NEC and NetCracker Released a Virtual IMS Solution for VoLTE

NEC Corporation and NetCracker Technology announced that they have ".. released a virtualized IP multimedia subsystem (vIMS) solution through their joint business brand, NEC/NetCracker SDN/NFV Solutions. The NFV-based vIMS solution offers both control and data plane functionalities of IMS for 3G mobile voice services (W-CDMA) and voice over LTE (VoLTE) services. It has successfully achieved the same service quality levels of those realized in a physical environment.

.. The vIMS solution provides users with high-quality VoLTE and high-definition video calling, leveraging general-purpose servers that share resources with other virtual network functions and IT functions. By virtualizing IMS, the vIMS solution can reduce service delivery and assurance costs while optimizing performance attributes such as quality of service and delay.

The vIMS leverages the technical functionality of NEC’s VoLTE solution. Demonstrating high availability and reliability for signaling and protocol handling and data processing, the VoLTE solution is operating live in commercial networks such as those provided by NTT DOCOMO".

See "NEC and NetCracker Release Virtualized IMS (vIMS) Solution" - here.

Winners of BBTM Awards 2014: NetCracker (x2), Huawei, Avvasi, Sandvine, Skyfire

The Broadband Traffic Congress 2014 awards, shown with relevant links to recent posts in my blog (see also 2011, 2012 and 2013 awards):

• Best Big Data Solution for Improving Customer Experience: NetCracker ‘Big Data solution’
   
• Most Innovative Tool for Driving Real-Time Intelligence: Huawei ‘Real Time Decision Center’ - see "Huawei: Over 3B Subscribers Served by Our SDM" - here
   .
• Best Optimisation Tool for Managing Video Traffic: Avvasi ‘Q-SRV’ Solution' - see "WIND Mobile [Canada] Uses Avvasi to Improve Video QoE" - here and "Virgin Mobile [France] Deploys Avvasi to Improve Video QoE" - here.
   
• Best Real Time Charging Platforms for Customers: Sandvine – 'Sandvine Quota Manager' - see "Sandvine Enables CSPs to Interact Directly w/Subscribers; How does it Work?" - here
   
• Best Cloud Solution for Traffic Management: Skyfire ‘Rocket Optimizer’ Solution - see "Opera Adds Audio to Rocket Optimizer" - here
   
• Best Analytics for Network Management: Netcracker  'Real Time Analytics Solution' - see "NetCracker Launches SDN/NFV Based Service Orchestrator" - here.

Survey: Operators Satisfaction from OSS/BSS Vendors

Jason Marcheck [pictured], Research Director, Current Analysis, published a summary of a "OSS/BSS purchase drivers and vendor satisfaction from large operators around the globe representing approximately half of the global telecom CapEx spend".

The main conclusion is - "The companies that topped the list in questions related to vendor satisfaction seem to be better known as large SI players than as OSS/BSS specialists"

Jason describes his thoughts on the grades and concludes - "I hear a lot of OSS/BSS vendors beam with pride that that they are “product companies,” with the clear implication being that operators value the product more than the SI that comes in and pulls it all together. That is a good story. However, our results say that delivery matters most" 

See "OSS/BSS Vendor Satisfaction – Are “Product Companies” Missing the Boat on Delivery?" - here.

NetCracker Launches SDN/NFV Based Service Orchestrator

NetCracker Technology "..introduced its new Service and Network Orchestrator solution for SDN/NFV, an integrated part of its market-leading NetCracker 9 suite. This new solution enables communications service providers (CSPs) to address the complexities associated with managing and monetizing multi-vendor virtualized as well as hybrid networks and services.

NetCracker’s new Service and Network Orchestrator for SDN/NFV provides: A centralized orchestration catalog .. Real-time configuration management .. Service lifecycle management and real-time policy and analytics capabilities. 

See "NetCracker Introduces Service and Network Orchestrator for SDN/NFV at TM Forum Live! 2014" - here.

