Welcome!

October 4
Mobile Data Offloading Optimization

November 1
Core Network Optimization: The
Control Plane, Data Plane and Beyond

December 6
Optimizing Value Added Services (VAS)
for Greater Revenue Generation

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Todays Topic & Presenters

Core Network Optimization:

the Control Plane, Data Plane
and Beyond
Presenters:
Karl Wale, Director, Product Marketing
Prashant Sharma, Systems Architect (CTO Office)
Dikshit Sawhney, Product Manager
James Radley, Systems Architect (CTO Office)

November 1, 2012

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Agenda

Overview
Core network optimization strategies
Monitoring, optimization, policy & offloading

Optimizing Network Probe & DPI Systems

Traffic handling, stateful loading, DPI

Signaling Plane Challenges & Solutions

Managing growth in signal plane traffic
Diameter routing & network offloading

Impact of Future Trends

SDN Networks

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End-to-End LTE Infrastructure

Radio Access Network Evolved Packet Core Policy Control IP Multimedia Subsystem

User Policy &

Mobility Charging
Equipment IMS
Management Routing
Equipment
Entity Function
Home eNodeB
Application Media
Server Resource
Function
User Policy &
Equipment Charging
Equipment Enforcement Internet
Function
eNodeB LTE Security Serving Packet
Gateway Gateway Gateway

75+ Customer Wins 10G 40G ATCA Traffic Management Audio Video Conf
Macro Small Cells ~40% ATCA Share Dumb Smart Pipes ~65% Market Share

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Mobile Traffic Profile

More users using more of their

data allowance
Web/Internet
More sessionsmore
applicationsmore signaling
3x
Overall
Video flooding radio & 50% CAGR
transport network Until 2016

Video Stream
Web/Internet 7x

Video Stream
2x Audio Stream
Audio Stream
P2P, Voice Etc. P2P, Voice Etc.
2012 2016
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Optimization vs. Customer Need

Voice Era Data Era

Slow / no internet
Dropped calls Poor video streaming
Poor Call Poor quality Poor Data Cant get email
Quality QoS

Capacity RAN or core?

Coverage ? Bearer or signaling ?
Why ? Handovers ? Why ? Internet or access network
Policy setting ?

Churn Leave voice Churn Churn due to data

promote promote based
coverage and voice on data capabilities
quality

Solution needed for 3G today, not only LTE problem

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Optimization Goals

Avoid Churn
QoS
Improve
Cost Service Revenue
Reduction Services
Efficiency Plans

Opex Reduction Tiered Services

Efficiency to defer Capex Core Content Based Pricing
Augment to offload etc. Network Tailored Plans
Optimization

Plan Deploy Optimize

What you invoke and when depends on problem and lifecycle of network
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Core Network Optimization Tools

Network
DPI & Policy Probes

Intelligent Switch LTE & 3G

& Load Balancer Network Core

Video Optimization Traffic

& Gateways Offload

Market For Network Optimization Products Growing by 25% CAGR

Strong growth in DPI, Web & Video Optimization

Network Optimization Needs Blended Approach

No One Size Fits All Solution
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3G Networks: Efficiency
Protocol Analysis
Signaling Correlation across signaling & bearer
Probe Application & QoS KPI awareness

Radio Access Network Packet Core PCRF

User Control
Equipment Plane
Femto

User
Equipment

RAN SGSN GGSN PCEF

Attributes KPI
Layer 7 Awareness Voice Data
Tapped vs Bump in Wire Call Sessions
Temporary vs Permanent Installations Bandwidth QoS/latency etc.
Network
Probe
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3G Networks: Capacity

Radio Access Network Packet Core PCRF

RF & Transport
User Control bandwidth mgmt
Equipment Plane
Femto

User
Equipment

RAN SGSN GGSN PCEF

Transport RF & Transport

direct around core network transcoding
local content access local content re-direct
tailored packages
Offloading Video
Optimization
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New LTE Networks

Radio Access Network Packet Core PCRF

How Differ ?
User MME RF probe planning
Equipment
Policy ?
HeNB SON
then optimize

User
Equipment

EnodeB SGW PGW PCEF

Offloading Video
Optimization
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Poll Question #1

Which do you consider the most important network

optimization tool? (Select all that may apply)
a. Stand-alone DPI
b. Video optimization
c. Local content caching & CDN
d. DPI capable network probe (L4-7)
e. 3G offload
f. Small cell / wifi offload
g. SON (Self Organizing Network)

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Role of Stateful Load Balancer

Load Balancer Value Adds

Scalability: how to scale up
and down? Does it need re-
Extended architecting?
Scalability Product
Life Extended life: bridge the
performance/throughput gap
before move to next generation
Fault
Topology
tolerance Topology Hiding: Hide internal
Hiding
details (blades/servers) from
peers

Fault tolerance: Redirect flow

to new active element

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 Load Balancer - 1
DPI Filtering Transport Optimization

