Ericsson Technology Review, issue #2, 2016

#02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 1
STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND ✱
ERICSSON
TECHNOLOGY
C H A R T I N G T H E F U T U R E O F I N N O V A T I O N V O L U M E 9 3 | 2 0 1 6 – 0 2
FIVETECHNOLOGY
TRENDS
SHAPINGICTINNOVATION
CLOUDROBOTICS
ENABLEDBY5G
NB-IOT:
SUSTAINABLE
TECHNOLOGY

✱ STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND
2 #02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 2016 3
STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND ✱

CONTENTS ✱
08 NB-IOT: A SUSTAINABLE
TECHNOLOGY FOR
CONNECTING BILLIONS
OF DEVICES
Under the umbrella of 3gpp, radio-
access technologies for mobile
broadband have evolved effectively
to provide connectivity to billions of
subscribers and things. Within this
ecosystem, the standardization of
a radio technology for massive mtc
applications – narrowband iot (nb-
iot) – is also evolving. The aim is to
provide cost-effective connectivity
to billions of iot devices, supporting
low power consumption, the use
of low-cost devices, and provision
of excellent coverage – all rolled
out as software on top of existing
lte infrastructure.
18 THE CENTRAL OFFICE
OF THE ICT ERA: AGILE,
SMART AND AUTONOMOUS
Enabled primarily by virtualization
and sdn technologies, network
architectures are becoming
more flexible, with improved
programmability and a greater
degree of automated behavior.
In combination with technology
enablers such as the increased
reach offered by fiber, automation of
provisioning and orchestration, and
improvements in the performance
of generic hardware, network
transformation has provided
operators with the opportunity
to rationalize and consolidate
infrastructure. The next generation
central office will introduce
intelligence and service agility into
the network through disaggregation.
30 FIVE TRENDS SHAPING
INNOVATION IN ICT
Tech companies often gain
competitive advantage by causing
market disruption through their
ability to understand and act on
technology trends. Like waves in the
ocean, it’s much easier to ride these
trends if you can see them coming
and read them correctly. Our cto
points to the five trends he expects
to have the most impact on ict
development in the year ahead.
42 PAVING THE WAY TO TELCO-
GRADE PAAS
The concepts of platform as a
service (paas) and microservices –
which have been gaining traction in
the it world – are deeply rooted in
the need to cut development times.
The benefits are equally important
in the telco domain, but there are
gaps that need to be closed before
paas is suitable for telco. Most of
the challenges relate to the need
for additional features that telco
applications typically require.
52 4G/5G RAN
ARCHITECTURE: HOW
A SPLIT CAN MAKE THE
DIFFERENCE
In line with the evolution of 4g
and the introduction of 5g, ran
architecture is undergoing a
transformation. The proposed
future-proof software-configurable
split architecture will be able to
support new services, deployed
on general-purpose and
specialized hardware, with
functions ideally placed
to maximize scalability,
spectrum, and energy
efficiency – all while
supporting the concept of
network slicing.
66 CLOUD ROBOTICS: 5G
PAVES THE WAY FOR MASS-
MARKET AUTOMATION
Robotics has shifted from the floor
of the research lab to becoming a
crucial cost-, time-, and energy-
saving element of modern industry.
By adding mobility to the mix, the
possibilities to include system
automation in almost any
process in almost any industry
increase dramatically. But
there is a challenge. How
do you build smart robotic
systems that are affordable?
The answer: cloud robotics
enabled by 5g.
66
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Antenna
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Functions/
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1st level CO 2nd level CO RDC
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52
42
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18
08
30

EDITORIAL ✱
and then. And so the need has arisen for a radio-
access technology that can meet the connectivity
requirements for massive mtc applications. This
technology is narrowband iot (nb-iot), a solution
designed to be deployed in the gsm spectrum, within
an lte carrier, or in an lte or wcdma guard band.
Robotics is one of the clear winners when it
comes to the cross-fertilization of developments
from different disciplines. The field of robotics
brings materials, communication, and
manufacturing together. The result: highly
sophisticated production processes that are
adapted to just-in-time methodologies, zero-waste
policies, minimum use of raw materials, and low
energy consumption. 5gis a key ingredient that will
help to make the robotics industry mass market and
affordable. By providing the connectivity that will
support even the most demanding applications, 5g
will enable system intelligence to be transferred to
a cloud where computational capacity is greatest,
and put simplified – more affordable – robots on the
ground. And once people start to rely on robots –
just as they depend on their smartphones – to carry
out the practical tasks of daily life, we can expect
this sector to boom.
Security will continue to present new challenges.
But as security issues continue to dominate headline
news, developments are shifting from fire-fighter
mode to prevention. You can read more of my thoughts
on the shift in technology in the Tech Trends section
of this issue of Ericsson Technology Review. Apart
from security, my trends for the coming year include:
the ability of the cloud to spread intelligence, self-
managing devices, communication beyond sight and
sound, and the influence of other sectors.
If I was to suggest one takeaway from all of
the articles included in this issue, I would say it is
speed. Device processing is getting faster, data
speeds are constantly increasing, radio speeds
are approaching those of fiber, more people are
becoming subscribers, more things are becoming
connected, more applications are running
constantly. Developers of new technologies are
working hard to enhance responsiveness by
reducing latency, a key performance parameter.
The capability to determine what functions can
be virtualized to maximize ideal placement in
the network and ensure low latency is one of the
primary driving factors behind a proposed split of
radio-access architecture, which is detailed in the
article 4g/5g ran architecture: how a split can
make the difference.
As always, I hope you find our stories relevant
and inspiring. All of our content is available at
www.ericsson.com/ericsson-technology-review,
through the Ericsson Technology Insights app,
and on SlideShare.
ULF EWALDSSON
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP CTO
AND HEAD OF GROUP FUNCTION TECHNOLOGY
■ developments in technology have
contributed to the launch of innumerable products
and solutions designed to make our lives easier.
A smartphone can help us find out where we
are, conduct research, watch a favorite movie,
make a video call to a friend, read a magazine
article, find the nearest restaurant, book tickets,
or send someone a picture – even while flying.
Advancements in technology have helped to
reunite refugees with their families, and combat
terrorism. They have brought medical care into
the living room, tearing down the obstacles and
boundaries of traditional business models. The
benefits brought about through research not
only apply to telecoms, but to all modern
industries. But the significant change that has
resulted in the rapid deployment of innovation
is the way industries collaborate today, with
technology developments in one industry rapidly
providing benefits to other market sectors.
According to the June 2016 Ericsson Mobility
Report, connected iot devices will outnumber
mobile phones by 2018. This forecast reminds me
of the milestone we witnessed at the end of 2009,
when data traffic surpassed voice traffic in mobile
networks. Since then, voice traffic has remained
more or less constant, yet data traffic has continued
to demonstrate strong growth.
The smartphone revolution that followed brought
with it a massive amount of network adaptation, so
that networks built for voice could be transformed into
data carriers. Today, the iot presents a similar need for
change. With features like billing, in-app purchasing,
and video streaming, most mobile-broadband networks
have been designed to support the traffic generated by
typical subscribers. But the iot, with its wide range of
applications, needs customized connectivity: in other
words, connectivity that suits each application in terms
of cost, reach, bandwidth, and latency. The bottom
line is cost. It simply doesn’t make economic sense to
use broadband networks and valuable spectrum for
applications that transmit just a few kbs of data now
THE IOT, SPEED,
AND DEEP
COLLABORATION
E R I C S S O N T E C H N O L O G Y R E V I E W
Bringing you insights into some of the key emerging
innovations that are shaping the future of ict.
Our aim is to encourage an open discussion on the
potential, practicalities, and benefits of a wide range
of technical developments, and help provide
an insight into what the future has to offer.
a d d r e s s
Ericsson
se-164 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 719 00 00
p u b l i s h i n g
All material and articles are published on the Ericsson
Technology Review website: www.ericsson.com/
ericsson-technology-review.
Additionally, content can be accessed on the Ericsson
Technology Insights app, which is available for Android
and ios devices. The download links can be found on the
Ericsson Technology Review website.
p u b l i s h e r
Ulf Ewaldsson
e d i t o r
Deirdre P. Doyle (Sitrus)
deirdre.doyle@sitrus.com
e d i t o r i a l b o a r d
Aniruddho Basu, Joakim Cerwall, Stefan Dahlfort,
Deirdre P. Doyle, Björn Ekelund, Dan Fahrman,
Geoff Hollingworth, Jonas Högberg, Cenk Kirbas,
Sara Kullman, Börje Lundwall, Hans Mickelsson,
Ulf Olsson, Patrik Roseen, Robert Skog, Gunnar Thrysin,
Tonny Uhlin, Javier Garcia Visiedo, and Erik Westerberg
t e c h n o l o g y t r e n d s
Ulf Ewaldsson and Kristina Gold
a r t d i r e c t o r
Kajsa Dahlberg (Sitrus)
l ay o u t
Jade Birke (Sitrus)
i l l u s t r at i o n s
Claes-Göran Andersson
cg@cga.se
c h i e f s u b e d i t o r
Birgitte van den Muyzenberg (Sitrus)
s u b e d i t o r s
Paul Eade and Ian Nicholson (Sitrus)
issn: 0014-0171
Volume: 93, 2016
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS IN
ONE INDUSTRY CAN RAPIDLY PROVIDE
BENEFIT TO OTHER MARKET SECTORS.

STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND IoT ✱✱ STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND IoT
SARA LANDSTRÖM
JOAKIM BERGSTRÖM
ERIK WESTERBERG
DAVID HAMMARWALL
deployedintypicalscenarios,per-deviceand
life-cyclecostsneedtobekepttoaminimum,
andmeasuresthatpromotebatterylongevityare
essentialforensuringtheoverallcost-effectiveness
ofthesystem.
Thecoverageandthroughputneedsformassive
mtc applicationsarequitedifferentfromthoseof
mbb.Theneedtosupporthighbitrates,forexample,
appliestombb scenarios,butseldomtomassive
mtc.Theprecisenatureofmassivemtc allowsfor
asignificantdegreeofoptimizationinthedesignof
radioaccess.
Standardizationofnb-iot beganin2014with
a3gpp study.Theobjectiveofthisstudywasto
determinetherequirementsformassivemtc,
tochooseanevaluationmethodology,andto
investigatewhetherproposedradio-accessdesigns
couldmeetthesetrequirements.Thisstudyled
toworkonthespecificationofnb-iot [1],witha
numberofdesigntargets–asillustrated
inFigure1.
Inadditiontothedesigntargets,extensive
deploymentflexibilityanduseofindustry
competencetomeettime-to-marketrequirements
Under the umbrella of 3gpp, radio-access technologies for mobile broadband
have evolved effectively to provide connectivity to billions of subscribers and
things. Within this ecosystem, the standardization of a radio technology for
massive mtc applications – narrowband iot (nb-iot) – is also evolving. The
aim is for this technology to provide cost-effective connectivity to billions of
iot devices, supporting low power consumption, the use of low-cost devices,
and provision of excellent coverage – all rolled out as software on top of
existing lte infrastructure. The design of nb-iot mimics that of lte, facilitating
radio network evolution and efficient coexistence with mbb, reducing time to
market, and reaping the benefits of standardization and economies of scale.
t h e b e s t way to provide mtc applications
with cost-effective connectivity is to design
the radio-access network accordingly.
What is needed is a radio-access network
that minimizes battery usage, covers a wide
area, and functions with simplified low-cost
devices while efficiently matching the varying
spectrum allocations of operators. 3gpp
release 13 specifications includes the nb-iot
feature, with a large degree of deployment
flexibility to maximize migration possibilities
and allow the technology to be deployed in gsm
spectrum, in an lte carrier, or in a wcdma or lte
guard band.
■Theiot embedsabroadrangeofmtc
applications,andamongthedifferenttypes,itis
widelyacceptedthatmassivemtc willbethefirst
totakeoff.Thissegmentincludesapplications
likesmartmetering,agricultureandrealestate
monitoring,aswellasvarioustypesoftracking
andfleetmanagement.Oftenreferredtoaslow
powerwidearea(lpwa),networksthatprovide
connectivitytomassivemtc applicationsrequirea
radio-accesstechnologythatcandeliverwidespread
coverage,capacity,andlowpowerconsumption.
Massivemtc devicestypicallysendsmall
amountsofdata,andtendtobeplacedinsignal-
challengedlocationslikebasementsandremote
ruralareas.Duetothesheernumbersofdevices
Terms and abbreviations
cs – circuit-switched | dl – downlink | drx – discontinuous reception | edrx – extended DRX | embms – evolved
multimedia broadcast multicast service | emtc – enhanced machine-type communications | epc – Evolved Packet
Core | e-utra – Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access | iot – Internet of Things | lpwa – low power wide area |
mac – media/medium access control | mbb – mobile broadband | mtc – machine-type communications |
nb-iot – narrowband Internet of Things | ofdma – Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access | pa – power
amplifier | prb – physical resource block | psm – power save mode | rf – radio frequency | rlc – Radio Link Control
| rrc – Radio Resource Control | sc-fdma – single-carrier frequency-division multiple access | tco – total cost of
ownership | ue – user equipment | ul – uplink
Low device cost:
under USD 5 per module
Long battery life:
more than 10 years
Capacity:
40 devices per household
Extended coverage:
20dB better than GPRS
Report uplink latency:
less than 10 seconds
Figure 1
iot design targets
A SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR
CONNECTING BILLIONS OF DEVICES
NB-IOT:

