The cost savings and reduced complexity from enterprises moving to an all-wireless communications network is a seductive one. However, worries still exist among many enterprise IT managers that Wi-Fi is not up to snuff. Indeed, there are still concerns about scalability, quality, and security issues.
A recent TechZine article by Subramania Vasudevan, Director, Advanced Performance in WCTO, Alcatel-Lucent, All-wireless enterprise with LTE and Wi-Fi, notes that enterprise IT managers have a particular lack of confidence in the quality of the wireless link provided by an all Wi-Fi infrastructure.
“There’s the limited ability of the Wi-Fi network to scale with increasing data rate needs,” Vasudevan noted. “In fact, we’ve seen aggregate capacities barely increase — even as Wi-Fi networks densify.”
LTE small cells can help. Small cells help provide in-building LTE on a cost-effective, as-needed basis.
Many mobile operators are considering unlicensed spectrum to bring greater bandwidth into the enterprise, he added. This can help meet the scalability demands. In fact, operators are looking to aggregate LTE in licensed bands along with LTE in the 5GHz unlicensed bands, which are known together as Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) or LTE unlicensed (LTE-U).
The limitations of Wi-Fi often come from the sharing mechanism between the uplink and the downlink. By using an LTE-based system, enterprises can resolve the problem of contentious uplink by means of scheduled access. This frees up the enterprise’s existing Wi-Fi for downlink, according to Vasudevan.
“By offloading the Wi-Fi uplink to cellular, LTE small cells improve enterprise services,” he wrote. “In addition, in-building enterprise traffic, such as Lync application data, can be shunted across the enterprise LAN (i.e., local breakout is enabled).”
At the same time, the combination relies on pre-existing Wi-Fi APs and user equipment, so the sum total is that the LTE downlink capacity can be aggregated with the Wi-Fi APs downlink capacity. This can lead to users everywhere seeing higher throughput in more locations because they benefit from LTE Wi-Fi aggregation and LTE-only for uplink.
The all-wireless enterprise network might be closer than many enterprise IT managers realize. This is a good thing since so many of us use our smartphones as our primary communications device and a significant number of interactions on those devices originate or terminate in-building where coverage and quality of service are a challenge.
If you spend any time in a developing country, you quickly discover that the majority of Internet connectivity comes via cellular connections. For many in developing countries, a smartphone effectively is their first regular connection to the Internet.
Roughly 87 percent of all broadband connections in emerging markets will be by way of cellular by 2017, according to Alcatel-Lucent forecasts. This is especially true in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the GSMA estimates that Latin America will have the second highest installed base of smartphones in the world behind only Asia Pacific by 2020.
The latest 4G Americas report shows that Latin America added 17 million LTE connections over the past twelve months, a 324 percent connection growth rate and the highest in the world.
Small cells technology is helping operators in Latin America and the Caribbean keep up with mobile broadband demand. Small cells are inexpensive to deploy, and they enable operators to add coverage and density as subscriber demand warrants.
“As mobile data usage escalates, adding small cells has become the popular solution,” noted a recent Alcatel-Lucent blog post on the topic, Latin America’s path to broadband increasingly made possible by small cells. The post noted that small cells are increasingly being used as the primary means for servicing cellular connections in Latin America and the Caribbean, with macro cells adding density in areas of particularly high use.
Alcatel-Lucent should know. The company leads the market in Latin America for small cell use according to Frost & Sullivan. In fact, Alcatel-Lucent has more than 50 percent of the market, and has secured 18 contracts in 13 countries since 2013.
“Small cells are the key to bringing mobile broadband to their citizens,” noted the Alcatel-Lucent blog post. “And as operators move from 3G to 4G/LTE networks, small cells play an even more important role in providing increased bandwidth and capacity needed to support advanced communications applications.”
Leading the way in Latin America and the Caribbean are Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, with the highest small cells usage. But small cells make so much sense that countries in all parts of Latin America are jumping on the bandwagon.
]]>There tends to be a prejudice in the press for covering the latest and greatest technology and how it is being used in the developed world. The reality is that especially when it comes to wireless, the impact of having ubiquitous and affordable access to communications, not just for voice but for data (aka the Internet), is busy transforming the developed world in ways that may be even more profound.
In fact, in the developing world, connectivity is the lifeblood of economic progress improving not just commerce itself but also the delivery of healthcare and as a tool for rapidly improving the education of young and old alike. Data is where it is at, and 4G has become as important in the developing world as in the developed.
A great example of this is in the work Alcatel-Lucent has done with aggressive mobile services provider Smile in Tanzania and the Ivory Coast. One interesting factoid is that in Tanzania, for every 1 landline subscriber there are 166 mobile phone subscribers. In short, the age old problem of increasing tele-density in the developing world as the engine for progress is being conquered and with impressive speed that has opened the eyes of many to the vast potential of all of Africa and other parts of the developing world.
The short video embedded below tells the story.
“What we are doing is much more than just installing a mast or selling a cable. It has an impact on the people in this country. It gets a different kind of meaning, “notes Daniel Jaeger, Vice-President for Africa, Alcatel-Lucent.
Indeed, wireless access has demonstrable impact. A study of the World Bank claims that a 10 percent growth in the number of Internet users in sub-Saharan Africa will generate a GDP increase of more than 1.3 percent. This leads to an observation of what happens when the percentage of users grows a lot more than 10 percent which is what the aforementioned landline to mobile comparison highlights.
And, it is not just Africa where this phenomenon is occurring. In the not too distant future there are forecasts that upwards of 70 percent of the world’s population of 7 billion people will have wireless personal communications capabilities. In some countries the number of devices already exceeds the number of citizens.
What the Smile deployment also illustrates is that the point that giving the most modern infrastructure nationwide is good business. Enabling people to use their phones for broadband data interactions as Smile’s competitive inroads indicate opens up significant revenue opportunities including the fact that as people become more device-centric they increase their usage as economic development enables them to have more money to spend. Where they are spending it is on wireless services. The reasons are obvious, e.g., in a connected world the value of ubiquitous access is as important, and in many ways more important, than other utility services like electricity.
