First, I welcome you to the new Ericsson Technology Review. For some months now, we have been working on how to continue to deliver our in-depth technical insights this journal is renowned for, but also how to offer a broader perspective on technology developments in ICT. So here it is...
I am delighted to be able to share some of my thoughts and the stories of Ericsson experts – their perspectives, concerns, and insights on advancements being made in technology.
Perhaps the most obvious change we’ve made is the name of the journal. As industries merge, overlap, and collaborate more, we find ourselves changing too. I daresay the situation is the same everywhere. Today, Ericsson’s experts have different sets of skills compared with just a few years ago. Our customers also have different problems: subscribers are more demanding, and technology is more complex as it weaves its way deeper into the fabric of our lives. Some of the people I have conversations with today work in businesses that didn’t exist, even a couple of years ago. So, in an attempt to clarify what this journal is about (reviewing technology), we added the word technology to its name.
To our long-standing readers, I would like to emphasize that the fundamental nature of our content – in-depth analyses of specific technologies, their consequences and benefits – hasn’t changed.
The biggest change comes in the form of a new technology trends section. As the CTO of a global ICT player, I am in the fortunate position of hearing about all kinds of innovations that are shaping our industry, and I get to hear them from the multiple perspectives of many different experts. And while technology development often follows an innumerable set of investigation paths, some of them tend to stick out. So, together with a couple of Ericsson experts, I have highlighted the five trends that I believe all of us in ICT should keep an eye on in the coming year. I'd say that virtualization, network slices, more data, more mobile, security, and billions of things are today's primary drivers in ICT.
Otherwise, it’s business as usual... Every month, we publish a new article online. Perhaps not surprisingly, 5G is on the agenda, including a vision for the core network, how transport networks will need to evolve, and how 5g will enable remote control. We’ll round off the year with some insights into cryptography and designing secure algorithms.
The impact of the internet on our daily lives is the biggest technological innovation of the last decade. It has re-shaped our planet, our lives and global industries – including TV and Media.
Ericsson Technology Review, issue #1, 2016Ericsson
Every morning, I get out of bed and go to work because I believe technology makes a difference. I believe that in the midst of global growth, numerous humanitarian crises, the increasing need for better resource management, and an evolving threat landscape, a new world is emerging. And I believe technology is playing a key role in making that world a better, safer, and healthier place for more people to enjoy. It feels good to be part of that.
Fundamentally, I believe the breakdown of traditional industry boundaries and increased cross-industry collaboration have enabled us to maximize the benefits of technology. Today, Ericsson works with partners in many different industries that all rely on connectivity embedded into their solutions, services, and products. Our early collaborations, which were with utilities and the automotive industry, have led to innovations like the Connected Vehicle Cloud and Smart Metering as a Service.
I am delighted that Harald Ludanek, Head of R&D at Scania (a leading manufacturer of heavy trucks, buses, coaches, and industrial and marine engines) agreed to contribute to this issue. His article on the significance of ICT – how digitalization and mobility will impact the automotive industry and bring about the intelligent transportation system (ITS) – illustrates the importance of new business relationships, ensuring that different sectors create innovative solutions together, and maximize the value they bring to people and society.
Technology is making it easier for people to protect their homes, families, and belongings. The standardization of antitheft systems in automobiles, for example, has led to a decline in car theft in most parts of the world. However, while technology offers improved security, somehow criminal countermeasures manage to keep up. In an article about end-to-end cryptography, a number of Ericsson experts highlight how car theft is no longer carried out with a slim jim and a screwdriver, but rather with highly sophisticated decryption algorithms, smartphones, and illegal access to software keys.
The protection of data – and the people who own it – as it travels across the network has always been a cornerstone of the telecoms industry. But in today’s world, no single organization can maintain end-to-end control over information as it is carried from source to destination, and so upholding the right to privacy is becoming an increasingly complex issue. And with quantum computing posing a threat to our current security systems, our experts point out that this will render certain existing methods of protection useless. Not only do protocols need a shake up, so does software — so it can work in lightweight mode for constrained or hardware-limited devices.
The impact of the internet on our daily lives is the biggest technological innovation of the last decade. It has re-shaped our planet, our lives and global industries – including TV and Media.
Ericsson Technology Review, issue #1, 2016Ericsson
Every morning, I get out of bed and go to work because I believe technology makes a difference. I believe that in the midst of global growth, numerous humanitarian crises, the increasing need for better resource management, and an evolving threat landscape, a new world is emerging. And I believe technology is playing a key role in making that world a better, safer, and healthier place for more people to enjoy. It feels good to be part of that.
