MBB networks in the spotlight
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Mobile broadband (MBB) networks always lag behind the bandwidth requirement of smart devices. It is natural for us to ask whether continuous network capacity expansion is the best option operators have.
Capacity expansion: Not the best option
While the iPhone has brought AT&T new subscribers and additional revenue, it has also been overloading its networks to such an extent that networks in certain regions suffer from serious congestion or even paralysis due to the overuse of wireless network resources by iPhone users. In 2008, a user named Smith filed a lawsuit against Apple because she could rarely gain access to AT&T’s 3G high-speed network. This complaint was echoed by many iPhone users.
With the penetration of smart devices in recent years, users’ requirements from mobile network bandwidth and service quality are getting higher and higher. Operators’ first response toward network congestion always tends to be capacity expansion. But it cannot eradicate the problem. Also limited frequency spectrum resources decide that operators cannot always continue this way. They need to build up an O&M management system which is able to visualize and control their networks, thereby ensuring network’s healthy development.
Network visualization is one of the approaches to solve the preceding problem. It helps operators obtain a “perspective” of their networks by collecting network operation data as well as analyzing and taking precautions against network problems. Based on that network perspective, the visualization system issues control policies to policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) devices in the network through the policy and charging control (PCC) scheme to control the bandwidth and services used by subscribers, thereby achieving network control.
Huawei’s network visualization solution consists of external probes, network equipment and visualized analysis system. The probes capture signals and datagrams directly from the network for analysis without affecting network services. Network equipment sends to the analysis system signal information on subscribers, service traffic information, and equipment operation statuses. The analysis system then stores and parses the original data to generate network quality measures. It automatically generates charging and QoS control policies for subscribers and services that occupy excessive network bandwidth, thereby controlling the operation of network equipment.
Across-the-board visibility into the network
Maintenance equipment of operators, though different from one another, always includes network management, signal capture and analysis equipment, and analysis servers in the application layer. Huawei’s visualization solution collects signal and bandwidth information on subscribers and service flows as well as network equipment operation status to analyze network KPIs. It enables quick tracing back to causes when subscribers cannot access the network or services decline at a slow rate.

Three-level visibility
Huawei visualization solution enables visibility at three levels – network, subscriber and service. It analyzes QoS indicators from these three dimensions. At the network level, the solution analyzes indicators such as service success ratio, average delay, jitter and packet loss ratio, traffic model as well as traffic models for various devices. At the subscriber level, it outputs the voice service model, use of air interface resources, accessed URL list, average delay, jitter and packet ratio as well as end-to-end signaling flowchart for the subscriber. At the service level, it outputs the delay, jitter and packet loss ratio, and statistical distribution of accessed websites for a specific service.
On that basis, the operator is able to understand the network operation status from three perspectives. Once there comes a subscriber complaint about failing to access the network, the solution can graphically show a signaling flowchart for the subscriber, including messages received and sent by every piece of network element (NE) equipment as well as detailed reasons for the failure, enabling the maintenance personnel to quickly identify the failing equipment and locate cause for the failure.
Similarly, in the case of network access speed going down, the visualization system can also graphically show the delay of every piece of equipment.
Correlation between two networks
Huawei’s visualization solution can correlate wireless network with the core network to meet the trend of network flattening. It increases the accuracy and integrity of analysis results through a comprehensive analysis of information at the signal and subscriber levels. It can quickly identify whether the problem is caused by wireless or core network equipment as well as specific reason for that in case of subscriber’s failure to access services. It graphically shows the changing trends in network loads, including signaling and data traffic loads, and generates result reports, thus giving recommendations on network optimization and capacity expansion.
With the deployment of Huawei visualization solution, the visualization system performs data analysis, quickly identifies causes of problems, and provides network status warnings, thereby reducing the manpower for network maintenance, replacing the mode that relies on manual analysis, and reducing maintenance expenses.
Smart operations
Subscriber scale is a key factor that affects operators’ revenue. Operators usually try to attract subscribers via flexible tariff packages. The traditional non-differentiated monthly tariff has no limitations on usage. As a result, 10% of subscribers consume 90% of the bandwidth, which not only compromises the interests of the remaining 90% of subscribers, but also leads to frequent network congestion. It is required to take into account the current network status and subscriber habits when developing tariff plans, to realize precise network control and avoid the overuse of network by individual subscribers, as well as network congestion.
Huawei’s visualization solution collects subscriber data, analyzes information such as types of services used by subscribers, traffic resulting from services, correlation between traffic and duration, and the value of services for operator, and forecasts network loads and traffic trends. Once the operator finds out that network congestion is about to occur due to the overuse of the bandwidth by subscribers, the visualization

solution automatically generates control policies and issues them to policy and charging rules function (PCRF) devices. It then controls the network equipment to limit the use of bandwidth by subscribers through PCEF devices. Take P2P download services for example. These services during busy hours may consume more than 50% of the network bandwidth. If the bandwidth for those applications is restricted, the network cost can be significantly reduced.
A successful case
An operator in Southeast Asia, after deploying HSPA+ services in 2009, faced intense market competition, along with falling ARPU, and excessive increase of network traffic. Some of its subscribers took up a lot of network bandwidth, as they all used data cards and signed up for traffic packages without upper limits, thereby affecting the service experience of other subscribers.
With the deployment of Huawei’s visualization solution, the operator was able to master the network operation status at the network, subscriber and service levels. It found out the pattern of changes in network traffic, as the peak traffic tended to occur on Saturday afternoons, leading to network congestion. As for the usage by subscribers, it found out that 10% of its subscribers took up 77.5% of the traffic and that 20% of them used 91.8% of it. Among them, a heavy-use subscriber consumed 31GB traffic within two days; 96% of the network traffic was from P2P, HTTP and VoIP services, with P2P services contributing 49.6%, including BitTorrent, YouTube and PPStream.
Based on the analysis result, the visualization solution generated bandwidth control policies for PCC to restrict the bandwidth for low-value services during peak hours, thereby guaranteeing the fair usage of services among subscribers and reducing the peak traffic of the network. By doing so, the operator successfully avoided network congestion and guaranteed the service experience of subscribers.
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