This document discusses the transition to all-IP networks and the need for next-generation service assurance solutions. Key points:
1) The communications industry is rapidly moving to all-IP networks as VoIP, mobile broadband, and connected devices proliferate.
2) For service providers, this means the traditional approach of focusing on network uptime is no longer sufficient - assurance must be customer-centric and focus on quality of experience.
3) Next-gen solutions will integrate customer-facing systems with network/IT monitoring to develop troubleshooting across the full user experience and meet evolving service level agreements.
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Service Assurance for an All-IP environment Sep2011
1. Service Assurance 2.0 Next-Gen Solutions for an All-IP Environment Patrick Joggerst EVP, Carrier Services and Solutions Aricent
2. All-IP – The market imperative The number of residential VoIP subscribers increased 19% in 2010 to 157 millionworldwide Source: Infonetics From now till 2014, mobile broadband users, smart terminals and other equipment will grow 4 to 5 times,while users accessing applications through these devices will grow from 9 to 10 times, and the resulting mobile traffic will experience a30 to 40 times growth.Source: Communications Weekly Online LTE mobile broadband subscribers are expected to exceed 300 million globally by 2015 Source: Juniper Research The global opportunity in creating new connected experiences using devices, connectivity, and content will reach $2 trillion by 2014 Source: Yankee Group
4. What it means for you The days of “good enough” service are over The operatorcustomer experience & service enabler
5. Single integrated view of network, application, and events Real-time visibility into infrastructure Single window management of partners, applications, performance Flexible service delivery framework Solid security for customers, partners and employees Impact of all-IP on OSS-BSS
6. Impact on business modelsConsider M2M… 50 billion devices predicted to be connectable by 2020 How will you support thebehaviorof your M2M service? Real-Time? Periodic? Intermittent?
7. Impact on business modelsConsider M2M… Even the Most Breathtaking M2M Offering Needs to Work SUCCESSFULLY – and RELIABLY
8. Redefining service assurance for all-IP QoE is the Key Differentiator QoS standards across all services need to be consistent
11. All-IP customer experience What was offered, what wasreceived, what was perceived? How do you rate the Quality and Value of your service? Under what conditions? How does that information influence the way in which services are delivered? What methods are used to measure changes in service delivery?
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13. Developing fault isolation and troubleshooting between user environment, network, IT platform, and applications
18. Enabling All-IP Service Assurance A Cloud Approach N E T WO R K MEASURE COLLECT ANALYZE CORELATE VISUALIZE VIRTUALIZE OFFER MEASURE COLLECT ANALYZE
19. All IP Service Assurance MEASURE, CONSOLIDATE, ANALYZE, VISUALIZE, VIRTUALIZE YOUR CUSTOMER HAPPINESS!
Hinweis der Redaktion
These are all BIG numbers. All IP is the market imperative.Yankee Group predicts the growing deployment of wireless and wired connectivity globally is fueling a consumer revolution that will drive $2 trillion in technology spending by 2014. Ubiquitous connectivity, truly mobile devices, content in the cloud and a plethora of apps are enabling consumers to live, work and play on the go. In this new environment, consumers are the new power brokers: They decide which technologies and experiences succeed? And which ones don’t.Yankee Group Research Focuses on Connected ExperienceYankee Group helps its clients identify revenue opportunities by interpreting how connected user experiences drive demand for:Networks: Broadband networks that are increasingly wireless and all-IP.Devices: Connected devices like smartphones and tablets that transform user experience.Content: Cloud-based content and applications that provide true mobility to users."Helping our clients understand this new dynamic is Yankee Group's primary research focus moving forward," Wang said. "Our unique vantage point, considering networks, devices and content through the lens of Connected Experience, positions Yankee Group as the trusted advisor to the leaders of this new era."Juniper ResearchMost of this growth however is to commence from 2012, but mobile operators are equipping themselves to handle the rapidly increasing data traffic from mobile applications and mobile internet usage, the report adds.The report reveals that only one in every 20 subscribers will benefit from LTE, with the usage levels expected to be significantly higher in other regions such as North America, where it will be closer to one in five, as major operators plan deployments in the next six months. The research pinpointed several hurdles that LTE needs to overcome in order to succeed. For instance, LTE needs to avoid the mistakes of 3G and ensure that suitable devices are available when networks are launched. LTE's main markets will be the developed nations of North America, Western Europe, the Far East and China, which together will account for 90% of the market by 2015, states the report. Ray Hassan, president and GCC head of telecom vendor, Ericsson, told CommsMEA: "We are seeing a lot of consolidation happening among equipment providers worldwide, and more operators are now working towards a partnership approach as it has happened in Japan, US, North America and Western Europe." Global Mobile Statistics:http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-statsVoIP services market nears $50 billion mark; breakout year for SIP trunking CAMPBELL, California, March 30, 2011—Market research firm Infonetics Research this week released VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers, a market share and forecast report that includes two Business VoIP Service Provider Scorecards that will be published later this year, and an IP Centrex Provider Tracker highlighting deployments by provider, region, service, and platform.ANALYST NOTE“The VoIP service market weathered the economic turmoil of the last couple of years, and, with increasing customer adoption, reached $49.8 billion in 2010 (compared to $34.8 billion in 2008). While the residential services segment remains the largest of the market at 69% of total revenue, business VoIP services are growing at faster rates; a notable example: SIP trunking had a breakout year with 143% revenue growth in 2010,” notes Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.VOIP SERVICES MARKET HIGHLIGHTSInfonetics Research forecasts the combined business and residential/SOHO VoIP services market to grow to $74.5 billion in 2015Managed IP PBX business VoIP service revenue is expected to more than double from 2010 to 2015NTT of Japan retains its leadership as the world's largest residential VoIP service provider, followed by Comcast and France TélécomThe fastest growing segments of the VoIP services market are SIP trunking and hosted UC telephonyThe number of residential VoIP subscribers increased 19% in 2010 to 157 million worldwideBased on healthy demand for cloud-based services, the number of seats for IP Centrex and hosted UC services grew 20% in 2010
Everybody wants their devices to be connected reliably, all the time.“The customer has to have the same quality of experience, irrespective of where they are or how the network is accessed.”Ubiquitous subscriber networking – with movement to LTE, whether smart phones, tablets, laptops or other devices – subscribers will expect to maintain all services no matter the location, mobile or fixed – how will service assurance support extend to provide these services.Just as our children (or grandchildren) are growing up without traditional telephone services to the home, they will also experience the Internet without boundaries – ubiquitous access from the home – to school – to work – and even at play wherever they are. How will your operations support this model?
In the past, best effort Internet connectivity was enough for mobile subscribers trying to access information while on the move. With the All-IP backbone supported by LTE access, subscribers will have the expectations to access everything in real-time, from the latest updates within their social network, to breaking news, financial information, weather, sports, shopping and everything available over WiFi and fixed broadband – but while moving from place to place! What will be the impact of a person trying to trade stocks and their Internet connection dropping in the midst of the transaction? “Good enough” is no longer acceptable – it is time to start looking at reliability and experience that meets fixed access. It really is not about the product, it’s about the service.
The reality of the simplicity of having everything IP is ironically, the complexity of it all.Operators need to consolidate and transform their OSS/BSS. This involves migration of existing services such as Voice towards an IP transport as well as the introduction of new services such as those based on IMS technology or IPTV services. - Shift from Silo-based approachIn addition, people and processes must make the transformation through training, re-alignment, augmented procedures which optimize the organization and make it efficient for IP dominant networks and services. To succeed, such projects need to be guided by a clear vision of the target service delivery environment. (Additionally-) The fast introduction of new services and technologies means an outlay of capital expenditure which must be paid for and in a short time. New services value chains require new real-time rating flexibilities for providing various type of bundles, discounting, promotion for all payment type (pre or post-paid) for any usages of network access or services content. Given the complexity and evolution costs of legacy billing systems care must be taken in the manner in which new services will be billed or charged in real-time either on existing silos or progressively migrating to new IT transformation program dealing with migration or replacement of their IT and IN BSS/OSS components and integration of new underlying charging technologies such as IMS diameter. The SDF thus is the service delivery framework targeted by service providers that is designed to support • Rapid turn-up and rollout of converged services • Flexible and extensible service features • Reduced cost per unit to increase margin • Higher ARPU by matching subscriber needs quickly
Consider M2M- For some applications such as health monitoring, personal safety will be involved – so reliability (99.999%) will be essential. M2M can also include millions of devices to the network – each needing to communicate (regularly?) and be managed to the unique attributes of the service provided. Some will require constant, real-time monitoring and access (health monitoring, telematics, etc.), while others (like meter reading) only periodic access to information.Are operations ready for this level of detailed management? Types of Support – referring to some M2M services will be constant data, or perhaps on event that must be processed immediately – an example is a device that monitors someone’s blood pressure or heart rate – requiring instant discovery and reporting.While others may be occasional (but not regular) data – such as reporting an event such as a door being opened, or a temperature threshold met. And others are for things including meter reading or other regular reporting, but hourly, weekly or monthly – but not necessarily critical or that all devices report at the same time across the network.