As outgoing Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes explains in discussing what’s next for Africa now that 4G LTE and Ultra-Broadband networks have enabled a positive political, economic and social change: “For me Africa is at the heart of tomorrow…Becoming digital is an important catalyst for change. The focus of development will continue to bring connectivity to users by working with local, regional and international partners to literally help ‘connect’ the African people."
]]>From original TechZine article
Can the virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) be deployed today in large scale, LTE networks? Mobile network operators (MNOs) are increasingly convinced that the vEPC has become viable both financially and technically. And I think so, too, based upon the advances made over the past year that I’ll discuss in this blog.
Advancements in vEPC scaling and performance
Early in 2014, the vEPC proofs of concept and field trials of virtualized mobility management and gateway products were limited in both scale and performance. But as the year progressed, advancements in the design and architecture used network functions virtualization (NFV) tools and capabilities that greatly improved their capacity and performance.
These improvements, together with other software enhancements, such as the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), have the vSGW/vPGW approaching the capacity and performance of dedicated hardware platforms.
Converged NMS/VNF manager: The key to seamless vEPC network operations
A lot of progress has been made with enhancements to the ETSI Management and Orchestration (MANO) architecture. However, rather than having separate element management system (EMS) and VNF manager (VNFM) functions, there’s been a move to converge these functions since both are integral to managing the VNFs. (The EMS described by MANO includes both network and element management (NMS/EMS) functions).
By unifying the VNF manager and NMS functions, an MNO can seamlessly manage and orchestrate the vEPC. This makes it easy for an MNO to perform VNF lifecycle management functions from the same NMS that is used on a day-to-day basis for network operations.
When EMS and VNFM are converged:
The traditional NMS Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security (FCAPS) management function is now applicable to both the EPC VNFs and the physical network functions (PNF). This enables a common and consistent approach.
This also provides the topology and logical connectivity of the individual VNFs/PNFs and more advanced performance and SLA reporting. A single manager simplifies overall coordination and adaptation for configuration and event reporting between the virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) and the NMS.
Troubleshooting is simplified because traditional NMS faults/events are correlated with VNF related events/faults. The VNFM provides lifecycle management and automates the self-healing of VNFs. It uses recipes to describe the vEPC VNF, its VNF components (underlying VM instances) and their interdependencies. Each VNF component has its own recipe, which includes a description of how to monitor, self-heal, and scale it.
With coordinated fault management and automated self-healing, the MNO’s operations team will have the visibility and intelligence to understand whether alarms are caused by normal maintenance activities or are indeed an emerging issue that they need to react to quickly. In addition, new advanced NMS approaches to network assurance visualization will speed problem assessment for both VNF and PNFs. These developments will also provide the VNF and network event data to support reporting and analysis.
When the VNFM and the NMS are combined into a single management functional instance, the management and orchestration of the vEPC VNF and integration of the vEPC into the existing OSS/BSS infrastructure is greatly simplified. This is because the VNFM/ NMS has complete knowledge and visibility of VNFs within the physical and virtual EPC network.
Is the vEPC ready for commercial deployment?
Based on the progress made in both the scalability and performance of the vEPC VNFs and the advances made in management and orchestration of the vEPC, 2015 will be the year for vEPC deployments to commence at some Tier 1 mobile operators. The momentum and confidence of mobile operators in NFV will make it a reality.
Alcatel-Lucent at Mobile World Congress
Alcatel-Lucent will have a large presence at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I will take part in a panel discussion on “Unifying Network IT and Telco IT” on Thursday, March 5th from 11.30 – 13.00.
We will also be demonstrating our vEPC at our booth. There you will be able to see the dynamic scaling of our Virtualized Mobile Gateway and the operational elegance of our NMS/VNFM system. I look forward to seeing you there and discussing how our vEPC solution can meet your NFV evolution plans.
Related Material
To contact the author or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.
]]>From original Alcatel-Lucent TechZine posting
A Wi-Fi first strategy can help multi-system operators (MSOs) remain competitive in the evolving marketplace. Wi-Fi enabled devices default to using the cable operator’s Wi-Fi network for voice, and cellular equipped devices can switch to cellular when out of Wi-Fi range.
Although nuances in the business drivers for adopting such a strategy vary by region globally, this model turns the traditional cellular voice paradigm on its head.
Just like other communications or media industries, MSOs face a dynamic and extremely competitive market. As a result, in EMEA, they have evolved their end-user offerings to embrace market-leading fixed high speed internet access, Wi-Fi connectivity, and bundled mobile cellular services using mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partnerships.
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, subscribers have made a widespread move to Wi-Fi enabled smartphones and tablets. A European commission study stated that 71% of all EU wireless data traffic in 2012 was delivered to smartphones and tablets using Wi-Fi. This is expected to rise to 78% by 2016.
European MSOs have already invested in Wi-Fi and offer data connectivity services in and out of the home. This not only is a customer retention strategy, but also lets MSOs build out further value added services (VAS) and can reduce data costs of their MVNO agreements. So if we now contemplate the delivery of voice to these Wi-Fi enabled devices, how do we get started?
Existing Mobility Assets
MSOs in EMEA already have different types of Wi-Fi hotspot locations:
These Wi-Fi hotspot networks have been mainly used to enhance customer experience by extending broadband access outside the home, and to help provide TV Everywhere services.
Some MSOs have also invested in 4G spectrum and tentatively contemplated this to extend fixed services outside of their hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network footprint. If MSOs decide to take a more traditional approach to 4G and deploy mobile coverage using small cells, their own networks can provide backhaul for this traffic.
In addition, most MSOs in EMEA have – or are building – a full MVNO (F-MVNO) network that enables them to deliver cellular-based mobile services to their customers. The costs of maintaining a mobile data and voice partnership with a mobile network operator (MNO) are high. In response, some MSOs use their own Wi-Fi investments to steer (also known as offload) data connections from the MNO cellular network to improve the MVNO business case as well as improve customer experience.
