Enable. Innovate. Transform TELECOMS TELECOMS TELECOMS Enable

DISRUPTIVE DISRUPTIVE DISRUPTIVE DISRUPTIVE TELECOMS Enable. Innovate. Transform TELECOMS TELECOMS TELECOMS Enable. Innovate. Transform Enable. Innovate. Transform Enable. Innovate. Transform WORLD REPORT AprilUSD 2018 99.00 WORLD REPORT AprilUSD 2018 99.00 WORLD REPORT AprilUSD 2018 99.00 WORLD REPORT AprilUSD 2018 99.00 Preparing for 5G – 8 Use Cases, Unlimited Possiblities EEmbrmbraacingcing 55G!G!

Eight Global Stories on Massive MIMO

Seven Global Stories on NB-IoT

Solace, the “One-Stop Shop” Enterprise-Grade Messaging Fabric Eight Global Stories on Massive MIMO 5G: Expanding Frontier Solace, the “One-Stop Shop” on Speed, Coverage Seven Global Stories on NB-IoT Enterprise-Grade Messaging Fabric and Latency 5G: Expanding Frontier on Speed, Coverage and Latency An Initiative by TelecomDrive.com 1

An InitiativeDisruptive Telecoms by 2018 TelecomDrive.com - a Report by TelecomDrive.com An Initiative by TelecomDrive.com An Initiative by TelecomDrive.com PLAN, DESIGN & DEPLOY INDOOR WIRELESS NETWORKS FASTER WITH iBWAVE

iBwave Mobile App iBwave Design Mobile app for site surveys Design any Indoor Network for DAS, and Wi-Fi or Small Cells Small Cells, Public Safety and Wi-Fi. network designs.

2 For product inquiries please contact iBwave Sales today. Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com PLAN, DESIGN & DEPLOY From the Editor

INDOOR WIRELESS NETWORKS Zia Askari Editor, TelecomDrive.com FASTER WITH iBWAVE 5G is Coming, Is Your Network Prepared? From smart cities to asset tracking, to smart utilities, to agriculture – 5G will drive new age of communications where AR, VR will play a major role in terms of redefining communication experiences

As we move ahead towards the 5G era - the 5G wireless stan- Massive IoT Ecosystem: The most anticipated and talked dard will deliver a unifying connectivity fabric that will bring huge about 5G use cases are around massive IoT segment – it is the enhancements to today’s mobile broadband services, the experi- ability to seamlessly connect embedded sensors and create IoT ences delivered and expand mobile networks to support a vast ecosystems that can talk to each other seamlessly. As predicted iBwave Mobile App iBwave Design diversity of devices and new-age services. by Cisco - the industry foresees huge numbers — as many as 50 And most importantly – the introduction of 5G will revolutionize billion — of potential IoT devices in service by 2020. And hence, Mobile app for site surveys Design any Indoor Network for DAS, the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, enabling a huge number IoT is one area where 5G will play a major role, from smart cities Small Cells, Public Safety and Wi-Fi. of innovative 5G-communications driven use cases and applica- to asset tracking, to smart utilities, to agriculture – everything and Wi-Fi or Small Cells tions. connected in a single plane. network designs. Some popular 5G driven use cases are coming to the fore, as Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications: This is we move towards 2020. The following are the most talked-about where connected cars and connected vehicle ecosystems will 5G use cases, focusing mainly on the broader categories of con- emerge as big use cases under 5G umbrella of communications. nected services. This category includes new services that will transform industries with ultra-reliable/available low-latency links, such as remote con- Most Important 5G Use Cases trol of critical infrastructure, and self-driving vehicles as well. The Enhanced Mobile Broadband: The 5G standard promises level of reliability and latency will be vital to gain control on smart- to usher in the next era of immersive and cloud-connected ex- grid, industrial automation, robotics, drone control etc. periences with faster, more uniform data rates at lower latency and lower cost per bit. The 5G standard will take mobile comput- 5G, the Road Ahead ing performance to the next level with high-speed, always-on, Once we are living in a 5G era, applications and use case op- always-connected Internet links with real-time responsiveness. portunities will exponentially increase and drive telecom networks Fixed Wireless: As touted by many telecoms experts, one of to deliver great user experiences. There is no doubt that as a the top 5G use cases will come in the segment of fixed wireless technology – 5G holds great promise and there is huge poten- access. In a 5G era, fixed wireless will provide Internet access to tial for further 5G use cases in future services and applications homes using wireless network technology rather than fixed lines. around – healthcare, smart cities, remote industrial automation, In this scenario, beamforming and mmWave will play a critical role drone technology, e-governance, e-education etc. Telecoms just to boost wireless broadband services and deliver ultra-broadband need to prepare their network infrastructure in order to reap full to users. benefits of this future-ready communications technology. content Preparing for 5G - 8 Use Cases, 5G: Expanding Frontier on Speed, Unlimited Possibilities...... 5 Coverage and Latency...... 21 Solace, the “One-Stop Shop” Enterprise - Incognito Driving Innovation in the OSS/BSS Space...... 23 Grade Messaging Fabric...... 12 Eight Global Stories of Massive MIMO...... 25 “In the 5G Era, Wireless Access will be Seven Global Stories of Narrow Band-IoT Deployment... 29 Ubiquitous”: Sooktha...... 15 SDN and NFV - Stretching the Boundaries of Network....33 Programmable Networks Here & Now: Broadband Access Powerd by SDN & NFV...... 36 Empowering Innvoation for Enterprise...... 17 Future-Ready Programmable Network are here...... 37 Looking into the Future of Wireless...... 19 Reviewing India’s Telecom Landscape...... 38

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CMMA18Ad_1240x1754px_ADI_D1.indd 1 10/4/18 9:50 AM Road to 5G Preparing for 5G – 8 Use Cases, Unlimited Possiblities

5G is here – how are you preparing your network to adopt new age technologies and embrace 5G?

G networks will offer ness model to mobile network opera- ing, and agriculture sectors. an unprecedented leap tors and their customers, the network Key technologies that underpin digi- in bandwidth speeds in must enable efficient provisioning of a talization include software-defined de- comparison to previous wide variety of new services for varied vices, big data, cloud computing, block mobile networks. For customers with different service level chain technology, network security, example, downlink peak needs and performance requirements. latencysensitive networks, virtual real- data5 throughput could reach 20 Gbps, Not only will operators need to provide ity (VR), and augmented reality (AR). while uplink peak data rates could be services to customers across enter- Communication networks are the key as high as 10 Gbps. prise verticals efficiently, but they will to connectivity of everything. 5G will also reduce latency and need to commercialize those services There is unprecedented buzz around improve overall network efficiency. rapidly and effectively. 5G, because it can create a world Streamlining network architectures We are presenting 8 applications boasting services and products like will deliver end-to-end latency require- that will harness the versatile capabili- “Mobile Beyond Giga”, “Real-Time ments of less than 5 ms. This will allow ties of 5G and future proof telecoms World”, and “All-Online Everywhere”. 5G to offer ultra-reliable low-latency profitability. Mobile networks have emerged as communication for machine-to-ma- Digital technologies enable continu- fundamental to productivity, enabling chine and public safety applications. ous innovation across a diverse range digital transformation throughout all As it delivers new infrastructure of industries. The ICT, media, finance, industries. solutions, 5G will depend on an end- and insurance sectors are the current To support a wide enough range to-end digital service transformation, leaders in digital transformation. But of different services, continuous and which will minimise OPEX, deliver ef- this digitalization is also accelerating long-term network development is ab- ficiencies, and drive revenue growth. in the retail, automobile, oil and gas, solutely necessary. We can see from For 5G to deliver an attractive busi- chemical engineering, healthcare, min- the applications we use in our daily

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Road to 5G lives that they are always changing and which provides abundant data storage 5G VR/AR services, by the means of evolving. The single biggest change is and can provide the necessary high- a “5G Realistic Media & Convergence the improvement in online video. speed computing capability. Service Exhibition” that is hosted with Mobile networks are designed to cre- 1. This will greatly reduce device mobile game developer UnityKorea. ate a super connected world, in which costs – making consoles or devices the generated data is contextualized, affordable for end users. 2) Connected Automotive – Driv- constructed and processed over the 2. The cloud market is growing rap- ing on 5G Future cloud, continuously creating value. idly at 18% YoY. In the next 10 years, Key players in the autonomous car Connected cars, smart manufacturing, homes and offices will increasingly value chain include: vehicle vendors, global logistics tracking, smart agricul- dispense with PCs and laptops, and software vendors, platform providers, ture, smart metering, and other ap- switch instead to cloud-connected and telco operators. Telcos have the plications are some of the first, most display screens and a variety of hu- potential to explore alternative busi- promising areas for IoT to focus on. man/machine interfaces activated by ness models in the value chain, e.g., These applications are poised to rap- voice command and/or touch. 5G will platform development, advertising, Big idly develop in the 5G era. significantly improve access to these Data, and vertical enterprise services. We have selected these 8 use cases cloud-based services. The Connected Car market is set for after in-depth analysis, to help better The VR market today is largely ori- a radical transformation, as the role understand the market opportunities ented around the gaming and video/ of connectivity grows beyond legacy introduced by these new network ca- advertising segments. Sponsorship entertainment and convenience func- pabilities. We hope that this will help models and VR experiences created tions, developing into a critical enabler a wide range of diverse industries un- to promote other premium content/ of safer, more sustainable mobility. derstand wireless progress, and proac- events have predominated in the video Key technology trends driving the tively embrace digital transformation market, although select experiences mobility revolution - autonomous driv- and industry trends. such as sporting events (e.g., Intel ing, cooperative mobility, vehicle life- True VR) and live events (e.g., Nex- cycle maintenance and sensor data 1) Virtual & Augmented Reality – tVR) have helped VR develop beyond crowdsourcing require secure, reliable, Opening Doors to Unlimited Pos- these early lifecycle short-form experi- low-latency and high-bandwidth con- sibilities ences. nectivity. The bandwidth requirements for VR/ Orange has released a mobile-de- These attributes are essential for AR to work effectively are substantial, pendent head mounted display (HMD) delivering the necessary performance as most VR/AR applications are very unit for Android and iOS smartphones, both at highway speeds and in dense data intensive. Advanced VR/AR con- price at €50 to support its Orange VR urban environments. Only 5G can sat- tent will depend on cloud servers to 360° application. SK Telecom unveiled isfy all of these rigorous connectivity meet growing demands for realistic its “360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming requirements. experiences provided to consumers at Platform” at MWC 2017 and is planning 5G has the potential to be a unifying affordable prices. to show 360º views in the upcoming connectivity technology addressing all While an average throughput of 100 2018 Winter Olympics. SK Telecom has major requirements of the future con- Mbps might be possible over existing also selected three companies, Looxid nected, shared, tele-operated, autono- 4G network, some premium VR/AR Labs, Red Bird, and ELROIS to develop mous, and cooperative vehicle. 5G applications will demand even higher speeds and lower latency.

Real-time Computer Rendering Gaming/Modeling Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are transformative technologies poised to revolutionize the consumption of content in both the consumer and the enterprise sectors. VR/AR require significant data transfer, storage, and compute capabilities. These data- and computeintensive tasks will therefore move to the cloud,

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Road to 5G can replace, or at least complement, alytics to synchronize and coordi- ler (PLC) software on its mPad mobile alternative connectivity technologies nate automated processes. Smart control unit. The mPad used a 5G con- (for example, 5.9 GHz DSRC currently glasses empower workers to do nection to control a Bosch APAS col- in the process of being mandated for their jobs quicker and more accu- laborative robot. Users could configure V2V technology in the United States). rately. and monitor the robot from the mPad; V2X to achieve a reliable and ultra- • Reduced down-time and main- Bosch believes Wi-Fi is not reliable low-latency connection between ve- tenance costs through condi- enough for these operations. hicles for collision avoidance. tion-based monitoring, machine Moreover, Bosch has plans for active learning, physical-based digital sim- assist intelligent laser-guided work sta- 3) Smart Manufacturing – Nurtur- ulations, and digital twins that can tions to communicate with AR head- ing Innovation, the 5G Way accurately forecast future perfor- sets and collaborative robotics. Sen- Innovation is at the heart of manu- mance, optimize the maintenance sors on the wearables, headsets, and facturing. Major developments include schedule, and automatically order robots will send alerts to slow down the moves toward lean manufactur- replacement parts. the robots when a worker approaches ing, digitalization, and greater flexibil- • Reduced costs for inventor y and and stops them if necessary, prevent- ity in work processes and production. logistics by optimizing accessibil- ing safety threats to the workers. Recent times have also seen a strong ity and transparency of data inter- This communication between the shift in favor of the industrial Internet nally and externally with suppliers. active assist, AR, and robots requires of things (IoT). Historically, manufac- Cloudbased network management wireless technologies, and 5G provides turers have relied on wired technolo- solutions are smart manufacturing the necessary bandwidth and ultrareli- gies for their connected applications. offerings that share data in a se- able low-level connectivity. However, wireless solutions, such as cured environment. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and WirelessHART Mobile telcos can assist manufac- 4) Wireless Health – Powered by have taken a foothold in the manufacturers and logistics centers with their 5G turing workplace, but these wireless smart manufacturing transformations. Both in the West and in Asia, popu- solutions face limitations in security 5G network slicing and MEC enable lations are rapidly aging. The percent- and reliable bandwidth. mobile telcos to offer a variety of val- age of the world population that is The underlying business rationale ue-added services on top. 55 years and older will almost double for implementing smart manufactur- They already offer control centers to between 2000 and 2030 from 12% to ing is to bring higher-quality products handle large numbers of remote devic- 20%. Moody’s Analytics, based on UN to market faster with more flexible and es and send over-the-air software up- data, has reported that some countries efficient production systems. Key ben- dates to these devices, as well as data (the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, efits include: stream management tool sets. Italy, the United States, and France) • Increased productivity through Bosch predicts significant demand will become “super-aged,” where 20% collaborative robotics and AR for real-time meshing of data and ana- or more of the population is 65 years smart glasses that assist workers lytics from different types of sources. or older. throughout assembly processes. In June 2017, Bosch demonstrated its Over the past 5 years, there has Collaborative robots exchange an- wireless Programmable Logic Control- been increasing adoption of wireless Internet in medical devices. Healthcare professionals have begun to integrate solutions such as remote audio/video diagnosis, remote surgery, resource databases, and remote health monitoring using wearables/portable devices. The healthcare industry has the opportunity to develop a fully personal- ized medical advisory service that is complemented by doctor-driven AI medical systems connected by 5G. These AI medical systems can be embedded into hospital call-in centers, home medical advisory assistants, local doctor clinics, and even traveling out-

