CW VIRTUAL NETWORKS SIG
RADICAL FUTURES, PRAGMATIC BEGINNINGS
Alan Carlton, InterDigital Europe, Ltd, May 08, 2014
invention | collaboration | contribution
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
InterDigital Snapshot –
Invention, Collaboration, Contribution
Four decades of leading
discovery and technology
innovation
Widely known for wireless
standards but today we are
really quite diverse
Montreal (R&D)
Silicon Valley, CA
(R&D) planned
San Diego, CA (R&D)
Melville, NY (R&D)
King of Prussia, PA (R&D)
Wilmington, DE (HQ)
R&D activities in radio, backhaul
networks, video, m2m, IoT,
middleware, 5G, and more
200+ engineers and growing
between offices in North
America and Europe
Opened UK Office in 2013 to
drive TSB, H2020, ESA, etc.
collaborative initiatives
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
London, UK (R&D)
Virtualization – You Know More Than You Realize!
Networks Will Always Converge To Most Efficient Available Means Of Implementation
The Third & Not The Last?
The Second Wave
First Wave Of Telco Virtualization
And Today (SDN & NFV)
Goals are (10000 ft!)
Separate Control & Data Planes
Separate Service Logic From HW
(Still no Northbound Interface)
STEP2: Separate control &
data planes (commodity HW!)
Purpose built HW
remains (e.g. MG,SBC)
(MEGACO, SIP)
RESULT: MIXED! HW not
ready, Poor North I/F
RESULT: SUCCESS! Opened
up whole new ecosystem
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Breaking up
of Bell system
in USA
Emergence of
Intelligent Networking
(SS7/AIN)
1982
Mid 80’s
Emergence of Soft
Switch Technology
(MGCP)
Convergence of
Telecom & IP
Mid 90’s+
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
IP Rubicon
STEP1 : Separate service
logic from Switching HW
Mid 00’s-Today
2014 – Virtualization Where We Are Today
Use Cases
(Network Functions)
Current Status
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Reduced CAPEX/OPEX, Energy, TTM,
Truck Rolls, Improved flexibility,
Faster testing of new Apps, Open
market to new software suppliers…
Common
Commodity
Platform
VNF #N
VNF #4
VNF #3
VNF #3
OS Layer
Virtualization Layer
VNF=Virtual Network Function
(aka Service Logic)
General Purpose HW:
ORCHESTRATION
Value Proposition
Technology that aims to transform
the architecture of networks by
implementation of network functions
in a manner such that they may be
instantiated flexibly in various places
in the network as required on general
purpose equipment. Also along with
SDN goal is to open up a whole new
application ecosystem, take what AIN
did 30 years ago to a next level…
VNF #2
What is it
Answer
VNF #1
Question
VNF #1
 NFV
Key
Enabler
Compute
Storage
Connectivity
Switching Elements, Mobile Network
Nodes, Virtualized Home, Traffic
Analysis, IMS/SBC, AAA/Policy,
CDN/Caches, Load Balancers, Security
Functions, etc.
Nearer beginning of hype cycle than
end but inevitable for all reasons
discussed, ETIS ISG (100+ strong), No
standard northbound interface,
Endpoints out of scope
Orchestration will be key…
HW
abstraction
COTS HW
Endpoints
Endpoints
Dynamically orchestrated end to end service creation
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tomorrow – Next Generation Networks (5G)
Some of the central requirements emerging in the 5G discussion:
• Ultra broadband; 1000x performance improvement on LTE 2010
• Support for the asynchronous behaviour of the 50B IoT Devices
• Extreme low latency (1ms) to support emerging tactile internet
• 90% energy/power reduction on a per functional service basis
• Move to rapid service creation from >90-hours to <90-minutes
And perhaps most importantly a re-architecting of the value chain
• End of network neutrality and rise of the Network as a Service
• OTTs need access to data & operators need to monetize assets
...network status, QoS, E2E service definition, subscriber id, device type, access type…
SDN/NFV will provide the same foundation for both evolving &
next gen. networks that SS7/AIN did for previous generations
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
To Meet Challenge – RAN Will Get Much More Complex
Will Introduce New Challenges & Complexity For NFV Orchestration
Key emerging technologies:
• Increased cell densification (small
cells) to meet future requirements
• Introduction of mmW hotspot to
deliver Gbps over limited areas
• Smart Spectrum sharing & aggregation
Mass deployment of
Heterogeneous Small Cells,
emergence of Small Cell Networks
Massive
MIMO
Deployment
Self-Organizing
Wireless
Backhaul
Spectrum Sharing
& Aggregation
(Spectrum virtualization?)
• Advanced D2D scenarios that blur the
Deep Edge
Caching
line between Network and Device
Local Traffic
Distribution
Local Services
Dynamic
Joint Access
Backhaul
(Mesh)
• Deep, just in time edge caching to
•
Deployment of super-small Advanced D2D (Thing-2cells based on mmWave
Thing) Scenarios e.g.
technologies
Distributed MIMO
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(Device virtualization?)