✱ STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND IoT STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND IoT ✱
havebeenincludedaskeyconsiderationsin
thespecificationofnb-iot.Tofuture-proofthe
technology,itsdesignexploitssynergieswithlte
byreusingthehigherlayers(rlc,mac,andrrc),
forexample,andbyaligningnumerology(the
foundationofthephysicallayer)inboththeuplink
anddownlink.However,theaccessproceduresand
controlchannelsfornb-iot arenew.
Priortonb-iot specification,workhadalready
begunonthedesignofanotherradioaccess
formassivemtc tosupportCat-m1 – anew
ue category.Withcompletionalsotargetedfor
release 13,theresultingstandardizationworkitem
–emtc –coversbitrates,forexample,rangingfrom
hundredsofkbpsto1mbps.Theserequirementsare
broaderthannb-iot which hasbeenstreamlined
forapplicationswithwidelyvaryingdeployment
characteristics,lowerdatarates,andoperationwith
simplifiedlow-costdevices.
Withacarrierbandwidthofjust200kHz(the
equivalentofagsm carrier),annb-iot carriercan
bedeployedwithinanlte carrier,orinanlte or
wcdma guardband*.Thelinkbudgetofnb-iot
hasa20db improvementoverlte Advanced.Inthe
uplink,thespecificationofnb-iot allowsformany
devicestosendsmallamountsofdatainparallel.
Release13notonlyincludesstandardsfor
emtcandnb-iot,italsocontainsimportant
refinements,suchasextendeddiscontinuous
reception(edrx)andpowersavemode(psm).
psm wascompletedinrelease12toensurebattery
longevity,andiscomplementedbyedrx foruse
casesinvolvingdevicesthatneedtoreceivedata
morefrequently.
Deploymentflexibilityand
migrationscenarios
Asafiniteandscarcenaturalresource,spectrum
needstobeusedasefficientlyaspossible.And
sotechnologiesthatusespectrumtendtobe
designedtominimizeusage.Toachievespectrum
efficiency,nb-iot hasbeendesignedwithanumber
ofdeploymentoptionsforgsm,wcdma,orlte
spectrum,whichareillustratedinFigure2.
〉〉 standalone–replacingagsm carrierwithannb-iot
carrier
〉〉 in-band–throughflexibleuseofpartofanlte carrier
〉〉 guardband–eitherinwcdma orlte
Starting with standalone
Thestandalonedeploymentisagoodoptionfor
wcdma orlte networksrunninginparallelwith
gsm.Bysteeringsomegsm/gprs traffictothe
wcdma orlte network,oneormoreofthegsm
carrierscanbeusedtocarryiot traffic.Asgsm
operatesmainlyinthe900mhz and1,800mhz
bands(spectrumthatispresentinallmarkets),this
approachacceleratestimetomarket,andmaximizes
thebenefitsofaglobal-scaleinfrastructure.
Migrationtoin-band
Whenthetimingisright,gsm spectrumwill
berefarmedforusebymoredemandingmbb
traffic.Refarmingspectrumforusebylte isa
straightforwardprocess,evenwhennb-iot carriers
existinthegsm spectrumbecauserefarmingdoes
notimpactnb-iot devices,andanynb-iot carriers
ingsm willcontinuetooperatewithinthelte
carrieraftermigration.Suchafuture-proofsetupis
possible,asthestandaloneandin-bandmodesuse
thesamenumerologyaslte,andrf requirements
aresettomatchthedifferentdeployments,soall
devicesareguaranteedtosupportin-bandoperation
atthetimeofmigration.
In-band:bestoptionforlte
Foroperatorswithmainlylte spectrumavailable,
thelte in-bandoptionprovidesthemostspectrum-
andcost-efficientdeploymentofnb-iot.Morethan
anythingelse,thisparticularoptionsetsnb-iot
apartfromanyotherlpwa technology.
Annb-iot carrierisaself-containednetwork
elementthatusesasinglephysicalresourceblock
(prb).Forin-banddeploymentswithnoiottraffic
present,theprb canbeusedbylte forother
purposes,astheinfrastructureandspectrumusageof
lte andnb-iot arefullyintegrated.Thebasestation
schedulermultiplexesnb-iot andlte trafficonto
thesamespectrum,whichminimizesthetotalcost
ofoperationformtc,whichessentiallyscaleswith
thevolumeofmtc traffic.Intermsofcapacity,the
capabilityofasinglenb-iot carrierisquitesignificant
–evaluationshaveshownthatastandarddeployment
cansupportadeploymentdensityof200,000
nb-iot deviceswithinacell–foranactivitylevel
correspondingtocommonusecases.Naturally,more
nb-iotcarrierscanbeaddedifmorecapacityisneeded.
Usingguardbandspectrum
Athirdalternativeistodeploynb-iot inaguard
band,andhere,thefocusisontheuseofsuch
bandsinlte.Tooperateinaguardbandwithout
causinginterference,nb-iot andlte needto
coexist.Incontrasttootherlpwa technologies,the
physicalnb-iot layershavebeendesignedwiththe
requirementsofin-lte-guard-bandcoexistence
specificallytakenintoconsideration.Again,likelte,
nb-iot usesofdma inthedownlinkandsc-fdma
intheuplink.
Thedesignofnb-iot hasfullyadoptedlte
numerology,using15khz subcarriersintheuplink
anddownlink,withanadditionaloptionfor3.75khz
subcarriersintheuplinktoprovidecapacityin
signal-strength-limitedscenarios.
Longrangeandlongbatterylife
Thegeographicalareaforwhichamobilenetwork
canprovidecoveragedependsonsitedensityand
linkbudget.Comparedwithgprs,wcdma andlte,
thelinkbudgetofnb-iot hasa20db margin,anduse
casestendtooperatewithlowerdatarates.
So,notonlycannb-iot reusethegsm,wcdma,
orlte grid,theimprovedlinkbudgetenablesitto
reachiot devicesinsignal-challengedlocations
suchasbasements,tunnels,andremoteruralareas
–placesthatcannotbereachedusingthenetwork’s
voiceandmbb services.
Intechnicalterms,thecoveragetargetofnb-iot
hasalinkbudgetof164db,whereasthecurrent
gprs linkbudgetis144db (tr 45.820[2]),andlte
is142.7db**(tr 36.888[3]).The20db improvement
correspondstoasevenfoldincreaseincoveragearea
foranopenenvironment,orroughlythelossthat
occurswhenasignalpenetratestheouterwallofa
building.Standardizationactivitiesin3gpp have
shownthatnb-iot meetsthelinkbudgettarget
of164db,whilesimultaneouslymeetingthemtc
applicationrequirementsfordatarate,latency,and
batterylife.
Thebatterylifeofanmtc devicedependsto
someextentonthetechnologyusedinthephysical
layerfortransmittingandreceivingdata.However,
longevitydependstoagreaterextentonhow
efficientlyadevicecanutilizevariousidleandsleep
GSM
LTE LTE
LTE
Standalone
200kHz
200kHz
200kHz
In-band
Guard band
Figure 2
Spectrum usage
deployment options
*Guard band is a thin band
of spectrum between
radio bands that is used to
prevent interference.
** The noise figure
assumptions in3gpp ts
36.888 [3] used in the link
budget calculations are
more conservative than
in the corresponding link
budget for gsm in 3gpp tr
45.820. Using the noise
figure assumptions from
tr 45.820, the lte link
budget becomes 142.7db.

modesthatallowlargepartsofthedevicetobe
powereddownforextendedperiods.Thenb-iot
specificationaddressesboththephysical-layer
technologyandidlingaspectsofthesystem.
Likelte,nb-iot usestwomainrrc protocol
states:rrc_idleandrrc_connected.Inrrc_idle,
devicessavepower,andresourcesthatwouldbeused
tosendmeasurementreportsanduplinkreference
signalsarefreedup.Inrrc_connected,devicescan
receiveorsenddatadirectly.
Discontinuousreception(drx)istheprocess
throughwhichnetworksanddevicesnegotiatewhen
devicescansleepandcanbeappliedinbothrrc_idle
andrrc_connected.Forrrc_connected,
theapplicationofdrxreducesthenumberof
measurementreportsdevicessendandthenumber
oftimesdownlinkcontrolchannelsaremonitored,
leadingtobatterysavings.
3gpprelease12supportsamaximumdrxcycleof
2.56seconds,whichwillbeextendedto10.24seconds
inrelease13(edrx).However,anyfurtherlengthening
ofthisperiodisasyetnotfeasible,asitwouldnegatively
impactanumberofranfunctionsincludingmobility
andaccuracyofthesysteminformation.Inrrc_idle,
devicestrackareaupdatesandlistentopaging
messages.Tosetupaconnectionwithanidledevice,
thenetworkpagesit.Powerconsumptionismuchlower
foridledevicesthanforconnectedones,aslistening
forpagesdoesnotneedtobeperformedasoftenas
monitoringthedownlinkcontrolchannel.
Whenpsm wasintroducedinrelease12,it
enableddevicesinrrc_idletoenteradeepsleep
inwhichpagesarenotlistenedfor,noraremobility-
relatedmeasurementsperformed.Devicesinpsm
performtrackingareaupdatesafterwhichthey
directlylistenforpagesbeforesleepingagain.
psm andedrx complement each other and can
support battery lifetimes in excess of 10 years
for different reachability requirements,
transmission frequencies of different
applications, and mobility.
The range of solutions designed to extend
battery lifetimes need to be balanced against
requirements for reachability, transmission
frequency of different applications, and mobility.
These relations are illustrated in Figure 3.
Superior capacity design
Tomeetcapacityrequirements,nb-iot needsto
multiplexmanydevicessimultaneously,andprovide
connectivityinanefficientmannerforallofthem
irrespectiveofcoveragequality.Asaresult,the
designofnb-iot supportsarangeofdatarates.
Theachievabledataratedependsonthechannel
quality(signaltonoiseratio),andthequantityof
allocatedresources(bandwidth).Inthedownlink,
alldevicessharethesamepowerbudgetand
severalmaysimultaneouslyreceivebase-station
transmissions.Intheuplink,however,eachdevice
hasitsownpowerbudget,andthiscanbeusedto
advantagebymultiplexingthetrafficgeneratedby
severaldevices,astheircombinedpowerisgreater
thanthatofasingledevice.
Inmanylocations,nb-iot deviceswillbe
limitedbysignalstrengthratherthantransmission
bandwidth.Suchdevicescanconcentratetheir
transmissionenergytoanarrowerbandwidth
withoutlossofperformance,whichfreesupband-
widthforothers.Thepossibilityofallocatingsmall
amountsofbandwidthtospecificdevicesincreases
systemcapacitywithoutlossofperformance.
Toenablesuchsmallbandwidthallocations,
nb-iot usestonesorsubcarriersinsteadofresource
blocks.Thesubcarrierbandwidthfornb-iot is
15khz,comparedwitharesourceblock,whichhas
aneffectivebandwidthof180khz.Eachdeviceis
scheduledononeormoresubcarriersintheuplink,
anddevicescanbepackedevenclosertogetherby
decreasingthesubcarrierspacingto3.75khz.Doing
so,however,resultsindifferingnumerologyforlte
andnb-iot,andsomeresourceswillneedtobe
allocatedtoavoidinterferencebetweenthe3.75khz
and15khz subcarriersinsteadofutilizingthemfor
traffic,whichmayleadtoperformancelosses.
Forscenariosthatincludedevicesinbothgood
andbadcoverageareas,itispossibletoincrease
thedataratebyaddingmorebandwidth.Inthe
uplink,dataratescanbeincreasedupto12times
byallocatingdeviceswithamulti-toneormulti-
subcarrierratherthanasingletone,forexample.
Thisapproachimprovescapacityforscenarios
wheremanydeviceshavegoodcoverage,asdata
transfercompletesquickly.Goodcoverageistypical
10s
30s
1m
3m
5m
10m
30m
1h
3h
6h
12h
24h
2 days
5 days
3 days 5 days 24h 12h 6h 3h 1h 30m 10m 3m 1m
Data inter-arrival time
Reachability interval
PSM
eDRX in RRC_Idle
eDRX in RRC_Connected
Figure 3
Good coverage

