SVA Published Open Cache Guiding Principles

    

The Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) published "..guiding principles and system attributes from its Open Caching Working Group. The SVA was established to create an open architecture, standards and best practices to support the future of online video"

SVA member list includes vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Qwilt [see "Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes""- hereas well as CSP such as Comcast, KT, Telecom Italia and Telstra. However,major OTT VIdeo providers such as Netflix are not there.

"..  the Streaming Video Alliance has commissioned the Open Caching Working Group to develop proposed standards, best practices and policy to support a new layer of content caching within the ISP network, close to consumers. 

The Open Caching Working Group, commissioned earlier this year, has already developed a guiding principles document which will serve as the basis for a proposed Open Caching specification. This new Open Caching layer will perform a network function, optimizing network capacity utilization and quality of experience. Moreover, the Open Caching Layer will be open and universal, able to optimize any HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols from any provider.

The attributes of Open Caching system include:

• Open - Components of the system can be implemented by anyone
• Universal - The system can serve any content provider stream, including HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols
• Shared Resource - The system optimizes the use of storage and compute resources for many content providers
• Fairness - Content is treated objectively and in real time
• Network Function - The system creates alternate network capacity and reduces congestion within the ISP network as well as reduces server capacity requirements for the content provider
• Software-based - Components of the system can run as a software solution
• Quality of Experience (QoE) - The QoE for end users being served by the Open Cache will meet or exceed the current QoE without the Open Cache in place.

See "Streaming Video Alliance Publishes Open Caching Guiding Principles and Attributes" - here.

Optimization Deployments [273]: KT [Korea] the First MNO to Use Ericsson Acceleration

Ericsson announced that "KT has entered into an agreement with Ericsson to launch a mobile content acceleration [MCA] service in its live LTE network. This will be the world's first commercial deployment of its kind, and it builds on technology provided by Ericsson.

According to Ericsson's MCA product page - "The Ericsson Mobile Cloud Accelerator comes pre-integrated with the global Content Delivery Network of Akamai Technologies..  When operators sign a separate agreement with Akamai for Over-The-Top monetization, this enables an initial critical mass of content providers whose business is impacted by the performance of the mobile access network"

At the end of Q3, 2013 KT had more than 6.8M LTE subscribers, impressive portion (42%) of thier total customer base.

source: KT

source: KT

"KT completed a technical feasibility study in January this year after testing and verifying the performance and interoperability of Ericsson's solution in a live network. This was followed by a commercial feasibility study in the third quarter, and the positive results led to KT's decision to launch a commercial service by Q1, 2014

The trial results showed that using MCA reduces web page download time by more than 50 percent, dramatically improving the user experience. This is achieved by guaranteeing traffic transmission quality of certain categories of data, such as premium content and application traffic in the radio access area. The idea is to avoid the effects of radio congestion. The prioritization mechanism can be likened to having large vehicles running on a bus-only lane during periods of heavy traffic, while ordinary cars run on other lanes at slower speeds".

See "KT speeds up mobile content using Ericsson technology" - here.

CDN Deployments [239]: KT [South Korea] to Use Akamai Operator CDN

Akamai Technologies announced that KT, the leading telecommunications company in Korea has "..agreed to leverage technology from Akamai to provide CDN services to its customers in Korea. Using Akamai's Aura Managed CDN, KT will have dedicated CDN capacity that is available for its own content applications or third party CDN services .. As part of the multi-year agreement, KT plans to deploy and sell their own operator CDN based on Akamai technology and by leveraging the Akamai Intelligent Platform™.

See also "Akamai to Offer Products for Operator's Own Content Delivery" - here.

At the end of 2012, KT had (see charts below) 16.5M mobile  (3.9M in LTE) and 8M fixed broadband subscribers.

See "KT and Akamai Expand Strategic Partnership" - here.

PCC Deployments [223]: KT [South Korea] Uses Tekelec for VoLTE

   

Tekelec announced that "South Korean mobile operator KT is deploying Tekelec’s market-leading Policy Server (PCRF) for its LTE and 3G networks. The Policy Server will support KT’s new Voice over LTE (VoLTE) offering, LTE data plans and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) service .. Tekelec’s Policy Server will support daily and monthly quota tracking for a variety of services, including voice, Internet usage, file transfer, instant messaging, and video telephony. The daily tracking will give KT new flexibility to offer per diem packages and service options across 3G, LTE and RCS services – a rarity in the industry".

This may be also related to the recent Korea Communications Commission decision to "let three local mobile operators, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, charge users extra fees for VOIP applications or block their use entirely" (here).

".. The operator exceeded three million LTE subscribers in mid-November and four million by the end of 2012 [see chart below] .. The deal expands Tekelec’s policy footprint to a new country in the Asia-Pacific region. The company has additional customers in India, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore".

See "KT selects Tekelec’s market-leading policy server for LTE and 3G networks" - here.

Sandvine: Already $10M Orders from Asian Tier-1

Sandvine announced that it has "..received over $5 million in Network Policy Control expansion orders for a tier-1 customer in its Asia Pacific sales region. Sandvine has now received over $10 million in orders for this customer since August of this year [here]".

Rumors are that one of Sandvine's Asian customers is Korea Telecom. 

"The new orders represent ongoing expansion of Sandvine’s deployment, related in part to the Company’s proven support for identifying and applying policy on IPv6 traffic, and Sandvine’s Service Creation capabilities, which fit the operator’s vision for future service differentiation. The orders included units of Sandvine’s high-throughput, high-density Policy Traffic Switch 24000 to be deployed in the service provider’s network".