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Road to 5G station clinics that lack on-site medical staff. Tasks include: Both in the West and in Asia, popu- lations are rapidly aging. The percent- age of the world population that is 55 years and older will almost double between 2000 and 2030 from 12% to 20%. Moody’s Analytics, based on UN data, has reported that some countries (the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Italy, the United States, and France) will become “super-aged,” where 20% or more of the population is 65 years or older. Over the past 5 years, there has been increasing adoption of wireless In 2016, Sweden’s Umea University Say Hello to UHD 8K Video & Cloud Internet in medical devices. Healthcare has demonstrated the use of remote Gaming professionals have begun to integrate ultrasonic robots, wearables, and tele- By August 2016, there were nearly solutions such as remote audio/video ECG devices to monitor patients more 10 million 4K/UHD TV service users diagnosis, remote surgery, resource than 100 miles away. worldwide. 4K/UHD TVs already make databases, and remote health monitor- One specific use case – remote di- up more than 40% of the global market ing using wearables/portable devices. agnosis – is particularly dependent on and 8K TVs will soon be available. Ac- • Real-time health management the lower latency and higher QoS of- cording to forecasts, lower prices and systems that track patients, their fered by 5G networks. new subscription-based UHD TV ser- medical records, recommend For example, a tele-ultrasound robot vices will attract half of TV watchers treatments and appropriate medi- in the Hospital of Belle Île en Mer (a worldwide to use 4K/8K TVs by 2020. cines, and set up follow-up ap- French island off the coast of Brittany) 8K video using data rates of over 100 pointments ensures proper healthcare is attainable Mbps will require the high bandwidth • Taking contextual information into in this remote location, and allows for 5G WTTx provides. account, such as genetic informa- advanced consultations to be provided Other video-based applications, such tion, patient lifestyle assumptions by doctors and clinicians on the main- as home surveillance, content stream- and the current physical condition land while reducing the costs of medi- ing, and cloud gaming, will also benefit of the patient, when developing cal transport and transfers. from 5G WTTx. For example, current medical prognoses Such tele-ultrasound robots are al- cloud game platforms do not generally • Proactive monitoring of patients ready available commercially. They im- provide levels of image quality greater by AI models that can suggest plement force feedback functions – an than 720p, but 5G is expected to offer changes to treatment plans example of the “tactile internet” – to responsive and immersive 4K gaming Other advanced use cases include engage with patients with more preci- experience at 90 fps, which requires medical robotics and medical cognitive sion to minimise pain during examina- data rates greater than 75 Mbps and computing. They outline uninterrupted tions. less than 10ms latency. connectivity requirements for high- The capital expenditure required to end applications, such as biotelemetry, 5) Wireless Home – Harnessing 5G implement WTTx is much lower com- VR-based medical procedure training, for Entertainment pared to other technologies. Accord- ambulance drones, bioinformatics, and One of the very first commercial use ing to Australia company NBN, fixed real-time data transmission. cases for 5G is fixed wireless access, wireless deployment is 30% to 50% Mobile telcos can actively partner which is an established means of pro- lower than fiber-to-the-premise. WTTx with the healthcare industry, medical viding internet access to homes using saves mobile network operators from system integrators, and the commu- wireless mobile network technology the necessity of laying fibre to every nity at large to create a favorable eco- rather than fixed lines. Fixed wireless household and significantly reduces system, providing IoMT connectivity access, or WTTx (“wireless-to-the-x”), the amount of capital expenditure and related services, such as analytics can often prove more convenient to spent on poles, cabling and trenches. and cloud services, to support various set up as it accesses existing tower TV, gaming and home applications technology deployment initiatives. sites and spectrum. place the telco at the center of the

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Road to 5G smart home. With WTTx, the telco tonomous drone fleet deployed across approximately 10 billion monthly active can provide a platform for a number of a wind turbine farm could capture vid- users (MAUs) on the top 10 social net- smart home valueadded services that eo. Similar vertical solutions may help works. The top 3 social networks were can be enhanced by AI digital assistant protect essential property and key re- Facebook with 2 billion monthly active integration, data aggregation analysis, sources, such as oil & gas pipelines and users, YouTube 1.5 billion and WeChat and software app development. installations, or increase productivity in with 963 million. This WTTx-enabled smart home the agricultural sector, for example. Smartphone has been a critical ecosystem allows telcos to offer: Drone use and applications are also technology for social networking. Ap- • Unified family packages, integrat- accelerating in the security and trans- proximately 60% of MAUs access ed broadband, and video services port fields. Facebook via their mobiles. However, at competitive prices Drone operators are tapping into the consumers are increasingly updating • Very low latency immersive HD on-demand, “as-a-service” economy, their family and friend social networks and higher video and gaming con- delivering their services to end us- via personal wearables that can com- tent at competitive prices ers in a similar manner to the cloud- municate live video, even 360° video, • Integrated third-party smart home consumption model. For example, in sports performance, stepcounts, even applications that leverage the tel- the agricultural sector, a farmer can their mood on a real-time basis. co gateway access crop monitoring services on The popularity of social networks in- • Assured carrier-class privacy and a PAYG basis, or a monthly contract. dicates that its users are becoming in- security Meanwhile, drone operators are build- creasingly comfortable at sharing con- The world‘s first 8K live broadcast ing an increasing number of partner- tent, including live video. By definition, was used during the 2016 Rio Olym- ships to create drone service market- live video streaming does not need the pic Games. On August 1, Japan’s pub- places and app stores, furthering the content captured by the host to be lic broadcaster NHK, began testing enterprise and consumer appeal of stored on the device then uploaded to 8K TV broadcasting and broadcasted their services. a hosting platform afterwards. Instead, the opening and closing ceremonies, Further, drone operators and their the content is transmitted directly to swimming events, and track and field marketplace partners can aggregate the streaming platform and viewed al- events the games. and anonymize the data that they col- most instantly. Additionally, NHK plans to broadcast lect from customers in order to im- The real-time feedback nature of during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. prove their services and tap into the a conversation is built in on smart- South Korea also plans to broadcast data analytics monetization market. phones and enabled by mobile video the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olym- Aggregated and anonymized industry live streaming platforms, making this pics in 8K. sector data may provide financial ser- new type of “one to many” communi- vices organizations with an indication cation much more interactive and so- 6) Connected Drones – Delivering of commodity/input cost future price cial. With the capability of interaction Safety and Surveillance in 5G Era trends, or may potentially be useful to between viewers added to the experi- The global market for unmanned logistics/shipping companies and gov- ence, there is also a “many to many” aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown sig- ernment agencies for forward plan- social dimension to live video stream- nificantly over the last decade. UAVs, ning. ing. also known as drones, are now estab- At the moment, the main traction Immersive video recordings are ex- lished delivery platforms for a diverse for drone usage comes from the civil pected to be enthusiastically adopted set of commercial, government, and construction industry. Drones are de- by social networkers, extreme sport, consumer applications. ployed to monitor buildings and cell fashion bloggers and trendsetters. Significant efficiency gains and towers for mobile network operators. Facebook launched its 360° live vid- safety improvements can be rapidly Drones equipped with LIDAR technol- eo platform in 1Q-2017. The company achieved through the deployment of ogy and thermal imaging technology has updated the platform to make it drone platforms. 5G networks will al- can conduct aerial surveillance. more accessible to both creators and low new levels of automation and en- viewers. Bloggers can now stream live able analytic solutions that will have a 7) Ultra-Social Networks – Pow- 360° video on Facebook in up to 4K transformative impact across multiple ered by 5G resolution. industries. For example, rather than Viewers can view the content in live visual inspection of potential rotor UHD/Panoramic Live Broadcast- virtual reality. Commercial live stream blade damage on a wind turbine by a ing video cameras that are compliant with trained human drone operator, an au- As of the end of 3Q-2017, there were Facebook include Garmin VIRB 360,

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Road to 5G

Giroptic iO, three Insta360 models and • Business areas (banks, shopping concept of “building the system and Nokia’s Ozo Orah 4i. As the streaming centers, plazas) walking away”. Instead smart cities cameras continue to shrink we will see • Transportation centers (stations, will migrate to a Video Surveillance as an increasing number of sport activi- docks) a Service (VSaaS) model. In VSaaS ties livestream “in-person” video con- • Major intersections video recording and storage, man- tent. • High-crime areas agement, and hardware and services Live broadcasting is supported by • Institutions and residential areas monitoring are provided to the users LTE but 5G will address its challenges • Flood prevention (canals, rivers) via cloud-based delivery and managed in 3 key ways: • Critical infrastructure (energy by the service provider. • End-to-end network latency will grid, telecom data centers, pump- The cloud provides flexible data decline from 60~80 ms to less ing stations) storage as well as the Data Analytics/ than 10 ms; Demand for video surveillance is Artificial Intelligence layer. Standalone • HD video feeds will typically require primed by the innovation in video cam- storage systems for a video surveil- 50 Mbps but that figure could go era technology, the cloud Smart City lance system owner have significant up to 100 Mbps due to 4K, more A smart city holds a competitive upfront capex and ongoing opex costs fields of vision, and/or data analyt- advantage in that it can be proactive that will be ameliorated by economies ics overlay; rather than reactive to the needs of its of scale. Cloud storage may be priced • Massive UL throughput of 10 Gbps residents and businesses. To become dynamically according to need. In peak will allow the upload of high-defi- a smart city, civic authorities not only retail seasons, the video cameras may nition images and videos. need to invest in data sensors that can be configured to a higher resolution Sports broadcast is proving to a pio- take the pulse of the city but video while at other times, the resolution is neer of this novel live 360X streaming surveillance cameras that can monitor scaled back to reduce cloud storage service. Examples include: the flow of traffic and the safety of its costs. • Multi-view streaming - In Formula neighborhoods. Telcos can create an advantage in of- One Shanghai 2016 competition, fering Artificial Intelligence to enhance China Mobile realized the first live AI-enabled Video Surveillance their cloud services. AI can enable multiview streaming service from Video Monitoring Services Play an computers to interpret large amounts the race track – which gave its Essential Role in the Smart City stor- of data in the form of images, sound, users a unique point of view per- age that supports data collection and and text. AI will enable face recogni- spective. analytics and by price competition. tion, vehicles, license plate recognition The audience can switch from com- Notable video camera innovations or other video analyses. For example, mentators booth to embedded immer- include: the detection of an intruder by the sive 360° camera angles in an instant. 1. 4 megapixel IP cameras (IPC) video surveillance system could trig- Ultra-compact cameras and loca- which currently dominate the ger the automatic locking of all the tion sensors were used to transmit market, and 6mp and 8mp cam- adjacent doors, confining the intruder real-time 4K video from the player’s eras with 4K capability which will until the arrival of law enforcement own point of view. Audience watched gain traction from 2020; personnel. Alternatively, the video sur- the live matches from the perspective 2. Novel application scenarios such veillance system could be triggered by of players. The Bobsleighs reached as body-worn cameras, and in- another system. For example, a POS speeds of 120 -150 Km/h and viewers vehicle cameras which are used system could notify the video surveil- can select from a number of multiple- by Emergency First Responders lance system every time a transaction angle cameras. and also individual car owners. is made and alert a camera to record The enhanced features of the lat- the scene before and after the action. 8) Smart City – AI-enabled Video est video surveillance cameras such as Single wireless cameras do not con- Surveillance with 5G high frame rates, HD video and WDR sume much bandwidth at the present City video surveillance is an invalu- (Wide Dynamic Range, which allows time. But along with the introduction able tool that not only enhances secu- for imaging even in challenging lighting of central cloud and mobile edge com- rity but also energize the productivity conditions) will contribute to signifi- puting, telco cloud infrastructure could of businesses and civic institutions. cant new data traffic being generated. support more AI assisted surveillance Video surveillance systems are invalu- For the next generation of video applications, where cameras stream able for monitoring: monitoring services, the smart city video, 24/7, non-stop. • Busy public places (squares, ac- will need to move away from the tra- tivity centers, schools, hospitals) ditional business model based on the

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com 11

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Innovations & Disruptions Solace, the “One-Stop Shop” Enterprise-Grade Messaging Fabric

As data is increasingly gaining importance for enterprise, telecoms and government segments – Solace is powering innovative solutions to enable event-driven communications across all on-prem, public cloud and private cloud environments. In an interesting discussion with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com - Les Re- chan, President and CEO, Solace and Arvind Khurana, Regional Vice President, Indian Subcontinent, Solace – describe how the company is bringing data-driven innovation towards handling multiple cloud environments, big data and IoT on a unified platform. tiatives are spread across the government and private sectors, it’s critical that the infrastructure can scale with the pace of growth and maintain reliability during unex- pected usage spikes.

