 | Issue: | EMEA 2014 |
| Article no.: | 13 | |
| Topic: | Operators take one step closer to ‘Virtualised Carrier Wi-Fi:’ Shift to Network Functions Virtualisation encourages operators to rethink their Wi-Fi Strategies | |
| Author: | Simon Wynn | |
| Title: | CTO | |
| Organisation: | Devicescape | |
| PDF size: | 205KB |
About author
Simon Wynn, Chief Technology Officer, Products
As CTO, Products, Simon Wynn guides product technology and Devicescape’s IP and patent initiatives, while expanding technical consulting into executive customer interactions. Prior to becoming CTO, Simon was instrumental in transitioning Devicescape from a Wi-Fi middleware company to a provider of web services.
Before joining Devicescape, Simon guided global teams at several companies, such as Marimba and Centrata, to successful acquisitions. At Marimba he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s engineering operations and was instrumental in the company’s acquisition by BMC Software. He began his career at Dolby Laboratories, where as a staff engineer he developed the Dolby Digital sound format, and at Oracle Corporation, in the new media, groupware and application server divisions.
Simon has been granted multiple U.S. patents covering Wi-Fi, networking and telecommunications technologies. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honours in electronics and communications engineering from The Polytechnic of North London.
Article abstract
Operators have already migrated to LTE in droves to address capacity issues and monetise mobile data. As their businesses continue to shift from the provision of voice and SMS to providing mobile data access, operators are adopting new strategies, such as Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV), to drive down costs and improve the controllability and flexibility of their networks. Operators are now looking to adopt solutions that can be integrated into this new cloud-based architecture to extend their capacity reach and allow them to better manage the end user’s smartphone experience, without having to necessarily deploy additional RAN technology. A curated Wi-Fi solution allows operators to extend their networks, integrate Wi-Fi as a high-quality RAN technology and drive ARPU.
Full Article
In today’s highly competitive environment, mobile operators, once the dominant force in wireless communications, face the challenge of maintaining their status as major telecom brands. Their market share is being threatened by internet brands and over-the-top (OTT) providers encroaching into the mobile space, and they are pitted against each other in a bid to win the hearts and minds of subscribers to protect their customer base. This has led to huge investments in network upgrades and partnerships with content providers as operators seek to differentiate their offerings in a mobile broadband-oriented world. It’s a far cry from the days when subscribers relied on their mobile service provider for voice and SMS.
As operators strive to reduce OPEX and CAPEX by eliminating the need for purpose-built hardware, they are adopting Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV). This trend follows the general virtualisation trend in enterprise and internet computing and is reflected in the staggering growth of cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services. Their shift to a cloud-based architecture should enable operators to better manage the growth and changes required in their networks at a lower cost, source technology from a wider choice of providers, practice agile development methodologies, and subsequently speed up the time to market of new technologies and services. A number of operators have already taken this step. AT&T, with its Domain 2.0 program, is the most high-profile example to date. The research firm Maravedis recently reported that 75% of operators would deploy NFV by 2018, the key drivers being cost and the need to deliver services quickly and more responsively. With this in mind, operators should now be looking to adopt technologies that can be easily integrated into this new network architecture and bolster their proposition with cloud-based services, particularly if it helps them address major concerns like increasing network capacity and managing the smartphone experience of the end user, while ensuring that no matter their location or their requirements, the user is ‘always best connected’ (ABC).
Achieving cost performance through NFV is one thing, but operators are also dealing with the increase in data traffic on their networks, compounded by the success of OTT services that are so readily consumed by subscribers. A number of forecasts and statistics point to the seemingly unstoppable rise of mobile data traffic; the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) predicts that traffic will reach 15.9 exabytes per month by 2018.
Many see 4G/LTE as the solution to the real and urgent need to improve existing network infrastructure to cope with this growing demand. So far 4G is proving to be very popular, with usage surpassing expectations, but unless operators continue on the trajectory of building out their LTE networks by adding more base stations and small cells, they will still be faced with the same capacity and bandwidth challenges they’re confronting today. As data transfer rates grow, users will become more engaged, communicate with each other more, and consume more content. With smartphone and tablet adoption soaring, wireless data access, while on the move at home or at work, has become second nature to both consumers and professionals. Consequently Wi-Fi connectivity has become the enabler and the dominant means of data connection for smart devices. Smartphone users typically consume 60 to 80 per cent of their data over Wi-Fi, and this usage stays constant whether in a 3G or 4G/LTE environment. For mobile operators looking to manage continuing growth in demand for wireless data, the availability of Wi-Fi is an essential component as they strive to increase overall data ARPU.
