FUTURE NETWORKING SURVEY REPORT a CUSTOM HEAVY READING REPORT SPONSORED by INTERDIGITAL, NOKIA, and ORACLE Author: James Crawshaw, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading

In partnership with

FUTURE NETWORKING SURVEY REPORT A CUSTOM HEAVY READING REPORT SPONSORED BY INTERDIGITAL, NOKIA, AND ORACLE Author: James Crawshaw, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading

Sponsored by:

1 Future Networking Survey Report

Contents 03

Introduction 05

Building the Next-Generation Internet 10

Beyond 5G - Challenges and Priorities 15

Re-inventing the CSP 20

Network Evolution And Industry Collaboration Structures

2 Future Networking Survey Report

Introduction

Light Reading, Heavy Reading, and ATIS are excited Heavy Reading worked closely with the project’s to present the results of a study we executed in sponsors to develop a survey to glean insightful, collaboration with our sponsors. We joined forces to intelligent, and meaningful information. In early explore the key factors that will empower the future January 2019, email invitations were sent to network-enabled communications and cloud contacts in the Light Reading database. We tallied markets. Our survey examined the critical factors, just over 100 valid responses from 61 different both technological and market-related (new CSPs worldwide. Slightly less than 60% of business models and market structures), driving the respondents said they worked for a converged industry into the next decade. It covered the core network operator (fixed and mobile), a quarter technologies underpinning the future roadmap of worked for mobile-only operators, 12% for fixed- the communications industry that communications only, and the rest for cable or satellite operators. service provider (CSP) decision makers are most Half of the respondents said their organization’s interested in understanding, such as artificial headquarters is in the U.S., 17% in Asia Pacific, 13% intelligence (AI) and 5/6G mobile. in Europe, 10% in Latin America, 8% in Canada, and 3% in the Middle East and Africa. Around a quarter of respondents said they work in network engineering, 22% in R&D technical strategy, 13% in network planning, and 13% in IT operations.

3 Future Networking Survey Report Key Findings

The key ﬁndings of this survey are as follows:

The top challenge in building the next- Nonetheless, CSPs are confident that generation Internet is the eroding they can provide own-brand, industry profitability of the CSP business itself. vertical IoT solutions. They also believe This makes it difficult to sustain much this model will prevail over more marginal needed investment. roles such as a channel partner for other IoT solutions providers or simply a Service providers are looking for ways to connectivity provider. avoid becoming the proverbial “dumb pipe.” 68% of respondents expect their Learnings from the initial deployments organizations will add value to basic of 5G are being fed back to the connectivity in the future through standards and vendor community to personalization and hosting on-net identify areas for improvement. The compute and storage services. 58% think survey identified core network they will add value with “clean pipe” transformation as the top 5G industry services, and 56% plan to offer managed priority beyond 2019, closely followed by service-level agreements (SLAs) for improvements in speed and latency. bandwidth, latency, reliability, and security. 5G is not just about revamping radio Protecting Internet services against access network (RAN) and mobile core; distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) business support system (BSS) attacks and other cyber threats is a key modernization is key too. Approximately challenge for service providers. 67% of two-thirds of respondents see a multi- respondents protect their services with channel, digital experience as the key managed L2-L7 firewall services. 57% monetization capability to ensure their 5G deploy basic countermeasures such as transformation is successful. anti-spoofing and 5-tuple access control Delivering a joined-up digital experience lists (ACLs), and 56% deploy embedded will be key to customer retention, DDoS protection in peering routers. regardless of 5G. 41% of respondents The survey reaffirms the importance of indicated that the biggest impact on their NFV, DevOps and cloud-native service business strategy over the next 5-10 years architectures for more agile, next would stem from the demands of digitally generation OSS infrastructures. Big data savvy millennials who require them to Report Author analytics, AI and machine learning were make their service offerings more almost equally important to improve personalized, intelligent, and intuitive. network visibility, closely followed by SDN While it is too soon to talk of 6G, mobile and cross-domain orchestration for technology and services will inevitably Senior Analyst James Crawshaw automated process control. leads Heavy Reading’s Intelligent evolve beyond 5G. Nearly half (46%) of Networks & Automation Over 80% of respondents identified 5G the survey respondents think the industry research service, which covers as the technology having the greatest focus beyond 5G should be on a whole the software and IT systems that impact on future network investments. new set of use cases such as vertical enable CSPs to plan, design, Not quite as popular, though still selected applications beyond autonomous cars build, and operate their networks for maximum operational by almost 60% of respondents, was and Industry 4.0. A further 26% of efficiency, reliability, and agility. Internet of Things (IoT). respondents suggested the focus should This includes orchestration and be on using unlicensed spectrum to 5G is seen as a game changer that closed-loop assurance systems boost capacity. that come under the umbrella brings new opportunities as well as new term of operations support challenges to existing mobile network Open application programming system (OSS), as well as operators. 43% of respondents think 5G interfaces (APIs) and industry monetization platforms that fall will allow new entrants (e.g., vertical standards are seen as the key within the scope of BSS. It also market players) to challenge the technologies for enabling an includes the application of incumbent providers. Nearly a third of interoperable cloud ecosystem. Open horizontal technologies, such as respondents thought that operators source software was the least popular analytics, AI, and blockchain, that would need to forge new relationships choice among respondents (39% ranked cut across both high level IT systems and lower level and work together with industry it last out of four options). networking domains with a specialists to capitalize on 5G. common goal of increased

4 Future Networking Survey Report

Building the Next- Generation Internet

This section of the report examines what technology choices network operators are making to support Internet services today and into the future. How will they address the ever increasing cyber threats? What are the greatest challenges they face: operational, ﬁnancial, or regulatory? Where is the greatest scope for them to add value on top of basic connectivity? Heavy Reading explores these and other questions below.

• In the wide-area network (WAN), 69% of respondents Key takeaways: have implemented, or are considering implementing, • 68% of respondents expect their organizations will add software-defined WAN (SD-WAN). 54% said the same value to basic connectivity in the future through for segment routing and 52% for data center SDN. personalization and hosting on-net compute and • The top challenge respondents identified in building storage services. 58% think they will add value with the next-generation Internet was the eroding clean pipe services, and 56% plan to offer managed profitability of their businesses, which makes it difficult SLAs for bandwidth, latency, reliability, and security. to sustain investments. • 67% of respondents protect their Internet service against DDoS attacks and other cyber threats with managed L2- L7 firewall services. 57% deploy basic countermeasures such as anti-spoofing and 5-tuple ACLs, and 56% deploy embedded DDoS protection in peering routers.

