Ubiscope [Korea] to Use Sandvine's Cloud-based PCRF

Sandvine announced that "Ubiscope, a provider of security, network and consulting services in South Korea will be using Sandvine’s Cloud Services Policy Controller to offer innovative new services to their business customers.

Ubiscope selected Sandvine’s Cloud Services Policy Controller because they required a best-of-breed, application-aware, network policy control solution that would provide the flexibility for IT managers to deploy real-time productivity controls across their network of business customers.

Sandvine’s Cloud Services Policy Controller is a completely virtualized platform, built upon the foundation of network functions virtualization (NFV) and is compatible with software-defined networking (SDN) standards. This framework enables on-demand, elastic provisioning for maximally efficient use of carrier cloud resources as well as a wealth of deployment options through integration with numerous provisioning systems, customer-premises equipment (CPE or Virtual CPE) devices, and other Ethernet access devices" 

See "Sandvine Receives First Cloud Services Policy Controller Order" - here.

PCC Deployments [362]: Smartfren [Indonesia] Uses ZTE for Integrated CDMA and LTE Control

ZTE announced it is ".. pleased to help PT Smartfren Telecom launch 4G LTE-Advanced network in Indonesia, giving users access to the highest-performance mobile broadband services. 

.. With ZTE's powerful Universal Subscriber Profile Platform (USPP), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), and Online Charging System (OCS) products, the core NEs of both CDMA and LTE networks are highly integrated to provide a unified user database and policy control and charging policies, allowing the LTE network to be deployed rapidly, facilitating maintenance and operation of 3G and 4G networks in the future, and lowering operational costs. Smartfren can take advantage of the sophisticated OCS system to launch flexible tariff packages in the market to attract upscale users with an urgent need for mobile broadband services". 

Related post - "Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs" - here.

See "ZTE Supports Smartfren Launch 4G LTE-Advanced Service in Indonesia" - here.

Comviva Enhances PCRF with Shared Devices and Users Data Plans

Mahindra Comviva has introduced its "latest version of the Smart Policy Controller Ver.5.0 .. the new version is capable of handling over 100 million subscribers on single server and support Convergent Data Plans – Single subscriber identification, shall allow subscriber to have one data plan that can be used across multiple networks of the operators such as 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi, fixed broadband, Wi-MAX regardless of the number of devices. It is also very flexible in allowing individuals to share their data bundle with other subscribers. The solution has extensive technical and engineering advances that would significantly improve the performance of its policy function.

.. With over 800+ million end-users, Mahindra Comviva’s end-to-end Internet & Broadband Solutions help service providers Manage, Optimize and Monetize their broadband infrastructure in the most efficient manner".

See "Mahindra Comviva unveils its all new Smart Policy Controller version 5.0" - here.

Sandvine Wins 3 PCRF Deals

 

Sandvine announced that in the "second fiscal quarter of 2015, three mobile operators selected Sandvine’s universal Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF) to enable a diverse set of use cases for their networks [see "Sandvine Will Compete on PCRF Projects" - here]

• Two of the orders received came from regional North American mobile operators:
  
• one of which plans to use Sandvine’s PCRF as an essential component of their upcoming VoLTE rollout to provide guaranteed quality of service (QoS) for voice calls [see "Sandvine Enhances PCRF w/VoLTE and VoWiFi Support"- here]
   
• the other regional operator will be using Sandvine’s PCRF to enforce data quotas for their prepaid subscribers.

 Sandvine's ServiceDesigner interface

• The third order received was from a tier-1 operator in Eastern Europe who will be using Sandvine’s PCRF for a number of use cases focusing on service creation. Some of these include application-based plans that allow subscribers to purchase access to individual applications of their choosing, a “turbo boost” button which will allow subscribers to temporarily increase the speed of their LTE connection, and family plans to enable an account to share monthly data usage between multiple users" 

See "Sandvine’s Universal PCRF Selected By Three Mobile Operators To Enable A Diverse Set Of Use Cases" - here.