President & CEO What role can Solace play to reduce data move- Les Rechan ment complexities? Les: Solace lets enterprises and government agencies meet all of their data movement needs with a single How do you view the changing landscape around the technology that’s easy to deploy and manage, and is way data is moving in fast-paced digital economies such battled-tested in its ability to remain secure and scale. as India? We do this by supporting all kinds of messaging, by run- Arvind: Fast-paced digital economies both produce and ning in all of the most popular clouds and containers, and consume massive amounts of data. India is a shining example by embracing open APIs and protocols to free folks from of this, as our government has made digital growth and literacy any risk of vendor lock-in. one of its core tenets. When you combine that with widespread mobile use and the rapid rise of mobile network operators such What are some of the big advantages that you bring as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, it’s easy to see why India is the to the table for government, enterprise and tele- world’s top mobile data consumer. coms customers who are looking forward to doing Maintaining such growth depends on the usually unherald- more with their existing data? ed data movement infrastructure that allows it all to happen. Les: Solace is unique in that we can handle hybrid When you think of a country such as India, where digital ini- cloud, IoT, big data, and microservices use cases with

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Innovations & Disruptions a unified, high-performance platform We offer a solution for and solution set. We help our custom- every customer require- ers break down data silos, move data ment: appliances for those faster and more secure than ever be- needing unparalleled ca- fore, and get into the mindset of acting pacity and performance on real-time data now rather than stor- for their serious big data, ing it for after-the-fact analysis. By al- cloud and IoT initiatives; lowing leaders across the organization VMR (Virtual Message to tap into a flow of real-time informa- Router) software for lo- tion and events, they can do their job calized messaging, hybrid more efficiently, and more quickly. cloud and NFV strate- gies; and Solace Cloud Please share some of the innova- for distributed environ- tions that Solace is spearheading ment requirements and today in the middleware space? those needing to spin up Les: Solace is the only company a world-class messaging committed to enabling event-driven fabric in minutes. communications across all on-prem, public cloud and private cloud environ- How do you look at ments. We’re actively opening path- the competition in this ways between legacy systems and space? How is Sol- microservices, enabling event-driven ace different from the Regional Vice President, architecture that spans not just ap- rest? Indian Subcontinent, plications and cloud services but the Les: Solace is the only sensors and control systems of the provider of messaging Arvind Khurana Internet of Things. This allows us to middleware that offers a impact a variety of sectors – from truly one-stop-shop so- telecom and aviation to trading and lution to meets all messaging needs, ernment of Singapore has seen our speech analytics. runs in all on-prem, private and public technology link mission-critical infra- cloud environments and supports all structure and vehicles with back-end Please share your global go-to- APIs and protocols so customers are applications and interactive dash- market, as well as your plans for never locked in to any approach or boards. At the same time, our work in India architecture – not even our own. We the financial services sector is enabling Arvind: As the leading provider of provide reliable messaging infrastruc- cashless transactions, which paves the enterprise-class messaging middle- ture at very high scale. We are also a way to increasingly electronic, auto- ware, our go-to-market plan revolves great smart data movement solutions matic recognition of individuals as they around making our technology more partner to our customers, offering consume services provided by not just easily accessible in the leading clouds them best-in-class expertise, support businesses but government agencies. and containers. This includes the in- and services on a global scale at ev- We’re uniquely capable of helping troduction of a completely managed ery step of their digital transformation cities “get smart” because our tech- service called Solace Cloud that lets journey. nology breaks down barriers between companies establish event-driven physical and digital worlds through the communications between applications, India is becoming very big in terms smart movement of data. We target devices and microservices without the of embracing digital space and a these opportunities by showing cities overhead associated with deploying or lot of cities here are moving to- how our data movement infrastruc- managing messaging infrastructure. wards creation of smart city infra. ture and solutions can solve their most This strategy is especially important How does Solace look at these two pressing digital transformation chal- in India, where the massive scale of all trends and how do you target such lenges. With our deep capabilities and kinds of digital initiatives leads com- opportunities? experience, we can positively impact panies to migrate workloads to the Les: For years Solace has been at and accelerate smart cities initiatives cloud for cost effective capacity and the forefront of enabling “smart city” in areas as diverse as transportation, burst handling during periods of peak initiatives. Our work with the world’s healthcare, and housing, just to name volume. largest rail operators and the gov- a few.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com 14

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Innovations & Disruptions

“In the 5G Era, Wireless Access will be Ubiquitous”: Sooktha

Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director & CEO Balaji Rangaswamy

As the telecoms world is inching towards embracing 5G – deploying and managing 5G networks will be radically different from the way cellular wireless networks are being managed now and Sooktha Consulting is ready to make its mark in the 5G space. Balaji Rangaswamy, Managing Director and CEO, Sooktha Consulting Pvt. Ltd interacts with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the company’s strategy to drive development towards 5G and be ready with its set of innovations.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Innovations & Disruptions

What are the key priorities for trials with a number of prospective the requirements of the defense and Sooktha today? customers. public sectors. We will expand our The key priorities for Sooktha today market base to South East Asia, Af- are to continue leveraging our 4G LTE What kinds of innovations are rica and Tier-2 operators and MVNOs eNodeB and EPC solutions in multiple being driven by Sooktha today globally in the coming years. segments and to execute on our 5G and what are your plans to drive We will offer end-to-end NB-IoT so- development plan effectively to be further ahead on the road to in- lutions in the India and China markets. ready for trials by the end of the year. novations? We will continue to offer our solutions Sooktha is focusing on the cloud to the Test & Measurement require- How does the company look at architecture for wireless access and ments globally. the emerging trends in the wire- also developing solutions that can less access segment? address various deployment scenarios How do you look towards the We see continued investment in and the challenges that are unique to developmen t of 5G today? What LTE not only in the consumer broad- each of them. We are building end- role will be played by wireless ac- band space but in niche segments like to-end test beds in our labs this year cess in 5G era? Rural Broadband, Public Safety, De- to give us the freedom to experiment 5G specifications are still being fense, Railways, and Industry. Smart and continue to drive innovation at a finalized. We expect that the develop- Cities, Smart Grids, and Smart Meters rapid pace. ment of 5G solutions will happen in will be enabled by the Narrow Band this year and the next with first roll Cellular Internet of Things technology Please share details on your go outs happening in 2020. 5G is highly (NB IoT) standard. In the consumer to market strategy? What are the flexible and supports a wide variety broadband space we see continued key markets that you are target- of applications and network archi- demands for capacity leading to even ing? tectures. There is a very determined further densification of cells in urban We have a number of go-to-market move towards virtualization. Deploy- spaces. options. The approach that we take ing and managing 5G networks will 5G opens up the opportunity for depends on the specific opportunity. be radically different from the way more verticals and has well cellular wireless networks are being defined migration options so managed now. So how the legacy that the investment in LTE is networks will co-exist with the protected. We see LTE being new 5G architecture and now the around for the next decade two network architectures will be while being increasingly supple- blended and managed will be inter- mented by 5G. esting to watch unfold. There is also a move towards In the 5G era, wireless access virtualization and cloud archi- will be ubiquitous. It will revolution- tectures in the wireless access ize the way we live with concepts segment. such as Virtual Reality and Aug- mented Reality being supported What is the company doing over cellular wireless access net- to tap on the big opportunities in The standard model we would adopt works. Higher bandwidths will allow this space? would be use a contract manufacturer more rich and high-definition content We have an end-to-end portfolio (CM) to mass-produce our designs. to be delivered to us. of solutions in 4G LTE access space, In the higher volume opportunities we Everything – humans and all the de- which is further being augmented by would have a large OEM or System vices, gadgets, and machines we use the development of our own base- Integrator sell our products, which we will be wirelessly connected. Secure band software and hardware this year would offer to them as white-label communications will be more critical (we were earlier dependent on third products. We may also brand, sell, and than ever. Managing this wide variety parties for these). We are building on support directly for lower volume op- of applications will be a new challenge this extensive portfolio to offer early portunities and niche segments. that the industry has to address. Net- 5G solutions and gain first mover We are primarily targeting the India work operators will continue to move advantage. We will be showcasing our region for our 4G LTE solutions where beyond offering a data pipe and will solutions in multiple forums globally we aim to address both the consumer instead offer more and more content, this year and engaging in lab and field broadband space as well as cater to applications, and services.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on Enterprise Programmable Networks Here & Now: Empowering Innovations for Enterprise

By Patrick Joggerst

one are the days of enterprise private networks requiring capex-heavy budgets for hardware, real estate, multiple soft- wareG licenses, difficult to manage and expensive private lines, complicated contracts and frustrating vendor lock-ins. Enterprise networking has been liberated, and enlightened IT teams and their service providers are switching things up from legacy telephony to virtualized, software-defined and innovation-driven programmable networks empowering businesses to meet the challenges of the hyper- connected, always-on world of digital commerce. Software, web and mobile applications, which are changing the way businesses attract and serve customers, drove us to the cloud. Com- munications networks are adapting to support the cloud, and the apps assets: data, proprietary informa- tions that simply run better in distributed tion, private information and physical 5) Control which applications are computing environments, including assets when those networks support prioritized and when real time voice, messaging and video things as well as people. 6) Unify systems for greater collaboration. transparency and governance Programmable networks adapt What do programmable networks 7) Connect headquarters and quickly, improve performance, and allow enterprise IT teams to do? branch offices more efficiently evolve, scaling up and down to meet 1) Embrace digital transformation and flexibly the changing needs of global enter- and quickly respond to custom- 8) Support remote workers with prises. Transformed pure IP networks ers secure, high-performance mo- are helping the largest banks, hos- 2) Enable immediate and/or auto- bile applications pitals, educational institutions and mated service provisioning 9) Re-design contact centers into governments seize opportunities and 3) Plan and manage computing customer engagement hubs at reduce expenses. resources, bandwidth and ac- dramatically lower costs and Even more critically, when engi- cess from the edge to the core higher satisfaction scores neered with quality and precision, 4) See and support traffic pat- 10) Support innovation of new they help protect the most valuable terns associated with applica- applications through more agile

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on Enterprise

DevOps capabilities Enterprise CIOs should ask themselves and their teams: will our network be flexible and strong enough to support our business ambitions for years to come? Enterprise CFOs should take a hard look at the numbers, and determine at which point it makes sense to pivot away from technical debt and move into an all-opex communications as a service environment. The benefits of transformation can be stun- ning. The cloud paved the verticals, as well as large government governance and compliance, which way for on demand cloud communi- agencies, educational institutions and are becoming increasingly challenging cations-as-a-service by improving the media companies will benefit from an – and important – to companies who quality, performance and economics expanding array of network, managed must protect not only their internal of computing. services, security, cloud and applica- data but their customers’ data as well. Bringing voice, video and messag- tion services that can be ordered, pro- Programmable networks that enable ing to the cloud only makes sense as visioned and managed in real time via enterprises or their managed services a second act, and in fact will lead to a unified dashboard, even when the providers to self-provision network what could be the massive third act network is supporting multiple third capacity, services and applications, for cloud – and that is supporting not party applications. How? Through the prioritize traffic, manage low latency only computing, but communications magic of APIs. and ultra-low latency applications, and and IoT. Bringing together systems Programmable networks enable ensure the right level of bandwidth which allow enterprises to operate enterprises and organizations to easily is always available – including for better – blending people and things build and access applications, and business continuity – are changing – could be the greatest ulitimate secure the perimeter more easily and the game. And the winners in their pay-off. cost-efficiently than we could have business games understand this and In the meantime, the second wave imagined even recently. Connecting are moving forward with a liberated of network transformation is support- headquarters, branch offices, retail mentality. ing human collaboration, internally and locations, remote workers, ecosystem externally, including leveraging em- partners, and sales channels on de- Patrick Joggerst is the Chief bedded communications (click to call, mand is simple when network design- Marketing Officer and Executive click to chat, click to visually interact) ers can point and click up networks. Vice President of Business Develop- to improve productivity and customer Better experiences for all, more ment for Ribbon Communications, service. adaptive capabilities, better econom- a secure real time communications The transformed Wide Area Net- ics and tighter security are among the company. Previously, Patrick was work (WAN) must become not just many benefits of transforming legacy EVP of Global Sales & Marketing for application-aware but application- networks into the programmable real GENBAND. He has an accomplished driven, and virtualized. Software time communications networks. Extra career in communications spanning defined networking approaches make benefits? Going forward, intelligent three decades, having managed sales that not only possible but inevitable. automation will reduce the burden of and marketing organizations for both As programmable networking network management and provide telecommunications service providers evolves, enterprises across all industry more visibility and therefore better and technology suppliers.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Trends and Predictions Looking into the Future of Wireless

As we move ahead towards consuming greater amount of data, more and more networks are embracing wireless technologies in order to address the ever-growing capacity issues in a cost effective manner. Looking ahead to the year 2018, Johan Terve, VP Marketing, Aptilo Networks shares his set of predictions for the wireless industry.

