HUAWEI COMMUNICATE

JUL 2012

ISSUE 66

JUL 2012

ISSUE 66

Telefnica innovates All-IP and operations

Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure

Vectoring keeps copper up to speed

FBON makes your fiber flexible

A broader connected world

A broader connected world

If we go back fifteen years, the notion of people doing most of their shopping online would sound like science fiction. Today, it is no exaggeration to say that the Internet penetrates every corner of our lives, both personal and professional. And considering how fast things are changing, there is no reason to believe things will slow down. New fields such as M2M, cloud-based applications, and augmented reality are now taking shape, and represent just a few examples of connected possibilities. In time, our world will see ubiquitous presence among people, businesses and institutions, which can be connected anytime, anywhere, and from any device. What does this mean for operators? One thing for sure is that operators need to construct a ubiquitous ultra-broadband network that will serve as the foundation of the entire telco industry. The growing volume of over-the-top video and the anticipated mass introduction of cloud-based services will put too much strain on existing network architecture; simplicity, capacity, and physical convergence are needed, as is a flat architecture, from the edge to the core. At the access network, a single access platform that manages all access modes is ideal. Fiber connections will provide the required downstream bandwidth, while Vectoring will give DSL lines a significant boost, reaching 100Mbps. HetNet is becoming increasingly necessary to deliver a superb mobile experience. At the IP edge layer, the new BRAS should be integrated with a service-aware router (as Telefnica is currently implementing for its new-generation access center), while a separate CDN platform with cache sits alongside this BRAS. An OTN system with PID technology is key to enhancing metro and backhaul capability, while 100Gbps transport at the core is essential. Last but not the least, operators will need to have a single OSS management platform that simplifies and effectively manages the above elements. In other words, operators need to build a fat pipe with a flat architecture. Supported by this new network architecture, operators can explore new business models that both enhance the user experience and consolidate the operators foothold in both the living room and the office. Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, has stated that he foresees pipes as wide as the Pacific Ocean, with users consuming bandwidth as they would water. With our proven, cutting-edge solutions, Huawei is here to help any & all operators looking to get into the ocean-making business. Read on to learn more.

Sponsor: Huawei COMMUNICATE Editorial Board, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Consultants: Hu Houkun, Xu Zhijun, Ding Yun Chen Wei, Zhang Xinyu Editor-in-Chief: Gao Xianrui (sally@huawei.com) Editors: Jason Patterson, Julia Yao, Michael Huang Pearl Zhu, Joyce Fan, Linda Xu, Pan Tao Li Xuefeng, Xue Hua, Xu Ping, Chen Yuhong Cao Zhihui, Zhou Shumin Contributors: Xu Fuhong, Chen Xinjun, Wu Hao, Wang Kai Ma Xin, Huang Xinqiang, Huang Liyan, Wang Lei E-mail: HWtech@huawei.com Tel: +86 755 28786665, 28787643 Fax: +86 755 28788811 Address: B1, Huawei Industrial Base, Bantian, Longgang, Shenzhen 518129, China Publication Registration No.: Yue B No.10148
Copyright Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. NO WARRANTY The contents of this document are for information purpose only, and provided as is. Except as required by applicable laws, no warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, are made in relation to contents of this document. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no case shall Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages, or lost profits, business, revenue, data, goodwill or anticipated savings arising out of or in connection with any use of this document.

Ding Yun CEO of Carrier Network Business Group

Whats inside:
Experts Forum Business Insights
18

Internet video services: Who will reign?

Operators, on the strength of their huge current subscriber base, can regain their Internet video traction by leveraging its technology advantages to transform both their user experiences and business model. By Liu Jinming, Ju Degang & Lv Xudong

04

Telefnica innovates All-IP and operations

Cayetano Carbajo, Telefnica Global Technology Director, talks about the operators service platform and operation center innovations, as well as its All-IP transition process, and how they better suit customers changing consumption habits. By Michael Huang

21

Huawei CBS R5: Agile growth, flexible billing

By Michael Chan

25

Making LTE work for you

Huaweis solutions keep operators on the cutting edge of user expectations. Its LTE offerings enable all-purpose functionality for the consumer or enterprise, while its eMBMS solution will keep advertisers coming back for more. By Yu Wenyong

07

Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure

By Joyce Fan

11

Next-gen CDN is ready for its closeup

By Liang Jie & Chen Ge

13

E2E managed services for better business value

By Richard Wong & Giles Vincent

Lets COMMUNICATE beyond technology and share understandings of the latest industry trends, successful operational cases, leading technologies and more. Based on in-depth analysis of the matters that lie close to your heart, we will help you stay on top of the telecom game.

Accelerated Access

Optical Networking
36

Huawei takes the lead in ASON standardization

With its robust network protection & recovery capability, timely & comprehensive connection provisioning, and intelligent network management, ASON/GMPLS is being gradually recognized as a premier option for optical network development. By Zhang Fatai

28

Moving towards HetNet

Mobile broadband ubiquity may be approaching, but the data tsunami is already here and may never pass. Simple network expansion alone will not prove sufficient, which means that operators need to rethink their network structure. By Zhang Yuchen

38

FBON makes your fiber flexible

By Zong Liangjia, Liu Ning & Ma Teng

40 31

OTN accelerates metro networking

FTTH can provide all the bandwidth a home needs for the foreseeable future, yet user experience can hardly be assured if the metro network fails to ensure bandwidth integrity. By Dong Qibing

Fiber & copper: Hand-in-hand for fixed access

By Zhang Ying

33

Vectoring keeps copper up to speed

In these austere times, legacy copper must be utilized for last-mile connection whenever possible. Vectoring minimizes the interference that stems from the far-end crosstalk inherent to copper, enabling up to 100Mbps transmission through a single twisted pair. By Huang Bai

Global Digest
Huawei Managed Services Enhances Business Value for Indonesias XL
telecommunications network, enabling XL to offer better network and service quality to its fast growing base of more than 46 million customers. Since then, XL selected Huawei to manage its entire Digital Merchant domain ecosystem to ensure the availability of value-addedservices to XL customers. XL also selected Huawei as a collaborator in the cloud computing space due to Huawei's global ICT leadership. The Huawei-XL partnership was spearheaded by Huawei's TM Forum-certified Managed Services Unified Platform (MSUP), which encompasses people, processes, and tools that can address XL's unique needs and support its vision of bringing affordable and new value-added services to its customers.

Huawei Global Service Center Opens in Romania

Bucharest, Romania, 26 June, 2012, Huawei held an open day at its Global Service Center (GSC) in Bucharest, Romania, on June 6th to share information and best practices with partners and customers, including Romtelecom Romania, Cosmote Romania, Vo d a f o n e ( N e t h e r l a n d s , Romania), Deutsche Telekom, F r a n c e Te l e c o m G r o u p , Hutchison 3G Austria and Magyar Telekom Hungary. The GSC offers a wide range of professional services and capabilities, including network operations, network performance management, spare parts management, benchmark and service quality management, and a comprehensive set of technical support and help desk services. This will enable customers to improve network quality s u b s t a n t i a l l y, w h i l e m o re effectively leveraging network i n v e s t m e n t a n d re d u c i n g operational costs. As a global infrastructure platform that supports Huaweis fast-growing Professional Services business (particularly managed services), this particular GSC, which has more than 200 employees, was established in Romania due to its geographical advantages, advanced logistical capabilities, and high-quality talent. To date, more than EUR6 million have been invested in the Bucharest GSC. Huawei has over 26,000 employees in its Professional Services business, with its managed services managing networks in over 60 countries, serving nearly one quarter of a billion subscribers.

Singapore, 29 June, 2012, "Today's fast-moving information society challenges and reshapes traditional approaches to network planning, network construction, a n d O & M , re f o c u s i n g o n services, applications, and user experiences which has become a key differentiator for service providers," said Raymond Luan, Vice President of Huawei Global Technical Service, at a joint press conference with PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL). In February 2012, Huawei was exclusively selected by XL as its managed services partner to maintain its multivendor and multi-technology

Huawei Receives Three Asia Communication Awards

The judges indicated that the decision to give Huawei the Vendor of the Year award was largely due to its global business presence, especially in the Asia-Pacific region (where it has won numerous contracts), its ability to develop and offer innovative services, its performance in the global handset market, and its customer-centric culture. Huawei received the Green Technology award for its Minishelter mobile site solution, an integrated outdoor power system that reduces power/ carbon consumption. Minishelter is both adaptable and easy to install, while featuring a rectifier that is 96.8 percent efficient. This has made the solution a favorite of emerging market operators in Asia. Also in June, at the 2012 Asia Pacific ICT Awards, Frost & Sullivan presented Huawei with the Carrier Data Infrastructure Vendor of the Year, Wireless Infrastructure Vendor of the Year and Vendor of the Year awards. These awards recognized Huaweis achievements in the extensive deployment of nextgeneration wireless and AllIP broadband networks across the region.

Singapore, 2 July, 2012, Huawei has received the Vendor of the Year and Green Technology awards at the 2012 Asia Communication

Awards. Huawei Deputy Chairman and rotating CEO Ken Hu was also selected from among nine finalists for the CEO of the Year award.

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

WCP and Huawei Win Award for Japans Fastest MBB

London, 13 June, 2012, Wireless City Planning (WCP) Incorporated (which belongs to Japanese carrier SoftBank) and Huawei have jointly won an award for wireless network infrastructure innovation at the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards held in London. The award recognizes WCP's commercial AXGP network launched in Tokyo, Osaka, and other parts of Japan. The AXGP network was deployed by Huawei using fully compatible LTE TDD technology. WCP deployment began in September 2011, with commercial operations beginning in certain parts of Tokyo and Osaka in November. Huawei's technology enables downlink data speeds of 110Mbps on the network, e n a b l i n g t h e o p e ra t o r t o provide the fastest mobile data transmission service in Japan. For WCP's network deployment, Huawei's LTE TDD solutions provide highly innovative network architecture. The network utilizes 50 to 150 sites per square kilometer to meet the requirements of future high-capacity mobile broadband (MBB) in the face of limited site space. The network deployment makes use of Huawei solutions such as SFN (Single Frequency Network), 4x4 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), Intelligent Baseband Arrayenhancing (IBA) adjustment capabilities between sites, and the world's smallest and lightest broadband Radio Remote Unit (RRU).

Huawei Completes Industrys First eHRPD Optimized Handoff Test

Shenzhen, China, 19 June, 2012, Huawei has announced the successful completion of a commercial test for LTE to CDMA evolved High-Rate Packet Data (eHRPD) optimized handoff, an evolutionary step forward from the original CDMA EVDO network standard. The eHRPD technique acts as a bridge from CDMA to LTE by ensuring service continuity while protecting existing operator investment. In the initial stages of LTE deployment, network coverage is primarily concentrated in hotspots. When users move outside LTE coverage, their mobile broadband data service is seamlessly handed over to the EVDO network, ensuring a good experience. This is a key function for all the hundreds of CDMA operators who are expanding their networks with the 10X improvements of LTE service.

Telkom Selects SingleFAN for Next-gen Ultra-Broadband Access Network

Johannesburg, South Africa, 4 June, 2012, Huawei has been selected to deploy next-gen ultra-broadband network access for Telkom South Africa. By employing Huawei's SingleFAN solution, the network will achieve a downlink rate of up to 100Mbps per user, eventually totaling some four million users. Huawei's end-to-end F T T x S i n g l e FA N s o l u t i o n is well suited to Telkom's live network and future service requirements. The solution involves equipment upgrades, remote intelligent site construction, line quality evaluation, and deployment of broadband access equipment based on fiber or copper. A highly-integrated COMBO board combines voice and VDSL2 modules on one service port, which will provide voice and high-speed Internet services (100Mbps) simultaneously. The COMBO board is easy to install, and the combined installation and commissioning process allows for rapid network deployment.

IIR Presents Huawei with Best Optical Equipment Product OTN Award
Monaco, 21 June, 2012, Huawei has been named the sole winner of the Best Optical Equipment Product OTN award. This honor was bestowed by the Next Generation Optical Awards program launched by the Institute for International Research (IIR) at the WDM & Next Generation Optical Networking event in Monaco. The award marks the fourth from a top international body for Huawei OTN. This solution is based on Huawei OSN 8800/6800/3800/1800, the most complete WDM/OTN product series in the industry. It integrates OTN with a variety of other technologies, including coherent 40G/100G, automatic switching optical network (ASON), photonic integrated device (PID), and ODUflex, which help operators deploy flexible, highly-efficient, and easyto-maintain WDM transport networks. In 2012, Huawei has unveiled a series of noteworthy achievements, including the world's first 10-petabit alloptical switch prototype PPXC, the world's first panEuropean 400G field trial, and a WDM prototype claiming the industry's highest spectrum efficiency.

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Experts Forum

Transformation is easier said than done, especially for the incumbents. COMMUNICATE sits down with Telenor and Telefnica to hear about this process firsthand.

