Lessons Learned: Consumers want whole-home Wi-Fi service from ISPs
European fixed broadband providers are now scrambling to deliver gigabit speeds to their customers. But as they do, they are running into a fresh set of challenges, particularly in the home WiFi environment. How are providers and their vendor partners managing their new gigabit services and making sure that customers get what they’re promised? How can they improve the home WiFi experience?
Faster Wi-Fi connectivity is no longer impressing consumers, who want better connections throughout their homes, executives said at the Cable Next-Gen Europe event in London on November 6th. Panelists at a session titled: Managing 1 Gig Services & WiFi– Lessons Learned suggested ISP deployment of powerful lines of WiFi gateways would be required. For customers with larger homes, providing WiFi extenders that communicate with those gateways and a system that is all underpinned by cloud-based software and (often) a mesh-based architecture that can enhance and improve connectivity based on how that traffic is traversing the home’s WiFi network.
Owning the home WiFi network — or at least having deeper visibility into the WiFi network and providing systems that can understand changing traffic conditions and steer tablets, PCs and other devices to the optimal band or channel — could also prove to be a major operational benefit to cable operators and other ISPs. Since consumers tend to call the ISP whenever WiFi-related troubles arise, having this additional management layer is helpful in troubleshooting problems and reducing the need for costly truck rolls.
Though WiFi speed continues to be a key use case for gigabit services as consumers check to see if they are indeed getting what they pay for, there’s also an “expectation problem” that needs to be resolved because consumers expect high speeds to be delivered beyond the home gateway, said Michael Clegg, VP of global sales at Plume Design Inc. , a WiFi software and device maker that counts Comcast Corp. among its financial backers and deployment partners.
Stofa of Denmark is also moving ahead with 1-Gig deployments, but has likewise found that providing solid in-home WiFi performance and coverage is more important than ever, given that most of the devices that connect to the Internet in the home are doing so with WiFi, Uffe Callesen, lead architect at Stofa, said. However, it’s difficult to stay ahead of the technology curve with WiFi given the presence of a large mix of legacy devices that use an older version of the standard, he added.
And though few, if any, end devices require or use a full 1 Gbit/s connection, providing solid connectivity to every part of the customer’s home has become a paramount focus for service providers, Clegg pointed out.
Frode Elverum of Norway’s Get says whole-home Wi-Fi offerings can be a point of market differentiation for internet service providers.
Panelists here also did not view 5G, which is starting to emerge as a fixed wireless alternative broadband connection, as a significant threat to WiFi, particularly when it comes to in-home connectivity
“You’ll see a WiFi tail on the back end of 5G,” Clegg said, noting that some spectrum used for 5G services isn’t all that “friendly” in the home.
And the general story with residential 1 Gbit/s broadband services has not changed much — customer adoption of such speeds remains relatively low and, for now, have served primarily as a competitive response against rivals that run FTTP networks.
Norway’s Get started with a soft-launch of gigabit service and plans to ramp things up a bit more in early 2019 as it looks to put 1-Gig into its most attractive TV and broadband bundles. However, few customers need 1-Gig. “It’s more about the competitive positioning of our offering,” Elverum said.
“1-Gig, as a tier, is used really as a marketing tool,” agreed Eddy Mötter, CTO for Access Network, Solution Sales Department at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd . While that’s the case today, it’s inevitable that apps and services that will require gigabit speeds will emerge. “That [capacity] space will be filled,” Challinor said, predicting that 1-Gig broadband will become the “de facto norm” within five to ten years.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/carrier-wifi/why-isps-are-high-on-whole-home-wifi/d/d-id/744575
Oracle Confirms Research: China Telecom Misdirected U.S. Internet traffic thru China
China Telecom is the largest fixed line operator in China, state owned, and bidding to become the third telecommunications network operator in the Philippines. Two weeks ago, researchers found that the company has been hacking into internet networks in the United States and hijacking data from countless users, a study has found.
The research, conducted jointly by scholars from the US Naval War College and Tel Aviv University, discovered that the China government, acting through China Telecom, has been engaged in data hacking even though it had entered into a pact with the U.S. in 2015 to stop cyber operations aimed at intellectual property theft.
Oracle’s Internet Intelligence division has just confirmed the findings of the academic paper published two weeks ago that accused China of “hijacking the vital internet backbone of western countries.”
Doug Madory, Director of Oracle’s Internet Analysis division (formerly Dyn), confirmed that China Telecom has, indeed, engaged in internet traffic “misdirection.” “I don’t intend to address the paper’s claims around the motivations of these actions,” said Madori. “However, there is truth to the assertion that China Telecom (whether intentionally or not) has misdirected internet traffic (including out of the United States) in recent years. I know because I expended a great deal of effort to stop it in 2017,” Madori said.
