MTS India Deploys Allot with Video and TCP Optimization

In a post to Allot Communications' blog, Matan Trogan, Regional Product Manager for APAC, covers the vendor's recent APAC customer event in Phuket, Thailand.

Among the case studies presented at the event, Matan mentions that a "customer explained that video traffic from their 10M subscribers comprises 40% of downlink traffic and that video stalling and buffering have a negative impact on their customer satisfaction scores. To improve video quality of experience (QoE) and prevent churn they are implementing “just-in-time” video optimization and acceleration powered by Allot VideoClass – one of the value-added services that is fully integrated with and hosted in the Allot Service Gateway".

I understand that this customer is MTS India. In addition to Video optimization, they are also using Teclo Networks' TCP optimization, as an integrated add-on to Allot (related post - "MTS [Armenia] Deployed Teclo TCP Acceleration" - here). MTS are also using a video caching solution from PeerApp, a former partner of Allot before the acquisition of Oversi (see "MTS [India] Selected PeerApp" - here),

See "Use Cases Steal the Show in Phuket" - here.

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.

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.

Cache Deployments [141]: MTS [India] Selected PeerApp

 
We start to see more cache deployments in mobile networks. Up until recently, most deployments were in fixed networks, as MNOs considered the radio and backhaul access network as the main pain in cost and performance, while for many ISPs peering links were the expensive element of the chain.

PeerApp (here) announced that "..Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited that nationally provides telecom services to over 16 million customers under the brand MTS – has deployed PeerApp’s UltraBand transparent caching platform in its network".

"MTS provides its high-speed mobile broadband services under the flagship brand MBlaze in more than 300 towns across India, including the top five metro areas, and the company is rapidly expanding its high speed data network. PeerApp’s UltraBand transparent caching platform will help MTS speed up content delivery and reduce network load up to 40% by automatically detecting popular content and delivering it as close as possible to the subscriber".

   

Rajeev Batra (pictured), CIO, MTS India said: "With PeerApp’s UltraBand, we can optimize service quality which would help differentiate us further in the expanding data market".

See "MTS India Deploys PeerApp UltraBand to Accelerate Mobile Broadband" - here.

Optimization Deployments[105]: MTS[Russia] Uses Flash Networks for Unlimited Mobile Users

 

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) announced ".. the deployment of Flash Networks’ Harmony Mobile Internet Services Gateway to optimize the volume of mobile data traffic. With this deployment, MTS is able to reduce content and web page download times and increase mobile Internet speed .. MTS launched a pilot project to test the technology for all customers in Murmansk. By the end of 2011, the new traffic optimization technology will be available to all users of the MTS unlimited mobile internet in Russia. The solution was developed by Flash Networks and integrated in MTS’ network together with the Russian system integrator Technoserv".

Sergei Stepanyuk (pictured), Head of Data Transmission Department at MTS said: “Using the data optimization platform allows us to reduce our mobile network data transmission load by almost 40% and our transit load by 30%, ultimately resulting in faster Internet speeds and better quality of data services for our users".

See "MTS Launches Innovative Solution to Optimize Mobile Internet" - here.

MTS has more than 71M mobile subscribers in Russia (see 1st chart below), and a saw sharp growth in data revenues this year (50% in first 9 months - see 2nd chart).

DPI Deployments [92]: MTS Belarus Deploys DPI

   

According to a report in Providers.by site MTS Belarus completed "the implementation of a DPI platform, which has already been successfully tested and put into commercial operation. This technology allows to distinguish different types of traffic (VoIP, torrent, HTTP-traffic, etc.) and set priorities for them, and even a separate tariff .. The company says that is all data traffic passes through the platform DPI .. In the long term may apply differentiated policies for various types of information: using the platform can allocate traffic is Skype, ICQ, certain sites (eg, VKontakte and classmates). Accordingly, we can offer competitive rates for access to these sites and applications"  (based on Google translation).

Sounds very similar to what KPN was planning to do before being hit by Net Neutrality. 

It seems that DPI is also used to offer a "Turbo Button" service removes connection speed and volume limits.

  
See "МТС может расширить линейку мобильных анлимов" - here.