Adding Value and Ensuring Profitability in TV is not affected by other devices in the home). Another Next-Generation Internet Services example of personalization is parental controls, again on a per-user or per-device basis. CSP-hosted edge cloud services The telecom industry has been instrumental in bringing are one of the applications of the Broadband Forum’s access to the Internet and its most popular application – the Network Enhanced Residential Gateway (TR-317) initiative. worldwide web – to billions of people around the planet. But with fixed and mobile broadband Internet access increasingly Almost 60% of respondents also saw a role as a clean pipe ubiquitous, what role will telecom operators play as the provider with added protection such as cybersecurity. While Internet evolves to support new consumer applications, such businesses, as well as consumers, deploy security tools such as virtual reality (VR) entertainment and new business needs as firewalls, these do not afford any protection from DDoS supporting Industry 4.0? attacks. Internet clean pipe services use network-based DDoS mitigation that performs macro-level (IP flow) analysis Survey respondents were generally optimistic about the and real-time monitoring. Potential DDoS attack traffic can be prospects for their companies in the “Internet of the future,” rerouted to scrubbing centers where it is filtered and with almost 70% seeing scope for them to add value on top processed, leaving only legitimate traffic and transactions to of basic connectivity through personalization and by hosting be forwarded back to the customer. Alternatively, service on-net compute and storage services in their edge cloud. providers could have inline DDoS filtering in their peering Personalization could include the ability for a residential edge routers and provider edge routers if their infrastructure gateway to manage quality of service or bandwidth on a per- supports these capabilities. user or per-device basis (e.g., so the game console or smart

5 Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 1: What role do you expect your company to play in the internet of the future?

Network-enhanced Internet – we will add value to basic connectivity thr ough personalization and hosting on-net compute and st orage services in 68% our edge cloud

Clean pipe Internet ser vice - high speed Internet with added user pr otection e.g. cyber security 58%

Industrial Internet ser vices - we will off er business class Internet with managed SL As for bandwidth, 56% latency , r eliability and security

Mor e of the same - best effor t Internet but off ering mor e capacity and lower price per bit 51%

Limited t o wholesale access - fix ed wir eline and wir eless local loop unbundling 17%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

The most talked about “new” technology in enterprise Around half of respondents have already implemented, or are telecoms in recent years is SD-WAN. This was the most considering, data center SDN characterized by policy-based popular response to the survey question concerning new automation for streamlined operations that support rapid WAN technologies. Heavy Reading put new in quotation service instantiation, changing business requirements, marks, as arguably SD-WAN it is simply a way of tunneling IP massive scalability, and hybrid models. Webscale operators traffic between sites – not particularly new per se. What is have been the trailblazers of data center SDN, and now CSPs new perhaps is the increased reliability of basic Internet are adopting the SDN paradigm more aggressively in their access. Since this is typically much cheaper than a data centers to increase service agility and drive new Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) service, enterprises software-based IT services while reducing costs through are naturally interested in exploiting this price differential for auto ma tion. connecting smaller sites or for offloading low priority traffic Control and user plane separation (CUPS) was the least (such as web browsing). popular choice, although at 38%, a significant number of Segment routing, the next most popular choice, is a modern respondents had or were considering implementing it. CUPS variant of source routing or path addressing that is being enables the separation of functionality in various Evolved developed within Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF ) Packet Core (EPC) nodes (servicing gateway, packet gateway, working groups. Segment routing can be used to send voice and traffic detection function), which enables more flexible packets over lower latency paths. It ignores the shortest or network deployment and operation. For example, the control lowest cost path preference of Interior Gateway Protocol, plane could be centralized while the user plane can be placed which might be congested. Unlike traditional traffic closer to the application it is supporting. engineering, segment routing does not require any path signaling; hence, the per-flow state only needs to be maintained at the ingress node of the domain, which increases flexibility and reduces cost.

Figure 2: Which technologies have you, or are considering, implementing to enhance your data center and wide-area network architectures ?

SD-W AN 69%

Segment r outing, running on MPLS or IPv6 data plane 54%

Datacenter SDN 52%

Seamless connectivity between W AN and DC domains and ac r oss physica l and vir tual iz ed netqwork functions 48%

CUPS (contr ol and user plane separ ation) of EPC and or BNG as par t Fix ed Mobile Conv ergence 38%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

DDoS attacks continue to grow in number (businesses will To combat volumetric DDoS attacks such as Domain Name often see multiple attacks per day) and intensity (though System (DNS) or Network Time Protocol (NTP) typically still below 5 Gbit/s). Although DDoS attacks are amplification/reflection or direct User Datagram Protocol usually short-lived, even a website outage of 10 minutes can (UDP) flooding by IoT botnets, service providers need to look have a significant impact on a consumer brand’s reputation. further up the network. This is indicated by the third most When Heavy Reading asked survey participants how they popular response: embedded protection in peering routers. protect against DDoS attacks and other cyber threats, the These devices contain an important source of information most popular response was firewall services. While a firewall for discovering traffic patterns, detecting traffic anomalies, is clearly an important protection against many cyber and detecting security issues such as DDoS attacks. threats, it is ineffective against volumetric DDoS attacks, as Less popular options were quarantining users that appear to articles such as this explain: “Why a Firewall Can’t Protect be a security risk (bad actors) and deploying scrubbing Against a Memcache DDoS Attack.” centers. Webscale operators will often manage their own The next most popular response was that CSPs are preventing scrubbing centers. For example, Akamai’s global DDoS DDoS attacks using anti-spoofing and 5-tuple ACLs. Anti- mitigation network consists of six scrubbing centers located spoofing is a technique used in routers, firewalls, and network strategically around the world to protect Internet-facing gateways for identifying and dropping packets that have a infrastructures against all known types of DDoS attacks at the false source address. However, it is only effective to the extent network, transport, and application layers. However, for that the rules correctly identify falsified addresses. 5-tuple regional Internet service providers (ISPs), scrubbing centers refers to the five items that each rule in a firewall policy uses to can be expensive to staff and operate and evidently are less define whether to block or allow traffic: source and destination popular than other DDoS mitigation techniques. IP, source and destination port, and protocol.

Figure 3: How do you protect your Internet service against DDoS attacks and other cyber threats?

We offer managed L2-L7 firewall services for end point pr otection of high v alue business users 67%

We deploy basic counter measures such as anti-spoofing and 5-tuple A CLs t o pr event DDoS 57% attacks on our IP infr astructur e

We deploy embedded DDoS protection in our peering r outers t o mitigate Internet-sour ced 56% DDoS attacks

We quarantine or suspend users that pose a security risk - security is an end-user r esponsibility 37%

We deploy a DDoS scrubbing center to mitigate any DDoS attacks on our infr astructur e or users 34%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

When Heavy Reading asked about next-generation OSS SDN and orchestration to automate service provisioning was technologies, we were somewhat surprised that the top the third most popular choice. While operators are embracing response was network functions virtualization (NFV), cross-domain orchestration, it remains just one element in a DevOps, and cloud-native architectures. NFV is about turning broader automation journey. network infrastructure into software that can be run on Streaming telemetry was surprisingly low down the list. commodity servers – well below the OSS layer. DevOps is an Telemetry is key to gathering data in near real time to feed organizational approach rather than a technology per se. The the analytics engines and orchestration tools, which third aspect (cloud-native) is the consensus approach for respondents identiﬁed as important to their next-generation modern software development, though whether it will help OSS. Open APIs and model-based programmability (based unravel the complexities of OSS remains to be seen. o n languages suc h as YANG ) are critical to ena bling cross- The next most popular response was using big data domain orchestration and SDN. Arguably, streaming analytics, AI, and machine learning (ML) to get better insight telemetry and model-driven APIs are now table stakes and into the network and services. There is signiﬁcant scope for operators are moving on to the next problem of how to these technologies, particularly in the areas of service extract meaningful insights from the petabytes of telemetry assurance and predictive maintenance. data at their disposal.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 4: Which te chnologies ha ve yo u, or are con sidering, imp lementing for y our next- generation OSS?