Consider M2M- Connectivity is important, yes, but what is the impact of having it or not having it to your subscriber?How does one assure service of M2M applications? By the fact that the machines are talking, or by whether they are successfully communicating?How will operations manage these new challenges – supporting M2M requires knowledge of the service and monitoring requirements – not the traditional events and metrics from traditional mobile and IP networks.Novartis example from frog – providing the capability to combine RFID and a pill to provide notification of a patient taking their prescribed medicines (via mobile phone receiving RFID and transmitting appropriate notification to central medical server, or local Dr. office) within the recommended time windows – particularly critical for transplant patients with anti-rejection medicines, bloodpressuremedicinces in correlation with blood pressure monitoring, etc.Medical mobile monitoring artwork from http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/272974/enlarge
QoS = Across ALL services- voice, video, messaging, data,+ QoE=The most important reasons for customer churn are poor value of services provided, poor network quality, poor applications quality, and price.Operatorsmust ensure that the level of quality of service (QoS) and QoE is the same regardless of whether they are a fixed telco, cable MSO, or mobile operator.One of the most important shifts in the service assurance industry is the move toward a customer-centric approach. Service providers have come to realize the direct impact customer experience has on their bottom line. Negative customer experience results in customer churn. The most important reasons for customer churn are poor network quality, poor applications quality, and price. Customer satisfaction with services has a tremendous impact on the profitability of service providers. It has been estimated that the investment required to acquire a new customer in a developed market ranges from $250 to $350 per customer.Even though the telecommunications industry has been focusing on customer experience as the key factor leading to customer churn, measuring and managing customer experience is still a challenge. In an all-IP network, it becomes crucial to monitor, manage and measure quality of end-user experience. The one key driver of service assurance solutions is QoE.
As subscribers ourselves, we look at the bars on our phone to check for connectivity. As operators, you are used to looking at the network performance dashboards and status on trouble tickets to see if all is well. You would measure success by server response time or network uptime statistics, depending on the domain. Anecdotes?
In today’s dynamic environment, the outcome must be measured by the end-user (or customer) experience with the delivered IT service. That means IT needs to monitor the individual components comprising the overall service, but focus the attention not necessarily on the individual details but on how those elements support the service and how that service fulfills the customer need. Measure not by Service Response Times or Trouble Tickets
User Experience ReinvigoratedDo you have multi-channel capabilities to make it convenient and easy for customers to contact you?Are you aware of your customer’s usage patterns?Does you customer has a single view of his Bill?Do you have the right handset portfolio to differentiate from competition?
Service Assurance Considerations:Integrating customer facing and network and IT monitoring and fault management systems to create a real-time end-to-end view of service performance.Developing fault isolation and troubleshooting between user environment, network, IT platform, and applications with real-time data correlation and analysis to pinpoint root causes and provide remedial actions. Delivering SLA with associated proactive monitoring of key performance parameters such as bandwidth, latency, platform/application availability, security, etc.Providing on-line access to real-time performance and usage data in a meaningful and rich presentation format.3, Billing Considerations:Real-time capabilities – SPs today really need a real-time charging solution that can process tens of thousands of transactions per second on a minimal set of off-the-shelf hardware. This type of solution will not only drive down Cost Per Transaction (CPT), enabling operators to introduce new services, but also would drastically reduce data centre costs, power consumption and carbon footprint.Integration- SPs need to nourish their customers by unparalleled multi-service, multi-payment convenience and personalization – a level of service that is impossible to achieve with a conventional infrastructure and seamless integration of billing systems with the ordering process. In addition, an integrated Billing and CRM framework enables sales and service agents to retrieve, display, and update billing and account information when handling customer calls—all from within CRM.Payment Schemes – One of the most essential aspect of cloud computing is “measured service”. SPs need to have a solution that can bill the customers based on how much of the service used. This would also provide product vendors with inherent price discrimination between high-volume and low-volume customers. Security- Secure transactions, Role-based authentication, audit trails, log management etc. are some of the important security services which would help SPs in error-free and secured billing.
Service assurance basics are still the same-MEASURE, CONSOLIDATE, ANALYZE, VISUALIZE, VIRTUALIZEBut leading to a better understanding of the subscriber-Sample of network data that can be analyzed to understand subscriber behavior- what does each of these parameters tell us about the subscriber?• Time to provision • Service usage and downtime impact analysis• Aggregated availability status of service • End-to-end network performance • Circuit utilization • Network unit costs • Access circuit
The cloud approach in essence takes a page from the all-IP basics- Separate service from connectivity or transport. What the subscriber needs is always-on connectivity across all devices. The cloud allows you to protect your existing infrastructure while at the same time allowing you to create and offer new services on a usage based, on-demand model preferred by the subscriber.On the service assurance side, cloud applications measure, collect, analyze subscriber usage data and send it back to the network. Intelligent applications can then correlate this data to network usage. In essence, deploying a cloud to aid in service assurance aids inOn demand servicesApplication performanceBusiness agilityScalable capacityEfficient data centers Balanced network loadBalanced network utilization