phones on Wi-Fi than business especially if operators com- on cellular. Now, with bine it with managed B2B guest Wi-Fi more and more unlim- services which provide the indoor cov- ited cellular data plans, erage and offload capacity so much the smartphone will needed at high-traffic areas. still continue to be primarily a Wi-Fi device. B2B is where the growth is Why? All operators will turn to B2B to Many cellular-centric achieve growth and indoor capacity in operators have not re- 2018. The majority of operators already alized just how much have some B2B plan in the works. For data their users are example, NOS in Portugal is offering eating. their massive network of cinemas, It’s been a merry- multi-site retail venues and more with go-round, with carriers opportunities to sell Wi-Fi to their own offering more all-you- customers, whether they be end-us- can-eat data plans to ers or mall tenants looking to engage stay competitive — their own audiences. We know that 77 with the expectation percent of shoppers spend more time that users will jump at stores when you offer Wi-Fi. That to Wi-Fi. Now, when kind of draw is compelling. Operators users actually do use know this. their data plans, the With that, we believe 2018 will be the carriers are realizing… year when operator-managed B2B Wi- whoa! We need to Fi services will really take off. Look at provide more capacity, Spectrum Business (former Time War- especially indoors, as ner Cable Business Class®), a compa- Revival of offloading and carrier cost-effectively as possible. It reiter- ny that has prepared itself to address Wi-Fi due to unlimited plans ates the need for carriers to have a ho- this. Same with Telia in Sweden as well Carrier Wi-Fi and offloading will -ex listic solution in place, one that offers as NOS, two carriers that have made perience a revival. So far, it has been a robust Wi-Fi network to supplement the leap to managed Wi-Fi services. mostly the users that have driven the their unlimited data plans. And this al- Why is this? Because managed servic- Wi-Fi offload agenda. Wherever they lows carriers to be flexible with their es allow carriers to be nimble to meet could find a free Wi-Fi network, they business models, because you never the rapid changes of the industry. IT connected. In most countries people know what the future holds. departments don’t typically have the spend more time with their smart- Besides, Wi-Fi offloading is a good capacity to handle today’s complex,

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Trends and Predictions dynamic deployments and to keep up for Wi-Fi. This will vastly improve the Wi-Fi ex- with demanding users who expect the We think that operators will continue perience in dense areas. The argument same excellent Wi-Fi they have in their to have problems deploying their small that “Wi-Fi” is only best effort will soon homes. As such, carriers will be relying cells in many locations unless they fade away. heavily on cloud-based managed ser- adopt a Wi-Fi-like business model. The closer we get to testing out 5G, vices to tackle these challenges. They need to offer the same analytics, the more carriers will realize how to user engagement and marketing capa- truly leverage Wi-Fi in this framework Wi-Fi calling ramps up with more bilities to their business customers as and that doing so is necessary to keep affordable IMS Wi-Fi does. Otherwise business own- up with the demand for data capacity. Here’s the reality check with Wi-Fi ers will just continue with their Wi-Fi calling: only 30-50 operators out of services relying on visitors to connect IoT needs a horizontal communi- 700 have rolled it out, so while every- in order to save on data allowances cation layer one knows that Wi-Fi calling is crucial and to get better indoor coverage. There’s a strong need for a “horizon- to obtain indoor coverage for mobile More or less every small cell that tal communication layer” for IoT. Today operators’ voice services, it still has goes out will have a Wi-Fi radio in them there are siloed end-to-end solutions. yet to break its stride with regard to anyway, so operators will have the op- Say, one solution for my car, another adoption. It’s because IMS and hand- portunity to use both the small cells for my home appliances etc. In 2018 set-readiness hasn’t been there. In and Wi-Fi in their offering to their busi- more operators will offer IoT con- 2018-19 we expect more readiness on ness customers. And with the increas- nectivity services from a horizontal the handset side, with more opera- ing appetite for data capacity, they communication platform offering con- tors putting the IMS in place. So don’t need both. nectivity for multiple IoT radio technol- be surprised if Wi-Fi calling adoption In 2018 and beyond, Wi-Fi-like busi- ogies such as 4G, NB-IoT, Wi-Fi, LoRa starts to pick up the pace – fast. ness models will become the main ve- and SigFox. More affordable IMS solutions will be hicle for small cell deployments. Mobile Another thing worth remembering the spark for this development. MV- operators will use both Wi-Fi and small before hyping cellular technologies for NOs will take on IMS delivered to them cells and offer their business custom- IoT too much, is that the vast major- as software-as-a-service, making Wi- ers the same analytics, user engage- ity of the billions of IoT devices will Fi calling a more affordable proposition ment and marketing tools for both be short-range (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and for them and, therefore, increasing de- technologies. other proprietary technologies). Ac- ployments. Few MVNOs can take on The needs will differ from site to site. cording to Ericsson Mobility report the investment of an IMS as-is. Some business owners do not care 06-2017 there will be 15.5 billion short- about user engagement while others range IoT devices by 2022, but only 1.5 Small cells need to learn from see it as a must. The ability to engage billion cellular IoT devices. Wi-Fi with a visitor through a captive por- Small cells have long been a disap- tal, SMS or e-mail must therefore be GDPR limbo pointment in the industry. Part of the set per location and subscriber type The General Data Protection Regu- problem has been challenges in site through advanced policy manage- lation, which was enacted to address acquisition. In the macro-cell world, ment. the need for data privacy, is an impor- mobile operators just rent space from tant initiative. Unless operators work property owners to mount their base 5G is a framework not a technol- with vendors who understand and can stations. Now they need to place their ogy support them in being GDPR compli- small cells into sites like shopping malls, The industry is finally coming to terms ant, service providers and businesses and they’re encountering resistance. with the fact that 5G is a framework will be stuck in limbo as they, together Just think about it. What will it mean and not a technology. Wi-Fi is a natu- with technology solutions provid- for the business owner allowing a mo- ral part of that framework. Especially ers, race to develop GDPR-compliant bile operator with, let’s say, 40% mar- in dense environments, Wi-Fi coupled products and services. In 2018 GDPR ketshare to deploy their small cells? with core networks will increase the is here for the greater good, but will The business owner will instantly lose 5G access network capacity and ben- also take the greater part out of Eu- the insights and engagement that Wi- efit users’ wireless experience. The ropean productivity gains. It will take Fi offers with up to 40% of their visi- role of Wi-Fi as an integral part of 5G some time and established best prac- tors. Especially in countries that have is driven further by new technologies tices in how to interpret GDPR regula- all-you-can-eat cellular data plans, such as 802.11ax which use the similar tions before productivity of European where many users do not actively look control mechanisms (OFDMA) as LTE. businesses is back on track.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on 5G 5G: Expanding Frontier on Speed, Coverage and Latency

Exponentially expanding the frontier on broadband speed, coverage and latency - the convergence of 5G wireless and fiber wireline technology will dramatically improve the performance of communication networks. Stephane Bendayan, So- lutions Director - Carrier Wireless iBwave talks to Zia Askari from TelecomDrive. com about the importance of 5G and how iBwave is po- sitioning its innovative solutions in this space. Stephane is a seasoned telecom professional with more than 15 year of inter- national telecom experience in various management roles for both operators including Belgacom, Tata communications and equipment vendors including Nortel and Alcatel. At iBwave, he oversees the solutions portfolio for the wireless carrier market.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on 5G

How does the company look at 5G operator customers, we are already cal to have a fully integrated converged as an enabling technology? working on enabling network conver- network design to take advantage of The insatiable demand for greater gence to pave the road towards 5G. 5G fully. bandwidth to support everyday mobile Multiple important technical aspects activities such as streaming videos and must be taken into consideration such What kind of innovations can we the need for always-on wireless IoT ul- as network densification while taking expect from iBwave in this space? tra-low-delay connectivity means that advantage of massive MIMO and car- We are actively working with large the current 4G technology won’t be rier aggregation. Network slicing and North American, European and Asian able to handle all these new broadband cloud RAN for more dynamic capacity operators to offer a truly converged services for tens of billions of connect- allocation, New Radio (NR) frequency solution for in-building network infra- ed machines and human users. including mmWave, increased in-build- structures. That’s why iBwave is excited to see ing fiber for more front-haul and back- According to your opinion what fac- that the ever-evolving telecom industry haul connection. From an in-building tors can contribute heavily towards is trending in a new direction with 5G to network design standpoint, all these faster adoption of 5G? deliver fiber-like speeds over a wireless elements will have to be fully integrated The success of iPhone introduced in connection. to deliver the optimal 5G indoor experi- 2007 and massive adoption of smart- The convergence of 5G wireless and ence. phones by early 2010, fueled increased fiber wireline technology will dramati- demand for better data services from cally improve the speed, coverage, and From an operator’s standpoint - mobile consumers triggering 4G adop- latency to enable massive IoT, mission How different will be the laying of tion. Now, one can expect that the critical services or enhanced Mobile 5G infrastructure... when com- Internet of Things will reproduce a Broadband (eMBB) for applications like pared to their existing 4G in- similar market effect to accelerate smart cities, automated manu- 5G adoption if the carrier can fully facturing, intelligent homes, monetize the business potentials of Virtual Reality. those new services. These applications will rely “The convergence of 5G on new network fabrics com- wireless and fiber wireline What are some of the early use bining the powerful perfor- technology will dramati- cases of 5G that can set the mance capabilities of both trend towards this technologi- fiber and 5G to handle this cally improve the speed, cal advancement? massive data traffic deluge. coverage, and latency to With 28 billion IoT connected de- That’s why it will be strategic enable massive IoT” vices predicted by 2021, Massive for operators to consider a IoT applications will consist of many more unified approach for 5G different devices operating on - dif roll-out. This should be done ferent radio technologies. iBwave in conjunction with their fiber deploy- frastructure? To already supports these technolo- ment to offer “best of breed” connec- what extent they can utilize their gies including Wi-Fi, LoRA, sigfox, NB- tivity capabilities to their fixed/wireless existing infra and yet leapfrog to- IoT that would co-exist with 5G. subscribers and their connected IoTs. wards embracing 5G? With the use of higher 5G frequency, What will be the future of Small What is the broad strategy that iB- while adding more data capacity, the Cells in a 5G era? wave has towards 5G today? carrier will make better use of their Small cells will be playing a major role iBwave plays a leading role in this networks by shrinking the cell size. for 5G network densification in con- transformation. With 80% of mobile Network densification will lead to the junction with RAN virtualization. It is communications taking place indoors, deployment of many more small cells to expected that the first 5G deployment iBwave has already enabled mobile increase total number of connections will rely heavily on small cells with OEMs connectivity for over 100,000+ Global that can be supported for connected already committed to supporting 5G for venues including airports, stadiums, objects and subscribers in crowded indoor small cells to deliver 1Gbps and metros, large enterprise campuses/ venues. more. The iBwave software solution is warehouses. By leveraging our exten- The increased densification, also already Het-Net ready to provide a fully sive expertise for in-building HetNet means that carriers would have to plan integrated design across multiple tech- design (DAS, Small Cells, and Wi-Fi) for more fiber deployment for backhaul nologies including Small Cells, Cellular, and in close collaboration with our large connections. As such it would be criti- and Wi-Fi.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on OSS/BSS Incognito: Driving Innovation in the OSS/BSS Space

At a time when telecom operators look for software driven efficient management of their network assets – Vancouver, Canada based Incogni- to is bringing a lot of innovation to its customers, with the help of its software portfolio. Pete Koat, Chief Technology Officer, Incognito interacts with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the company’s current focus and its future plans.

Please introduce Incognito soft- service management ware to us – what are your key fo- processes with the ut- cus areas of operations and priori- most quality and reliabil- ties in the market today? ity. Incognito is an independent software We offer innovative development company, which creates solutions around digital end-to-end OSS, BSS solutions for our home experience, fiber global customers. With digital trans- service activation, DOC- formation a key driver for global CSPs, SIS provisioning, network Incognito is focused on home broad- monetization and firmware manage- ized services. With the help of our solu- band management device and service ment, IP address management — all tions, we are implementing standards, provisioning and monetization. With our with a focus on residential broadband open APIs, and we are uniquely vendor solutions, CSPs can leverage automa- services. Our priority is to help our cus- and device agnostic. We continually in- tion and analytics to reduce operational tomers scale while keeping operational vest in our solutions, delivering the lat- costs around device and service pro- costs in check and delivering greater est advancements that incorporate vir- visioning and deliver a great customer customer experiences and quality. tualization, automation, analytics, and experience. orchestration. Keeping in mind our unique capabili- How can operators and CSPs fu- Incognito is part of the new ETSI ties, globally renowned broadband op- ture proof their OSS / BSS strat- working group on zero touch network erators of all sizes — including over half egy? What are your key offerings in and service management group, exem- of the top ten operators in the United this direction? plifying our focus on closed loop auto- States — trust Incognito to eliminate When it comes to future proofing the mation processes to help our custom- segregated work silos and streamline OSS/BSS strategy, it is going to be all ers maximize operational excellence in provisioning, activation, and subscriber about open architectures and virtual- the future.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on OSS/BSS