NFV , De vOps and cloud-nativ e ser vice a r chitec - tur es t o cr eate mor e agile ser vices 74%

Big data analytics, AI and machine learning t o gain better insight int o y our network and ser vices 68%

SDN and cr oss-domain or chestr ation t o aut omate ser vic e pr ovisioning end-to-end 66%

Str eaming telemetr y based on NE TCONF/YANG models t o get r eal-time network data 45%

Open inter faces suppor ting model-based programmability and management control 43%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

The top challenge respondents identified was the eroding Regulatory uncertainty was deemed the least important profitability of their businesses, which makes it difficult to challenge, according to the survey. Although we thought sustain the investments needed to build the next-generation regulation might be a greater concern for respondents Internet. A related concern was the difficulty in delivering high headquartered outside the U.S. (given our perception of a capacity coverage and reach, as these generally require hefty relatively dovish U.S. telco regulator), the order of challenges capital expenditure. was the same for the U.S. and non-U.S. headquartered respondents. Security, which is often highlighted as the top concern in surveys, was the next greatest challenge. Given the prior questions on DDoS, we were surprised security did not feature more strongly in the re sp onse s to th is q uestio n.

Figure 5: As a CSP, what do yo u con sider to be yo ur most s ign iﬁc ant ch alleng e in buildin g the next-generation Internet?

Eroding profitability - increasingly difficult to keep inv estment le vels up 361

Coverage and reach - increasingly difficult to deliv er higher capacity t o all users 311

Security thr eats - lack of t ools t o pr otect users and ourselv es against cyber attacks 300

Oper ational challenges - lack of visibility and contr ol t o manage and assur e the ser vice 254

Regulat ory uncertainty - makes it hard to plan future investments 230

N=103 Score is a weighted calculation; items ranked ﬁrst are valued higher Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

The Next Evolution needs to be an integral part of the security solution and the first level of defense against (volumetric) DDoS attacks. The global economy and public safety increasingly depend on interconnected digital systems. Communications Adding value to basic Internet services will alleviate networks play a crucial role in enabling humans and increasing concerns about eroding profitability, which was machines to interact instantaneously, intuitively, and securely. reported as the most significant challenge to maintain The cloud has become an indispensable application resource investment levels. These investments are needed to expand and content repository, with massive amounts of compute coverage and reach for higher capacity access services and and storage capacity hosted in countless interconnected better tools to secure the infrastructure and improve visibility data centers all over the world. and control over managed services. 5G technology will help address some of these challenges, and 90% of respondents The stage is set for the next evolution phase, with 5G is generally satisfied with the innovations brought by 5G communications technology as the key enabler for a digital technologies. 5G radio access can be used to address transformation that is rearchitecting communications coverage and reach issues in existing wireline and 4G infrastructures, revolutionizing industries, shaping the digital wireless deployments and to enhance broadband capacity society, and powering smart cities. 5G represents an and reliability by bonding fixed and fixed wireless access enormous potential for new applications, experiences, and services. Almost a third of respondents already recognize the business opportunities, but it also exposes new security potential of 5G to enable new business models, besides threats and digital trust issues that must be addressed. offering incremental improvements to existing business. This survey shows that CSPs are keenly aware of both the The survey reaffirms the importance of NFV, DevOps, and opportunities and challenges that are facing them. A majority cloud-native service architectures for more agile, next- sees their current role expanding from basic Internet access generation OSS infrastructures. Big Data analytics, AI, and ML to offering secure, industry-grade Internet services with were almost equally important to improve network visibility, network-based service features to add value to basic closely followed by SDN and cross-domain orchestration connectivity services through personalization and hosting technologies to automate control processes. SD-WAN is the on-net computer and storage services in the edge cloud. leading technology to build out data centers and WAN DDoS security is also high on their radar, and a majority of infrastructure, followed by segment routing, SDN for data CSPs deploy a variety of solutions to address these centers, and seamless connectivity between network concerns. IP routers already play a dominant role in functions in distributed data centers across the WAN. These preventing and mitigating DDoS attacks that are hitting the trends align well with Nokia’s approach to insight-driven network. This supports Nokia’s view that the IP network automation based on a smart network fabric.

9 Future Networking Survey Report

Beyond 5G – Challenges and Priorities

This section of the report examines whether 5G is meeting expectations as a generational improvement beyond 4G. It looks at current industry attitudes and areas of opportunity for improvement as 5G standards continue to develop. How will mobile operators and industry vertical specialists carve up the new 5G opportunities between themselves? Where will AI be brought to bear in 5G wireless systems? As the initial lessons are learned from early 5G deployments, what should the mobile industry focus on as it evolves beyond 5G? Heavy Reading explore these and other questions below.

• 43% of respondents see 5G as a game changer that Key takeaways: will allow new entrants (e.g., vertical market players) to • A significant majority, 91% of respondents, were challenge incumbent providers. Nearly a third of satisfied with 5G technologies under development. respondents thought that operators would need to While 9% had no strong opinion, no respondents forge new relationships and work together with expressed dissatisfaction with the promise of 5G, industry specialists to achieve the promise and full compared with what they can evolve their 4G networks potential of 5G, beyond faster consumer broadband to to support. deliver more industry use cases. • Core network transformation was identified as the top • When asked what the industry should focus on beyond 5G industry priority beyond 2019, closely followed by 5G, 46% said a whole new set of use cases such as improvements in speed and latency. Energy efficiency vertical applications beyond autonomous cars and and air interface technology were much lower priority, Industry 4.0. A further 26% of respondents suggested according to respondents. the focus should be on using unlicensed spectrum to boost capacity.

New B2B Use Cases to be the Focus Beyond 5G Ninety-one percent of respondents were satisfied (to differing degrees) with 5G technologies under development. With significant hype around the launch of commercial 5G Around 10% had no strong opinion and none expressed services, it will be important that the technology lives up to dissatisfaction. The results were similar for U.S.- expectations and delivers something more than an headquartered respondents, with none dissatisfied and only incremental improvement on current 4G technology. The 10% with no strong opinion. However, the remaining 90% was benefits could be tangible to the end user, such as significantly split more positively, with 37% very satisfied, another 37% faster data rates, or more oriented toward the operational satisfied, and only 17% somewhat satisfied. The strongly efficiency of the network itself, such as new core network positive perception of 5G contrasts with comments from architectures. Much of the business case for 5G rests on the more cautious industry observers who have noted the opportunity from IoT and various industrial use cases. What significant potential that can be obtained by the latest remains to be seen is whether mobile operators can place generation of LTE-Advanced (Release 13 and 14 – Pro), themselves at the center of these new value chains or if they which promises a user data rate over 3 Gbit/s (not far off will be relegated to connectivity providers. 5G’s 10 Gbit/s promise) and latency around 2 ms (compared to 5G’s 1 ms).

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 6: The ﬁrst phases of 5G standardization and rollout will be complete by the end of 2019. How satisﬁed are you with the techn ologi es you s ee bein g developed?

