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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Research Case Study
ClearSky Technologies’ virtualised hosted policy
management helps regional CSPs stay competitive
May 2014
Glen Ragoonanan and Gorkem Yigit
© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
ClearSky’s virtualised policy management solution enables regional CSPs
to optimise cost and increase network control to stay competitive
The mobile market in North America (NA) is one of the most advanced and lucrative markets, where mobile data is the main driver
of growth. A few Tier-1 communications service providers (CSPs) dominate the market and a large number of smaller regional
players operate in the areas underserved by these Tier-1 CSPs.
Regional mobile CSPs in NA are losing subscribers to Tier-1 CSPs as they expand their reach through new roll-outs and
acquisitions. Smaller regional mobile CSPs often find it difficult to compete against Tier-1 CSPs because of lack of access to capital
for large network investments and spectrum. To stay competitive and generate maximum return from their constrained resources,
regional mobile CSPs use providers of hosted infrastructure and managed services to gain access to more-affordable systems and
expertise.
ClearSky Technologies is a provider of hosted infrastructure and managed services to mobile CSPs, mainly in NA but also in South
America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. It delivers a wide array of products and services under the following three main
solution areas: traffic and policy management, hosted LTE services suite, and Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS). It has a customer
base of more than 50 regional mobile CSPs across the Americas, served from three data centres in Dallas, Denver and Orlando.
ClearSky’s Total Traffic Manager (TTM) solution is a hosted policy management solution that enables mobile CSPs to manage and
monetise rapidly growing mobile data traffic. TTM use cases include roaming management, quota enforcement, tethered device
management, fair usage, bill shock notification, tiered access speeds, zero-rate charging and shared data plans.
ClearSky and regional CSPs face the challenge of increasing capex and opex that stem from deploying more enforcement systems
closer to the edge of the network for more-intelligent policy decisions and optimising network capacity to support growing subscriber
numbers and mobile data traffic.
To cope with the increasing costs, ClearSky partnered with Sandvine, which already provides its Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) for the
traditional TTM enforcement platform, to virtualise core elements of its TTM solution with network function virtualisation (NFV).
The virtualised TTM solution promises to enable regional CSPs to implement more enforcement points in their networks with the
same level of investment because of less-expensive hardware capex and comparable managed services opex.
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Business environment: Mobile data revenue growth in NA is slowing, but
data traffic growth remains steady, requiring a reduction in the cost per bit
The mobile market in NA is one of the most advanced and
lucrative in the world. The market size is estimated at
USD200 billion in 2013, growing 3% from USD194 million in
2012. ARPU in NA is the highest worldwide.
Mobile data is the main driver of growth in NA. All CSPs in
NA have almost completed LTE roll-outs and the USA has
the largest LTE footprint in the world. NA had more than
97 million 4G mobile connections in 2013, which is
forecasted to reach 329 million in 2018. We estimate that
71% of active handsets in NA were smartphones by the end
of 2013.
A few Tier-1 CSPs dominate the market and many smaller
regional CSPs operate in the areas underserved by these. By
4Q 2013, all major CSPs in Canada and the USA provided
LTE coverage to at least 60% of the population. Bell Canada
and TELUS had already covered at least 77% of Canada’s
population by September 2013, and AT&T planned to cover
85% of the US population by the end of 2013.
Spectrum policy in the USA has led to an imbalance of
spectrum assets among the mobile CSPs and created a
marketplace for operator-to-operator transactions. Tier-1
CSPs have targeted medium and small CSPs for acquisition
in recent years to obtain additional spectrum, and expand
coverage and subscriber numbers.
Figure 1: Mobile service revenue by type, and mobile data traffic, North
America, 2011–2018 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]
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Data
Non-data
Data traffic
Mobile service revenue:
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© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Regional mobile CSPs in NA deploy hosted policy management solutions
for network cost protection and revenue generation
Regional mobile CSPs in NA are losing subscribers to Tier-1
CSPs as they expand their reach through new roll-outs and
acquisitions. Regional CSPs often find it difficult to compete
against Tier-1 CSPs because of a lack of access to capital for
large network investments and spectrum.
Some regional CSPs are launching LTE services to compete
more effectively and monetise rapidly growing mobile data
traffic. However, they face the significant challenges of limited
spectrum and network capacity.
These CSPs rely on roaming partners to extend their limited
coverage to nationwide access. Roaming costs may be
excessive if subscriber usage is not managed properly.