How do you look at the growing importance of SDN and NFV for the Please share details on your key More and more Telecom operators telecoms today – what role is being global geographies and how are you and CSPs look forward to doing played by Incognito here? targeting these geographies. What more with less in terms of investing Incognito is playing a very critical role is your go to market strategy? in technologies – what are some of here. Here is an example: as global op- As of now, more than 160 million sub- your innovations that can help operators and CSPs look for greater level scribers are being provisioned by solu- erators do more with less? of efficiency and innovation from SDN tions from Incognito. Global providers SmartCSR is a great example of our and NFV, software defined networking are already using Incognito software innovation within the home broadband at its core is meant to automate core to realize new revenue streams from experience domain, with a focus on and edge router functions by abstract- multi-play services. customer call centers. We use machine ing the physical elements from the When it comes to our go to market learning, AI, and automation to deter- functional platforms. strategy, we work very closely with our mine root cause analysis for trouble- Incognito bridges into SDN by auto- channel partners — who can design shooting when customers are calling in mating scope deployments to PE rout- and deliver our solutions for our cus- with an issue. This greatly reduces the ers within its IPAM solution, part of tomers. amount of time required during an in- our DDI portfolio, where configuration In a constantly shifting technologi- teraction, improves first-call resolution changes will automatically be pushed cal landscape of high data-services rates, as well as reduces the volume of out to the routing elements, abstract- penetration, Incognito helps custom- costly truck rolls. Automation is key to ing the physical component from the ers develop an actionable vision for the reducing OPEX as operators grow. intent. This will use the normal interface future. We provide deep broadband Another area for doing more with API whether it is CLI, SOAP, or a mod- services experience and technical ex- less can be seen in the benefits that ern API like netconf. pertise to optimize infrastructures, software can provide. Lets take, for ex- Ultimately the big driver here for both streamline operations, and improve the ample, WiFi within the home. There are SDN and NFV is virtualizing the solu- customer experience. Incognito R&D many advanced mesh-based WiFi rout- tions from big-iron vendors so that as and professional services lead the in- ers on the marketplace, but much of the demand/load grows the platform dustry in standards-based and cus- the optimization techniques employed can scale, benefiting from the lowering tomer-requested solutions that ensure could be done in software remotely us- costs afforded by Moore’s law. Adjacent performance quality for everyday oping existing deployed gateways; gate- to this is a driver to leverage decades of erations while scaling to accommodate ways that might not even support TR- advancements in automation and ma- future demands. 069 protocol — all of which could be chine learning to improve the reliability fully autonomous. This is exactly what while reducing operating expenses. How do you look at the future we do with our Customer Experience Incognito is a pure software vendor, growth of the company – from a platform. and is growing its portfolio with NFV technology and a business stand- offerings; many Tier 1 operators have point? Where is this growth going Please share your plans and vision had our virtualized offerings deployed to come from? for your Indian operations? for years. Moving forward, as more and Future growth will come from mul- Incognito has been in India for over more telecom operators and deploying tiple areas: 10 years; predominantly in the cable SDN and NFV infrastructure and or- • NFV space. As our offerings have grown chestration inside their networks, we • Fiber beyond the HFC plant we plan on in- see potential for our portfolio to drive • IoT troducing Incognito solutions to opera- greater levels of synergy with our cus- These are broad topics but they rep- tors in South East Asia, and deploying tomers. With open source projects like resent a general trend in the market- and growing in-country expertise on ONAP, CORD, and TIP, we will start place around digital transformation of our solutions. Each operator is unique, to see a greater level of interoperabil- back end operations. These themes tie and so our flexible solutions deployed ity between vendors and ideally some back to enriching and personalizing the at hundreds of operators around the standardization or consolidation around service offerings for the customers; im- world will be able to map to the unique platforms and projects. We are already proving automation so that the opera- workflows and access network topolo- starting to see this with the Linux Foun- tor can truly deliver the experience the gies required by service providers. This dation’s new Networking Fund that customer wants today, while having the ensures that our software deployments brings together multiple open source capacity to be agile and adapt to the are non-disruptive and are completed projects. changing marketplace. quickly.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Embracing 5G Eight Global Stories of Massive MIMO

IMO deployment uses multiple antennas that are located at both the source (transmit- ter) and destination M(receiver). Those antennas are linked in order to minimize error and increase efficiency of a network. Massive MIMO, takes MIMO technology and scales it up to hundreds or even thousands of antennas and terminals. These antennas, attached to a base station, focus the transmission and recep- tion of signal energy into small regions of space, providing new levels of efficiency and throughput for the telecoms network. As the next generation of wireless data in and around the stadiums where IPL advanced Pre-5G solution to enable a networks, or 5G, must address not only matches are being played. high speed and high capacity in-stadia future capacity constraints but also ex- Customers can enjoy rich and inter- network experience at IPL match ven- isting challenges—such as network reactive content on Airtel TV app to add ues. We believe this will enhance the liability, coverage, energy efficiency and to their in-stadia experience; can share, digital experience for our customers and latency—with current communication upload and stream content seamlessly enable them to share, post and stream systems. And hence, Massive MIMO, Airtel – India’s fastest mobile network, content seamlessly even in locations offers significant gains in wireless data is making sure that its customers con- with massive crowds.” rates and link reliability. It allows for data tinue to enjoy superfast data experience Airtel was the first mobile operator in consumption from more users in a dense on Airtel 4G when they are at Indian Pre- India to commercially deploy Massive area without consuming any more radio mier League (IPL) 2018 match venues. MIMO. spectrum or causing interference. This Airtel has deployed advanced Mas- Globe Taps Huawei to Deploy Com- results in fewer dropped calls, a signifi- sive MIMO Pre-5G technology across mercial FDD Massive MIMO in the Phil- cant decrease in dead zones, and bet- IPL match venues. Massive MIMO ex- ippines ter quality data transmission, without pands existing network capacity by five Philippines Globe Telecom has part- spreading thin the increasingly scarce to seven times over existing spectrum, nered with Huawei to commence the radio spectrum. thereby improving spectral efficiency. trial of the world’s first FDD Massive We are presenting some of the best Customers are able to to experience su- MIMO commercial product. global stories on Massive MIMO deploy- perfast data speeds on Airtel’s 4G net- FDD Massive MIMO is expected to ments: work despite the very large number of boost cell capacity by a factor of two Airtel deploys Massive MIMO Pre-5G concurrent users on the network sites to three times based on legacy terminals across IPL match venues at the venue. compared to the current LTE deploy- Massive MIMO expands network ca- Speaking on this development, Shyam ment. pacity by 5-7 times on the same spec- Mardikar, CTO – Mobile, Bharti Airtel, This enhancement in cell capacity will trum and Airtel customers are enjoying said, “As part of our endeavour to offer provide a better experience for more seamless and superfast data speeds a seamless high speed 4G experience consumers. despite the very large number of users to our customers, we are deploying this Globe began building LTE networks

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Embracing 5G in 2013 and is utilizing LTE technology help global operators embrace the era between the network equipment and to provide mobile broadband and fixed of massive connections and maximize the mobile device. This will raise net- wireless broadband services. Mobile spectral efficiency. We also hope it can work spectral efficiency and customer data traffic has been growing rapidly effectively facilitate operators’ digital speeds. driven by increased smartphone pen- transformation and further support a Joe Glynn, vice president, business etration. continuous evolution towards the 5G development, Qualcomm Technolo- LTE networks have been the major era.” gies, Inc. says: “This milestone further contributor to this growth over the last demonstrates Qualcomm Technologies’ few years. Massive MIMO technology Road to 5G: Verizon, Qualcomm, leadership and commitment to con- can enhance network capacity without and Ericsson Align to Trial Massive tinually bring innovative technologies to adding additional spectrum resources MIMO consumers to improve their mobile ex- and deferring to the construction of Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm periences. We look forward to continu- new sites. Massive MIMO is also seen Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qual- ing our work with Verizon and Ericsson as one of the key technologies for the comm Incorporated extended their to push the limits of LTE while ushering future 5G era network. technology innovation leadership by in a world of 5G.” Robert Tan, Chief Technical Advisor of completing the first successful FDD Niklas Heuveldop, Head of Market Globe Telecom, said, “We are committed Massive MIMO trial with a fully compat- Area North America, Ericsson, says: to provide users with high-quality and ible customer device. “Advanced Antenna Systems and Mas- high-speed connectivity to support their This achievement builds on the mo- sive MIMO are key technology enablers digital lifestyle. Video and rich multime- mentum from the deployment of FDD for 5G, and 4G LTE service providers dia content is driving the growth in data (Frequency Division Duplexing) Massive and end users will also benefit from the demand and the need for a better cus- MIMO (Multiple Input – Multiple Out- superior capacity and network perfor- tomer experience. The Massive MIMO put) on Verizon’s wireless network in mance these technologies enable. The technology utilizes spectrum more effi- Irvine, California. latest trial is another important step in ciently and enables us to deliver superior “We don’t wait for the future, we build the collaboration we have with Verizon customer experience with a tremen- it. And this is another great example of and Qualcomm Technologies to further dous boost in data capacity to support moving the industry forward,” says Ni- evolve 4G and prepare the network for the exponential growth in wireless data cola Palmer, Chief Network Engineer 5G.” consumption from our increasing base and Head of Wireless Networks, Verizon. The Ericsson Massive MIMO portfo- of MBB and WTTx customers. We are “Massive MIMO is a critical component lio is expected to be available next year, glad to see the timely introduction of of our 4G LTE Advancements and will putting it well in line with commercial Huawei’s FDD Massive MIMO commer- play an important role in 5G technology smartphones with the TM9 compatible cial products. It is a natural evolution of that will result in single digit latency and chipset, which are expected to hit the our network towards the 5G era.” scalability in the billions of connections.” markets in the first half of 2018. Veni Shone, President of Huawei’s In this trial, the three companies used LTE Product Line, emphasized that the latest Ericsson Massive MIMO soft- Road to 5G: ZTE’s Pre5G Massive “Since the release of commercial TDD ware and hardware on Verizon’s net- MIMO Helps Japan’s SoftBank Build Massive MIMO products two years ago, work, along with a mobile test device a Smart Gym such products have been deployed by powered by the Qualcomm® Snap- ZTE Corporation, has helped Japan’s over 40 operators. This shows Huawei’s dragon™ 845 Mobile Platform with X20 SoftBank Hawks seal a 4-3 victory over technology accumulation and experi- LTE using TM9 (Transmission Mode 9). its opponent and won the championship ence in Massive MIMO deployment. TM9 is an enhancement for consumer at the main venue Yahuoku! Dome dur- Now, Huawei is launching the FDD Mas- devices that will make them fully coming the 2017Japan Series. sive MIMO commercial product. This patible with Massive MIMO, enabling a When preparing for the match, Soft- is the most compact product available better experience. Bank worked with ZTE to deploy Pre5G in the industry, and provides excellent Massive MIMO is a key technology Massive MIMO 2.0 (antenna 64T64R) performance and high reliability. We component in the evolution towards 5G. after replacing some previous Macro are pleased to see that Globe has cho- It has the potential of greatly improving sites at the Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome. sen Huawei’s Massive MIMO solution network capacity and the customer’s Faced with high traffic, the MIMO 2.0 to cope with its growing wireless data experience. To realize the gains, both solution guaranteed proper communi- traffic. It is our hope that Huawei’s ac- the network and devices need to sup- cation for the whole championship and tive-antenna technologies supporting all port new TM9 functionality which lever- served as a comprehensive solution to RATs and multiple bands can effectively ages advanced beamforming schemes the coverage, capacity, and user experi-

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Embracing 5G ence problems, helping SoftBank build a erator’s network evolution plan towards work partnership towards 5G with smart and high-performance gym net- 5G. Ericsson work. The trial, involving FDD Massive MIMO Ericsson has extended its 20-year As the home field of SoftBank’s on 1800 MHz, represents the first of its strategic partnership with Entel, the Hawks, the Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome kind for operators in Hong Kong. It is largest telecommunications company can hold nearly 40,000 people. Held on a proving the capabilities of this key tech- in Chile. Under the terms of the new magnificent scale, the championship at- nology ahead of the live deployment in contract, Ericsson will prepare Entel’s tracted a large audience, with the atten- 2018 of AIR 3246, Ericsson’s new radio network in the evolution path towards dance rate reaching nearly 100%. It also that can support Massive MIMO over 5G by deploying its latest LTE FDD net- formed a network guarantee scenario 4G/LTE with Ericsson’s 5G Massive work technologies and LTE TDD Mas- with the densest communication and MIMO Plug-In. sive MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple- most concentrated services in Fukuoka Massive MIMO is a key technology Output). recently. The high-density traffic raised that bridges network evolution from This will allow Entel to increase its serious challenges for the capacity of 4G to 5G, adding intelligent capacity competitiveness and capture additional the existing network. and boosting user experience. Massive revenue streams. Entel will be the first ZTE, which strove to guarantee MIMO on FDD yields a multi-fold in- operator in Latin America to deploy proper communications services for crease of network capacity and increase Massive MIMO nationwide. the championship, carefully deployed user throughput by up to five times, Massive MIMO is a wireless technol- onsite communications equipment, ap- boosting performance for end users. ogy that uses multiple transmitters and plied customized solutions such as sim- Stephen Chau, Chief Technology Offi- receivers to transfer more data at the ulation, onsite surveys, and optimization cer of SmarTone, says: “Our extension of same time. Multi-antenna transmission of core parameters (Massive MIMO the strategic partnership with Ericsson is playing a critical role in the evolution antenna beamforming), and deployed in October last year includes a five-year of 4G and 5G networks. Pre5G Massive MIMO 2.0 products to network evolution plan towards 5G. This Entel will also evolve the Radio Net- help SoftBank build a smart and high- trial represents a significant milestone in work Controllers and EVO controllers performance gym. our collaboration, and reinforces Smar- across the network, including remote In Tokyo, Japan, ZTE and Japan’s Tone’s leadership in the network evo- locations such as Easter Island, and up- SoftBank Group officially signed a lution journey. Ericsson’s FDD Massive grade the transport network with the memorandum of understanding on joint MIMO solution will play an instrumental introduction of Ericsson’s microwave so- research and development of Pre5G part in providing our customers in dense lutions, a section of which now tap into in July 2015. In September 2016, Soft- urban environments with enhanced user E-band spectrum to cater for capacity Bank announced that the “5G Project”, experiences they have come to expect increases in backhaul and fronthaul. a project based on the next-generation from SmarTone.” Alfredo Parot, Vice President of Tech- high-speed communications standard Nishant Batra, Head of Product Area nologies and Operations, Entel, says: 5G, was kicked off. SoftBank was the Network Infrastructure, Ericsson, says: “Entel has a long-standing partnership first operator to put the Massive MIMO “We are working closely with SmarT- with Ericsson that is based on a history technology into commercial use, with one to develop, trial, and deploy key 5G of excellence in product and service de- ZTE being its major supplier. technologies that will further enhance livery. Now, as we evolve our network ZTE’s Pre5G has been highly rec- the user experience. The recent LAA to capture the new business opportu- ognized in the industry. To date, its field trial, and now the trial of FDD Mas- nities of Gigabit LTE and the evolution Pre5G-related products and solutions sive MIMO, enable us to jointly shape towards 5G and IoT, we naturally extend have been deployed for more than 60 the next-generation network technol- this partnership with Ericsson in these networks in over 40 countries, including ogy.” areas. Our subscribers and enterprise China, Japan, Austria, Singapore, Spain, Ericsson has recently launched its customers will enjoy the benefits of a Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. first radio, AIR 3246, supporting FDD very high performance network in the Massive MIMO for both 4G and 5G. The region for years to come.” Evolution to 5G: SmarTone, Erics- technology enables operators – espe- Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President son trial FDD Massive MIMO cially in metropolitan areas – to bring 5G and Head of Market Area Europe and Ericsson and SmarTone, the mobile to subscribers using today’s mid-band Latin America, Ericsson, says: “With mo- network operator in Hong Kong are tri- spectrum and boost capacity in their bile traffic volumes expected to increase aling FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) LTE networks. exponentially through 2020 and beyond, Massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple operators around the world are bolster- Output) technology as part of the op- Massive MIMO: Entel drives net- ing their existing networks to deliver