•
support extreme low latency targets
Self organizing, joint access backhaul,
full mesh roadmap finally realized
And yes a new waveform at some
point because simply OFDM does not
do a lot of this stuff particularly well
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
What InterDigital Is Doing In This Space
Spectrum
Sharing
Platform w/
Sensing
Integrated
Platforms for
Testing & Validation
MATLAB, Simulink, Labview, SPW, C/++, Java …
FPGA / ASIC Design
- Xilinx
- Altera
- Mentor
- Synopsis
PSD Estimation for Dynamic
Spectrum Management
Propagation Modeling (WinProp/AWE & Rune)
mmW Small Cell Mesh Backhaul
Development Platform
Terminal
Advanced Connectivity Products (IC & Apps)
SlimChip IC
6071
Base
Station
Network Simulations: Opnet & NS3
Smart Access Manager
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5G Millimeter Wave Cellular
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
Multi-RAT Aggregation
Applying This Expertise – Network As A Service
SPECTRUM PROVIDER:
Shared Spectrum Brokering
Database
APPLICATIONS
Cloud Based MW Platform For
RRM/SON & Virtualization
Cloud Server provides Orchestration &
Management to enable self-organized
operation of heterogeneous Small Cell
networks
- Leverages heterogeneous networks (LTE, Wi-Fi)
and multiple spectrum bands (licensed, ISM
and shared spectrum)
- Uses global and local policies to determine
available spectrum and resources
QoS, Discovery,
Analytics
SMALL CELL ORCHESTRATION &
MANAGEMENT
Services Conduit
Middleware
Platform
•
Radio Resource
Management
Crowd-Sourced Metrics
- Assigns channels, powers, etc. to help manage
interference
•
•
•
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Leverages crowd-sourced metrics
collected from user devices and access
points to manage the total network
Small Cell
Virtualization
Edge Storage
Spectrum Sharing
Request
Resources/Metrics
Combined with SDN-based virtualization
tools enabling efficient control of shared
network resources (bandwidth, storage,
backhaul) from a remote controller
SON
Request/
Receive
Spectrum
Allocate Spectrum
And Network Resources
To Small Cells
SELFORGANIZING
SMALL CELL
NETWORK
Small Cells can be virtualized to support
multi-tenancy, i.e. multiple operators
sharing pool of Small Cell resources
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
One Interesting Use Case – Small Cell As A Service
• Multi-tenancy enables
virtualization and sharing of
Small Cells amongst
operators
Service
Service
Provider B
Provider A
• Operators can share a Small
Small Cell as a Service
Cell network or individual
Small Cells
Small Cell
Virtualization
• Virtualization coordinated by
cloud middleware to allocate
virtual Small Cell slices to
operators
• Small Cell network provider
can be an operator or owner
of real estate involved (e.g.
shopping mall owner)
Small Cell Cluster Shared
Amongst Operators
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
Service
Provider C
Value Proposition
• For Traditional Operators:
-
Plug-n-play, heterogeneous small cell deployment – zero-touch, low-cost installation
Dramatically reduced CAPEX and OPEX
Self-organizing backhaul solution, reducing small cell backhaul cost by 7x – 10x
Boosted monetization of small cell networks via maximized resource utilization and
network sharing
• For Small Cell solution providers (network OEMs – e.g. Intel, NEC, BRCM)
- Differentiate offering via value-adding SW functionality – plug-n-play deployment
and zero-touch operation, virtualization/ network-sharing, smart content
distribution
• For new entrants (OTT Players, VNOs):
- Create self-organizing physical or virtual network by deploying small cells or sharing
deployed networks
- End user trades free access for exclusive use of provider’s services (e.g. browser,
ads, content)
- Monetize via new business models – content, ads, user data monetization
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
Wrap Virtualization Is Not Just A Tech. It Is A Trend
• This trend has been running for decades since the development
of the core concepts of Server virtualization in IT industry
• Introduction in the telco. domain began with the separation of
•
the service logic from switching in SS7/AIN & continues today
The third wave is just beginning and holds great promise if we
can leap beyond the pragmatic beginnings & obvious benefits
• The third wave & the Network as a Service model can serve to
completely rearchitect our industry value chain into a more
sustainable model – Not a radical future but an essential one
• Virtualization is driving our new economy and we must keep
•
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open minds to new virtualization possibilities in the future
– This roadmap has been rolling for a long time & will continue
InterDigital is developing an orchestration and management
solution for this future that can provide benefits today
© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank You!
May
08
Alan Carlton
InterDigital Europe, Ltd.
64 Great Eastern Street
London, EC2A 3QR
+44 207 749 4189
Alan.Carlton@InterDigital.com
www.linkedin.com/in/alancarlton
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© 2014 InterDigital, Inc. All rights reserved.