10%

Satisfied - W e see 5G as a significant technology but 32% not y et convinced it enables anything new for us Somewhat satisfied - Ther e ar e some unique 28% features we must have but we are approaching it Very satisfied - 5G represents a vast improvement over 4G that will enable new business models

No str ong opinion on this subject

31%

N=105 Source: Heavy Reading

Core network transformation was seen as the top 5G access to services exposed by a network function through a industry priority beyond 2019, closely followed by standard API that can be used by any other network function. improvements in speed and latency. Energy efficiency was a Routing of messages across SBA-enabled network function much less popular choice, though still ahead of new user follows regular Internet based message forwarding and equipment form factors and new air interface s. R espo ndents cl oud principles. S BA incorp orates principles such as from U.S.-headquartered companies were even more positive modularity, reusability, and self-containment of network on core network transformation (71% picking that option) function services, enabling deployments to take advantage of and even less interested in energy efficiency (just 16% made virtualization. It uses the cloud model with different end-to- that choice). end service using standard APIs. This makes it easier for the operator to add, remove, or modify features composed of One of the key architectural differences between the 5G core independent network function services. SBA also facilitates network and prior generations is the concept of service- network slicing by allowing deployments of reusable network based architecture (SBA). Traditional core networks have function services than can be enabled logically or used a point-to-point architecture to deliver functions such as geographically across the network based on end-user needs. mobility management, session management, and authentication. In a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture, network While core network modernization and speed/latency are elements providing these functions are connected over clearly important, Heavy Reading wonders if the priority of purpose-based interfaces typically defined between two respondents will shift over time to place more emphasis on network elements (e.g., mobility management entity [MME] energy efficiency as live 5G RANs prove to be very power and packet data network gateway [PGW]). Although hungry. We also wonder if respondents are underplaying the standardized and by definition multi-vendor, these interfaces importance of air interface technology, in particular the are usually intended to enable communications across two support for millimeter wave (mmWave) – frequencies above network entities and cannot be easily adapted to 24 GHz that have hitherto not been used for mobile accommodate communications with other network entities communications. With large amounts of spectrum available with similar needs. This makes it difficult to introduce new at these frequencies and techniques such as beamforming features and services in the network. The solution with SBA enabling operators to overcome the traditional shortcomings is to decouple network services from the underlying network of mmWave, this could add significant potential capacity for entities and platform infrastructure that run them, enabling the industry.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 7: What should the 5G indu stry foc us o n im proving beyond 20 19?

Cor e network tr ansformation (NFV/SDN, E dge) 59%

Speed and lower latency 50%

Ener gy and cost-efficiency of network components 28%

New capabilities t o r eshape the connected de vice (e.g. wear ables, AR glasses and other “ scr eens”) 27% to excite consumer demand

Air inter face tech nologies 23%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Just over 40% of respondents see 5G as a game changer that Nearly a third of respondents thought that operators would will allow new entrants to challenge incumbent providers. need to forge new relationships with industry specialists to While the question did not specify, Heavy Reading used the make a success of 5G beyond faster consumer broadband. term “new entrants” as a reference to vertical market players This is a more positive view than the “game changer” option, such as industrial companies or even cities, while incumbents as it suggests operators can partner with vertical specialists referred to mobile operators. As such, this response was and not be disintermediated or relegated to a bit pipe. meant to indicate a challenge to the status quo. Around 15% of respondents were quite pessimistic, seeing 5G as offering little more than enhanced mobile broadband. This pes simis m was eq ually ma rgi nal (just 15%) among r espo ndents h eadqu artered in th e U .S. and els ewhere.

Figure 8: Involving new players and vertical markets was an early theme of 5G. Which statement best characterized how important you believe that th eme will be m ovin g forwa rd?

11% 5G is a game changer that will allow new entr ants t o challenge tr aditional ser vice pr oviders

16% Success be yond Enhanced Mobile Broadband will require new 43% relationships between mobile network operators and industry vertical specialists

Deliv ering an enhanced mobile br oadband experience r emains the str ongest use case for 5G and nothing else looks v ery promising

The absence of any new pla yers in 5G spectrum auctions 31% thus far suggests 5G r emains an MNO game only

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

The next question asked about the role of AI in wireless In Heavy Reading’s view, AI-based solutions for mobile systems. Around a third of respondents indicated its systems are still in their infancy. However, we see significant influence will be widespread, not limited to one particular scope for AI to solve planning and optimization challenges in area. This enthusiastic view was less pervasive among wireless networks, particularly as 5G is deployed. We believe respondents from U.S.-headquartered companies (just 23%). AI-driven solutions will be necessary to achieve the goal of autonomous networking. Of the remainder who did choose a specific category, around a third indicated cloud and data centers. Another third said RAN, a fifth said orchestration of virtualization and slicing, and another fifth said mobile devices.

Figure 9: What will be the most important role of artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) in wireless systems as we look beyond the initial phases of 5G rollout?

AI and its influence will be so per vasive across every element of 13% wir eless, it’ s t oo difficult t o point t o just one ar ea

AI is best placed in the cloud and data centers wher e dedicated 32% AI r esour ces can be most efficiently le veraged

14% AI management methods will enable the Radio Access Network t o better suppor t incr easing complexity of 5G connectivity

AI techniques will aid in the or chestr ation of vir tualization and slicing technologies

AI’s main role will continue to be in mobile devices 19% powering e ven more novel experiences 22%

N=105 Source: Heavy Reading

There was a clear preference among respondents that the Around a quarter of respondents suggested the focus should industry focus beyond 5G should be around new industry be on using unlicensed spectrum, in addition to licensed vertical use cases. Nearly half of respondents chose that spectrum, to boost capacity. Unlicensed 4G LTE networks are option. 5G investment plans have partly been based on the just starting to materialize with Licensed Assisted Access potential for new revenue from industrial Io T and (LA A – 5 G Hz) and 3.5 G Hz Citizens Broadband Radio autonomous vehicles. As 5G is deployed, the potential Service (CBRS) network equipment. In December 2018, the applications are only limited by users’ imagination. Service 3GPP announced that it will enable the use of unlicensed providers themselves might not have the necessary vision to spectrum in the 5G New Radio (NR) speciﬁcation (Release dream up new applications for connectivity based on 5G or 16), allowing companies to create their own 5G networks on future mobile generations. However, if they can make these campus. services available cost-effectively, industrial entrepreneurs will take advantage of them to cut costs and increase eﬃciencies in their own businesses.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 10: What should the industry most focus on beyond 5G?