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Embracing 5G higher speeds and lower latency to their technology available for all FDD-LTE sive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Out- subscribers. We write a new chapter in networks, which account for 85 percent put) and 3CC Carrier Aggregation tech- the history of our strategic partnership of the world’s LTE networks. It will help nologies, 3CC Massive MIMO. with Entel by evolving their network to operators significantly increase network The network trial, conducted on live Gigabit LTE and paving the way to 5G capacity without the requirement of traffic at Macquarie Park in June 2017, and beyond, cementing their leadership costly additional spectrum. More impor- attained a highest speed of 818 Mbps. It position among operators in the Latin tantly, the deployment of FDD Massive was completed with technology partner American region.” MIMO does not require changes to the Huawei. Within the agreement, Ericsson will existing 4G network architecture, and is Both Massive MIMO and multiple also deliver several strategic core net- fully compatible with current 4G termi- Carrier Aggregation technologies are work projects intended to upgrade En- nals. This brings immediate commercial considered key to enabling 5G technolo- tel’s voice and data networks to the lat- benefits to the operator while boosting gies, with Optus the first in the world est generation in order to provide new the customer experience. to complete a successful combined live end-user services, enable increased Telenet and ZTE have been in a long- network implementation of the massive broadband capacity and higher data term strategic partnership since 2016, MIMO and 3CC CA technologies to- speeds, enhanced voice quality, opti- and ZTE is the sole radio network ven- gether in the same equipment. mized latency, and reduced network op- dor. “We’re very excited that, with ZTE, Dennis Wong, Managing Director of eration costs. we have completed the first FDD Mas- Optus Networks, said “Earlier this year, Ericsson has introduced its Adaptive sive MIMO trial in Europe, achieving the Optus launched a 4.5G network and Network Inventory solution (EAI) which highest single cell throughput within the completed Australia’s first field trial of will become an integral part of Entel’s 20MHz spectrum. This new speed re- Massive MIMO technology. Digital Transformation project. Deploy- cord is a milestone along our evolution to “We’re committed to leading Australia ment of the core network projects be- 5G, and we will continue to build a faster in terms of 5G development and testing, gins immediately and will be completed network with higher capacity, improving and this recently completed world-first in different phases throughout 2018 and mobile users’ broadband experiences.” 3CC Massive MIMO test is further tes- 2019. said Micha Berger, Telenet’s CTO. tament to our commitment and devel- “ZTE is very proud to work with Te- opments we have been able to achieve Telenet Belgium, ZTE debut FDD lenet in realising Europe’s first field ap- in this space. Massive MIMO field application in plication for FDD-LTE Massive MIMO Site capacity during the live testing Europe technology. We believe that this solu- was significantly improved by almost ZTE Corporation and Telenet have an- tion can significantly improve Telenet four times compared to that of legacy nounced the first FDD Massive MIMO network performance, delivering the 4T4R MIMO base stations. field application in Europe. The field best broadband experience to Telenet Massive MIMO is expected to be a demonstration site was chosen in Wer- customers,” said Wenhao Tang, Vice key technology in 5G through the use chter, home of Rock Werchter music President, CTO of Europe and America of intelligent spatial diversity and 3D festival. Region of ZTE. “In addition, ZTE will beamforming features, allowing a theo- The field application used 20MHz of work closely with the Telenet Innovation retical improved spectral efficiency up spectrum and 6 terminals to complete Center, where we will continue devel- to 6 times that of a traditional antenna an 12-stream verification, achieved an opment of new solutions and products system. average single user speed of 120Mbps, for network performance improvement The Massive MIMO Integrated An- 710Mbps peak cell speed, and improved to provide an improved user experience tenna system used in the live site was spectrum efficiency by 3.3 times com- and new services. This will help Telenet supplied by Huawei and capable to de- pared to traditional LTE base stations. continuously improve network competi- liver 64T64R MIMO, supporting up to With the rapid growth of mobile tiveness and brand value.” 80MHz of all four carriers of Optus’ broadband services, user data require- 2300MHz TDD band. ments have been increasing exponen- Optus Taps Huawei to Demo Mas- Optus plans to rollout Massive MIMO tially, but 4G spectrum limitations cause sive MIMO, 3CC Carrier Aggrega- sites in selected capital cities starting a bottleneck in network capacity im- tion in Live Network from the end of 2017. Optus’ customers provement. Massive MIMO is a key 5G World first achievement in pairing pre- will be able to directly benefit from Mas- network technology, and a ZTE Pre5G 5G technologies Massive MIMO with sive MIMO especially in high data traf- core solution, introducing 5G capabili- 3CC Carrier Aggregation in live network fic areas and should expect improved ties into existing 4G networks. ZTE was Optus has announced the successful download speeds in congested areas. the first vendor to make Massive MIMO live network testing of combined Mas-

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com NB-IoT Innovations Seven Global Stories of Narrow Band-IoT Deployment

B-IoT is all about enabling while providing a path towards evolu- customers. The upgrade in Finland, widespread IoT and this tion to 5G-based IoT. which was made to our entire network, is where this technology We are presenting some of the best enables the Internet of Things to reach is going to play a critical global stories on NB-IoT deployments: massive scale, cost effectively, which role in terms of power- can help smart cities and smart homes ingN 5G networks. NB-IoT is a technol- Network Transformation: Telia first develop, and even track our pets and ogy designed to take IoT from niche with network upgrade to NB-IoT in monitor our health. We are rolling out to mainstream. A number of segments Finland this upgrade across the Telia footprint, such as Critical Communications can Telia is the first operator in Finland and anticipate launching commercial utilize the power of NB-IoT and har- to bring the Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) services in all main markets by year ness robust connectivity, while deliver- technology to its network. end,” says Björn Hansen, Head of Telia ing more value to end customers. The new technology, designed for Company’s IoT business. 5G promises even further IoT en- the Internet of Things, makes it pos- hancements in the form of narrowband sible to easily connect a huge number Smart mailbox 5G, meshing, mission-critical control, of sensors directly to the mobile net- One of the first users is the Finnish not to mention the addition of network work in order to collect real-time data, postal service Posti, which has co- slicing for flexible use case support. even in challenging places. operated with Telia in developing the In the near-term, enhanced mobile “Many businesses across the Nordics world’s first smart mailbox utilizing the broadband use cases will dominate and Baltics, large and small, are looking NB-IoT technology early 5G interests. NB-IoT provides a to IoT to drive efficiency in their opera- “The new IoT technology is the most foundation for future-ready IoT de- tions by monitoring assets or steering significant step we have taken in our ployments by enterprise and telecoms, production processes for example, and network since the launch of the 4G delivering scalable IoT capabilities to innovate richer services for their network. Low-cost sensors can be

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com NB-IoT Innovations used wherever data is to be collected, got underway in December 2017, in- ment of the first cellular NB-IoT clus- and the network is able to meet the cludes the deployment of Ericsson’s ters in the COSMOTE 4G network in connection needs of a huge number of 5G-ready baseband hardware in the eleven Greek cities and hotspots, to sensors. This type of sharing of net- network. LTE Advanced will be de- support emerging mMTC (massive work capacity for different purposes ployed in a new 700MHz band spec- Machine Type Communications) use is one of the features that has been trum acquired by STC. It will increase cases. expected of 5G networks,” says Telia STC network throughput in 4G/LTE Ericsson upgrades part of the COS- Finland CTO Jari Collin. by up to 50 percent for smartphones. MOTE LTE network with software that In addition to the data-driven con- supports NB-IoT technology, enabling Narrowband with good coverage tent access speed delivered by LTE massive IoT use cases. NB-IoT is a new network technol- Advanced, subscribers will benefit In addition, Ericsson and COSMOTE ogy that uses only a small amount of from extended coverage, much longer aim to develop use cases and build network bandwidth to connect IoT battery life, and low-cost devices en- the local ecosystem. In collaboration devices to the network affordably and abled by the new cellular IoT technol- with local partner Fuelics, and using reliably. A single base station can serve ogy, NB-IoT. Ericsson IoT Accelerator Platform, the thousands of highly energy-efficient The digital transformation also sees companies designed, tested and intro- devices – a simple sensor can provide STC deploying Narrow Band-IoT (NB- duced a novel NB-IoT use case using measurement data for ten years with IoT) in RAN across its expanded net- COSMOTE’s commercial network for the same power source. work to drive and support enterprise asset management – fuel tank capac- Good coverage guarantees that IoT Ecosystem innovation and busi- ity monitoring – at the Democritus measuring and monitoring can also be ness opportunities. This includes Mas- University of Thrace. carried out in areas with weaker cov- sive IoT applications for smart city George Tsonis, OTE Group Execu- erage, such as a basement or under- purposes, such as metering, parking tive Director of Network Planning & ground premises. sensors, and connected cars. Development, says: “COSMOTE, fully “Adding NB-IoT in our networks Nasser Al Nasser, Group CEO at recognizing the potential of massive across all markets means that we ba- STC, says: “At STC, our main goal is IoT technology, is the first in Greece sically will have everything in place to to ensure that the country’s Saudi Vi- and one of the firsts in Europe, to trial enable our customers to fully utilize the sion 2030 ambitions are met. We do NB-IoT and evolve its network. We’re best of what mobile networks have to that by always making sure we offer poised to evolve beyond merely provid- offer on the journey towards 5G. Many our subscribers the latest innovative ing mobile broadband connectivity, to customers’ use cases will develop with technologies. LTE Advanced and NB- play a leading role in the rapidly devel- NB-IoT and LTE-M and some contin- IoT are exactly what we need to pave oping IoT market and create through ue to evolve once 5G functionality is the way to 5G.” technology and innovation a better here,“ says Gabriela Styf Sjöman, Head Rafiah Ibrahim, Head of Market Area world for all.” of Group Networks, Telia Company. Middle East and Africa, Ericsson, says: George Pappas, Head of Ericsson “By making digital transformation real Greece, says: “NB-IoT will accelerate STC Picks Ericsson to Drive LTE-A, and effective for STC through 4G ex- the development of the IoT market in NB-IOT Deployment in Saudi Ara- pansion, we will enable their customers Greece and open up vast opportunities bia to enjoy enriched experiences, wheth- for innovation and entrepreneurship in Ericsson has been chosen by Saudi er that means lightning speed video many industries, such as transport and Telecom Company (STC) Group for a and media access for subscribers, or healthcare, resulting in new services major nationwide expansion of its 4G IoT business innovation and opportu- that will significantly improve quality network in Saudi Arabia, including the nities for enterprises. Our partnership of life.” deployment of LTE Advanced and Nar- with STC shows 4G network evolution Built using 3GPP standards, NB-IoT row Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is already happening and paving the enables a wide range of devices and in Radio Access Network. way for 5G.” services to be wirelessly connected us- The deal spearheads STC’s drive to STC has already deployed multiple ing cellular telecommunications bands. revolutionize mobile broadband-driven 4G layers across various frequencies This IoT technology is relatively data experiences for its subscribers (LTE 1800, LTE 2300, and LTE 2100). cost-efficient and brings many other and open up new enterprise opportu- advantages, including low power con- nities in IoT, while laying the ground- COSMOTE Taps Ericsson to enable sumption, extensive coverage, mas- work for evolution to 5G. NB-IoT Driven Network in Greece sive connectivity, and a high reliability The LTE Advanced expansion, which Ericsson has completed the deploy- of transmission. Leveraging on existing

