1/11/12, As published in Billing World & OSS
Written by Russ Green, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Management
Subscribers are the most valuable assets of any Communication Service Provider. With increased market competitiveness, deregulation and the services brought on by wireline as well as mobile broadband, the key to business success is guaranteeing a high Quality of Experience for end users with minimal investment. As a result of this, Service Providers are transitioning from a technology focus to subscriber-focused companies.
The capacity and reliability of the network determines the availability of Grade of Service and in turn, the subscriber’s Quality of Experience (QoE). Misconfiguration or insufficient capacity of voice network resources leads to call blocking and call drops, reducing subscriber QoE. In addition, new subscribers are immediately affected through service activation delays and congestion.
Managing the cost of maintaining the right network configuration and capacity is a complex and ongoing challenge. With voice revenues under pressure, this challenge is exacerbated by the need to maintain a profitable service. The cost-efficient management of voice delivery is now more important than ever.
Key Challenges in Planning a Voice Network
There are significant challenges in effectively planning voice networks. Network complexity has increased with the introduction and coexistence of new technologies and associated network elements with the current implementations.
Manual capacity planning and optimization is tedious, error-prone and largely impracticable. Planning cycles are long and accuracy of the analysis depends on the skill of the individual doing the plan. The inevitable management requests for what-if analysis are time consuming and often can’t be satisfied because of time pressure.
The Solution: Subscriber Demand Driven Voice Network Planning & Optimization
Communication Service Providers need a network capacity analysis, planning & optimization system that helps carriers optimally dimension and build their voice networks. One does this by providing an end-to-end network simulation and analysis environment based on “as-built” network resources and recommends the “as-planned” network based on future subscriber demand. They also need the ability to rapidly analyze “what-if” scenarios with different variations of the forecast demand.
The complexities in analyzing Call Detail Records (CDRs) and determining the traffic distribution patterns in the network are an essential part of network design and optimization but should be hidden to the planner, who can just execute a few simple steps to carry out “as-usual” network capacity planning activities in an automated way. The recommended network build and augmentation should meet the required Grade of Service and reliability criteria, thus providing right-sized network capacity with an optimal and cost-effective configuration.
This should also enable planning for cost-effective network migration, for example following a corporate merger activity or a significant network modification such as migration from a leased facility architecture from a 3rd party service provider to a completely internally-owned and run infrastructure. It should also provide intelligence on when to build or lease facilities based on unit cost.
Wanted: Faster, Efficient and Accurate Voice Network Planning
With a single collaborative environment across various organizations, this type of approach simplifies and enables rapid improvements in network capacity planning through the elimination of manual planning processes, which reduces errors and cycle time while increasing the quality of results. Thus, potential issues and bottlenecks are identified months in advance, enabling proactive rather than reactive network management.
It should enable a new build or augmentation of an existing network in an optimal manner, meeting needed Grade of Service and business rules. This type of proactive network plan can significantly reduce service activation delay and failure, thereby reducing time to market. It should empower service providers to realize significant capital and operational cost savings while guaranteeing rich Quality of Experience for its subscribers.
Russ Green is SVP, Product Management & Marketing, VPIsystems. He has 15 years of enterprise software experience in large-scale, high availability systems, working with globally-distributed development groups and customers. Before joining VPIsystems, Russ was the vice president of Development for 724 Solutions, based in Switzerland.