4% A whole new set of use cases – v ertical applications beyond aut onomous cars, Industr y 4.0

46% Using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum for 11% incr eased capacity It is t oo soon t o think be yond 5G

Wir eless video applications that can appear on v arious displa y terminals be yond the phone (e.g. car dashboard, TV, etc.) 14% How the Internet works with wir eless 26%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Preparing for the Beyond 5G Era The importance of new relationships highlighted in the survey also supports the InterDigital view that 5G needs new In 2019, the first deployments of 5G technologies that have players and partnerships to be successful. 5G is many been under development in research and standardization for things, but perhaps may be most simply described as a a decade will emerge. This early ex cite ment may dis tract c on verge nc e of teleco m and IT. This trend will open 5G to a stakeholders from the perhaps more mu ndane realit y that w hole new s et of industrial players. The cloud-native the initial standardization job is only about half done. There is roadmap may provide this meeting point through features much work that remains, most notably in the realization of all such as 5GLAN, currently being defined in the 3GPP. the use case objectives laid out in the early 5G requirements mmWave technology is another area of opportunity that is definition. 2019 will see the completion of the first full set of perhaps undervalued in the survey for its yet untapped specifications to be submitted to the International potential to provide another point of convergence. This new Telecommunication Union (ITU) for formal approval as a 5G air interface technology will come with new deployment standard. This is an important milestone, but it begs the challenges that may well be best served via new question: What comes next? The answer to this question is relationships between enterprises and carriers. not an immediate jump to start talking about 6G. Rather, the answer likely lies in factors that are influencing what is still to The survey also highlights the importance of AI and confirms come in 5G point releases that will continue into the beyond InterDigital’s belief that in the near term, AI will be important in 5G era. enabling numerous point solutions in many different areas. It also validates InterDigital’s longer-term view that this This survey explores the question of what is important technology will become so pervasive that it will be difficult to beyond 5G. One of the key takeaways is the high priority of point a finger at one specific area that is more important than core network transformation. This aligns with InterDigital’s another. This aligns well with InterDigital’s view that AI is both view that much work remains to be done in this area. One of an important technology and a key trend that will serve to the early ambitions of 5G was to deliver a new open reshape the nature of networks and supporting protocols in ecosystem in both the RAN and core network areas. The the future. It may drive much overdue changes to the industry appetite for such a move in the former area remains operation of the Internet. As defined today, the Internet will be evident in forums like the Facebook-led Telecom Infra Project unable to support the very low latency requirements of a (TIP) and the Linux Foundation-hosted O-RAN Alliance. future pervasive, AI-driven beyond 5G network. Similarly, on the core network side, there has been some good progress made on the cloud-native roadmap in the adoption of the SBA in the 3GPP. However, much standardization work remains before carriers will be empowered to a new level of flexibility and economic savings are enabled by a truly open equipment ecosystem.

Future Networking Survey Report

Re-Inventing The CSP

This section of the report examines what roles CSPs will play in building smart ecosystems (smart cities, smart home, etc.) and monetizing network slicing. It explores the key technologies for interoperable cloud ecosystems and the key beneﬁts of cloud security. Heavy Reading explores these and other questions below.

• Slightly more than half of respondents expect that Key takeaways: CSPs will operate network slices internally, the • CSPs are conﬁdent that they can provide own-brand, software for which might be pre-integrated by a industry vertical IoT solutions and that this model will systems integrator or assembled by the CSP prevail over more marginal roles such as a channel themselves from best-of-breed components. Nearly partner for other IoT solutions providers or simply a half of respondents thought the slice should be connectivity provider. operated by a third party as a managed service or as software as a service (SaaS). • Open APIs and industry standards are seen as the key technologies for enabling an interoperable cloud • Approximately two-thirds of respondents see a multi- ecosystem. Open source software was the least popular channel, digital experience as the key monetization choice among respondents (39% ranked it last out of capability to ensure their 5G transformation is successful. four options).

Own-Brand IoT Services and Multi-Channel The next most popular response was that CSPs would be a Monetization Key to CSP Transformation value-added channel partner for smart ecosystem specialists. The CSP could provide connectivity as well as CSPs have seen a dramatic transformation over the last 20 services such as billing as part of a managed service. This years – transformation of their business models, their growth could be attractive for third parties looking to reach new prospects, and their competitive environment. The need to customers given the operators’ existing relationships with transform never stops, and the pace of change continues to enterprise customers. accelerate. Cloud computing, industrial IoT, and 5G network slicing will be some of the key building blocks of CSP There was understandably less interest in the CSP being transformation over the coming years. relegated to a pure connectivity provider either as a wholesaler to specialist virtual network operators or in Heavy Reading asked survey participants what role they partnership with systems integrators. Another option that expected their companies to play in building smart ranked poorly was as a two-sided marketplace for industry- ecosystems. The most popular response was that CSPs specific SaaS. While the concept of a two-sided marketplace would offer industry-specific, own-brand solutions that (where a platform company makes money from two user combined connectivity, applications, and devices. This is an groups, typically sellers and buyers of a service) is highly encouraging response, though it remains to be seen if CSPs attractive, the survey results suggest that the industry is not have sufficient industry vertical expertise to understand the yet ready for such an approach. needs of each industry. Many operators have tried to build their IoT businesses to date through acquisitions in the relatively mature telematics industry. That has not been easy to translate into success in other industrial applications.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 11: What role(s) do you expect your company to play in building a smart ecosystem for your next transformative business opportu nit y?

As a pr ovider of integrated, industry-vertical solutions consisting of connectivity , platform, applications and devices directly to enterprises, as a branded service 414

As a v alue-added channel for par tner pr oducts thr ough inclusion of connectivity and supplementar y ser vic es in a managed Ser vice 346

As a destination for the br okering of cloud SaaS ser vices in a two-sided mark etplace for industr y-v ertical solutions 262

As a wholesale pr ovider of tailored connectivity and supplementar y ser vices t o a Vir tual Oper ator that specializ es in industr y-v ertical solutions 246

As a par tner t o a specializ ed Systems Integr ator that packages y our connectivity and supplementa r y ser vices int o an industr y-v ertical solution 240

N=103 Score is a weighted calculation; items ranked ﬁrst are valued higher Source: Heavy Reading

Open APIs and industry standards were seen as the most to interoperability and portability for cloud computing . important technologies for enabling an interoperable cloud Other standards groups that have produced relevant work in ecosystem. The Linux Foundation’s OpenAPI Initiative this area include the National Institute of Standards and provides a common approach to APIs based on the well Technology (NIST) and the Organization for the accepted concepts of representational state transfer (REST). Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). Most cloud service providers offer a catalog of machine- The 3GPP has adopted service-oriented principles with the readable open APIs for various SaaS and platform as a SBA in 5G, bringing the next-generation core into a more service (PaaS) applica tions . The se AP Is can be used to interope rab le cloud paradig m. generate code stubs and facilitate integration between a The least popular response to this question was open source company’s internal applications and others in the public software. This is surprising given the importance of projects cloud. The TM Forum’s Open API Program is a higher level such as Kubernetes (hosted by the Cloud Native Computing type of API designed for operational functions that would be Foundation) that enable cloud interoperability. A similarly less familiar to CSPs (e.g., creating a trouble ticket or collecting popular response was cloud brokering platforms. Such service usage data). brokers provide value-added services (such as identity or Numerous organizations are working on industry standards access management) on top of existing cloud platforms and to promote public cloud interoperability. The Object aggregate multiple cloud platforms or services into holistic, Management Group’s Cloud Working Group (formerly the end-to-end services, providing a more streamlined Cloud Standards Customer Council) has published a guide consumption model for the enterprise.

Figure 12: What are t he m ost critic al techn ologies in enab lin g an inter ope rable cloud ec osyste m?

