2016 Global Radio Access Networks Capacity Traffic Shaping ... · Radio Access Networks Capacity...

2016 Global Radio Access Networks Capacity Traffic Shaping

Product Line Strategy Award

2016

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 2

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Product Line Strength and Customer Impact ............................................................ 3

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 7

Significance of Product Line Strategy ............................................................................ 8

Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership ............................................................ 8

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 9

Best Practice Award Analysis for Vasona Networks, Inc. (Vasona) .................................... 9

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 9

Product Line Strength ......................................................................................... 10

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 10

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 11

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 12

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 12

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 13

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 14



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

Delivering consistently good quality of experience and lack of network visibility are key

challenges that deter mobile network service providers (SPs) from offering comprehensive

connectivity to mobile subscribers. Conventional radio access network (RAN) management

solutions tend to offer merely an overview of the network performance based on the

average results created from data sets collected over a period of time. However, none of

these available solutions offer real-time cell performance details or historical analytics of

the network behavior. Due to these prevailing limitations, network engineers are unable to

gather an adequate visualization of network issues, such as network congestion, latency,

application contention and other types of performance problems, consequently leading to

poor quality network experience for subscribers. In such situations, the only available

option for network service providers is to resort to network expansion and upgrade the

existing infrastructure, both of which is cost intensive. Without access to specific details

about the network performance, engineers are unable to successfully optimize the existing

resources and limit unnecessary expenditure.

Therefore, companies contesting to enjoy prominence in the global RAN capacity traffic

shaping market are expected to develop solutions that offer granular insight about

network and application performance. It is important for such solutions to deliver real-

time network performance analytics with substantial intuitive bandwidth allocation, so that

based on personalized user sessions, the network performance significantly improves.

Product Line Strength and Customer Impact

Breadth

Founded in 2010, San Jose-based Vasona is one of the leading providers of software

suites and applications that allow network SPs to improve the efficiency level of carrier

infrastructure. Comprising SmartAIR™1000 (a mobile edge application controller) and

SmartVISION™ (a RAN behavior analysis software suite), the company’s product breadth

exhibits its commitment to enable customers such as network service providers with the

ability to offer their end users, that is, mobile subscribers, the best-in-class network

service, at par with their need for data-intensive applications and information-rich

content. The constant effort of mobile network operators to offer their end users high-

speed internet connectivity such that it may support rich applications, such as video calls

or internet audio calls, is evident from the emergence of 4th generation (4G) Long Term

Evolution (LTE) over 2nd generation (2G) or 3rd generation (3G) network services. Within

5 years since its introduction in 2010, the 4G LTE technology has been adopted by over

700 million users, globally. To ensure they can offer consumers a connectivity experience

that is superior to that offered by competing peers in the market, mobile network service

providers often invest ambitiously on infrastructural improvement. As these investments



are often made without adequate planning and comprehensive understanding of the

networks’ impact on user applications, service providers fail to provide the quality of

experience (QoE) expected by their customers. This, in turn, causes end users or

subscribers to opt out of their services, which significantly compromises the service

providers’ overall revenue earning opportunities.

Vasona’s SmartAIR™1000 edge application controller, launched in February 2015,

functions as a real-time traffic manager to integrate mobile network core and RAN. Due to

its presence between network core and RAN, the SmartAIR™1000 is capable of analyzing

every subscriber session and all types of network congestion at the individual cellular

level, unlike competing solutions. While analyzing subscriber sessions and congestion level

with respect to respective cells, the application controller takes into account the nature of

applications that are used by the subscribers and media usage. Based on the real-time

assessment of the cell state and its users, the SmartAIR™1000 manages bandwidth as per

the requirement of each session. Owing to this benefit, Vasona is readily able to offer its

customers the scope to optimize the subscribers’ overall QoE without investing dearly in

infrastructural upgrades.

The SmartVISION™ RAN behavior analytics software suite provides mobile network SPs a

realistic understanding about the method by which RAN performance affects consumers’

QoE. Unlike the SmartAIR™1000, this software suite is deployed at the network

operations center for real-time analytical understanding about the performance of each

cell sector with respect to network congestion, latency, and consumer QoE in a centralized

manner. The SmartVISION™ software not only manages the SmartAIR™1000 edge

application controllers throughout customers’ mobile networks but also efficiently delivers

the most comprehensive performance insight about each cell. Empowered by these

findings, the users of Vasona’s solutions enjoy unprecedented clarity about network

performance, compared to similar solutions in the market. Automatically, Vasona’s

customers reflect more promptness in taking corrective measures to optimize the network

performance.

Scalability

Since the network architecture of each mobile SP is different, it is increasingly challenging

for companies developing RAN management and network management solutions to create

a one-stop solution that will effectively match the diverse needs for network optimization.