Read our VPIsystems blog on Billingworld.com
Posted by
Russ Green on Wed, May 25, 2011 @ 01:48 PM
By: Russ Green, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Management
While cableco and telco operators originally served completely separate markets, the introduction of IP broadband services has led to a lot of similarity in the communications products and services they now provide. It’s likely that their offerings will continue to converge to a more common future. While cableco and telco operators have mostly been separate entities in North America, in other parts of the world there are examples of telcos that are also cablecos (and vice-versa). All of these cable, telco, and hybrid entities share future paths that raise differing and common challenges in making sure that their networks are ready to satisfy the common opportunities ahead over which they now compete. Read more at:
http://www.pipelinepub.com/0511/OSS_BSS/Cablecos_and_Telcos_Share_Challenging%20Future_1.php
Helps Mobile Operators Predict & Prepare for Escalating Broadband Traffic and the rapid proliferation of new “Smartphone” and tablet devices
March 23, 2011 – Orlando, FL – VPIsystems, the leading provider of predictive network impact analysis software for subscriber quality assurance and network congestion avoidance, announced at CTIA today its OnePlan for Mobile offering. OnePlan is the industry’s first fully integrated environment for end-to-end mobile network modeling & subscriber quality assurance that starts at the Smartphone level to identify and manage congestion across the link & network element layers of a mobile operators’ RAN, Packet Core, and Voice Core networks. OnePlan helps mobile operators reduce churn, increase service conversion rates, and intelligently target their CAPEX expenditures where they are most needed.
“Smartphone behavior and data driven congestion are the primary network issues adversely impacting Subscriber Quality of Experience (QoE) and the increasing costs for subscriber support and network remediation,” said Tito Sharma, President and Chief Executive Officer, VPIsystems. “Gone are the days when mobile operators could just add the same level of network capacity each year and stay ahead of their traffic requirements. Today weekly growth rates are what their annual growth rates used to be. To meet this skyrocketing demand they must be able to perform “what-if” analysis based on the introduction of subscribers, devices, services and network topology changes.”
By identifying traffic sources by subscriber group, device and service, OnePlan can project traffic loads to the mobile link & network element level. It predicts the timing and location of congestion points and suggests when and where to reconfigure or add resources to resolve them. OnePlan helps subscribers re-home their RAN, Packet Core, and Voice Core networks.
OnePlan can be used for the following use cases:
- Visualization: Ability to see network topology, which services and handsets are contributing to equipment and link utilization, where congestion happens and the impact of any changes that are made.
- What-if analysis: Ability to assess the network impact for the launch of a new device or service down to regional or market level. Operators can experiment with network resources allocated to services and devices and based on these scenarios determine where and when congestion will occur.
- Managing congestion: Once the type and location of congestion has been predicted, suggests the best rehoming choices based on overall network utilization. If rehoming isn’t possible, determines the impact of upgrading or adding resources on the predicted congestion.
- Product Launch: Shows how well equipped the network is to support the launch of new revenue-generating products and devices.
- Promotions: Shows operators where they have capacity to offer promotions and models the impact of a significant uptake of promoted services might have on their network.
- Service Costs: Shows what network resources are consumed by a specific service.
OnePlan predicts hot spots/resource shortages and suggests when and where to add capacity so that operators can do proactive performance management.
About VPIsystems
VPIsystems incorporates accurate translation of subscriber, device and application growth into network impact analysis and traffic management systems, enabling mobile service providers to make real-time business decisions. The company’s software enables optimized solutions for the massive bandwidth requirements in backhaul and core networks. Serving the telecommunications industry since 1997, VPIsystems has been the leading vendor of design and planning applications to network operators worldwide.
Headquartered in Somerset, NJ, and with offices in Europe and Asia, VPIsystems’ software is used by over 150 communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and leading-edge research institutions to assess current and future capacity needs, and to optimally plan QoS-constrained service networks and underlying network infrastructure. For further information, visit us at www.vpisystems.com.
Press contact:
Cathy Clarke
CNC Associates
508-833-8533
E: cathy@cncassocs.com
Posted by
Russ Green on Mon, Aug 02, 2010 @ 01:33 PM
Partnership Enables Integrated Policy Management and Network Analytics
DUBLIN, Ireland (August 2, 2010) – Openet, the leading provider of Transactional Intelligence for the world’s largest and most innovative network service operators, and VPIsystems, the leading provider of predictive network analytics software, today announced a strategic partnership to bundle Openet’s FusionWorksTM Policy Manager product with VPIsystems’ predictive analytics technology.