Fundamentally, I believe the breakdown of traditional industry boundaries and increased cross-industry collaboration have enabled us to maximize the benefits of technology. Today, Ericsson works with partners in many different industries that all rely on connectivity embedded into their solutions, services, and products. Our early collaborations, which were with utilities and the automotive industry, have led to innovations like the Connected Vehicle Cloud and Smart Metering as a Service.
I am delighted that Harald Ludanek, Head of R&D at Scania (a leading manufacturer of heavy trucks, buses, coaches, and industrial and marine engines) agreed to contribute to this issue. His article on the significance of ICT – how digitalization and mobility will impact the automotive industry and bring about the intelligent transportation system (ITS) – illustrates the importance of new business relationships, ensuring that different sectors create innovative solutions together, and maximize the value they bring to people and society.
Technology is making it easier for people to protect their homes, families, and belongings. The standardization of antitheft systems in automobiles, for example, has led to a decline in car theft in most parts of the world. However, while technology offers improved security, somehow criminal countermeasures manage to keep up. In an article about end-to-end cryptography, a number of Ericsson experts highlight how car theft is no longer carried out with a slim jim and a screwdriver, but rather with highly sophisticated decryption algorithms, smartphones, and illegal access to software keys.
The protection of data – and the people who own it – as it travels across the network has always been a cornerstone of the telecoms industry. But in today’s world, no single organization can maintain end-to-end control over information as it is carried from source to destination, and so upholding the right to privacy is becoming an increasingly complex issue. And with quantum computing posing a threat to our current security systems, our experts point out that this will render certain existing methods of protection useless. Not only do protocols need a shake up, so does software — so it can work in lightweight mode for constrained or hardware-limited devices.
Ericsson is launching new software for Massive IoT on existing LTE network and this new software addresses the massive number of IoT devices and diversity of their connectivity requirements. The software includes key features enabling cellular networks to support applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Metering, Smart Agriculture.
Ericsson Technology Review - issue 2, 2017Ericsson
The latest issue of Ericsson Technology Review includes articles that shed light on important topics including the evolution of LTE to fit the 5G future; an overview of the latest developments in microwave backhaul; and how DevOps can be used to satisfy demands for faster turnaround in feature development.
It also contains our annual technology trends article, in which I present what I believe are the five trends to watch in our industry in the years ahead, namely: an adaptable technology base, the dawn of true machine intelligence, end-to-end security and identity for IoT, an extended-distributed IoT platform, and overlaying reality with knowledge.
I hope you find the contents of this issue of the magazine as thought-provoking as I do. All of the articles included here are also available individually on our website. Please feel free to share them via e-mail or social media.
Ericsson Technology Review: Digital connectivity marketplaces to enrich 5G an...Ericsson
One of the key growth opportunities for the telecom industry is to provide network capabilities that support the digital transformation underway in most businesses and industries. Already today, we have a powerful technology foundation in place, and this will become even stronger with 5G. Now is the ideal time to evolve the business side of the equation toward platform business models, which will enable the telecom industry to prosper in multisided business ecosystems as well.
5G: made for innovation - presentation for University of Piraeus Msc studentsMaria Boura
The latest 5G market trends by Ericsson. A presentation that was delivered to the postgraduate students of the M.Sc. course on Digital culture, IoT and smart cities of the University of Piraeus in Greece on July 14, 2020.
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL REALITIES
The key role that connectivity plays in our personal and professional lives has never been more obvious than it is today. Thankfully, despite the sudden, dramatic changes in our behavior earlier this year, networks all around the world have proven to be highly resilient. At Ericsson, we’re committed to ensuring that the network platform continues to improve its ability to meet the full range of societal needs as well as supporting enterprises to stay competitive in the long term. We know that greater agility and speed will be essential.
This issue of our magazine includes several articles that explain Ericsson’s approach to future network development, including my annual technology trends article. The seven trends on this year’s list serve as a critical cornerstone in the development of a common Ericsson vision of what future networks will provide, and what sort of technology evolution will be required to get there.