whennb-iot isrolledoutonadensegridand/or
whenmostdevicesarewithintheoriginallte cell
coveragearea.
Datarateisasignificantfactorwhentryingto
achievethebestdesignfornb-iot,asitaffectsboth
latencyandpowerconsumption.Table1shows
theuplinklatencyvaluesforadevicetoconnect
andtransmitdata.Thedataratesforworst-case
coverage(+20db)arelowerthanthoseformbb
atthecelledge(0db),andlatencyincreasesfrom
1.6to7.6seconds.Theuplinkdatarateisthemain
causeofthisdegradation,yetevenforworst-case
scenarios,nb-iot uplinklatencyisstillunderthe
10-seconddesigntarget.Whenitcomestopower
consumption,thedominatingfactoristhespeedat
whichdevicestransmitdata,whichincreasesinline
withacceleratingdatarates.
nb-iot hasbeendesignedwithgoodmultiplexing
andadaptabledataratesandsoitwillbeableto
meetpredictedcapacityrequirements.Thecapacity
requirementstargetin3gpp tr 45.820[1]hasbeen
setto40devicesperhousehold,based
onassumptionsforLondon,whichcorrespond
to52,500devicespercell.Simulationsshow
supportfor200,000devicespercell–fourtimes
thesettarget.
Deviceaspects
Affordablemodemsareakeyelementoflarge-
scalesensordeployment,sothatprocesses
suchastemperatureorwatermeterreporting
canbeoptimized.Atthesametime,thedata
rateandlatencyrequirementsofsuchsensor-
heavyapplicationstendtoberelativelymodest:
acharacteristicthatcanbeusedtoadvantageto
reducesolutioncomplexity–andcost.
nb-iot devicessupportreducedpeakphysical
layerdatarates:intherangeof100-200kbpsor
significantlylowerforsingle-tonedevices.To
facilitatelow-complexitydecodingindevices,turbo
codesarereplacedwithconvolutionalcodesfor
downlinktransmissions,andlimitsareplacedon
maximumtransportblocksize–whichis680bitsfor
dl andnotgreaterthan1000bitsforul.
Theperformancerequirementssetfornb-iot
makeitpossibletoemployasinglereceiverantenna
(twoareneededforlte mbb).Asaresult,theradio
andbasebanddemodulatorpartsofthedeviceneed
onlyasinglereceiverchain.Byoperatingnb-iot
deviceshalfduplexsothattheycannotbescheduled
tosendandreceivedatasimultaneously,theduplex
filterinthedevicecanbereplacedbyasimple
switch,andaonlysinglelocaloscillatorforfrequency
generationisrequired.Theseoptimizationsreduce
costandpowerconsumption.
At200khz,thebandwidthofnb-iot is
substantiallynarrowerthanotheraccess
technologies.lte bandwidths,forexample,range
from1.4mhzto20mhz.Thebenefitofanarrowband
technologyliesinthereducedcomplexityof
analog-to-digital(a/d)anddigital-to-analog(d/a)
conversion,buffering,andchannelestimation–allof
whichbringbenefitsintermsofpowerconsumption.
nb-iot bringsaboutasignificantdesignchange
intermsoftheplacementofthedevice'spower
amplifier(pa).Integratingthiselementdirectlyonto
thechip,insteadofitbeinganexternalcomponent,
enablessingle-chipmodemimplementations–
whicharecheaper.
Reuseofexistingtechnology
Thedesignofnb-iot radioaccessreusesanumber
oflte designprinciplesandhasthebackingofthe
traditionalcellular-networkandchipsetvendors
thatmadembb asuccess.nb-iot employsthesame
designprinciplesaslte (e-utra),althoughituses
aseparatenewcarrier,newchannels,andrandom
accessprocedurestomeetthetarget requirements
ofiot usecases–suchasimprovedcoverage,lower
batteryconsumptionandoperationinnarrow
spectrum.Constructingnb-iot inthiswaytakes
advantageoflte’swell-establishedglobalreach,
economiesofscale,andindustry-leadingecosystem.
Thenb-iot downlinkisbasedonofdma and
maintainsthesamesubcarrierspacing,ofdm
symbolduration,slotformat,slotduration,and
subframedurationaslte.Asaresult,nb-iot can
providebothin-bandandguardbanddeployment
withoutcausinginterferencebetweenitscarriers
andthoseusedbylte formbb,makingnb-iot
awellintegratediot solutionforlte-focused
operatorsinadditiontocat-m1.
Useofthesameupperlayersisyetanother
similaritybetweenlte andnb-iot,withsome
optimizationstosupportoperationwithlow-cost
devices.Forexample,asasingletechnologysolution,
nb-iot doesnotsupportdualconnectivity;and
devicesdonotsupportswitchingbetweenaccess
technologies(gsm,wcdma,orwi-fi)inactive
mode.Supportforcs voiceserviceshasalsobeen
removed.Thesescopesavingsresultinamuchlower
requirementformemorycapacityfornb-iot devices
comparedwitheventhemostrudimentarymbb
lte ones.
nb-iot usesans1-basedconnectionbetween
theradionetworkandtheepc.Theconnectionto
theepc providesnb-iot deviceswithsupportfor
roamingandflexiblecharging,meaningthatdevices
canbeinstalledanywhereandcanfunctionglobally.
Theambitionistoenablecertainclassesofdevices
–likesmokedetectors–tobehandledwithpriority
toensurethatemergency-situationdatacanbe
prioritizedifthenetworkiscongested.
Existing3gpp architectureprovidesaglobal,
highlyautomatedconnectivitymanagementsolution
thatisneededforlarge-scaleiot deployments.
nb-iot andlte usethesameo&m framework,
runningasasinglenetworkcarryingmbb andmtc
traffic,whichreducesoperationalcostsinareas
likeprovisioning,monitoring,billing,anddevice
management.Similartopresentlte networks,
nb-iot supportsstate-of-the-art3gpp security,
withauthentication,signalingprotection,and
dataencryption.
lte featuresthatalreadyexist,likecell-id-based
positioning,arestraightforwardenoughfor
nb-iot toinherit.Byaligningwithlte evolution,
nb-iot couldsupportexistingfeaturesandfuture
functionalitydesignedfortheentirecellular
ecosystem,includingmbb aswellasiot usecases.
Table 1
Maximum uplink latency
for a device on the mbb cell
border (+0db) and beyond
(+ 10db and + 20db)
Duration (ms)
Coverage Sync MIB PRACH RAmsg2-4 ULgrant ULdata Ack ULdata TOTAL
340 151 324 622 48 39 41 39 1,604
340 151 688 708 45 553 47 553 3,085
520 631 1,440 1,060 49 1,923 77 1,923 7,623
+0dB
+10dB
+20dB
DATA RATE IS A
SIGNIFICANT FACTOR
WHEN TRYING TO ACHIEVE THE
BEST DESIGN FOR NB-IOT, AS IT
AFFECTS BOTH LATENCY AND
POWER CONSUMPTION
nb-iot: the advantages of being part of 3gpp
〉〉useofthelte ecosystem,leadingtofast
development,economiesofscale,andglobal
roaming
〉〉 canbedeployedasasimpleadditionofnewsoftware
toexistinglte infrastructure
〉〉amanagementframeworkexists,enablinglarge-
scaledeployments
〉〉frameworkincludesstate-of-the-artsecurity
〉〉futurefeaturegrowthformbb andnb-iot usecases

Sara Landström
◆ is a strategic product
manager in the area of
4gand 5g at Ericsson. She
is currently responsible
for the iot, v2x, and
carrier aggregation radio
portfolios. She joined
Ericsson in 2008 as a
researcher focusing on radio
resource management,
heterogeneous networks,
and radio access for iot.
Since then she has been
project manager for
various proprietary feature
development projects
and has headed up the
Radio Network Algorithms
research group.
She holds an m.sc. in
computer engineering
and a ph.d. in computer
networking, both from
Luleå University of
Technology, Sweden.
Joakim Bergström
◆ is an expert in new radio-
access networks at Design
Unit Radio. He has more
than 15 years of experience
in standardization within
the 3gpp ran area working
with hspa, lte and 5g. He
holds an m.sc. in electrical
engineering from kth Royal
Institute of Technology,
Stockholm. Within the radio
area, he has coordinated all
of Ericsson’s standardization
activities and projects
since 2011.
Erik Westerberg
◆ joined Ericsson from
mit, Massachusetts, us, in
1996 and is a senior expert
in system and network
architecture. During his
first 10 years at Ericsson, he
worked with development
of the mobile broadband
systems before broadening
his work to include the full
network architecture as he
served as Chief Network
Architect until 2014. He
holds a ph.d. in quantum
physics from Stockholm
University, Sweden.
David Hammarwall
◆ is head of Services
and Infrastructure within
Product Area 4g/5g ran.
A main driver of Ericsson’s
strategy and execution
within the Cellular Internet
of Things, Hammarwall
joined Ericsson’s lte
product management
team in 2013, with primary
responsibilities for lte
baseband capacity,
software architecture,
and features developed in
device partnerships.
He received his ph.d. in
telecommunications from
kth Royal Institute of
Technology in Stockholm in
2007 before joining Ericsson
Research to focus primarily
on 3gpp standardization.
He has acted as a primary
standardization delegate
in 3gpp, leading Ericsson’s
standardization efforts
and strategy within multi-
antenna technologies,
Coordinated Multipoint, and
small cell enhancements.
Thebroadcastfeatureembms enablesalarge
numberofdevicestobeupdatedsimultaneously,
andthedevice-to-devicecommunicationfeature
thatrelaystransmissionstodevicesinpoorcoverage
areexamplesofsynergies.Inthefuture,thesetwo
featurescanbespecifiedfornb-iot usingthesame
conceptsandexperiencethatwereusedtodevelop
themforlte mbb.
Conclusions
nb-iot isthe3gpp radio-accesstechnology
designedtomeettheconnectivityrequirementsfor
massivemtc applications.Incontrasttoothermtc
standards,nb-iot enjoysallthebenefitsoflicensed
spectrum,thefeaturerichnessofepc,andthe
overallecosystemspreadof3gpp.Atthesametime,
nb-iot hasbeendesignedtomeetthechallenging
tco structureoftheiot market,intermsofdevice
andran cost,whichscaleswithtransferred
datavolumes.
Thespecificationfornb-iot ispartof3gpp
release 13anditincludesanumberofdesigntargets:
devicecostunderusd 5permodule;acoverage
areathatisseventimesgreaterthanexisting3gpp
technologies;devicebatterylifethatislongerthan
10yearswithsustainedreachability;andmeeta
capacitydensityof40devicesperhousehold.
Asnb-iot canbedeployedingsm spectrum,
withinanlte carrier,orinanlte orwcdma
guardband,itprovidesexcellentdeployment
flexibilityrelatedtospectrumallocation,whichin
turnfacilitatesmigration.Operationinlicensed
spectrumensuresthatcapacityandcoverage
performancetargetscanbeguaranteedforthe
lifetimeofadevice,incontrasttotechnologies
thatuseunlicensedspectrum,whichruntherisk
ofuncontrolledinterferenceemergingevenyears
afterdeployment,potentiallyknockingoutlarge
populationsofmtc devices.
Thefirststandarddevelopmentof5g radioaccess
iscurrentlyunderway,withsystemdeployment
targetedfor2020.Inthiscontext,theabilityto
future-proofadditionaltechnologieslikenb-iot is
atoppriority.Intheongoingdiscussionsin3gpp
surrounding5g,lte willcontinuetobeanintegral
partofradionetworksbeyond2020,andso,nb-iot's
resemblancetolte safeguardsthetechnologyfrom
divergingevolutionpaths.
References
1. 3gpp, December 2015, NB-IoT work item description RP-152284, available at: http://ow.ly/4mQAfx
2. 3gpp, tr 45.820, Cellular system support for ultra-low complexity and low throughput Internet of Things
(clot), available at: http://ow.ly/4mQAny
3. 3gpp, tr 36.888, Study on provision of low-cost Machine-Type Communications (mtc) User Equipments
(ues) based on lte (v12.0.0), available at: http://ow.ly/4mQAwn
theauthors