EXPERTS FORUM
3
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

04 Telefnica innovates All-IP and operations 07 11 13

Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure Next-gen CDN is ready for its closeup E2E managed services

Telefnica

Innovating All-IP and operations

Connectivity has become an essential asset to our society, making an enhanced network key to access ubiquity. Cayetano Carbajo, Telefnica Global Technology Director, talks with COMMUNICATE about the operators service platform and operation center innovations, as well as its All-IP transition process, and how they better suit customers changing consumption habits.
By Michael Huang

Stepping up with All-IP

COMMUNICATE: As a key member of the Telefnica Group CTO Office, how do you see the current trends in All-IP transformation? Carbajo: All-IP transformation covers different network layers. We see that customers increasingly use our networks from wireless devices, connecting to either fixed or mobile networks. These customers may lose visibility in terms of a fixed network point of presence, whether it is a Wi-Fi router or mobile base station. The network will have to manage a dramatically increased number of connected devices, as the IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M markets develop. So for IP transformation, the first step involves access that can work with All-IP mobile networks. For instance, much GSM traffic still depends on TDM equipment that is incompatible with All-IP, so we are transforming the mobile networks to UMTS, and eventually to LTE. We also need to evolve the fixed networks that are mainly copper loops to broadbandenabled first, and then to IP-based fiber access. The transport layer will also evolve based on

the requirements of services and traffic generated in the access. In the core, we need to modify the control toward IP-based multimedia control, while delivering enhanced services to featured or VIP subscribers. Quality of service (QoS) is also very important and the policy enforcement point is key. COMMUNICATE: In view of these All-IP trends, what are the key areas in Telefnicas current networks that warrant improvement? What key solutions/features are you seeking? Carbajo: We have a lot of opportunities for future improvement. For instance, all of our PSTN legacy networks have to be evolved. Other opportunities include subscriber data management, service provisioning platforms, policy enforcement points, and policy servers. In others words, the All-IP network enablers should be implemented for the whole footprint; these include next-generation intelligent network (NGIN), SDP, policy and charging rule functionality (PCRF), IMS, and online charging. We think that an All-IP network should have some key attributes such as enhanced virtualization, shorter time-to-market (TTM), and greater flexibility
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Experts Forum
Telefnica: Innovating All-IP and operations in terms of bearer connection, self-configuration, and signaling across networks. We also expect optimized network status, service, and user awareness, which means advanced introspection capability, as well as traffic profiling and monitoring. COMMUNICATE: QoS and QoE enhancement in IP networks is a key challenge in the industry; how are you going to ensure them, while easing the pressure from video traffic? Carbajo: To ensure QoS, you have to define the policy enforcement points. Today we have a QoS mechanism at nodes such as the gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) and broadband remote access server (BRAS). We are also studying policy service implementation. For quality of experience (QoE), it is more difficult as we are quite blind to end-to-end QoE, so we are implementing a solution to first monitor and measure QoE. With that information, we can make decisions and policies for enhanced QoE. There are lots of things to be modified in the network for managing video traffic. The QoS requirements for video services are different compared with legacy services, and the network needs to be restructured for carrying video traffic. There are many things on which we have to work. The first thing is the distribution of video content in the right way. For video-on-demand (VOD), video over-thetop (OTT), and IPTV services, a content delivery network (CDN) is the right approach. For P2P or video communication services, you have to enable the core or control part for an IP multimedia database, so IMS will play a key role there. COMMUNICATE: Major operators are undertaking large-scale network transformation, in which a flattened IP Core/Edge is a key element. What are your plans for this network flattening process and what challenges are you facing? Carbajo: We are transforming our IP layer clearly. The first idea has been to merge the mobile IP backbone with the fixed IP backbone, as mobile traffic is a marginal part of fixed traffic. The second is to have the backbone as flat as we can by taking out the intermediate levels that are not efficient enough, and then we do the evolution of the data highway (DH) networking. We have defined and are still implementing our new architecture which we refer to as new-generation access center. We are mixing, in the same nodes, the edge routers and the BRAS to increase the redundancy of both, while reducing the number of interfaces,

We see that customers increasingly use our networks from wireless devices, connecting to either fixed or mobile networks. These customers may lose visibility in terms of a fixed network point of presence, whether it is a Wi-Fi router or mobile base station.
Cayetano Carbajo, Telefnica Global Technology Director

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

points of failure and the overall costs of the access node. We are not mixing that with the gateway from mobile thanks to the different topologies between fixed and mobile. We are also studying the possibility of upgrading the BRAS capabilities to accommodate an increased number of users. Various challenges exist in the network flattening process, as you need to modify the network architecture. For instance, combining the BRAS and edge routers in the same node is quite difficult as you need to integrate two complex functions. A BRAS generally has complex links to the IT and OSS/BSS systems, while the edge routers process increased traffic. So you have to have powerful edge routers with dynamic BRASs to manage customers and their relationships. COMMUNICATE: Transport networks require heavy investments. What is Telefnicas network strategy, in terms of evolution path and pace, to optimize investment? Carbajo: There are two major issues for the evolution. One is the increasing capacity evolution to 40G and 100G and higher capacity interfaces; this will be done according to the cost. Currently, the costs for 40G to 100G are not so efficient for evolving the whole network, and its massive deployment is still years ahead. The second part is to enhance the ROADM capabilities, and the directionless and colorless capabilities are key for our photonic mesh; we will also move toward contentionless and many other variables that will provide dynamicity to our photonic mesh, which is expected to deliver enhanced redundancy and O&M efficiency; meanwhile, we need to work with vendors to make the photonic system easier to operate and the ecosystem more mature. We are also converging our mobile and fixed transport elements, and eventually we may have two transport backbones (for best-effort and critical services, respectively) to increase security and efficiency. Other aspects would include simplifying our IP routers for higher efficiency and reliability, while updating the new architecture for access nodes.

Carbajo: We have been constantly changing our organization for increased efficiency by concentrating on core functions. We are studying network functions that can be outsourced, such as network monitoring in different areas or different countries. Other things include new functions that we have not done before optimization of O&M for different networks or monitoring the QoE end-to-end both of which are currently outside the core value of our company. COMMUNICATE: How is Telefnica constructing and optimizing its Global Service Delivery Platform (SDP)? In what ways do you expect the SDP to improve? Carbajo: We need a global service platform as well as an enabler that will allow us to integrate the platform seamlessly in our networks. Standardizing API in Telefnica and, if possible, in the operator community, will be important. We have standardized how service platforms communicate with the BSS, how capabilities are exposed to third parties for service innovation, and also the way that the platform is to be communicated and integrated with different network enablers. This will help us build a global network architecture that is exactly the same in all of our operation units, with common specifications in terms of architecture, development, software, and standardized APIs. COMMUNICATE: As an operator with a global footprint, can you share with us your network operations center experiences? How is Telefnica going to better exploit synergy in this regard? Carbajo: Currently we have 26 network operations centers (NOCs) globally, with different operation procedures, interfaces with vendors, and service-level agreements (SLAs). We are studying the possibility of making them more homogeneous, working more like a global NOC (GNOC). This evolution is expected to have global activities and contingencies backed by local NOCs, while delivering global management of contracts and distributing global/local activities that facilitate efficiency, strategic implementation, and OSS evolution. Knowledge sharing within the group is also important as we develop. We have been sharing useful and successful experiences among our operation units, which relate with different vendors for the different network elements. We study the causes and relevant solutions so that similar incidents are avoided; others can refer to these cases to enhance operational efficiency. Editor: Jason Patterson jason.patterson@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Organizational and operational restructuring

COMMUNICATE: Network transformations often entail organizational restructuring. How is Telefnica going to adjust the organization structure to better support network transformation?

Experts Forum
Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure

Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure

Maria Nahlik, Telenors Technology Architecture VP for its newly-created Group Industrial Development unit, sits down with COMMUNICATE to discuss the operators industrialization efforts, business process & technology platform streamlining, and group-wide standardization activities, and how Huawei fits into them as a trusted industry partner.
By Joyce Fan

he ongoing convergence with adjacent industries creates ecosystems with new opportunities and brings along new players to the competitive landscape. For Telenor, it is essential to be preferred by customers and at the same time be a cost-effective operator. This statement from Telenors Group CEO indicates one of the groups priorities for 2012 driving operational excellence and industrialization, which is now the designated task of a new group unit Group Industrial Development. According to Maria Nahlik, VP of Technology Architecture for this unit, industrialization encompasses business process & technology platform streamlining, group-wide standardization, and the relevant methodologies & tools thereof. She shares her insights with COMMUNICATE regarding what this means in the real world in terms of Telenors IS (information system) and/or IT systems.

IS/IT modernization
COMMUNICATE: How does IS/IT modernization fit into your strategic target of industrialization? Nahlik: Modernization is a tool to achieve (among others) our industrialization target. Lets take the IT area as an example. First, like anybody who owns a system landscape that is more than five years old, we know that it has grown into a heavy-to-manage patchwork. Costs of maintaining and operating 7
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

it have increased accordingly. Modernization, in this respect, is a tool to achieve and maintain the simplicity of the system landscape; in other words, performance with a minimum of resources. Second, we know what pressure on flexibility & performance the business is exerting on the systems. Not only new services, but fundamentally different business models may request high performance and accessibility of services anywhere, on any channel. Rich, structured and consistent information must be intelligently available in real time at any time. Therefore, we need to keep our eyes open modern technology offers better tools every day to achieve our business goals. We can see how, for example, cloud computing, complex event processing, big data, or the Internet of Things give us the opportunities to talk today about applications and business models which have been a dream in the past. Therefore, IS/IT modernization means that we will look into every new tool and technology that allows us to have better integration, faster response times, and more intelligence built into the integration processes. COMMUNICATE: How do the industrialization approaches differ for the IS/IT and network domains and what are their primary challenges? Nahlik: Systems and networks are important objectives of industrialization, but we need to address the broader contexts of strategy, competence, methodology and tools. Industrialization of the network domain, as

Huawei Communicate

IT/IS modernization is a tool to achieve and maintain the simplicity of the system landscape; in other words, performance with a minimum of resources.
Maria Nahlik, VP of Technology Architecture for Group Industrial Development (Telenor)

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Experts Forum
Telenor industrializes IS/IT infrastructure opposed to the IS/IT domain, is strongly supported by general industry standards. Network elements are today much more standardized than IS solutions. However, standardization is easier to define than to implement. In a structure, where independent business units are responsible for their own growth and revenue, driving any change which is not directly triggered by an immediate local business need is a challenge. What we address here is the need to carry out a plan of action that considers the calculated pressures of tomorrow versus the real-life pressures of today; this is the main challenge that we see. What is interesting though is the future. Thinking more out-of-the-box about the future of IS can lead us to the assumption that certain IS/IT solutions, which are today considered differentiators, will become commodities. There is no reason to assume that billing will continue to be, ten years from now, a local problem. The differentiating factors will be the ways the systems are used the amount and quality of data that is manipulated and, more than anything else, the intelligence of integration. the additional costs in terms of network resources for connectivity and integration. COMMUNICATE: What are your top five components/systems to be transformed? Nahlik: This is an interesting question. Before anything else, let me clarify that we are in the beginning of our transformation journey. We have not decided yet about the way we will implement the transformation itself, but we know for sure that at a certain point a holistic approach (building a completely new system rather than gradually transforming system-by-system) can be much more efficient, if the risks are managed and the planning is done well. As I said, this decision has not been made yet, but our architecture approach is currently based on the assumption that this will be achievable. Until then, the first domain that we are targeting for standardization is the integration domain at both the platform and application (business service) levels.