Service providers are demanding increasingly sophisticated policy management and network analytics solutions in order to ensure service delivery and network performance. With this partnership, Openet and VPIsystems are working together to ensure that these solutions are integrated to optimize the subscriber experience and reduce network costs.
“Devices are getting increasingly smarter—and operator networks need to be ready,” said Michael Manzo, CMO of Openet. “By working with VPIsystems, we can ensure that operators make the most of their policy management and network analytics solutions. This applies not only to today’s needs, but to tomorrow’s challenges.”
Openet has long been using policy management to address traffic and bandwidth challenges, and as wireless operators continue to seek network transparency, network analytic capabilities are becoming increasingly crucial.
“VPIsystems’ predictive analytics engine unlocks network intelligence, helping mobile service providers apply network aware policies, reducing customer churn and considerably improving the subscriber experience,” said Tito Sharma, CEO of VPIsystems. “This partnership brings a sophisticated approach for wireless service providers who are working to optimize their subscriber experience.”
For more information on the partnership between Openet and VPIsystems, please visit: http://www.openet.com/company/partners
About Openet
Openet is a leading worldwide provider of event processing and transaction management solutions. The Transactional Intelligence of the company’s solutions extracts increased value from diverse service provider networks, enabling rapid introduction of new services and reliable, cost-effective management of existing services. Openet is focused on delivering best-in-class network edge solutions and specialized engagement processes that create business value from network activity. A global company, Openet’s implementations include long-running engagements with the world’s leading service providers such as BT, Orange, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. For more information, visit www.openet.com.
About VPIsystems
VPIsystems provides accurate translation of subscriber, device and application growth into network impact analysis and traffic management enabling mobile service providers to make real-time business decisions. The company’s software enables optimized solutions for the massive bandwidth requirements in backhaul and core networks. Serving the telecommunications industry since 1997, VPIsystems has been the leading vendor of design and planning applications to network operators worldwide.
Headquartered in Holmdel, NJ, and with offices in Europe, Asia and Australia, VPIsystems’ software is used by over 150 communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and leading-edge research institutions to assess current and future capacity needs, and optimally plan QoS-constrained service networks and underlying network infrastructure. For further information, visit us at www.vpisystems.com.
Holmdel, New Jersey (July 7, 2010) – VPIsystems, the leading provider of mobile network analytics and capacity management software, announced today that Mark Peterson has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Global Sales. Mark brings 26 years of telecommunications industry experience, with a strong understanding of technologies, customers and markets worldwide.
Most recently, Mark held the position of Vice President Worldwide Sales for Nakina Systems, a start-up software company focused on providing enterprise-wide network management software for the world’s largest communication service providers.
“Mark brings significant experience and accomplishments to his new role at VPIsystems,” said Tito Sharma, CEO and President of VPIsystems. “He brings extensive experience working with mobile service providers to enhance the service value they bring to their subscribers. He has a proven track record for establishing and leading successful direct and indirect sales channels. Completing our direct sales team will be one of Mark’s initial initiatives where he will hire in regions where we currently have gaps,” added Mr. Sharma.
Prior to joining Nakina, Mark spent 10 years at Tollgrade Communications, a publicly traded company that designs and manufacturers centralized test and monitoring software and remotely-controlled micro-processor based diagnostic probes for global cable and telephony service providers. During his 10 years at Tollgrade, Mark served as Executive Vice President of Sales, President, and CEO.
Mark began his career in 1984 as a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1995, Mark joined Lucent Technologies where he served as Director of Product Management.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College; a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University; and an MBA from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
About VPIsystems
VPIsystems provides accurate translation of subscriber, handset and application growth into network impact analysis and traffic management enabling mobile service providers to make real-time business decisions. The company’s software enables optimized solutions for the huge bandwidth requirements in backhaul and core networks. Serving the telecommunications industry since 1997, VPIsystems has been the leading vendor of design and planning applications to network operators worldwide.