Open APIs for functions lik e pr ocur ement, settlement, suppor t and assur ance between cloud ser vices 290

Industr y standar ds for the ser vice functionality and capabilities 282

Cloud br okering platforms that enable the rapid integr ation of SaaS ser vices acr oss multiple cloud infr astructur es 228

Open Sour ce softwar e t o build the underlying cloud platform or ser vices themselv es 218

N=103 Score is a weighted calculation; items ranked ﬁrst are valued higher Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

Network slicing uses the principles of modern cloud preferred to have slices pre-integrated by a systems architecture to run multiple logical networks as virtually integrator but operated internally by the CSP. A further 24% independent business operations on a common physical also thought the slice should be operated by the CSP but that infrastructure. Each logical “slice” meets service-speciﬁc they would assemble it themselves from best-of-breed requirements for network priority, latency, data rates, quality components rather than rely on a systems integrator. of service, and other key performance indicators. The Just under 30% thought that the slice should be provided as a industry hopes that this ability to provide customized managed service by a single vendor or systems integrator, not network slices will lead to new revenue opportunities. the CSP. A further 17% indicated it would be provided as SaaS, Because the 5G next-generation core has been designed with again not by the CSP but by a vendor or systems integrator. a SBA based on cloud-native principles, many more cloud By using a third party for the network slicing software (either operational models are available for deployment. as a managed service or on a SaaS basis) operators can reap When Heavy Reading asked survey participants about their operating expense savings and achieve greater business procurement models for deploying slice-based network agility. They can try new service ideas and pivot quickly if they transformation, there was no clear winner. Just over 30% do not succeed.

Figure 13: What procurement models will be most important in achieving your business objectives for a slice-based network transformation?

17% A pr e-integr ated slice fr om a System Integr ator; operated 31% internally b y the CSP The slice pr ovided as a managed service by either a single vendor or a system integr ator

Assembling a slice fr om best-of-br eed components; oper ated internally b y the CSP

24% The slice pr ovided as a SaaS, cloud-based service by either a single v endor or a system integr ator 28%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

The new network-slicing-based business models of 5G will Other monetization capabilities that were deemed not quite bring many new revenue opportunities for CSPs, including as important were support for B2B2X (key to exploiting new fixed wireless access, augmented reality/virtual reality industrial IoT type opportunities), advanced rating and (AR/VR) broadcasting, and industrial IoT, to name a few. To discounting, and support for multi-play offers (e.g., bundles prepare for th ese opportunitie s, CSPs are w orkin g in t andem o f fi xed broa dband , mo bile and TV). on their monetization capabilities. The least popular response was converged online-offline According to the survey, the key capability CSPs are looking charging. The new charging function (CHF) introduced in the to enable is a multi-channel, digital experience. The multi- 5G system architecture allows charging services to be channel or omni-channel concept has been a popular offered to authorized network functions as part of 5G’s SBA. buzzword in the retail industry for several years. It involves The architecture also has a converged set of APIs for online sharing information across the various channels through and offline charging. The convergence of online and offline which CSPs engage with customers (call center, store, social charging does not appear to figure highly in respondents’ media, website, mobile app, etc.) to provide a more cohesive priorities. However, a modernization of real-time charging experience. For example, many consumers start their capabilities is likely to be necessary to cope with the large shopping journey in digital channels (website or app) but number of connected devices that IoT will bring and to often transition to assisted channels (call center or store) to enable differential pricing on services with differentiated complete their purchase. If the assisted channel is aware of quality of experience between slices. the consumer's digital channel history, they can be better prepared to make the right offer to the customer.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 14: W hat monetizati on capabilitie s ar e yo u implementing to ensure your 5G transformation is su ccessful?

A multi-channel, digital experience 69%

Suppor t for B2B2X capabilities lik e par tner settlement and channel management 42%

Adv anced, policy driv en r ating and discounting 42%

Suppor t for multi-pla y off ers 41%

Conv erged online-offline charging 30%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Security was once an inhibitor to cloud adoption, with The next most popular response was AI, a potential tool to enterprises concerned that they could be opening up a new help automate security operations, as outlined in this blog . attack vector. However, IT departments increasingly see The least popular response was dedicated security products cloud as an opportunity to de-risk operations by taking from cloud providers. While it is important to see security as advantage of the latest defense-in-depth security designs, a core competency rather than something a CSP can just cloud security experts, identity management, and more. The buy, at the same time most modern enterprises augment top benefit of cloud security services and practices identified their security posture with third-party SaaS solutions. This is by survey participants is the move to a combined security something CSPs should likewise consider taking advantage and operations team. In the past, security was managed as a of to maintain the strongest cyber defenses. standalone activity that was poo rly integrat ed with operations leading. With security operations (Se cOps), security is built into operational workflows and processes from the start rather than added at the end as an (often frustrating) afterthought. The second most popular response is a similar concept whereby everyone is responsible for security all the way from development through to operations.

Figure 15: What beneﬁts of cloud security services and practices do you expect will be most important in your transformation?

A combined security and oper ations team 338

DevOps with the added empowerment that “everyone is responsible for security" 322

Use of Ar tificial Intelligence and Machine Learning security applications in the cloud and edge 301

Security bak ed int o a common cloud platform used thr oughout the CSP’ s business 288

Dedicated security pr oducts fr om cloud pr oviders 244

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

Network and Business Reinvention customer experience in the digital channels in which the new services will be expected to operate. The technological Service providers realize that to drive growth, they must improvements in 5G around low latency and massive device become more than connectivity providers. Consequently, they support will further drive the demand for charging solutions are looking to provide more of what enterprises need to that efficiently scale in addition to supporting innovations in effectively manage their businesses and take advantage of pricing beyond the traditional subscription. growing industry trends. The communications industry is starting to see further development toward application- Oracle has a deep security and privacy pedigree, with an specific networks or slices. Such networks enable a active participation and advisory role in security councils and connected, secure, and smart end-to-end ecosystem by industry committees around the world. As such, it is offering tailored and dedicated solutions for various use encouraging to see that service providers realize that security cases and industry verticals. This is a huge undertaking for is everyone’s problem and not just an operational detail. service providers, which will need to reinvent themselves to However, security is a difficult and complex problem to become attuned to the specific needs and regulations of the resolve, requiring extensive resources with cybersecurity industries where enterprise customers operate. expertise. At Oracle, security is intrinsic in day-to-day activities as well as in the design of solutions. This is demonstrated by The industry is starting to see a convergence between some its Software Security Assurance methodology, which includes of the core networking standards, such as 3GPP, with IT secure coding standards and vulnerability handling with more principles. This has become a fundamental enabler to do than 2,000 Oracle security personnel. Oracle’s solutions are network slicing in a much more effective way by truly securely architected, securely deployed, securely maintained, leveraging the flexibility, agility, and security of the cloud. and independently verified. Although open source serves foundational technology well, it alone has not been enough to promote the interoperable Finally, the industry is starting to see more traction toward cloud ecosystem the industry needs. Efforts around open network slice as a service, enabling service providers to APIs, like the ones promoted by the TM Forum and the Linux unleash new revenue streams by operating in an industry- Foundation, will become increasingly important for service specific vertical such as construction engineering, for providers to realize this vision. instance, where they traditionally do not have a strong presence. Given Oracle’s strong IT expertise, network Monetizing a new service has not always been a foregone pedigree, and the overall Oracle Enterprise reach, it is exciting conclusion. With the new business models enabled by 5G and times for Oracle to help service providers reinvent their IoT, the issue has become even more paramount. Service network and business, whether via best-of-breed providers will need to ensure that they have a rich and engaging components or end-to-end industry-specific network slices.

