Rostelecom Issued a $33M DPI Tender for 3G Network

 
A tweet by Allot Communications led me to an article in the Moscow Times stating that "as Rostelecom begins finally to build up its 3G network, the state-controlled telecom company plans to spend $33 million on a system to manage mobile internet traffic, allowing it to block websites flagged by the telecommunications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, Vedomosti reported Tuesday". 

The article in Vedomosti (here) says that Rostelecom issued a tender for the DPI project, and the project is planned to be completed by April 30, 2014. Rostelecom will be able to use the DPI systems to offer new Tariff plans, quota plans with speed based penalty, and more.

"Rostelecom will be the last of Russia's big four telecom companies to acquire this capability. MegaFon installed a similar system in 2009, MTS in 2010 and VimpelCom in 2011 .. MTS spent about $50 million on its DPI-based system, which allowed the company not only block the black-listed websites but also introduce unlimited Internet plans with add-on features such as parental control, said Irina Ogarkova, a spokeswoman for MTS, Vedomosti reported".

See "DPI Deployments: Mapping of Russian ISPs" - here.

"The proposed system will use Deep Packet Inspection technology, or DPI, allowing the company to filter traffic based on its content rather than its source. DPI inspects every one of the millions of packets of data within the traffic stream and makes decisions on what to do with each of them based on the content of that data. So, instead of blocking whole websites based on the IP address of the server, the system will have the option of blocking single pages, leaving the rest of the site untouched"

See "Rostelecom to Invest in Internet Filter as New 3G Network Comes on Line" - here.

Huawei: New Traffic Management Products and Deployments

Huawei issued a number of press releases related to traffic management solutions:

• Value Growth Solution 2.0 (VGS2.0) - "the company’s second generation traffic management solution, which integrates an operator’s IT & CT layers, offering innovative approaches to boosting user experience and traffic revenue. This solution highly integrates analytic engine, dynamic charging system, PCRF, PCEF and network enabler, shortening TTM via IT & CT orchestration and preset cases. It realizes dynamic policy control and implementation of flexible tariff plans, improving network utilization efficiency by E2E network resources allocation. At the same time, it gives power to the users so that they are able know and control their data consumption in real time".    
  
  "Huawei VGS has been successfully deployed by 150 operators in 60 countries, including China Mobile, MegaFon (Russia - see "MegaFon[Russia] Uses Huawei (and Cisco and NSN) for Traffic Management" - here.), Etisalat (UAE), and Telenor (Norway)"
  
  See "Huawei to Debut Value Growth Solution 2.0 at Mobile World Congress 2013" - here.
   
• Successful completion of trials for its Service Quality Improvement (SQI) solution - "..on networks in Turkey, Belgium, and Spain. Huawei's SQI solution objectively measures network service quality, precisely identifies network quality issues, and realizes quality of service (QoS) improvements.
  Huawei's SQI solution makes a set of KQI definitions that more precisely measure real user experience. With revamped related-analysis methodology, it locates E2E the root cause of a network issue. Compared to traditional network KPI optimization routines, the SQI solution's innovative methods improve voice and data QoS while reducing costs and increasing efficiency".
  
  See "Huawei SQI Solution Shown to Improve Quality of Service on Networks in Turkey, Belgium, and Spain" - here

• Video call quality assurance solution -  "based on a new Flow Priority Indicator (FPI) technology. The solution provides end-to-end quality assurance and charging functions for subscribers of video call service packages, improving user experience and bringing new revenue potential for operators .. Huawei's FPI technology was designed to meet the needs of both operators and subscribers. In scenarios where bandwidth is limited, subscribers who have purchased video call service packages supported by FPI are given a higher priority and can enjoy better video call service quality. Utilizing the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), the solution matches the services subscribers are using with their purchased subscriptions to prioritize limited network resources. FPI also precisely calculates service assurance duration and uplink and downlink traffic, supporting operators for content charging and operation of premium and high-value services".
  
  See "Huawei Launches FPI Video Call Quality Assurance Solution for Operator Revenue Growth" - here.