ERIK EKUDDEN
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Group Function Technology
Presentation about Ericsson, the ICT market & industry trends and job opportunities for Postgraduate Students of the MSc in Computer Science at the Athens University of Economics & Business
Ericsson Technology Review - Issue 1, 2019Ericsson
Our participation at MWC in Barcelona this year revealed that a steadily growing number of mobile network operators and representatives from various industries are keen to explore the myriad of new opportunities that 5G represents for their businesses. In particular, we found that many are curious to learn more about the role of 5G in Industry 4.0 and other industry transformations, where it enables manufacturing companies leverage automation and data exchange technologies that require seamless communication across industrial processes.
Fittingly, the feature article in this issue of the magazine explains how 5G can be used most effectively in the fully-connected factories of the future. We also have excellent articles about the role of distributed cloud in supporting emerging industrial use cases, the necessity of business support systems that can handle IoT use cases, and important technology choices to consider in the design of massive IoT devices. Last but not least, we have included two articles that provide expert guidance regarding two key aspects of 5G deployment.
Feel free to share links to the magazine and/or individual articles with your colleagues and other contacts via e-mail or social media. Happy reading!
IoT: A Global Perspective - Radcomms 2016Andres Torres
During my presentation at Radcomms 2016 and subsequent panel, I discussed about the upcoming implementations in cellular standards that will help us enable the Internet of Things (IoT)
To learn more about the opportunities that 5G will create, Ericsson commissioned a detailed survey of more than 650
decision-makers from eight key industries. Here, we have gathered five glimpses into their 5G future.
Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) –a tool for scaling up and monitoring of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Technologies for providing sustainable service delivery
By André Olschewski and Benedict Tuffuor.
Ericsson is launching new software for Massive IoT on existing LTE network and this new software addresses the massive number of IoT devices and diversity of their connectivity requirements. The software includes key features enabling cellular networks to support applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Metering, Smart Agriculture.
Ericsson Technology Review - issue 2, 2017Ericsson
The latest issue of Ericsson Technology Review includes articles that shed light on important topics including the evolution of LTE to fit the 5G future; an overview of the latest developments in microwave backhaul; and how DevOps can be used to satisfy demands for faster turnaround in feature development.
It also contains our annual technology trends article, in which I present what I believe are the five trends to watch in our industry in the years ahead, namely: an adaptable technology base, the dawn of true machine intelligence, end-to-end security and identity for IoT, an extended-distributed IoT platform, and overlaying reality with knowledge.
I hope you find the contents of this issue of the magazine as thought-provoking as I do. All of the articles included here are also available individually on our website. Please feel free to share them via e-mail or social media.
Ericsson Technology Review: Digital connectivity marketplaces to enrich 5G an...Ericsson
One of the key growth opportunities for the telecom industry is to provide network capabilities that support the digital transformation underway in most businesses and industries. Already today, we have a powerful technology foundation in place, and this will become even stronger with 5G. Now is the ideal time to evolve the business side of the equation toward platform business models, which will enable the telecom industry to prosper in multisided business ecosystems as well.
5G: made for innovation - presentation for University of Piraeus Msc studentsMaria Boura
The latest 5G market trends by Ericsson. A presentation that was delivered to the postgraduate students of the M.Sc. course on Digital culture, IoT and smart cities of the University of Piraeus in Greece on July 14, 2020.
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL REALITIES
The key role that connectivity plays in our personal and professional lives has never been more obvious than it is today. Thankfully, despite the sudden, dramatic changes in our behavior earlier this year, networks all around the world have proven to be highly resilient. At Ericsson, we’re committed to ensuring that the network platform continues to improve its ability to meet the full range of societal needs as well as supporting enterprises to stay competitive in the long term. We know that greater agility and speed will be essential.
This issue of our magazine includes several articles that explain Ericsson’s approach to future network development, including my annual technology trends article. The seven trends on this year’s list serve as a critical cornerstone in the development of a common Ericsson vision of what future networks will provide, and what sort of technology evolution will be required to get there.
ERIK EKUDDEN
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Group Function Technology
Presentation about Ericsson, the ICT market & industry trends and job opportunities for Postgraduate Students of the MSc in Computer Science at the Athens University of Economics & Business
Ericsson Technology Review - Issue 1, 2019Ericsson
Our participation at MWC in Barcelona this year revealed that a steadily growing number of mobile network operators and representatives from various industries are keen to explore the myriad of new opportunities that 5G represents for their businesses. In particular, we found that many are curious to learn more about the role of 5G in Industry 4.0 and other industry transformations, where it enables manufacturing companies leverage automation and data exchange technologies that require seamless communication across industrial processes.