SECOND WAVE CONSOLIDATION ✱✱ SECOND WAVE CONSOLIDATION
NAIL KAVAK
ANDREW WILKINSON
JOHN LARKINS
SUNIL PATIL
BOB FRAZIER
Thefirstwaveofco consolidationand
centralizationcameaboutduringthedigitization
ofpots.Digitizationresultedinareductionin
sizeorfunctionalityofmanycityandruralcos,
andinmanyplaces,theywerereplacedwithsmall
concentratorsconnectedtoasmallernumberof
morecentralizedcos.
Thelocationofaco issignificant;when
positionedincloseproximitytousers,certain
servicescanbeprovidedtolocalgroupsof
subscribersinahighlyefficientmanner.This
capabilityisoneoftheprimarydifferentiatingassets
oftheaccessoperator.
Likewiseformobilenetworks,theoptimal
placementofanmso takeslocationconstraintsinto
consideration,andthecriticalfactorformobileis
accesstothebasetransceiverstation(bts).Originally,
cablewasusedastheprimarymediaforbts access,
shiftinginrecentyearstouseofhigh-capacityfiber
tdm circuits.So,forthesamegeographicareaand
subscriberbase,msostendtobemorecentralized
comparedwithfixedcos.
Today,amedium-sizedcitycanbeservedbyjust
oneortwomsos,butpossiblyhundredsofcos.In
ruralareas,however,msostendtobesparseoreven
nonexistent.Operatorsrunningconvergedfixedand
mobilenetworkstendtohousemsoswithinexisting
cos,rarelyoptingfornewbuildsin
dedicatedlocations.
Figure1illustratesthelocal,regional,and
nationallytieredstructureofcos.Fixedcos have
twoormoreprogressivelycentralizedtiers,which
originallyprovidedinter-officecallingcapability
toavoidtheneedforafullcomesh.Higher-tier
cos haveextensivetransmissiontrunkingfrom
lower-tierandaccesscos,whichissignificant,as
thisarchitecturemaybeutilizedfortheplacement
ofnextgenerationcentraloffices.msos canbe
colocatedwithasubsetofcosorbedeployed
independentlyaslocalandregionalcos.Endsites
Network architecture is undergoing a massive transformation, which in turn
is having an impact on the role of the central office. Enabled primarily by
virtualization and SDN technologies, network architectures are becoming
more flexible, with improved programmability and a greater degree of
automated behavior. In combination with technology enablers such as the
increased reach offered by fiber, automation of provisioning and orchestration,
and improvements in the performance of generic hardware, network
transformation has provided operators with the opportunity to rationalize and
consolidate infrastructure. The next generation central office will introduce
intelligence and service agility into the network through disaggregation.
t h e c e n t r a l o f f i c e s (cos) of
fixed networks and the mobile switch
offices (msos) of mobile operators house the
networking functionality, management, and
compute power needed to provide voice and
data services to enterprise and residential
subscribers. To route traffic efficiently, cos are
distributed throughout the entire geographic
region served by the network, and provide
operators with a key asset: local proximity to
their subscribers.
■ Traditionally,thelocationofafixed-lineco has
beendeterminedbythereachconstraintsofthe
accesstechnologiesusedinthelastmile–from
theco tothesubscriber(residentialorenterprise).
Untilrecently,copperwasthepredominantmedia,
andsothelocationoftheco hasbeendictatedby
themaximumreachofthecopperpairssupporting
pots equipmentinthehomeorattheenterprise
premises.Althoughcopperisnolongertheprimary
choiceforaccessmedia(orevenpresentinmany
cases),thelocationofcosstillreflectstheoriginal
distanceconstraints.Asaresult,evenmid-sized
citieswitharoundamillionsubscribersareserved
byhundredsofcos,anditisstillcommonfor
thesetobeplacedinagrid-likemanner,spaceda
coupleofkilometersapart.Inruralareaswithlow
populationdensity,fixed-accesstechnologyreach
isalsothemainfactorfordetermininglocation,
explainingwhytheratioofsubscriberstocosin
ruralareastendstobelow.
THE LOCATION OF A CO IS
SIGNIFICANT; WHEN POSITIONED
IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO USERS,
CERTAIN SERVICES CAN BE
PROVIDED TO LOCAL GROUPS OF
SUBSCRIBERS IN A HIGHLY
EFFICIENT MANNER
Termsandabbreviations
acl — access control list | api — application programming interface | arpu — average revenue per user | bgp — Border
Gateway Protocol | bng — Broadband Network Gateway | bsc — base station controller | bss — business support systems |
bts — base transceiver station | cdn — content delivery network | cios – Non-blocking, multistage switch fabric formalized
by Charles Clos | cms – cloud management system | co — central office | cots — commercial off-the-shelf | cpu — central
processing unit | docsis — Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification | dsl — digital subscriber line | gpon — gigabit
passive optical network | hlr — home location register | i/o — input/output | igp — Interior Gateway Protocol | iot — Internet
of Things | isp — internet service provider | m2m — machine-to-machine | mac — media/medium access control |
mme — Mobility Management Entity | mpls — multi-protocol label switching | mso — mobile switch office |
netconf — protocol to install, manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices | nfv — Network Functions
Virtualization | ngco — next generation central office | nic — network interface card | nms — network management
system | nvgre — Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation | odl — OpenDaylight | olt — Optical Line
Termination | onie — Open Network Install Environment | oss — operations support systems | otn — optical transport
network | ott — over-the-top | pon — passive optical network | pots — plain old telephone service | p-gw — packet data
network gateway | p/s-gw — packet data network/serving gateway | rnc — radio network controller | sdn — software-
defined networking | sfp — small form-factor pluggable | s/ggsn — serving/gateway gprs support node | vbng — virtual
Broadband Network Gateway | vim — virtual infrastructure manager | vod — video on demand | vswitch — virtual switch |
vxlan — Virtual Extensible LAN | xaas — anything as a service | xmpp — Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
autonomous
THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF THE ICT ERA:
AGILE, SMART, AND

Figure 1 co tiers and distribution
LS
LS
Ag
Ag BB
BB
BB
BB
BB
BBBB
BB
BB
BB
BB
RA
Ac
RA
Ac
Ag
Ac
Ac
DCCO
DR DR
CO
CO CO
DC
CO
NoC
CO
CO
DR
DR
DR
DC
DC
CO
DR Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Regional
Regional
Regional
National
connecttocos andmsos throughintermediate
transportaggregationsites.
Thecoshousepotsanddsl/pon access
equipment,andtoalesserextent,ip/Ethernet
routingandswitchingcapabilitiesforresidentialand
enterpriseservices.msoshouseradioaggregation
nodes,suchasbscsandrncs,aswellastransport
switches.Someofthemsosmayhouseadditional
3gpp corefunctionssuchass/ggsn andp/s-gw,
aswellascontrol-planefunctionssuchasmme and
hlr servingmultiplegeographicareas.Othercore
functionscan,however,beplacedelsewhere,for
exampleinpurpose-builtregionalornationaldcs.
Inthissecondwaveofco consolidation,the
fundamentalinternalstructureandfunctionality
providedateachsitewillchange,anduseofnew
technologieswilleitherresultinfewersitesorgreater
capacity.Thetermnextgenerationcentraloffice
(ngco)hasbeenadoptedbythetelecomindustry
torefertothefuturecentralofficesthatwillsupport
bothfixedandmobileoperations.Comparedwith
itscurrentco counterpart,thengco willbeableto
servemoresubscribers,implementaccessfunctions
inamoreit-centricway,andsupportandlocally
housenew,flexibledataservices.Thengco will
functionlikeahighlyautomatedminidatacenter,
requiringlessspace,power,andcoolingthantheset
oftraditionalcositreplaces.
Whytransform?
Inadditiontotheconstantneedtoreduceopexand
capex,fixedandmobileoperatorscontinuallyface
newchallengesastechnologyanduserdemands
change.Networktransformationandchanging
subscribertrafficpatternshavecreatednew
challengesintermsoftheservicesoperatorsoffer,
andperhapsmoresignificantly,theservicesthat
operatorswouldliketooffer,andhowtoprovide
themintheshifttowardthemoreattractiveanything-
as-a-service(xaas)businessmodel.
Theshiftfromvoicetodataservicesandthe
correspondingmassiveincreaseinott traffichave
putpressureonnetworks.Changesinuserbehavior,
withpreferencesshiftingtouseofbandwidth-hungry
dataservices,andvideoconsumptionrequirea
revolutionarychangeinthewayexistingco-and
mso-basednetworkarchitecturesarestructured.
Trafficpatternsanddemands
Theannualgrowthrateoftrafficcarriedbymobile
andfixednetworkshasrisenmassivelyoverthepast
fiveyears.Inadditiontoincreasingtrafficvolumes,
meetingtheevermorestringentdemandsplaced
onnetworkperformancecharacteristics,suchas
latency,isnecessarytosupportemergingindustry
applications.Technologyimprovementsmadein
fixed-networkaccessandthemobileindustry(as
5g systemsevolve)willenablenetworkstocope
withgrowingtrafficvolumesandperformance
demands.But,asnetworkcapabilitiesincrease,user
expectationsandthedemandformorecapacityand
bandwidthwillalsoinevitablyrise.
Theincreaseintrafficvolumesandperformance
demandscanbepredictedandplannedfor,but
changingtrafficpatternsduetochangingsubscriber
habitsiscomplicatingnetworkarchitectureinanew
way.Asnetworksbecomemoreflexible,user-to-
userandmachine-to-machineflowswillbecome
morewidespread,addingnewdimensionstothe
traditionaluser-to-servertraffic-flowpattern.
FactorinthemassiveexpansionoftheInternetof
Things(iot)andtheresultwillbeanexplosioninthe
numberofflowsandroutesthatnetworkswillneed
tosupport.
Withstaticordecliningarpu,thequestionfacing
manyoperatorsishowtoinvestinnetworkssothey
meetconstantlyrisingperformancedemands.
Technologyprovidessomeusefulstepsthat
canhelpanswerthisquestion.Forexample,
wherepossibleandnecessarytomeetlatency
requirementsorlowerbackhaulcosts,self-served
andpartnercontent,suchasvideo,andsubscriber-
associatedip servicedeliverypoints–p-gws,
bngs,andmulti-serviceedgerouters–canbe
movedclosertotheuser.Trafficnotservedbythe
accessoperatorcanbeoffloadedtootherisps,
transitcarriers,orott contentprovidersthatare
closertotheaccessdomain,ratherthanhaulingit
backtomorecentralizedinterconnectionpoints.
Similarly,insteadofhubbingenterprisetransport
trafficthroughlargecentralizedroutingpoints,
amoreoptimalwaytoroutethistypeoftrafficis
throughdistributedroutingpointsinthenetwork.
Shiftingtrafficaroundlikethiswilldramatically
altertheratiooflocallyterminatedtraffictotransit
trafficandrequiresthengco toprovidesupportfor
routingandservicefunctionalitywellbeyondthe
capabilitiesofthetraditionalco.
Efficientrolloutofservices
Totakeadvantageoftherevenuestreamscreated
bymassivetrafficvolumes,toughperformance
targetsandnewtrafficpatterns,networksneed
tobeabletosupportefficientrolloutofservices.
Networkflexibilityiskeyhere,enablingoperators
–andindirectlysubscribers–tomodifyservicesto
matchtheirevolvingneeds,scalethemeasily,and
beabletospecifyandchangethelocationofservice
instantiation.Provisioningmechanismsneedtobe
highlyefficient,lowopexandcapexareessential,
and,astimetomarketiscrucial,highfeaturevelocity
isvital.
Accessoperatorsofferendservicessuchasweb
applications,cdnswiththeirassociatedcontent
caches,andbump-in-the-wireservicesincluding
parentalcontrolfiltering,aswellastransportservices
suchasenterpriseconnectivityorinternetaccess,
oracombinationofboth.Moreadvancedservices
requiresupportforservicechainingthatcanbe
dynamicallycustomizedonaper-subscriberbasis.
Publicandprivatecloud-basedxaas isan
attractiveofferingforbothenterpriseandnon-
enterprisecustomers,butrequiressupportfor
multi-tenancyenvironments.
Legend: DR: distributed radio; CO: central office; RA: remote access; Ac: access; Ag:
aggregation; DC: data center BB: backbone; LS: local switching

