The Business Case for Service Automation in Mobile Networks
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2016 The Business Case for Service Automation in Mobile Networks Commissioned by: {Core Analysis} Patrick Lopez pms 187c pms 429c {Core Analysis} Contents Table of Figures.............................................................................................................................................3 About This Report.........................................................................................................................................3 Accelerate and Reduce Costs of Existing Services (Infographic).................................................................4 New Services Enabled by Automation (Infographic)..................................................................................5 Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................6 Introduction....................................................................................................................................................7 The Challenge of Creating New Services in a Legacy Mobile Network.......................................................8 Can Virtualization Alone Increase Service Velocity?...................................................................................9 Virtualization + Automation: A Winning Combination.............................................................................11 Accelerate and Reduce Costs of Existing Services.....................................................................................14 1. Greenfield Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MNO) or Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)...............................................................................................................14 2. Sponsored Data: URL / Domain Zero Rating....................................................................................16 3. Parental Control.................................................................................................................................17 4. Enterprise VPN as a Service...............................................................................................................20 New Services Enabled by Automation........................................................................................................21 1. Demand, Congestion or Event-Based Pricing...................................................................................21 2. Enterprise Traffic Management Self Service...................................................................................24 3. Blockbuster or Niche Services?.......................................................................................................26 3.1. Short Tail Services...................................................................................................................26 3.2. Niche services...........................................................................................................................27 About Affirmed Networks...........................................................................................................................30 About Red Hat.............................................................................................................................................31 About Mellanox Technologies....................................................................................................................32 About {Core Analysis} ...................................................................................................................................33 © 2016 Core Analysis Inc. Public distribution 2 All rights reserved. White paper Figures Figure 1: Automated Configuration Management Platform........................................................................6 Figure 2: Traditional core network service creation...................................................................................8 Figure 3: Typical duration in months of new service introduction and service change in wireless networks............................................................................................9 Figure 4: From iterative to automated service provisioning....................................................................12 Figure 5: Automation Platform..................................................................................................................13 Figure 6: MVNO launch project plans.......................................................................................................15 Figure 7: Example of service segmentation enabled by automated service provisioning......................19 Figure 8: Ratio busy / average hour traffic in wireless networks................................................................22 Tables Table 1: Legacy EPC & MVNO.....................................................................................................................16 Table 2: Legacy Zero Rating..........................................................................................................................17 Table 3: Legacy Parental Control.................................................................................................................19 Table 4: Legacy Enterprise VPN as a Service..............................................................................................20 Table 5: Demand-based Pricing Based on Cell Capacity...........................................................................23 About This Report This report has been prepared by {Core Analysis} for public distribution. All rights of distribution and license of this report as well as the content and intellectual property herein are reserved by {Core Analysis}. This report can be distributed freely but its content cannot be reproduced neither partially nor completely without attribution to {Core Analysis}. Abstract – This white paper, commissioned by Affirmed Networks, Mellanox and Red Hat, examines the business benefits that a virtualized, cloud-ready, automated service provisioning environment can bring to mobile operators. © 2016 Core Analysis Inc. Public distribution 3 All rights reserved. White paper Accelerate and Reduce Costs of Existing Services The use cases in this section are composite examples of commercial deployments from individual case studies and their corresponding project plans. The products deployed are a virtual EPC with collapsed Gi LAN functionality and a stateful Automated Configuration Management Platform that records and automates third-party physical and virtual element configuration. Legacy EPC EPC Virtualized + Automation EPC and MVNO $3.1 million $0.78 million 19.5 months 9.75 months Add MVNO Add MVNO with Automation $48,000 $1,610 2 months 2 days Sponsored Data Legacy Zero Rating Zero Rating with Automation $9,660 $1,610 12 days 2 days Legacy Virtualized + Automation Parental Control $0.9 million $0.38 million 8 months 4 months Subsequent Service Subsequent Service with Automation $64,400 $1,610 2 months 2 days Enterprise VPN Legacy VPNaaS Virtualized + Automation VPNaaS Enterprise Onboarding Enterprise Onboarding as a Service $12,075 $1,610 2 weeks 2 days © 2016 Core Analysis Inc. Public distribution 4 All rights reserved. White paper New Services Enabled by Automation One has to look at the Automated Configuration Management Platform (ACMP) as a best practice that accelerates and multiplies service opportunities. The real benefit of automating service provisioning in virtualized and hybrid environments is the opportunity to launch services that were otherwise too daunting or too expensive to launch. Virtualization & Demand Automation Congestion or Event-Based Pricing Network usage = <60% Network usage = >60% - <80% Network usage = <60% Speed = unlimited Speed = up to 5MMbps Speed = Capped at 2Mbps Data usage cost = $X Data usage cost = $1.2X Data usage cost = $2X Virtualization & Automation Enterprise Traffic Management Wireless Self-Service Executives IT Network SalesAdmin - Create new rules weeks days - Testing & deployment days minutes - Fault detection/error reduction Short Tail Services with Virtualization & Automation Blockbuster/ Montreal Canadiens Niche Services Hockey Season Boston Bruins Pass Eastern Conference Championships 20 packages U.S. Team Pass 4 days Stanley Cup Pass $30,000 French, English, Spanish © 2016 Core Analysis Inc. Public distribution 5 All rights reserved. White paper EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Mobile network operators (MNOs) are reducing the cost of delivering services through Network Functions Virtualization and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Today, service creation and management rely on many proprietary elements, platforms, interfaces and protocols. Service creation is lengthy (typically 12 to 18 months), error prone (requiring two to three months of planning and testing) and expensive (costing millions of dollars in direct and indirect costs). Most of the delays, costs and errors are attributable to the fact that legacy systems require manual configuration through proprietary, non-interoperable interfaces. To address this challenge, cloud- native vendors are introducing virtualized network functions (VNFs) that provide highly modularized, auto-scalable software to replace many of the legacy network elements in a dynamic, flexible and cost- effective manner. VNFs have been shown to accelerate the time-to-market for new networks or new services such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) or Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, resulting