Fittingly, the feature article in this issue of the magazine explains how 5G can be used most effectively in the fully-connected factories of the future. We also have excellent articles about the role of distributed cloud in supporting emerging industrial use cases, the necessity of business support systems that can handle IoT use cases, and important technology choices to consider in the design of massive IoT devices. Last but not least, we have included two articles that provide expert guidance regarding two key aspects of 5G deployment.
Feel free to share links to the magazine and/or individual articles with your colleagues and other contacts via e-mail or social media. Happy reading!
IoT: A Global Perspective - Radcomms 2016Andres Torres
During my presentation at Radcomms 2016 and subsequent panel, I discussed about the upcoming implementations in cellular standards that will help us enable the Internet of Things (IoT)
To learn more about the opportunities that 5G will create, Ericsson commissioned a detailed survey of more than 650
decision-makers from eight key industries. Here, we have gathered five glimpses into their 5G future.
Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) –a tool for scaling up and monitoring of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Technologies for providing sustainable service delivery
By André Olschewski and Benedict Tuffuor.
Using the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) tool for Urine Dry Diverti...IRC
By Yacouba Noël Coulibaly, WSA-Burkina Faso. Prepared for the Monitoring sustainable WASH service delivery symposium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9-11 April 2013.
Here is my Technology Assessment I have created for 8 Tech-Tools I learned from ED451 class! I hope you try these tools out yourself! They're all awesome!
The national CSO forum in Uganda is organized by the national NGO network (NGO-Forum) and has representation from all sectors. Here WASHTech, represented by Simon Peter Sekuma, presented the technology assessement framework (TAF) and the results from the testing.
Philippines has been slow off the marks when it comes to smartphone penetration and mobile internet usage but it's starting to catch up fast.
Our report looks at the trends among the feature phone and smartphone users in the country of 97 million people.
Ericsson Technology Review, issue #2, 2016Ericsson
The latest issue of Ericsson Technology Review covers a wide range of topics including narrowband Internet of Things, the next-generation central office, telco-grade platform as a service, 4G/5G RAN architecture, and cloud robotics enabled by 5G. The feature story – Five trends shaping innovation in ICT – presents what I consider to be the major technology trends that will stimulate innovation in the coming year. Do you agree with me? I’d love to hear from you with any feedback you might have.
If I were 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 and radio speeds are approaching those of fiber. More people are becoming subscribers, more things are becoming connected and 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 which functions can be virtualized to maximize ideal placement in the network and ensure low latency is one of the primary driving factors behind the proposed split of radio-access architecture discussed in this issue.
As always, I hope you find our stories relevant and inspiring.
The rise of the innovation platform
Society and industry are transforming at an unprecedented rate. At the same time, the network platform is emerging as an innovation platform with the potential to offer all the connectivity, processing, storage and security needed by current and future applications. In my 2019 trends article, featured in this issue of Ericsson Technology Review, I share my view of the future network platform in relation to six key technology trends.
This issue of the magazine also addresses critical topics such as trust enablement, the extension of computing resources all the way to the edge of the mobile network, the growing impact of the cloud in the telco domain, overcoming latency and battery consumption challenges, and the need for end-to-end connectivity. I hope it provides you with valuable insights about how to overcome the challenges ahead and take full advantage of new opportunities.
Ericsson Technology Review - Issue 2, 2018Ericsson
Technology development keeps getting faster and more interconnected, with new innovations appearing every day. As a result, we’re swiftly moving toward the realization of the “Augmented Connected Society” – a world characterized by ubiquitous internet access for all, self-learning robots and truly intuitive interaction between humans and machines. But how can our industry best prepare for this future?
In my role as CTO, I have the challenging and exhilarating annual task of identifying the five technology trends of the future that are (or will be) most relevant to our industry. You can find my insights and reflections in the Technology Trends article included in this issue of the magazine.
It is my hope that the Technology Trends article, together with the other five articles in this issue, will generate a variety of stimulating future-focused discussions in your workplace. Please feel free to share links to the magazine and/or individual articles with your colleagues and other contacts via e-mail or social media.
Ericsson Technology Review - Issue 1, 2018Ericsson
We are publishing this magazine shortly after the first release of a completely new standard – 5G – from 3GPP. Fittingly, many of the articles in this issue relate to what we think is most important in 5G and how to address the new opportunities that it entails.
One of the key reasons for the flexibility provided in 5G is the desire to support industries to use connectivity, virtualization, machine intelligence and other technologies to change their processes and business models as part of the next industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. It is therefore a pleasure to be able to include an article that we have co-written with Comau and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies on the topic of industrial automation.