19 Future Networking Survey Report

Network Evolution and Industry Collaboration Structures

This section of the report examines factors affecting the business strategy of CSPs over the next 5-10 years, which technology areas will have the greatest impact on future network investment, how trust frameworks are likely to evolve, and what collaboration models will ensure the future success of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Heavy Reading explores these and other questions below.

• Around half of respondents identiﬁed intent-based, Key takeaways: content-centric, and P2P as the most likely evolution of • 41% of respondents indicated that the biggest impact networking over the next 5-10 years. Only 29% thought on their business strategy over the next 5-10 years that client-server IP networks will continue to dominate would stem from the demands of digitally savvy the Internet. millennials who require them to make their service • 61% of respondents thought that CSPs and vertical offerings more personalized, intelligent, and intuitive. industries should work together to develop new trust 27% saw the biggest impact coming from the frameworks. However, 50% of respondents thought application of behavioral analytics, AI, and blockchain that key vertical industries would also independently to cybersecurity. develop their own trust frameworks. • 82% of respondents identiﬁed 5G as the technology they see having the greatest impact on future network investments. This was followed (59%) by IoT services and systems for both consumer and enterprise customers.

New Networking Architectures and New The next most popular response (around a quarter of the Collaboration Models for the Millennial Generation total) was related to cybersecurity. These respondents felt that behavioral analytics, AI, and blockchain could become The communications industry has gone through tremendous more critical in this domain. According to Heavy Reading's change over the last 20 years, with mobility and broadband Telecom Security Market Tracker , AI techniques such as becoming affordable and widespread on a global basis. neural networks and ML have already been used for many Consumer expectations have also changed significantly, and years to improve the detection of malicious code and other service providers are increasingly stretched to meet the threats within telecom traffic. AI has the potential to go demands of fickle customers. To adapt, CSPs may need to further, such as automatically taking remediation actions or consider new business and payment models and even change presenting a human security analyst with the right type of the basic architecture of their networks to ensure security and data on which to base a decision and perhaps a cost efficiency. New models for industry collaboration will also recommendation. Network security is a potentially be required that strike a balance between the agile interesting application for blockchain. For example, development of open source and the more structured blockchain might be used to certify that infrastructure has approach of traditional standards. not been tampered with and ensure that only entities with the appropriate authorization are allowed to make changes to Heavy Reading asked participants to choose which of a network devices. number of factors was likely to have the greatest impact on their business strategy over the next 5-10 years. Just over Growth in online content consumption was the key factor 40% indicated that the demands of digitally savvy millennials chosen by a quarter of respondents. Video already represents would require them to make their service offerings more over 75% of global IP traffic (both business and consumer) personalized, intelligent, and intuitive. Born between the early and is growing around 30% each year as more and more 1980s and the early 2000s, there are around 2 billion consumers take up video streaming services on their smart millennials globally. In 2015, they became the largest TVs and mobile devices. This growth rate could accelerate generation in the workforce, and in 2017, they represented further if VR streaming services take off in the future. the greatest spending power of any generation. Personalized services that might appeal to millennials include content recommendations (film, music, etc.) based on prior usage.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 16: What will have the most impact on your business strategy over the next 5-10 years?

6% Ser vice off erings becoming mor e personaliz ed, intelligent and intuitiv e t o cater t o incr easingly dominant subscriber base of digitally sa vvy millennials

41% 25% Beha vior al analytics, AI and Block chain become mor e critical t o cyber security

Growth in online content consumption

Str onger priv acy r egulations

Other 1% 28%

N=104 Source: Heavy Reading

When Heavy Reading asked about future payment models, However, emerging transaction-based payment models may the most popular response was subscription-based postpaid, be increasingly attractive in the future network. For example, which is the current dominant model for consumer mobile the end user may not have a subscription with the service and fixed communications services in the developed world provider but may have a subscription with a third party. In today. The next most popular response was a reference to these cases, the third party could pay the service provider on the typical enterprise te lecom busi ness mod el, w hic h is be ha lf of th e end us er. These third-party a rrangeme nts can be based on contracts that cover multiple service types (voice, attractive since they allow a user to receive a service from a virtual private network [VPN], SD-WAN, etc.). The fourth most service provider, even though no subscription exists with the popular response, pre-paid services, is the predominant service provider. Instead, the third party is billed by the service payment model today in developing countries, particularly provider and the third party then manages the billing those where a low percentage of the population has bank relationship with the end user. The service provider can accounts (and hence good systems for checking credit perform bulk billing to the third party to achieve low overhead quality are scarce). even when individual transactions may be small. The only option that would represent a break from the This is the business model for cellular roaming, though current norm was the third most popular response – pay per expanded to include third parties and services outside the use via micropayments or cryptocurrencies. The problem existing closed set of cellular companies and services. More with pay per use is that each payment (e.g., a 20-cent phone detail on subscriptionless business models can be found in call or 5-cent text message) represents a discrete financial the ATIS report, Subscriptionless Devices and Services. transaction. The transaction fees might represent a relatively large proportion of revenue and hence could be a material drag on profit. In contrast, the top-up transactions associated with pre-paid mobile services might be set to a minimum of $10, in which case the payment processor (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) fee is a very small percentage of revenue (generally less than 1% for large operators).

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 17: Which paym ent mode ls will b e mo st impor tant to your fu ture n etwork business model?

Subscription-based postpaid ser vices 65%

Contr acted ser vice models for enterprises or other ser vice pr oviders covering a wide range of ser vices (e.g. the enterprise or other ser vice 55% provider buys the service)

Subscription-less ser vice off erings (pa y per use) using micr opa yments or cr ypt o-curr encies 47%

Pre-paid services 41%

Other (specify) 2%

N=105 Source: Heavy Reading

Over 80% of respondents identified 5G as the technology The promise of NFV is that operators will be able to run they see as having the greatest impact on future network network functions on commodity servers, leading to an investments. This is unsurprising given the amount of media overall reduction in capital expenditure requirements as well attention around 5G, though it remains to be seen whether as greater agility in responding to fluctuating network loads. consumers will be prepared to pay more for the higher data It is less clear how AI will relate to future network rates and lower latency that 5G promises. investments. AI should not require any significant CAPEX itself or forklift upgrades of network infrastructure. Instead, Not quite as popular, though still selected by almost 60% of the AI opportunity is likely to be based on gleaning new respondents, was IoT. This was followed by cloud/NFV, AI, insights from analytics systems to spot patterns and make and edge computing. Although IoT does not need 5G (and predictio ns. To lea rn about ne twork-rela ted use cases of AI, can be enabled using older mobile technologies or even non- check out the Evolution to an Artificial Intelligence-Enabled mobile technologies such as LoRa), the massive machine- Network report produced by ATIS. type communications (mMTC) use case of 5G is clearly oriented at the IoT opportunity.

Figure 18: Which technology areas do you see as having the biggest impact on future network investments?