A new opportunity
Both Android OS and Apple iOS recently added native dialer capabilities to their phones’ operating systems. This development paves the way for MSOs to not only offer new voice over Wi-Fi services to tablet and smartphone users, but also steer their own MVNO voice smartphone traffic to use Wi-Fi. This directly impacts MSO´s bundled mobility offers and increases competitiveness, while also managing costs.
Most EMEA MSOs now have assets in place to build a sustainable mobility strategy. Some can combine Wi-Fi and 4G small cell networks with F-MVNO agreements to provide both entertainment and communication services to their subscribers at work, at home, and on the move throughout the day.Being able to control voice communications across multiple wireless assets allows MSOs to adopt a “Wi-Fi first” approach. Subscriber voice calls automatically use MSO Wi-Fi networks. Where the device also has cellular capabilities, calls connect to cellular only when Wi-Fi is unavailable. This concept is also important for converged MNO/MSO operators, who can use all their mobility assets to create a heterogeneous network (HetNet).
Necessary ingredients for a Wi-Fi first approach
1. Quality of Experience
MSOs are already familiar with voice. They deliver fixed services over their HFC networks. Voice, unlike most data services, is a real-time application that requires quality of service to avoid jitter and delay. For MSO Wi-Fi networks to be competitive, the subscribers’ quality of experience using MSO Wi-Fi based voice services must be on par with that of traditional mobile carriers.
Similarly, the end-user experience with the Wi-Fi service mustn’t be any more cumbersome than subscribers are accustomed to. People just want to be able to use their phone without hassles. They don’t want to have to worry about which access technology they are using or perform manual changes as they move in and out of different coverage zones. This means MSO platforms and systems have to be completely automated:
Figure 2 shows a possible high-level Wi-Fi first architecture, including:
Many MSOs are already thinking about deploying IMS capabilities as part of their overall voice renewal plans. Including voice over Wi-Fi and other value-added services such as video calling are a natural fit. Figure 2 also demonstrates that beyond Wi-Fi first schemes, IMS can eventually replace the MVNO operation (2G/3G) as well as the fixed access network.
2. Mobile device manager (MDM)
An MDM system can be used to provision both iOS as Android devices, allowing MSOs to offer cellular, Wi-Fi and hybrid service plans.
The concept can use embedded MDM clients on user devices that allow operator settings to be installed, including Wi-Fi settings, usernames and passwords, and SIP settings.
In addition, the MDM would enable the MSO´s service to assume control of (or replace) the subscriber devices’ native dialers. The dialer ultimately must be capable of both Wi-Fi and circuit-switched calling, along with handovers between Wi-Fi, LTE and 3G domains to create a seamless user experience.
3. IMS
IMS technology can be used as the call control solution for voice calls. In the Wi-Fi first approach described here, IMS will handle all calls originating from the user device while in the packet-switched domain (4G, Wi-Fi). IMS delivers SMS messages to the device while in the Wi-Fi/LTE/IMS network using an IP short message gateway. It can also allow other IP communication services, such as video calling, to be added easily. IMS is particularly helpful when services are delivered by other access technologies, including 2G/3G, 4G, and fixed access.
Next Steps for Wi-Fi first
Creating a sustainable MSO mobility strategy is complex, and building a Wi-Fi first scheme as part of this strategy will require planning for considerations such as:
Once these questions have been answered, MSOs are well placed to grasp the current market opportunity of offering voice services via Wi-Fi and leveraging a Wi-Fi first strategy to help remain competitive in the evolving marketplace.
To contact the author or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.
]]>From original Alcatel-Lucent TechZine posting
Increased number of security threats, demand for greater efficiency, and requirement for cross-agency coordination all point to the need to modernize public safety communications networks toward IP and broadband. And, backhauling is at the forefront of this evolution.
The rationale for the evolution of public safety backhaul networks is twofold:
By deploying a converged MPLS-based backhaul network now, public safety organizations can address current and future requirements for public safety IP communications while controlling costs. And when properly designed, mission-critical public safety transport networks also feature more efficient and more resilient support of legacy TDM-based applications.
Employ backhauling as a strategic asset
For backhauling mission-critical voice and sensor traffic, traditional public safety communications networks use PDH and/or SDH/SONET-based TDM technologies. But times have changed. Many new applications are media-rich and computing-resource-intensive, so they require larger, fluctuating amounts of bandwidth.
Consequently, public safety agencies are swapping dedicated TDM-based backhaul networks with converged packet based backhaul to deliver broadband-based multimedia applications. These MPLS-based networks can transport first responder traffic coming, for instance, from:
Further, this move to IP enables improved interoperability, superior performance, and economies of scale, as well as better integration with IT applications—much needed steps in the right direction.
Now let’s turn to some key considerations when building packet-based mobile backhaul for an upgraded LMR/PMR network.
Resiliency and fast recovery
Strong resiliency is indispensable for a public safety communications network carrying mission-critical voice, video, and data. High reliability and resiliency for uninterrupted operations is essential and platform protection is crucial.
Gone are the days of the 2-node architecture. State-of-the-art networks use fully redundant platform that supports hitless control/fabric protection—a dramatic improvement. Plus, the high-availability features provide for unparalleled availability and reliability—essential for aggregation sites, as they ensure that a control card failure has no service impact. All of this, combined with fast switching and fast fault detection, enable fault detection time to the very low 10s of milliseconds, and then the ability to reroute connections at SDH/SONET speeds.
The network should also support advanced topologies—multi-ring, necklace and hybrid— to improve robustness. In particular, when fully capitalized by dynamic IP/MPLS, multi-ring’s rich path diversity provides the highest redundancy protection even during a disaster.
Versatility and efficiency
A backhaul network often spans dense urban areas and remote environments. To do so efficiently, public safety organizations should be able to mix and match transmission media—microwave, fiber, copper, and even 3rd-party leased lines—when building a mission-critical network. Backhauling equipment that supports transmission layer integration is vital.
A consolidated and simplified network design and operations for all network sites is possible along with consistent commissioning and operations procedures—regardless of the medium.