Image Courtesy of Oracle
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Madori then goes on to detail several of China Telecom’s BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) route “misdirections,” most of which have involved hijacking US-to-US traffic and sending it via mainland China before returning it to the U.S.
Verizon APAC errors had a knock-on effect, Madori explained: “Verizon APAC … were announcing [routes] to the internet on behalf of their customers. A couple of AS hops away, China Telecom was mishandling them – announcing them in a manner that would cause internet traffic destined for those IP address ranges to flow back through China Telecom’s network.”
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Indeed, the researchers found that China Telecom uses BGPs in order to carry out their data intrusions. Created in the early 1980s, BGP protocols do not feature any security controls, often resulting in misdirected traffic through “bad BGPs”. The majority of these cases are attributed to configuration mistakes.
However, researchers found that China Telecom has been deliberately hijacking BGP routes to send legitimate traffic through malicious servers.
They described the state-owned telco as “one of the most determined BGP hijackers in the international community.”
In order to validate their findings, the researchers built a route tracing system to monitor BGP announcements, allowing them to distinguish between normal, accidental patterns and deliberate ones.
They concluded that China Telecom was responsible for patterns of BGP behavior that “suggest malicious intent, precisely because of their unusual transit characteristics -namely the lengthened routes and the abnormal durations.”
“[China Telecom] has already relatively seamlessly hijacked the domestic US and cross-US traffic and redirected it to China over days, weeks, and months,” the researchers said.
“The prevalence of and demonstrated ease with which one can simply redirect and copy data by controlling key transit nodes buried in a nation’s infrastructure requires an urgent policy response,” they warned.
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The routing snafu involving domestic US Internet traffic coincided with a larger misdirection that started in late 2015 and lasted for about two and a half years, Oracle’s Madory said in a blog post published Monday. The misdirection was the result of AS4134, the autonomous system belonging to China Telecom, incorrectly handling the routing announcements of AS703, Verizon’s Asia-Pacific AS. The mishandled routing announcements caused several international carriers—including Telia’s AS1299, Tata’s AS6453, GTT’s AS3257, and Vodafone’s AS1273—to send data destined for Verizon Asia-Pacific through China Telecom, rather than using the normal multinational telecoms.
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Ahead of the third telco player’s selection Wednesday (November 7), Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero already voiced concerns about the possible threats to national security and data privacy in case China Telecom becomes the winner of the bidding.
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References:
https://internetintel.oracle.com/blog-single.html?id=China+Telecom%27s+Internet+Traffic+Misdirection
https://www.zdnet.com/article/oracle-confirms-china-telecom-internet-traffic-misdirections/
GSMA 5G Spectrum Guide vs WRC-19 vs FCC 5G FAST Plan
In a new ‘industry position,’ mobile trade association GSMA states its views on spectrum needed for 5G mobile networks. The GSMA 5G Spectrum Guide executive summary talks about a new generation of wireless tech opening up a bunch of new opportunities, but that won’t be possible unless governments and regulators do a much better job of giving wireless network operators the swathes of spectrum they will need to deliver on the promise of 5G.
“Operators urgently need more spectrum to deliver the endless array of services that 5G will enable – our 5G future depends heavily on the decisions governments are making in the next year as we head into WRC-19,” said Brett Tarnutzer, Head of Spectrum at GSMA.
Editor’s Note:
WRC-19 refers to the World Radiocommunications Conference 2019. It’s a rare opportunity for organizations such as various ITU-R committees and the GSMA to propose spectrum to be used for various worldwide wireless applications. As this author has stated many, many times in numerous techblog posts, WRC-19 will confirm the frequencies to be used by all ITU-R IMT networks, including IMT 2020.
- revise the Radio Regulations and any associated Frequency assignment and allotment Plans;
- address any radiocommunication matter of worldwide character;
- instruct the Radio Regulations Board and the Radiocommunication Bureau, and review their activities;
- determine Questions for study by the Radiocommunication Assembly and its Study Groups in preparation for future Radiocommunication Conferences.
The next ITU Inter-regional Workshop on WRC-19 Preparation – Geneva, Switzerland, 20-22 November 2018. Details are here. The results of the ITU-R studies included in the Draft CPM Report to WRC-19 will be presented to the Workshop, as well as the status of regional preparations for CPM19-2, RA-19 and WRC-19.
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“Without strong government support to allocate sufficient spectrum to next generation mobile services, it will be impossible to achieve the global scale that will make 5G affordable and accessible for everyone. There is a real opportunity for innovation from 5G, but this hinges on governments focusing on making enough spectrum available, not maximising auction revenues for short term gains.”