BSS/OSS transformation
COMMUNICATE: BSS/OSS is the most important part of the IS/IT domain. What BSS/ OSS challenges are you facing in your different regions (Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia) and how is Telenor going to costeffectively transform its BSS/OSS systems in these three regions? Nahlik: If we look into the essence of the challenges, they are not very different across the regions. Everywhere, the systems require streamlining. We can see that the older an operation is, the more complexity it has accumulated over time. To transform in a cost-effective way is definitely a goal. However, the most important goal is achieving long-term operational cost efficiency after the transformation. We have several thoughts in this sense; one is reusability, which means that in the architecture, we will focus on the elimination of redundancies. It is common to have multiple rating systems, multiple sales systems, and definitely everywhere we see multiple customer data management solutions within the same business unit. This is the first architecture challenge, and the solution to this is what we call, generically, functional convergence. Second is economies of scale; this means that maintaining one single IS solution stack costs less than maintaining eleven different ones, even if we consider 9
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Applied architecture as a foundation

COMMUNICATE: It seems that architectural innovation would be the first step of BSS/OSS transformation. Can you describe what the target architecture for Telenor would look like? Nahlik: Our target architecture is based on a few basic principles which are well defined at this point in time. I will mention just a few convergence, modularity, and integration-centricity. We target a global back-end which pushes the majority of the functionality towards the business units over the cloud. COMMUNICATE: How do you compare the two approaches to a new architecture best of suite and best of breed? Nahlik: I mentioned modularity as a fundamental principle to achieve flexibility. Rather than buying a monolithic application, we are definitely looking into application components which can be integrated in a flexible way, so that we can respond to the agility requirements of the business. This principle goes against the best-of-suite philosophy. However, if a best-of-suite comes as an open integration of best-ofbreed components, we are happy to start from a preintegrated scenario. Whats important is that the preintegration should not be binding or cast in stone;

Huawei Communicate

this is the essential openness that we require when we look at any system on the market. COMMUNICATE: When the target architecture is ready, what is your next step? Nahlik: The reality is that there is never an end to transformation. In five years, the technology capabilities will require at least a further refinement of the current directions (if we are lucky). In the most extreme case, business model transformations can be very radical. This is the main reason why we target an architecture which is ready to accommodate change rather than a traditional functionally-driven architecture.

provision) and apply them in the telecommunication domain too, in a convergent way. COMMUNICATE: In what aspects do you think Huawei could assist Telenors BSS/OSS transformation journey? What are Huaweis advantages and disadvantages in this field? Nahlik: We look at Huawei as a young and dynamic company with little legacy. This is a good feature for a company that we want to engage into a selection process when it comes to future IS systems. We have found a dynamic and hardworking team with whom it has been a pleasure to cooperate with in the few days we spent on our Joint Innovation Center project. There are many advantages for Huawei when it comes to providing future-oriented, SOA-based pre-integrated components. We are looking forward to discovering together, in this project, how loosely coupled the pre-integrated components are and, moreover, what are the future directions for the architecture of the billing and CRM solutions, as well as how the roadmap will evolve into the direction of modularity and open integration. We need to mention though that, given the architecture principles that we have enumerated above, we will look very seriously at selecting a vendor on the integrator market. It still remains to be discussed whether Huawei can or wants to play this role. Editor: Jason Patterson jason.patterson@huawei.com

Partners for a future IS/IT system

COMMUNICATE: When it comes to selecting a key partner for BSS/OSS transformation, what are your criteria? Nahlik: Innovation and proven experience with similar transformations; forward-leaning thinking; and readiness to challenge and transform those traditional elements of the IS architecture which have caused, in the past, the most issues. This implies that the selected partner is willing to look into fundamentally new principles which exist that have already been implemented in other industries (such as OTT service

About Telenor Group Industrial Development Unit

The telecom industry is undergoing significant changes to its ecosystem of customers, operators, device vendors and service providers. Telenor Groups strategy is based on two main pillars: being preferred by customers and becoming a more cost-efficient operator through a combination of cross border and market specific efficiency measures. To achieve these goals Telenor established the two new units, Digital Services and Group Industrial Development, in 2011. Digital Services was established to strengthen Telenors ability to differentiate through innovation and partnerships, and to create future revenues by launching new services. Industrial Development will leverage the combined strength of Telenors global footprint and technological leadership to drive industrialization and the companys relentless focus on operational excellence. Source: Telenor Annual Report 2011

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

10

Experts Forum Experts Forum

Next-gen CDN is ready for its closeup

Liang Jie is Technical Director of China Telecoms Department of Public Customers, specializing in Internet applications, triple-play, pipe intelligence and IPTV.

Next-gen CDN
Next-gen content delivery networking, through its mixture of openness, capacity, and diversity, is now ready to take on the next generation of video content, making it a crucial technology for any operator looking to stay relevant.
By Liang Jie & Chen Ge, Guangzhou Research Institute, China Telecom

is ready for its closeup

he content delivery network (CDN) market has been stagnant in recent years as expansions in IP bandwidth have made content push to the network edge unnecessary. The industry has also been under the illusion that P2P development makes CDN redundant while in fact IP bandwidth expansion cannot work in tandem with the development of IPTV and Internet video services. In addition, P2P is difficult to popularize; this stems from insufficient client support and QoS guarantees. CDN facilitates both the ease and the speed of content access, thanks to its server proximity to the end user. Its development has turned over a new leaf, as next-gen CDN products can now accommodate high-definition, long-tailed, and multiformat video content with superior QoS.

urbanites). The growing variety of online video content has propelled some of the operators provincial branches to include Petabyte-level content storage in their IPTV blueprint. However, only a small fraction of online content is well received (most is rarely clicked). To ensure search & playback for more obscure content, CDN must deliver more robust media stream processing and accurate scheduling capabilities.

Multiscreen content
Video service is no longer exclusive to televisions; multiscreen services are emerging. Statistics indicate that global revenue for these services will hit USD18.6 billion in 2012, with the number of users expected to reach 64 million. Multiscreen services should eventually encourage flawless integration of the service plane, control plane, and bearer plane. To enhance highly differentiated user experiences, a CDN needs to intelligently adapt content to whatever screen is in use.

CDNs new mission

Diverse HD content
As access networks have evolved from ADSL to FTTH, China Telecom has initiated its Broadband Optical Network project to cover all Chinese cities with fiber within three years, which should translate to a ten-fold increase in connection speed (to over 20Mbps for 11
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Scalability and reliability

As IPTV, Internet TV and OTT applications are growing rapidly, a highly scalable and reliable CDN system is needed so that time-to-market is shortened and

Huawei Communicate

Chen Ge is Project Manager of China Telecoms Department of Public Customers, specializing in content security, triple-play, pipe intelligence and IPTV.

duplicated construction is reduced. A CDN system should be scalable to accommodate new services such as self-adaptive media streaming. In addition, error tolerance and fault correction for streaming media are also critical to system reliability, as are robustness, redundancy and smooth expandability.

Key technologies
CDN interconnection
Next-gen CDN operates on the content transmission layer, which manages data distribution. However, a CDN system entails clear definition of its components, with media signaling, media service and user content scheduling as the key foci, so the content and interconnected interfaces need to be simple, easy-to-use, and standardized. China Telecom has been working on this and intends to promote it in the future. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has also formed a Content Distribution Network Interconnection (CDNI) working group to facilitate CDN global interconnectivity. To accomplish the ultimate goal a resource pool accessible by multiple operators the proposed CDNI standards by the working group pertain primarily to request router interconnection, as well as the exchange of content distribution metadata, control protocols, and log/report information.

The former requires less CAPEX but delivers inferior performance (high OPEX) while the latter boasts superior performance but higher CAPEX, especially when deployed on a large scale. Next-gen CDN typically employs x86 architecture with both high input/output (IO) storage controllers and high-speed storage. The crux of the current hardware architecture lies in storage IO. Next-gen CDN mixes solid-state disk (SSD) and serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) technology to optimize the balance between storage IO and capacity. Testing indicates that next-gen CDN can increase overall performance five to ten fold without a proportional increase in hardware cost, while the average cost per line drops significantly.

satisfactory experience, which means that bit rates must flexibly adapt to the bandwidth at hand. Next-gen CDN will have the self-adaptive streaming media technology necessary to accomplish this.

Next-gen CDN applications

For operators with current-gen CDN, smooth upgrade is of paramount importance. The initial step is software upgrade; standard interfaces must be leveraged to interconnect external systems. To ensure stability, the legacy CDNs core scheduling algorithm might remain unchanged. If conditions permit, the upgrade will proceed to a new hardware platform for phase-out scheduling of legacy CDN equipment. For new construction, deployment is relatively simple, but CDN node location requires extreme caution, as next-gen CDN equipment often has a capacity that can overwhelm edge routers. Great care must be taken here. Substantial breakthroughs have been made in terms of the key technologies for CDN, leading to great improvements in performance, standardization and scalability. This has motivated market leaders such as China Telecom, France Telecom, Akamai, and Comcast to make the leap into next-gen CDN, with the latter now offering a cloud-based ondemand CDN that makes thousands of the MSOs titles available to third-party operators, without the need for them to upgrade their local storage. With these industry leaders already making a push into CDN, this once stale technology has a bright future. Editor: Linda xushenglan@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Format independence
Under the traditional push mechanism, the requested content would be redirected to a CDN node at a higher level if content retrieval fails. All CDN nodes are responsible for both content distribution and media services, and thus susceptible to media format changes. Given such problems, next-gen CDN explicitly distinguishes the content distribution system from the media service system, with both cascaded by the HTTP interface. The content distribution system distributes content files or live broadcast fragments to nodes at a lower level. When media formats change, only the media server requires upgrade; the CDNs normal operation is unaffected.

Enhanced hardware architecture

Traditional CDN hardware takes two distinctly different forms general purpose servers and dedicated hardware.

Adaptive streaming media

Not every terminal needs the same amount of bandwidth to yield a

12

Experts Forum Experts Forum

Next-gen CDN is ready for its closeup E2E Managed Services for Better Business Value

Richard Wong has more than 15 years of experience in the telecommunication industry. He is currently responsible for marketing communications in the Assurance and Managed Services Department at Huawei.

E2E managed services for better business value

Huaweis end-to-end managed services promise operators gains in both revenue & margin, as well as enhanced operational efficiency and improved end-user experience.
By Richard Wong & Giles Vincent

Managed services is going mainstream

anaged services (MS) has seen remarkable growth in the telecom sector over the last few years. The key market drivers for its adoption vary by region, but OPEX reduction, network complexity, customer satisfaction, and time-to-market are often involved. In mature markets such as Europe, where mobile penetration exceeds 100%, operators need to reduce costs to improve their bottom line. With economic and budgetary crises complicating the matter, outsourcing of peripheral functions has become imperative. In emerging markets such as India, time-to-market (TTM) is a key factor, as operators lack the resources needed for timely rollout in these highgrowth territories. However, all operators are challenged by telecom-IT convergence (which could have a great impact on future growth areas such as ICT and cloud service) as subscribers now demand a consistent experience regardless of the terminal involved. This requires industry-wide evolution that encompasses the cloud, pipe, and device.

Furthermore, subscriber acquisition & retention costs are increasing while revenues are declining, as more and more service providers are competing and vying for the end users attention. To address these challenges, operators are increasingly turning to managed services.

Growth, innovation, partnership

Huawei fully comprehends the challenges that operators face. We aim to function as a transformation enabler that helps them cope with the dynamics of the industrys value-chain evolution, which means that Huawei has also had to transform from a traditional to a next-gen MS provider. This has involved Huawei shifting its focus from mere network metrics (KPIs) to the enduser experience (KQIs), no easy task considering our hard-core engineering background. We have evolved our focus from traditional network MS to ICT MS, which equates to value-chain evolution rather than mere technology evolution, culminating in clear improvements in revenue & margin, customer experience, and operational efficiency for operators. Huawei has invested in and continues

13

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

Giles Vincent is Senior Consultant at Huawei Managed Services. He specializes in new business development & consulting and C-level relationship building and has extensive GNOC implementation and business intelligence project experience across Western Europe, Africa, and Asia.

to invest in organizations, business platforms, and tools related to MS. Out of our 22,000 professional services staff members, over 6,000 work in managed services. MS represents the turning over of a key element of any operators future growth to a third party, so trust counts under these circumstances as much as skill; but carriers need not worry, as Huawei partnerships are open and transparent. The operator will retain full network visibility through Huaweis tailored customer interface, while also maintaining control over its own business and network strategy; through these portals, operators can view their network from end to end. Huaweis primary MS offerings fall under EOT (establish, operate & transfer), outsourcing, and hosting. EOT ensures rapid TTM, particularly for greenfielders, while network outsourcing reduces OPEX and simplifies internal processes along with O&M. Hosting simplifies the business model, allowing operators to test and launch new services in a very short time at minimal risk. Huawei has pioneered a wealth of innovations to support its customers. Our TM Forum-certified MS Unified Platform (MSUP) is based on eTOM and ITIL standards for ICT convergence management. Huawei has also been a significant contributor to the TM Forum and is currently participating in their innovation program, known as Catalyst, where Huawei, together with other service providers, vendors, and partners, has launched a project to study suitable eTOM and ITIL implementation methods for service assurance, which will prove vital as it

enables a comprehensive view of the network, application, and business layers. Huaweis state-of-the-art OSS tool (E-iNOC), which is integrated with the MSUP framework, has both service quality and multi-vendor management capabilities, which are some of the key reasons why operators are increasingly partnering with us, as is the fact that the employees that transfer to Huawei will have a great opportunity to advance themselves at a fast-growing global Fortune 500 company. As of the end of 2011, Huawei has signed over 250 MS contracts in over 60 countries, accounting for over a quarter of a billion subscribers; this helped prompt Frost & Sullivan to bestow upon Huawei its Global Growth and Innovation in Telecom Managed Services award in November of that year.

tools and processes needed to keep the network running. Each GNOC includes E-iNOC, which further leverages synergies with GTAC, GNAC and GSRC to resolve network issues more quickly and provide end-to-end services such as performance benchmarking, optimization, design, and customer support, resulting in improved overall value for customers. Field management innovation With field operations constituting nearly 70% of an operators OPEX, Huawei has developed an onsite management tool that takes optimization to the next level. Huaweis Work Force Management System (WFMS) is a strategic cornerstone of our managed services, thanks to its coverage of all management aspects of the complete workforce lifecycle and offering of key insights into how best to optimize field operations. Its dynamic and intelligent scheduling application utilizes a patented heuristic-based algorithm that optimally dispatches field engineers in a timely manner so that service commitments are honored. Using predefined rules to optimally schedule people, spare parts and vehicles, Huaweis WFMS assigns the right field engineer with the right skills to the right job at the right time. Once an engineer is assigned, through Huaweis knowledge database, standard operating procedures and other reference data, such as three-month site audits, are sent to his/her handheld device to speed up fault resolution. The WFMS also produces comprehensive reports that are monitored and analyzed by the MAI (Monitor, Analyze & Improve)
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Better business value

Huawei offers a full E2E managed services suite, enabling the following benefits for the operator.