To stay competitive and generate maximum return from
constrained resources, regional CSPs turn to providers of
hosted infrastructure managed services, such as ClearSky, in
order to gain access to affordable systems and expertise.
The deep packet inspection (DPI) component of policy
management systems provides customer insight from
network traffic for churn reduction and development of new
targeted customer services.
Figure 2 provides some examples of ClearSky’s commercial
policy management deployments, using its Total Traffic
Manager (TTM) solution.
CSP
customer
State or
country1
Scope
MTA Alaska, USA Deployed ClearSky TTM to increase ARPU
by enabling customers to top up when they
reach thresholds and upgrade to higher-tier
data plans that permit tethering.
MTPCS Montana,
Louisiana
and Texas,
USA
Chose TTM initially to reduce roaming
settlement costs. TTM now also improves
customer experience on popular social
networking and video streaming sites
through caching and content optimisation.
CellularOne Arizona,
New Mexico
and Utah,
USA
Uses TTM to offer 2G and 3G individual
and shared data plans, redirecting
subscribers to top-up page when they
reach their quota. TTM also helps deliver
tiered data plans, bill shock notification,
tethering detection and customised
packages.
iWireless Iowa, Illinois,
and
Nebraska,
USA
Chose TTM initially for traffic management
and network protection use cases by
enforcing existing fair usage provisions in
the operator’s terms of service. TTM has
since been used to launch new metered
data plans and control roaming costs.
1 Each CSP’s operations typically only cover a portion of the USA state(s) listed.
Figure 2: ClearSky’s commercially deployed hosted policy management use
cases with its TTM solution [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]
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© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
ClearSky Technologies helps mobile CSPs stay competitive by providing
fast and economical access to advanced solutions
ClearSky Technologies is a provider of hosted infrastructure services to mobile operators. It delivers a wide array of products and
services under the following three main solution areas: traffic and policy management, hosted LTE services suite, and Small Cell as
a Service (SCaaS). It has a customer base of more than 50 mobile CSPs across the Americas, served from three main data centres
in Dallas, Denver and Orlando.
It helps regional mobile CSPs stay competitive against Tier-1 CSPs by providing advanced network technologies and monetisation
solutions cost effectively with a fast implementation time.
ClearSky’s Total Traffic Manager (TTM) solution is a hosted policy management solution that optimises the capex of these regional
CSPs by managing network traffic such as to maximise limited network capacity and extend the longevity of network infrastructure.
Additionally, ClearSky’s policy management solution provides a range of use cases for churn reduction while delivering a high
quality of service at an optimal managed service opex.
TTM use cases include roaming management, quota enforcement for tiered pricing, tethered device management, fair usage, bill
shock notification, tiered access speeds, zero-rate charging and shared data plans. TTM is comprised of two main components:
TTM Control Platform, a centralised, self-contained, in-house-developed, non-3GPP policy control and charging (PCC) solution
that contains elements for policy control and data collection including a policy management engine (PCRF), usage collector,
charging manager, share correlation and analytics.
TTM Enforcement Platform, an on-premise platform with policy enforcement functions (PCEF) such as traffic engine, bypass
switch and content engine, which can now be virtualised.
ClearSky deploys TTM Enforcement Platform in client CSPs’ networks for traffic monitoring and policy enforcement while its TTM
Control Platform resides in ClearSky’s centralised data centres for policy creation, orchestration charging and analytics functions.
ClearSky delivers its TTM solution as a managed service with a monthly service charge. It also offers various service bundles for
implementation of different policy-based use cases, based on the mobile CSP market and customer usage.
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© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
ClearSky Total Traffic Manager (TTM) architectural overview
Figure 3: ClearSky Total Traffic Manager (TTM) architectural overview [Source: ClearSky Technologies and Analysys Mason, 2014]
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ClearSky TTM
components
CSP’s network
elements and
systems
Key
TTM Control
Platform Hosted in ClearSky
data centres
TTM
Enforcement
Platform On-premise in each
CSP client network
Traffic
engine
Edge router PDSN/GGSN/
P-Gateway
Charging
manager
Operator
OSS/BSS
Content
engine
TTM Enforcement
Platform
RADIUS
Data
RevShare
(billing)
Bypass switch
TTM Control
Platform
ProVision
(provisioning)
Interactive
portal
ProTrends
Analytics
Policy
management
engine
Provisioning
events Billable
purchases
UDRs
Bill shock
SMPP
Website
access via
HTTP
Control
and data
collection
Usage
collector Notification
manager
Share
correlation
platform
SMS
centre
Internet
© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
ClearSky is virtualising its policy control and enforcement to effectively
improve traffic management throughout its customers’ networks
As CSPs increase their subscriber bases, they need to optimise network capacity using effective policy management. Policy
management plays an integral role in traffic and congestion management while assuring the quality of the customer experience.