GSMA 5G spectrum guide includes:
5G Spectrum Policy Positions (Updated)
The 5G spectrum guide starts with the GSMA’s key policy positions. They focus on areas where governments, regulators and the mobile industry should cooperate to make 5G a success.
Click here to download the updated full position paper in English or French. An updated version in Spanish will arrive shortly.
IMT Spectrum Between 24.25 and 86 GHz (Updated)
WRC-19 will be vital to realising the vision for 5G. The work at WRC-19 (centred around AI 1.13) will look at spectrum for mobile broadband in frequencies between 24.25 and 86 GHz.
Download the updated position paper in English here. There are also updated versions in French and Spanish. They are available here and here.
26 GHz and 28 GHz are both needed for 5G (Updated)
In this infographic we take a look at countries and regions that are trialling and supporting 26 GHz and or 28 GHz. It also details bands plans and use cases.
An updated version of the infographic is available in English here. The new version will shortly arrive in French and Spanish. The old versions are available here and here.
Considerations for the 3.5 GHz IMT range
Operators need new spectrum to keep up with growing mobile data and coverage demands. The 3.5 GHz IMT range offers an ideal opportunity to meet this demand. The band will be one of the first frequencies to carry 5G traffic, but first it must be licensed.
Download the report in English here,
The 5G era in the US
This report from GSMA Intelligence explores the current landscape and the future outlook for 5G in the US. It focuses on network deployment, spectrum, use cases, and policy and regulation.
The full report is available here
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“Governments and regulators have a major role to play in ensuring that consumers get the best outcome from 5G,” said GSMA’s Tarnutzer. “Once spectrum is allocated to mobile at WRC, licensing that spectrum at a national level, as history has shown, can take up to 10 years. Therefore, it is essential that governments take the right action now,” he added
That GSMA still feels the need to spell out the importance of radio spectrum to governments and regulators is somewhat astonishing, considering what a redundant and rhetorical issue that should be. Evidently, GSMA hopes that government regulators will be galvanized to make a strong case for their respective spectrum positions.
Here’s the GSMA’s list of demands for spectrum:
1. 5G needs wider frequency bands to support higher speeds and larger amounts of traffic. Regulators that make available 80-100 MHz of spectrum per operator in prime 5G mid-bands (e.g. 3.5 GHz) and around 1 GHz per operator in vital millimeter wave bands (i.e. above 24 GHz), will best support the very fastest 5G services.
2. 5G needs spectrum within three key frequency ranges to deliver widespread coverage and support all use cases:
- Sub-1GHz spectrum to extend high-speed 5G mobile broadband coverage across urban, suburban and rural areas and to help support Internet of Things (IoT) services
- Spectrum from 1-6 GHz to offer a good mix of coverage and capacity for 5G services
- Spectrum above 6 GHz for 5G services such as ultra-high-speed mobile broadband
3. It is essential that governments support the 26 GHz, 40 GHz (37-43.5 GHz) and 66-71 GHz bands for mobile at WRC-19. A sufficient amount of harmonised 5G spectrum in these bands is critical to enabling the fastest 5G speeds, low-cost devices and international roaming and to minimising cross-border interference.
4. Governments and regulators should avoid inflating 5G spectrum prices (e.g. setting high auction reserve prices) as they risk limiting network investment and driving up the cost of services.
5. Regulators should avoid setting aside spectrum for verticals in key mobile spectrum bands; sharing approaches, such as leasing, are better options where vertical industries require access to spectrum.
References:
https://www.apnews.com/b77934ab658f4ad685d55678a8fe7c59
https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/5g-spectrum-guide/
Indigo Cable System to boost connectivity in SE Asia & Australasia when it launches later this year
The Indigo Consortium has confirmed that it has landed the Indigo Cable System, which will link Australia’s East and West coasts, in Coogoo Beach, Sydney. In September, operators launched the Indigo Cable System from Floreat Beach in Perth, on Australia’s West Coast. Once complete, the Indigo Cable System will connect Australia’s East and West Coasts and then provide onward connectivity to a number of high profile destinations in South East Asia, including, Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia.
The 9,200km Indigo Cable System will be comprised of two fiber pairs and will be able to support data transfers of 36Tbps. The Indigo Cable Consortium is comprised of AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra.
“The landing of INDIGO Central cable by Optus is a landmark development which will boost Australia’s communications ecosystem with much-needed high-speed capacity and network diversity. Together with INDIGO West, the next generation INDIGO Central data superhighway will enhance Singtel and Optus’ subsea networks, creating a cable ring connecting Australia to Singapore, through Southeast Asia, across the Pacific and back to Australia,” said Singtel’s Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat.