Comptel New Toolset Combining Policies, Rating & Balance Management

Comptel announced the "..availability of Monetizer™, an industry-first business policy and charging toolset enabling digital and communications service providers to innovate and design rich service offers instantly. With Monetizer, operators can create, configure, launch and modify dynamic, contextual packages – and profit from consumers’ data usage – in minutes instead of months. 
  
.. Monetizer™ goes beyond traditional Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) by introducing natively combined policies, rating and balance management software modules. It also leverages a common easy-to-use and consumer-like Charging Policy Offer Designer (CPOD) that supports the hyper-fast onboarding of new or third-party services. 

The solution brings down offer creation time by decoupling the customer-facing offer design work from the network-facing technology setup and configurations. Now, marketers and project managers can spend their time developing and growing the business, without worrying about technical details or if creating complex bundles is even possible”.

See "Comptel Introduces Solution to Help Digital and Communications Service Providers Monetise More in Less Time" - 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

[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.

Openet Attracts the NTT Group with NFV-Based PCRF

Openet announced that "Japanese systems integrator NTT Advanced Technology Corp. (NTT-AT) is its latest reseller partner. The deal will extend Openet’s reach into the NTT Group and significantly enhance its commercial footprint across Asia. 

NTT-AT, which represents the technological core of the NTT Group, will re-sell Openet products and solutions to all subsidiary operators within the NTT Group".

Openet updated me that "We have not deployed within the NTT Group as of yet but the re-seller agreement was only signed this month announcing the partnership. On the back of Openet’s successful trials within NTT-AT’s NFV environment and Openet’s virtualization expertise we expect this to change in the coming months" [see related post - "T-Mobile [Austria] Selected Openet's Virtualized Solution" - here].

 "NTT-AT chose to partner with Openet after successfully trialling a series of Policy and Control functions across NFV environments. By integrating solutions where NFV techniques are applied to OSS/BSS enables NTT Group to deliver on the promises of NFV, such as system agility, faster time to market, reduced TCO, increased elasticity, and greater service availability. Following the successful test, NTT-AT will look to roll Openet’s proven virtualised BSS technology out across the NTT Group.

See "Openet and NTT-AT collaborate to deliver production ready BSS solutions using Network Function Virtualization" - here.

PCC Deployments [355]: Linkem [Italy] Selected Amdocs' Virtual Solution

  

Amdocs announced that "Linkem, an Italian provider of wireless broadband services, has selected an Amdocs virtualized network control solution to support the company's transition from WiMAX to LTE, and provide subscribers with a superior data experience based on differentiated service quality for high-bandwidth content.

The pre-integrated, virtualized solution combines Amdocs Policy Controller, an industry-leading policy control (PCRF) solution [see "Amdocs Announces Virtualized PCRF" - here], with Amdocs Home Subscriber Server for dynamic subscriber management. As a result, Linkem can deliver application-specific quality of service (QoS) to improve subscribers' end-to-end experience with streaming HD video, voice over IP, gaming and other data-intensive multimedia applications.

Source: Amdocs

Rino Buccio, CTO, Linkem said: "Amdocs' virtualized Policy Controller allows us to provide wireless data plans with tiered quality of service, enabling a consistent and optimal user experience in any network condition .. This implementation supports our strategy to launch advanced LTE data services today while laying the groundwork for a full network functions virtualization (NFV) architecture for even greater cost efficiencies and faster time to market for future technology enhancements"/

See "Italy’s Linkem Selects Amdocs Virtualized Solution for Premium LTE Services" - here.

PCC Deployments [353]: Djibouti Telecom Manages Bandwidth with Alepo

Alepo announced that its "longstanding client Djibouti Telecom has decided to upgrade to the latest version of Alepo’s Service Enabler in order to deliver more advanced and flexible data offers to its rapidly growing subscriber base while achieving a significant reduction in OPEX. 

   

.. With Alepo SE, Djibouti Telecom gains real-time capabilities, such as the ability to enforce bandwidth policies and to offer features like “Bandwidth on Demand” to customers. What more, the upgrade will also help Djibouti Telecom make seamless offerings of discounts, promotions and communications via SMS, email in order to engage customers. The new functions in Alepo SE will help in greatly enhancing Djibouti’s capability to gain and retain subscribers"/

See "Djibouti Telecom Modernizes Fixed Broadband Network with Alepo BSS/OSS Upgrade" - 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.

[Resource]: PCRF-Policy Charging System-Functional Analysis

A presentation by Biju M R, Sr Manager Presales & Solutions at Wipro (here)

Sandvine Enhances PCRF w/VoLTE and VoWiFi Support

Sandvine released an ".. enhanced Service Delivery Engine (SDE), which adds Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) support to the industry’s only universal Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) .. As a standalone PCRF, the latest SDE enhancements enable a number of specific VoLTE and VoWiFi use cases, including guaranteed quality of service (QoS). 

Sandvine's VoIP QoE report 

  

[Related posts: "Amdocs Launches (Industry First?) VoLTE-Dedicated PCRF" - here and "Tekelec Enhances PCRF with VoLTE, Wi-Fi and more" - here]

When deployed as part of a complete Sandvine network policy control solution, the additional network intelligence gained enables a number of additional use cases including, measurement of VoLTE and VoWiFi quality of experience (QoE) for both on-deck and over-the-top (OTT) services, as well as Single Number Reach, which permits use of a single phone number across multiple connected devices and access networks".

Sandvine's ServiceDesigner interface

See "Sandvine Adds VoLTE and VoWiFi Support to Access-Agnostic, Universal PCRF" - here.

PCC Deployments [336]: ETB [Colombia] Uses Alepo's PCRF-Lite

Alepo, announced the "successful delivery of a major network upgrade to ETB’s fixed broadband network across Colombia .. As part of a major, three-year transformation process, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá (ETB) has successfully launched new communications services, including a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network, interactive digital television, and 4G mobile services. To bring its corporate strategic plan to life, ETB selected Alepo to provide a high-performance AAA infrastructure that increases the established network reliability, capacity, and services innovation.

As part of the network modernization, ETB replaced its legacy AAA server with Alepo’s High-Performance AAA plus PCRF-Lite for real-time policy control on its fixed ADSL network. Alepo’s AAA platform integrates openly and seamlessly into ETB’s multi-vendor, best of breeds network environment. Already, ETB has experienced increased network speed, performance, and reliability in its current network. In addition, Alepo’s AAA infrastructure features advanced noise reduction, self-healing capabilities, centralized session and accounting database, and convergent authentication and authorization.

see "ETB Colombia Modernizes Its Fixed Broadband Networks with Alepo" - here. 

[Update 73: Aradial <-> Procera, Sandvine] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

Aradial Technologies updated me that their customer, africonnect [Zambia] asked them to integrate with Procera. They used their RADIUS interface ("proxying service label").

Aradial also did the same with Sandvine, to other customer.

The PCRF <-> DPI matrix [here] was updated.

PCC Deployments [334]: Emcali [Colombia] Uses Alepo

Alepo announced that "Colombian telecommunications service provider, Emcali, has selected Alepo to modernize its AAA infrastructure across its multiple fixed and mobile broadband networks:

• With Alepo’s carrier-grade AAA Infrastructure, Emcali will be able to bring new triple-play services and revenue opportunities to market faster without adding network complexity. The platform offers multi-access network support, which will enable Emcali to use a single AAA infrastructure for its WiMAX, Wi-Fi, xDSL, GPON, and mobile 3G UMTS networks, reducing OPEX and total cost of ownership. What’s more, the scalable solution is built to support rapid subscriber growth without sacrificing speed or efficiency of service delivery.
   