Load Balancer - 2
DPI Filtering Transport Optimization

Flows 1 - 10
Video Optimization Blade 1
Transcoding Trans-rating User awareness

Flows 51-55
Flows 11 - 50
Video Optimization Blade 2
ATCA Platform
Stateful Load Balancer

Transcoding Trans-rating
User awareness
Video optimization gateway

Video Optimization Blade n

Transcoding Trans-rating User awareness
blades

HTTP/video traffic
nonvideo traffic to be

Transport offloading:
DPI based Filtering: Stop

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passed to video processing

of TCP connection that carry

Offload handling/optimization
 Load Balancer - 1
Control/Data Fault
Global QoS
mapping Tolerance

Load Balancer - 2
Control/Data Fault
Global QoS
mapping Tolerance

Flows 1 - 10
PCEF Blade 1
Global/User GTPu
DPI QoS

Flows 51-55
Policy Mapping

Flows 11 - 50
PGW + PCEF Gateway

PCEF Blade 2
Global/User GTPu
DPI QoS
Policy Mapping
ATCA Platform
Stateful Load Balancer

Control Plane
PCEF Blade n
Global/User GTPu
DPI QoS
Policy Mapping

Control Plane
Charging
GTPc Diameter
Control
QoS offload
plane stacks
external links

control and data

QoS offloading:
I/O Aggregation:

Understand PGW
Multiple 10G, 40G

Node/network level
Protocol Awareness

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Stateful Load Balancer

Extended life cycle using load balancer

Scalability: Upfront load balancer

to scale existing network
probes/monitoring box

I/O: LB should be able to support

large amount of I/Os

Protocol awareness: LB should

understand all of wireless protocols
and their transports

Distributed load balancing: LB,

itself, should be scalable to support
variable number of backend
application servers
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Stateful Load Balancers

Carrier Cloud Load Balancers

Scalability: Upfront load balancer

to being efficiency of scale in
carrier cloud

Fault tolerance: Fault tolerance of

LB itself becomes one of the most
critical aspect in the carrier cloud.
This includes fault tolerance at
platform, I/O, blades and
application level

Protocol awareness: LB should

understand all of wireless protocols
and their transports

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Load Balancer: Key Characteristics

ATCA Platform for load balancer

High number of I/O: A
heterogeneous platform like ATCA
offer variety of I/O solution including
centralized and distributed

Specialized processing: State of

art packet processing and switching
technologies (XLP, OcteonII, NP4,
Trident) for common function
offload

Fault tolerance: Carrier grade

ATCA provides redundancy at I/O,
platform elements, backplane and
blade level

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LTE Network Overview

Home
Subscriber
AF IMS
Application
Server Network
Function

Mobility
Management Policy &
Entity Charging
Rules
Function

Internet

eNodeB Serving PDN Policy & Charging

UE
Gateway Gateway Enforcement Function

Web
Radio S1 S5
Email Bearer Bearer Bearer
Service
Data Flows
Voice

Packet
Filters

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Main Drivers of Signaling Traffic

What is driving the signaling traffic in a LTE network?

Data Usage
Multiple connected devices: smartphones, tablets, notebooks, smart
cameras, M2M etc.
Small Cells
Future networks will be heterogeneous i.e. a combination of macro
and small cells (femto, pico, micro etc.). The evolved CN has to
manage a lot more base stations than the legacy networks.
IMS
VoIP based call control network in LTE provides rich communications
capabilities not limited to just voice conversation
Policy & Charging Control (PCC)
Policy and service based charging plays a key role in the LTE
networks. This is causing a tremendous increase in Diameter
signaling traffic with in the EPC that needs to be managed. 20
S1-flex Architecture

S1-flex architecture uses many-

to-many network architecture
between eNBs and MMEs for
load balancing and redundancy
purpose. eNB selects a MME on
UE registration based on the
current resource utilization at
each of MMEs in the pool area
Pool Area

MME uses a similar logic to MME MME MME

select a S-GW from a pool of S-
GWs serving the UE area
S1

Possible to re-direct UEs to new

MMEs in case of overload at one eNB eNB

of the MME in the pool area

S1-flex is a pre-requisite for the

Network Sharing architecture
discussed in the next chart 21
Network Sharing

This optimization technique

involves sharing RAN and CN
resources among multiple
service providers. It is possible
to share just RAN (MOCN) or
both RAN and CN nodes (GWCN)

Multiple PLMN-id(s) are

broadcasted on the air interface.
UE selects a candidate PLMN
and RAN assigns the CN node
based on resource utilization
and current loading of the
shared CN elements.

Applicable to both 3G and LTE

networks

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LIPA

Local IP Access (LIPA)

An offload GW is co-located with

the small cell (HeNB/HNB) and
routes the data destined for
home/enterprise network
appropriately bypassing the EPC

UE uses standard signaling

methods as a regular EPS bearer
to setup the LIPA tunnel

LIPA can be enabled on per

APN/UE basis

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SIPTO

Selected IP Traffic Off-load

(SIPTO)
Network uses DNS or other
mechanisms to select a GW in
close proximity to the UEs point
of attachment to the access
network and offload the traffic
from there

Option to enable off-load on a

per UE/APN basis

Applicable to both small cell &

macro networks providing E-
UTRAN/UTRAN access

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Multi-mode Small Cells (3G/LTE/WiFi)

Non-3GPP Access
Use commonly deployed WiFi
access points to offload traffic to
the Internet.

