CALA Operators Have a ‘Leg Up’ In Preparing for LTECALA Operators Have a ‘Leg Up’ In Preparing for LTE

Este contenido solo está disponible en Ingles.

By paying attention to the lessons learned by first-adopter regions of the world, Central and Latin American operators can leapfrog into more sophisticated signaling solutions before issues arise.

4G Americas reports that HSPA and LTE mobile broadband technologies in North, Central and South America added 65.6 million new connections year-over-year and totaled 225 million connections by the end of June 2012, based on data from Informa Telecoms & Media. That represents approximately 22 percent of the more than 1 billion total cellular subscriptions in the Americas region.

Further, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), seven operators in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region have launched LTE, with another 22 committed to do so.

CALA operators have the same goals as operators elsewhere: maximize operational efficiency and enhance customer experience.

They, however, have the advantage of being able to learn from the lessons of operators in first-adopter LTE regions. CALA operators can learn from various subscriber adoption and usage patterns, signaling storms and device preferences in other regions of the world and quickly deploy a network ready for the rigors of LTE.

A key part of handling that learning curve is a sophisticated signaling infrastructure capable of handling the huge surge in Diameter messages expected with LTE.

Tekelec’s LTE Diameter Signaling Index® quantifies this astounding growth, predicting that LTE Diameter signaling traffic in CALA will grow at a 962% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2016. One reason for the dramatic growth is that CALA had so little LTE traffic in 2011. Still, the data show that the region has to ramp its signaling infrastructure very rapidly.

The Index shows how roaming, concurrent data sessions, video streaming, QoS guarantees and behavioral changes via social networking will drive Diameter signaling, in CALA as in other regions of the world.

By learning from more mature LTE regions, CALA operators will be able to offer more refined services in shorter time periods (with shorter learning curves), not to mention more sophisticated pricing plans (by data volume, speed or application type), tariffs, and so on.

They may also learn about signaling traffic profiles from other regions. Telefonica, for example, has multiple properties in Europe, America Movil owns more than a quarter of KPN and nearly a quarter of Telekom Austria, and Orange properties in the Caribbean will have data from Orange European properties as well.

Further, CALA operators’ 3G innovations will serve as stepping stones toward creative LTE tariffs. For examples, multiple Movistar properties are already offering application-based tariffs, and TIM Brasil offers international mobile data roaming passes for a flat rate.

LTE will open the door to further experimentation for these and other operators, which will be assembling and reassembling services around different capabilities, locations or events.

For example, special offers will probably be tailored to big sporting competitions coming to CALA, like the Olympics, Confederations Cup and World Cup. With those events, operators can introduce any number of location-based mobile advertising offers and a variety of roaming packages for international visitors.

These innovative data plans will trigger a sharp increase in signaling traffic, since always-on smart devices and advanced services will require constant orchestration and communication among devices, cell towers, policy servers, charging systems, and subscriber databases and gateways. That constant pinging and communication will drive up Diameter traffic which is required to set up data sessions, authorize subscriber activity, authenticate subscribers and accurately charge for data usage.

Operators in CALA have two choices: proactively manage Diameter traffic now using Diameter Signaling Routers at the earliest stages of LTE, or invest in DSR solutions once the network is built out and problems begin to arise. Waiting will increase the risk of outages and add costs when deploying.

Tekelec’s LTE Diameter Signaling Index Helps CALA Operators Plan

The Tekelec LTE Diameter Signaling Index™ is an industry first – intended to help executives, network architects and engineers forecast Diameter signaling traffic growth associated with:

• Policy management, which intelligently orchestrates the subscriber experience;
• Communications among policy servers, charging systems, subscriber databases and gateways; and
• Mobility management functions, including subscriber authentication onto networks and roaming between partner networks.

The key finding: LTE Diameter signaling traffic growth will more than triple mobile data traffic growth through 2016 – due to the fact signaling traffic correlates directly to the sophistication of services and pricing plans in LTE networks. In fact, the Index shows that Diameter Messages per Second (MPS) will increase to 47 million by 2016 (a compound annual growth rate of 252% between 2011 and 2016). [1]

“The need for more subscriber and service intelligence triggers more communication among core network elements, and no ‘silver-bullet’ offload solution exists for Diameter signaling surges as it does for data-traffic surges,” explains Tekelec CTO Doug Suriano.

Other key findings

• Policy has the largest impact on total Diameter signaling traffic with nearly 24 million MPS crossing LTE networks by 2016. Sophisticated data plans, personalized services, and over-the-top (OTT) and advertising models will introduce new complex policy use cases, driving more signaling traffic.
• Online charging is the largest area of growth, forecasted to increase from nearly 18,000 MPS to nearly 14 million MPS by 2016, for a CAGR of 280 percent.
• VoLTE and video streaming will sharply increase Diameter signaling with about 36 billion and 30 billion Diameter messages, respectively, in 2016.
• The growth in Diameter signaling traffic directly correlates with innovative LTE services and new business models, such as:
  • Rate plans based on usage, quality of service, application and time of day
  • Mobile cloud services
  • OTT application services such as video and social networking
  • Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services
  • Mobile payment and advertising services

As a measure of network intelligence, the Tekelec Diameter Signaling Index will become an important tool for service providers to meet the challenges and opportunities in the mobile data marketplace.

