Operators Drive Best-of-Breed Strategies for 4G Networks

The selection of WiChorus by Clearwire to provide the wireless core platform for its WiMAX network reflects a fundamental shift on how 4G networks will be designed and built. Interview with WiChorus CEO Rehan Jalil and VP of Product Management Eric Andrews.

The build-out of new 4G networks will bring new challenges as operators try to manage the enormous amounts of data and find new ways to monetize data traffic.  Today there are over 5 billion handsets world-wide that are running over networks that were primarily designed to handle voice. 

While overall cell phone growth has stalled, smart phones adoption continues to be the one bright-spot in the industry.  With the popularity of the iPhone and other smart phones, mobile data usage has doubled every 6 months, but the corresponding revenue has not kept pace and consumers have become increasingly unwilling to pay much more.

The traditional model for most operators has been to start with voice and then build a hand-full of walled-garden applications to generate incremental revenue.  But consumers increasingly want access to rich content and the "real internet", not some stripped-down version.  The dilemma for operators has therefore become how to provide the access and services that their customers demand, while still providing a reasonable return on their network investments.

WiChorus recently announced that it will be providing its SmartCore 4G packet core solution for Clearwire's WiMAX network.  In simplest terms, the wireless packet core is the part of the network that makes mobility possible - providing the key interface with all devices on the network including authentication, management and termination of sessions, among other functions.

Today's 4G networks can be broadly grouped in 3 areas:  the access network which includes the radio base stations, the wireless packet core which manages mobile subscribers and their sessions (which with WiMAX is known as the ASN gateway), and the IP network which includes the routers and switches necessary to connect to the internet.

In the past, operators would typically source complete end-to-end solutions from the major infrastructure vendors including Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and others.  Under the new approach, operators are requesting that vendors de-couple the core network from their proposals and provide quotes for each parts of the network separately.

"This is more of a horizontal approach which takes the best-of-breed gateway and then provides operators the ability to mix/match with various radios," says Eric Andrews, VP of Product Management for WiChorus.  "This approach also ensure that all vendor base stations will interoperate with each other and the packet core network selected by the operator."

This approach is also being used by other operators such as Verizon with their planned LTE network.  Verizon selected vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent for its base stations, but also selected Starent Networks for its wireless core network.

Another advantage is cost -  providing increased leverage in the negotiations with an operator's infrastructure vendors.  With the wireless core removed, operators can better evaluate and compare proposals on just the base station equipment.  With the recent addition of Huawei as one of Clearwire's infrastructure vendors, driving down costs further must certainly be an important consideration.

Focusing on the Core

While other vendors provide complete end-to-end solutions, the company was founded on the sole mission of building the best purpose-built 4G core network.  "The importance of the mobile core is that it help operators profit from this new business" says Andrews.  "We sit right between connecting all of these subscribers to rich content and provide a lot of value added intelligence to operators to enable them to do content monetization and network optimization."

The announcement with Clearwire reflects the first commercial announcement for the 4 year-old company which has spent the last 3 years quietly developing its technology.  Last year, Clearwire issued an RFP and mandated an "open IP core." They started with a total of 12 vendors, whittled that down to 6 and after extensive field trials, finally selected WiChorus.  The company has not disclosed which Clearwire markets it will operate in only that they "will be in multiple markets." WiChorus was also selected by the WiMAX Forum for use in its certification labs as it moves beyond testing the air interface to the core network.

But why would Clearwire not select the ASN gateway from one of its current infrastructure providers Motorola or Samsung?  "The companies who make the best base stations are not always the ones that make the best packet cores", said Rehan Jalil, president and CEO of the WiChorus.  "This is also true in other parts of the network such as devices, routers and switches.  This approach allows operators to select the best-of-breed equipment for each part of their network."

"Our equipment typical has more capacity than 5, 10 or 20 of our competitor boxes", says Andrews.  "We designed the technology from the ground-up using a state-of the art architecture that has more capacity."

Optimizing the Network

Utilizing a single vendor for the core network also ensures that operators can offer a consistent level of services across all of their markets.  For example, content based charging and uniform level of service can be rolled out across all markets.

Mobile data networks also provided a new set of challenges and must be actively managed to ensure a healthy network and good quality of experience for all subscribers.  What applications or users are putting strain on the networks?  What times of day?  By actively monitoring such activity, specific polices can be developed and help shape the service levels that operators put in place.  While "throttling" internet applications has received a lot of attention in the press, it is absolutely essentially in the spectral confines of a mobile environment where the actions of one user can create can create problems for the entire network.

To remain competitive, operators must also find new ways to monetize their networks.  "We have this networks intelligence and content awareness that allows us to some interesting things with content monetization," says Andrews.  "For example, an operator might provide a premium QOS depending on the application and derive revenue from different applications, such as gaming.  We have the intelligent infrastructure in place to make that happen."

As one of the highest profile WiMAX operators, Clearwire's ASN strategy should have implications for other operators.  "A number of operators are now coming to us", says Andrews.  "A few years ago, operators were looking for end-to-end solutions, now they all want best-of-breed.  A lot of operators are looking towards Clearwire and they are forcing this to be a more open eco-system."

 

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 in Business  | Permalink |  Comments (0)