I hope you find the contents of this issue of the magazine as intriguing as I do. Please feel free to share links to the magazine and/or individual articles via e-mail or social media.
Ericsson Technology Review: Spotlight on the Internet of ThingsEricsson
The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a fundamental cornerstone in the digitalization of both industry and society as a whole. It represents a huge opportunity not only in economic terms, but also from a global challenges perspective – making it easier for governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to address pressing food, energy, water and climate related issues.
5G and the IoT are closely intertwined. One of the biggest innovations within 5G is support for the IoT in all its forms, both by addressing mission criticality as well as making it possible to connect low-cost, long-battery-life sensors.
With this in mind, we decided to create a special issue of Ericsson Technology Review solely focused on IoT opportunities and challenges. I hope it provides you with valuable insights about the IoT-related opportunities available to your organization, along with ideas about how we can overcome the challenges ahead.
The 10 Most Trusted Wireless Technology Service Providers, 2023.pdfInsightsSuccess4
This edition features a handful of business Wireless Technology Service Providers across several sectors that are at the forefront of leading us into a digital future.
Read More: https://insightssuccess.com/the-10-most-trusted-wireless-technology-service-providers-2023-december-2023/
On December 9 & 10, Deloitte hosted over 20 business executives and thought leaders at the Internet of Things (IoT) Grand Challenge Workshop at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. The objective of the gathering was to work collectively to solve one of the more largely unexplored areas of IoT: revenue generating IoT use cases. The following report captures what was discussed during this extraordinary event where an open, collaborative dialogue focused on advancing the field of IoT.
Explore the key findings here or learn more at www2.deloitte.com/us/IoT-challenge.
Mobile data traffic volumes are expected to increase by a factor of four by 2025, and 45 percent of that traffic will be carried by 5G networks. To deliver on customer expectations in this rapidly changing environment, communication service providers must overcome challenges in three key areas: building sufficient capacity, resolving operational inefficiencies through automation and artificial intelligence, and improving service differentiation. This issue of ETR magazine provides insights about how to tackle all three.
IEEE GLOBECOM 2014 features a greatly expanded INDUSTRY PROGRAM organized by and for industry practitioners in the communications and networking industries and its broader supporting ecosystem. The expanded industry program is designed to provide opportunities for the practicing industry professional to both share and learn about the latest ideas, trends, and product innovations in the broader communications and networking industries, while connecting with their peers and other prominent leaders in the industry.
The INDUSTRY PROGRAM is organized into 5 parallel program tracks:
Access Technologies
Networking and Information
Emerging Applications
Enabling Technologies
Business and Government
Each of these tracks are covered by program components that feature prominent industry leaders including CEOs, CTOs, VPs, and Senior Managers and Engineers from leading communications and networking companies.
These INDUSTRY PROGRAM components include:
6 Keynotes from C-suite executives and VPs of AT&T, National Instruments, Cisco, Huawei, and Qualcomm
A Dialogue with Industry Leaders which features a lively Q&A session with high-level industry executives on their perspective of where the industry is going in the next 10 years
3 Executive Forums where industry executives present their views on the key trends affecting the industry, including 5G wireless access, the future evolution of networks, and the emerging internet-of-things
4 Industry Workshops that feature half- and full-day organized presentations, panels, and demonstrations on key topics including 5G and the internet-of-things
10 Industry Tutorials taught by industry experts on the various tools and technologies relevant to the practicing engineer in industry
30 Panel Sessions where industry leaders engage in panel discussions on prominent topics across the 5 program tracks
23 Interactive Posters organized into 3 separate sessions presented for engineers by engineers
29 Live Demonstrations of working hardware and/or software systems that show the latest innovations across the various program tracks
In addition to these program components, there are also general program aspects that round-out the overall industry conference experience:
Exhibits – Exhibit booths and demonstrations from our major patrons and exhibitors will be on display in the Exhibits Hall and the foyers beginning at the Welcome Reception and continuing thru, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.
Welcome Reception – A Monday evening reception, 7pm to 10pm, will be held for all conference registrations. During this event, the Exhibits and Demonstrations will be on display.
Awards Luncheon – Included under the Full Conference Registration Category, optional under all other registration categories, including the Full 3-Day Industry Registration.