Este conteúdo está disponível somente em inglês

By paying attention to the lessons learned by first-adopter regions of the world, Central and Latin American operators can leapfrog into more sophisticated signaling solutions before issues arise.

4G Americas reports that HSPA and LTE mobile broadband technologies in North, Central and South America added 65.6 million new connections year-over-year and totaled 225 million connections by the end of June 2012, based on data from Informa Telecoms & Media. That represents approximately 22 percent of the more than 1 billion total cellular subscriptions in the Americas region.

Further, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), seven operators in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region have launched LTE, with another 22 committed to do so.

CALA operators have the same goals as operators elsewhere: maximize operational efficiency and enhance customer experience.

They, however, have the advantage of being able to learn from the lessons of operators in first-adopter LTE regions. CALA operators can learn from various subscriber adoption and usage patterns, signaling storms and device preferences in other regions of the world and quickly deploy a network ready for the rigors of LTE.

A key part of handling that learning curve is a sophisticated signaling infrastructure capable of handling the huge surge in Diameter messages expected with LTE.

Tekelec’s LTE Diameter Signaling Index® quantifies this astounding growth, predicting that LTE Diameter signaling traffic in CALA will grow at a 962% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2016. One reason for the dramatic growth is that CALA had so little LTE traffic in 2011. Still, the data show that the region has to ramp its signaling infrastructure very rapidly.

The Index shows how roaming, concurrent data sessions, video streaming, QoS guarantees and behavioral changes via social networking will drive Diameter signaling, in CALA as in other regions of the world.

By learning from more mature LTE regions, CALA operators will be able to offer more refined services in shorter time periods (with shorter learning curves), not to mention more sophisticated pricing plans (by data volume, speed or application type), tariffs, and so on.

They may also learn about signaling traffic profiles from other regions. Telefonica, for example, has multiple properties in Europe, America Movil owns more than a quarter of KPN and nearly a quarter of Telekom Austria, and Orange properties in the Caribbean will have data from Orange European properties as well.

Further, CALA operators’ 3G innovations will serve as stepping stones toward creative LTE tariffs. For examples, multiple Movistar properties are already offering application-based tariffs, and TIM Brasil offers international mobile data roaming passes for a flat rate.

LTE will open the door to further experimentation for these and other operators, which will be assembling and reassembling services around different capabilities, locations or events.

For example, special offers will probably be tailored to big sporting competitions coming to CALA, like the Olympics, Confederations Cup and World Cup. With those events, operators can introduce any number of location-based mobile advertising offers and a variety of roaming packages for international visitors.

These innovative data plans will trigger a sharp increase in signaling traffic, since always-on smart devices and advanced services will require constant orchestration and communication among devices, cell towers, policy servers, charging systems, and subscriber databases and gateways. That constant pinging and communication will drive up Diameter traffic which is required to set up data sessions, authorize subscriber activity, authenticate subscribers and accurately charge for data usage.

Operators in CALA have two choices: proactively manage Diameter traffic now using Diameter Signaling Routers at the earliest stages of LTE, or invest in DSR solutions once the network is built out and problems begin to arise. Waiting will increase the risk of outages and add costs when deploying.

Tekelec’s LTE Diameter Signaling Index Helps CALA Operators Plan

The Tekelec LTE Diameter Signaling Index™ is an industry first – intended to help executives, network architects and engineers forecast Diameter signaling traffic growth associated with:

• Policy management, which intelligently orchestrates the subscriber experience;
• Communications among policy servers, charging systems, subscriber databases and gateways; and
• Mobility management functions, including subscriber authentication onto networks and roaming between partner networks.

The key finding: LTE Diameter signaling traffic growth will more than triple mobile data traffic growth through 2016 – due to the fact signaling traffic correlates directly to the sophistication of services and pricing plans in LTE networks. In fact, the Index shows that Diameter Messages per Second (MPS) will increase to 47 million by 2016 (a compound annual growth rate of 252% between 2011 and 2016). [1]

“The need for more subscriber and service intelligence triggers more communication among core network elements, and no ‘silver-bullet’ offload solution exists for Diameter signaling surges as it does for data-traffic surges,” explains Tekelec CTO Doug Suriano.

Other key findings

• Policy has the largest impact on total Diameter signaling traffic with nearly 24 million MPS crossing LTE networks by 2016. Sophisticated data plans, personalized services, and over-the-top (OTT) and advertising models will introduce new complex policy use cases, driving more signaling traffic.
• Online charging is the largest area of growth, forecasted to increase from nearly 18,000 MPS to nearly 14 million MPS by 2016, for a CAGR of 280 percent.
• VoLTE and video streaming will sharply increase Diameter signaling with about 36 billion and 30 billion Diameter messages, respectively, in 2016.
• The growth in Diameter signaling traffic directly correlates with innovative LTE services and new business models, such as:
  • Rate plans based on usage, quality of service, application and time of day
  • Mobile cloud services
  • OTT application services such as video and social networking
  • Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services
  • Mobile payment and advertising services

As a measure of network intelligence, the Tekelec Diameter Signaling Index will become an important tool for service providers to meet the challenges and opportunities in the mobile data marketplace.