“This new data superhighway will complement our existing global links to Asia, US, Europe, Australia and the Middle East and allow Singtel and [Australian subsidiary] Optus to meet the growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications as well as boost network diversity and resilience.”
Telstra head of North Asia and global wholesale Paul Abfalter added that the cable will connect to the operator’s extensive terrestrial infrastructure for onward connectivity in Australia.
“Our vast subsea network is a key part of our international growth strategy and we will continue to invest in additional capacity to meet the increasing demand for data and maintain our network leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.” he said.
References:
https://subpartners.net/indigo.html
https://www.submarinenetworks.com/systems/asia-australia/indigo
https://www.totaltele.com/501509/Singtel-Telstra-and-partners-land-Indigo-Cable-in-Sydney
https://www.telecomasia.net/content/indigo-cable-lands-western-australia
My story: Connecting Australians to the world, from the ’80s to the ‘Tera Era’
ITU-T SG15: G.mtn Metro Transport Network + Transport Support for IMT2020/5G Networks
ZTE and China Mobile report that standardization work for a multi company January 2018 contribution on Slicing Packet Network (SPN) technology was approved as a future ITU-T recommendation for “Metro Transport Networks” (G.mtn) at the October 8-19, 2018 ITU-T SG15 meeting in Geneva.
ITU-T SG15 Q11 focused much of the October meeting on topics related to IMT2020/5G transport networks, and approved three new work items including two related to that area. The new IMT-2020/5G Transport-related work items are both targeted at metro networks, including transport of RAN traffic. They are G.mtn “Interfaces for a metro transport network,” which is a new transport technology, and G.709.25-50 “25G and 50G OTN interfaces” that is an extension to the OTN. The other new work item is G.Sup.sub1G “Sub 1 Gbit/s services transport over OTN” that describes existing and new mappings for sub-Gbit/s clients over OTN.
SPN is a multi-service network platform that can meet new requirements of the 5G transport, data center interconnection, enterprise customer services, residential access network services. The SPN technology endeavors to provide: low latency, high bandwidth, ultra-high-precision synchronization, flexible management and control, and low cost.
At the October ITU-T SG15 plenary session in Geneva, Chinese network operators, equipment vendors, and research institutes submitted several proposals for 5G network transport technology solutions. From Contribution 1034 by China Mobile and other China resident companies: A proposal to initiate a new work item on Management Aspects for SPN:
Slicing Channel Layer (SCL) is defined as a path layer. Many SPN contributions have been presented in previous ITU-T SG15 meetings which clearly showed that SPN can be an appropriate candidate solution for 5G transport.,,
It is proposed that Q12, Q14 start a new work item on management aspects for 5G transport networks. It shall address management aspects of SPN network elements containing transport functions for the SCL and SPL layers. The same management architecture and tools for traditional transport networks such as MPLS-TP and OTN shall be reused as much as possible. The management functions for fault management, configuration management and performance monitoring shall be specified.
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Based on the above proposals (led by China Mobile), ITU-T SG 15 approved G.mtn standard initialization of the SPN forwarding plane technology. China Mobile persuaded industry experts attending the SG 15 meeting that SPN has advantages in terms of 5G transport capability, key technical feasibility and industrialization, ZTE and China Mobile said in a statement.
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Transport Network support of 5G: An updated version of Technical Report GSTR-TN5G, Transport network support of IMT-2020/5G, was agreed. This report captures requirements for Transport Network support of 5G mobile fronthaul, middle-haul, and backhaul networks. A new Recommendation was completed on Radio over fiber systems, and a new Supplement on 5G Wireless Fronthaul Requirements in a PON Context. New Recommendations G.8262.1 and Amendment 2 to G.8273.2 that specify new clocks to support synchronization for IMT-2020/5G were consented.
References:
https://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201811/20181102
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/itu-t-created-new-work-item-gmtn-spn-weiqiang-cheng
https://www.telecomasia.net/content/itu-t-initializes-gmtn-standardization
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/studygroups/2017-2020/15/Pages/exec-sum-201810.aspx
Sapio Research Survey: 20% have SD-WAN project, but 48% of those are proof of concept
In a survey of 200 senior IT and networking managers in the US and the UK, Sapio Research found 20% of respondents said they have a software-defined WAN project in progress, while 32% haven’t explored the technology and 27% may look at it in the future. About one-third of respondents said they wanted to reduce network costs and to better manage their network infrastructure. The research study found that 48% of those are running SD-WAN proof of concept at select sites or other limited deployments. That means only about 10% are transitioning fully to SD-WAN.
The survey was commissioned by Teneo and based on input from 200 senior IT and networking managers evenly split between the U.S. and U.K. The companies have worldwide operations and revenues between $127 million and $38 billion. The survey found that 32% have not yet explored the technology, though 27% may do so in the future.