The most common transmission medium is packet microwave complemented by optical fiber. For microwave, depending on geography and site constraints, either outdoor or indoor microwave radios can be deployed. And, to maximize bandwidth throughput of available microwave spectrum, the following advanced microwave capabilities are of utmost importance:
When fiber is available, public safety operators should use it. Highly economical, coarse WDM (CWDM) allows up to 8 times 1 Gbps and/or 10 Gbps wavelengths to be carried on the same strand of fiber.
Advanced traffic management and quality of service
To deliver service guarantee and differentiation on a packet-based backhaul, a strong QoS mechanism with advanced traffic management capabilities is a must. The backhaul network should incorporate an extensive set of traffic management tools, such as advanced hierarchical scheduling and prioritization mechanisms.
These techniques optimize uplink utilization while maintaining maximum isolation and fairness among application traffic flows. This allows the network to always meet critical application performance parameters, such as bandwidth, delay, and jitter. In particular fragmentation and interleaving are key techniques to keep jitter under control on lower speed links.
Robust security
To safeguard their critical infrastructure, networks must have extensive integrated security features. These defend against cybersecurity threats, ensure communications and data privacy, and help deliver uninterrupted services. Specifically, robust mechanisms are needed to protect the management, control, and data planes against security threats originating from outside or inside the agency.
For external threats, a host of security measures can be taken, such as access control lists, traffic rate controls, user authentication, authorization and accounting, encryption, or label switch paths.
But threats can also come from within the agency. Detailed event logging, and features such as user profiles that limit an employee’s scope of network access, can also mitigate risk.
Microwave links are inherently secure. However, for locations vulnerable to eavesdropping, layer 1 FIPS-197 compliant encryption can be applied.
Optimize investment
IP/MPLS-based networks are ideal for multiservice backhauling, delivering superior performance and economies of scale. Multiservice backhaul networks can be deployed in various topology and connectivity configurations as required by public safety applications.
The challenge, though, is that legacy[1]- and TDM-based traffic will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. Consequently, the resilience and performance of a new backhaul network should resemble that of a TDM-based network. This is achieved with pseudowire based circuit switched emulation that can be applied across a wide portfolio of legacy and T1/E1 TDM interfaces.
Support for these interfaces is required to migrate public safety applications gracefully. In addition, IP/MPLS based networks allow for improved interoperability and integration with IT applications.
Even now, a full range of MPLS-based VPN services have been deployed in numerous mission-critical networks and have been proven by commercial carriers in taxing environments.
Prepare for LTE
Future LTE deployments need to be built on a solid foundation—a network that is resilient, versatile, efficient, and that recovers rapidly.
IP/MPLS backhaul networks should scale seamlessly to accommodate different interface speeds and capacity requirements depending on the location in the network. They should also enable installation versatility for small enclosures and full outdoor environments.
At the same time, a single end-to-end network management platform—including the backhauling and the LTE radio and core access network—is needed. This simplifies operations (configuration, provisioning, supervision, fault detection, and management) and optimizes end-to-end network performance.
A service-aware network manager can maximize all these network management synergies while extending coverage to the microwave and optical transport domains, as well as the LTE domain.
The way forward
As cost-constraints take hold and demand and citizen expectations increase, public safety organizations will be drawn to evolutionary solutions that keep OPEX and CAPEX in check while meeting new performance requirements.
The way forward for these organizations is with IP/MPLS-based backhaul networks. This path allows public safety operators to modernize their mission-critical networks and paves the way for LTE.
Related Material
Footnote
[1] Legacy interfaces include: E&M, FSX/FSO, V.24/V.35/X.21 serial
To contact the authors or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com .
]]>
Why LTE – and why now?
Public safety communications are at a turning point. The most urgent events – planned and unplanned – require more than mission-critical voice to improve first responders’ efficiency. Real-time imagery, video, geo-localization, and high-speed access to private cloud-based information and applications are becoming essential to fulfill first responders’ missions.
Existing private mobile radio (PMR) systems have limited capabilities to deliver this, because they were designed to primarily support narrowband mission-critical voice.
For LTE, it’s a different story. LTE can complement existing PMR networks to dramatically enhance operational effectiveness and coordination within a secure infrastructure shared by cooperating agencies.
LTE operational benefits include:
However, adding LTE mobile broadband capabilities to existing PMR networks in a non-disruptive and cost-effective way can be complex, with many factors to consider. Fortunately, proven roadmaps exist for a smooth migration that leverages existing infrastructure and investments and adapts to local constraints.
5 proven business models to transition to LTE
When evolving to mobile broadband, public safety agencies have a choice among many business models to get broadband PMR services. In all models, public safety organizations are responsible for purchasing the applications and the terminals that will operate over the 4G radio access network.
The models include:
1. Mobile network operator (MNO) – Using existing commercial LTE network for public safety forces
In this model, the public safety agency contracts data subscriptions with an MNO to provide mobile broadband services.
Public safety users and consumers share the same spectrum and network. The public safety entity pays a consistent, predictable periodic fee for network access, usually a function of some known factors, such as the number of end users, devices, or usage.
2. Government mobile virtual network operator (G-MVNO) – Operating or getting service from a G-MVNO
The mobile virtual network operator approach has become prevalent in the commercial sector, where operators resell bulk-purchased wireless services to consumers while providing their own usage plans, billing, and customer support.
In this model, the MVNO approach can be extended to public safety users. A G-MVNO provides added-value services (e.g., security, selection of best access) to the public safety users. These users get access to secure broadband data services when the G-MVNO leverages the 4G access network from the MNO.
G-MVNO services can be operated by the public safety entity itself or by a public or private organization. Furthermore, when dedicated spectrum becomes available for public safety, the core network elements deployed for the G-MVNO can also be used for the core network of the dedicated radio access (see model 5).
3. Public-private partnership (PPP) – Deploying dedicated network services through a PPP project
The public-private partnership business model features a dedicated and standalone LTE network which is deployed, operated, and maintained by an MNO and/or any other independent operator. The network is typically owned by a telecom operator, which provides the service to the public safety agencies while usually assuming the financial, technical, and operational risk of the service offer.
The infrastructure can be complemented by rapidly deployable LTE systems to enable the extra capacity or coverage required to cope with major planned or unplanned events and major disaster when fixed infrastructure has been destroyed.