Regional CSPs in NA need to offer new tariffs such as family plans, shared data and value-added services in order to generate
more value from data usage, attract new subscribers and reduce churn by matching their offerings to those of Tier-1 CSPs.
Conversely, CSPs in Caribbean markets need to manage network traffic differently, to service the lucrative roaming revenue from
tourists. As such, each CSP needs to invest in policy management systems that can deliver unique policy-enabled services.
CSPs want to deploy more enforcement systems closer to the subscribers so that policies can be delivered more effectively and
intelligently, that is at the subscriber level and with reduced network signalling traffic back to the core network. However, the
deployment of more enforcement points (PCEFs) in the distribution and access networks is costly to deploy and manage as the
sites increase in number and geographical spread.
To address the need to increase enforcement points and contain the cost, ClearSky partnered with Sandvine to find a solution.
Sandvine is already a vendor to ClearSky and provides ClearSky with its Sandvine Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) for the traditional
(non-virtualised) TTM enforcement platform. Sandvine provided a virtualised PTS solution that ClearSky combines with its virtual
Content Engine (vCE) to deliver policy enforcement more cost effectively.
The virtualised TTM Enforcement Platform promises to enable CSPs to implement more enforcement points in their networks with
same level of investment because of less-expensive hardware capex and comparable managed services opex from ClearSky.
Moreover, this virtualised TTM solution allows ClearSky to cost-effectively monitor, manage and control its CSP customer networks,
to optimise network capacity with effective traffic management and recommend mobile data monetisation services based on in-
depth usage behaviours.
The new virtualised Enforcement Platform is an innovative approach and solution to solve common network traffic, content and
usage problems more resourcefully. Combined with pre-integrated Control Platform tools to notify and interact with their
subscribers, TTM empowers policy management and enforcement as well as enabling new service creations and interactions to
increase ARPU.
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Implementation details: ClearSky is deploying scalable virtualised TTM
Enforcement Platforms to provide better end-to-end managed services
ClearSky expects to virtualise a number of elements of its TTM solution, including the entire TTM Enforcement Platform in its CSP
customers’ networks (see Figure 4 on next slide).
The implementation will start at the TTM Enforcement Platform, which uses Sandvine’s PTS on-premise in each CSP customer’s
core network. ClearSky will use Sandvine’s PTS Virtual Platform (PTS VPL). Using standard PTS configurations on virtual
machines will make deployment immediate and maintenance of virtual TTM Enforcement Platform greatly simplified, with no site
visit required.
ClearSky’s centralised TTM Control Platform, including Sandvine’s virtualised Service Delivery Engine (SDE), already makes
extensive use of virtualisation. The virtualised SDE fulfils several roles including charging functions, quota management, and
session-to-subscriber mapping.
Sandvine’s Subscriber Policy Broker (SPB) is currently deployed as part of the TTM Control Platform using its subscriber data
repository (SPR) for integrated, real-time support to the Sandvine SDE, as well as to existing ClearSky charging and analytics
systems. Future SPB releases are expected to allow virtualisation of the many of the SPB functions to increase capacity and
availability.
ClearSky has a pool of skilled resources on the Red Hat Linux operating system and its KVM hypervisor, because it has trained
staff on Hewlett-Packard (HP) hardware – ClearSky’s preferred IT hardware provider. As such, Sandvine’s virtualised solutions were
required to work on HP hardware virtualised with Red Hat KVM hypervisors and installed on Red Hat Linux operating systems in
this test trial.
ClearSky has developed its own proprietary orchestration and management software for existing virtual resources in its data
centres and expects to use it to manage these new virtualised network functions (VNFs) from Sandvine.
ClearSky expects to commercially deploy the TTM Enforcement Platform virtualised solution in the second half of 2014. It will use a
phased approached, whereby customers that require upgrades or expansions will have the virtualised TTM Enforcement Platforms
implemented.
