Traditional network operators and vendors are virtualising their networks through the standards-based ETSI Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) at an increasing rate, says Ultan Kelly of Cobham Wireless. They are hoping to improve their bottom lines and deploy agile services that can compete with cloud service providers, whose initial focus on servers and applications has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar industry that now completes for enterprise business by offering complete package of servers, network functions, databases and storage offering a turn-key IT solution.
To compete, it’s important that operators rethink not only their network’s make-up but also the method of service validation. With virtualised networks being deployed to swiftly deal with the growing consumer demand for data-heavy services, it is imperative validation tools are equally agile so that operators are capable of differentiating based upon network quality.
The challenge for cellular
The growing popularity of over-the-top (OTT) video and messaging services has placed significant pressure on network performance while competitive pressure led to a significant decline in core operator revenues and falling ARPU. Where cellular voice and text communication reigned supreme 10 years ago, demand for data has now superseded legacy services. This rising data consumption has made ensuring high-quality provision of mobile broadband a primary consideration for operators.
According to IDG, operators spent £370 billion (€ 518.15 billion) on upgrading to 4G networks in 2014. Many are virtualising network functions to provide networks that are robust and agile enough to cope with sharply rising levels of mobile IP traffic running through them. Having introduced 4G, and with moves now being made to prepare for next generation technology, test solutions must be deployed to ensure service levels for end users remain high.
Some virtualised test solutions are now as powerful as their physical counterparts. For example for virtual MVNO deployments, they can emulate the equivalent of 60 million stateful subscribers consuming video, data and voice traffic at the same time, and allow vendors and engineers to create pods to ‘stress test’ a virtual EPC deployment. Vendors can add additional overlay security services and dynamically validate the performance of security policies, determining the quality-of-service of normal traffic as well as the effectiveness of cybersecurity threat detection, protection and isolation.
Use more, spend less
Making the most of technological resources is a key concern for many CTOs and CIOs, and is a particularly pertinent consideration when purchasing test equipment. Network vendors, service providers and large enterprises have traditionally had low utilisation rates of their test assets, sitting at around 20%. Virtualised test solutions, however, can allow operators to use a ‘follow the sun’ pooled resource model and combine hundreds of discrete test beds that can be aggregated for scale test – up to terabits per second.
Virtualised testing allows test assets to be brought up to between 80-90% utilisation, as facilities can be dynamically reallocated to where and when they are needed most – bringing significant agility, scalability and cost savings to test operations. Global sharing also increases operators’ productivity rates, bringing significant CAPEX and OPEX savings. Proprietary test systems can be expensive and tend to remain in a single test lab – meaning far more units must be purchased compared to virtual solutions. The expectation for cloud services is for self-service deployment where service performance is a given – the virtual test platform can be bundled with the service to provide network performance assurance before the customer perceives any quality issues.
Opportunities for virtualised testing
One of the key benefits of network virtualisation for operators is the ability to quickly deploy new services, achieving in minutes what previously would have taken months. This would all be for nothing, however, if the test equipment being used to validate performance was not similarly capable. Operators must ensure that they are competing on quality, taking as much care choosing their test solutions as they are with virtualising their network, or risk undermining their investment, or worse, their customer base, altogether.
The author of this blog is Ultan Kelly, TeraVM product director, Cobham Wireless