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com NB-IoT Innovations

LTE footprint, COSMOTE can deploy a services, eliminate any technological Samsung to Deploy NB-IoT Net- wide range of new IoT use cases and barriers and redefine existing business work in India services in smart cities, logistics han- models. Samsung is all set to supply Reli- dling, utilities and more. In addition, Singtel’s IoT network ance Jio with equipment to boost LTE also offers a universal connected life network coverage and capacity, and Singtel Taps Ericsson to roll out management application that enables deploy a next-generation cellular IoT Singapore’s first commercially any device or service to interact with network. available NB-IoT network one another – at home, work or on Reliance Jio Infocomm and Samsung Singtel in partnership with Ericsson the move – regardless of the service Electronics have announced their con- has become the first operator in Sin- provider or technology. The open continued partnership to bring LTE cover- gapore to make a nationwide cellular nectivity platform allows for easy and age to 99 percent of the Indian popula- Internet of Things (IoT) network com- manageable data sharing among family tion and significantly improve network mercially available. and friends, including on-the-go track- capacity across the country. Adding to This advanced mobile network tech- ing for safety and security. the joint effort is the deployment of a nology will help accelerate the prolif- Since 2016, Singtel has been explor- nationwide cellular IoT network. eration of IoT devices by offering the ing IoT usage with local companies It has not been long since Jio best coverage, power efficient and and large corporations across a di- brought a radical digital revolution to cost-effective solutions to enterprises. verse range of applications, including India. Now, the company is ready to Supporting CAT-M1 and NB-IoT de- environmental sensing, asset tracking, pave the way for a fully digital India, in vices, Singtel’s IoT network allows which IoT will reach every corner of businesses to benefit from applica- the country’s society and economy. tions with low-power consumption The IoT network, the first of its kind that help prolong the devices’ bat- in the country, will support a vari- tery life and provide deeper wire- ety of consumer and enterprise use less coverage and multiple connec- cases such as vehicle tracking, smart tions. Singtel will also harness its appliances, smart metering, security, cyber security expertise to support surveillance and more. enterprises in implementing secure “Making sure that everyone ben- and reliable IoT solutions. efits from mobile broadband that is Diomedes Kastanis, Head of IoT both available and affordable to all at Singtel, says: “IoT will play a key role waste management and monitoring is our top priority. We will once again in realizing Singapore’s Smart Nation of medicine consumption. It has been partner with Samsung to offer a suite Vision and we are committed to work- conducting trials with several partners of innovative services for all users,” ing with our partners to address the including bike-sharing company Mo- said Jyotindra Thacker, President of growing demand for IoT services both bike, smart metering solutions provider Reliance Jio Infocomm. in the enterprise and consumer space. EDMI Limited and modem chip maker “We are delighted to contribute to With our Singtel IoT Innovation Lab and SIMCom Wireless Solutions. The roll Jio’s success story and rapid growth. our capability to quickly introduce new out of the nationwide cellular IoT net- We have been striving to offer the best services, we will bring industry-leading work will accelerate businesses’ adop- experience possible to all users at Jio. IoT and 5G innovation to businesses tion of such innovative technologies Jio’s LTE network will unlock the po- and consumers. These leading-edge and help them create exciting new tential of IoT and promise a much more technologies will enable Singaporeans products and services for consumers. convenient and safe environment for to seamlessly manage all their devices Martin Wiktorin, Head of Singapore, users,” said Youngky Kim, President at the tip of their fingers.” Brunei and Philippines, Ericsson, says: and Head of Networks Business at Singtel and Ericsson have recently “The launch of the Singtel IoT Innova- Samsung Electronics. signed an agreement to establish the tion Lab will help boost the IoT eco- The NB-IoT service not only utilizes Singtel IoT Innovation Lab to facilitate system in Singapore. Ericsson is bring- the existing spectrum held by Jio, but IoT deployments and the development ing its extensive ecosystem partners, is also enabled by a simple software of a local IoT ecosystem for enter- comprising devices, security and ap- upgrade of the already installed base prises and consumers. As more and plications to work on opportunities to- stations. Further deployed is the new more partners join the IoT Innovation gether with Singtel.” and dedicated Cellular IoT virtualized lab, Singtel’s goal is to reduce the time core. The commercial NB-IoT net- to market for the introduction of new Digital Transformation: Jio Taps work successfully established by Jio

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com NB-IoT Innovations and Samsung in Mumbai in February with velcom to release the first NB- ners like Nextek and Quectel to drive 2018 will soon impact other parts of IoT commercial deployment overseas. IoT development and commercializa- the country with new and compelling The achievement signifies ZTE’s cation in the region. Through joint in- use cases. pabilities of providing operators with vestments and collaboration between The agreement represents another the smooth evolution solution towards manufacturers, operators, ICT provid- phase of collaboration between the 5G.” ers, application software developers, two companies, in which the targeted velcom is one of the leading mobile research institutes, and even govern- outcomes are faster internet access operators in Belarus dedicated to pro- ments, the pace of growth of IoT will for users across India, as well as the viding customers with the cutting-edge keep accelerating.” generation of unexplored services and communication services. It started its “Nextek is very eager to cooperate business models for enterprises. 3G network rollouts in March 2010. In with Huawei for IoT and Smart Cities February 2016, velcom was the first project in the Middle East and glob- ZTE, velcom Initiate First NB-IoT to launch UMTS-900 throughout the ally. We understand the local markets Commercial Deployment in Belar- whole country, bringing dramatic cov- very well and the need for IoT solu- us erage extension and high mobile data tions for various verticals. Nextek is ZTE Corporation, a major interna- quality. well positioned to contribute as a soft- tional provider of telecommunications, ware provider and integrator,” said Ka- enterprise and consumer technology NB-IoT Deployment: Huawei, Nex- rim Rahemtulla, Managing Director of solutions for the Mobile Internet, and tek and Quectel to Drive IoT Ex- Nextek. velcom, a branch of A1 Telekom Austria pansion in the Middle East “As one of the first NB-IoT module Group, have announced the deploy- Huawei has signed an agreement manufacturers in the world, Quectel is ment of the first scaled commercial with two global companies to promote willing to explore the Middle East mar- Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network in the growth of the Internet of Things ket together with partners across the Belarus. (IoT) and build a IoT ecosystem in the industrial chain including operators, lo- The network was deployed in Minsk Middle East: Nextek Solutions, a global cal IoT device vendors and distributors city first and then in other regions ac- IT & software provider and integra- to contribute to the smart city vision cordingly as scheduled. So far, velcom tor, and Quectel, a supplier of wireless in the Middle East region,” said Doron has verified smart metering and smart modules. The two entities will cooper- Zhang, Senior Vice President of Quec- city solutions in the network. ate with Huawei to build Narrowband tel. The cooperation of NB-IoT between IoT (NB-IoT) solutions that target the Huawei has been active in IoT devel- velcom and ZTE has started since the needs of regional organizations. opment across the Middle East, col- end of last year. In April’s Tibo exhibi- In the Middle East, the Internet of laborating with Etisalat to launch the tion, the end-to-end gas metering ser- Things is being driven by Smart Cities. first successful trial of Smart Parking vice demo has been successfully dem- Governments from this region have in the region. Huawei partners with onstrated. Following that, more lab made smart city expansion a key goal Jeddah Municipality to implement tests and field tests were carried out. of their national agendas, leading to groundbreaking smart city solution in velcom has highly appreciated ZTE’s the deployment of innovative projects the region. Zain has already deployed commitment in this market. “We are that stand as a reference for smart IoT solutions in KSA with the help of very excited that, with ZTE, we have city development worldwide. Huawei, aimed at ensuring a better life provided abundant services to our The Smart City Center of Excellence for its citizens. customers. Within the project, we in- in Dubai acts as a platform for industry In order to accelerate the develop- stalled equipment that will allow us to leaders to share their knowledge and ment of the IoT industry and enrich implement NB-IoT technology. This is collaborate to keep progressing the the ecosystem, Huawei has deployed an incredible breakthrough in the field field. its Hosting Center that serves as a of telecommunications, and we are “Huawei believes that the key to secure platform for operators in the happy to complete it together. We are driving Smart City development in the region. Huawei’s OpenLab in Dubai sincerely glad to have such a partner- region is to create an ecosystem of provides regional partners with a plat- ship and looking forward to further co- partners and vendors working togeth- form to test and customize a variety operation.” said Christian Laque, CTO er to co-create solutions that precisely of technologies to target the vertical of velcom. target the needs of their respective sectors most relevant to the Middle Pu Yingchun, Vice President of ZTE vertical sector,” says Su Wang, Vice East, particularly Public Safety, Smart and General Manager of FDD Prod- President of Marketing, Huawei Middle Cities, Transportation, Education, and ucts, said: “ZTE is very proud to work East. “We are eager to work with part- Oil & Gas.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on SDN & NFV SDN and NFV – Stretching the Boundaries of Network

egacy heterogeneous net- tages to deploying an SDN network, neous network. works have become very there are challenges as well: SDN and complex and hard to manage NFV require a revamping of network The Need for SDN due to upgrade and interop- components and structures and new Traditional network platforms have erability challenges, evolving approaches to writing software for both control plane and data plane protocols, and management network management and implement- functionalities in a single physical unit. techniquesL traditionally hardcoded into ing that code in the hardware. In this traditional network, routing and the underlying hardware platform. SDN A remarkable point to note is that switching decisions are made at each addresses these problems by decoupling SDN is not a new concept. Central- individual unit on a dynamic basis. virtual resources from the physical re- ized network control and visibility SDN, however, depending on deploy- sources, abstracting control planes and have been around for a number of ment models (described in a later data forwarding planes, and automating years, but what’s been missing until section), moves the control plane to network management while enabling recently is a holistic view of networks a centralized location and keeps only centralized orchestration. and technology, with standardized the data plane in the switches. The networking and communication separation of the control and data SDN aims to solve the following is- industry is at a critical inflection point planes. SDN provides this capability sues found in traditional networks: as it looks to embrace new tech- and can efficiently enable data center In traditional networks, forwarding nologies such as Software Defined and service providers to manage decisions are based on predefined Networking (SDN) and Network network configuration, management, rules over which network operators Functional Virtualization (NFV). routing, and policy enforcement for have no control. Thus, all packets go- While there are incredible advan- their evolving multitenant heteroge- ing to the same destination are routed

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on SDN & NFV along the same path and treated Network operators need to have deployment scenarios in the industry, the same way. If there were traffic the agility to quickly and easily up- although the original SDN concept congestion at any given link along grade their network infrastructure, proposes to have a centralized control the path, all traffic would suffer from but they’re often impeded by chal- plane with only the data plane remain- congestion even though an alternate lenges, including real-time debug pro- ing in the network. path is available with less traffic. cesses, recovery time requirements, On the controller implementation, a In addition, legacy networks use a backward compatibility constraints, few variations have been considered spanning tree protocol that limits the and more. in the industry. A central or distrib- use of multilink/ bundling, which can SDN can enable much shorter uted architecture has one or more increase bandwidth between nodes. development times and easier man- SDN controllers, and it controls all From the network architecture agement of the network through the the switches or subset of switches in perspective, the current multitier utilization of common, general pur- the network. Distributed architecture network architecture (i.e., multiple pose hardware, while providing a ho- administers a cluster of switches via switches connecting switches for listic way of managing and controlling a dedicated controller, and there are switches) requires many more ports the network. Consequently, network many such clusters with several SDN than the actual number of servers operators can achieve CAPEX and controllers in the network. or end nodes. When virtual switches OPEX savings. (vSwitches) are deployed, it further As defined by the Open Network- Challenges in SDN are still emerging adds another tier to the network. ing Foundation, SDN decouples the as the definition of SDN continues to This multitier architecture increases network control and forwarding func- evolve. The scaleout network para- the complexity in the network struc- tions, enabling the network control to digm is evolving as well. Due to these ture. SDN architecture can simplify become directly programmable and uncertainties, abstraction mechanisms the multitier network architecture by the underlying infrastructure to be ab- from different vendors will compete virtualizing layers in the network. stracted for applications and network or co-exist. In addition, creation of From a network scalability and services. SDN controllers and switches requires expansion perspective, a cloud Unlike server virtualization, which resolution of design challenges in infrastructure-based network with enables sharing of a single physical many hardware platforms. multiple tenants using numerous resource by many users or entities, applications requires logical isolation virtualizing network resources enables SDN Use Cases – Data Center from each other. However, traditional a consolidation of different physical The data center environment is the VLAN technology is unable to provide resources by overlaying another or most common use case for SDN. In enough network segments to facili- multiple layers of networks on het- the traditional data center network, tate this. The future network requires erogeneous networks, resulting in a there are ToR (Top of Rack), EoR scalable LAN segmentation. SDN homogenous network. (End of Row), aggregation, and core networks can provide scalable LAN switches. Multitier networking is a segmentation to effectively manage SDN Trends and Challenges common configuration. To increase cloud infrastructure environments. There are several different SDN data center network manageability,