Conference Banquet - Included under the Full Conference Registration Category, optional under all other registration categories, including the Full 3-Day Indust
Mobile World Congress is the world’s greatest mobile event where the industry gathers to experience new ideas and discuss future opportunities.
In our hall in Barcelona, customers and visitors had the opportunity to learn how we enable change and change-makers in the Networked Society, and how our latest technologies and services unlock new business opportunities.
This presentation gives you a taste from what we saw and heard during Mobile World Congress 2015, which was held in Barcelona, March 2-5.
ZTE TECHNOLOGIES No.3 2016 - Special topic: Big VideoSitha Sok
Special Topic
- The Road to Big Video Revolution
- PSVN: The Ultimate Path to Video Transmission Network
- Big Video Best View
- Promising CDN in the Big Video Era
This publication describes some of the research highlights achieved in the focus areas of the Open Smart Spaces spearhead programme 2009–2012: interoperability, smartness, and natural interaction.
Interoperability between devices, software and other resources is essential for the emergence of smart spaces. The different levels of interoperability are discussed together with the importance of a common language for the devices. Semantic interoperability in resource limited devices is also elaborated and an implementation example is given. Context recognition has taken significant technical steps and matured from laboratory to real world applications during last couple of years. This development from recognising user’s physical activity – sitting, walking, running – to more elaborate life pattern analysis is discussed. Development of VTT Node, a wireless sensing and processing device bringing distributed intelligence into industrial condition monitoring is explained. An overview of how existing near field communication antennas and circuits can double for the purpose of wireless charging is given. Finally, the interesting possibilities given by augmented and mixed reality and 3D cameras are introduced.
Similar to Ericsson Technology Review - Issue1 2015 (20)
Ericsson Technology Review: Versatile Video Coding explained – the future of ...Ericsson
Continuous innovation in 5G networks is creating new opportunities for video-enabled services for both consumers and industries, particularly in areas such as the Internet of Things and the automotive sector. These new services are expected to rely on continued video evolution toward 8K resolutions and beyond, and on new strict requirements such as low end-to-end latency for video delivery.
The latest Ericsson Technology Review article explores recent developments in video compression technology and introduces Versatile Video Coding (VVC) – a significant improvement on existing video codecs that we think deserves to be widely deployed in the market. VVC has the potential both to enhance the user experience for existing video services and offer an appropriate performance level for new media services over 5G networks.
Ericsson Technology Review: Integrated access and backhaul – a new type of wi...Ericsson
Today millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum is valued mainly because it can be used to achieve high speeds and capacities when combined with spectrum assets below 6GHz. But it can provide other benefits as well. For example, mmWave spectrum makes it possible to use a promising new wireless backhaul solution for 5G New Radio – integrated access and backhaul (IAB) – to densify networks with multi-band radio sites at street level.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explains the IAB concept at a high level, presenting its architecture and key characteristics, as well as examining its advantages and disadvantages compared with other backhaul technologies. It concludes with a presentation of the promising results of several simulations that tested IAB as a backhaul option for street sites in both urban and suburban areas.
Ericsson Technology Review: Critical IoT connectivity: Ideal for time-critica...Ericsson
Critical Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity is an emerging concept in IoT development that enables more efficient and innovative services across a wide range of industries by reliably meeting time-critical communication needs. Mobile network operators (MNOs) are in the perfect position to enable these types of time-critical services due to their ability to leverage advanced 5G networks in a systematic and cost-effective way.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explores the benefits of Critical IoT connectivity in areas such as industrial control, mobility automation, remote control and real-time media. It also provides an overview of key network technologies and architectures. It concludes with several case studies based on two deployment scenarios – wide area and local area – that illustrate how well suited 5G spectrum assets are for Critical IoT use cases.
5G New Radio has already evolved in important ways since the 3GPP standardized Release 15 in late 2018. The significant enhancements in Releases 16 and 17 are certain to play a critical role in expanding both the availability and the applicability of 5G NR in both industry and public services in the near future.
This Ericsson Technology Review article summarizes the most notable new developments in releases 16 and 17, grouped into two categories: enhancements to existing features and features that address new verticals and deployment scenarios. This analysis and our insights about the future beyond Release 17 is an important component of our work to help mobile network operators and other stakeholders better understand and plan for the many new 5G NR opportunities that are on the horizon.