Therefore, compared to the off-the-shelf RAN management solutions, Vasona’s offerings

provide users a centralized as well as personalized understanding about the network

performance at the cellular level. Owing to this, users receive an in-depth understanding

of network performance, latency, congestion, and historical data on trends that have

resulted in the deterioration of network performance. The scalability of Vasona’s solutions

has been further enhanced through the inclusion of anonymized session metadata to

assess the mode of congestion in each cell. Due to such inherent scalability in its

solutions, customers tend to enjoy a highly comprehensive understanding about network



performance as well as the prevailing performance obstacles.

Technology Leverage

Unlike its competitors, Vasona’s usage of mobile edge computing technology for

monitoring and improving subscriber sessions is a profound example of the company’s

ability to offer technologically-leveraged comprehensive solutions across mixed-RAN

vendor environments. Compared to the traditional methods of RAN management, mobile

edge computing provides a comprehensive range of operations and is not limited to a pre-

determined function, such as in an off-the-shelf device or software. Owing to this feature,

mobile edge computing displays the unique ability to monitor RAN and establish a solution

approach that spans RAN and the core. This enables mobile providers to offer customers

better services and improved differentiation in terms of understanding network issues’

impact on those services. In addition, while the existing RAN management technologies

analyze data collected at an interval of 15 minutes from hundreds of cells, Vasona’s

mobile edge computing technology operates on data collected every second, sector by

sector. Therefore, network SPs are able to gather critically important and in-depth

understanding of network performance and areas of needed improvement by effective use

of Vasona’s mobile edge computing technology.

In-line mobile edge computing capabilities are an important industry direction to address

low-latency / high-bandwidth challenges from a vantage point that affords both visibility

into real-time edge conditions and ability to take action. Vasona’s SmartAIR™1000 edge

application controller most strongly demonstrates the company’s ability to offer

technologically superior solutions that not only connect both RAN and the core but also

deliver higher quality services that are adapted in real-time to cell performance.

Features

As mentioned before, Vasona’s proprietary RAN management platform comprises

SmartAIR™1000 and SmartVISION™ - a comprehensive suite that helps to overcome

network challenges and offer customers high-quality service, matching their individual

expectations. In pursuit of its commitment to offer customers cutting-edge convenience in

terms of network monitoring, latency detection or any other issue of non-performance, the

company emphasizes on collaborating and working closely with its customers. In this way,

it understands their requirements better and offer them personalized services. In addition,

the scope of one SmartAIR™1000 deployment, which can be extended up to 8000 cells

and 2,000,000 bearers, demonstrates the high-end features that the solution contains,

compared to the offerings from competing peers. Vasona’s SmartVISION™ software suite

is Linux based and can be deployed virtually or physically. In its normal implementation,

it runs on a dual octa-core processor with 2.27 gigahertz (GHz) clock speed. Owing to its

10 terabyte (TB) storage, and 64 GB memory, it can store data and run data analysis for

up to 6 months history.



The company started working in collaboration with Telefónica UK and initiated a

commercial pilot deployment of its SmartAIR™1000 solution (March 2015). The real-world

deployment of this solution suggests that not only has it improved the QoE quotient for

subscribers considerably, but that it has also enabled Telefónica UK’s customers to enjoy

better mobile data performance. Tommy Björkberg, head of network strategy and

programs for Telefónica UK, had this to say:

“Working with Vasona Networks on mobile traffic management and visbility is part of

Telefónica’s commitment to great customer experiences. We field tested in one of the

world’s most densely-populated markets to confirm the Vasona platforms’ abilities to

benefit mobile data performance for our customers. This pilot deployment represents the

next phase of our work together.”

Vasona has also collaborated with Cellcom to improve the company’s mobile broadband

service. Prior to the collaboration on June 2014, Cellcom deployed both Vasona

SmartAIR™1000 and SmartVISION™ to receive valuable real-time insight about the

factors leading to network congestion. The corrective measures taken based on the

analytics provided by Vasona’s solutions have helped it improved its bitrate by at least 30

percent, while the service latency for mobile networks has gone down by about 35

percent.

“We examined several options for RAN optimization and were impressed by how well the

Vasona Networks edge application controller and analysis suite could meet our

requirements for real-time cell congestion management, faster web browsing, improved

video streaming and a reduction in latency,” noted Robert Riordan, executive vice

president and director of corporate development for Cellcom. “After initial deployments in

a handful and then hundreds of cells, the outcome was so successful that we rolled out the

Vasona Networks solution across our network”.

Price/Performance Value

In its effort to provide customers the best value for money, Vasona’s RAN capacity

management solutions, SmartAIR™1000 and SmartVISION™, offer comprehensive

understanding of network performance alongside an unmatched ability to visualize

performance bottlenecks. Traditional RAN capacity management solutions usually offer

network SPs a brief overview of the network performance, without providing an in-depth

knowledge.