Headquartered in Holmdel, NJ, and with offices in Europe, Asia, and Australia, VPIsystems’ software is used by over 150 communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and leading-edge research institutions to assess current and future capacity needs, and optimally plan QoS-constrained service networks and underlying network infrastructure. For further information, visit us at www.vpisystems.com.
Friday June 11 sees the start of the 19th FIFA World Cup competition, also called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup or just the World Cup, is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world. Around 1 billion people are expected to watch the World Cup final match live. Media coverage of this competition will be more diverse than ever before – all 64 games played between the 32 competing nations to be broadcast in High Definition TV where networks exist, numerous service providers will be delivering live broadcasts over the Internet (which may mean that fewer diehard fans contract illnesses coinciding with crunch games forcing absence from work) and interactive web based analyses. The biggest change in the way fans will follow this event will be in through the applications and services available on wireless devices. Mobile access for many will be the only way of getting timely information on the competition.
Live mobile video broadcasts are expected to be the most popular of these services. In Africa alone, more than 10 mobile TV broadcasting networks are expected to be available. Numerous providers worldwide are doing the same; most of which are premium services but there are examples of these services being provided at no additional charge such as that offered by the BBC in the UK. FIFA itself will be offering live coverage tailored to mobile phones for the first time.
While mobile subscribers will no doubt use the vast array of apps available for game stats, schedules, standings and so on, the vast majority of the traffic produced by the competition will be during the 100 or so hours spanning the live games. It’s also going to be at these times when the demands on the networks providing these services are going to have to be most reliable. It’s fantastic to be able to watch a game live on your smartphone but there’s nothing more disappointing than an hourglass or a blnk screen appearing on screen moments before a great play is made.
With the schedule of the games known now, savvy service providers have been able to do sensitivity analyses on how their networks will perform based on subscriber uptake of these video services. By doing this type of exercise, it’s possible to find out where the congestion points in the network will be and what can be done proactively to avoid them, in many cases through intelligent network reconfiguration rather than capital expenditure.
The successful mobile broadcast of early games will grow subscriptions and revenue through the competition. A good experience will encourage subscribers to try out new mobile TV services after the competition is over, creating new revenue sources for the service providers, akin to winning the cup.
Of course, a poor subscriber experience will mean abandoning the services and be the equivalent of an early exit from the festivities. No one wants that to happen. Let’s hope that the service providers have done their homework or are working hard at catching up now.
Kick off tomorrow at 4pm local time in Johannesburg. I for one will be watching it on my mobile. Here’s to a great mobile world cup!
A colleague of mine once told me that you know when your product has really made it when you see a T-shirt sporting your brand being worn by a bum walking down the street.
Without calling mainstream media personalities bums, infamy has similarly come to the network problems introduced by the uptake of smartphones (the iPhone in particular) and more so, the service providers that supply them like AT&T. By becoming the butt of jokes on shows like Letterman, The Daily Show and elsewhere, network congestion is now something that the general public have heard about. For this reason, we suggest that 2010 will become the year of the mobile network decongestant.
We aren’t the only ones who feel this way. There’ve been many articles in the trade press pointing to different theories and causes of network congestion. All agree that this is a complex issue that needs to take into account a comprehensive view of how subscribers use devices and services and their impact on the network.
There are many solutions starting to appear on the market to solve this hot problem. The reality is that there is going to have to be a multi-faceted approach that ranges from acute problem resolution all the way through to robust analysis and planning systems. Supporting this view, Infonetics Research issued a report on the policy server market predicting that this high growth market focus on congestion issues in mobile networks. Intelligent policy server solutions are practical responses to the acute problems. When combined with consistent prediction and planning to optimize budget to address the longer term trends, we might really have a network decongestant. That would help everyone breathe easier and the talk show hosts would soon find others targets to laugh at ….
