Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are well equipped to deal with the huge volumes of data and advances in capacity and speed brought by Long Term Evolution (LTE) as well as the capacity requirements brought by increasing numbers of smart phone apps. However, as consumers are wooed with enticing data packages and voice revenues decline, coupled with increasing amounts of Over-The- Top (OTT) traffic, how can these networks and data pipes continue to support these rising volumes?
OTT traffic has become an important aspect of network monitoring. This has led to a requirement for better visibility of subscriber behaviour and better quality of the overall consumption of network traffic including OTT streams. This visibility enables planning for network optimization and being able to offer the most appropriate solution, services and packages to end users.
In the data market, maintaining competitive position is also key. Internet players like Google, Facebook have been managing and monetizing their subscriber base. The traditional metrics like Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) are no longer the sole metric; subscriber analytics are key. Also important for Service Providers are efficient
network operation, game-changing tariff plans, Quality-of-Experience (QoE) improvement and protection of subscribers from threats.
Value is driven by a combination of reduction in the CAPEX/OPEX, increase in revenue, preventing customer churn, control the security risk and managing the time to market. Our Illuminate solutions enable network operators to build services around the OTT content whilst also ensuring consistency of customer experience and billing. Our solution provides granular and multi-faceted visibility of the network. By analysing the meta data in the network traffic and giving sense to network patterns and trends, the Illuminate platform gives unprecidented insights, enabling MNOs to deliver a superior
subscriber experience.
Our services bring full contextual awareness, giving meaning to user data, services, networks and technology, to deliver accurate data visibility. This insight allows you to classify network protocols and applications. The combination of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and real time fast packet processing gives high quality information about network traffic, subscriber sessions and network meta data.
The details include graphical representations of statistics covering protocol and application split, network usage data, service KPIs and throughput analytics. Illuminate aims to deliver minimum unidentified traffic, minimize the false positives and best Quality of Experience (QoE) to the customer. Service providers benefit from accurate classification of content, prioritization of traffic and insights into usage and service adoption rates.
SOLUTION BRIEF
In today’s connected world, networks provide the foundations for
effective communication, critical applications and a homogeneous
ecosystem for businesses.
The value-added services can facilitate new business models between Service Providers and OTT partners paving the way to smart pipe strategies. In this framework, we can enable the following features towards OTT. • Expose subscriber profiles as well as traffic control profiles
• Allow OTT to specify traffic control types for each subscriber access
ENCRYPTED TRAFFIC Video QUIC HTTPS CORE PROFILE PROFILE PROFILE (HTTP) SUB PROFILE Profile/Policy QoE Analytics ENCRYPTED TRAFFIC ILT-API OTT A HTTPS://AAA/COM OTT B HTTP://BBB/COM OTT C HTTP://CCC/COM HTTP TRAFFIC HTTP TRAFFIC Others Text Image Audio
TRAFFIC TRENDS AND OTT
Traffic trends and technology demands indicate that the majority of traffic is already encrypted with HTTPS and Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC). Advanced optimization for encrypted data is required in addition to conventional HTTP Video optimization. The benefits of this advanced optimization include bandwidth saving, QoE improvement and reduced customer churn.
We can work with existing Traffic Detection Function (TDF), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) components to offer bespoke OTT subscriber analytics by incorporating customized API.
This provides a rich set of insights into OTT utilizations and new features like advertisement insertions, supporting, for example, sponsored zero-rated data.
OTT SPECIFIC CUSTOMIZATIONS
Our platform provides OTT customizations to help you meet the goal of zero known network traffic. In this framework, network/application services monitoring based on standard or customizable protocols are represented as maps of the network elements traversed and their information as latency. This covers the following:
• User and Session information collection and sharing with OTTs, so service providers can collect and use information like MSISDN, IP address and subscription for various purposes.
• Content Filtering features allow operators to block access to forbidden content from their devices. Typical usage is Parental Control, where the access to improper content by minors is limited.
• Subscriber meta data including location to help operator’s content overlay feature, so operators can create a unique, non-intrusive communication channel with end users where any type of message (notifications, promotions, updates, warnings or welcome) can be displayed on an end user device.