When senior IT professionals were asked why they were considering SD-WAN, the most common reason was the increasing complexity of network infrastructure and performance tasks (cited by 36% of interviewees), closely followed by the need to cut network costs (34%) and the need for better management of network infrastructures (also 34%). Increasing pressure on both company resources and budgets as IT team look after more complex network infrastructures is driving companies to examine SD-WAN’s potential.
Exactly half of companies questioned say that deploying and managing networking infrastructure is time-consuming. Interviewees estimate that these upkeep tasks take up 36% of their overall IT budget. One third of the survey (33%) admit that they had used ‘as a Service’ models from external providers to keep on top of maintenance tasks.
Researchers also found that companies are blending connectivity options to get necessary bandwidth: nearly four in ten (38%) of interviewees want to add more MPLS, 22% want more Internet connectivity, and 20% want to add more Internet and MPLS combined. Under one in five (17%) said their needs were satisfied.
Half of the respondents pointed to the time-consuming nature of deploying and managing a network as their main driver. Overall, those interviewed said that upkeep consumes as much as 36% of their IT budgets. One-third said that they have used “as-a-service” platforms to keep pace. Varied offerings have emerged. “Due to the immaturity of the SD-WAN space each vendor has come to the market with a different strategy,” wrote Steve Evans, Teneo’s vice president of solutions engineering in response to emailed questions from FierceTelecom. “We are seeing this converge in some areas. However, there are still noticeable differences between the major players in the space. I would not say that the vendors do not know what to bring to market. I think it’s more that some vendors favor particular features over others.”
The SD-WANs enterprises deploy will look different from one another, according to the survey. Thirty-eight percent of respondents want to add MPLS, 22% want to add broadband and 20% want to add both. Seventeen percent are happy with their current connectivity.
It is perhaps surprising that companies want to add MPLS, since reducing costs is seen as a key driver of SD-WAN. “SD-WAN is not about removing MPLS, although there can be cost benefits,” Evans wrote. “With the reliability of Internet circuits or broadband improving, the usage of MPLS will still have a place until people are comfortable with running business critical applications over circuits with no SLAs.”
Evens did point to cost savings of using broadband where it makes sense. “We have seen SD-WAN being used to enable businesses to utilize all of the MPLS bandwidth they are paying for to improve service for critical applications and then augment this bandwidth with the cheaper options for less important traffic, thus removing the expensive backup circuits and gaining more bandwidth for less cost,” wrote Evans.
There still is a learning curve for both vendors and end users. “The challenge around understanding SD-WAN is that vendors are all talking features and that they all fit every situation,” Evans wrote. “They are not starting with what the customer is trying to achieve and then showing how their technology would fit the needs. There is also a misunderstanding on what is meant by certain features and in comparing how well one solution executes on a feature.”
Progress is being made, however. “More and more businesses already have a basic understanding of SD-WAN and are able to articulate their requirements, but some are still looking to get an understanding of the market and the technology,” according to Evans. “Both groups need help understanding exactly how their requirements map to the available SD-WAN technologies.”
Another element that is not yet clear is who companies prefer to work with. Thirty-nine percent of survey respondents want to partner with a global network vendor, 24% with a telecommunication partner and 24% with a management consultancy.
The survey found that 8% of respondents are considering specialist SD-WAN vendors, 3% are considering specialist integrators of SD-WAN and 3% will use multiple partners.
“Network managers are looking at SD-WAN strategies to run multiple networking environments in standardised ways – whether the underlying motivation is greater simplicity, cost efficiency or transforming critical applications’ performance across their company’s operations,” said Marc Sollars, CTO of Teneo.
“Many firms are clearly putting a toe in the water on SD-WAN, or doing a proof of concept, but it’s still very hard to say when this test phase will start to translate into enterprise-level implementations,” added Sollars. “In many ways, the broad range of choice that SD-WAN brings is what’s causing companies to hesitate over their decisions.”
References:
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/research-sd-wan-drivers-strategies-are-broad-and-deep
AT&T exec: SD-WAN is “killer app” after MEF says they will define SD-WAN service
AT&T exec: SD-WAN is “killer app” after MEF says they will define SD-WAN service
AT&T’s Josh Goodell at MEF 18 conference in LA: “SD-WAN is the killer app — we’re deploying 28,000 end points, it has really exploded.” Really? We’re from Missouri= show me
Meanwhile, the MEF has definesd an SD-WAN service and its various attributes. With strong support from service provider and technology provider members, MEF currently is on track to ratify and publicly release its MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Attributes and Service Definition standard in 1Q 2019. SD-WAN service standardization will enable a wide range of ecosystem stakeholders to use the same terminology when buying, selling, assessing, deploying, and delivering SD-WAN services. The SD-WAN service definition is a foundational step for accelerating sales, market adoption, and certification of MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services orchestrated across a global ecosystem of automated networks.
