BICS Implemented BroadForward Diameter Signaling Controller; Replaces Oracle?

BICS announced it has launched a "Next Generation signaling solution delivered and implemented by leading network solutions provider Infradata ..  Infradata has implemented the BroadForward BFX Interface Gateway, a Next Generation Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) with fully integrated Diameter Edge Agent (DEA) and interworking function across BICS' entire global IPX (IP Exchange) network".

It seems that BroadForward BICS deployment replaces the ACME (Oracle) solution used by BICS since December 2012 (here).

Broadforward GUI Based Configuration 

"With the migration to BFX, Infradata has equipped BICS with a state-of-the-art Diameter Signaling Solution to cost-effectively enable innovative IPX services, as well as the ability to faster onboard new customers, generate detailed traffic insight and seamless interworking between Diameter, SS7 and RADIUS networks along with integration with IT systems" 

See "Infradata Implements Next Generation Diameter Signaling Solution at BICS" - here.

[Infonetics]: Business Analysis of the 5 Leading SDP Vendors

 
A recent survey by Shira Levine, research director for service enablement and subscriber intelligence. IHS "profiles and analyzes the top 5 SDP software vendors as identified by service providers: Ericsson, HP, Huawei, OpenCloud and Oracle:

• Ericsson, Huawei and Oracle have all built strong portfolios, both organically and via acquisition, around the SDP opportunity, and that is reflected in their leadership positions in this year’s scorecard.  However, as the market shifts toward emerging opportunities such as API platforms and alternative delivery models, these established players may get a run for their money from smaller suppliers with a more targeted focus, 
   
• Ericsson’s longstanding presence in the wireless industry in general—and SDP market specifically—helps it land a leadership position
   
• Huawei ramped up in the SDP space quickly, gaining market share by selling into developing regions
   
• Oracle enjoys strong financials, a solid customer base, and a reputation for reliability and support which have helped the company maintain a leadership standing in SDP
   
• Despite a solid roster of customers, HP is struggling in the SDP market as it addresses financial issues and revamps its product suite
   
• Smaller player OpenCloud continues to grow by positioning itself as a less expensive and more innovative option to the larger SDP suppliers

See "IHS Names Ericsson, Huawei and Oracle Leaders in Service DeliveryPlatform Scorecard" - here.

Oracle: LTE Diameter Signaling Traffic will Grow @68% CAGR

Oracle's new study “Oracle Communications LTE Diameter Signaling Index, Fourth Edition" finds "a massive increase in LTE Diameter signaling traffic ..  Oracle forecasts that LTE Diameter signaling traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68 percent in the next five years, from 30 million messages per second (MPS) in 2014 to 395 million MPS by 2019:

• LTE Broadcast is the fastest-growing generator of Diameter signaling traffic, creating 49.5 million MPS by 2019 at a CAGR of 75 percent. The technology is just emerging, and continued growth is expected as CSPs trial LTE Broadcast for everything from digital signage to live video feeds at sporting events
     
• Policy continues to drive the majority of Diameter signaling traffic, creating 277 million MPS. With more-sophisticated policy use cases, the number of Diameter transactions between policy enforcement points and charging has increased
   
• Mobility will generate 25.3 million MPS by 2019. It is currently not a major factor in overall Diameter signaling traffic generation, because it creates a low number of transactions in the Diameter network
     
• Voice over LTE (VoLTE) will generate 43.1 million MPS at a CAGR of 49 percent by 2019

See "Oracle Forecast: Global Diameter Signaling Growth Will Surpass Total Global IP Traffic Growth by 2019" - here.

Oracle's Diameter Signaling Router is Now Cloud-deployable

Oracle has "..introduced a new version of Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router. The new release of the proven product is now cloud-deployable, designed to help communications service providers (CSPs) monetize their networks by creating new services and use a virtualized infrastructure to launch these services more quickly.

Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router

.. A diameter signaling router that CSPs can deploy in a common and shared infrastructure with other telecommunications applications in a private or hosted cloud: This can help CSPs realize the benefits of NFV—rolling out new services faster and reducing operating expenses". 

See "Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router Is Now Cloud-Deployable" - here.

Oracle Enhances OSS with Virtual Capabilities

Oracle Communications announced it has "released a new version of its operational support system (OSS) suite to help CSPs rapidly and agilely design services spanning physical and virtual networks. The suite is also designed to help streamline the operational delivery of customer orders—including high-growth B2B and wholesale orders—enabling CSPs to capitalize on the opportunities of a network function virtualization (NFV)-driven communications world
   
.. Specifically, with this OSS suite CSPs can: Efficiently deliver and manage contemporary network-based B2B services .. Seamlessly support the design and delivery of services on physical, virtual, and hybrid networks .. Accelerate solution design in collaboration with existing provisioning systems ..  and Efficiently manage exceptions in order processing:

The new version of the Oracle Communications OSS suite includes updates to several products, including Oracle Communications Design Studio, Oracle Communications Order and Service Management, Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management, Oracle Communications ASAP, Oracle Communications IP Service Activator, Oracle Communications Network Integrity, and Oracle Communications Network Intelligence. 