Byappropriatelylocatingtheseservicesinngcos,
carriernetworkswillbecomepartofadistributed
andintelligentcloudresource,supplementinglarger,
centralizeddatacenters.
Softwaredevelopmentanddeployment
lifecycle
Atypicalservicelifecyclestartswithdevelopment
andverificationbeforemovingontowide-scale
deploymentinthenetwork.
Efficientservicelifecycledependsontwokey
factors:shorttimetomarketanddeployment
flexibility.Timetomarketcanbeminimizedthrough
ahomogeneoussoftwareenvironmentthatenables
deploymentonexistingnetworkinfrastructure
withouttheneedforhardwaremodification.
Deploymentflexibilityisneededtoenableelastic
capacityscaling,dynamicservicechaining,andthe
deploymentofservicesinnewlocations.
Keytoimplementingthesefactorsinthengco
isvirtualizationofthecomputeplatformonwhich
servicesrun,sothatthetraditionalcouplingof
softwaretospecifichardwarecanberemoved.
Decouplingprovidesahomogeneousdevelopment
anddeploymentenvironmentthatissuitedtoan
automatedlifecycle.
Technologicalenablers
Fiberreach
Theincreasedpenetrationoffiberinthelast
mileisperhapsthemostsignificantfactorinthe
shifttowardfewerandmorecentralizedngcos.
Connectivityoverthelastmilemaybedeliveredby
apon.Thismightcomeintheformoffiber,orasa
hybridsolutioninwhicharelativelyshortcopper
extensionusingvdsl ordocsis technologyextends
thefiberfromthengco tothecurb.
Asanenabler,fiberappliesprimarilytothecentral
officesforfixedservices,asmobileofficesalready
tendtobepositionedtooperatewithlong-reach
accesstechnologies.
Virtualization
Asitdecouplesapplicationsfromtheunderlying
hardwareplatform,virtualizationisoneof
thekeyenablersforflexibleserviceand
functiondeployment.
Withgoodorchestration,virtualization
technologiesenablemosttypesofworkloadsto
beconsolidatedoncommonmulti-corecompute
platforms.Furtherreductionofhardwareinthe
ngco canbeachievedbypoolingworkloadson
acommoncomputeresource,andadditional
powersavingscanbegainedthroughdynamic
workloadreassignment.
Thesignificanceofvirtualizationinfuturecarrier
networksisclearlyreflectedbythemassiveeffort
beingputintothisareabyoperators,vendors,and
standardizationbodies.Theheightenedfocus
onallaspectsofvirtualizationbodeswellforthe
accelerationofitsadoption.
Automatingthevnf lifecycle
Automatedorchestrationofvirtualfunctions’
instantiation,capacityelasticity,andfunction
terminationarecriticalnetworkcapabilitiesthat
enablefunctionstobedeployedquicklyandflexibly
inmultiple,geographicallydistributedngcos.
Orchestrationiscentraltotheoperationofany
virtualizationenvironmentofferingmulti-tenancy–
whetheritisforanoperator’smanyinternaltenants,
orexternalresidentialandenterprisetenants.
Computeperformance
Thecontinuousimprovementsincompute
performancecanbeattributedtoanumberof
differenttechnologies.Cores,forexample,have
becomefaster,thecorepersocketratiohasrisen,
on-chipcacheshavebecomebothlargerand
faster,andaccesstimestoperipheralmemoryand
storagehavedroppeddramatically.Today,itisfairly
commonforanindividualcpu tocontaintensof
cores,eachrunningat3ghz oncots hardware,with
single,dualorquadsockets.Inaddition,i/o speeds
haveincreased,enablingmodernserverstosupport
dual(andpossiblymore)40gbpsnics.
Theincreasesincomputeandi/o performance
haveinturnwidenedthesetoffunctionsthat
mightbenefitfromvirtualization.Andso,network
designisnolongerrestrictedtothevirtualizationof
traditionalit andcontrol-planeintensiveworkloads,
butcanbeexpandedtoincludetraditionaltelecom
networkfunctionsthatdemandhighuser-plane
performance,suchasvirtualroutersandvirtual
subscribergatewaysincludingvirtualbngs
and p/s-gws.
Ascomputecapabilitiescontinuetoimprove,
anequivalentreductioninthehardwarefootprint
ofaccessfunctionswilloccur.Thisnotonlybrings
benefitsintermsofcostandenvironmentalimpact,
butalsoenablesfunctionsthatbenefitfromproximity
totheuser,previouslydeployedinmorespacious
dcs,tobedistributedanddeployedinthengco.
dc switchingfabric
Tovirtualizenetworkfunctionsandother
workloadsasfaraspossible,thengco obviously
needsappropriatecomputeandstoragecapacity.
Emergingdc fabrics–basedonmerchantsilicon
leaf-and-spineswitches–thatarescalable,and
offerhighcapacityatlowcost,providejusttheright
kindofinternalnetworkdesignbetweencompute-
and-storagecomponentsandthephysicalwan and
accessgateways.
Mostngco fabricswillbeconfiguredas
non-blockingclos[1]networks,possiblywithunder-
subscribeddimensioning,eventhoughsucha
structureisnotstrictlyrequired.
Software-definednetworking
Applyingtheconceptsofsdn toanetworkmakes
itcentralized,dynamicallyprovisioned,and
programmable.Theagilityandflexibilitysdn offers
willbecriticalinprovidingnewandmultiple-service
operatorswiththecapabilitytoofferwhatever
servicestheyliketotheirsubscribers.
Keyarchitecturalcomponents
Figure2showsthelocationofthengco andhow
itisconnectedtothefixedandmobileservicesit
offerstosubscribersthroughthevariousaccess
domains.Thediagramalsoincludesanabstract
representationoftheinternalstructureofthengco
anditsconnectionsdeeperintothenetwork.The
orchestrationcomponentmanagesthefunctions
andinfrastructureoftheinternal
officeaswellascertainexternalentitiessuch
asaccessrouters.
Infrastructure
Thengco infrastructureconsistsofthree
majorcomponents:
〉〉 the switching fabric that links all other
components together
〉〉 gateways – to the access domain and the wan
〉〉 servers and storage
Initially,non-virtualizedbaremetalappliances
thatperformspecificfunctionswillalsobepart
oftheinfrastructure.Theseappliancesmightbe
incorporatedintothegatewaysorbeimplemented
onseparatehardwareplatforms,depending
onthecapacityofthegatewayandhowwellthe
hardwareperforms.
Switchingfabric
Thestructureofanngco mayuseoverlay/underlay
designprinciplesoradoptamoretraditional
approach.Inanoverlay/underlaydesign,the
switchingfabricformstheunderlayandisagnostic
ofserviceendpoints.Intraditionalarchitectures,
theswitchingfabricisfullyawareoftheservice
endpoints.Thesizeandscaleofthefabricvaries
accordingtotherequirementsandlocationofthe
office.Forexample,asmallngco servingtensof
thousandsofusersmayconsistofjustafewswitches
THE INCREASED
PENETRATION OF FIBER IN
THE LAST MILE IS PERHAPS THE
MOST SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN
THE SHIFT TOWARD FEWER
AND MORE CENTRALIZED
NGCOS

andsupportaminimumsetoflocalfunctions,
whereaslargerofficesmayincludeaswitchingfabric
capableofsupportingextensivelocalservicesfor
millionsofsubscribers.
Thestructureofthefabric,especiallywhen
itcomestolargeroffices,islikelytobebasedon
commondata-centerdesignpractices,withan
underlayclosarchitecture,usingaclusterofleaf-
and-spineswitcheswithsame-lengthlinks,offering
potentiallydeterministicdelayandlatency.Inaclos
underlay,loadbalancingwithinthefabricisachieved
byutilizingthemultiplepathsbetweensourceand
destination.Eithercentralizedsdn controllers
ordistributedroutingprotocolssuchasbgp or
igp willbeusedtobuildtheforwarding,routing,
andswitchingtables.Tobuildthefabricunderlay
forlarge-scalengcos,theindustrypreference
isleaningtowardtheuseofdistributedrouting
protocols,astheyaresimplisticandhaveaproven
trackrecord.
Merchantsilicon-basedwhiteboxescanbeused
forfabricswitches,especiallywhenprovidingasimple
underlay.Theseboxestendtobelesscapablebutoften
havealowerprice-to-bandwidthratiothantraditional
switches.Whiteboxesofferentirelydecoupled
networkingosandhardware,andbyusingatoolsuch
astheOpenNetworkInstallEnvironment(onie),
forexample,theinstallednetworkoscanbeeasily
swappedoutwithanotherone–allowingoperators
toloadtheosoftheirchoiceontoinstalledhardware.
So,whiteboxesnotonlycontributetoreducingcosts;
theyperhapsmoresignificantlyprovidenetwork
programmabilityandflexibility.
ShowninFigure3,thengco fabricconceptually
representsadisaggregatedrouterthatcanbereadily
scaledoutbyaddingleaf-and-spineswitchesas
needed.Thefabricmayneedtosupportanumberof
underlaytechnologiesincludingip andEthernet,and
mpls mayberequired,especiallyincarrierdomains,
toensureoperationalsimplicityandseamlessend-to-
endinteroperabilitywiththeinstalledbase.
Intheeventofaswitchfailure,thefabric
automaticallyreroutestrafficthroughtheremaining
switchesuntilthefailedswitchhasbeenmanually
replacedandauto-configuredbyafabricmanager,
allowingthesystemtooperatewithouthavingto
waitforamaintenancewindow.
Optimumtrafficmanagementrequiresaholisticand
real-timeviewoftheavailablenetworkbandwidthand
trafficpatterns.Flowstatisticsarecollectedatregular
intervals,andwhenanalyzed,providetheinformation
neededtodetectandavoidcongestion,guarantee
betterutilizationoffabricresources,andadminister
prioritizationpolicies.
Gateways
Accessandwangatewaysactasinfrastructure
gateways,andtendtobeconnectedtospecialleaf
nodes.Thewangatewayfunctioncouldalternativelybe
implementedusingspineswitches.
Accessgatewaysthatterminatecustomeraccess
linksmayrequireextendedcapabilitiessuchasdeep
buffers,trafficmanagementandothermoreadvanced
qos capabilities,largeforwardingtables,andacls
thatarenotusuallypresentinmerchantsilicon-based
whiteboxes.Accessgatewaysterminatedifferentaccess
technologiessuchasdocsisandgponolt.olt
functionscanbevirtualizedwiththemaclayerandthe
opticsseparatedfromthecontrol-andmanagement-
planesoftware.Thehardwarepartofthegatewaycan
beimplementedonasmallsfpformfactor,whilethe
softwarepartcanbevirtualizedandhostedonany
serverwithintheco.
Usingavarietyofcommunicationprotocols(such
asip,mpls, andotn/wdm),wan gatewaysconnect
centralofficeswithotherngcosandcos,central
andregionaldatacenters,aswellasothercarriers
andthewiderinternet.
Computeandstorage
Thegeographicclosenessofthengco tousers
providesastrongincentivetohousecertainfunctions
andservicesthatbenefitfromthisproximityinthe
ngco.Computeandstorageresourcesexistinthe
ngco torunvirtualizednetworkfunctionssuch
asvbng andvp/s-gw,aswellasmoretraditional
servicessuchasvod,withlocalcaching.
Thegeneralpurposenatureofcomputeresources
deployedinthengcoiskey,asanynetworkfunctionor
servicecanbeinstantiatedonthem,supporting
Figure 2 The ngco in the operator’s network
Figure 3 Disaggregation of routing functions
Fabric Fabric
Access
GW
WAN/DC
GW
vP/S-GW
NGCO
Internet
Hyperscale/
OTT data center
vBNG
CMS NMS SDN
OPEN
DAYLIGHT
OpenStack
vPE
Control
Fabric
Subscribers WAN
Apps
TOR TOR
FCAPS
management
Fabric underlay
control
Network
overlay control
Gateway
Access
functions
WAN
functions
TOR
vP/S-GW vPE
optional
vBNG
optional
Line cards
Spine
NB-IoT
〉〉
roaming
〉〉
〉〉
〉〉

thebreakawayfromtraditionalhardwareand
softwarecoupling.
Theamountofcomputeandstoragelocatedin
agivenngco willdependonitssizeandoperator
preferencesforcentralizationversusdecentralized
functiondeployment.Offeringcloudservices,for
example,requiresadditionalcomputeandstorage,
whichinturnincreasesthesizeofthengco.
Overlayservices
Ifthengco implementsoverlayservicesusingan
underlayswitchingfabric,anoverlayencapsulation
techniqueisrequired.Thistechnologycanalsobe
usedtoprovidetenantisolationtooperator-internal
stakeholdersandsubscriberisolationforngcos
withcloudservices.
Commonencapsulationtechnologiesinclude
vxlan,nvgre, andmpls vpns,andcanbe
implementedvirtuallyinvSwitchesorinhardware
onleafandpossiblygatewaynodesifhigher
performanceisrequired.
Regardlessofthelocationandtypeofoverlay
technologyused,configurationwillbeautomatedby
anoverlaycontrollercoupledthroughnorthbound
APIstotheautomaticprovisioningofanytenant-
relatedfunctions.Forexample,theoverlaycontroller
couldbeodl-basedcoupledtoOpenStack
throughNeutronapis.Thesameapiscanbeused
byadditionalapplicationssuchastheoss/bss.
Theoverlaycontrollercommunicateswithvirtual
networkswitchesorbaremetaldevices(gateways
andleafswitches,forexample)preferablythrough
opensouthboundinterfacessuchasOpenFlow,
xmpp,ornetconf.
Virtualizednetworkfunctions
Intoday’scos,traditionalnetworkfunctionsand
workloads,suchascachesandwebservers,run
onverticallyintegratedplatforms.Inthengco,
theseelementswillberunasvirtualizednetwork
functionsoncots hardware.
nfv technologymakesiteasiertocreateand
scaleseparatelogicalnodesandfunctions,andif
necessary,theseelementscanbeisolatedforuse
byaspecifictenant.Thisistheconceptofnetwork
slicing.Networkslicesareindividuallydesignedto
meetaspecificsetofperformancerequirements
tailoredtotheapplicationrunningontheslice.
Thevirtualinfrastructureofasliceisisolatedfrom
otherslicestoensurethatallslicesofthenetwork
runefficientlyandperformancetargetsaremet.
Thenfv approachprovidestheflexibilityneeded
toprovisionnetworkresourcesondemand,andto
tailorslicestospecificusecases,enablingoperators
todelivernetworkingasaservice.Thebeautyof
networkslicesliesintheirabilitytobeoptimizedto
suittheapplication.Inotherwords,high-availability
servicescanrunonslicesoptimizedforresilienceto
hardwareandsoftwarefailures,whereasanm2m
signaling-intensiveapplication,forexample,canrun
onalow-latency,low-bandwidthslice.
Automation
Inthengco,allkeyoperationalcomponentsare
automated.Thisremovestheneedformanual
configuration,whichispronetoerror,costly,and
time-consuming.
Thefabricmanageroverseestheautomated
partsofthengco,configuringandmanagingthe
underlyingfabricswitches,andsupervisingthe
performanceofthefabric.Thefabricmanager
continuallyandautomaticallymonitorsthephysical
fabricnode-and-linktopology,itvalidatesthephysical
cabling,andconfiguresleaf-and-spineswitcheswith
associatedprotocolsandpolicies.Thefabricmanager
mayusedevops toolssuchasCheforPuppetfor
initialconfigurationandsoftwaremanagementtasks
(lldp configuration,managementaddressing,and
os componentupgrades),afterwhichprogrammatic
interfacessuchasnetconf/yang canbeused
toconfigurenetworkprotocols,qos policies,and
statisticsontheinterfaces.Forcentralizedsdn-
basedcases,thefabricmanagercanuseOpenFlow
toconfigurethenecessaryforwardingentriesinthe
underlayswitches.
Serviceorchestration
Serviceorchestrationautomaticallyinstantiates
applicationsandconfiguresnetworkservices
accordingtoservice-levelspecifications.
Automationofthesetaskscandramaticallyreduce
thetimetoinstantiateoraddnewdevicesorservices
tothenetwork,whichincreasesnetworkagility,
makingreal-timeserviceprovisioningpossible.
Migration
Formostoperators,themigrationofnetwork
architecturefromthecurrentco deploymenttoone
basedonfewerngcoswillbegradual.Whilesome
ngcoswillbebuiltasgreenfielddeployments,for
themostpart,existingcoswillevolve,requiring
thecoexistenceofdecoupledsdn/nfv equipment,
togetherwithtraditional,tightlycoupledhardware
andsoftware.Duringthemigration/coexistence
period,managementandorchestrationcomponents
needtobeabletosupporttheheterogeneous
(coupled/decoupled)environment;by,forexample,
abstractingthedifferencesbetweenthetwo
architectures,andusingcommonnorthbound
THE GEOGRAPHIC
CLOSENESS OF THE NGCO TO
USERS PROVIDES A STRONG
INCENTIVE TO HOUSE CERTAIN
FUNCTIONS AND SERVICES
THAT BENEFIT FROM THIS
PROXIMITY IN THE NGCO
Figure 4 etsi nfv reference architectural framework
OSS/BSS
Event manager
PNF
Hardware
NFV orchestrator (NFVO)
VNF-specific VNF
manager
Ericsson VNF
NFVI
NFV
service
catalog
NFV
instances
NFVI
resources
VNF
Virtual
infrastructure
manager (VIM)
Os-Nfvo
VeEn-Vnfm
VeEn-Vnfm
Nf-Vi
Vi-Vnfm Nfvo-Vi
Nfvo-
Vnfmcatalog