4. Private – Building a dedicated network
In this model, the public safety agency finances, procures, builds, and manages its own network, setting technical requirements for capacity, security, reliability, redundancy, and robustness. The agency is responsible for all network elements and software, and employs in-house personnel to build, manage, operate, and maintain the network.
The extent of upfront costs depends on the scale of deployment (local, regional, or national), whether the network is shared among several entities and/or whether the deployment is scheduled gradually over years or within a shorter time period.
5. Hybrid – Combining a G-MVNO with a private network
Where spectrum is scarce, some agencies may opt for custom communications network dedicated to mission-critical services, while conducting less critical back-office operations through commercial operators using the G-MVNO model.
This approach can be easy to implement, since LTE is both a technology for commercial carriers and the new-generation platform for PMR.
LTE network deployment considerations
To choose amongst these different possibilities, public safety agencies embarking on an LTE deployment project must consider the following requirements and criteria:
Based on these main criteria, Figure 1 below summarizes the merits of each model using a simplified color code (green = very good, yellow = good, orange = fair, red = poor).
Figure 1: Merits of the 5 business models
Accelerating the adoption of broadband public safety communications
Given the very specific constraints of public safety communications in term of services, high availability during crisis, security, and coverage, each public safety network operator should aim to deploy its own dedicated LTE network.
Nevertheless, budgetary, in-house expertise, or spectrum availability constraints also make alternative models such as G-MVNO sensible intermediary steps to speed the adoption of broadband services for public safety forces.
Last but not least, regardless of the model chosen, the public safety agencies should also have a plan for doctrine change management, since broadband public safety services will offer new ways of conducting operations.
Related Material
To contact the authors or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.
]]>Over the past several years, I’ve met with many mobile network operators (MNOs) and discussed their plans for virtualizing the evolved packet core (EPC). It’s clear from the more recent conversations that MNOs are now convinced that the vEPC is both financially and technically viable for their networks. But is the vEPC ready for the MNO’s LTE consumer network? In this article, I’ll discuss why I now think that’s possible.
vEPC scaling and performance
Early in 2014, the vEPC proofs of concept and field trials of the Virtualized Mobility Management Entity (vMME) and Virtualized Serving Gateway (vSGW)/Virtualized Packed Data Gateway (vPGW) were limited in both scale and performance. But as the year progressed, advancements in the EPC Virtualized Network Function (VNF) design and architecture used Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) tools and capabilities that greatly improved their capacity and performance.
For control plane subscriber scaling, it is now possible to support up to millions of simultaneous attached users and hundreds of thousands of eNodeBs and small cells on a single vMME instance. This is comparable with today’s existing MMEs built on standard telecom hardware platforms.
In the data plane, the user capacity has increased significantly with the use of packet acceleration techniques. For example, Single Root – Input/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) bypasses the hypervisor and enables Virtual Machines (VMs) to attach to the VNF (the vSGW/vPGW ) and share a single physical Network Interface Card (NIC) that functions as multiple virtualized NICsThis greatly improves speed and increases capacity by reducing processing overhead. These improvements, together with other software enhancements, such as the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), have the vSGW/vPGW approaching the capacity and performance of dedicated hardware platforms.
Converged NMS/VNF Manager: the key to seamless vEPC network operations
A lot of progress has been made with enhancements to the ETSI Management and Orchestration (MANO) architecture. However, rather than having separate element management system (EMS) and VNF Manager (VNFM) functions, there’s been a move to converge these functions since both are integral to managing the VNFs. (The EMS described by MANO includes both network and element management (NMS/EMS) functions). By unifying the VNF Manager and NMS functions, an MNO can seamlessly manage and orchestrate the vEPC. This makes it easy for an MNO to perform VNF lifecycle management functions from the same NMS that is used on a day-to-day basis for network operations. When EMS and VNFM are converged:
The traditional NMS Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security (FCAPS) management function is now applicable to both the EPC VNFs and the physical network functions (PNF). This enables a common and consistent approach. This also provides the topology and logical connectivity of the individual VNFs/PNFs and more advanced performance and SLA reporting. A single manager simplifies overall coordination and adaptation for configuration and event reporting between the Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) and the NMS.
Troubleshooting is simplified because traditional NMS faults/events are correlated with VNF related events/faults. The VNFM provides lifecycle management and automates the self-healing of VNFs. It uses recipes to describe the vEPC VNF, its VNF components (underlying VM instances) and their interdependencies. Each VNF component has its own recipe, which includes a description of how to monitor, self-heal, and scale it. With coordinated fault management and automated self-healing, the MNO’s Operations team will have the visibility and intelligence to understand whether alarms are caused by normal maintenance activities or are indeed an emerging issue that they need to react to quickly. In addition, new advanced NMS approaches to network assurance visualization will speed problem assessment for both VNF and PNFs. These developments will also provide the VNF and network event data to support reporting and analysis.
When the VNFM and the NMS are combined into a single management functional instance, the management and orchestration of the vEPC VNF and integration of the vEPC into the existing OSS/BSS infrastructure is greatly simplified. This is because the VNFM/ NMS has complete knowledge and visibility of VNFs within the physical and virtual EPC network.
Is the vEPC ready for commercial deployment?
Based on the progress made in both the scalability and performance of the vEPC VNFs and the advances made in management and orchestration of the vEPC, 2015 will be the year for vEPC deployments to commence at some Tier 1 mobile operators. The momentum and confidence of mobile operators in NFV will make it a reality.
Alcatel-Lucent at Mobile World Congress
Alcatel-Lucent will have a large presence at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I will take part in a panel discussion on “Unifying Network IT and Telco IT” on Thursday, March 5th from 11.30 - 13.00.
We will also be demonstrating our vEPC at our booth. There you will be able to see the dynamic scaling of our Virtualized Mobile Gateway and the operational elegance of our NMS/VNFM system. I look forward to seeing you there and discussing how our vEPC solution can meet your NFV evolution plans.