Access Network Discovery and

Selection Function (ANDSF)
helps UE in selecting the
appropriate access network
based on Operator policies.

Architecture standardized by
3GPP so inter-access mobility is
covered.

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Misc. Network Optimization Techniques

Co-located SGW, PGW and

GGSN nodes. This can improve
the packet latency by eliminating
one of the nodes in the data
path. Mainly a deployment
decision governed by network
topology i.e. ratio of SGWs to
PGWs/GGSNs

Similar colocation is possible for

control plane nodes i.e. MME &
SGSN. Allows for reduction of
signaling traffic during inter-RAT
(3G<->LTE) mobility

Direct tunnel architecture for

UTRAN. This uses a direct
connection from RNC to S-
GW/GGSN bypassing the SGSN
and thus improving packet
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latency
Policy and Charging Control
Architecture (PCC)

Subscription
Profile AF
Repository
(SPR) Online
Sp Rx
Charging
System (OCS)

Policy and Charging Rules

Function (PCRF)

Gxx Gx

BBERF PCEF
Gy

Gz Offline
Charging
System
Gateway (OFCS)

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Diameter Routing Agent - DRA

Diameter is extensively used as an AAA protocol in the DB, charging,

and policy domains of EPC and contributes to majority of signaling
traffic load in the 4G networks.

Scalability demands multiple PCRF(s)/HSS(s) and Charging

DRA helps with routing, load balancing and session management
of traffic flowing between these Diameter entities.

DRA ensures:
all Diameter sessions established for a given EPS connection
reach the same PCRF when multiple and separately addressable
PCRFs have been deployed in a Diameter realm
A DRA can also incorporate SLF functionality to locate HSS for a
IMS UE when multiple HSSs are deployed.

A DRA can be implemented as a re-direct or a proxy agent.

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DRA Deployment Architecture

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Diameter Signaling Flows - IMS Call
Setup (without DRA)

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Diameter Signaling Flows Proxy DRA

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Poll Question #2

How do you see the opportunity for Software Defined

Networks (SDN) in your organization?

a. Revolutionizes how we architect our networks

b. Has real potential but SDN needs to mature as a

technology before it will be of use in a live network

c. Interesting for some niche functions within the network

but will be restricted to a limited set of element types

d. Irrelevant as we are already able to manage networks in a

way that suites our needs

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What is a Software Defined Network?

There are two commonly accepted defining attributes

of a Software Defined Network (SDN):
Decouples network management elements from the packet
forwarding entities. Network intelligence & supporting
protocols are maintained independently of the network nodes
which actually handle the through traffic.

Provides an API so that application developers can have their

own applications directly configure that part of the overall
network infrastructure which delivers packets on their behalf.

Although not part of the common definitions the

abstraction of the various network elements down into
a single virtual switch is seen as an important benefit
of a SDN.
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Why All the Excitement?

Possibility for single virtual switch/router image

Facilitates rapid and consistent deployment of new rules across
the entire network

Independence to go beyond vendor provided features

Network architects can leverage more of the capabilities of the
underlying hardware elements in their network

Promotes innovation
Separation of function allows both network element hardware
and switch management suite vendors to break into the market

Allows applications control over their network

Applications get similar control over their virtual slice of the
network as they have over their virtual server environment

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Challenges in growing SDN into
Carrier Networks

Topology Management
Most of todays SDN management s/w deals well with flat full
mesh network infrastructures not dynamic hierarchies.

Policy Policing
How to control how much network resources a management
agent can reserve?

Security
How to prevent the creation of illicit portals?
How can a network entity spot a rogue rule?

Traffic Management
While good at creating traffic flow classification rules not so
good at defining traffic scheduling characteristics

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Opportunities

De-coupled control & data plane

allows for independent network scaling

Standardise network management strategy

while keep flexible hardware choices

Allows innovative network appliances to be created

Powerful APIs open up market to much wider developer pool
Applications with integrated control over their network can
deliver better services
Provides opportunity to support the less common (or even
proprietary) routing/forwarding protocols on Common Off The
Shelf (COTS) network devices

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Basic Model of a Network Appliance

New packets arriving enable additional detail to be extracted from flow

approx 10% packets

HTTP GMAIL Metadata

Username
Email title
Server Load
Open Flow Content

State Machine
User Application
API Add new entry by default
Application adds or wait for application Buffered
table entry & rule Packets

Apply Rule
e.g. put into correct
priority queue

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Summary Slide

KW to create
MRF covered in webinar 3

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Q&A

Contact us!
Karl Wale Prashant Sharma
[Link]@[Link] [Link]@[Link]

James Radley Dikshit Sawhney

[Link]@[Link] [Link]@[Link]

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