#02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 2016 2928
interfacestoothersystems,suchasend-to-end
serviceorchestrationandoss/bss.
Throughouttheperiodofcoexistence,network
functionswillbephysicallyandvirtuallyinstantiated
withcapacityandsubscriberspooledacrossboth,
andasFigure4shows,orchestrationsystemswill
berequiredtosupportbothtraditionaland
decoupledarchitectures.
Conclusions
Networkarchitectureisundergoingamassive
transformationintermsofincreasedlevels
ofautomationandprogrammability.This
transformationhasbeenenabledbyanumberof
technologies,butprimarilybythedisaggregationof
softwareandhardware.Thetransformationisbeing
drivenbynewbusinessopportunities,expected
gainsinoperationalefficiency,andtheneedfor
rapidtimetomarketforservices.Astheunderlying
technologies–virtualizationandsdn –become
moremature,therateoftransformationwillrise.
Thenextgenerationcentraloffice,orngco,has
beendesignedtotakeadvantageofthegainsbrought
aboutbyadecouplednetworkarchitecture.The
benefitsforoperatorscomeintheformofnetwork
intelligence,flexibility,andeaseofscalability,allof
whichbringopexandcapexbenefits.
Thengco isbasicallyaminidatacenterthat
providesconvergedfixedandmobileservices.
Comparedwithatraditionalco,thengco canserve
alargersubscriberbaseacrossawidergeographic
area.Thengco hasbeenbroughtaboutthrough:
〉〉 reduced co density, as a result of greater distances
achievable by fixed access technologies
〉〉 the introduction of sdn/nfv technologies
〉〉 advancements in hardware technologies in terms of
low-cost, high-throughput switches
〉〉 infrastructure automation and service orchestration
Architecturally,deployingthengco asa
minidatacenterintroducesagreaterlevelof
intelligenceintothenetworkinadistributed
fashion,asapplicationsarereplicated,orshifted,
fromcentralizeddatacentersouttongcos.
Computeresourcesinthengco canbeused
forrunningapplicationssuchasrichmediaand
rendering,orlatency-sensitivegamingapps.With
thesecapabilities,thengco willbecomepartofa
distributed,intelligentcloudresource.
Thengco bringswithitanumberofsavings,
requiringlessspace,power,andcoolingthanthe
sumoftheindividualtraditionalcostheyreplace.
On-sitestaffingrequirementsshouldbereduced,
asprovisioningandmanyaspectsofmaintenance
arecontrolledremotelyandautomated.Overall,the
ngco willresultinfewercentralofficesorincreased
accesscoverageandserviceconsolidation,with
reducedneedfornewrealestateasequipment
continuestocompact.
Nail Kavak
◆ joined Ericsson in 2000,
and is currently working
as principle architect for
the system and technology
group in Development
Unit ip. He has in-depth
experience in the design and
deployment of ip/mpls and
optical networks for carrier
networks. Most recently,
he has managed a number
of network transformation
projects for Tier 1 operators
in the dc Networking
space. He holds an m.sc.
in computer science and
engineering from Linköping
University, Sweden, and a
technical licentiate from
the kth Royal Institute of
Technology in Stockholm.
https://www.linkedin.com/
in/nail-kavak-8ba9481
Andrew Wilkinson
◆ is an expert in ip
networking at Ericsson’s
Development Unit ip.
He holds an m.sc. in
telecommunications from
the University of London.
He joined Ericsson in 2011
having previously worked for
mobile network operators in
Europe and North America.
https://www.linkedin.
com/in/andrew-wilkinson-
0b377712
John Larkins
◆ is a senior director of
technology at Ericsson’s
ip Design Unit in San Jose,
California, where he is
responsible for technology
evolution, including network
and systems architecture
solutions ranging from asic
requirements definition to
product implementation
architectures and
collaboration with network
operators on future target
network architectures.
in/larkins
Sunil Patil
◆ is a principal engineer in
ip networking at Ericsson’s
Development Unit ip. He
joined Ericsson in 2000,
where he has worked on
architecture, design, and
development of multiple
ip routing products. His
current focus is on driving
technology innovation in the
areas of sdn, orchestration,
ngco, and data center
networking for laas, paas,
and caas. He holds an m.sc.
in computer networking
from North Carolina
University, the us, and an
m.b.a. from Duke University.
in/sunilbpatil
Bob Frazier
◆ is an expert in ip system
architecture at Ericsson’s
Business Unit Cloud & ip.
He holds a ph.d. in electrical
engineering from Duke
University in North Carolina,
the us. He joined Ericsson
in 2007 and has worked in
ietf, ieee, and Broadband
Forum standardization.
His current interests are ip
software architecture and
data center networking.
in/bob-frazier-a961572
theauthors
References:
1. Bell Labs Technical Journal, 1953, A Study of Non-Blocking Switching Networks, Charles Clos,
abstract, available at: http://ow.ly/YGZ2F

STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND ✱TECHNOLOGY TRENDS ✱✱ TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Five
trends
Keeping up with the relentless pace of change in the ict industry is a daily
challenge for modern tech companies. The key to long-term success lies in the
ability to understand change almost before it occurs and seize the opportunity
to shape evolving technologies.
Tech companies often gain competitive advantage by causing market
disruption through their ability to understand and act on technology trends.
Like waves in the ocean, it’s much easier to ride these trends if you can see
them coming and read them right. (But of course, true technology leadership
happens when you start making your own waves.)
As I see it, there are five key technology trends that will stimulate innovation
within the ict industry in the coming year, creating new value streams for
consumers, industries and society. All five pivot around a technology-enabled
business ecosystem made possible through a universal, horizontal and
multipurpose communications platform.
shapinginnovationinICT
#1SPREADING INTELLIGENCE
THROUGHOUT THE CLOUD
Distributed machine intelligence
moves into the cloud
#2SELF-MANAGING DEVICES
Intuition, self-learning, and increasingly
autonomous devices
#3COMMUNICATION BEYOND
SIGHT AND SOUND
Human interaction augmented
by tactile internet
#4FUNDAMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES
RESHAPING WHAT NETWORKS CAN DO
New materials and manufacturing
techniques enhance networking capabilities
#5WEAVING SECURITY AND PRIVACY
INTO THE IOT FABRIC
Automation makes security controls
real-time and proactive
BY ULF EWALDSSON, CTO
3130

32
✱ TECHNOLOGY TRENDS TECHNOLOGY TRENDS ✱
33#02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
c o n n e c t e d smart machines,
such as robots and autonomous
vehicles, are fundamental to the
evolving Networked Society.
Enhanced cloud architecture that
can distribute and share machine
intelligence will enable smart
connected machines to work on an
increasingly higher level.
■ Supportedbyadvancementsinartificial
intelligence(ai)–particularlyintheareas
ofbigdataanalytics,machinelearning
andknowledgemanagement–rapid
progresshasbeenmadeintermsofwhat
smartmachinescando.Developmentsin
connectivityandcloudtechnologiesare
makingitpossibletodistributeandshare
machineintelligencemoreeasily,atalower
cost,andonamuchwiderscale
thanbefore.
Whenconnectedtothecloud,
smartmachineswillbeabletousethe
powerfulcomputational,storageand
communicationresourcesofstate-of-
the-artdatacenters.Today’sintelligent
softwareroboticssystemsarecapable
ofsupportingrepetitiveadministrative
taskswithcurrentdevelopmentpushing
towardadvisorytasks.Cloudification
shiftsthecapabilitiesofthesesystems
intoanewspherethatincludescomplex
problem-solvinganddecision-makingona
mass-marketscale.
Connect,store,compute…andshare
Shiftingsystemsintothecloudenables
communitiesofcollaboratingrobots,
machines,sensorsandhumanstoprocess
andshareinformation.Eachnewinsight
collectedwithinacommunitycanbe
sharedinstantly,whichincreasesthe
effectivenessofcollaborativetasks,and
improvesperformancethroughoutthe
system,withacommonawarenessof
systemstatesharedbyallparticipants,as
wellasasharedknowledgebase.
Adistributedmachineintelligence
architectureofferslowerimplementation
costs.Sharingabackboneofalmost
unlimitedcomputationalpowermakes
itpossibletobuildlightweight,low-cost
robotsandsmartmachinesthatrequirea
lowlevelofcontrolandaminimumamount
ofsensorsandactuators.Application-
specificrequirementsrelatedto
responsivenessandspeedwilldetermine
whetheralocalorglobalcloudismost
suitable,andhowmuchintelligencecan
bedistributed.
Smartandmobilecapabilities
virtuallyeverywhere
Intelligentcloudswillcreatenewvalue
chainsinmanyindustrysegments,but
someoftheforerunnersincludemining,
agriculture,forestryandhealthcare.
Newopportunitieswillopenupforall
organizationsandpeopleinvolvedinthe
supplychainfromthemanufacturerto
thecustomer.Consideranautomated
agricultureapplication.Theapplication
remotelycontrolsfarmmachinestocarry
outvariousfarmingtasks.Toharvest
maturecrops,forexample,thesystemwill
controlthenecessarymachinestocut,
gatherandtransportthem.Eachindividual
machinewilltakelocaldecisionstoensure
securecompletionofitssettasks,working
inconjunctionwithallthemachines
involvedintheharvesting.Weather
reportsgatheredfromanotherdistributed
cloudapplicationareusedbythesystem
tocarryoutharvestinginanoptimalway.
Contactwiththefarmeroccursonlywhen
participatingmachinescannotresolve
issuesthemselves.
Theharvestingexamplehighlights
justoneofthemanycomingapplications
thatwillrelyonmultipleinformation
sources,cloud,anddistributedmachine
intelligence.Toensurescalabilityand
widespreaduptakeofsuchapplications,
thechallengeliesintherapiddevelopment
andproliferationofuniversallyaccessible
mobilecapabilities.5g willprovidea
resilient,high-availability,low-latency
networkthatoffersapplicationswith
integratedcomputingandstorage
resourcesthatareideallyplacedtomeet
latencyrequirements.5g iswellmatched
toindustrialroboticsapplicationsbecause,
likeotherradiotechnologies,itremoves
theneedforcablingandminimizes
infrastructureadaptions,butitalsooffers
identitymanagement,optimumplacement
ofresources,andencryptionforsecurity
andprivacy.
#1
ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 2016
Spreadingintelligence
throughoutthecloud