• Contributes to the trusted secure proxy feature which allows the operator to decipher traffic (either by
subscribers or OTT's) and perform required actions on it. • Based on the meta data, we support header enrichment,
inserting subscriber attribute information, obtained from AAA (RADIUS) server, such as MSISDN, IMSI and IMEI into HTTP Request Header. This feature gives OTT Partners accurate subscriber information and responds with dedicated content or advertisements based on the subscriber information. The subscriber attribute
information to be inserted is configured by specifying the domain name of the OTT Partner’s web server.
Identify and link the OTT applications to subscriber id IMSI/IMEI/MSISDN. Meta data extraction, data filtering,
integration and alerting
Alerting with the ability to report traffic anomalies defined based on thresholds that can be set with triggers to
external systems OTT Analytics and Monitoring
OTT Value Added Services (customizable) interface to Network Service Orchestrator (NSO): targeted Proactive service design using OTT analytics with advertisements, security proxies, content overlay
Mobile
ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE
• Get visibility to over a 1000 apps and over 20 application groups
• Identify L7 transaction issues
• Identify OTT applications and link to subscriber id IMSI/IMEI/MSISDN
• Understand impact by Geo
• 2G, 3G, 4G & 5G interface protocol support
• Metadata extraction, data filtering, integration and alerting
Increasing network bandwidth can help relieve capacity constraints, but is often short-lived, as new capacity is quickly eaten up by ever increasing bandwidth demand. A new approach is needed.
Big Data analytics tools are now being deployed, such as machine learning, anomaly detection, revenue assurance, behaviour usage, opportunity identification and sentiment analysis.
These tools are data hungry and can process prodigious amounts of data, but it is important to not have these engines churning away doing analysis on gigabytes of raw packet data.
Our Streaming IPFIX Metadata Delivery Platform (SMDP) extracts and provides pre-processed flow and KPI information to these tools for conducting QoE assurance at scale. The results is a better understanding of
user behaviour, compliance enforcement, and better engineering of traffic.
Illuminate OTT customizable features are shown below.
TLO: Transport Layer Optimization ETO: Encrypted Traffic Optimization NETO: Non-Encrypted Traffic
Optimization
TCPO: TCP Optimization
EVO: Encrypted Video Optimization WO: Web Optimization
VAS: Value Added Services VO: Video Optimization CAC: Caching support
AO: Audio Optimization support
HHE: HTTP Header Enrichment CF: Content Filtering
CO: Content Overlay TP: Trusted proxy Illuminate
Platform Features
TLO ETO NETO VAS
• UMTS (lub, lur, luCS, and MAP) • GSM, GPRS/UMTS (Gn links) • ISUP • LTE (S1-U, S1-C, S11, S1-MME, S6a)
• UMTS voice decryption
• LTE NAS decryption
• VoLTE/IMS
• Traffic grooming and routing
•Topology discovery
•Geography and Language specific
•Subscriber specific/ID
• Session/Flow specific
• Integrated DPI
• Intelligent Packet classification
•CGNAT correlation
• GTP-C & GTP-U
•JSON/CSV Active switch/
Packet Brokers/Tap Packet Brokers/TapActive switch/ Multi-rate packets
8x 10G, 2x 40G, 1x 100G Metadata Streaming Probes – 1/10/25/40/100G
Customer defined traffic groupings Location N Collector/Analytics Location 3 Collector/Analytics Location 2 Collector/Analytics Location 1 Collector/Analytics Indexing and Storage
High speed retrieval JSON/XML
SMART PIPE WITH ENTERPRISE ANALYTICS
Service providers can utilize smart pipes to enable wide ranging data packages to enterprises as shown in the figure below. Illuminate Value Added Services (VAS) can utilize the analytics framework to enhance the prevailing data optimization schemes within the Service Providers' data centers.
The benefits include customized optimization for each enterprise as per the footprint/employee size and efficient deployment operation by suitable allocation of hardware resources according to the needs of the enterprise. ILT VAS Core Network 10Gbps 1Gbps 10Mbps RAN ENTERPRISE-A (1,000,000 USERS) ENTERPRISE-B (100,000 USERS) ENTERPRISE-C (1,000 USERS)
SMART PIPE FOR SMALL MEDIUM AND LARGE ENTERPRISES
CN GW L3 SWITCH SWITCH
Before performance can be optimized, an accurate picture of the network is required. This visibility is essential to building an effective, compliant and secure network.