Mobile networks are saturated. The widespread adoption of smart phones and the large bandwidth pipes available on 3G networks has been like a tidal wave hitting these networks. And this is just the beginning…smart phone adoption expects to continue to experience double digit growth over the next 5 years and 3G is already old news as carriers start considering their 4G roll outs.
With these saturated networks and the slew of new users that will be using them how will the carriers respond? By controlling the activities of some users. Yes, some users will have their bandwidth limited or capped during busy hours. This is the purpose of Policy Servers in the mobile networks. While hard to swallow in the land of all you can eat buffets in America, bandwidth caps have been common all over Europe and Asia for many years.
Does that mean that you are going to get throttled down at some point? Probably not. In fact it will very likely improve your user experience. A great deal of the saturation of these networks is due to relatively few users, and if these few users are capped in some way that would mean more bandwidth available for the rest of us. An amazing 90% of capacity consumption on cell networks is generated by only 5-10% of users. These are the Cell Phone Bullies hogging all of the network resources and slowing all of us down.
Even these users will likely have generous caps, but at some point will be throttled down. While usage outside of busy hours will be uncapped in most cases, during busy hours they may be capped at 30 Megs an hour. That is still a lot of bandwidth.
There really is no better solution to maintain a usable network for all. When there is lots of bandwidth available during off hours all users are free to download as much they like. But during the two or three busy hour a day, the users that are downloading hundreds of Megs (and sometimes gigs) of data will be slowed down so we can all use the network.
Combined Entity Adds Capital for Further Expansion
Holmdel, New Jersey (March 29, 2010) – VPIsystems, the leading provider of mobile network analytics and capacity management software, announced today that it acquired Elanti Systems, a leading vendor of intelligent routing software for carrier networks. The acquisition brings Elanti’s expertise in real-time IP traffic management to VPIsystems’ mobile network analytics, allowing the joint company to address the most critical existing and emerging challenges facing communications service providers today.
As part of the acquisition, the combined entity added $4 million in expansion capital to accelerate its push in the mobile market. VPIsystems’ investor group was broadened to include New Jersey-based New Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm that invests in a broad range of communications and information technology companies, and Innovation Capital, a leading Australian investment firm. Dan Deeney of New Venture Partners and Roger Price of Innovation Capital have joined VPIsystems’ board. Existing VPIsystems investors Techno Venture Management (TVM), Core Capital and Cipio Partners also participated in the financing.
Tito Sharma, CEO and President of VPIsystems, said: “This combination perfectly complements VPIsystems strong coverage in the mobile broadband market where carriers meet phenomenal end-user demand but, quite literally, bring their networks to a break-down. Every new device, application and service means an unpredictable drain on a limited amount of network capacity and bandwidth, so carriers keep asking, ‘should we launch?’, ‘at what price?’, and ‘what’s the impact on the network?’
“With the initiation of 4G network deployments, there is a tremendous requirement for traffic management from the base station to the core of the network. Our combined solution provides the intelligence and precise impact analysis of introducing these new demands onto all layers of the network”, added Mr. Sharma.
Friedrich Bornikoel, Chairman of the Board, commented: “We are delighted Elanti is joining VPIsystems. This transaction combines two highly synergistic sets of people, strategies and products which, together, yield a very compelling value proposition to our customers worldwide. Their response and support for the acquisition has been unanimously positive. We as shareholders have been similarly bullish about the opportunity for VPIsystems. The expansion round will allow VPIsystems to further accelerate the roll-out of our analytics and real-time resource management offering to mobile and other service providers.”
“VPIsystems is at the forefront of providing carriers with intelligent analytics, planning and management capabilities to maximize the value of their unevenly utilized network resources. In this highly competitive mobile broadband environment, operators have to distinguish themselves through best-in-class service delivery and innovative mobile devices while managing network capacity to deliver a desired end user experience.” said Dan Deeney, Vice Chairman of the Board.