Related Material
Benefits of VoWiFi for MNO subscribers
Benefits of VoWiFi for MNOs
Challenges of adding Wi-Fi to LTE networks
There are two main challenges:
Fortunately, these challenges are addressed with the new mobile network architecture that combines Wi‑Fi/cellular access with new Evolved Packet Core (EPC) functions. The architecture is described in 3GPP Technical Specification 23.402 (Architecture Enhancements for non-3GPP Services).
EPC architecture for LTE with Wi-Fi access
In the standards, Wi-Fi is considered a type of non-3GPP wireless access, which the MNO can view as either a trusted network or an untrusted network. To support these two network access types, two core network functions are needed:
For simplicity, we focus in this blog on the ePDG, but both methods perform similar functions for their respective access networks:
Although VoWiFi is the primary focus here, the method is transparent to the services (including Internet, enterprise VPNs and IMS). Indeed, this is the beauty of the solution. Implementation is relatively lightweight: an ePDG is added to the network and a slight update is made to the device’s client. In return, the solution works for any Wi-Fi AP (because no integration is required) and for any service (such as IMS, enterprise VPN and content delivery networks). The TWAG is similar, except it doesn’t require an update to the device, but does require integration with the Wi-Fi AP.
VoWiFi - part of the new IP communications customer experience
When the Wi-Fi/cellular access is used with a virtualized IMS that comes equipped with native APIs, MNOs can deliver new services to their consumers and enterprises. These include:
Witness seamless VoWi-Fi / VoLTE services at MWC
The new conversation experience is becoming a commercial reality: visit our booth (Hall #3, booth 3K10) at Mobile World Congress 2015 for a live demonstration of VoWiFi and VoLTE. You will see it in action on an Apple® iPhone 6, and implemented on an Android by D2 Technologies and InterDigital Technologies, over our vEPC/ePDG and vIMS network.
In doing preparations for what many have called “the circus” aka the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC)—which is arguably now the most important industry trade event as the world goes mobile and which takes place in Barcelona March 2-5—the excitement is already palpable. From all of the new cool devices of all shapes and sizes to interesting advances on things like antenna technology, Network Functions Virtualization, carrier aggregation, etc., the eye candy alone is almost overwhelming in terms of imagining the possibilities. However, MWC always is tantalizing because not only does it answer what we will see in terms of capabilities in the near-term, but also because of the questions it raises about the longer term.
In this regard I was struck by a recent blog by Michael Peeters, CTO, Alcatel-Lucent Wireless, entitled I think appropriately, The Circus is in Town. Peeters’ main point is summed up nicely where he says in characterizing his view on what’s the next big thing that will be the buzz of the show that, “...one thing is certain: its story will be about removing place and time constraints we took for granted.”
While I agree with where we are and where we are going to a certain extent in terms of removing place and time constraints, I happen to believe that the next big thing will be around what it has been and should be, i.e., utility. After all, as we move into always on/all ways connected broadband-enabled world, if all of the things Peeters points to about the Internet of Things (IoT), drones, wearables, more immersive customer experiences and the like are not both easy-to-use, trustworthy and useful, their monetization potential will not be maximized. And, let’s face it, the bottom line is the bottom line which is all about utility. This means utility as pervasively accessible and hopefully affordable and safe, as well as the perceived value we are willing to pay for personally and professionally that enables service providers to continue to accelerate the speed at which the future comes at us.
Talk of the town
If you think about MWC are more of a town meeting of all the stakeholders, along with being a good thing in the context of being a circus, which it is, Peeters’ observations about what will be discussed in terms of the short-term are spot on. In fact, his list of things that will be highlighted and discussed is worth review if you are lucky enough to go to Barcelona or not. They include his forecasts concerning what the show buzz will be about:
Applicability: LTE in new markets such as Public Safety. The ongoing deployment of VoLTE and potential further improvements. What needs to be added or changed to the existing technology?
Capacity: carrier aggregation in licensed bands, be it FDD or TDD, but also the combination of, and the tension between licensed and unlicensed spectrum and technologies. Do you go for LTE-U or Wifi-LTE aggregation?
Performance: specific deployment scenarios such as small cells for indoor and especially enterprise needs. Virtualization of the RAN. How and when do they make sense?
And, because the industry loves to discuss what comes next, despite 4G now finally being rolled out around the world, although “mature” might be a stretch given how far we have to go, 5G will be top of mind and interactions. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great thing. Who doesn’t like talking about the future? However, with things like VoLTE, Voice-over-Wi-Fi, Hotspot 2.0, IoT and M2M, really all in their nascent stages, my hope is that the industry is not getting ahead of itself. Indeed, the use cases that will emerge as to what is valuable as the mobile world moves toward being all IP and broadband are in most instances yet to be written.
This is a great thing as well. It is a so because it will be us figuring out the utility of new high-performance wireless networks and how to extract value from them and all of the new devices, business models (mobile payments for example) and competitive options that will determine what will be successful along with the who, what, when, why and how.
So as Peeters implies, by all means enjoy the show. Be entertained and enthralled. Like the circus, MWC is dazzling and if for no other reason can and should be appreciated for that alone. Indeed, take him up on the invitation to stop by the Alcatel-Lucent booth (Hall 3 – Booth 3K10) to learn more about the realities and possibilities.
In many ways we stand on the bottom of the on-ramp of the possibilities of the combination of pervasive computing and ubiquitous communications. The coming ability of networks to deliver more immersive experiences and better insights into how we can be more productive at work and enjoy more of the things that delight us in our personal lives makes this a unique time and a great time to be part of the buzz.
However, it is important to not lose sight amidst the technology of not just what it does but what it can and should deliver. In my mind the deliverables are utility and trust. It is my hope that at a high level these are the two things that are buzzing at MWC as they are what the industry should and can deliver as to what comes next.
Peeters has it right about the inexorable march of the industry toward providing us with the broadband infrastructure and agility the future is mandating in terms of breaking down the barriers of time and place, however, what this means in terms of deliverables creates fascinating open questions and opportunities and that is why the show is so engaging on so many levels. This may not a “new story,” but it certainly is an all important one.