Operational excellence
Huawei leverages its standardized MSUP, which covers processes, tools, and overall organization, as an enabler of operational transformation. E-iNOC, which falls under this platform, features a variety of TM Forum-certified processes that play an important role in the platforms support of service delivery, while enhancing operational efficiency. GNOC for synergy & efficiency Huawei GNOCs facilitate customer operations by scaling down the resources,

14

Experts Forum
E2E managed services for better business value team. This innovation allows the workforce to be as productive as possible at reduced cost. Our solution not only improves field efficiency through improved workforce management efficiency, but also improves customer experience through reduced network downtime. Network interruptions are reduced, both in number and duration, through improved maintenance (preventative & corrective). Thanks to Huawei MS, a certain global operator based in Europe now enjoys a nearly 30% improvement in field efficiency at 20% less manpower, with trouble ticket-handling capabilities improvements of roughly 20% as a bonus; this has helped lead to a significant reduction in OPEX. NOC efficiency management Operators today are under enormous pressure to tighten their belts through increased efficiency, reduced waste, ensured alignment between the operational support platform & processes, IT & network compatibility, and operational maturation that can enhance the delivery of convergent nextgen services. Huawei has an innovative set of process KPIs and employs an expert MS team to manage and execute them. Huaweis MSUP-based process KPI system covers the full range of NOC activities, where said KPIs represent key elements of operational efficiency such as mean time to trouble ticket response (MTTR), mean time to alarm response, and front office/back office efficiency. By utilizing our E-iNOC dashboard, which shows real-time SLA, OLA, and process KPIs, this system gives a top-down analysis of overall performance, meaning that the NOC operations team can utilize Huawei archives to determine problems and streamline processes. Huawei has gone a step further by setting up a global team to create a culture of continuous improvement. The teams sole job is monitoring, analysis, and improvement, based on Huaweis vast MS experience, which ensures operational excellence. With Huawei, operators can measure and quantify operational efficiency and analyze problems in terms of time, quality, and effectiveness. Furthermore, the MAI team can measure, benchmark, standardize, compare and analyze an organizations infrastructure and processes for continuous improvement. After implementation with a Middle Eastern operator, the first-time fault resolution rate improved by over 40%, while customer complaint MTTR declined by nearly 60%. 15
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Revenue enhancement
To help operators exploit growth opportunities and improve their bottom line, Huawei has developed a number of revenue enhancement solutions. Revenue assurance Loss of revenue due to billing & charging complexity, inaccurate data input, invalid correction & discount control, ineffective payment collection, and bad debt management, remains a major challenge for operators. The primary causes of revenue leakage include network configuration changes, tariff configurations, and poor system integration during the CDR processing cycle. Huawei, through its understanding of the revenue cycle, can help operators reduce the potential impact and risk of revenue leakage through its revenue assurance processes, tools, and expertise. Our methodology is based on statistical sampling derived from global experiences with detecting revenue losses; this enables close monitoring of revenue performance in key areas such as ARPU, subscriber growth, fraud, and revenue loss. Huawei personnel will conduct management interviews and analyze findings across various control points to identify and isolate root causes, after which proven remedies are implemented. As an example, Huawei has been able to improve the billing accuracy for a certain African operator from approximately 70% to 90%, leading to fewer customer complaints. Revenue generation Huawei is the only leading telecom equipment vendor to address both the enterprise and device segments, making us uniquely suited to address the revenue enhancement needs of its customers. Huawei can comprehensively enhance the subscriber experience by assuring system availability and designing profitable applications suitable for any market. Huaweis MS team works closely with the operators marketing team to understand customer behavior through analysis of usage patterns and market conditions. We will then create a suitable ecosystem by bringing in SPs and CPs, through our inTouch partnership program, to jointly design the appropriate pricing/marketing strategy, as Huaweis SDP creates a platform for CPs/SPs so that the market base is reached quickly and easily. With our large network of partners and cloud infrastructure, Huawei can offer sustainable growth

Huawei Communicate

opportunities to customers. For a certain global operator that was struggling with service TTM and network integration complexities, Huawei deployed a multi-regional, layered SDP architecture that connected thirteen countries, thus creating a standard managed platform for service launch. Huawei provided an E2E MS solution where the scope of work encompassed service planning, marketing operations support, partner management, application customization, and SDP platform O&M. Huaweis MS team also helped the operator aggregate over 300 CP/SP partners. The results were quite noticeable, as the customers service TTM dropped from about 6 months to 5-6 weeks, while VAS penetration increased significantly. In addition, Huawei offers an innovative and flexible business model to meet the needs of a variety of scenarios. Hosting services reduce the need for capital investment by customers, allowing them to float outside-the-box ideas at minimal risk and CAPEX. Using Huaweis hosted SDP, a South Asian operator increased its ARPU by around 25%, while shortening its TTM from seven weeks to less than five days.

Customer satisfaction
The subscriber is an operators most important asset, as even the most efficient network in the world will do nothing to reduce churn. Over the last two years, Huawei has been looking at ways to improve the end-user experience. This has involved a holistic approach, where alarms and performance thresholds are monitored at the network level, while the service level has encompassed dropped call rates and web browsing delays. This comprehensiveness allows Huawei to identify areas requiring capacity or coverage expansion; troubleshoot latent issues before customers complain; address user complaints with network performance reports; and optimize the overall network and operational processes. For operators who want to take the end-user experience to the next level for the complete endto-end system of devices, networks, services, and infrastructure, Huawei has invested over USD35 million to develop a range of solutions under the brand name of HUAWEI SmartCare. This service is an MS supplement where a tailored solution is identified and agreed upon with each operator after in-depth analysis and discussion. It might involve the collection of data for individual customers to understand their experiences, followed by extensive customer surveys to ascertain application

and usage behavior. HUAWEI SmartCare addresses both SQM and CEM (Customer Experience Management) for an E2E solution by extending the focus from purely per service (PS) or per user (PU) to a per service per user (PSPU) model. The huge volumes of data collected are analyzed by highly-experienced staff using unique Huawei-designed algorithms. Huaweis R&D has further improved QoE accuracy through the development of an innovative & industry-leading framework, as well as equally cutting-edge methods for customer experience indicator (CEI) modeling. This aforementioned framework is so advanced that it has already been awarded three patents and is setting the industry standard for others to follow. An important component of our solution is its ability to manage rapidly growing multi-vendor and multi-technology networks with diverse standards. Huawei has already implemented SmartCare in a variety of Asian markets, reducing the number of customer experience complaints for a certain operator in the region by 28%. Through this service, carriers are now starting to transform their O&M processes from KPI to QoE orientation. Through our business platforms, processes and tools, Huawei has developed a range of managed services delivery capabilities which refine network process for the operator and enhance service quality for the end user. Huawei will continue to invest in all aspects of MS in order to deliver the highest business value to our customers. Editor: Yao Haifei julia.yao@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

16

Business Insights

Telcos have much to learn from the OTT disruptors if they are to stay on top in the home entertainment game.

BUSINESS INSIGHTS
17
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

18 21 25

Internet video services: Who will reign? Huawei convergent billing Making LTE work for you

Who will reign?

Netflix has already buried one content distribution giant (Blockbuster) who kept its head in the sand for too long; if operators wish to avoid the same fate, they would be wise to integrate the formers technological advantages into their own set-top boxes so that a new all-screen experience is available that does far more than just play video.
By Liu Jinming, Ju Degang & Lv Xudong

Internet video services

n October 2006, Internet giant Google acquired YouTube for USD1.65 billion. This represented the dawn of Internet video as a profit-making endeavor. Since that time, overthe-top (OTT) video has only flourished. In the first quarter of 2011, Netflix, the leading provider of copyrighted OTT video, surpassed Comcast, a wellestablished U.S. cable TV operator, in subscriber base, representing a milestone in Internet video business development. However, for OTT video, this is just the beginning. According to Display Search, global shipments of smart TVs (those that connect to Internet video services) will grow from 60 million sets in 2011 to 138 million in 2015, bringing the cumulative total to 500 million units. In the tablet market, Canalys data shows that global shipments for the fourth quarter of

2011 surged 274% (y/y) to 26.5 million, making it the fastest-growing segment among smart terminals. Morgan Stanley expects smartphone shipments to outstrip PCs in 2012 and to continue going strong. Given OTTs burgeoning subscribership and smart terminals surging uptake, questions arise as to how much need remains for traditional video channels and whether or not OTT video services will become the mainstream.

Netflix: A success story

Netflix was founded in 1997 as a sort of DVD-by -mail service, a bold move at the time considering the fact that Amazon was still five years away from turning a profit. Thanks to its lack of brick & mortar costs
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

18

Business Insights
Internet video services: Who will reign?
DVD retail, 3 months DVD rental, 4 months Cable VOD, 6 months OTT/PPV, 7-11 months Pay TV channel, 1 year Basic TV channel, 2-3 years Cinema release Time after cinema release

Figure 1 Time windows for video release

(and low oil prices at the time), it was able to offer at reasonable prices a huge catalog of the sort of specialty titles that the likes of Blockbuster (then the undisputed king of video rental in the U.S.) couldnt be bothered with. Whats more, Netflix had to do all this despite a great deal of mockery in the court of public opinion (what kind of weirdo has videos delivered to his house?). As the be kind, rewind era gave way to DVD, Blockbuster refused to significantly alter its business model (it basically charged the same money for DVD rental as it had for VHS, even though DVDs are much cheaper and dont wear out like tapes do). Netflix, on the other hand, kept its prices in check and continued to build a catalog of the sort of titles that enthusiasts were willing to pay a premium for to have delivered to their homes. In 2008, Netflix successfully transitioned to online video service provisioning, leveraging emerging broadband and Internet video technologies along the way. In 2010, it overtook Blockbuster as the largest U.S. online DVD rental provider, with the latter having declared bankruptcy. What makes the success of Netflix all the more impressive is the fact that it has remained successful despite it being in its third epoch of home media consumption. Several factors have combined to keep it on top in online video. Early-bird discounts From 2008 to 2010, Netflix acquired a large amount of high-quality content at a low price, before everyone else in the industry began appreciating OTTs channel value. This gave Netflix a pricing advantage and grace period for developing subscribers. Multi-terminal application Netflix leveraged mobile Internet to implement the Netflix Everywhere strategy, which has enabled content access from virtually any terminal, be it a game console, smartphone, or tablet. Favorable industry environment An open approach toward video service regulation in the U.S., strict content copyright management, and a 19
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

reasonably mature OTT service environment, all gave impetus to Netflixs rapid development. In particular, the North American market boasts high consumer readiness for paid content, high-quality cloud computing services (such as Amazons), and a variety of inexpensive and accessible CDN services (such as Akamai and Level3). In such an environment, Netflix can minimize its data center burdens. However, things have not been all wine & roses for Netflix. Its recent missteps have been well documented, most notably its disastrous attempt to spin off its DVD business. Now that the company has been proven mortal, its former admirers have started noticing other chinks in the armor, including rising content costs, slower user uptake, pricing & portfolio issues, and other risks endemic to its international push. In three months, the companys value fell from USD15 billion to USD4 billion. However, this is largely a problem for the shareholders. Netflixs market dominance remains unchallenged (its monthly downloaded content passed one billion hours this past June); operators would be smart to remember this.

Are we ready or not?

According to a 2011 forecast by Ovum, Internet video services, as a percentage of global video revenue (including physical media), will be 4% in 2015, a small but worrisome figure if you are a non-OTT player. On the surface, the fight for video content supremacy might seem a fight to the death, but the content sources have a vested interest in keeping each & every competitor buying licenses. Today, this is largely being done through release windows (Fig. 1). A viable alternative for the operator is the high-value pay TV (PTV) package, which allows paid subscribers free content access over other screens. HBO GO is such an offering, where HBO subscribers access HBO online content from multiple screens for free. Such

Huawei Communicate

offerings will probably enable traditional channel and OTT coexistence for the foreseeable future. Pay TV providers must learn from their Internet video peers about the latest innovations in OTT technology, business modeling, and user experience, and build a next-generation IP video platform proactively and continuously. When it comes to selection of an IP video platform, there are four key questions that operators need to answer.

exploring new business models such as B2B and B2B2C, grasp potential content futures ahead of others, gain a say in the OVP industry, and start to set the rules.

How do we keep it social?

European and American operators, headed by Verizon, are rolling out PaaS cloud services for content owners, such as the Verizon Digital Media Service (VDMS), which represent a new form of OVP plus CDN service. It wont be long before operators migrate their professional content services on their current PTV platforms to this new cloud-based technology, enabling a platform for connected TV across any screen. Social networks have become a key information source for their users, which means that operators IP video platforms must play nice with them if they wish to truly make TV more sociable. This might involve embedded social network applications in TV sets, program recommendation and sharing among users, and content discovery via SNS.