SD-WAN Service Standardization
SD-WAN service standardization is being conducted within the context of the MEF 3.0 Global Services Framework. It is part of a transformational initiative to standardize a complete family of dynamic Carrier Ethernet (CE), IP, Optical Transport, SD-WAN, security, and other virtualized services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) APIs.
MEF’s SD-WAN service definition specification describes requirements for an application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to determine how application flows are forwarded over multiple underlay networks irrespective of the underlying technologies.
“MEF’s groundbreaking work in standardizing an SD-WAN service addresses one of the biggest obstacles impacting SD-WAN service market growth,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. “In a recent joint MEF and Vertical Systems Group survey of service providers worldwide, nearly 80% of respondents identified the lack of an industry-standard service definition as a significant challenge for service providers to offer or migrate to SD-WAN services. MEF’s SD-WAN service standardization will undoubtedly accelerate sales of SD-WAN products and services like MEF accomplished with Carrier Ethernet service standardization.”
Just as the industry has benefited from MEF standardization of CE services – which now exceed an estimated $50 billion in annual revenues globally – there are numerous potential benefits associated with a common SD-WAN service definition. These include, among other things:
- Reducing market confusion about service components, core capabilities, and related concepts, thus saving valuable time given the scarce availability of skilled personnel.
- Enabling service providers and technology providers to focus on providing a core set of common capabilities and then building on that core resulting in differentiated offerings.
- Facilitating inclusion of SD-WAN services in standardized LSO architectures, thereby advancing efforts to orchestrate MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services across multiple providers.
- Paving the way for creation and implementation of SD-WAN services certification, which will give users confidence that a service meets a fundamental set of requirements.
SD-WAN Implementation
MEF member companies are involved in multiple SD-WAN implementation-related initiatives that can be leveraged to provide feedback on standardization requirements and create software-oriented artifacts that can be used to accelerate efforts to orchestrate standardized SD-WAN services. These initiatives include the MEF 3.0 Multi-Vendor SD-WAN Implementation project, the MEF18 LSO Hackathon, and several SD-WAN Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations at MEF18.
The MEF18 LSO Hackathon is focused on developing and validating data models for SD-WAN services. This presents a unique opportunity for those involved in technical aspects of SD-WAN services and products to learn in a hands-on way about the latest SD-WAN service and LSO standardization work at MEF as well as the related API and YANG work at ONF and IETF.
Three MEF18 PoC demonstrations directly related to LSO-enabled orchestration of SD-WAN services include:
- Zero Touch Services with Secure SD-WAN
- Towards a Multi-Vendor Orchestrated SD-WAN – LSO-enabled Solution with Open Source Orchestrator and Container-based uCPEs
- Instantiation and Delivery of SD-WAN over a Virtualized and Orchestrated Wholesale Carrier Ethernet Access Service.
MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Certification
MEF currently plans to introduce a pilot version of certification for MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services in the first half of 2019. This certification will test a set of service attributes and their behaviors defined in the upcoming SD-WAN standard and described in detail in the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Certification Blueprint.
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References:
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Cisco Virtual Networking Index report: Enterprise SD-WAN growth will increase five-fold by 2022:
5G interoperability tests using Alef Mobitech’s mobile edge platform
Several major tech companies and an unnamed global mobile carrier have declared their tests of 5G interoperability a success. Alef Mobitech‘s mobile edge platform for the technology can be “reliably deployed into national mobile networks as a seamless, transparent overlay on their existing 4G infrastructure,” Alef says. HP, Cisco, Nokia, Huawei, Dell and Ericsson conducted the tests with Alef and a “tier-one global mobile carrier” that remains anonymous.
Editor’s Note:
Alef Mobitech, launched in 2013, is a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) products and services provider. Alef is transforming the Mobile Internet through its MEC platform. The company has offices in New Jersey. India and Brazil.
Alef Mobitech provides value-added services at the edge of the mobile network. Mobile edge computing allows us to physically locate products and services closer to users. Alef makes your network faster and more responsive. New and existing networks benefit from our edge architecture. We provide market differentiation and new revenue opportunities to mobile carriers and developers.
Key Alef characteristics:
- Offers a first-of-its-kind MEC Platform that allows applications and network services to work in tandem.
- Utilizes optimized mobility at the Radio Edge to provide a richer, more responsive and relevant delivery of multi-media applications.
- Simplifies distribution and delivery across multiple markets.