It is integrated and optimized to work with the Oracle Cloud Platform, Oracle Database 12c, andOracle Fusion Middleware 12c, improving performance, manageability, and security and enabling future OSS suite deployments in the cloud as well as on premises"

See "Oracle Communications Continues to Simplify Design and Delivery of Network Services to Support NFV and Business Agility" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: No Change in the $5.8B SDP Market Leaders

A new report by Glen Ragoonanan [pictured], Principal Analyst, and Gorkem Yigit,Research Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The service delivery platform market generated USD5.8 billion in revenue worldwide in 2014, up 11% from USD5.2 billion in 2013. LTE's impact on the overall service delivery platform (SDP) market increased, first in subscriber data management (SDM), then policy management (PM), followed by mobile content management and delivery (CMD), and finally, telecoms application servers (TAS) for mobile data and VoLTE services. Virtualised SDPs were being introduced in 2014.

.. the top-five SDP vendors were unchanged. Amdocs returned to the top six, thanks to a severe decline in Cisco's fixed CMD (FCMD): 

• Ericsson retained its leadership with 9% year-on-year revenue growth – primarily in the content management and delivery (CMD) sub-segment thanks to its acquisitions of Azuki Systems, Fabrix Systems, as well as Microsoft Mediaroom, which forms part of its Media Delivery Network (MDN) solution portfolio. Its other SDP revenue grew, though slower than the overall SDP market
    
• Huawei Technologies achieved the highest organic growth – 30% year-on-year – thanks to strong growth in the number of LTE subscribers in China because all three major communication service providers (CSPs) are rolling out LTE. It continued to win SDP business from other vendors in EMEA
   
• Nokia Networks’ revenue only grew by 5% year-on-year, compared with 11% for the overall SDP market. It remained the SDM leader, enjoying wins worldwide. Its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent could make it the SDP market leader
    
• Alcatel-Lucent’s revenue growth declined by -7% year-on-year as it restructured and refocused on network virtualisation and VoLTE, which were not significant drivers of SDP spend in 2014
    
• Oracle had low 4% year-on-year organic growth, compared with 35% inorganic growth in 2013, when it acquired Acme Packet and Tekelec
   
• Amdocs’ SDP revenue growth was flat in 2014, which reduced its market share, compared with 2013. It re-entered the top-six thanks to Cisco’s decline in fixed CMD (FCMD).

See "Service delivery platforms: worldwide market shares 2014" - here.

Sandvine: Many of the [Many] 50 PCRF Vendors have Dead Roadmaps

Sandvine's SDE

After showing success in the PCRF market (see "Sandvine Wins 3 PCRF Deals" - here), Sandvine's CEO, Dave Caputo, provided his insights for the market and opportunity during the 2nd quarter earning call:

• We see a PCRF replacement cycle occurring as the demand of voice-over-LTE overwhelmed earlier generation products. That plays extremely well into the strength of Sandvine's PCRF .. the win was the mix of new and existing customers
   
• Sandvine has the only PCRF that supports mobile and cable standards as well as other interfaces that facilitates deployment in any mobile, fixed, or converged network
   
• We happily would work with any existing PCRF vendor that a service provider has deployed
   
• we've seen is there has been some consolidation in the space notably Oracle has made some moves here. And as people are renewing their support and maintenance for as aspects of roadmaps might being abandoned
   
• And there were many, many players, there is as many as may be 50 PCRF vendors [here] out there. And lot of them only had success with one, two or three customers with the exception of a couple of the top players .. and so you could imagine there are some very dead roadmaps out there on those 50 vendors that only had one, two, three, four wins

See "Sandvine's (SNVNF) CEO Dave Caputo on Q2 2015 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", by SeekingAlpha, here.

Oracle Adds Virtual PCRF

Oracle announced the "release of four products that underscore its commitment to provide communications service providers (CSPs) with a fully virtualized, network function virtualization (NFV)-ready solution portfolio.

.. With new releases of Oracle Communications Session Border Controller, Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, and Oracle Communications Policy Management, Oracle helps CSPs conquer the layers of complexity inherent in bridging physical and virtual environments as they continue on their journey toward NFV.