See "Sandvine Secures Additional Business in Asia" - here.

Korea's Net No-Neutrality: MNOs may Surcharge for OTT VoIP and Messaging

KaKao Talks

When KPN tried to do it, Netherlands become the first European county with Net Neutrality legislation (here). However, it is a different play for the South Korean mobile operators - SK Telecom, KT and LG U+.

First there were some complaints against SK Telecom and KT about blocking VoIP over mobile (here);  Then KT CEO said that "OTT Providers should Pay or will see a big data blackout" (here). Last month SK Telecom's Head of SKT’s Technology Strategy Office said that "Korean mobile carriers are experiencing difficulties, including decreased SMS revenues and increased network investment cost to accommodate surging traffic, caused by the popularity of various free messaging services ..KaKao Talk, a mobile messaging service used by 37 million Koreans (46 million subscribers globally as of May 2012), is fast becoming a threat to mobile operators as it has recently launched a mVOIP service".

And the result of the campaign?

Yewon Kang reports to IT World that ".. the Korea Communications Commission said last week that it will let three local mobile operators, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, charge users extra fees for VOIP applications or block their use entirely .. SK Telecom and KT currently offer unlimited data plans, which allow users to freely download apps on their networks, whereas LG U+ used to block over-the-top programs entirely .. The companies have not yet released specific information on their new rates .. Unofficially, the KCC has already permitted telecoms to enact policies of their choice regarding third-party apps, experts say".

See "South Korean telcos get OK to charge extra for mobile VOIP apps" - here.

KT: OTT Providers should Pay or "will see a big data blackout"

Korea's KT joins the trend we saw in the past in Europe (here) of demeaning that large Over the Top content providers will pay for network usage, and asks for the regulator to act.

Kim Yoo-chul reports to Korea Times that "KT Chief Executive Lee Suk-chae (pictured) has urged the government and the nation’s leading technology companies LG and Samsung Electronics to pay for using its networks .. Network traffic increased 153 times since smartphones came to Korea three years ago.. Huge burdens over network investments are weighing on consumers as KT has no option but to collect money from customers to secure cash for the networks".

"If the current situation continues, then Korea will see a big data blackout. This is an expected scenario. There’s no free lunch. It doesn’t make sense to ride free on networks".

Dylan Bushell-Embling adds in telecomasis that "KT has already started exploring measures to ease the cost burden of over-the-top content. In February, the company briefly blocked OTT content for Samsung's internet-enabled TVs, and threatened to do the same for LG unless it trump up carriage costs. But when regulator KCC objected, KT lifted the ban after just four days" (here).

Related post from November '11 - "Complaint against SK Telecom & KT for Blocking VoIP over 3G (Using DPI)" - here.

See "KT CEO blasts big firms for 'free riding' " - here.

Complaint against SK Telecom & KT for Blocking VoIP over 3G (Using DPI)

      
We have seen this before (China, KPN, MetroPCS, TeliaSonera) - and here is another example of how mobile operators are trying either to protect their voice revenues or increase ARPU from what they consider as a "premium service" (see also yesterday’s post on Application based Charging - here).

My People

Yoon Ja-young reports to The Korea Times that "Telecommunications companies here have been preventing mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (mVoIP) .. which eat into their profits and weigh on the network ..The Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) and Jinbo Network, the country’s leading NGOs, filed a complaint against SK Telecom and KT, the two biggest industry players, with the Fair Trade Commission and Korea Communications Commiss .. They also submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission seeking restrictions on deep packet inspection (DPI), technology which enables monitoring the communication of users" (see "Is it Possible to Block Skype with DPI ?" - here and "The Challenges of Maintaining a Current DPI "Signatures File" - here)

"Mobile Internet phone services, such as “My People” operated by Daum and “Skype,” send voice through the data networks of mobile carriers. Smartphone users welcomed these services as they can make free phone calls. Instead of levying charges on consumers, mVoIP firms consider advertisements as their income source. SK Telecom and KT however, have banned such services in their customer contracts, except for those who subscribe to the premium data packages costing 54,000 won ($46) or more a month"

An SK Telecom representative said that ".. few countries which fully allowed mVoIP, such as the United States and the Netherlands [here], saw a raise in mobile rates ..  it is impossible to intercept communications with DPI technology. “It only analyzes the type of packets that pass the network. There is no way to analyze the content included in the packet. It is unrelated with private information or privacy" 

   

See "Carriers under fire for banning free Internet telephone services" - here.

DPI/QoS Deployments (47): KT Selects ALU for Application Assured L2/L3 VPNs

  

Alcatel-Lucent announced today that "it has been selected by KT, the largest communication service provider in Korea, to provide a next-generation IP edge network to deliver quality Internet, virtual private networking (VPN) and security services to its business customers in Seoul and other metropolitan areas across the country .. By leveraging the advanced Hierarchical-Quality of Service (H-QoS) and embedded routing intelligence (DPI) capabilities of the 7750 SR, KT will be able to offer compelling new services to its customers such as the Application Assured L2/L3 VPNs and IPsec security services".

See "KT selects Alcatel-Lucent to build IP network for delivering advanced networking services to its business customers" - here.

See also - "Reliance Globalcom Uses DPI for App-Aware Services" - here.