De-Risking New Service Provider Technology Deployments – Triple Challenge in the News

Here’s a selection of industry news clippings which help to show the inherent issues and links between the Triple Challenge technologies – and why de-risking them prior to deployment is so important.

Nokia Networks claims NFV first; “major operator” to launch cloud-based VoLTE this year¹
Here we see an operator wanting to deploy VoLTE, but they have decided to go down the network virtualization path first in order to deploy a virtualized version of VoLTE from the get-go. This lends industry proof to the interrelationship between these two technologies – as has been stated earlier in this blog series.

Vodafone UK steps closer to VoLTE²
This is an example of an operator wanting to deploy VoLTE so they can free up spectrum on their 2G and 3G networks to carry more data. This will likely indicate that they will be deploying bigger transport pipes in the near future.

Vodafone Australia’s core upgrade to pave way for VoLTE³
By modernizing its core network to prepare for the launch of VoLTE trials later this year, this operator plans a full commercial rollout early next year. They have stated they will virtualize their core before deploying VoLTE as a service, also likely increasing their width of their transport pipes as part of their upgrade in the process.

Smartphone Data Consumption is 44 Percent Greater on Larger Screen Phones⁴
Another interesting industry interdependency calls out the direct relationship between handset display size and the amount of data flowing to and from that handset type. “Wi-Fi and cellular data consumption on smartphones with screens 4.5 inches and larger is 44% greater than it is on smartphones with screens less than 4.5 inches.” Therefore just with the deployment of the new iPhone 6, we would expect to see greater amounts of traffic on the network by default, independent of the services offered to the phone or how those services are transported.

Conclusion

From the above news clippings, it can be seen that operators are already engaging with issues associated with the Triple Challenge of Network Transformation technologies. Monitoring can play a great part in de-risking the deployment of these three new technologies, and will allow service providers to fully understand these technology inter-relationships before deployment such that when troubleshooting it is easier to find the real need in the correct haystack.

¹ Wieland, Ken, “Nokia Networks claims NFV first; “major operator” to launch cloud-based VoLTE this year,” http://www.mobileworldlive.com/nokia-networks-claims-nfv-first-major-operator-launch-cloud-based-volte-year”
http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-elements/nokias-nfv-strategy-starts-with-volte–/d/d-id/710622 (September 4, 2014)
² Wieland, Ken, “Vodafone UK steps closer to VoLTE,”http://www.mobileworldlive.com/vodafone-uk-steps-closer-volte (August 6, 2014)
³ Waring, Joseph, “Vodafone Australia’s core upgrade to pave way for VoLTE,”http://www.mobileworldlive.com/vodafone-australias-core-upgrade-pave-way-volte(August 21, 2014)
⁴ “Smartphone Data Consumption is 44 Percent Greater on Larger Screen Phones, According to NPD,” NPD Group, http://www.connected-intelligence.com/about-us/press-releases/smartphone-data-consumption-44-percent-greater-larger-screen-phones (November 18, 2013)