3534 #02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 2016
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS ✱✱ TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
c o m b i n i n g s e n s o r y d ata
with AI techniques enables the data
from massive numbers of sensors to
be merged and processed to create a
higher-level view of a system.
■ Connectedsmartdeviceswillchange
ourlivesinmanyways.Theserangefrom
simpleservicesthatopenyourgarage
doorasyourcarapproaches,forexample,
toradicallynewbusinessopportunities
involvingservicesyettobeinventedand
marketsyettobediscovered.Combined
withintelligenthandlingofdata,smart
devicescanboosttheproductivity
andprofitabilityofanybusiness.But
toenablethedeploymentofbillionsof
smartdevices,thecostofmanagingand
monitoringthemneedstobelow.Evolving
softwareandcommunicationstechnology
areshiftingtowardthecreationof
autonomousandself-managingdevices.
The Internet of Things (iot) means
automation and intelligence in
everything that is connected. This
implies that a collective intuitive
behavior among a wide range of devices
for a wide range of applications is
possible in the future. The connectivity
allows objects to be sensed and actuated
remotely, creating a bridge between the
physical and digital world.
It’sthecombinationthattriggers
theeffect
Beyond the physical devices embedded
with processors, software, sensors,
actuators, and connectivity, it is the
combination of sensory data and
ai that enables more effective and
accurate interactions. It is by merging
data from a multitude of sensors that
a superior baseline for intelligent
processing is created. These are the
common denominators that push IoT
development further.
Fromaconnectivityperspective,two
distinctanddifferentusecasesemerge.
Oneextremeisthemassivemachine-
typecommunication(massivemtc)
thatcansupportmillionsofconnected
devicessuchasenergymetersandlogistics
tracking.Here,wearelookingatdevice
batterylifetimesbeyond10yearsandcost
reductionintheorderof80percentaswell
as20db bettercoveragecomparedwith
presentstate-of-the-artsolutions.
Theotherextremeisthecritical
machine-typecommunication(critical
mtc),whichentailsreal-timecontrol
andautomationofdynamicprocessesin
variousfieldssuchasvehicle-to-vehicle,
vehicle-to-infrastructure,high-speed
motion,andprocesscontrol.Critical
parameterstoenabletheperformance
requiredarenetworklatencybelow
milliseconds,ultra-high“fivenines”
(99.999percent)reliability.Thefuture
networkarchitectureneedstocaterfor
bothmtc scenarios.
Keytechnologyadvancements
The2016EricssonMobilityReport
(https://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2016/
ericsson-mobility-report-2016.pdf)
predictsthattherewillbe28billion
connecteddevicesby2021.Onthedevice
side,thekeytechnologydriveristhe
evolutionofsensors,actuators,processors,
memories,andbatteries.Beyond
conventionalelectronics,wewillsee
implementationsofnanoscaletechnologies
basedonthin-film,graphene,andquantum
sensors.Wecanexpectanysizeandshape
ofdeviceinthefuture.
Anotheremergingkeytechnologyis
thatofanadvancedsoftwaretoolbox
leveragingadvancedanalytics,machine
learning,andknowledgemanagement
withprocessingcapabilitiesofreal-
timestreamingdata.Intelligentcontrol
logicisanotherinterestingarea.There
isanincreasingneedforstandardized
platformsandsoftwareprotocols.These
willinevitablydrivemarketconsolidation,
withmassivecostsavingsandproductivity
gainsasaresult.
Effectiveconnectivityandidentity
managementarefundamentaltothe
futurenetwork.Theseimplyautomated
deployments,aggregatedsubscription
managementaswellasembedded
provisioningandcontrolthroughthe
wholelifespanofthedevice.
Whatdoesthismeanforthefuture
roleofnetworks?
iot devicesenableustomonitorsensors
andautomatealotofprocesses.Theadded
intelligenceneededisafeaturethatwill
mainlybeembeddedinthenetworkitself.
Foriot technologytoliveuptoits
promiseandbeappliedonamassivescale
throughoutsociety,itmustbebuiltona
secure,global,telecom-gradenetwork
thatisbasedoncommonstandards.This
willalsoensureahealthycompetitiveand
innovativeecosystem.
Intermsof5g,suchanunderlying
networkinfrastructureisalreadyinplace
–readytoshowhowwellitisscalingand
howitscost-efficiencypropertiessupport
iot applications.5g offersbothsuper-
highbandwidthwithultra-lowlatency
andextremebatterylifefordevices.
Bycombiningcloudintelligencewitha
powerfulbutenergy-efficientwireless
connection,evenverysimpleand
inexpensivedevicescanbemadesmart
andgenerategreatbusinessvalue.
THE CONNECTIVITY ALLOWS
OBJECTS TO BE SENSED AND
ACTUATED REMOTELY, CREATING A
BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL
AND DIGITAL WORLD
Self-managingdevices
#2

✱ TECHNOLOGY TRENDS TECHNOLOGY TRENDS ✱
c o m m u n i c at i o n will evolve
in a highly remarkable way over the
coming years, as interaction between
human beings and machines evolves
to include additional experiences and
senses. The internet you can feel is on
the horizon.
■ Today,2d videoisthemostadvanced
formofcommunicationpeopleuseto
connectwitheachother.Inthefuture,
peoplewillbeabletoparticipateindistant
businessmeetingsorattendafamily
gatheringbysendinganaugmented3d
selfie.Iamsuremanypeoplearelooking
forwardtothedayitwillbepossibleto
attendeventssuchasMobileWorld
Congress,thefifa WorldCup,orthe
SuperBowlvirtually.
Emergingtechnologiesinthefields
ofthetactileinternet,virtualrealityand
augmentedreality–supportedby5g
networkevolution–areshowingsignsthat
theabilitytoexperienceaneventvirtually
isnolongersciencefiction,butafeasible
reality,andindicateagiantstepforward
ininnovation.
Thetactileinternetisfoundedonthe
visionaryprinciplethatallofourhuman
sensescanbeembeddedinhuman-
machineinteraction.Usinghaptics
(interactioninvolvingtouch),remote
experiencescanbeanearreal-time
representationofreality.Toaccomplish
suchrealisticremoteexperiences,however,
theloopconnectingthedisciplines
ofrobotics,ai,andcommunications
needstobeclosedandnear-zerolatency
requirementswillneedtobemet.
Virtualandaugmentedreality(vr
andar)areexpectedtobecomeintegral
technologiesoftheNetworkedSociety,
potentiallydisruptingtheconsumer
electronicsmarket.
Pushingtheboundariesof
traditionalphysics
Toclosetherobotics,ai,and
communicationsloopquickly,Ericsson
hasstartedacollaborationonthetactile
internetwithKing’sCollegeLondon.As
theresearchteamputsit,“Weneedto
beatthelimitsofthetraditionallawsof
physics,aseventhespeedoflightisnot
fastenoughtoenablethesekinds
ofapplications.”
Inthiscontext,tactilecommunication
enableshapticinteractionbetween
controlandmachinewithvisualfeedback.
Technicalsystemswillneedtosupport
audiovisualinteraction,andenable
remoteroboticsystemstobecontrolled
withanunnoticeabletimelag.End-to-
end,componentsotherthanthephysical
distanceseparatingcontrolfrommachine
addtothetotalsystemdelay.Forinstance,
videocodingandrenderingrequirea
substantialamountofcomputational
power,andsothesecomponentsincrease
overallsystemdelay.
Thistypeofnext-generation
communicationwillcontributetothe
resolutionofcomplexchallengesthatarise
inmanysectorssuchaseducation,health
care,personalsafety,smartcity,traffic
managementandenergyconsumption.
Somebusiness-relatedexamplesinclude
virtualstores,interactive3d designlabs,
training,interactiveentertainment,and
enterprisecommunication.Presently,the
gamingindustryistheprimaryincubator
forar andvr.
Notjustrawspeed – some
intelligencetoo
Human-to-humanandhuman-to-
machinecommunicationswillputhigh
demandsonfuturenetworks.Solutions
supportinghighcapacityandextremely
lowlatencyincombinationwithhigh
availability,reliability,andsecuritywill
definethecharacteristicsofthenetwork.
Inmassivevideodistribution,forexample,
theneedforcapacityiscreatedbycertain
applicationneedsforhighresolution,
highdynamicrange,andhighframerate,
whichinturnnecessitatelinkspeedsin
gigabitspersecond.Butit’snotjustabout
rawspeed.Ourresearchinthisarea
has,forinstance,investigatedtheideaof
dividingtheamountoftransmitteddata
intopriorityhierarchieswithdifferenttime
requirements,transmittingonly
datathathasbeenmodifiedand
anticipatingchanges.
Communicationbeyond
sightandsound
#3

39#02, 2016 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 201638
theprocessingunitandothervital
componentsinacommunicationnetwork.
Photonicswilladdpropertiessuchas
lowpropagationloss,highdata-transfer
density,andexcellentsignalintegrity.
Bridgingthegapbetweenopticaland
electroniccomponents,siliconphotonics
willshrinkeverythingincludingthe
footprint,powerconsumption,andcost
ofhigh-speednetworkapplications.
Furthermore,siliconphotonicswillallow
forgreaterdisaggregationoffunctions,
whichopensupformoreefficienthardware
architectures,whileenablingmore
aggregateddatatraffic.
Qubits–smallbutpowerful
Slightlyfurtherintothefuture,quantum
computingpromisestobringaboutan
exponentialincreaseincomputational
power.Quantumcomputingisa
technologythatbuildsonthequantum
propertiesofelementaryparticles
(qubits).Qubitscanbeentangledwith
eachotherandcantakeonintermediate
valuescomparedwithordinarybits,
whichcanonlybeeither1or0.This
way,aquantumcomputercanincrease
parallelismandradicallyreducethe
computingeffortsneededtoaddress
certaintypesofproblems.Researchers
havealreadysucceededincreatingqubits
withinasemiconductor,andthefirstfully
operationalquantumcomputer
wasdisplayedattheendof2015.One
ofthemainchallengesistokeepthe
quantumstateunperturbed,which
requiresextremelylowtemperatures
andverygoodinsulationfromthe
surroundingenvironment.
Bymatchingtheexponentialexpansion
ofthedigitaluniversewithcomputational
powerthatalsogrowsexponentially,
weareconfidentthatwewillbeableto
continuetostayontopoffuturedemands
forcommunication.
Fundamental
technologiesreshaping
whatnetworkscando
#4
NEW MATERIALS IN COMBINATION
WITH INNOVATIVE MANUFACTURING
TECHNOLOGIES PROMISE TO
RADICALLY ENHANCE NETWORK
CAPABILITIES
t h e l aw s o f p h y s i c s are
the only real restriction on the
development of communication
networks. Ericsson is firmly committed
to pursuing innovations that challenge
present system limitations to help us
reach beyond what is possible today.
■ Whilebecomingincreasinglyversatile,
thenetwork’sfundamentalbuilding
blocksarealsobecomingmuchsmaller,
mimickingthewaylivingthingshave
evolved.Thenetworkofthefuturewill
beakintothedigitalembodimentof
anintuitiveorganismthatisableto
handlevastamountsofconsciously
intelligentautomatedresources.New
materialsincombinationwithinnovative
manufacturingtechnologiespromiseto
radicallyenhancenetworkcapabilities.
Whichtechnologieshavethegreatest
potentialtospurnetworkevolutionin
thenearfuture?
Inthesemiconductorarea,awiderange
ofnewmaterialsandmanufacturing
technologieswillsoonbecome
mainstream.Newpackagingand
integrationtechnologiesoffersubstantially
increasedbandwidthinadditionto
powerreductions.
Thesemiconductorindustryisalso
atthecuspofleveragingnewmemory
technologiesthatwillbeabletotakeon
differentrolesinthesystemmemory
hierarchy,aswellasofferingsubstantial
improvementsinsysteminputand
outputperformance.
Thesemiconductorindustryadvances
throughcontinuousscalingoftraditional
cmos.Majorplayersareworkingonthe
10nmnode,andindustryroadmapsinclude
7nmand5nmmanufacturingtechnologies.
Advanced2.5d/3d integrationtechniques
fornon-monolithicintegrationhave
thecapabilitytoofferawholesystem
functionintegratedonasinglechip.
Thesesolutionsarebothcostandenergy
efficient.Theintroductionofmulticore
centralprocessingunitsolutionsatpower
consumptionequaltoorlowerthantheir
predecessorsisapredominanttrend.
Othertrendsincludethedevelopmentof
varioustypesofarchitecturesaimedat
significantlyacceleratingprocessingspeed,
suchasmassiveparallelcomputing.
Electronsandlightblending
innewways
Advancesinsiliconphotonicsallow
foropticalintegrationdirectlyinto