Brand Equity

Vasona has been affiliated with 2 globally respected investor companies, namely,

Bessemer Venture Partners and NewVenture Partners LLC. Such affiliations ensure

constant financial support, allowing Vasona to continue solution development through

extensive research and development. In addition, the financial support from brands such



as Bessemer and NewVenture also strongly demonstrates the true potential of its

proprietary solutions before the global market. Thus, Vasona enjoys strong brand

recognition in the global RAN capacity traffic shaping market.

The company’s sincerity to participate in and demonstrate its solutions at live events

globally also has a strong role to play in the creation of its robust brand equity. While the

company has already participated in acclaimed events, such as MEC Focus Day in Palo Alto

(December, 2015), it is slated to attend other globally renowned events, namely, the

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February, 2016) and the Mobile Edge Computing

Congress in Munich (third quarter of 2016). These events enable the company to interact

directly with its potential customers and demonstrates the superior attributes of solutions

to its customers. In this manner, the company increases its brand recognition in the global

market and enjoys clear prominence amidst stiff competition.

Conclusion

To summarize, Vasona’s proprietary SmartAIR™1000 edge application controller and

SmartVISION™ RAN behavior analysis suite creates a comprehensive ecosystem that not

only monitors and improves network performance at the cellular level but also delivers

real-time analytics about network congestion, latency, and any other performance issues.

Compared to the traditional RAN management solutions, Vasona’s solutions help

customers enjoy information rich, in-depth network visibility. Such detailed information

not only prompt network managers to proactively address performance issues faster than

competitors, but also gives them the most centralized control over network performance.

With its strong overall performance, Vasona has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Product

Line Strategy Award.



Significance of Product Line Strategy Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers’ procurement activity, and

then making the decision to return time and again. A full, comprehensive product line

that addresses numerous customer needs and preferences is therefore a critical ingredient

to any company’s long-term retention efforts. To achieve these dual goals (customer

value and product line strength), an organization must be best-in-class in three key areas:

understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition.

Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all

play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however,

must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on building a superior and

comprehensive product line.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Product Line Strategy Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently

evaluated two key factors—Product Line Strength and Customer Impact—according to the

criteria identified below.

Product Line Strength

Criterion 1: Breadth

Criterion 2: Scalability

Criterion 3: Technology Leverage

Criterion 4: Features

Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Best Practice Award Analysis for Vasona

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;

ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Product Line Strength and Customer

Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions

for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the

veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small

changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the

overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players

as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR PRODUCT LINE STRATEGY LEADERSHIP AWARD

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Product Line Strategy


Customer Impact Average Rating

Vasona 9.5 9.8 9.7

Competitor 2 7.8 8.0 7.9

Competitor 3 6.0 6.5 6.3


Criterion 1: Breadth

Requirement: Product line addresses the full range of customer needs and applications

Criterion 2: Scalability

Requirement: Product line offers products at a variety of price points and functionality

levels

Criterion 3: Technology Leverage

Requirement: Demonstrated commitment to incorporating leading edge technologies into

product offerings, for greater product performance and value

Criterion 4: Features

Requirement: Products offer a comprehensive suite of features to serve customers at

multiple levels of functionality, ease of use and applications

Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability

Requirement: There is sufficient control over the supply chain to ensure availability of key

components and thereby the availability of products in the product line

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that

addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service



Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR PRODUCT LINE STRATEGY LEADERSHIP AWARD

High

Low

Low High

Customer Impact


Vasona

Competitor 2

Competitor 3



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often, companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-

in-class levels.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS

Technology

Obsolescence

Disruptive

Technologies

New

Applications

CEO

Demographics

Needs

and

PerceptionsSegmentation

Buying

Behavior

Branding

and

Positioning

Competitive

Benchmarking

Emerging

Competition

Competitive

Strategy

Capital

Investments

Availability

of

Capital

Country

Risk

Economic

Trends

Crowd

Sourcing

Growth

Strategies

Career

Development

Growth

Implementation

Industry

Evolution

New Vertical

Markets

Industry

Expansion

Industry

Convergence

Emerging

Technologies

Smart Cities

Sustainability

New Business

Cultures

GeoPolitical

Stability



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess

their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are

based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe

• Conduct in-depth industry research

• Identify emerging sectors • Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

• Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

• Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

• Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

• Confirm best-practice criteria • Examine eligibility of all candidates

• Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

• Brainstorm ranking options • Invite multiple perspectives on candidates’ performance

• Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

• Share findings • Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility

• Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized award candidates

6

Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility

• Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

• Pressure-test fit with criteria • Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates

Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official award consideration materials

• Perform final performance benchmarking activities

• Write nominations • Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient

• Review analysis with panel • Build consensus • Select winner

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform award recipient of award recognition

• Present award to the CEO • Inspire the organization for continued success

• Celebrate the recipient’s performance

Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers

• Coordinate media outreach • Design a marketing plan • Assess award’s role in future strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

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community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit

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