.. Oracle Communications Policy Management Supports Network Advancement Through VoLTE, IMS, and Virtualization".

See similar announcements from Openet, Amdocs.

".. The newest version of Oracle Communications Policy Management is a key component in the deployment of next-generation LTE networks. As network virtualization continues to advance, CSPs require the flexibility, reliability, and depth of feature functionality that enables them to evolve their networks through LTE, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), and virtualization. Oracle Communications Policy Management now takes the next step toward a fully cloud-enabled and virtualized policy management solution, preparing CSPs for NFV and software defined network (SDN)-enabled networks. The solution also:

• Enables tight integration with charging and billing systems
• Provides valuable network insights via an integrated policy analytics solution
• Allows providers to serve all subscribers from a single policy management instance regardless of network access type

See "Oracle Communications Virtualizes Its Products to Support Network Function Virtualization Industry Initiative" - here

[Survey]: OTT Partnerships Drive SDP Deployments; Oracle, Ericsson, Huawei Lead

A new survey of "21 convergent, mobile and cable operators" by Shira Levine, research director for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, IHS (Infonetics Research) finds that "nearly half of respondents identified supporting partnerships with over-the-top (OTT) providers and better monetization of subscriber data as very important drivers behind their service delivery platform (SDP) deployments .. Operators continue to deploy long-standing use cases such as messaging and single sign-on via their SDPs, but they are increasingly looking to expand the capabilities the SDP to support new use cases including partnerships with OTT providers and better monetization of subscriber data” 

• The majority of respondents have deployed their SDPs on-premises with commercially-available hardware, though virtualized deployments on shared hardware and via an internal cloud are most likely to be under evaluation
   
• Consequently, support for deployment on commercially-available hardware came in relatively high on the list of key criteria for SDP suppliers, although product reliability and support capabilities topped the list
   
• Oracle is the SDP supplier cited as a leader by a majority of survey participants, with Ericsson and Huawei following closely behind [links are for product pages]

See "OTT Partnerships, Subscriber Data Monetization Top Reasons Operators Deploy Service Delivery Platforms" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: $2.3B Analytics Market in '14; SAS, IBM and Oracle Lead

A new report by Justin van der Lande, Principal Analyst, and Atul Arora, Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The analytics systems market generated USD2.3 billion in revenue worldwide during 2014"

Previous report (Sep. '14)showed revenues of $2.1B revenues for 2013, with expected CAGR of 12.9% (here).

Back to the current report:

• Vendors of general-purpose analytics tools have increased their efforts to provide solutions for communications service providers (CSPs)
   
• Every major telecoms OSS/BSS vendor has developed a big data analytics strategy, mostly based on Hadoop technologies
   



SAS Visual Analytics

• North American CSPs continued to account for the largest proportion of telecoms spending on analytics systems.

• SAS Institute provides customer insight solutions for marketing departments within CSPs and is building on this core competency to expand installations to support new use cases
   
• IBM is closing on SAS’s position as market leader. Its acquisition of The Now Factory has given it additional capabilities specifically for CSPs. IBM is fuelling growth by addressing non-telco-specific requirements.
   
• Oracle’s core analytics capabilities continue to provide key functionality within CSPs. Its products support streaming data, data storage and a bundle of pre-defined use cases.

See "Analytics software systems: worldwide market shares 2014" - here.

[Infonetics]: Huawei and Cisco ($89M) are the PCC Market Leaders

 
Maywun Wong announced in Cisco's Service Provider blog that "Last week, we were thrilled to receive the news that Infonetics scored Cisco Policy Suite as a Leader in the Policy Management Scorecard. 

Cisco was one of only two leaders recognized by Infonetics in this space and was recognized for building “… up its position in the market rapidly after its acquisition of BroadHop [Dec '12; here], demonstrating strong momentum around policy virtualization”.

See also - 

• Policy Management Market Rises 27 Percent in 2014; VoLTE, Data Monetization Play Big Role" - here 
• [Infonetics]: "significant changes in the policy management vendor landscape" - here.  

See "Cisco Scores as Leader in the Infonetics Policy Management Scorecard" - here.

Oracle's Diameter Signaling Calculator

Oracle has a tool for service providers, enabling them to "understand how to dimension their networks based on the number of subscribers they have to support, and the applications and services to be supported. This unique tool is built from years of modeling in live networks, and from signaling experts that understand the traffic flows introduced in Diameter networks when new services are implemented".

[Related post - "Diametriq Presents: LTE Diameter Traffic Calculator" - here]

"This tool is available online, and will provide some guidance to help engineers and planners understand the impacts of services at a high level".