Are we replaceable?
OTT, technically, is a new method for highquality TV/video content transfer over the Internet. Its centerpiece technology is Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR), which adopts the HTTP protocol for video stream partitioning and can maximally reuse the existing Internet infrastructure while eliminating the need for expensive dedicated video servers; any Apache server that supports the HTTP1.1 protocol can be used. ABR is also able to transfer the video stream at different bit rates (in line with network QoS changes), enabling both transport network decoupling and a dramatic reduction in network infrastructure upgrade costs related to high-quality video content. This is made possible through the migration of the networks adaptive intelligent processing from the server end to the client end, which automatically and heuristically selects the bit rate suitable for the current network QoS, in light of changes to network transport conditions. Even when the underlying network fails to support the IP multicast protocol, OTT can still leverage integrated CDN technology to stream multicast and unicast, and efficiently provide linear or on-demand video services. Given OTTs notable advantage over traditional IPTV, its priority in any IP video platform is natural. Operators are actively following Netflixs lead in utilizing OTT technology, serving broadband users irrespective of bearer network or terminal.

How does the box fit in?

Operators are looking to integrate more and more telecom and data services into the STB. This will mean a reversal of the trend of lowering STB prices at the expense of software and hardware functions. Operators are already starting to launch smart STBs equipped with attractive and differentiated functions & services that they hope users will find worthy and willing to pay for. Certainly, TVs will remain the primary terminal for home users to watch high-quality video, which means that operators will still focus on the STB for the foreseeable future, though in more diverse forms, due to user experience and business model considerations. Given the lifecycle for TVs (7 to 8 years) and the much shorter cycle for video transmission technology and business modeling, STBs are not going anywhere for a while. Operators IP video platforms are sure to evolve from IP interactive TV platforms that offer VOD services to multiscreen connected TV platforms with an STB as the heart of both content distribution and social interaction. Despite Netflixs current woes, Internet video will continue to flourish. Operators, on the strength of their huge current subscriber base, can regain their traction by leveraging the technology advantages of Internet video to transform both their user experiences and business model. With a next-generation IP video platform in place, operators can remain king of the screen.
Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

How do we deal with OVP?

The Online Video Platform (OVP) has become a buzzword in recent years and represents what Internet players such as YouTube and Brightcove provide for enterprises and individual users. Operators are looking for new business models that leverage it. As high-quality video content production costs decrease, it is likely that there will be a tremendous need in the future for professional content producers, enterprises, and even individuals to produce, transfer, and monetize mass high-quality content intended for end users. To harness this demand, operators need to keep

20

Business Insights
Huawei CBS R5: Agile growth, flexible billing

Huawei CBS R5 Agile growth, flexible billing

By Michael Chan

he proliferation of third-party services, applications, and contents, coupled with the emergence of new business models for MBB, MVNO, M2M, and cloudbased services, represents an unparalleled business expansion opportunity for operators but also a tremendous challenge in terms of billing, which can now encompass anything from simple voice to quad-play, with the latter representing services beyond the traditional telco sphere (third-party multimedia, e-books, and even consumer goods). Pricing plans can range from simple to complex to unheard-of; flexibility is key, which is why Huawei has developed CBS Release 5, its latest convergent BSS billing solution. CBS R5 is designed to enable agile business expansion, with flexible billing for all business categories. Specifically, this involves commercial benefits in three key areas business agility, revenue growth & protection, and cost efficiency. Operators who respond swiftly to ever-changing market requirements and trends grab the lions share of customer spending, but this kind of agility requires flexibility. CBS R5 offers both flexibility and configurability through modular architecture for flexible distributed deployment and unified customer hierarchy. Billing customization is also enabled in terms of format and delivery (billing-on-demand), while agility is enhanced through centralized operational management that efficiently oversees all billing operations, including charge processing, billing, and revenue audit. With CBS R5, millions of subscribers can be billed in a matter of hours. Among telcos, revenue growth largely is what it is and nothing more. To bring profits back into the equation, CBS R5 provides a full range of real-time charging models that range from voice & simple data to tiered, content-based, and/or policy-based charging. Innovative product bundling discounts can be fashioned quickly, with dynamic real-time discounts also available, based on time of day and subscriber location. Revenue growth is important,

but so is leakage. CBS R5 provides end-to-end revenue assurance tools that minimize bill shock and service outages. CBS R5s components are pre-integrated to reduce total cost of ownership, while its conformance with industry standards protects your investment and reduces costs while enabling smooth BSS and IT transformation. With the benefits it delivers, CBS R5 makes for an exceptional operational experience.

Business agility
CBS R5 converges heterogeneous services, billing (including that for third-party services), m u l t i p l e p a y m e n t m e t h o d s , a n d d i f f e re n t customer categories, all onto a single platform. With CBS R5, gone will be the frustration and cost of managing disparate silos, duplicated and asynchronous customer & product data, and disjointed business processes.

Accelerated TTM
CBS R5 provides flexible GUI-based product, tariff, and charging configuration. Flexible charging factors such as quality of service (QoS) and handset type can be defined. Based on Huaweis experiences with global operators, CBS R5 can meet at least 85% of billing requirements by configuration alone, without customization or code changes. Configuration data can be versioned for analysis or for rollback purposes, while data can be imported from or exported to other systems. Policy templates encompass price planning, discount, penalties, notifications, and rewards; all can be reused to further accelerate time to market (TTM). Flexibility can be a double-edged sword. Without quality assurance, hasty changes may lead to incorrect billing and revenue leakage. To mitigate this, CBS R5 provides online GUI-based

21

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

testing and simulation tools that ensure that new and/or adjusted products are thoroughly tested prior to release. Testing is comprehensive, from event configuration to simulated billing. CBS R5s modular architecture allows functional modules to be distributed over multiple servers the billing engine might be on one server with rating on another. Multiple rating engines can be also used or added to balance the load, enabling smooth expansion. A distributed architecture facilitates cloud-based deployment involving shared resources for individual modules. This not only reduces billing-related OPEX, it also brings billing as a service (BaaS) within reach.

progress can be monitored online, without the need to wait hours for failures to reveal themselves.

Revenue growth & protection

In a d d i t i o n t o vo i c e c h a r g i n g , C B S R 5 comes with built-in charging models for data & broadband services; these include tiered pricing based on QoS and data volume, content-based charging, bundling (voice, data and content) for both fixed and mobile, and policy-based charging (3GPP PCRF standards), with the latter enabling services such as bandwidth-on-demand, IMEIbased charging (handset category), and dynamic charging, which might involve QoS based on the pre-paid balance. Dynamic discount, based on location and time, is also supported. A subscriber might receive a real-time data usage discount in a less congested area during non-peak hours, which should help inspire brand loyalty. CBS R5 offers a revenue assurance toolbox to help eliminate revenue leakage. Revenue audit is done end-to-end, from event collection to rating to invoicing. Account balance auditing, rental fee deduction failure auditing, and recharge balance auditing are just some of the tools. Another form of revenue leakage is bad debt, which has various causes; bill shock is one of them,

Smart operations
CBS R5 uses a unified customer hierarchy model to support all customer types, including individuals, families, and enterprises. Charges can be redirected from one user account to another in the hierarchy, based on location, time, spending threshold, service type, and subscriber type; data charges incurred during office hours can be charged to a personal account or a company account. This unified customer hierarchy also allows billing at virtually any level or node in the hierarchy; a single bill can be generated for the entire hierarchy, or for a specific group of users belonging to a corporate department. This hierarchy also enables resource sharing; an MBB data package with a monthly data quota of 5GB can be shared by all family members. CBS R5 sets an agility benchmark for the industry as it can complete a billing run for 70 million subscribers in only 8 hours. This has been achieved through intelligent operational streamlining; tasks such as rating, charging, accumulation, and error resolution can be performed on a real-time basis, as opposed to waiting for billing. Other activities, such as recurring charge calculation & charge reconciliation, traditionally done during billing, can be scheduled to run daily. To enhance operational efficiency, CBS R5 provides an intuitive & centralized management GUI for scheduling and monitoring background tasks such as billing, re-rating, and error CDR recycling. Billing

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

22

Business Insights
Huawei CBS R5: Agile growth, flexible billing especially in the data area. CBS R5 allows operators to put real-time spending controls into the hands of subscribers, who can configure spending thresholds as desired. Once thresholds are reached, real-time notifications are sent, thus eliminating bill shock.

Business expansion scenarios

CBS R5 provides abundant opportunities for operators to expand their businesses into MBB, enterprise, MVNO, and emerging businesses such as M2M and cloud services.

Cost efficiency
When operators implement BSS or IT transformation, it must be standards-based or chaos will ensue. Even as CBS R5 transforms billing from a back-office task to a strategic tool, it continues to conform to industry standards from the 3GPP and the TM Forum Information Framework SID model. In terms of finance, a standards-based solution reduces integration cost and accelerates system implementation time, especially when there are other third-party systems to integrate. CBS R5s key components are pre-integrated, including the engines for billing, accounts receivable, debt collection, general ledger, real-time rating & charging, account balance management (ABM), unified product catalog, offline & online mediation, PCRF, and billing care. In addition, CBS R5 can be integrated with third-party systems for CRM, data warehousing, ABM, PCRF, and business intelligence (BI). This pre-integrated approach reduces CAPEX & OPEX, and accelerates the launch of convergent services.

MBB
MBB is increasingly viewed as a major service differentiator. Operators can monetize MBB services through CBS R5s ability to deliver innovative services such as bandwidth-on-demand and application-specific packages. With its policybased control and flexible notification configuration functionality, bill shock can be prevented.

Enterprise
CBS R5 provides a flexible customer hierarchy that can effectively model an organizations structure, while allowing billing at any level. Charges incurred by any employee can be paid for by any department, while dual billing or split billing (where payments are made by the company or employee), depending on factors such as location, time, and service type, are also enabled.

MVNO
Operators are increasingly expanding their

23

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

businesses through MVNOs that target specific market segments, both foreign and domestic. These subsidiaries require billing support almost immediately. CBS R5 has multi-tenant capability; a new, independent, and separate billing environment for a new MVNO can be configured on an existing CBS R5 platform, which may already be serving other MVNOs. Each operator on the same platform has its own subscribers, services, product offerings, SIM cards, number management tools, currencies, tax schemes, time zones, bill cycles and notifications. With this centralized billing approach, the cost of billing operations for a new MVNO is a fraction of the operations cost of the typical dedicated on-site billing system.

for cloud services such as infrastructure use on a pay-as-you-go or subscription-based model.

For the future

Third-parties are now common at every point in the telco ecosystem. Whether it is MBB, M2M, or cloud service, any business model is likely to be two-sided. Many service & content providers deliver their services over the operators wireless network (smart pipe). In return, operators act as the sales channels. Third-party sales & delivery may be done through the operators portal, under names such as e-shop, digital shopping mall, or e-storefront. Third parties concentrate on enriching their offerings, while operators add value through billing (third-party billing) and payment brokerage. Wholesale billing & settlement will take place between third-parties and operators. Operators can offer creative bundles & discounts for telco and non-telco services & content. This might involve the charge for an e-book being added to the phone bill, leading to a 5% discount on data usage for the month, while ten e-books lead to a 10% discount. Customers are probably the biggest winners as they enjoy better pricing, truly convergent billing for telco and non-telco services, and the use of a single point of contact with the operator, thanks to CBS R5. Editor: Joyce Fan joyce_fan@huawei.com

Billing for emerging businesses

CBS R5s flexibility lays a solid foundation for billing of emerging businesses such as M2M and cloud services. For vertical industries such as utilities, CBS R5 can be utilized for smart meter billing. Products & tariffs can be configured for new events by type, charging unit (meter unit), location, meter ID, day, and time. Metering events are sent wirelessly to the operator on a realtime basis for charging. A convergent retail bill is then sent to the subscriber that encompasses both telecom and utility charges, leading to revenue settlement between the operator and utility company. In the cloud space, CBS R5 can charge

Customers are probably the biggest winners as they enjoy better pricing, truly convergent billing for telco and non-telco services, and the use of a single point of contact with the operator, thanks to CBS R5.

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

24

Business Insights
Making LTE work for you

Making LTE work for you

Huaweis solutions keep operators on the cutting edge of user expectations. Its LTE offerings enable all-purpose functionality for the consumer or enterprise, while its eMBMS solution will keep advertisers coming back for more.
By Yu Wenyong
LTE operators are beginning to favor it as it is relatively easy to deploy and inexpensive, while offering a quick turnaround. Huawei delivers just such a solution in BWA, which covers deployment, authentication, maintenance, and billing. The latter is par ticularly important as this solution has the flexibility to encompass both specific (where individual users must be distinguished) and non-specific scenarios. Wi-Fi users can connect to the Internet through LTE, in a variety of situations. The first is through a fixed location such as a home, school, or commercial district. In areas with poor fixed infrastructure, mobile operators can fill the data service void by providing a s u p e r b LT E - b a s e d m o b i l e d a t a experience to users of Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The second involves mobile scenarios such as buses and subways. These places have proven tough to cover with WiFi, but no longer. In March 2012, China Mobile Zhejiang (Zhejiang Mo b i l e ) t e a m e d u p w i t h Hu a we i to deploy the worlds first TD-LTE bus line in Hangzhou city, covering twenty Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stops and 55 vehicles with 130 LTE+WiFi (LTE-Fi) devices. Users with Wi-Fienabled devices are free to connect to the Internet via the TD-LTE network, whether at a bus stop or in transit. For this trial period, 8,000 users have logged on daily, sending & receiving roughly 100MB a piece (totaling 800GB). Bus

TE will enter the mainstream in 2012, as evidenced by the latest GSA statistics. As of May 2012, 72 operators have launched commercial LTE services, with 186 more firmly committed to commercial deployment. For these roughly 250 operators, one critical question is weve got a fat pipe, but how do we fill it? Huawei introduces its Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) solution, with the aim of helping operators wisely utilize and profit from LTE networking through diversified data services.

