 | Issue: | Europe II 2014 |
| Article no.: | 6 | |
| Topic: | Networks with a mind of their own | |
| Author: | Bhaskar Gorti | |
| Title: | SVP & General Manager, Communications Global Business Unit | |
| Organisation: | Oracle | |
| PDF size: | 217KB |
About author
Bhaskar Gorti is senior vice president and general manager of Oracle’s Communications Global Business Unit, responsible for managing strategic planning, product development, sales, service and support for Oracle’s Communications products.
Formerly CEO of Portal Software, Inc., Mr. Gorti led the company’s global sales, services and support efforts, including the enhancement and expansion of Portal’s relationships with global customers for more than four years. Previously, Mr. Gorti was SVP of marketing and alliances at Portal Software, where he successfully re-launched the company and established a number of strategic development and delivery partnerships.
Prior to that, Mr. Gorti served as vice president, global sales and alliances at OnDemand, acquired by Chordiant Software, where he successfully negotiated sales and alliance agreements with industry-leading companies. He has also held prominent positions at Hewlett Packard where he was director, worldwide business development, telecom and ISPs; and general manager, e-services (SMB) business unit. He has also worked for Aluminum Company of America, Sun Microsystems, and ARPANET Office of Naval Research.
Mr. Gorti holds a Master of Science degree from Virginia Tech.
Article abstract
Despite the lack of interoperability standards, leading CSPs have already begun to put their SDN strategies into action. Adoption of advanced Diameter is the first phase, which enables orchestration of gateways, policy servers, charging systems, application servers, and management functions. By integrating Diameter control layer with network functionality on a single virtual SDN platform, localized SDN ‘boxes’ will introduce pockets of virtual networks that operate in high-value zones. Next, SDN will be extended to the access layer, where new services will be monetized according to superior intelligence. The end-game is ‘thinking networks’ that learn and adapt, while responding to unpredictable events, such as spikes in traffic, more efficiently and intelligently.
Full Article
There is a consumer-driven transformation underway in the telecoms landscape. Universal broadband access and the widespread adoption of smart mobile technologies have made today’s consumers more reliant than ever on their connected devices to support their new digital lifestyles. The convergence of these trends has seen mobile customers develop a seemingly insatiable demand for new content, applications, and services from their providers.
To secure their success in the digital era, mobile operators need to rethink the way they manage their business and their networks. This will involve challenging the traditional business models, redefining their value chains, and growing new revenue streams that capitalize on customers’ evolving demands for digital-friendly services.
While progress will demand some significant changes on their part, CSPs (Communication Service Providers) that do embrace this opportunity and make the transition from ‘network and device providers’ to ‘digital lifestyle providers’ stand to strengthen relationships with their existing customers and generate new opportunities in an increasingly competitive market.
The evolution of thinking networks
Central to the success of this transition will be the evolution of existing mobile network architectures from their current form to more flexible, software-defined ‘thinking’ networks that can manage dynamic applications, facilitate the development of innovate services, and respond in real time to rapidly shifting network conditions and customer demands.
The establishment of these thinking networks will be an evolutionary process—a transition marked by four overlapping stages. The first phase of the process, the move to new Diameter networks, is already underway and will serve as the foundation for next-generation thinking networks. On the back of this widespread network virtualization will come, which will allow CSPs to operate under more flexible conditions, followed by the real-time integration of mobile and social user data to develop more customer-focused digital services. Together, these developments lay the groundwork for the establishment of intelligent, self-managing networks. Mature SDNs will be able to automatically process network data and adapt to shifting conditions and customer demands in real time with minimal human interaction. Moreover, they will become even more self-sustaining and intelligent as they continue to collect new information, and therefore arm CSPs with unprecedented levels of subscriber insight that will help them develop highly relevant customer-centric offerings.
As SDNs become more established, mobile operators will find themselves in a race to monetize their SDN propositions. Despite the lack of universal interoperability standards for this technology to-date and the incremental approach that must be taken to build thinking networks, leading CSPs have already begun to put their SDN strategies into action.
It starts with Diameter
In response to evolving customer demand and the accelerating pace at which subscribers generate mobile data, operators have begun making the shift to All-IP LTE networks. This trend has initiated a move from traditional signaling interfaces to more advanced Diameter protocols. EMEA is the fastest growing market for this, with Diameter signaling traffic growing by well over 200 per cent over the last year in the region, according to a recent Oracle study .