• Alepo will also provide standards-based integration with many third-party systems and legacy CRM platforms
   
• Alepo will deploy its “PCRF Lite” to perform advanced, real-time policy control within the fixed broadband network environments".

See "Emcali Selects Alepo’s High-Performance AAA and Policy Control to Modernize Its Fixed and Mobile Broadband Networks" - here.

EliteCore Offers PCRF as Cloud Service

Elitecore Technologies follows the trend of offering cloud-based policy management and analytics systems, in a service business model (see Tango Telecom, Openwave Mobility and Sandvine)

The company announced the ".. availability of Virtualized NetVertex PCRF on Cloud as SPI model for CSP on a Pay as you go. The Pretested and Preconfigured NetVertex Policy Control Solution comes bundled with integrated NetVertex Policy analytics and on board EMS system.

.. The complete solution is available Preconfigured on cloud, enabling operators accelerate ready- to- use deployment timelines from 4-6 weeks to 1 day and also considerably reduce cost, time and effort for IOT and POC ..  it offers Rule based Auto Scaling to meet CSP Peak hour traffic, where by capacity is increased and up within minutes for the Peak time only. This does away need for additional hardware procurement and database each time to increase capacity. It offers greater Elasticity to increase performance and scale at a lower cost in minimal time.

NetVertex PCRF is available on cloud across 41+ Point of Presence connected to over 25+ Datacenters, offers added advantage of local presence across all these locations with committed SLA of 99.999% uptime and Secure connectivity over VPN or Direct link to CSP in premise data center".

See "Elitecore Announces Network function Virtualized NetVertex PCRF on Cloud available to CSP as SPI (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)" - here.

New ZTE Patent: Policy Control Method And System For Converged Network

 
A new patent, by Tong Rui, Xiaoyun Zhou, Xiaoyun Zhou from ZTE was published.

Abstract:

A policy control method for a converged network comprises: in a roaming scenario, after learning that a user equipment (UE) accesses a mobile network through a wireless local area network (WLAN) access, a visited policy and charging rules function (V-PCRF) establishing a subsession serving WLAN Offload when establishing an S9 session to a home policy and charging rules function (H-PCRF), and carrying a WLAN Offload instruction. With the present document, the WLAN offload data can be distinguished from data routed back to an EPC network in the roaming scenario, thereby delivering policy control for the WLAN offload data.

See "Patent application title: Policy Control Method And System For Converged Network" - here.

[Blog News]: PCRF-DPI Matrix Updated

The PCRF-DPI matrix (here) has been updated. The update includes:

• CSG International  PCRF product is now the former Volubill product (see "CSG Acquires Volubill's Assets" - here)
   
• Sandvine has recently re-branded its PCRF product (here) and published more information on the product (see figure below and "Sandvine Will Compete on PCRF Projects" - here)
   
• Removal of several vendors that no longer exist or offer a PCRF product
   
• Correction to broken product links

Sandvine's PCRF

F5 Partners with Siemens Convergence Creators' PCRF

F5 Networks and Siemens Convergence Creators announced that they have "successfully completed comprehensive interoperability tests of F5’s BIG-IP® Policy Enforcement Manager™ (PEM™), and Siemens Convergence Creators’ policy and charging rules function (PCRF) product, Siemens Policy Manager (SPM) .. Combining F5 and Siemens technology gives operators the ability to monetize networks by enabling them to customize rate plans for different types of use cases and subscribers. Also, CSPs can generate additional revenues by creating subscription plans that are tailored to fit their strategic business goals"

See more on F5's Policy Enforcement - here and here and on Siemens Convergence Creators PCRF - here.

"Joint customers can set policies to meet their business needs (such as tiered/premium service offerings or plans) with Siemens’ PCRF capabilities, while BIG-IP PEM provides the awareness and enforcement necessary to assure policies are carried out appropriately based on network and user conditions specific to the services being delivered".

See "F5 and Siemens Convergence Creators Help CSPs Pursue Policy-Driven Business Models and Increase Subscriber Satisfaction" - here.