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Virtualised TTM policy management deployment scenario
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Virtualised TTM
enforcement in CSPs’ core
networks
Virtualised TTM
enforcement extended into CSPs’
distribution networks
Access
networks
Figure 4: ClearSky virtualised Total Traffic Manager (TTM) deployment scenario [Source: Analysys Mason and ClearSky Technologies, 2014]
TTM Control
Platform Hosted in ClearSky
data centres
RevShare ProVision
ProTrends
Analytics
Share
correlation
platform
HP hardware and Red Hat Linux
Sandvine SDE
PCRF Quota
management
CSP 1 CSP 1 CSP 1
x86
KVM
RNC
x86
KVM
RNC
x86
KVM
RNC
x86
KVM
RNC
x86
KVM
RNC
x86
KVM
RNC
Interactive
portal
Usage
collector
Sandvine SPB
Sandvine SDE
x86
KVM
x86
KVM vCE
Sandvine
PTS
x86
KVM
CSP 3
GGSN/
EPC
OSS/
BSS
Notification
manager
CSP 2
GGSN/
EPC
OSS/
BSS
ClearSky proprietary CSP’s network elements and systems Key Virtualised elements
vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS
vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS vCE
Sandvine
PTS
CSP 1
GGSN/
EPC
OSS/
BSS
© Analysys Mason Limited 2014
ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
Expected benefits: ClearSky is primarily seeking to reduce its costs, while
increasing its end-to-end visibility of its CSP customers’ networks
ClearSky mainly expects to achieve cost reduction by first
virtualising its on-site TTM Enforcement Platforms. This will
enable its regional CSP customers to deploy multiple
enforcement platforms closer to the access network, for
around the same cost. This is expected to provide the
following key benefits.
More-effective traffic management throughout the network,
increasing the longevity of network infrastructure, leading
to deferred capex investments, even with increased
subscriber numbers or mobile data traffic.
Less-expensive and faster deployments, upgrades and
expansions of virtualised TTM, because the number of site
visits will be reduced considerably.
ClearSky can extend its proprietary virtualised resource
manager to manage its TTM solution end-to-end, thus
reducing its management system costs (capex and opex).
CSP customers will have more floor and rack space and
lower power and cooling opex with this virtualised solution.
CSPs will gain more real-time, in-depth insight of mobile
data usage behaviour at the subscriber level, which can
lead to new policy-enabled services to reduce churn or
increase revenue.
Capex savings Opex savings
Increased number of PCEFs
deployed with the same investment,
to optimise network capacity and
reduce network capex
Simplified management of
virtualised resources with
ClearSky’s existing management
system
Reduced truck-rolls for
deployments, upgrades and
expansions of virtualised TTM
Smaller physical footprint reducing
floor and rack space and lower
power and cooling costs
Improved scalability on more-
affordable IT hardware
Less complexity and costs for
operating and maintenance
Lower cost for redundancy across
centralised data centres and CSP
customers’ sites
Existing IT and virtualisation skills
are already resident in ClearSky
Figure 5: Expected benefits of the live deployment of ClearSky’s virtualised
Total Traffic Manager (TTM) [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
About the authors
Glen Ragoonanan (Principal Analyst) is the lead analyst for Analysys Mason’s Infrastructure Solutions, Service
Delivery Platforms and Software-Controlled Networking research programmes. He joined Analysys Mason in 2008
and has worked as a consultant on projects on next-generation IT and telecoms networks, systems and
technologies for incumbents, new entrants, private companies, regulators and public-sector clients. His primary
areas of specialisation include operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) solution architecture and
integration for business process re-engineering, business process optimisation, business continuity planning,
procurement and outsourcing operations and strategies. Before joining Analysys Mason, Glen worked for Fujitsu,
designing, delivering and managing integrated solutions. Glen is a Chartered Engineer and project management
professional with an MSc from Coventry University.
Gorkem Yigit (Research Analyst) is part of the Telecoms Software research team, contributing to the Service
Assurance, Infrastructure Solutions, Service Delivery Platforms and Customer Experience Management strategies
programmes. He started his career in the telecoms industry with a graduate role at a leading telecoms operator,
before joining Analysys Mason in late 2013. He has also written an academic paper about market acceptance of
cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and he earned cum laude an MSc degree in Economics and
Management of Innovation and Technology from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs
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