The ongoing adoption of Diameter marks the first phase in the development of software-defined thinking networks. This expansion is creating an independent, intelligent control layer that will orchestrate Diameter-based communications between network gateways, policy servers, charging systems, subscriber profile databases, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) application servers, and mobility and session management functions.
Once this groundwork has been laid, CSPs will be able to scale their networks to accommodate growth and find new ways to monetize the fast-growing volume of mobile data generated by subscribers.
A virtual world
The next stage in the evolution of SDNs will see the Diameter network layer move towards a virtualized state in which hardware and software will be integrated with network functionality on a single virtual platform.
This critical step will allow CSPs to create flexible network streams for different types of services. In addition, running on virtual networks will allow operators to develop more agile network architectures that offer a greater variety of deployment options, which can in turn help them reduce operating costs associated with running some of their current network resources. For example, because they will be able to temporarily reallocate virtual resources to specific network functions in line with shifting traffic conditions, CSPs will no longer need to build excess core network capacity to address peak usage.
Putting virtual assets to work
With the new standards of flexibility, capacity, and control that will be achieved by virtualized networks, operators will then begin to extend the scope of their business models beyond traditional access services. This will represent the third stage in the evolution of SDNs, whereby CSPs begin monetizing their integrated network resources and improved subscriber intelligence by offering third-party application and content providers with valuable opt-in and mobile advertising opportunities, and begin developing a range of personalized offers for potential partners.
The role of operators will evolve yet again in this ‘mobile social’ era, as they move past passively facilitating the flow of services between subscribers and third-party providers and begin playing an active role in determining what, when, where, and how services are offered to individual subscribers.
These decisions will be informed by the huge amount of dynamic subscriber and network data that CSPs will continue to collect as consumers become more entrenched in their digital lifestyles. They will be based on a whole new range of considerations, including subscribers’ individual usage behavior and preferences, as well as the conditions of their service agreements. Operators will also benefit from customer-specific demographic information to fuel intelligent decision-making.
Thinking networks: the endgame
The evolution of IT-driven network architecture will ultimately result in the establishment of highly evolved, thinking networks that will be able to process new subscriber and network information in light of the data they have already stored, adapting and becoming more intelligent as time goes on.
The endgame for these thinking networks will be to automatically organize and optimize themselves to respond to unprecedented and unpredictable network events, such as spikes in traffic, more efficiently and intelligently. These networks will also be able to anticipate subscribers’ behavior and predict their preferences to instinctively present them with relevant policy options.
For their part, CSPs will gain additional insight into their subscribers’ digital lifestyles, including feedback into how and where they use their mobile devices, while also keeping track of what services appeal to individual customers.
Armed with this level of subscriber knowledge, operators will be able to drive the adoption of new services developed specifically to meet the demands of their subscribers, and develop innovative offerings that can help them carve out new revenue streams in the digital era.
The race to monetize
While the evolution of software-defined thinking networks will be a gradual one, each phase of the process will present new opportunities for CSPs to develop innovative services. As operators begin adopting Diameter network resources today, the added capacity and flexibility afforded to them has already led to the development of more flexible, customer-focused offerings, such as real-time policy management platforms and consistent network performance when roaming between countries.
Providers envision a whole spectrum of different possibilities with SDN in the future, and are racing to develop the applications that will make it pay off for them first. While they cannot yet fully delineate their SDN strategies today, operators’ enthusiasm for this technology suggest they expect the benefits it will bring them to be well worth the effort of initiating the transition to SDN.
To best scale and support the new services they develop in-line with customer demand while maintaining a pace that will keep them at the forefront of innovation, CSPs can begin by virtualizing their networks piece by piece. This involves installing localized SDN ‘boxes’ that allow operators to take advantage of virtual networks in high-value zones while holding back in pockets of their networks where software-defined functionality is not yet required. This will allow them to phase the roll-out of their improved services and avoid the risks of a full-on ‘build it and they will come’ approach.
It’s a digital world
Existing mobile networks were not built to handle dynamic applications or foster innovation at the pace required to support the evolving digital lifestyles. To meet the demands of the digitally connected world, networks must do more than merely provide static connections between devices; they need to learn to essentially think for themselves and adapt automatically to rapidly shifting user demands. Software-defined thinking networks will provide the means to that end.
While the move to self-managing thinking networks will by no means be instantaneous, the first phase of the process is already underway and proving profitable for CSPs worldwide. As this evolution continues, forward-thinking providers can continue to carve out new opportunities for themselves by developing innovative services that make the most of their Diameter signaling tools and network virtualization tools along the way.