Ericsson Technology Review: The future of cloud computing: Highly distributed...Ericsson
The growing interest in cloud computing scenarios that incorporate both distributed computing capabilities and heterogeneous hardware presents a significant opportunity for network operators. With a vast distributed system (the telco network) already in place, the telecom industry has a significant advantage in the transition toward distributed cloud computing.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explores the future of cloud computing from the perspective of network operators, examining how they can best manage the complexity of future cloud deployments and overcome the technical challenges. Redefining cloud to expose and optimize the use of heterogeneous resources is not straightforward, but we are confident that our use cases and proof points validate our approach and will gain traction both in the telecommunications community and beyond.
Ericsson Technology Review: Optimizing UICC modules for IoT applicationsEricsson
Commonly referred to as SIM cards, the universal integrated circuit cards (UICCs) used in all cellular devices today are in fact complex and powerful minicomputers capable of much more than most Internet of Things (IoT) applications require. Until a simpler and less costly alternative becomes available, action must be taken to ensure that the relatively high price of UICC modules does not hamper IoT growth.
This Ericsson Technology Review article presents two mid-term approaches. The first is to make use of techniques that reduce the complexity of using UICCs in IoT applications, while the second is to use the UICCs’ excess capacity for additional value generation. Those who wish to exploit the potential of the UICCs to better support IoT applications have the opportunity to use them as cryptographic storage, to run higher-layer protocol stacks and/or as supervisory entities, for example.
Ericsson Technology Review: 5G BSS: Evolving BSS to fit the 5G economyEricsson
The 5G network evolution has opened up an abundance of new business opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs) in verticals such as industrial automation, security, health care and automotive. In order to successfully capitalize on them, CSPs must have business support systems (BSS) that are evolved to manage complex value chains and support new business models. Optimized information models and a high degree of automation are required to handle huge numbers of devices through open interfaces.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explains how 5G-evolved BSS can help CSPs transform themselves from traditional network developers to service enablers for 5G and the Internet of Things, and ultimately to service creators with the ability to collaborate beyond telecoms and establish lucrative digital value systems.
Ericsson Technology Review: 5G migration strategy from EPS to 5G systemEricsson
For many operators, the introduction of the 5G System (5GS) to provide wide-area services in existing Evolved Packet System (EPS) deployments is a necessary step toward creating a full-service, future-proof 5GS in the longer term. The creation of a combined 4G-5G network requires careful planning and a holistic strategy, as the introduction of 5GS has significant impacts across all network domains, including the RAN, packet core, user data and policies, and services, as well as affecting devices and backend systems.
This Ericsson Technology Review article provides an overview of all the aspects that operators need to consider when putting together a robust EPS-to-5GS migration strategy and provides guidance about how they can adapt the transition to address their particular needs per domain.
Ericsson Technology Review: Creating the next-generation edge-cloud ecosystemEricsson
The surge in data volume that will come from the massive number of devices enabled by 5G has made edge computing more important than ever before. Beyond its abilities to reduce network traffic and improve user experience, edge computing will also play a critical role in enabling use cases for ultra-reliable low-latency communication in industrial manufacturing and a variety of other sectors.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explores the topic of how to deliver distributed edge computing solutions that can host different kinds of platforms and applications and provide a high level of flexibility for application developers. Rather than building a new application ecosystem and platform, we strongly recommend reusing industrialized and proven capabilities, utilizing the momentum created with Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and ensuring backward compatibility.
Ericsson Technology Review: Driving transformation in the automotive and road...Ericsson
A variety of automotive and transport services that require cellular connectivity are already in commercial operation today, and many more are yet to come. Among other things, these services will improve road safety and traffic efficiency, saving lives and helping to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change. At Ericsson, we believe that the best way to address the growing connectivity needs of this industry sector is through a common network solution, as opposed to taking a single-segment silo approach.
The latest Ericsson Technology Review article explains how the ongoing rollout of 5G provides a cost-efficient and feature-rich foundation for a horizontal multiservice network that can meet the connectivity needs of the automotive and transport ecosystem. It also outlines the key challenges and presents potential solutions.
This presentation explains the importance of SD-WAN technology as part of the Enterprise digital transformation strategy. It goes over the first wave of SD-WAN in a single vendor deployment, with Do-it-yourself (DIY) as the preferred model. Then continues with the importance of orchestration in the second wave of SD-WAN deployments in a multi-vendor ecosystem, turning to SD-WAN Managed Services as the preferred model. It ends up with some examples of use cases and the Verizon customer case. More information on Ericsson Dynamic orchestration - http://m.eric.sn/6rsZ30psKLu
Ericsson Technology Review: 5G-TSN integration meets networking requirements ...Ericsson
Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is becoming the standard Ethernet-based technology for converged networks of Industry 4.0. Understanding the importance and relevance of TSN features, as well as the capabilities that allow 5G to achieve wireless deterministic and time-sensitive communication, is essential to industrial automation in the future.
