrality, we lobby for it across the world, we build an open platform with no filtering but at the same time we also need to make sure that we continue to push for access," Zuckerberg said

He said providing free Internet to everyone in the world is expensive and telecom operators spend billions each year bringing Internet to users. "What we are really trying to do is to use Free Basics (previously known as Internet.org) so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated

On zero-rating plans of telecom firms like Bharti Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Zuckerberg said: "But to those who advocate against zero- rating I say look at a student who wants free access to the Internet for her studies

See "Zuckerberg affirms net neutrality but backs zero-rating plans" - here.

Analysys Mason's Recommendations to CSPs & Vendors for the $9.2B SDP Market

A new report by Glen Ragoonanan [pictured], Principal Analyst. and Gorkem Yigit, Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that:

• The service delivery platforms (SDP) market will grow from USD5.7 billion in 2014 to USD9.2 billion in 2019, at a 10% CAGR, thanks to the shift from spending on infrastructure to spending on SDP for existing and new digital services
   
• The main growth drivers are increased video consumption and the growing number of connected smart devices (customers often have more than one)
   
• The availability and affordability of virtualised SDP solutions will drive spending despite lower price points than traditional SDP systems.

Analysys Mason's Recommendations for CSPs:

1. CSPs need to develop new ‘personalised’ (customisable) digital services using an integrated SDP approach
    
2. CSPs should invest in SDPs that optimise and monetise video services and in scalable SDM systems for IoT
    
3. CSPs should virtualise SDP network functions to improve scale and reduce costs

And for vendors:

1. Suppliers should incorporate NFV and SaaS into their CSP SDP solutions to enable faster and more cost-effective delivery of new digital economy services
    
2. Next-generation unified communications (voice, messaging and video) service delivery should be the foundation of TAS offerings
    
3. Growth in video and IoT devices will drive the need for scalable CMD and SDM platforms, increase the number of policy management use cases and investments, and drive supplier ecosystem growth or M&A

See "Service delivery platforms: worldwide forecasts 2015–2019" - here.