Most of the data concurrently consumed is delivered through private and office Wi-Fi networks, but a growing percentage of the usage runs across Wi-Fi connections owned and operated by venue or commercial premises – collectively known as ‘amenity Wi-Fi’. In venues from 20-seat cafés to 90,000-seater stadiums, amenity Wi-Fi tends to be offered by premises owners as a value-add for customers. Quality or availability of service are not necessarily priorities. Rather, users make do with the access that they’re given, accepting variable performance because, much of the time, that access is free.
Traditionally, operators have been less than enthusiastic about enabling their subscribers to use these networks. Shifting subscribers onto Wi-Fi networks has been viewed negatively and as something that detracts from the revenue stream provided by cellular data access. Operators’ general perception of Wi-Fi was that it was purely a channel for offload and not reliable enough to deliver the level of Quality of Experience (QoE) that a subscriber would expect from their mobile service provider. As more and more mobile network operators have shifted from unlimited data plans to shared and tiered plans, the need to offload data has been supplanted by the goal of increasing data ARPU. Wi-Fi is a critical component of this strategy; research shows that when users have more connectivity choices, including Wi-Fi, they use more services and their overall data usage increases. As a result, Wi-Fi becomes a central driver of data revenues. Wi-Fi is now seen as a serious addition to the RAN, but before it’s integrated into a broader network infrastructure, QoE must be ensured. This is particularly important if an operator is expanding their coverage footprint to run seamlessly across a global network of amenity Wi-Fi hotspots. To keep pace and continue to deliver the QoE that subscribers expect, operators need to supplement their existing network infrastructure in a strategically more reliable fashion without having to build their own physical Wi-Fi network.
This is where the Curated Virtual Network (CVN) comes in, offering careful, repeated validation and monitoring to ensure that only high-quality hotspots are used. The CVN enables operators to connect users to the best network available to them, based on their location, network availability, hotspot congestion, and many other preferences or parameters, ensuring a high-quality service at all times. Curating these hotspots manually is simply not possible. Effective curation requires a big-data, machine-learning approach wherein data from the network is continuously processed to determine which networks are included in the CVN. The CVN provides operators with a reliable platform that extends their network virtually. Given the NFV cloud architecture, this fits perfectly into Virtualised Carrier Wi-Fi.
Virtualised Carrier Wi-Fi can offer more than just access; it enables operators to go beyond the network focus and elevate the entire smartphone experience, giving operators the tools to increase subscriber engagement and gain a better understanding of usage patterns. By using a process of adaptive network selection, operators can deliver ABC, automatically switching the user between 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi, and dynamically identifying the best network for each customer based on both operator policies and user preference. This allows mobile devices to transition from the carrier’s network to Wi-Fi hotspots, maintaining a quality data connection at all times without requiring any action from the subscriber.
Until recently, analysis of customer behaviour about Wi-Fi access was considered almost impossible, simply because it was outside of the domain of the operator. Now, armed with insights into subscribers’ location and usage when they are connected to Wi-Fi, operators can pinpoint where they should extend the coverage of their virtualised network. By matching this information to the data they’re already collecting from cellular CDRs, operators will be able to develop detailed user analysis of smartphone usage.
As the mobile industry continues to evolve, with the expansion of LTE and the gradual switch to NFV, operators will be looking for solutions that allow them to regain control of their networks, reduce costs and expand their capacity reach. The CVN allows them to go one step further to achieving Virtualised Carrier Wi-Fi: it addresses the issue of much-needed capacity as it improves the customer experience and provides operators with a cloud service delivery model that can be integrated into the new virtualised network environment. As networks become more heterogeneous, the CVN will help operators to manage and configure the various access technologies and deliver ABC to the end user. Additionally, operators will be armed with valuable insights about their subscribers across cellular and Wi-Fi networks, gaining an unprecedented amount of information about the smartphone experience that can be put to good commercial use. Beyond the notable value of data offload and greatly reducing OPEX expenditure and traffic on the operator’s network, it is also possible to monetise this curated Wi-Fi network, allowing operators to regain control over their profit margins. In today’s hyperconnected world, reliable data access has become a necessity. By managing the customer connection on cellular and Wi-Fi, the operator can offer more data for a lower cost, with unprecedented network efficiencies and the ability to grow ARPU.