LTE + Wi-Fi
In recent years, smart devices have seen explosive popularity, especially 25
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

those that are Wi-Fi-enabled. Strategy Analytics expects over 2.6 billion consumer Wi-Fi-enabled devices to be in use by 2014. However, Wi-Fi largely fails to fulfill its potential in traditional networking scenarios as access points (APs) are largely connected to the data network through fixed lines. Such an arrangement depends heavily on the availability of fixed infrastructure, which hardly fits in with what we expect from Wi-Fi (bus, subway, or remote location use). LTE networking, on the other hand, is ideally suited for mobile applications, with its ability to excel in terms of bandwidth and QoS in equal measure. However, LTE-capable mobile devices are currently quite limited, making LTE+Wi-Fi integration all the more sensible. A large number of

Huawei Communicate

commutes, which are frequently quite long & tedious on Chinas chaotic roads, need no longer be so, as passengers can now enjoy a wide range of data-rich services, including games, videos, and SNS. The third scenario involves remote locations where coverage is often spotty. This solution greatly adds to the experience by enabling the sort of realtime feedback and interaction that SNS addicts have come to depend on. The final situation involves special events (concerts, festivals, sporting events) that often pose an extreme challenge for any network, fixed or mobile. By offloading data traffic through LTE, this solution effectively relieves data pressure on GSM/ UMTS networking while enhancing user experience.

and the branch offices. LTE4E, on the other hand, employs VPN technology that is both dynamic and intelligent, carrying out its functions on the network section by section. Statistical multiplexing is achieved on the transmission and backbone layers, thus enhancing bandwidth efficiency while assuring information security. This greatly relieves the operators network burden, with the enterprises investment also reduced.

eMBMS
According to ABI Research, one of the primary causes of the data surge is an increasing amount of video traffic. Video and TV streaming should surpass web and Internet traffic in 2015. Similarly, Global Industry Analysts (GIA) predicts that the global mobile video market will reach USD30 billion by 2017. LTE availability will surely fuel this growth and put operators in the drivers seat as far as what consumers come to depend on. Based on LTEs speed and standardized eMBMS (enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services) technology, Huaweis eMBMS solution supports live SDTV or HDTV broadcast as well as push VOD. With this solution, mobile operators can not only provide live TV broadcast to any intended terminal, fixed or mobile, but it can also extend the viewing experience to any handheld terminal within the LTE coverage range that supports eMBMS technology. This solution also makes flexible viewing possible via push VOD, where media servers first deliver content to STBs or CPEs for storage; users can then retrieve it and watch it at their leisure. In early 2012, a leading Indian telecom operator successfully demonstrated eMBMS LTE service with Huawei, making for the worlds first solution of its kind; the results were very encouraging. Push service is an area that eMBMS can expand. It is currently used for news, music downloads, advertising, stock tickers, and public service information. However, due to network constraints, most push services are displayed in the form of SMS or MMS. With an LTE network available, operators can push more video contents, such as movie trailers. This means a better experience for users and higher ARPU for operators. Moreover, it gives operators a competitive edge in the mobile advertising arena, which should make a clear difference in their bottom line. Editor: Yao Haifei julia.yao@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

LTE for enterprise

According to market research firm IDC, global small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) totaled 73.7 million in 2011, with IT spending for this segment growing faster than it is for large enterprises. SMBs are no longer satisfied with just a telephone line or an email address, as broadband and other wireless solutions are now in demand. Huaweis LTE for Enterprise solution is here to help mobile operators better exploit the SMB market segment, which once was the exclusive domain of fixed operators. Most SMBs are relatively constrained in terms of time and budget when it comes to ICT. Traditional business networking, which is slow and an OPEX sink, relies heavily on fixed infrastructure, with voice & data services separated. Such a mode cannot flexibly adapt to frequent business relocation, making its viability for the rural SMB all the more dubious. Huaweis LTE for Enterprise solution (LTE4E), on the other hand, integrates both voice & data, as well as routing & switching. It fulfills basic SMB needs for voice, data, and fax, while also providing secure VPN and rich cloud-based services. It also delivers IP PBX functionality (IVR, forwarding, pickup, three-party talk), while supporting network interface for high-speed data access. The solution works well for both single and multisite establishments, with VPN-based interconnection available for the latter. Traditional enterprise solutions use static VPN channel technology, making for a bandwidth-wasting virtual point-to-point connection between HQ

26

Accelerated Access

Vectoring, FTTx, and heterogeneous network architecture are needed to boost access speeds at home, in the office, and on-the-go.

ACCELERATED ACCESS
27
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

28 31

Moving towards HetNet Fiber & copper: Hand-in-hand for fixed access Vectoring keeps copper up to speed

33

Moving towards HetNet

Mobile broadband ubiquity may be approaching, but the data tsunami is already here and may never pass. Simple network expansion alone will not prove sufficient, which means that operators need to rethink their network structure. A coordinated heterogeneous network featuring layered cell deployment is how we stay afloat.
By Zhang Yuchen

Todays hurdles

n recent years, the phenomenal growth of mobile Internet services and proliferation of smart devices has fueled a surge in data and signaling traffic. As a result, spectrum and sites, two resources that have always seemed scarce, are becoming downright precious. Mobile data services consume far more spectrum than traditional voice services, and the former is growing far more than the latter, leading to enormous strain on finite frequency bands. Acquisitions and refarming can certainly help, but neither is particularly timely, cheap, or sustainable. Adding base stations isnt the answer either in high-value areas, as saturation has reached such a point (in some developed markets) that urban spacing may be less than 100 meters, while blind spots and inter-cell

interference remain. Whats worse, as this crowding continues and residents worry ever more about cancer rates and real estate prices, site acquisition and maintenance are only getting more difficult and expensive. Even the keeping of sites is no easy task; a survey in Chinas Hangzhou city indicates that operators there are losing six percent of their sites each year. An alternative is clearly needed, one that doesnt depend solely on macro sites.

Enhanced macro cell performance

And yet, the macro cell layer is still the cornerstone of any radio network, making throughput optimization for each base station a priority. Cell
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

28

Accelerated Access
Moving towards HetNet splitting has proven effective when macro site addition is not feasible, as splitting three cells into six can increase base station capacity by 60 to 80 percent. However, throughput enhancement is not enough, as operators must also pave the way for network upgrade when new bands or RATs are introduced. Multi-mode modules, which enable RF resource sharing, can help in this area, as can cabinet sharing & clustering for new bands. Huaweis SingleRAN-based GigaSite solution is designed to elevate a macro base stations throughput to the Gigabit level, while its multif re q u e n c y, m u l t i - m o d e , a n d m u l t i - s e c t o r functionality significantly improves spectral efficiency, power amplifier efficiency, and ultimately, network capacity. It also simplifies site structure and reduces a stations footprint. coordination between macro and small cell layers, network capacity can be greatly enhanced. Compared with their larger counterparts, small cells can be deployed more flexibly and closer to the access point, enabling the accommodation of heavy data demand in hot spots. When coordinated with the macro cell layer, a small cell layer can significantly improve the end-user experience. However, certain elements of HetNet deployment warrant attention. Operators should employ different products and solutions for varied scenarios. Microcells are ideal for coverage enhancement in small to mediumsized areas. In high-traffic zones with sporadic blind spots, microcell mounting outdoors combined with indoor coverage systems can resolve these coverage issues at minimal cost. In areas with extreme data traffic, a single unit that integrates microcells and Wi-Fi is ideal for offloading, as the unit can work on one set of antenna feeders, one set of transmission resources, and one power source, thanks to the fact that microcells and Wi-Fi have similar coverage radii. However, considering their limited coverage area, optimal positioning is critical. Operators can gather and analyze a plethora of call data and statistics generated in the macro site layer, including voice traffic, data traffic, service type, terminal distribution, and coverage quality, to identify where calls originate and select small cell placement sites accordingly. Compared with traditional macro cell

Mixing in small cells

Given the expected explosion in data traffic, many operators are considering a complementary strategy, where small cells, such as microcells and picocells, are added on top of the macro cell layer, creating what the industry refers to as a heterogeneous network (HetNet). This approach can effectively improve spectral efficiency by operating on the spectrum bands already used by macro cells, and more importantly, through effective interference mitigation techniques and

HetNet can effectively improve spectral efficiency, and more importantly, through effective interference mitigation techniques and coordination between macro and small cell layers, network capacity can be greatly enhanced.

29

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

networking, a HetNet is more complex in terms of coverage and interference, making for challenging frequency planning, cell selection, and handover. For scenarios ranging from hotspot offload to blind spot elimination, an operator can conduct intrafrequency and inter-frequency network planning, coupled with an accurate camping strategy, to expand capacity and improve coverage. Multi-layer networking, which often involves multiple modes, has increased network complexity significantly, making network configuration and maintenance a daunting task. Huaweis SingleSON, the industrys first multi-standard SON solution, enables automatic and coordinated multi-RAT and multi-layer network management, thus enhancing efficiency in network planning, deployment, maintenance, and troubleshooting. As a result, both O&M efficiency and network performance are improved while costs are reduced.

Site portfolio diversification

Layered mobile networking requires that operators diversify their site portfolio to cater to both macro and small cells, but fortunately they can expect reduced site acquisition costs and improved deployment efficiency. A complete site portfolio normally includes strategic sites, easy sites, and small sites. A strategic site refers to a macro cell site that is either self-owned or under a long-term lease.

Such a site is equipped with an antenna platform, transmission elements, and a backup power supply, and forms the foundation of overall network capacity and coverage. Typical acquisition costs for such a site in China total about CNY210,000 (USD35,000), more than most Chinese earn in a year. However, camouflaged sites and integrated lamp-post sites can effectively ease and expedite site deployment. As opposed to a strategic site, an easy base station site is normally leased. Backup power supply for this site is optional and maintenance is easy, as are acquisition costs (about 40 percent of what it costs to buy in China), making it ideal for fast deployment scenarios. With strategic sites as the primaries, distributed base station or RRU extension solutions are commonly employed for easy sites. Small sites cater to microcells or picocells, so no physical equipment room or cabinet is needed. They are best suited for hotspot traffic offload from macro sites. Small sites can be installed flexibly at low cost (the typical acquisition cost is about ten percent of what it would be for a macro site in China). They also work on grid power, which is easily acquired. HetNet effectively enhances performance in all areas of the network through coordinated operation of the macro and micro cell layers. This ensures a consistently fast ultra-broadband user experience for all network users, and ultimately helps operators boost competitiveness in MBB. Editor: Yao Haifei julia.yao@huawei.com

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

30

Accelerated Access
Fiber & copper: Hand-in-hand for fixed access

Fiber & copper

Hand-in-hand for fixed access

Globally, amid waves of FTTx investment, FTTB/C is now the fixed access mainstream, with recent advancements such as Vectoring breathing new life into last-mile copper, and none too soon, given the current economic malaise. By Zhang Ying

urging demands for video and cloud computing have sparked FTTx fever around the world. At the beginning, FTTH was deemed optimal, but it wasnt long before operators realized the magnitude and difficulties of this investment. DSL innovations have also emerged that promise higher bit rates. Vectoring is one of them, as it enables 100Mbps over VDSL2 at 300 meters, a huge boost from the standard 50Mbps over 1000 meters. G.Fast promises even more, having delivered 1Gbps in the lab. This bodes well for incumbents, who often have huge legacy holdings, while even the FTTH aficionados now consider copper when applicable; eight have already made the shift in 2012. Industry-wide, this mixed scenario already dominates the legacy scene.

FTTB/C, which sticks to the major trunks, eliminates tricky last-mile deployments; this cuts deployment time to a fraction of its more glamorous brother. Hundreds of thousands lines can be completed in a month, from deployment to service provisioning, totaling a three-to-five fold reduction in TTM. If you are worried about how future-proof FTTB/C is, keep in mind that typical HD video consumes about 10Mbps of bandwidth. Even in a home with three terminals, with each consuming that much bandwidth simultaneously, FTTB/C combined with VDSL2 (with Vectoring in use) can scale to 100Mbps with ease, even as G.Fast waits in the wings.

Why not FTTH?

Operators have three major FTTx considerations TC O , T T M , a n d b a n d w i d t h s p e e d . For FTTH, the biggest investment lies in optical fiber deployment, accounting for 60 percent overall, with the last mile accounting for 80 percent of that. The process itself is an uphill climb, given the fragility of optical fiber; specially treated fiber is needed for curvy, complex scenarios. FTTB/C, on the other hand, has a TCO that is just one-third that for FTTH, with an ROI thats three times greater. This edge extends to time-to-market, as FTTH has a longer deployment cycle that includes strict HLD, LLD, and site survey, as well as those unforeseen complications that often lead to having to start again. 31
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

FTTB/C deployment challenges

FTTB/C deployment may be easier than it is for FTTH, but it still has some challenges; a number of new remote sites have to be built, with all the site acquisition (a slow, expensive ordeal) and site operation (a complex task that often involves multiple vendors) that this entails. A particularly thorny issue for FTTC/B is site relocation from the central office, as this leads to higher O&M costs and can prove challenging to deployment and service provisioning.