The following chart has been prepared by the tool for a network that starts with 200,000 LTE subscribers in year 1, through 400,000, 1M, 2M, 4M subscribers in the following years upto 5M in 6th year.

This imaginary network is located in Western Europe, and has 4% of inbound and 5% of outbound roamers.

See "Plan for Future Growth of LTE Diameter Signaling" - here.

Avvasi - Oracle's PCRF Partnership Offers Monetized Video Services

Avvasi announced its "partnership with Oracle and its industry-leading Communications Policy Controller (PCRF). 

The Avvasi Oracle joint solution enables service providers to deliver monetized video services.

Avvasi’s real-time Xperium™ QoE management solution, Q-SRV, will be orchestrated by Oracle’s Communications Policy Controller. The integrated solution will help service providers monetize the explosion in data usage in order to deliver the highest quality customer experience".

See "Avvasi Partners with Oracle to Deliver Video Services" - here.

Oracle and Intel Demo Carrier-grade Performance in a Virtualized Environment

Oracle Communications announced it has "delivered the industry’s first successful demonstration of carrier-grade network performance in a virtualized environment. The project, led by Oracle and using the Intel® Open Network Platform (ONP), demonstrates that CSPs can realize more of the promise of NFV. Specifically, the initiative proves that by intelligently directing network activity to the Intel® processor, CSPs will have more capabilities in software that were previously limited to hardware. In turn, this means that CSPs could maintain service quality levels and develop new offers for customers as soon as CSPs begin to migrate their network functions to the data center.

For this initiative, Oracle Communications optimized specific products for the Intel ONP using OpenStack open source infrastructure management software and its Enhanced Platform Awareness capabilities. The optimized products are part of Oracle’s orchestration framework, including Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration Solution. [see "Oracle introduces Network Service Orchestration Solution" - here].
   
By directing the Intel platform to dynamically establish data center resource pools that mimic the specialized characteristics of a network appliance (such as large memory pages), the orchestration software can then route the work to the correct pool, based on each function’s unique needs. Moreover, this orchestration activity can work for any network equipment vendor’s interface, preserving the CSP community’s requirement to support multi-vendor environments. Oracle and Intel contribute to and support the widely accepted OpenStack initiative".

See "Oracle Communications Advances Network Function Virtualization by Delivering Carrier-Grade Data Center Performance" - here.

Oracle introduces Network Service Orchestration Solution

Oracle introduced the "new Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration Solution, which is designed to enable communications service providers (CSPs) to more quickly create new network services to respond to market demand. The solution can also help CSPs reduce service development and management costs as they introduce virtualized network capabilities—the beginning of a transformation to network function virtualization (NFV) that will simplify their networks and minimize dependence on expensive, inflexible proprietary hardware.

 

Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration Solution gives CSPs the ability to rapidly deploy and scale network services on demand across multiple virtual network functions (VNFs) in complex virtualized and hybrid network environments. CSPs can use this solution to:

• Quickly respond to changes in service or market demand
   
• Compose and on-board new network service templates and associated business rules using a flexible, graphical design environment, and then validate that these network services are operational and manage how they are scaled
   
• Choose and control the selection of solution components in multivendor environments. The solution leverages open standards including RESTful (web service) application programming interfaces (APIs) for integration with other management and orchestration components, such as the previously released Oracle Communications Application Orchestrator or third-party VNF managers and virtualized infrastructure managers
   
• Seamlessly introduce virtual network infrastructure and then manage this infrastructure and network service fulfillment when deployed as an extension of Oracle Communications’ leading operations support systems (OSS) portfolio". 

See "Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration Solution Helps Communications Service Providers Accelerate and Optimize Service Deployments in Virtualized Network Environments" - here.

[Infonetics]: DSC Market to Reach $1.3B by '18; Led by Huawei, F5 and Oracle

A new report by Diane Myers, Principal Analyst, Infonetics Research finds that ".. the Diameter signaling control market will grow threefold between 2014 and 2018, to $1.3 billion .. Globally, the Diameter signaling control market totaled $381 million in 2014, an increase of 81 percent over 2013.

Developed as the next-generation signaling protocol, Diameter has begun to permeate networks, driven by increasing LTE usage and the emergence of VoLTE (voice over LTE). As a result, the Diameter market spiked 81 percent in 2014 from the previous year.

The Diameter vendor landscape is beginning to shake out: 

[See my product list page - here]

• it’s a tight race at the top between Huawei, F5 and Oracle. 
• We see a strengthening of Ericsson and a push from Alcatel-Lucent, Sonus and now Mavenir with its acquisition of Ulticom [see "Mavenir Turns Ulticom OEM to Acquisition" - here] 
• The consolidation continues, and we expect even more in 2015

The top use case for Diameter signaling control in 2014 was once again centralized routing, but roaming via DEA (Diameter Edge Agent) was right behind"

See "Diameter Signaling Controller Market Soared 81 Percent in 2014 on the Wings of LTE" - here.