- Through key partnerships, these applications will benefit from a speedier and richer mobile internet experience.
- Reduces complexity and enhances speed to market via a Managed Service offering. Creates a more immersive, interactive, and intelligent Mobile Internet.
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The tests, which used Alef’s edge computing platform, were completed across New Jersey, Sao Paulo, and Mumbai. According to Alef, the tests show its platform can be “reliably deployed into national mobile networks as a seamless, transparent overlay on their existing 4G infrastructure”.
“The interoperability testing included standard billing interfaces — both pre-paid and post-paid, for voice and data services — and a comprehensive revenue assurance test regimen,” Alef said.
“Alef also demonstrated comprehensive interconnects with existing operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning systems … throughout all of this testing, zero changes to the existing infrastructure were required.”
The announcement followed Samsung, Ericsson, and Nokia last week syncing their 5G equipment in partnership with SK Telecom in Korea, interoperating Samsung’s 5G Non-standalone (NSA) switchboard with Ericsson and Nokia’s 5G base stations.
In July, Huawei, Intel, and China Mobile also worked on 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT), which they said would help accelerate the commercialisation of 5G networking equipment globally.
Intel and Huawei had in February used Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 to conduct the world’s first 5G NR over-the-air interoperability public demonstration after Huawei had announced partnering with Intel on interoperability trials based on 3GPP standards back in September 2017.
At the end of December, Ericsson kicked off 5G interoperability trials with Australian mobile carrier Telstra; United States carriers T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T; Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo; Korean carrier SK Telecom; and European carriers Vodafone and Orange, as well as smartphone chip giant Qualcomm.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/5g-mobile-edge-tests-completed-by-global-tech-giants/
Calix touts GigaSpire as smart home solution for ISPs
To do so, broadband Internet providers will need to go to battle with a wide variety of companies who are now aiming to capture growing smart home revenue as their own, including blue chip technology companies like Google and Amazon. Those two are joined by a growing number of device manufacturers from well known brands like Netgear and Linksys to emerging smart home ecosystem enablers like Ring and Iris.
Patching all of these platforms together can be challenging and frustrating to end customers, and service providers often get the brunt of this frustration in the form of tech support inquiries, whether it’s the provider’s fault or not. Many providers have ventured into managed Wi-Fi services to help curtail this issue, while hoping to generate additional revenue in the process. GigaSpire takes this strategy much further, according to Calix.
In an analyst briefing, Calix EVP of Field Operations Michael Weening says GigaSpire far surpasses any Wi-Fi gateway platform that end customers can buy from any retail or online environment.
GigaSpire Platform (Source: Calix)
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GigaSpire runs Calix’s EXOS operating system, which was introduced last year and extends their AXOS access operating system platform into the customer premises. Other GigaSpire features include:
- Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) capable, with up to 12 Wi-Fi streams
- Intelligent bandwidth optimization using MU-MIMO technology
- Universal and managed IoT supporting Zigbee, ZWave, combo BlueTooth Low-Energy and BlueTooth Classic
- Amazon Alexa is integrated into the GigaSpire MAX
- Instrumentation and analytics providing telemetry, performance and behavioral analytics that CSPs can leverage through the Calix Cloud
Calix also intends to build an ecosystem of smart home applications that will ride the GigaSpire platform, allowing service providers to offer and perhaps monetize smart home IoT applications. Examples provided include smart home device management, home security and network security.
Two Calix customers are acting as launch customers for GigaSpire, including Nebraska-based Allo Communications and Dubai-based du.
“Calix has been a great partner as we’ve built up our home Wi-Fi enabling the best connectivity but also the best customer service through ongoing network management,” said Brad Moline, president and CEO of ALLO Communications in press release. “This new smart home solution is anticipated to build on that connectivity advantage and really put it to use by delivering customized and differentiated service bundles to our subscribers.”
Smart Home-as-a-Service Goals
Calix’s goal with GigaSpire is to create an end-to-end smart home platform that service providers can take to the residential market and offer smart home-as-a-service. Whether that’s through better integration of existing smart home applications customer’s already have, or by introducing new ones through a smart home app ecosystem enabled through Calix designated partners. Calix will extend the GigaSpire platform to the SMB segment with a business focused smart IoT platform in 2019.
References:
WSJ Interview with John Donovan: Inside AT&T’s Plan for 5G Technology
Wireless telcos are counting on 5G’s capabilities to broaden their customer base beyond phones to new machines like driverless cars and factory robots. AT&T executives are so enticed by the promise of mixed-reality goggles, which superimpose images in users’ field of vision, that they invested in visor maker Magic Leap to help develop a market for the devices (see below for details).