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Spotlight on SDN & NFV

SDN can abstract physical elements SDN controller runs the control plane intelligence of switches and routers to and represent them as logical ele- and manages the gateway platform’s enable the abstraction of proprietary ments using software. It treats all net- data plane, resulting in a simpler vendor technologies. work elements as one large resource gateway platform architecture. This Many equipment vendors that across multiple network segments. approach enables dynamic control have been traditionally reluctant to Therefore it can provide complete vis- plane updates and scalability. open up their proprietary technolo- ibility of the network and manage pol- gies have slowly opened up their APIs icies across network nodes connected Use Case 3: Carrier Network in response to the growing adoption to virtual and physical switches. Carrier networks are mission critical. of SDN. Mega data center players They are the backbone of the com- (Amazon, Google, Facebook and the Use Case 2: Wireless Mobile Edge - munications infrastructure and are like) are implementing technologies Seamless Roaming between 3g/4g expected to be reliable and fully that will allow them to enable greater + WiFi functional all the time. The costs of flexibility and lower costs. Amazon A wireless network is another good building and maintaining these critical and Google are building their own use case for deployment of SDN. networks are tremendous, and it can networking (white box) switches so The growing explosion of handheld be extremely difficult and time-inten- that they don’t have to rely on the devices such as smartphones and sive to modify them. SDN for carrier platforms produced by OEM ven- 3G/4G-enabled tablets has increased networks is especially complex. dors. Facebook is driving the Open bandwidth consumption per device Compute Platform (OCP) to develop in hyper-scale, causing spectrum 5.4 Use Case 4: Network Applica- specifications for open architecture availability and coverage issues in tion Management switches that will be manufactured by many areas. As mobile spectrum is SDN can enable easy platform up- low-cost original device manufactur- expensive and limited, one proposed grades and migration for applications ers. The open architecture approach solution to these congestion issues such as firewalls. In this example, an from Facebook is creating an eco- is to use an SDN solution that lever- SDN controller can obtain firewall system where standard, high volume ages unlicensed spectrum via Wi-Fi to rule information from existing firewall commodity platforms could be used both offload spectrum and increase appliances (through CLI) and extract to minimize CAPEX and OPEX costs. spectrum density. firewall ruleset and route information. Clearly the white box and open This solution is very effective for Then the SDN controller transfers architecture approaches are creating special events where many people firewall rulesets to a newer firewall major concerns for networking equip- gather in small areas (such as stadi- platform, while the SDN controller ment manufacturers who prefer to ums). The SDN solution also address- programs an OpenFlow switch con- add their own value-added technolo- es network management challenges, nected to both old and new firewall gies into hardware and software. supporting fast, seamless voice, data, appliances to redirect the traffic from SDN disrupts these existing tech- and video transition from 3G/4G the old to the new firewall appliance. nology and business models, but is network to Wi-Fi networks. Route information extracted from creating more openness and enabling In this case, the SDN solution dy- the old firewall appliance can be used new and different business models. namically partitions access points and to program the OpenFlow switch, as SDN will drive toward a more soft- cell radios based on carriers, usage, the route information would indicate ware-centric architecture and imple- identity, and device type to enable which flows are going through the mentation. Thus, it becomes difficult optimal usage of spectrum, Wi-Fi and firewall appliance. Once this process to provide platform differentiators. mobile backhaul links to ensure that gets established and processes are With SDN, the need for less expen- the maximum number of users can standardized, full automation can be sive and easy-to-access hardware access network resources. The SDN achieved. becomes paramount, and platform- controller also provides a holistic view specific, value-added services are of the network and dynamically al- Consequences of SDN deprioritized. locates resources based on the status SDN introduces a new approach of the network. to network resource utilization and Final Conclusion In wireless networks, SDN can also management, and each networking SDN aims to minimize the complex- be used for separating the control vendor in the market is looking into ity of heterogeneous networks, pro- plane from the traditional gateways their own way to build SDN solu- tocols and management techniques, where there is a control path and for- tions. One key action that needs to be thereby achieving CAPEX and OPEX warding path combined. A centralized taken to enable SDN is to open up the savings.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Evolution of Access Broadband Access Powered by SDN and NFV

oftware Defined Networking namically changing marketplace. in data centers. Their high-bandwidth, (SDN) and Network Func- To that end, service providers are cloud-centric applications demanded tions Virtualization (NFV) are looking to Software Defined Network- robust, yet agile, user-driven networks creating more open, program- ing (SDN) and Network Functions to support rising demand for enter- S prise cloud computing, video stream- mable and scalable networks with far Virtualization (NFV) to evolve their reaching implications. Service provid- broadband access network. These ing applications, social media, Internet ers are embracing both operating mod- complementary operating models of Things (IoT), the dramatically rising els to unlock legacy hardware-centric streamline network operations in an use of smart phones for all of the above architectures and move towards en- increasingly complex interconnected and much more. The two technologies abling an open framework of revenue- web scale environment, while enabling enabled data center operators to envi- generating, cloud-based software ap- the evolution of business models to sion the future as they disaggregated plications. thrive in a customer-facing, app-fo- their monolithic, proprietary systems in Today’s broadband access provider cused marketplace. order to implement highly automated, faces a challenging task. Changes in They also position service providers programmable, and software-centric customer behavior and expectations to leverage and effectively manage the open networking architectures in data create both downward pressure on tra- double-digit growth factors posed by center environments. ditional revenues, while also illuminate the emerging all-digital landscape. By The streamlined networks provided significant opportunities for new- ser embracing these technologies, service consistent, highquality- of-service ex- vice delivery. No longer reliant on tra- providers are joining an open network periences for data center customers ditional services that drove reliable rev- ecosystem that is fueling abundant, and their end users. Meanwhile, Web enue streams for operators, customers continuously evolving opportunities 2.0 cloud services providers were final- now embrace a digital lifestyle with un- for all involved, while realizing the fu- ly able to create differentiated services predictable business models. To adapt ture of networking. for their customers without suffering to this changing environment, service the usual high overhead and prolonged providers must too embrace a new ap- Data Center to Access Network time to market. proach – one that embraces rapid and Path Recognizing the impact this shift agile service delivery driven by a dy- SDN and NFV made their initial mark could have on the broader network,

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Evolution of Access service providers began to implement their networks, service providers are insource software development. SDN and NFV into their legacy pub- transforming their business mod- Future networks reflect the reality lic networks. While a long-term effort, els to embrace today’s “app culture” that focusing on customers instead of service providers see the benefits of wholeheartedly. As they update their the limitations of legacy networks is the moving towards future networks as networks, they are in an increasingly more profitable business model. Future soon as possible. In addition to hard- better position to anticipate and meet networks allow customers to determine ware, they are using SDN and NFV to the rapidly changing demands of their which apps are on top, how long they remove the vast number of vendor and customers and respond to ever-shift- thrive and how quickly they emerge. device-specific application program ing market dynamics. By architecting their networks to re- interfaces (APIs) from their transport, Their ability to implement and pro- spond to customer needs, service pro- access, and CPE operations support gram “virtualized” customer premises viders also are better able to balance systems (OSSs). equipment (CPE), which does not service velocity with what are sure to By dismantling their legacy network need to be physically installed, main- be unprecedented network growth management and OSS silos, they are tained, or amortized, gives them a host rates. For example, instead of spending clearing a path for cost savings and of new options. For example, service a disproportionate amount of time and new opportunities their old networks providers can choose best-in-class resources on implementing large and would be unable to support. suppliers and implement or replace so- infrequent software releases, service lutions as needed. They can also work providers can switch to more manage- Service Provider Focus with third parties for apps, services and able and cost-effective micro software By deploying SDN and NFV in outsourcing of network operations, or, release schedules. Future-Ready Programmable Networks Are Here

Equipped with SDN and NFV, tomorrow’s access networks will more closely resemble data center networks than legacy networks thanks to the reduced OpEx, increased service levels, and unlocked networks the two technologies enable. For example, SDN- and NFV-equipped Next-Generation Broadband Access Networks will incorporate features such as OpenFlow and service chaining, which will enable service providers to rapidly create and support new microservice models and support expanded service offerings through cloud peering capabilities. Both features will allow service providers to be very responsive to the changing market demand. Future networks also will offer significant operational benefits to service providers. Those benefits include centralized policy management with virtualized residential gateways (vRG) and virtualized customer premises equipment (vCPE). The implementation of network self-optimization and real-time analytics will go a long way toward improving customer satisfaction and reducing expensive service calls and truck rolls. These innovations will enable future networks to do a better job of proactively managing element resources through advanced troubleshooting. In addition to taking good care of customers, this will impact service providers’ bottom lines positively. Time that used to be spent managing their networks and responding to trouble tickets will be spent on profitable efforts such as creating and selling new apps and services to customers. Likewise, Next-Generation Broadband Networks’ support of multi-domain, multi-vendor programmability enables service providers to truly embrace a best-of-breed, app-based approach which maximizes the customer experience. Future networks’ vendor neutral architectures will unlock single-vendor scenarios that have hindered service provider innovation for decades. As their networks evolve, so will service providers and their business models. SDN and NFV provide a unique opportunity to serve their own interests and their customers’ demands simultaneously. Only time will tell exactly how much service providers will be able to accomplish as their legacy networks reach new increasing degrees of SDN and NFV saturation.

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com Trends and Predictions Reviewing India’s Telecom Landscape

By Rajesh Mishra he year 2017 changed the entire novative technology solutions to remain technologies to tackle the problem of in- landscape of the Indian telecom- profitable even as they meet the unique door connectivity, which in turn will allow munications industry. The service requirements of the rural market. Fortu- them to add to their revenue by meeting providers had to fight battles on nately, there are a number of options avail- the demands of the enterprise market. T able now, including virtualization and low multiple fronts in the year 2017. While on one end, consolidation wrecked maintenance base stations among others, Virtualization Angle havoc and on the other end the Average which allow them to offer viable connec- An ultra-competitive environment in the Revenue Per User (ARPU) hit rock bot- tivity solutions to the rural market. country’s telecommunications market tom and the telcos struggled to maintain means that the telcos have to launch new- profitability. IoT Takes Off er products faster. This is possible with The service providers have little choice Led by Government initiatives like Smart Virtualization. The approach is critical for but to explore newer technologies, geog- City Mission and Digital India, IoT will come telcos to transition from communications raphies and consumer segments to add on its own in 2018. A few Indian telcos services provider to digital services pro- to their revenue streams. There is also have already started to take baby steps vider, so they can leverage newer market an acceptance of the fact that the era of to capture a part of this growing market opportunities emerging as digitalization providing just plain voice and data services and will witness increased traction in this takes hold. The Indian telcos have already has come to an end. The service provid- segment. warmed up to the concept of virtualization ers realize that they need to come up with A key advantage of IoT is collection and and the year 2018 will see a greater adop- innovative services to compete with the analysis of the data generated by con- tion of virtualization in their networks. internet operators. nected things and this requires fundamen- The world over the communications tal changes in their networks. An agile and LTE For Public Safety service providers are transforming them- scalable network is almost a prerequisite India has witnessed one of the fastest ex- selves into digital service providers, and to enable millions of sensors to talk among pansion of the 4G networks. It is safe to Indian telcos are also moving in that di- themselves. Software-defined radio, which say that the country has leapfrogged the rection. In this background, below are the can be easily upgraded to 3G or 4G will not 3G technology and 2018 might see the trends that will dominate the year 2018: only allow the service providers to bring country’s administration start to use the down the deployment time but also enable technology for public safety. Harnessing The Rural Potential faster rollout of services. LTE allows first responders to leverage The year will see the Indian telcos go be- data network to share real-time videos and yond the urban market. Innovations like The Challenge Of Addressing Enter- location leading to overall better quality of 4G feature phones, a significant drop in prise Segment public safety services and enhanced op- the cost of smartphones and rock-bottom With the ARPUs hitting rock bottom in the erational efficiency. tariffs have made the telecom services af- retail market, it is only natural that the tel- As the year 2018 begins, it is time to put fordable for the rural subscribers. cos will be focusing on the enterprise mar- the chaos of consolidation in 2017 behind On the other hand, the recent recom- ket, but this is not without challenges. us and leverage the opportunities in the mendations in the Indian Telecom Policy In an increasingly digitally connected rural, IoT and enterprise segment by mak- proposes to increase the rural teledensity world, more and more enterprises are using use of technologies such as NFV and from the current 56.9% to 100% will fur- ing a number of collaborative tools and SDN. ther push the service providers to start mobile apps. A robust indoor communica- Rajesh Mishra is the Founder, President, addressing this segment seriously. tions infrastructure is a must, which un- and CTO of Parallel Wireless. Rajesh co- So, the urban market is saturated and fortunately has been the Achilles heel of founded the company after 21+ years of the rural market has matured, indicating service providers across the globe. Nearly reimagining the wireless, wireline, and ca- that the time is now right for the service 60% of enterprises have significantly poor ble industry and he leads the technology providers to address this segment. indoor coverage, according to report by behind the Parallel Wireless’ solutions. The main challenges faced by the ser- Small Cell Forum. vice providers in catering to the rural Seamless connectivity in an indoor en- Rajesh Mishra is the market are the high cost of deploying vironment is possible with HetNet solution Founder, President, and and maintaining the network. Couple this based on Network Functions Virtualization CTO of Parallel Wireless. with the low ARPU and uneven popula- (NFV) and Software Defined Network- Rajesh co-founded the tion density and it is no wonder that the ing (SDN). It not only provides reliable company after 21+ years telcos have traditionally shied away from indoor connectivity but also brings down of reimagining the wireless, wireline, and this segment. the complexity of deployment and main- cable industry and he leads the technolo- However, they will need help from in- tenance. Indian telcos should go for such gy behind the Parallel Wireless’ solutions.

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Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com 40

Disruptive Telecoms 2018 - a Report by TelecomDrive.com