[Infonetics]: "significant changes in the policy management vendor landscape"

 
A new survey by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research, on the Policy management marker finds that:

"The next generation of policy management solutions has evolved to address the challenges associated with increased broadband consumption and a wider range of end-user devices. This shift has translated into significant changes in the policy management vendor landscape as suppliers look to refine and reposition their offerings .. There are new buyers for policy management within the operators and new requirements that policy solutions must address, and this has created challenges for many suppliers playing in the market -- a trend that we expect to continue in the coming years" 

Survey results: 

•  respondents put Huawei at the top of the list; Ericsson came in second, and Openet and Oracle tied for third
   
• Topping respondents' criteria for choosing a policy management solution are reliability and performance scalability
   
• While only 13 percent of respondents are currently running policy management software as a virtual network function (VNF), 57 percent plan to do so by the end of 2016. A surprisingly high 32 percent of operators surveyed plan to deploy policy via a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform by the end of 2016

See "Vendor shakeup expected in policy management market as operators seek more flexible solutions" - here. 

DSC Deployments [326]: NTT DOCOMO Uses Oracle Virtualized DSR for LTE Roaming

Oracle announced that NTT DOCOMO has ".. implemented Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router to support roaming for its mobile customers. Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router enables NTT DOCOMO to accelerate the launch of new, advanced mobile services that leverage an LTE infrastructure. The CSP can now support roaming on LTE bands to ensure subscribers have access to the same advanced capabilities while traveling abroad. With the Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router, NTT DOCOMO completed the entire project—from purchase order to live customer traffic—in just six months.

Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router was implemented as a virtualized solution providing high reliability and advanced functionality with a small physical footprint well suited to support LTE roaming".

On June 30, 2014, NTT DOCOMO had 63M mobile subscribers, close to 44% of the Japanese market.

See "NTT DOCOMO Implements Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router to Support New LTE Infrastructure" - here.

[Anaylsys Mason]: Ericsson and Amdocs Led the Telecom Software Market in 2013

A recent report by Glen Ragoonann and Justin Van Der Lande, Principle Analysts, Dean Ramsay, Analyst, and Mark H. Mortensen [pictured], Practice Head, BSS, Analysys Mason finds that "The value of the worldwide telecoms software market grew by 7.0% (or USD1.6 billion) between 2012 and 2013, from USD23.1 billion to USD24.8 billion. The overall market is still highly fragmented: the top-six suppliers accounted for just 48.6% of the market, and no supplier had a share of more than 12.0%."

• Ericsson increased its leading market share position in 2013 as it continued to integrate the ConceptWave Software and Telcordia Technologies product lines into its OSS/BSS solution sets and expand its contracts with Tier 1 and 2 communications service provider (CSP) customer
   
• Amdocs’ revenue growth was slightly below the market average and the rates achieved by the other top four vendors. However, it remained strong in revenue management and service fulfilment, and maintained its second-place position in the overall telecoms software market.
   
• Strong growth in the network management system (NMS) and SDP segments has increased Huawei Technologies’ market share to 9.6%.
    
• Oracle continued to increase its share, driven by the integration of its service fulfilment and BSS (notably Siebel CRM) products, and to capitalise on its strong brand in emerging markets. Oracle’s revenue is growing at a higher rate than any of the other top-six vendors.
   
• Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) both lost market share following another challenging year of flat revenue in a growing market. NSN’s loss is largely the result of the sale of its BSS unit to Redknee.

See "Telecoms software: worldwide market shares 2013" - here. 

[Infonetics]: Ericsson Scores as Best SDP Vendor

A new vendor scorecard report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research (new logo on the right) "ranks the 5 largest global vendors of service delivery platform (SDP) software: Ericsson, HP, Huawei, OpenCloud, and Oracle"

The report finds that “Based on completely quantitative metrics, including financial information, product capabilities and service provider feedback, we named Ericsson the top vendor in the service delivery platform (SDP) software market, with Oracle following close behind .. Ericsson scored particularly well on service and support and product reliability, and Oracle received high ratings on financial stability and solution breadth. Both companies, however, scored below average when it came to pricing .. Key to #2 Oracle’s continued success in the SDP software market will be its ability to capitalize on the demand for enterprise applications and services, including machine to machine"

See "Ericsson and Oracle shine in new service delivery platform scorecard" - here.