AT&T is in a race to launch 5G services faster than its rivals, though each is taking a different path to get there. Verizon Communications tried to get the jump on its competition with its own pre-5G (fixed wireless broadband) standard. AT&T directed its research toward internationally recognized specifications (i.e. 3GPP which is not a standards organization)—hoping that doing so will make its service more adaptable as the technology matures.
The chief executive of AT&T’s communications division, John Donovan, spoke with The Wall Street Journal about AT&T’s plans for 5G, among other things. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.
WSJ: There’s been a lot of talk about 5G technology. When it comes, what will it look like?
MR. DONOVAN: You’ll start to see handsets rolling out as early as the first quarter of 2019, but much more probably and in more volume when you start to look at the back half of ’19. Things will be compatible with not only 5G but also all of the prior generations. With nonstandards technology, [that kind of backward compatibility] is not typically the case. That’s why we didn’t waste too much time on the nonstandard version like some of our competitors.
WSJ: It sounds like there’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. If you don’t know what consumers are going to want 5G service for, how do you know where to build the network first?
MR. DONOVAN: We think that the 5G network is going to be most impactful for most consumers and businesses based on specific use cases. One would be retail. With this 5G network, you’re going to be able to get centimeter-level accuracy on location. These potential use cases include recognizing consumers entering the store, alerting the concierge or manager to provide a personalized experience [and showing] product features on adjacent digital signage or scanning and displaying product features within the store app on the consumer’s mobile device. Those are the kinds of things we think are going to drive this, as opposed to saying, “Hey, I’ve got a phone and it’s faster, look at mine, it’s got this 5G tag up in the corner.”
Research and Deployment:
Milestones in the evolution and rollout of 5G technology
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We’ve made two announcements so far. One is in robotic manufacturing in Austin, Texas, with Samsung. And we have an exclusive for the Magic Leap mixed-reality goggles.
The speed of 5G means the next generation of goggles will be smaller, lighter and cheaper. When we did the announcement with Magic Leap, one of the things we announced is that DirecTV Now will be one of the apps available on the goggles. So, you put the goggles on and you can project four televisions onto the wall.
It’s mind-blowing to think about creating an 80-inch television from a set of goggles.
WSJ: When 5G comes to my cellphone, am I going to pay more for a plan?
MR. DONOVAN: That’s to be determined. I think that’s something that collectively the industry’s going to try to innovate around. When we went from megabits and text-message plans to unlimited in the 4G network, there wasn’t a lot of incremental revenue. But 4G dropped our costs dramatically, so it improved our margins.
With 5G, you can never call these things until you get into the marketplace. Most would say now that it’s going to carry a premium because it’s so superior in some of the things it can do. But that premium may be that you have three new devices in your home that have small connection fees, and not necessarily that you have an iPhone in your hand and the plan it’s on costs more.
WSJ: Looking back on past generations of wireless, as networks mature, it gets harder to tell the networks apart, at least in the consumer’s mind. How do you try to distinguish yourself from the other guys?
MR. DONOVAN: Generally, we’ve hit a point with networks that there’s “good enough.” The analogy I use is oxygen. You’ll notice if it’s not there. But if it is there, in its highest state it’s invisible. How do you make it visible? Your people. I love the idea when it’s about the people in the stores, the call centers, your sales rep. We’re more likely to win in a world differentiated around people than marginally differentiated by machines.
WSJ: Should the number of stores be growing? Do you think we need more places to buy phones?
MR. DONOVAN: Yes, but I don’t want to build a store that you have to go to. I want to go to where you already are. So, if you look at our retail growth this year, it’ll be in kiosks, pop-up stores and trucks. If you’re in a brand new [apartment] and you want to deal with fiber and a family plan and television, wouldn’t it be great if you had a pop-up store that’s in the lobby right near the leasing office, you can get all of that stuff done, and a year later the store is gone because the building’s leased up?
The future of retail is that you need to be where the people already are. The idea that you’re going to run a television commercial, have them get off the couch and go call an 800 number, or get off the couch and go to a store, is no longer the case.
If you take the wireless business, even up to three to five years ago, you could run a promotion on television and generate volume by people going to your store. Today, the customer’s perception is that’s an industry offer. They would never say, “That’s a T-Mobile offer, I’m going to go to the store and get it done.” They go from there to Google and they start searching. Or the other thing is they go entirely in social. So their friends say, “You know what, you need to switch to AT&T and here’s why.”
Those two things didn’t even exist five years ago from a standpoint of how we marketed.
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Mr. FitzGerald is a Wall Street Journal reporter in Washington. Email[email protected].
Appeared in the October 30, 2018, WSJ print edition as ‘What’s Behind AT&T’s Plan for 5G Technology.’
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