About VPIsystems
VPIsystems provides accurate translation of subscriber, handset and application growth into network impact analysis and traffic management enabling mobile service providers to make real-time business decisions. The company’s software enables optimized solutions for the huge bandwidth requirements in backhaul and core networks. Serving the telecommunications industry since 1997, VPIsystems has been the leading vendor of design and planning applications to network operators worldwide.
Headquartered in Holmdel, NJ, and with offices in Europe, Asia, and Australia, VPIsystems’ software is used by over 150 communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and leading-edge research institutions to assess current and future capacity needs, and optimally plan QoS-constrained service networks and underlying network infrastructure. For further information, visit us at www.vpisystems.com.
Download the Press Release
Posted by
Russ Green on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 @ 12:38 PM
Tech Mahindra Bundles OnePlan Within IPTV Service Management Solution to Help Carriers Achieve Quality of Service and Faster Time To Market
Holmdel, New Jersey (November 12, 2009) – Most carriers have made the decision to implement an IP network in response to customer demand for services like IPTV and VoIP, but the roll-out involves more than simply migrating legacy lines and applications to the next generation architecture; it can be a long and costly project with the potential for many bumps in quality of service (QoS) along the way.
The layered design of next-generation networks makes for a simpler infrastructure on which to run new services, but the transition can be both difficult and time-consuming. Uncertainty around IP service adoption rates and the imperatives of QoS and network scalability add layers of complexity to efficient planning and design. Equally important are reducing deployment cycles, maximizing existing network investments and minimizing costs, to speed time to market and reduce CAPEX. There are a myriad of hurdles and challenges to a smooth IPTV rollout.
To help carriers circumvent these challenges and prepare their networks to support high quality IPTV, global systems integrator Tech Mahindra has partnered with VPIsystems. Tech Mahindra is using VPIsystems’ fully-integrated, comprehensive flow-through network planning solution, OnePlan, as the base for its IPTV network planning and design solution, to help carriers leverage their existing network deployments, while minimizing additional investments to support IPTV.
The solution takes into account current and projected bandwidth requirements, equipment locations, traffic distribution plans and customer profiles to produce an end-to-end network design that is scalable and optimized for IPTV service delivery. The Tech Mahindra solution also helps carriers compare vendor costs to better evaluate their options before purchasing equipment.
“Tech Mahindra and VPIsystems were a natural fit to deliver this solution, given our combined history in successful OSS deployments to improve QoS and experience working with Tier 1 service providers,” said Michael Devlin, vice president of business development, VPIsystems. “Tech Mahindra’s dedicated IPTV labs and partnerships with key IPTV vendors, combined with the proven capabilities of VPIsystems’ OnePlan solution, are helping carriers efficiently deliver reliable IPTV services to their subscribers, while reducing both CAPEX and OPEX.”
Tech Mahindra’s full offering for IPTV comprehensively addresses the service level management challenges of IPTV services, including network planning. Other pieces of this offering include network monitoring and auditing and testing, to ensure reliable delivery of IPTV services at the highest quality of service in the shortest amount of time.
About OnePlan
OnePlan offers communications service providers a single, cross-domain (geography, technology, discipline and network domain) integrated capacity and network planning capability, OnePlan has become the system of choice for any carrier planning transition to a next-generation, IP-enabled network. Through its modular design, OnePlan provides a scalable solution that can start as a single technology module, and grow to a high-availability system spanning multiple network layers where OnePlan automates all network planning, engineering and decommissioning activities.
About VPIsystems, Inc.
VPIsystems is the only provider of integrated capacity and network planning software and services for the global telecommunications industry. The company’s OnePlan software system gives telecommunications and multi-service providers the ability to cohesively plan the financial, technical and marketing aspects of their network evolution, for all current and future network types. Headquartered in Holmdel, NJ, and with offices in Europe, Asia, and Australia, VPIsystems’ software is used by over 150 communications service providers and network equipment manufacturers to assess current and future capacity needs, and optimally plan their QoS-constrained service networks and underlying transport infrastructure. For further information, visit us at www.vpisystems.com.