]]>Mobile video is very popular. In fact, it is predicted to become very much more so in the future with the expectation that it will account for up to 69 percent of total mobile traffic by 2018. Demand is driven by subscribers who want to take content like news programs and favourite TV series with them wherever they go.
As discussed on the Wilson Street blog by Habib Nouira, Product Marketing Manager, Alcatel-Lucent, LTE broadcast is enabling operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to meet this need. They are also exploring how the technology can expand their coverage areas, reduce customer churn, cut costs, and grow revenue.
As Nouira explains, often LTE broadcast is talked about just in terms of helping operators save money on bandwidth when delivering multimedia content, especially video. But this technology enhances the user experience and benefits operators in other ways, too.
For example, it positively impacts operator business models by making it possible to deliver linear content broadcast, meaning continuous, scheduled television streamed over wireless networks. Rather than the bandwidth expense involved with unicast for in-house TV service, mobile operators are turning to LTE broadcast.
A related benefit of 4G LTE broadcast for mobile video is that operators can deliver to places previously impractical—such as using repeaters, distributed antenna systems (DAS), or small cells in dense urban areas to cover basements or subway trains.
This setup means that even in areas out of reach of antenna towers, users can still get online, make voice calls, and receive LTE broadcast.
Deployment of LTE broadcast systems for mobile broadband further benefits operators and users by making it possible to set up temporary TV networks for events. Such networks are used for event-specific content (interviews, presentations, keynote videos, etc.), delivered over a connection with dedicated spectrum and guaranteed bandwidth from a wireless provider.
This same type of local network can and is also used by first responders or emergency services during natural disasters and other events majorly affected the public. Replacing current generation mobile radio networks with LTE broadcast would given first responders multimedia capabilities and allow them to be more effective.
Finally, let’s not forget about advertisers; LTE broadcast is an attractive marketing tool for them, too. When combined with location-based data, this technology makes it possible to target and deliver multimedia ads much more effectively.
]]>Orange France is doing it right when it comes to 4G LTE, and has deployed it extensively with 70 percent of the French population now having access. The operator deployed LTE in different bands and both TDD and FDD modes plus CA to improve capacity and coverage while also simplifying things with a self-organized network, according to a recent TechZine blog post, 4G LTE destinations for the connected traveler, by David Swift, Marketing Director, Alcatel Lucent.
Spain too has robust 4G LTE deployment as Telefonica Spain is leveraging LTE’s speed and reliability for next-generation multimedia services in the hotly contested Spanish mobile market. LTE has given Telefonica an early edge. 4G LTE overlay was the operator’s approach. Users can take advantage of its speeds without Telefonica having to skimp on its 2G/3G infrastructure. In addition, as Swift points out, Telefonica Spain is ready for their network’s evolution to vRAN and LTE Advanced, according to Alcatel-Lucent.
Let us not forget China, the biggest and fastest growing mobile market in the world. China Mobile invested $7 billion in its network in 2014, and is deploying a TD-LTE HetNet and adding metro cells to address hotspot issues. In fact, China Mobile now claims it has the world’s biggest end-to-end TD-LTE HetNet, and it has established an LTE TDD ecosystem and is ready for network functions virtualization (NFV) and cloud-based services.
In the Middle East, Dubai has become a 4G LTE leader. Etisalat, a mobile provider in Dubai, covers 85 percent of populated areas and has also addressed the issue of massive smartphone penetration and demand for massive capacity. They use carrier aggregation (CA) to maximize spectrum and boost capacity and speed. According to Alcatel-Lucent, their network claims mobile broadband speeds up to 300Mbps.
And then there is the U.S. In the U.S., AT&T also is utilizing CA effectively. With a user based of around 300 million, AT&T has to handle both volume and customers who expect a superior quality of experience. To achieve this, AT&T has deployed LTE backed up by CA—and it also uses small cells to boost LTE coverage in dense, high-traffic environments.
Laos telecoms could learn a thing or two from these mobile operators, and as Alcatel-Lucent highlights, it could use their LTE Express solutions to deploy 4G LTE quickly.
]]>In business as well as our personal lives there are finite resources that gate our activities. The big one that covers both is time which we cannot create more of and hopefully optimize for obvious reasons. In mobile communications the issue is getting the most out of not just the finite but scarce radio frequency (RF) spectrum allocated for service provider networks.
Realities are that in most parts of the world mobile service providers have access to different frequency bands as a result of things like auctions and mergers. Thus, they have a need to mesh their various spectrum assets (i.e., bands and associated carriers) in general. They also must optimize them to meet the insatiable appetite of customers for bandwidth-hungry services such as real-time and streamed video where Quality of Experience (QoE). Indeed, QoE and its extensibility to cover anywhere a customer is located is now foundational for attracting and keeping customers.
The challenges of creating fatter pipes that can deliver the bandwidth the tsunami of traffic headed operators’ ways are daunting to say the least. It is one of the reasons why records continue to be broken at auctions for the spectrum that is being freed up by policy makers. To say the least, getting more bandwidth and extending it closer to the customers has critical competitive implications, and this has become a paramount concern specifically in the now hot race to deploy 4G LTE and now 4G LTE-A (Advanced) services. In fact, there is a need for speed by customers, and a need for speed to deploy mobile broadband services for consumers and enterprises at express speeds ASAP.
A recent TechZine posting, LTE carrier aggregation and the massive capacity challenge, by Hector Menendez, Senior Marketing Manager, Wireless Solutions Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent, as the title says highlight how LTE carrier aggregation (CA) can help mobile service providers optimize the bandwidth they have to meet growing traffic demands and provide the QoE required to be competitive.
As Mendendez explains, “CA lets operators aggregate these disparate chunks of spectrum spanning across different bands by supporting inter-band CA.” This is the most common use for CA as most spectral assets that operators own have been acquired piecemeal over time.” He adds that, “In some markets, many operators are also turning to LTE-TDD as a way of further augmenting capacity of existing LTE-FDD networks…and can use intra-band CA to combine several carriers to achieve higher speeds as a way of differentiating their services.”
Additional Carrier Aggregation Benefits
You might think that on the basis of creating more bandwidth alone that CA would be attractive, but there is more. CA also enables operators to make better use of network resources through load balancing, and as pointed out in the posting can reduce interference and improve network performance via intelligence allocation of resources.