Illuminate engines provide real-time traffic discovery and automatic classification of hundreds of applications and tens of thousands of websites. The following examples show how Illuminate’s SMDP can help.
SUMMARY
The growing impact of OTT services on Telco voice and messaging revenue is a widely accepted phenomenon. Their impact on mobile data traffic and telco data revenue is also acknowledged as critical point for consideration. Data traffic has witnessed growth more than a hundred-fold. The conversion of this revenue has not materialized because the data has been monetized by OTTs. Coverage has become commodity and connectivity has been taken for granted. The
ultimate differentiator in Telco segment is customer experience and service. The traffic monitoring and link utilization are the key to offer new bundles including OTT services covering multiline packages to create family bundles, and on data sharing.
Illuminate’s platform enables fine-grained visibility into link utilization: • Monitoring of microbursts at 100ms, and bandwidth
utilization at 1s resolution. Versatile filtering capabilities • Active monitoring and real-time reporting on core,
intermediate/aggregation, and access networks’ quality using Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) and NetPrecision providing visibility to OTT flows − OTT traffic can be displayed/monitored and the related breakdown possibilities (globally, for http and/or https, IPv4/IPv6, per service, available time windows, real time, per interface, per client subnet, per user agent, per customer device)
• Packet level analysis and latency mapping • Management platforms for all passive and active
monitoring use cases, including GTP + APP monitoring readiness
• 3rd party KPI integration and integration with OSS/ Network Service Orchestrator
• Facilitate new revenue models through add insertion, content overlay and value added features like
parental control. Logical groupings such as Collaboration, Games
and Social Networking make it easy and intuitive for administrators to gain visibility down to individual users and groups. In addition, it assigns a productivity score to the collected groups for ROI and organizational productivity assessment.
One-click drill down allows administrators to identify individual groups and users that may be experiencing traffic that is counterproductive to the health and security of the network during operational hours. Our Risk Index assigns a score that identifies how exposed an application could be to the security analytics.
This allows administrators to quickly enforce possible compliance violations. In modern networks, BYOD presents its own set of challenges. Illuminate’s Device Identification Engine, allows you to easily identify the usage and load on the network from each device and OS type.
Illuminates’ Traffic Visibility Engine does more than application identification; it also provides transaction level drill-down. Administrators can use this to quickly triage service outage issues to support premium enterprise services.
© Illuminate Technologies LLC, 2020 | info@illuminate.solutions | https://oneilluminate.com/ilt Published Dec 2020 | Publication Number: 2020-1554-EN Product Specifications and descriptions in this document are subject to change without notice Not to be shared with any third party without written consent from Illuminate Technologies
PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS
The performance figures mentioned in this datasheet are based on data rates observed in a typical distributed network and pattern of traffic. The actual performance of the system may vary depending on specific network conditions.
Data Interfaces IP networks
Time stamping 3.2 ns resolution, with PPS synchronization
Traffic Identification and
Dynamic Plugins Over 1000 protocols and services: Streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Appstore, Facetime) Messaging (Skype, WA, Viber) Web Services (Craigslist, Bloomberg, Hangouts, Flicker) Domain (DNS)
Metadata Extraction Collaboration (G2M, WebEx) File Transfers (AFP, BitTorrent, Zippy) Dynamic Plugins for new protocols. Various IPFIX fields: Packet Any content or header: e.g. IP, Port, OS, Domain, SSL attributes, Size Distributions, Flow States, User Agent, DNS, Response codes, HTTP transactions, UA, ime, and End reasons etc. Volume
Data Filtering Combinations Specific IPs and ports, Error Codes, Host Names, URLs, Domains, APN, IMSI, MSISDN, Application Groups, GeoIP, SIP Phone Numbers, etc.
Management Ports Redundant 1G/10G (dual media interfaces)
Data Access SSL option for all communications in-flight
System Supervision and
Monitoring Heartbeat API, IPMI, Syslog
Data Adapters JSON, TLV Binary, API Interfaces to third party mediation/retention platforms via KAFKA
Alerts Context aware watches on any dimension and measure with email syslog, pager integration. Full context information leading to the trigger condition
Height 1U 2U
Ports Up to 8 x 10G*, or 2 x 40G, or 2 x 100G Up to 8 x 10G*, or 2 x 40G, or 2 x 100G (Processing up to 80 Gbps per blade) – *via breakout cables
