Resilient platform: The basis for future network and service growth
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The mobile broadband boom has opened a window of opportunity for mobile operators,
yet choosing the optimum technology and platform to manage networks and serve
customers has become a challenge
Advancing technology and the increasing popularity of smart terminals have greatly
boosted mobile broadband services. Statistics show that mobile data traffic worldwide
surged 160% in 2010 compared with 2009, and it is expected to soar 26 times by 2015,
to 6.3EB a month.
With dramatic changes in networking and services, mobile broadband services are
posing higher demands on legacy operation and maintenance (O&M) models. Given
the massive amounts of data and services, operators are keen to find an intelligent
network management and O&M model that can accurately analyze traffic distribution
and user behavior. In this context, operators can make decisions in a scientific way and
offer accurate and customized services to users.
Meeting mobile broadband O&M needs
Crucial for daily mobile network management is network visualization, with which
operators can establish a system for visualized network quality monitoring and health
evaluation. By tracking in real time the network running status, operators can
continuously improve service quality and enhance customer loyalty.
As an important part of network visualization, the resilient platform allows operators to
build a unified O&M system and incorporate network and service visualization
technologies into daily mobile broadband management. This helps operators easily
respond to the O&M challenges posed by future data booms. SmartCare platform is the
solution leveraging Huawei’s innovation and end-to-end experience in a wide range of
products to fulfill the requirement of resilient platform so as to support its Service
Quality Assurance Solution.
Intelligent O&M
Through the SmartCare platform, operators can monitor the traffic volume and service,
while evaluating their development trends in real time. To ensure user experience,
operators can also monitor the key network services, track changes in network
performance and service quality, and prevent possible network faults. In addition,
operators can monitor the quality of services for VIP customers on a real-time basis and
identify the users and cells with the least-satisfactory user experience and perform
optimization accordingly. Moreover, by learning in real-time the resource usage of
each network element, operators can justify network expansion and adjustment.
Facilitating decision-making
The SmartCare platform enables operators to: 1) track changes in network and services
as a basis for future service development; 2) analyze preferences of different user
groups and develop feasible service offerings and charging policies, helping enhance
customer satisfaction and loyalty; 3) assess the impact of data cards, smartphones, and
tablet computers on the network and adjust the business plans based on the network
statistics; 4) identify where and how network congestion occurs and direct traffic
accordingly; 5)compare the equipment performance and identify the optimum
equipment for the networks.
Customizing services
The SmartCare platform provides a broad range of security services like anti-virus and
backdoor diagnosis, creating a secure and reliable networking environment for
operators. To ensure quality, the platform offers QoS assurance for key services. In
addition, Huawei SmartCare solution identifies user behavior and preferences based on
user traces and images, allowing operators to push and advertise services to users.
Three features required
To give full play to the above mentioned advantages, the SmartCare platform should
have three features: expansion on demand, easy scalability and integration, and
sustainable development.
Expansion on demand
Continuous efforts are needed to realize network visualization and operators need to
also consider the demands in coming few years. This necessitates a resilient networking
structure with which operators can expand capacity on demand. As bandwidth
continues to grow, the storage also increases and forms a key part of the O&M system
in a mobile broadband network. Generally, storage capacities are housed in a disk array,
and a higher-capacity device or an additional device is added once the legacy capacity
is depleted. This wastes investment, complicates the system, and necessitates frequent
adjustments. Moreover, a disk array cluster demands the support from the high-speed
optical network, which in turn incurs higher costs and reduces the flexibility in system
deployment.
The SmartCare solution builds on the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) for
metadata storage. As an open source storage solution that is self-healing, the HDFS
allows operators to expand their system capacity on demand, while realizing capacity
expansion by adding disks at will.
Easy scalability and integration
Amid the mobile broadband boom, the O&M systems should be scalable to meet the
changing challenges, for example, increased bandwidth consumption caused by data
cards, signaling issues caused by smartphones, intelligent and automatic network
control, and terminal security.
Using a web mode that combines SOAP and XML, the SmartCare platform can offer a
fresh mechanism for upper-layer management. Highly integrated, this platform
provides a complete set of open standards to define, publish and access both local and
remote services. The SmartCare platform is open, flexible and easy to use, thanks to its
web-based integration.
Compared with an enterprise application integration solution based on distributed
technology, the web-based platform facilitates service use, design, development, and
maintenance, and simplifies operating procedures that span a number of applications.
Web services are based on open standards and can be accessed by any web-capable
device. As major system integrators support the SOAP protocol, this removes the
hassle of re-configuration and operators can reduce the costs in system upgrade to
support new technology.
Web service integration generates loose coupling between application release and
application usage. Web services can also interact with each other and are easy to
customize, while the loose coupling makes the system more robust and flexible.
Sustainable growth
To meet the fast-growing needs of mobile broadband services, operators need to focus
on two capacities:
First is the deep packet inspection (DPI) technology. As the basis for data network
visualization, DPI should deliver packet analysis and online upgrading functions.
The DPI module in the SmartCare solution is powerful in identifying the protocol and
web addresses. Through analysis and feature matching, the module can accurately
identify over 900 protocols, helping operators launch value-added services. In addition,
the DPI module supports online and intelligent upgrades based on the latest DPI
knowledge base, URL library, and virus library. The upgrades are simple and easy,
eliminating the need for user intervention and can proceed without disrupting system
operation.
Additionally, a future-proof SmartCare platform should support experience and
knowledge sharing to maximize O&M efficiency and help make right decisions.
Built on a resilient platform, the SmartCare platform empowers operators to build a
unified O&M system that supports third-party application integration and swift
capacity expansion. Huawei SmartCare Service Quality Assurance service, supported
by its resilient platform, offers the assessable, visible and manageable service quality
and user experience assurance and integrates them into daily mobile broadband
management, helping operators enhance O&M efficiency and enable lean operations.
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