Gartner OSS Leaders: NetCracker, Oracle, Amdocs, IBM and Ericsson

NetCracker announced that "Gartner Inc., the world-leading information technology research and advisory firm, has positioned NetCracker as a “Leader” in its October 2013 Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems .. 

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems “rates vendors that sell end-to-end solutions for service assurance and fulfillment, including network resource management, service inventory and catalog, and order management; also, provisioning and activation for communications service providers".

The Gartner report states that "Overall, we expect the worldwide OSS market to grow from $29.2 billion in 2012 to $37.6 billion in 2015. Inventory is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% through 2017. Network and service assurance (including customer experience initiatives) is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2%, and provisioning and activation at 5.2% worldwide (for forecast reference see the Gartner Recommended Reading section).

   

See "Gartner Names NetCracker a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems" - here.

[Update 63: Sandvine PCRF/DPI Compatibility] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

The DPI-PCRF compatibility matrix (here) was updated with the following:

• Sandvine's new PCRF was added (see "Sandvine Will Compete on PCRF Projects" - here), right now supporting Sandvine's PCRF
   
• In addition, Sandvine updated me that its DPI product also supports PCRF products from Ericsson, Huawei, Netcracker, Oracle, Orga Systems and  ZTE
   
• Housekeeping - product links and some other updates  

[Analysys Mason]: Policy Management and Billing/Charging Systems to Converge

 
Article by Justin Van Der Lande (pictured), Senior Analyst, Revenue Management research programme, Analysys Mason concludes that "Policy management solutions were originally deployed to provide a protection function for networks. Increasingly, these solutions are being used in different ways to create and support new service offerings for service providers".

"The move by Amdocs to purchase Bridgewater Systems in 2011 was a clear reaction to this trend [tiered pricing], and is supported by other strong BSS vendors such as Comverse, Orga Systems, Netcracker (Convergys), CSGi and Oracle. These vendors are also joined by network equipment providers, such as Ericsson, Alcatel Lucent and Huawei, which are able to support solutions for both network- and billing-based deployments. Specialist vendors also still provide some standalone policy management solutions to the market".

The chart below "..depicts the three significant areas that have evolved to create policy management. In a recent survey carried out by Analysys Mason, the industry is expecting that over 50% of the use of policy management will be in conjunction with charging solutions. This percentage is expected to increase over time as new broadband networks come to market and costs of implementation must be recovered through better data charging".

See "Will policy management become just a function of billing systems?"  - in Analysys Mason's "TELECOMS PERSPECTIVES" - here.

Gartner: Major OSS Investment Areas Include Policy Management

Martina Kurth (pictured), published Gartner's Magic Quadrant that "..evaluates the capabilities of end-to-end vendors in the global market for OSS service assurance and fulfillment, a market characterized by simultaneous consolidation and vibrant innovation by startups".

IBM, NetCracker Technology, Oracle, Amdocs and Ericsson are classified by Gartner as "Leaders" (see chart below). HP, who was there last year (here) is now a "Challenger".

"Because of these shifting requirements, we see CSPs worldwide investing in more flexible OSS architectures, which improve the efficiency of service creation, management and timely delivery, and enable them to proactively optimize customers' perceived quality of experience. Simultaneously, CSPs need to keep an eye on opex and capital expenditure (capex). Major OSS investment areas include order-to-fulfillment processes across logical inventory and adjacent product and service catalog domains, order management, configuration management, discovery and reconciliation, and policy management".

See "Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems" - here.

[Update 59: NetCracker Added] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

NetCracker, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC, was added to the matrix [here] with its Policy Management product.
 

"NetCracker Policy Management provides a highly configurable policy creation environment with a graphical user interface (GUI) for creating sophisticated policy rules and enables dynamic customer-centric policy application based on real-time contextual information about customers, services, applications, and networks"

NetCracker has also DPI-based enforcement and media optimization products.