DPI Deployments [195]: Mapping of Russian ISPs

A story by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan (both pictured) to Wired covers, among other things, DPI deployments by the leading Russian ISPs:

“We got our first client in 2004, it was Transtelecom. But it was its security department, so DPI was intended for its internal network,” said Roman Ferster, CEO of RGRCom company, the main distributor of Allot DPI technologies in Russia .. They helped install Allot devices in the Tatarstan region, in the Far East, in VimpelCom’s ISP network in Moscow, in the Ural regional operator’s network, and so on .. Ferster’s company also offers Russia technology that can solve the technical problem of blocking a single video clip instead of YouTube as a whole".

".. DPI did not really arrive in Russia until the end of the 2000s, and now many of the biggest DPI technology vendors have a presence in Russia: Canada’s Sandvine, Israel’s Allot, America’s Cisco and Procera, and China’s Huawei".

"By the summer of 2012, all three national mobile operators in Russia already had DPI at their disposal: Procera was installed in VimpelCom [here], while Huawei’s DPI solutions are in use in Megafon [here], and MTS bought CISCO DPI technology".

"The ISPs turned out to be more hesitant in adopting DPI technologies. All the engineers we have interviewed, who deal with DPI in Russia, told us that most ISPs do not understand why they need to install this technology"

See "The Kremlin’s New Internet Surveillance Plan Goes Live Today" - here.

Comptel Acquires Analytics Company Xtract

   

Comptel announced it "is acquiring Xtract Oy, a Finnish software company specialising in advanced analytics, for a total consideration of EUR 3.1 million (enterprise value). Xtract has approximately 20 customers including telecom operators AVEA in Turkey, DNA in Finland (Comptel customer - here), Megafon in Russia and TeliaSonera in Finland as well as insurance company If, retail and media companies. Xtract’s net sales were EUR 2.4 million in 2011. Xtract has 27 highly skilled employees which are mainly based in Espoo, Finland .. This offering will enable operators to react quickly to events from the network and transform them automatically into relevant and timely actions that improve the customer experience.." 

 

See "Comptel takes next steps in executing its strategy by acquiring leading analytics company Xtract" - here ; see also "Policy Management Personalization: Comptel Deployments" - here. 

DPI Deployments[104]: MegaFon[Russia] Uses Huawei (and Cisco and NSN) for Traffic Management

 

From left: Mr. Dmitry Mikhaylov, MegaFon;
Mr, Mark Newman, Informa;
Mr. Zhou Keke,  Huawei

The "Most Innovative New Service Launch Enabled By Traffic Management" award delivered at the Broadband Traffic Management Congress earlier this week (here) was presented by Informa to Huawei and MegaFon, the second largest operator in Russia.

Huawei issued a press release (here), with more details on the implementation at MegaFon - which goes back to 2008.

The solution provided by Huawei - Mobile Broadband Value Growth Solution (MBB VGS - see chart below) includes ".. charging & service control gateway, optimization & adaptation gateway, PCRF and Rating Engine, provides a solution with refined traffic operation, quicker customization and powerful integration .. Huawei Smart DPI, which identifies over 800 protocols, helps with refined and visualized operation. Powerful and flexible operational control provides powerful and flexible billing service control capabilities to help operators build a network that can operate to enhance the mobile user's ARPU."

"MBB VGS helps operators to set flexible bandwidth for users according to different protocols used by the users, and implements bandwidth control policy by user profile, service protocol, peak hour, URL, connection, accumulated volume or duration, location and terminal type through automatic protocol adaptation. The customization of bandwidth can be done through webpage/video compression, TCP/IP, transportation protocol optimization, P2P and VoIP service restriction. Hot website/video/P2P file can be cached periodically or based on click numbers to avoid re-acquiring data that has already been retrieved and can reduce the traffic from internet by minimizing the bandwidth utilization".

Huawei has a number of solutions that seems alike. See also "Huawei's SMART MBB" - here and "P2P and Video Caching: Huawei iCache Solution" - here.

MegaFon is the only MNO in Russia that operates its own network and provides a range of services throughout the country. It has more than 60M active subscribers and subsidiaries in Tajikistan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It was announced that MegaFon is also using Cisco's "ASR-5000 for Service Personalization" (here) and Nokia Siemens Network's DPI enabled Flexi-NG (here).