In fact, in many ways CA is like a Swiss Army knife, as the graphic below shows.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent
Menendez concludes that: “Carrier Aggregation represents one of the most cost-effective and efficient way of addressing the capacity challenge and could be the biggest success of all LTE-A features. All indications are that we will see CA go mainstream in the not too distant future giving operators a truly valuable tool.”
That might sound like hyperbole, but given the scarcity of spectrum, the unusual mix of radio assets in most operators’ footprints, the need for speed to satisfy traffic demands in general and customer expectations, and the need to be competitive, Menendez is more than directionally correct. Mobile service providers have a growing sense of urgency to be fast-to-market, fast-in-the-market and best in market and certainly when it comes to getting LTE-A, and other advanced forms of wireless technology into the hands of customers ASAP, CA is going to be a critical part of the equation.
]]>It is to keep enterprise customers on the mobile service provider networks for enhanced services that good in-building wireless solutions are seen as both a powerful business tool and a competitive advantage. This is particularly true when it comes to retaining small-to-medium business customers (SMBs).
This is an observation, driven home well in a recent TechZine posting by Tristan Barraud de Lagerie, Product Marketing Manager, Small Cells, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), Field insights: Small cells retain enterprise customers. As he points out, ALU research has shown that more than 87 percent of enterprises are likely to switch to operators that guarantee good performance, but Alcatel-Lucent research found. He adds that, “Until recently, very few wireless solutions have been dedicated to meeting small enterprise needs. Not even in France and the U.K., where SMEs make up 99.8 percent of all businesses — and employ more than half of the workforce (51 percent in France, 59.3 percent in the UK.”
Source: Alcatel-Lucent
Small cells to the rescue—a five step approach for success
The good news for mobile operators is that small cells can give them the in-building coverage and quality of service they need to prevent churn and provide quality customer experiences. In fact, Barraud de Lagerie outlines five step approach to achieve success which have been applied successfully at thousands of small enterprises in France and the U.K. The five steps include:
The goal is simple, small cell deployments can be and should be positioned as a win/win for the operator and for enterprise customers. This is especially important for attracting and keeping SMBs customers as in-building gives the operators the ability to quickly and cost-effectively introduce new services like high-quality voice over LTE (VoLTE). And next-generation multi-standard (3G/4G/Wi-Fi) small cells make it easier to migrate to new services, and support always-on and all ways connections for the exploding and diverse population of wireless devices and their increased use as the communications platform of preference for all enterprise communications.
]]>No matter where one looks these days, be it in enterprises or service providers, there can be no disputing that enhancing the customer experience has become a top, if not along with security the top, C-level concern.
Indeed, from burnishing the brand to enhancing customer loyalty, having permission to upsell and getting early visibility on new opportunities the customer experience (CX is now the short appellation) has become a cross line-of-business preoccupation and priority. This has meant business units’ increased attention on listening to, analyzing and reacting upon needs arising from the “voice of the customer” (or certainly knowing more about their service usage behavior), and IT department focus on providing the tools necessary to support these requirements.
It has also meant that businesses of all sizes and vertical markets are changing their views on what it takes to have a better understanding of the customers. This means using new metrics for success. It also has highlighted the realization that you need to look at life cycle management of customers, i.e., as the headline says it is no longer about the destination in the form of a sale but is about assuring optimization of what has been popularized as “The Customer Journey.”
Ultimately, what it has also meant is that organizations need not only the tools, skills and strategies to optimize the customer journey but also need to be able do so quickly. The reasons are obvious but worth repeating. Competitors are becoming more nimble and customers armed with better real-time information themselves have become more fickle. Time is of the essence.
Illustrative of an area where there is, or certainly should be, a sense of urgency regarding having all of the capabilities to optimize the customer journey is in the global mobile services business. This is a sector rife with competition and susceptible to high churn rates. The good news is that the information that resides in the network and various lines-of-business (LOBs), when properly mined, analyzed and acted upon can give service providers more satisfied customers and a competitive edge.
The question is, where are the places to go to get the information and tools needed? The answer can be seen in a recent Alcatel-Lucent webinar, “LTE, It’s Not About the Destination, but the Journey,” which is embedded in its entirety below.
Spoiler Alert!
I’d like to encourage you to view the entire webinar by sharing just a few insights provided by presenters David J. Swift Marketing Director Wireless, and Josee Loudiadis, Director Network Intelligence, Alcatel-Lucent.
The first is the chart that is the backdrop of the webinar (yes you are seeing double) which is a still frame tickler as to why Alcatel-Lucent believes the deployment of an LTE overlay network is the preferred way to go as the vehicle for being fast-to-market. Swift provides a granular explanation but the benefits slide sums it up well.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent webinar, LTE, It’s Not About the Destination, but the Journey
The savings are demonstrable and it should come as no surprise that several of the world’s leading mobile service providers have opted for an LTE overlay as their choice for not just deploying but leveraging the Alcatel-Lucent LTE Express to enable fast deployment.
For her section of the presentation Loudiadis highlights the Alcatel-Lucent belief that the network has the information to keep customers happy. She describes what this information is, and how it can be generated and analyzed for use in looking at:
In fact, a compelling case is made, and again with an emphasis on the need for service providers having some sense of competitive urgency, for implementing an analytics-driven customer care solution such as Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Customer Experience Solutions.
While a bit of an eye chart, you hopefully get the picture.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent webinar, LTE, It’s Not About the Destination, but the Journey
Yes, the realities of the mobile market, especially as global service providers are in a mad dash to deploy LTE quickly and not fall behind competitors is to get it out there fast. However, being fast-to-market is only part of the equation. You need to also be cost-efficient, and more importantly fast in the market/agile as well. To be the later requires real-time actionable insights. That is where the information and insights from the network become critical.
Success going forward really will be about creating and leveraging better and better knowledge about the entire customer journey. Indeed, it is with such knowledge that services providers can go from being not just reactive but proactive in terms of not just pleasing customers but beating competitors to the punch.
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