i n a w o r l d where everyone’s
personal and financial information
is available online, cyber security
and privacy are very serious issues
for consumers, corporations and
governments alike. And the rapid
rise of wearables, smart meters,
and connected homes and vehicles
makes security and privacy more
vital than ever.
■ The complexity and heterogeneous
nature of future networks and connected
devices will require security and privacy
controls to be made an intrinsic part
of every device, network, cloud and
application. However, controls are only
valuable if they can be managed in a fast
and coordinated manner across all layers
– preferably in an automated fashion,
steered by policies and analytical
insights rather than by the choices of
an individual. Automated security and
privacy management that is pervasive
yet observable and auditable are the core
characteristics that can enable the future
Networked Society.
Weavingintelligenceonthreelevels
Threelayersoftechnologymakeitpossible
toweavesecurityandprivacyprotection
intoeverylayerofict:actualsecurity
controls,securityanalytics,andanadaptive
securityposture.
Overthenextdecade,keysecurity
controlswillincludedatasovereigntyand
novelidentitymanagementcontrolsthat
aretailoredtopeopleanddevices,aswellas
encryptiontechnologies.Someencryption
technologiesareintheearlyphasesof
developmentbutwillbegintoappearonthe
marketinthenextthreetofiveyears,asthe
underlyingtechnologiesmature.Newroot-
of-trusttechnologiesthatareapplicableto
bothphysicalandvirtualenvironmentsalso
showgreatpromise,andsignificanteffortwill
beputintomakingthemareality.
Novelsecurityanalyticstechnologies
cannowprovideinsightsthatmakeit
possibletocreatepredictivesecurity
systemsasopposedtoreactiveones.
Thesetechnologiescouldbeusedtocreate
disruptivedatamanagementsolutionsin
thenearfuture,butforthistohappen,we
needtohavecontext-awaresecurityfeeds
andsecurityanalyticsalgorithmsthat
correlatethesefeeds,oftenacross
multipledomains.
Thethirdtechnologylayer,theadaptive
securityposture,isachievedthrough
automation,basedonsecurityanalytics
insightsandpolicy-basedautomated
orchestrationofsecuritycontrols.
Itwillallbebuiltontrustednetworks
Nosingleindustryplayerwillbeable
toaddressallofthesechallengesonits
own.Industry-widecollaboration,joint
development,andstandardization–including
vendors,serviceproviders,andusers–will
beessentialinordertorealizethevisionof
asecureNetworkedSocietythatprotects
businessassetsandeveryone’sprivacy.
Traditionally,networkserviceproviders
rankamongthemosttrustedindustry
players.Withthisinmind,Ibelievethat
networkserviceprovidersandtheirnetworks
willbethefoundationuponwhichthe
trustforeverythingelse–devices,clouds,
communicationsandapplications–isbuilt.At
Ericsson,ourfocusisonenablingnetworksto
playthiskeyroleacrossmultipleindustries.
Weavingsecurityand
privacyintotheIOTfabric
#5

CLOSING THE GAPS ✱✱ CLOSING THE GAPS
EDVARD DRAKE
IBTISSAM EL KHAYAT
RAPHAËL QUINET
EINAR WENNMYR
JACKY WU
■Inthestackofcloudservicemodels,shownin
Figure 1,paas fitsinbetweensoftwareasaservice
(saas)(whichtargetsuserswithlicensedsoftware
offerings)andinfrastructureasaservice(iaas)
(whichaddressesthemanagementandsharingof
hardwareresources).
paas workswithvariouscloudmodels:public,
private,orhybrid.Thehybridmodelcan,for
example,beusedbyenterprisesandtelecom
serviceproviderstooptimallycombinethedifferent
handlingneedsofsensitiveandnon-sensitive
workloads,wherethecommonmanagement
interfaceenablessometobedeployedonaprivate
cloudandothersonapubliccloud–asshown
inFigure 2.Latency-sensitiveworkloads,for
example,ortasksthatrequiresecurityorcontrolfor
proprietarydatacanbedeployedonpremisesina
privatecloud,whilenon-sensitiveworkloadscanbe
deployedinapubliccloud,maximizingagilityand
optimizingcosts.
Dependingonthelevelofautomationand
integrationprovided,paas solutionscanbe
furtherdividedintotwocategories:structured
andunstructured.Unstructuredplatforms
leveragebasiccontainertechnologiesorpublic
paas offeringsandareusuallymanagedor
monitoredwithhomegrowntools. Technology-
centriccompaniestendtofavorsuchunstructured
platforms,astheyfacilitatedevelopmentand
maintenanceofsolutionscustomizedtomeet
businessneeds.
Structuredplatforms,ontheotherhand,come
withbuilt-infeaturessuchasorchestration,
monitoring,governance,loadbalancing,andhigh
availability.Thesecharacteristicsmakestructured
platformssuitableforenterprisesortelecomservice
providers,andarethereasonbehindEricsson’s
focusonstructuredpaas.
Thebenefitsbroughtbypaas
Whatbenefitspaas canoffervaryfrombusiness
tobusinessandfromoneapplicationtothenext,
dependingonwhetherithasbeenspecifically
designedforpaas orwhetheritsimplyrunsina
paas environment.Thepaas approachiswellsuited
toapplicationdevelopersandvendors,butitcan
alsobeofgreatvaluetootheruserssuchassystem
integratorsandserviceoperators.
Someoftheconceptsusedinpaas,suchas
multipleapplicationinstancesandcomponent-
basedarchitecture,areestablishedapproaches
inthetelcodomain.Tokeepthecomplexityof
componentsatamanageablelevel,thetelcodomain
hasalong-standingtraditionofmodulardesign.
However,designingapplicationsspecificallyfor
paas increasesthenumberofbenefitsforthe
differentusergroups.
Benefitsforapplicationdevelopers
paas enablesdeveloperstofocusonthebusiness
logicoftheirapplications,asitfreesthemfromthe
concernsassociatedwithsettingupthenecessary
foundationfordeployment,testing,adaptation,
androllout.Indoingso,paas enablesinnovation
accelerationandrapidtimetomarket.
Independent of business, ways of working, or even technology adoption,
the pressure on modern industries to shorten time to market through rapid
development cycles is constant. The concepts of platform as a service (paas)
and microservices – which have been gaining traction in the it world – are
deeply rooted in this need to cut development times. And the benefits are
equally important in the telco domain. But there are gaps that need to be
closed before paas is suitable for telco. Most of the challenges relate to the
need for additional features that telco applications typically require. Once
PaaS is telco approved, new applications will need to follow a number of
design patterns, so that the full advantages of the platform-as-a-service
approach can be realized.
p a a s is a cloud service model that allows
developers to build, run, and manage
applications in a way that best suits their
business needs, and most significantly, in
a way that is independent of the underlying
hardware or software infrastructure.
Typically, paas enables developers to deploy
code on top of a software stack that includes
a runtime environment for one or several
programming languages, an operating
system, and basic services to build upon. paas
provides the building blocks for automated
testing, continuous deployment, as well as
supporting the devops approach, and as
such simplifies the development process and
reduces time to market.
STRUCTURED PLATFORMS,
COME WITH BUILT-IN FEATURES
SUCH AS ORCHESTRATION,
MONITORING, GOVERNANCE,
LOAD BALANCING, AND HIGH
AVAILABILITY
telco-grade
PAVING THE WAY TO
Terms and abbreviations
laas – infrastructure as a service | mmtel – multimedia telephony | paas – platform as a service | saas – software as
a service | sctp – Stream Control Transmission Protocol | udp – User Datagram Protocol | vnf – Virtualized Network
Function
PaaS

CLOSING THE GAPS ✱✱ CLOSING THE GAPS
Benefitsforserviceoperators
Apaas-designedapplicationcanscalequickly
andeasilywithflexibleworkloaddeployment,
whichleadstooptimaluseofhardwareresources.
However,careshouldbetakenwhendealing
withapplicationsdesignedwithlargenumbersof
lightweightcomponentsthatneedtocommunicate
witheachother,toensurethatworkload
deploymentsdonotnegativelyimpactperformance.
Ingeneral,securityassuranceandgovernance
bothbenefitwhenapplicationsrunonacommon
frameworkthatprovidescollectiveapplication
managementandsupportsintra-service
communication.Forexample,theplatform
approachremovestheneedtomanagemassesofad
hocsecuritysolutionsandtherulesgoverninghow
theyapplytoapplications.
Howdomicroservicescontribute?
Thesoftwareindustryiscurrentlyexperiencinga
riseintheuseofmicroservicesandmicroservices
architecture.Andwhilepaas andmicroservicesare
twoseparateconcepts,viewingpaas incombination
withmicroservicesandotherconceptslike
containersanddevops,cansubstantiallyincrease
theleverageofeachofthem.
Microservicesisanarchitecturalpatternand
anapproachtodevelopment.Essentially,this
approachbuildsapplicationsfrom(ordeconstructs
existingapplicationsinto)smallparts–eachwitha
singleandwell-definedpurpose.Tocommunicate,
theparts(ormicroservices)uselanguage-and
technology-agnosticnetworkprotocols,andeach
partcanbedeveloped,maintained,deployed,
executed,upgraded,andscaledindependently.
Technologychoicesarespecifictothemicroservice
andeachmicroserviceshouldbeownedbyasmall
teamofdeveloperstominimizetheoverheadof
intra-teamcommunication.
Overall,theabilitytodeveloppartsinan
independentwayenablesrapidprogress,allowing
developmenttokeeppacewithmarketdemands,
andfacilitatesscalingofdevelopment.
Decouplingandindependencybetween
microservicesisfundamentaltoamicroservices
architecture.Independencesupportsscalingover
multipleteamsbecauseitenablesmanysmallteams
toworkinparallel,withclearresponsibilities,a
largedegreeoffreedom,andminimalinteraction.
Decouplingalsoenablesthedifferentpartsofthe
systemtoevolveattheirownpace.
Avoidingdependenciesenablestechnology
choicestobemadeonaper-microservicebasis.As
newtechnologiesbecomeavailable,theycanbe
implementedappropriatelywithouttheneedfor
asynchronizedcross-microserviceupgrade.Asa
result,eachmicroservicecanevolveattherightpace
inawaythatismostappropriateforaparticular
service:anefficientsystemthatlendsitselftothe
creationofever-improvingservices.
Whiletheadvantagesofamicroservices
architectureareapparent,inpractice,thisapproach
posesanumberofsignificantchallenges.Tostart
with,thewell-knownfallaciesofdistributed
computing[1]shouldbeavoided.Toperforma
giventask,anumberofmicroservicesareinvoked
sequentially,eachofwhichcontributesignificantly
tooveralllatency,makingitmoredifficulttopredict
thetheoveralllatencyofaservice.So,assuming,for
example,thatbandwidthisinfinite,orthatlatencyis
zerocanresultincostlyredesignwork.Challenges
includetheoverallcomplexity,bothindevelopment
andinruntime,ofalarge,highlydistributedsystems.
Theabilitytotestasystemisequallychallenging,
particularlywhenitcomestoadditionalcomplex
failurescenarios.
Oneway–andmaybetheonlyway–toovercome
thechallengessurroundinglatencyistoacceptthat
somepartsofthesystemneedtobedesignedwith
THE ABILITY TO DEVELOP
APPLICATION PARTS IN AN
INDEPENDENT WAY ENABLES
RAPID PROGRESS, ALLOWING
DEVELOPMENT TO KEEP PACE
WITH MARKET DEMANDS, AND
FACILITATES SCALING
software as a service (SaaS)
platform as a service (PaaS)
infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
consume
build and run on
host on
Users
Developers and testers
System administrators
Figure 1
Cloud service models (from
the point of view of the
service consumer)
Applicationsdesignedtoruninapaas
environmentarelikelytobelesscomplexand
consumelessresourcesthantheirtraditionally-
programmedcounterparts,astheydonotneed
tore-implementtheservicesthatareprovidedby
theplatform.Asaresult,apaas applicationtakes
lesstimetostartupthanapplicationsdeployedon
afullsoftwarestack.Thesimplifiednatureofpaas
applicationsbringsbenefitsintermsofscalability,
especiallyforthosethatarestateless.
Designinganapplicationforpaas withloosely-
coupledinternalandexternalinterfacesmakesit
easiertomanagelifecyclesforthecomponentsof
anapplicationandfortheservicestheyuseinan
independentmanner.Deployingcomponentsthat
arelooselycouplednotonlysimplifiesanupgrade,
italsoreducesthecomplexityofvalidatingan
upgrade.Combinedwiththefreedomtochoosethe
programminglanguageandruntimeenvironment
bestsuitedtothetaskathand,loose-coupling
enablescomponentstobereplacedatanytimewith
adifferentimplementation–eveninadifferent
language–whichinturnsupportsthegradual
introductionofnewtechnologies.
Thepaas frameworkprovidescommonways
toexposeandbindtoservices,whichsimplifies
thedeploymentofnewservices.Servicegateways
andbrokerscanalsoexposeexternalservices,so
theycanbeusedbyapplicationsrunninginsideor
outsidethepaas environment.
Theeaseofintegrationofnewservicesbrought
aboutbypaas contributestofasterinnovation,which
isoneofthemodel’sprimarybenefits.
Benefitsforsystemintegrators
Someofthebenefitsthatapplytodevelopersalso
applytosystemintegrators.Loosely-coupled
servicesandindependentlifecycles,forexample,
cansimplifythetestingandupgradeofcomponents,
asthesetaskscanbecarriedoutseparately.Andthe
commonbindingandserviceexposureframework
facilitatestheintegrationofnewservices.

Ericsson Technology Review, issue #2, 2016

Ericsson Technology Review, issue #2, 2016

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