Recent Trends in Policy Control [Part 2] (with examples)

 

This part is dedicated to a recent article by Graham Finnie (picture), Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading, covering "new pricing ideas I've been compiling in connection with Heavy Reading's research on policy management".

See "Mobile Data Packaging: A Policy-Driven Revolution?"  - here.

Graham lists the following cases:

• Movistar Colombia has created five mobile data packages, including one that offers only email, one just for IM, one for social networks – all at low price points.
   
  
• Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) has built a "prayer time" offer, enabling subscribers to block access to the Internet, or to specific IP-based applications (video, chat, voice, gaming, etc.) during prayer times.
   
  
• Poland's Play increased bandwidth, removed volume limits and removed restrictions on P2P traffic between midnight and 9 a.m.
   
  
• Russia's MegaFon [See "MegaFon Deployed Cisco ASR-5000 for Service Personalization" - here] offers unlimited access to some URLs, event-based charging and varying speeds based on protocol and usage profile.
   
  
• In Kuwait, Zain Group (see "Zain Kuwait Prepares for Fair Use Policy" -  here) offers two contrasting prepaid data packages -- one for customers on limited budgets with a low connection speed, and one for those who are mainly looking for occasional high-speed access.
   
  
• In Sweden, 3 Group (See "3 Scandinavia Deploys Procera New 30G DPI Appliance" - here) offers a variety of on-the-fly promotions, including QoS uplift for loyalty and periodic free boosts in data speed.
   
  
• Multiple operators now offer unlimited access to Facebook and other social networking sites within volume-delimited services ; Multiple operators waive data volume metering in off-peak periods, e.g. at night ; Some operators offer "shared wallet" services, in which allocations are shared across different devices or family members, for example ; One operator lets customers choose five Internet sites or URLs and get unlimited access to them.

QoS Deployments (53): MegaFon [Russia] Deployed Cisco ASR-5000 for Service Personalization

   

Cisco announced that "MegaFon, one of Russia's leading telecommunications service providers, has installed the Cisco® ASR 5000 mobile multimedia core platform in its Central Region mobile network. With the high performance and advanced intelligence of the Cisco ASR 5000, MegaFon will be able to serve more customers, more reliably, while delivering enhanced mobile services such as data and mobile video".

See "MegaFon Upgrades Its Mobile Network With the Cisco ASR 5000" - here.

MegaFon is one of three major mobile networks in Russia, and the only one that operates its own network and provides a range of services throughout the country. It has more than 56 million active subscriber accounts.

Note that NSN showcased thier inteligent GGSN, Felxi NG (here), with MegaFon 6 months ago (see "NSN: Policy based Traffic Management with Flexi NG + DPI" - here)

Policy Management: What Does Telefonica Need Now?

  

Peter Dykes, Senior Analyst, Informa Telecom summarizes his conclusions from the recent Broadband Traffic Management Event (here).

"Obviously the focus of the event was based around traffic management, but a complete day was themed to issues around the use of policy .. The change however, is that a move toward more service-oriented applications for PCRF is happening . .. Operators such as Telefonica [see "Telefónica Group Selects Acision/Tekelec" - here and  "Telefónica O2 [Czech Republic] Cleans the Internet with NSN" - here] told delegates at the event that along with the need to manage a massive growth in demand for video, there was also increasing demand for in-line services such as parental control, optimization and security. ..  Huawei for its Russian customer Megafon [here]. In the case of Megafon, as it moved to an all-IP network, the operator was faced with growing data traffic and the fear of becoming a dumb pipe for other people’s content".

See "Realizing the value of policy control" - here.

".. in informal discussions between conference sessions, it became clear that in markets where smart devices such as the iPhone and where dongle usage is low because few people have laptops, policy control is perceived as differentiating technology. Apart from offering superior control of vast numbers of pre-paid customers in comparison to the traditional IN approach, these operators are looking with relish at implementing more effective loyalty campaigns and discounting in markets which are notoriously susceptible to high rates of churn".

See also:

• B/OSS 2011 Trends: Embracing OTT and Integrated Policy Management - here
• Openet: Recent Trends in Policy Management - here
• Infonetics Research: Policy Servers Market to reach $471M in 2010 ; Bandwidth Management is the leading Driver - here