Huawei can help

Huawei offers a comprehensive site solution for copper-fiber scenarios that helps address these challenges for the network operator.

Huawei Communicate

Worry-free site acquisition

Huaweis site solution offers the smallest footprint in the industry, making for an effective reduction in OPEX. Via wall mounting, pole mounting, or rehousing (rehousing of the legacy cross connection cabinet with MXU equipment or topping it with a small MXU equipment cabinet) of existing sites, site acquisition is significantly smoothened, or even eliminated (no need for local municipal approval). Huaweis site solution is also highly adaptable to extreme heat or humidity. Its primary cabinet equipment can operate at up to 65C, while the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the cabinet can be as high as 15oC. In Saudi Arabia, Huawei provided rehousing for STC. This involved transformation of the legacy crossconnection cabinets into active outdoor cabinets, where the access equipment was located, enabling a VDSL bandwidth of up to 50Mbps for the operators business and household subscribers. Over 2,000 such cabinets are now up & running on this network.

One-stop delivery
Huaweis site solution also enables one-stop delivery, covering the design, supply, installation, and O&M processes. Capacities range from 48 to 800 lines, with plenty of options in between, while a full lineup of cabinets, cables, power supplies, and other equipment is also available. One-stop design If the cabinet and its equipment are designed by different parties, installation mismatch, heat dissipation issues, and excessive noise can ensue. Huaweis holistic approach considers the space,

power supply, heat dissipation, and waterproofing, guaranteeing fundamental reliability and safety. One-stop supply Through its design expertise and strong supplier resources in production and logistics, Huawei can deliver up to 4,000 sites per month. One-stop installation Compared to the typical multivendor deployment approach, Huaweis site solution can improve delivery efficiency by nearly 50 percent, dramatically shortening the delivery cycle and simplifying the complexity of purchase and delivery management. All pieces for installation are tested and assembled before delivery onsite; fixation with the concrete base is all that is needed for completion. One-stop O&M With Huawei, ser vice provisioning is a snap. Completion can be done in just two steps, enabling batch processing and a significantly reduced TTM, while the unified monitoring system reports site information regarding temperature, humidity, power consumption, and smoke levels to the network equipment management system. Battery management is another feature for this solution, as an alarm will go off instantaneously in the case of theft or failure. Huaweis new copper-fiber site solution also enables Wi-Fi coverage, making for a good supplement to LTE backhaul. Today, this solution has been widely applied by BT, China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, STC and PCCW, serving onethird of the globes broadband users. Freed from the burdens of FTTH, any operator can realize both profitability and capacity with Huawei. Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

32

Accelerated Access
Vectoring keeps copper up to speed

Vectoring keeps copper up to speed

In these austere times, legacy copper must be utilized for last-mile connection whenever possible. Vectoring minimizes the interference that stems from far-end crosstalk, enabling up to 100Mbps transmission through a single twisted pair.
By Huang Bai, Senior Engineering Director of Jiangsu Posts & Telecommunications Planning and Designing Institute (China)

hina Telecom officially launched its Broadband China, Optical Network City project in February 2011 with the aim of bringing optical fiber access to all Chinese cities within three years. This stirred a new wave of nationwide copper replacement efforts. Fiber technologies such as FTTN, FTTB/C, and FTTH have been gaining momentum; all have the aim of accelerating the last mile. However, despite fibers efficacy, it has not proven to be all things to all people. Legacy last-mile copper and coax resources remain near & dear assets with value that extends beyond mere money, as site installation and cable layout for fiber grows more complex as it nears the subscriber, making it a medium of dubious utility for last-mile access in legacy scenarios. VDSL2 technology, with its robust bandwidth capabilities (up to 100Mbps over copper), would seem the answer.

Strong market potential for copper

There is a strong market potential for copper in areas where deployment costs are high or ADSL and ATM DSLAM are still considered viable. This is keeping DSL technology at the forefront of telco development. In February 2006, the ITU-T released the VDSL2 G.993.2 recommendation. In April 2010, the G.993.5 recommendation was passed, with Vectoring technology (a VDSL2-based technology which offsets far-end crosstalk through downlink precoding & uplink joint receiving for DSLAM) defined.

Vectorings perks
33
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

A VDSL2 lines bit rate is determined by line attenuation and line noise. For a certain distance, the higher the line noise is, the higher the noise threshold will be, causing a decrease in the bit rate. As the twisted pair was originally designed for voice transmission, factors such as insufficient shielding, high line density, and coupling between high frequencies and low frequencies lead to inevitable crosstalk and interference. Crosstalk is the interference caused by coupling between two twisted pairs. There are two categories; near-end crosstalk (NEXT) is measured at the same end as the transmitter, while far-end crosstalk (FEXT) is measured at the opposite end. In the case of DSL, NEXT can simply be defined as interference between the uplink signal of one pair and the downlink signal of another pair, while FEXT represents interference between uplink signals or downlink signals for both pairs. As VDSL2 technology adopts frequency division multiplexing (FDM), the interfering pairs frequency band is different from that used by the target pairs receiving signal, meaning that NEXT influence can be eliminated or greatly reduced through a filter. However, when it comes to FEXT, the frequency used by the two pairs is the same, which means that interference cannot be eliminated through a filter. Add to this the fact that the transmission distance allowed by VDSL2 is quite short (usually no more than 1km), and the frequency band is usually rather high (up to 30MHz), and you have a high degree of FEXT for VDSL2 when compared to other DSL technologies. As the major factor affecting VDSL2 performance, FEXT leads to a lower signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) and line transmission rate, as well as a higher bit error rate; it might even lead to disconnection, making for a serious drag on system stability and user experience. Vectoring technology can address this issue. When the crosstalks amplitude is smaller than that for the prime signal, Vectoring can effectively eliminate crosstalk, delivering 100Mbps access at a distance of 300 meters. As the crosstalk affecting one VDSL line is a vector result of the interference in all others lines sheathed within the cable, a Vectoring processing system can perform matrix operation according to the gathered vector information and output the vectored signal to offset crosstalk, eventually restoring the distorted signals at the receiving end. Theoretically, Vectoring can completely eliminate FEXT for VDSL2, resulting in either increased line rate over the same distance or extended distance coverage at the same rate of speed. If one were to evaluate rate vs. distance for VDSL2 downlink (17a profile, B8-11 PSD mask,

0.4mm wire diameter), without FEXT, a noiseless environment improves performance by 50 to 90 percent, and remains so for uplink. With denser cables, more signals and higher FEXT, Vectoring can improve performance to greater effect. In the lab, VDSL2 line speeds after Vectoring can reach 100Mbps over an access distance of 300 meters and 80Mbps over a more typical 500 meters, an up to 70 percent improvement.

Diverse applications
As a next-generation performance enhancement technology, Vectoring can work hand-in-hand with other DSL technologies such as G.inp, bonding, Network Time Reference (NTR), Seamless Rate Adaption (SRA), and Bit Swap (BS), for a variety of scenarios, including residential access, business access, mobile base station backhaul, and backhaul for far-end access site. Vectoring can be used at three levels Boardlevel Vectoring (BLV), System-level Vectoring (SLV), and Node-level Vectoring (NLV). For BLV, the Vectoring processing chip is integrated with the board, while the backplane and system architecture remain unchanged. For SLV, the processing chip is integrated with a large-capacity VP board that can support multiple Vectoring user boards. For NLV, multiple pieces of small or medium-capacity SLV equipment collaborate to provide large-capacity Vectoring. By selecting the suitable aforementioned applications, operators gain maximized increases in line speed while enjoying more reliable performance and smooth, low-cost transition. On August 15, 2011, Huaweis Fixed Broadband (FBB) innovation lab successfully developed the industrys first NLV prototype. Huawei also successfully completed more than ten Vectoring tests (seven in Europe), in cooperation with various operators and research institutions, that factored in real-life scenarios such as multiple line pairs, mixed line pairs, and external interference. All the test results recorded an average speed increase of 50 to 90 percent. As copper looks here to stay, a combination of Vectoring for crosstalk elimination, SuperMIMO for channel expansion, and bonding technology will enable high-bandwidth connection over copper. This has been seen in the industrys first DSL prototype, which can deliver one gigabit per second, making DSL a technology to keep an eye on. Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

34

Optical Networking

Optical networks are growing more flexible and reliable, with metro OTN proving an important trend in this area.

OPTICAL NETWORKING
35
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

36

Huawei takes the lead in ASON standardization FBON makes your fiber flexible OTN accelerates metro networking

38 40

Huawei takes the lead in ASON standardization

With its robust network protection & recovery capability, timely & comprehensive connection provisioning, and intelligent network management, ASON/GMPLS is being gradually recognized as a premier option for optical network development.
By Zhang Fatai

Unique value of ASON

Leading the industry with WSON

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is making optical fiber the mainstream transport network technology. A traditional WDM network is a point-to-point static network; with the advent of intelligent optical switching technologies such as ROADM, the dynamic management of connections becomes possible. Operators can schedule and configure wavelengths without any network redesign, thus offering, adding, and modifying connections dynamically. However, due to WDMs wavelength-continuity constraints and cross-connection restrictions for optical equipment, the wavelength cannot cross from one channel to another, as it would in a TDM network (such as SDH). This brings about a complex wavelength allocation issue in routing and wavelength assignment (RWA). Furthermore, the WDM networks wavelength connection signals are also subject to mutual influences between linear and
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

ompared to traditional optical transport networks, an automatically switched optical network (ASON) features an innovative intelligent control plane that lies between the original management plane and the transport plane. The control plane establishes call and connection, provides real-time allocation on demand of network resources, and conducts dynamic path calculation, E2E service scheduling, and automatic network recovery, thus enabling intelligent optical network operation. The ASON control plane features intelligent topology discovery and automatic connection provisioning, both of which reduce the manual configuration workload and subsequent maintenance costs & complexity. ASON can also provide flexible service level differentiation, while its mesh structure enables multi-failure resistance of the caliber required for carrier-grade service.

36

Optical Networking
Huawei takes the lead in ASON standardization nonlinear effects. These issues greatly increase the complexity of network control and management. To c o n t r o l a n d m a n a g e W D M networking more flexibly, conveniently, and effectively, Huawei has proposed the concept of a wavelength switched optical network (WSON), which is based on WDM transmission technology and a generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) control plane. WSON is designed to tackle challenges in automatic optical fiber/ wavelength discovery, wavelength routing, and impairment model-based routing. WSON enables dynamic E2E scheduling, configuration, and intelligent wavelength protection, thus improving usability and stability, increasing network resource utilization, and simplifying the O&M for WDM networking. With its intelligent connection provisioning and multi-failure tolerance, WSON can significantly reduce operator CAPEX and OPEX by addressing the following issues. Automatic optical wavelength discovery WSON tracks down wavelength availability and the potential connectivity between the input and output ports. Automatic wavelength connection provisioning WSON automatically routs wavelengths and determines wavelength scheduling nodes and specific wavelengths that are available, thus avoiding wavelength conflicts. Wavelength protection and restoration WSON provides wavelength protection models such as 1+1/1:N and permanent 1+1; enables 50ms switching; reroutes wavelength dynamically or in a preset fashion; and features multi-failure restoration functionality. Impairment control at the optical level In a WDM network, wavelength connection signal quality can be affected by linear and nonlinear optical impairments. While calculating a path, WSON can intelligently consider and manage wavelength switch restrictions, tunable lasers, physical impairments, and other optical layer restrictions. It also conducts on-line impairment control through the control plane. 37
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

To enable multi-vendor WSON interconnection, Huawei has been actively promoting WSON standardization. In June 2007, Huawei first proposed the WSON concept at the IETF, attracting widespread attention from the industry. In December 2007, Huawei led the effort to establish the WSON Standard Design Group comprising dozens of mainstream operators and equipment manufacturers. In 2008, four individual WSON drafts, submitted by Huawei, were accepted by the IEFT as working group (WG) documents. In 2011, WSON framework (RFC6163) and wavelength label (RFC6205) standards, submitted by Huawei, were also released as RFCs. Huawei was also the first to propose impairment control framework standardization for WSON, leading to the release of RFC6566 in March 2012.

An encore with OTN ASON

With the rapid development of network technologies, new transport needs are emerging. To carry IP services, OTN should support fine granularity switching and flexible transmission bandwidth. To carry the 40G/100G Ethernet services defined by the IEEE, OTN should provide containers with a higher rate. To meet these needs, a plethora of new features have been added, based on the original OTN specifications (primarily on the electrical layer), including ODU0 (Optical Data Unit) for low-speed signal transmission (1.25Gbps), ODU4 for high-speed signal transmission (100Gbps), ODU2e for Ethernet services, ODUflex for variable bandwidth, and new timeslot categories with a bandwidth granularity of 1.25Gbps. OTN technology includes complete system structure for the electrical and optical layers; both have their respective needs in terms of network survivability. In an OTN ASON network, WSON can be applied for intelligent scheduling at the optical layer. As for the ODU electrical layers ASON control plane, the following issues should be prioritized.