5G high bandwidth, low latency and high-per formance infr astructur e 82%

IoT ser vices and systems (both consumer as well as industrial/enterprise) 59%

Migr ation of the network infr astructur e t owar d cloud vir tualization and NFV 47%

Artificial intelligence 46%

Technologies to distribute more functionality and content t owar ds the edge 34%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Future Networking Survey Report

Around half of respondents identified intent-based, content- P2P networking is a distributed architecture that partitions centric, and P2P as the most likely evolution of networking workloads between network peers (nodes). In contrast with over the next 5-10 years. Intent is an interface between the client-server model, P2P nodes can be both suppliers and network service-consuming systems (applications) and consumers of resources (processing power, disk storage, network service-delivery systems (composed of controllers and network bandwidth). P2P was popularized by (mainly and underlying infrastructure). By separating the application pirate) file-sharing services in the early 2000s. It is also plane from the control plane in this way, the operator has interesting to note that P2P technologies are commonly used greater freedom over the choice of applications and in IoT systems to enable a variety of clients (e.g., smartphone controllers, thereby reducing vendor lock-in. clients) to communicate with peer IoT devices. With content-centric networking, endpoints communicate The least popular response was that client-server IP based on named data (e.g., a portion of a video file) instead networks will continue to dominate the Internet – over 70% of IP addresses. Named content is delivered to the user of respondents did not think that would be the case. from the nearest cache, traversing fewer network hops, eliminating redundant requests, and consuming less resources overall than an equivalent IP network. A more complete description is provided in the ATIS report Evolution to Content Optimized Networks .

Figure 19: Which network evolution and Internet trends do you see as most likely over the next 5-10 years?

Intent based networking will become a major fact or in impr oving network availability and per formance for enterprise ser vices 51%

Client-ser ver IP networks will coexist with the intr oduction of content-centric network pr otocols 51%

Client-ser ver IP networks will coexist with peer-t o-peer networking 50%

Networks will incorpor ate contingency-based solutions for continuity of Internet-based 43% ser vices and critical communications

Client-ser ver IP networks will continue to be per vasive and the basis for further enhancements 29%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

According to the Open Identity Exchange’s white paper, Half of respondents thought that vertical industries would Trust Frameworks for Identity Systems, "a trust framework is develop their own trust frameworks, while half thought that a legally enforceable set of specifications, rules and CSP-led trust frameworks (such as the SHAKEN agreements regulating an identity system." Trust frameworks specification for mitigating robocalls and caller ID spoofing) are needed in distributed systems so endpoints can be would be widely adopted. However, the most popular confident that requests are not malicious or applications can response (selected by over 60% of respondents) was that ensure that an individual making a request is a genuine user. CSPs and vertical industry players should work together to Trust frameworks usually entail a combination of develop trust frameworks. A minority (34%) thought that authentication, a utho ri zation, ro le m anag ement, identity app lication-specific trus t solutions defi ned by individ ual provisioning, and gov erna nce func tions. An ex ample o f a trust compan ies (e.g ., Goog le sign-in for th ird- party sites a nd apps framework in a telecom context is the subscriber identity using OAuth, an open standard for token-based module (SIM)-card-based mobile authentication system. The authentication and authorization on the Internet) would trusted role of telecom networks also enables two-factor dominate. Even fewer (29%) thought that existing SIM-based authentication using short message service (SMS), which is solutions would meet future industry needs. widely used in disparate existing trust frameworks. Trust frameworks can be an important structure for collaboration and federation in authentication and authorization operations that leverage context and/or span different domains. The ATIS report Context-Aware Identity Management Framework assesses how the emerging market for context-aware information can be applied to solve future identity management needs.

Future Networking Survey Report

Figure 20: There are a variety of trust frameworks to help secure transactions and information by verifying the identities of the pa rtie s involve d. Which o f these st atemen ts about trus t fram ework s do you agre e w ith?

Communication Ser ver Providers (CSPs) and vertical industries must work together to 61% develop trust solutions across industry domains

Key vertical industries (e.g. healthcare, aut omotiv e) will independently de velop and optimiz e industr y-specific trust fr ameworks 50% Emer ging communications ser vice pr ovider (CSP) cer tificate /PKI b as ed trust fr am ew orks (e.g . SHAKEN/STIR for verification of calling line 50% identification ser vices) will be widely adopted Application-specific trust solutions defined b y individual v endors and O TTs will dominate over shar ed trust fr ameworks 34%

Existing Mobile Network Oper ator (MNO) SIM-based user identification and inter-oper ator agreements are sufficient for future industry needs 29%

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

Most industries depend on the principle of competition to Another quarter anticipate greater collaboration between drive innovation, eﬃciency, and fair pricing. At the same time, network domains and vertical industries, presumably as part most industries allow some collaboration between industry of industrial IoT initiatives. The third most popular response, participants, usually in the form of regional or global with a ﬁfth of responses, was that industry organizations standards bodies. This collaboration enables interoperability would increasingly need to act as integrators of open source between participants and leads to economies of scale in and standards. An example of this would be the combination global supply chains. of open source (e.g., Open Source MANO [ OSM ]) and standards work (e.g., NFV ) undertaken within the European Heavy Reading asked survey pa rticipant s ho w th ey sa w the Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). future of collaboration in the ICT in dustry. Aro und a q uarter expect a continued balance of interoperable standards (e.g., A minority (16%) foresaw an increased dependence on open 5G), partnership projects (e.g., undersea cable consortia), and source. The least popular response (14%) held the even more open source developments (e.g., OpenStack) will be needed. radical view that a completely new collaborative approach will be needed to meet the market demands of the next 5-10 years.

Figure 21: The collaboration model for the ICT industry is an important factor in bringing new services andapplications to market. Which statement be st deﬁnes the fu ture collabo rative model?

14% A gr eater focus on collabor ation acr oss network domains and 25% vertical industries A continued balance of inter oper able standar ds, par tnership projects and open source development will be needed

16% An incr easing need for industr y or ganizations t o act as integr ators of open sour ce and standar ds int o complete solutions

An incr eased dependence on open sour ce t o meet specific functional r equir ements 25% A completely new collabor ativ e app roach wil l be needed t o 20% meet the mark et demands of the next 5-10 y ears

N=103 Source: Heavy Reading

24 ABOUT ATIS IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING INDUSTRY, INNOVATION NEEDS A HOME.

ATIS is where companies in the ICT industry • Advancing the 5G network, with a focus on come together to address common, critical North American requirements contributing priorities. Whether it is aligning on how to to a global 5G standard address challenges and progress new • Mitigating the problem of unwanted business opportunities, taking the long-term, robocalling strategic view on how to advance industry • Leveraging AI to advance ICT industry transformation, or creating a platform for objectives and innovation collaboration with other industries, ATIS drives innovation. • Generating new business opportunities through a Smart Cities Data Exchange In any emerging technology area critical to • Developing solutions and an overall the industry’s future, ATIS is at work. Our industry framework for addressing value-driven mission identiﬁes how and cybersecurity threats where to collaborate as well as share resources, effort, and cost to develop large- • Advancing next-generation emergency scale, interoperable solutions for the communications common industry good. ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The organization Our initiatives are as diverse as the is the North American Organizational Partner challenges they address. They encompass for the 3GPP, a founding Partner of the technology assessments for strategic oneM2M global initiative, a member of the industry planning, business use case ITU, and a member of the Inter-American formulation, open source projects, Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). requirements, speciﬁcations, standards, interoperability testing, software toolkits, www.atis.org industry best practices, user guidelines, industry-supported testbeds, and more. While technical in nature and addressing members’ business priorities, the work often integrates a policy component, which contributes to its success. Current priorities include: