[ACG]: Mobile Core Virtualization Reduces MNOs TCO by 67% Over 5 Years

A new report by ACG Research, sponsored by Affirmed Networks and VMWare finds that "For mobile network operators (MNOs), the decision to delay network virtualization efforts can be a costly one. Every year that MNOs delay the move to network functions virtualization (NFV) cost them millions of dollars in unnecessary capital and operating expenses.

In a five-year cost comparison between MNOs with traditional and virtualized network architectures, ACG found that: 

• MNOs that transitioned to an NFV-based platform began saving money in the first year and realize an investment payback in 3 years
  
• Adopting a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution reduced Capex by 68% and Opex by 67% on average
  
• MNOs were able to turn up a virtualized network much more quickly"

A scenario of a large-scale broadband service, compares virtualizing the following network elements; "Signaling Gateway (SGW), Packet Gateway (PGW), Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF), Subscriber Firewall, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and Web and Video Content Management including caching, image compression, content filtering, TCP optimization, video pacing, header enrichment and gzip compression on text objects" to a traditional best of breed solution:

"the five-year cumulative TCO of the Virtualized solution is 67 percent lower than that of the Traditional solution. Virtualized Capex is 68 percent lower, and Virtualized Opex is 67 percent lower than the Traditional solution"

See "Total Cost of Ownership Study Virtualizing the Mobile Core" - here.

New Player in DPI/Policy-based Mobile Traffic Management: Affirmed Networks

Affirmed Networks emerged from stealth mode and announced the availability of its "..currently-deployable AN3000 solution .. The AN3000 enables operators to manage both subscribers and advanced services in an industry-leading solution that bundles gateway functions with rich application and content delivery services"

 

".. The AN3000 is designed to overcome the major challenges operators face in economically scaling their networks to meet subscriber usage and quality of experience demands, as well as to intelligently treat multiple traffic streams – sometimes from the same subscriber – with dynamic policy, individually tailored services and adaptable charging profiles .. The AN3000’s virtualized software operates on industry standard hardware including both ATCA and blade server".

Affirmed application signature analysis "use combination of SPI, DPI, and application signature analysis rules to perform service-specific traffic processing for any of the integrated AN3000 inline service applications. These applications are built on top of the workflow subsystem which incorporates these complex service rules, therfore new service capabilities become scriptable within the configuration and in many cases do not require an online software upgrade. For example, services that require DPI rules to classify and steer video traffic based on L3/L4/L7 parameters or block peer to peer messaging become simple expressions that can be turned on or off by adding a new workflow service configuration rule. This combination of workflow and SPI/DPI/signature protocol analyzers provides a seamless framework to integrate Gi services and perform traffic steering based on subscriber identity, L3/L4/L7 traffic attributes, Radius subscriber parameters, or dynamic PCRF responses".

"The AN3000 is generally available and in trials with operators around the world"

See "Affirmed Networks Unveils Disruptive Platform to Drive the Economic Capacity of Mobile Networks" - here.