ODU automatic discovery at the electrical layer Path monitor (PM) byte, GCC-1, and GCC-2 can be used to support automatic information discovery for connectivity between various network elements, ODU adaptability & multiplexing ability, and timeslot availability. ODU connection provisioning Point-and-click establishment of ODU connection. Multi-layer scheduling and control for ODU Automatic connection scheduling at different levels ODU0, ODUflex, ODU1, ODU2, ODU3, and ODU4, enabling automatic multiplexing. Network survivability Protection & restoration mechanisms for the optical layer, ODU electrical layer, and joint recovery at both the optical and electrical layers could be applied to improve OTN survivability. To promote OTN ASON development and resolved interconnection problems, Huawei has been actively involved in OTN ASON standardization. After leading the G.709 standardization effort to define new OTN features such as ODU0, ODU4, and ODUflex, Huawei has again taken the lead by proposing the OTN control structure at the IETF in 2009, winning widespread support from mainstream vendors. Huawei has also teamed up with other vendors to submit certain drafts for the OTN ASONs control plane to the IETF, including the OTN control framework, control information model, routing solution, and signaling solution. These documents have been accepted by the IETF as WG documents, indicating that OTN ASON standards have gradually matured and stabilized. As of the end of 2011, Huawei built more than 70 WSON/OTN ASON networks (including the worlds first) in over 50 countries around the world, accumulating a rich body of delivery and O&M experience along the way. Leading operators such as Vodafone, China Mobile, Telefnica, Telecom Italia, Bharti (India), and MTN (South Africa) have placed their trust with Huawei for their WSON/OTN ASON needs. Editor: Joyce Fan joyce_fan@huawei.com

Huawei Communicate

FBON makes your fiber flexible

By Zong Liangjia, Liu Ning & Ma Teng

egacy network channel spacing (50GHz) is proving inadequate for the optical network needs of tomorrow. Flexible broadband optical networking enables transmission of higher-order capacity and flexibility so that operators can stay relevant in a hyper-competitive environment. Surging Internet development has had a profound effect on telco networking, especially in terms of P2P service and online video growth. By 2013, video traffic will take up 66% of mobile Internet traffic, and 91% of the Internet traffic generated by individual subscribers. To keep this traffic flowing, optical networks need to enhance single-channel transmission to 40G, 100G, 400G, or even 1Tbit. However, such rates require more bandwidth and legacy 50GHz channel spacing is lagging behind. Flexible bandwidth optical network (FBON), a revolution in traditional optical network architecture, is now recognized as a solution. Thanks to its unified control and management functions, FBON can allocate different bandwidth to signals at different rates, enhancing usage and network flexibility.

Optical network bottlenecks

A spacing of 50GHz works well if the singlechannel rate is below 100G, but it cannot meet the needs of the future. When a network transports a signal at 400G or above, it needs to split into several lower-rate signals through inverse multiplexing. For a 400G signal, the system splits it into four 100G signals, transported over 50GHz spacings; this reduces spectral efficiency when compared with continuous 400G transmission.

A future system will have to accommodate multiple transmission rates; yet existing 10G, 40G, and 100G systems generally use inflexible 50GHz spacing as a benchmark for designing Mux/ Demux, ROADM, OTU, management, and control functions. When a system is scaled to accommodate higher-rate transmission rates such as 1Tbit, it will require independent channel spacing, thus reducing the spectrum usage. Most optical signals are carried on the C-band, at wavelengths ranging from 1528nm to 1561nm. Ser vice providers can get more wavelength resources by developing the S-band or L-band, but at greater cost as they require new types of fibers or optical amplifiers. Supplemental fiber is a viable alternative, yet it is not without cost in terms of CAPEX (optical cables, optical amplifiers, and ROADM devices) and OPEX (labor costs). Service providers can also enhance spectral efficiency through advanced modulation formats, but this can shorten transmission distances and degrade network performance. Maximizing spectral efficiency has become a daunting issue for the backbone network. FBON provides a feasible solution through optimized spectrum allocation for traffic at different rates.

FBON opportunities
Efficient channel spacing usage
FBON enables flexible spacing on legacy fiber at 50GHz, 100GHz, and 200GHz for 100G, 400G, and 1Tbit service transmission, respectively. Assuming that each signal consumes the same amount of
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

38

Optical Networking
FBON makes your fiber flexible C-band bandwidth, FBON can deliver 14.4Tbit capacity, versus 9.5Tbit in a traditional fixed-grid network, a 51.6% efficiency increase. For longer-distance transmission, 400G/1Tbit may occupy wider bandwidth, and FBON can deliver even more efficiency.

Innovating ROADM and transponders

Effective rerouting protection

When a working route fails, legacy networks generally redirect the traffic to a fault-free route; however, this route may be overloaded due to insufficient bandwidth. With FBON, service providers can flexibly adjust a transmitters modulation codes so that signals are compressed and adapted to a narrow-bandwidth route.

Distance adaptability
Service providers have been constantly expanding their service portfolios and network coverage. A future WDM ring network would have to accommodate different sections, traffic volumes, and transmission paths. In legacy WDM networks, service providers assign the same modulation format and channel spacing for each path, ensuring a minimal optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR); however, this leads to a plethora of small sections and short paths, making for a waste of system resources. FBON can enhance transmission efficiency, as it adjusts the modulation format and bandwidth based on traffic volume and transmission distance.

Time-based bandwidth allocation

Industrial and residential areas are typically busy while the other is dormant. FBON can allocate bandwidth based on time-of-day and traffic volume, enhancing efficiency and revenue for both categories. When traffic volume is low, FBON can use low-level modulation formats and reduce the number of carriers, which means that ser vice providers can deactivate certain electric drivers and minimize the power to other system components such as amplifiers. 39
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

FBON depends on two critical technologies flex-grid ROADM and the bandwidth-variable optical transponder. As a key wavelength switching module component, ROADM enables the adding or dropping of individual or multiple wavelengths. In traditional DWDM networks, ROADM typically uses fixed frequency grids at 50 or 100GHz. FBON, on the other hand, uses variable channel bandwidth or frequency grid to enhance data transmission efficiency. ROADM modules that enable dynamic wavelength adding or dropping are key for optical multiplexer/demultiplexer wavelength flexibility, making them quite suitable for future needs. With bandwidth-variable optical transponders, transmitters can deliver flexible bandwidth, while receivers can be self-adaptive. Bandwidth can be adjusted through the number of carriers in multicarrier technologies, modulation formats in individual carriers, or through the bit rate. Existing multi-carrier technologies such as e-OFDM, Nyquist-WDM, and o-OFDM, have different requirements for modems, light sources, phase stability, and bandwidth of electric devices. In addition, high-speed FPGA, DAC, and IQ transmission can produce various modulation codes such as QPSK, 16QAM, and e-OFDM-based QPSK and m-QAM codes. As modulation codes have different OSNR tolerances, service providers can adjust transmission distance through selective modulation codes. Huawei researches flexible bandwidth optical networking in depth, yielding innovations such as its commercialready flex-grid ROADM module, which consists of a beam splitter and a flexgrid wavelength selective switching (WSS) module, delivering dynamic wavelength adding or dropping. This module can also help independently and flexibly adjust both channel spacing and central wavelength. With its support of smooth evolution, the module enables Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com

50-200GHz spacings, at 12.5GHz increments. As a spacing below 200GHz can fully ensure wavelength efficiency for 1Tbit transmission, the module can smoothly deliver mixed transmission of 40G, 100G, 400G, and 1Tbit. In addition, the module boasts 1x9 ports, enabling ROADM support of up to eight dimensions, which can accommodate most application scenarios. ROADM is trending towards colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC) operation, enabling both transport network flexibility and the adding or dropping of any wavelength on an interface. The Huawei flex-grid ROADM module can fully meet the requirements of next-gen ROADM. Service providers can easily realize CDC operation through addition of a multicast switch (MCS) to the module, with the latter also delivering tunable multiplexing/demultiplexing functions on its own. Legacy modules can hardly be adapted as FBON multiplex/ demultiplex signals use varied spacing instead of fixed 50GHz. The Huawei module, on the other hand, can deliver adding or dropping and multiplexing/ demultiplexing for any wavelength, which makes bandwidth adjustment and flexible data transmission all that much easier. Huawei is an active member of standardization bodies such as the I T U - T, I E T F, a n d O I F, a n d h a s submitted a number of contributions in the fields of OTN/DWDM and GMPLS. Huawei has also defined both slot-width granularity (SWG) and center frequency granularity (CFG) in G.694.1, while fully advocating joint discussions with other working groups on topics such as network architecture, interface, and system & network management for FBON. Huawei is actively involved in other FBON aspects as well, including spectrumadjustable modules related to optical transmitter/receiver, OTN, management & control, and FBON application scenarios. As it matures, FBON looks set to change the existing networking and O&M model.

Huawei Communicate

OTN accelerates metro networking

FTTH can provide all the bandwidth a home needs for the foreseeable future, yet user experience can hardly be assured if the metro network fails to ensure bandwidth integrity.
By Dong Qibing

OTN for the metro broadband network

n a metro broadband network, a broadband remote access server (BRAS) with a limited number of network nodes is typically located at the core metro equipment room, while numerous OLT/DSLAM sites exist in a legacy metro network, which connects to the core equipment rooms through long-distance wiring that may go through both access and convergence rings. In addition, legacy networks use metro Ethernet to transport GE traffic from OLT/ DSLAM, which has a high transmission efficiency and saves fiber, yet delivers limited bandwidth. Many operators are trying to enhance their

broadband access rate from 2Mbps to 8-20Mbps, which requires n*GE ports to carry DSLAM uplink traffic. Legacy networks converge traffic layer-by-layer, while their high convergence rate can hardly provide sufficient bandwidth. With OTN, each DSLAM access node can enjoy an independent ODUk signal to transport traffic directly to the core convergence nodes, which greatly enhances metro network efficiency as layered convergence and high convergence rates are eliminated. Without OTN/WDM introduction, flattening the metro Ethernet is challenging as it consumes large amount of fiber as well as pipe resources. OTN can provide sufficient wavelength during the metro Ethernet flattening process; it also provides L0/L1 protection to enhance network security. With sufficient overhead, OTN can help operators
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

40

Optical Networking
OTN accelerates metro networking and 100GE-ready OTN/WDM networking, which means costly network construction and power consumption. In addition, the use of packet equipment to build 100GE convergence layers will be primarily oriented around data transmission transparency, instead of increasing the convergence rate, as it will be more costly and consume more power. In IP RAN, operators can use OTN to replace 100GE rings with flattened network architecture. Traffic can be carried through 1-n (n<4) 10GE wavelengths, which is then transported through OTN (as opposed to 100GE rings) to the backbone network. Each mobile network needs a low-convergence transport network to ensure security and QoS. Packet-based IP RAN delivers E2E and high-QoS transmission, but its CAPEX/OPEX and power consumption are high and more equipment room space is needed. OTN makes for a viable alternative, as the convergence layer can use it to connect 10GE IP RAN and large-scale Layer-3 equipment at the backbone layer. By flattening the packet network, operators need not deploy 100GE packet equipment at the convergence layer, which reduces power consumption, removes bandwidth bottlenecks, and enhances QoS.

monitor networks in real time and supply switchover protection for faulty services within 50ms.

OTN for private line services

Enterprise private line services are shifting from pure text & voice to electronic whiteboard, video conferencing, remote visualization, remote business presentation/demonstration, and remote team cooperation. Their remote implementation will reduce travel costs, thus reducing an enterprises carbon footprint, but it will mean a dramatic increase in bandwidth. Existing enterprise private lines are mostly based on SDH/MSTP networking, which is insecure and hardly suitable for GE or other bandwidth-hungry services of its ilk. E2E OTN network wavelengths and subwavelengths can satiate enterprise needs for QoS, security, and isolation of their private line services.

Building metro OTN

The accelerated fixed, mobile, and enterprise private line services are gobbling up legacy fiber/ pipe resources. Deploying new fiber is becoming increasingly difficult as it may involve complicated application or negotiation for land usage. Metro OTN is emerging as a practical choice for operators. Metro OTN construction should start with the convergence layer to help flatten the metro Ethernet networks, and then proceed to the access layer to ensure enhanced data transmission for OLT/DSLAM uplink traffic. Finally, the IP RAN and OTN access must be improved so that GE, C-RAN, private line, site services, and enterprise private services all are facilitated. As of the end of 2011, more than 200 metro networks in China have had OTN introduced to enhance both fixed and mobile data transmission. Metro OTN has also delivered enhanced enterprise private line services, enabling operators to gain a competitive edge in a crowded landscape. Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com

OTN for mobile backhaul

Though fixed broadband is expanding rapidly, access ubiquity is impossible without mobile broadband. For a certain city with 6,000 base stations, 750 10GE access rings and 50 100GE convergence rings are in place. Currently, 100GE line cards require support from high-end routers 41
JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

Huawei Communicate

JUL 2012 . ISSUE 66

42

Cutting Edge

43

JUN 2012 . ISSUE 66

43