The latest Ericsson Technology Review article explains how TSN is an enabler of Industry 4.0, and that together with 5G URLLC capabilities, the two key technologies can be combined and integrated to provide deterministic connectivity end to end. It also discusses TSN standards and the value of the TSN toolbox for next generation industrial automation networks.
Ericsson Technology Review: Meeting 5G latency requirements with inactive stateEricsson
Low latency communication and minimal battery consumption are key requirements of many 5G and IoT use cases, including smart transport and critical control of remote devices. Thanks to Ericsson’s 4G/5G research activities and lessons learned from legacy networks, we have identified solutions that address both of these requirements by reducing the amount of signaling required during state transitions, and shared our discoveries with the 3GPP.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explains the why and how behind the new Radio Resource Control (RRC) state model in the standalone version of the 5G New Radio standard, which features a new, Ericsson-developed state called inactive. On top of overcoming latency and battery consumption challenges, the new state also increases overall system capacity by decreasing the processing effort in the network.
Ericsson Technology Review: Cloud-native application design in the telecom do...Ericsson
Cloud-native application design is set to become standard practice in the telecom industry in the near future due to the major efficiency gains it can provide, particularly in terms of speeding up software upgrades and releases. At Ericsson, we have been actively exploring the potential of cloud-native computing in the telecom industry since we joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) a few years ago.
This Ericsson Technology Review article explains the opportunities that CNCF technology has enabled, as well as unveiling key aspects of our application development framework, which is designed to help navigate the transition to a cloud-native approach. It also discusses the challenges that the large-scale reuse of open-source technology can raise, along with key strategies for how to mitigate them.
Ericsson Technology Review: Service exposure: a critical capability in a 5G w...Ericsson
To meet the requirements of use cases in areas such as the Internet of Things, AR/VR, Industry 4.0 and the automotive sector, operators need to be able to provide computing resources across the whole telco domain – all the way to the edge of the mobile network. Service exposure and APIs will play a key role in creating solutions that are both effective and cost efficient.
The latest Ericsson Technology Review article explores recent advances in the service exposure area that have resulted from the move toward 5G and the adoption of cloud-native principles, as well as the combination of Service-based Architecture, microservices and container technologies. It includes examples that illustrate how service exposure can be deployed in a multitude of locations, each with a different set of requirements that drive modularity and configurability needs.
Ericsson Technology Review: Boosting smart manufacturing with 5G wireless con...Ericsson
5G wireless connectivity is designed to enable the fully-connected factories of the future. Creating the necessary transparency across all processes and assets at all times requires robust communication between goods, production systems, logistics chains, people and processes throughout a product’s complete life cycle, spanning everything from design, ordering, manufacturing, delivery and field maintenance to recycling and reuse. The integration of 5G ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) in the manufacturing process will accelerate the transformation of the manufacturing industry and make smart factories more efficient and productive than ever.
Enable Critical broadband networks - When business performance, and even lives are at stake, you need technology that you can rely on. Around the world and across industries, there is a growing demand for business critical and mission-critical broadband communications. To serve these types of organizations, service providers need to deliver the highest level of availability, reliability and security . That is why we have launched a new Critical Broadband Networks offering, which enables service providers and government operators to ensure critical communications when it really matters.
The offering consists of:
Critical network capabilities: Guaranteeing performance of a business- or mission-critical network and enabling operators to effectively serve critical industries.
Critical broadband applications: Includes Ericsson’s Group-Radio application suite of Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk, Data and Video services. Combined, these provide land mobile radio users with a migration path to LTE and 5G, whilst retaining existing operational capabilities for mission-critical group communications.
Flexible deployments for private networks: deployment models for both local private networks as well as for nationwide networks, leveraging operators’ existing assets and operations to gain business scale, and faster time-to-market.
Evolving cellular IoT for industry digitalizationEricsson
Ericsson lays out its vision for the evolution of cellular IoT and launches new offerings - enabling service providers to tap growth opportunities from industry digitalization.
Ericsson Technology Review: Key technology choices for optimal massive IoT de...Ericsson
The massive IoT device domain faces two key challenges: cost-efficiently connecting a large number of devices in a wide area, and efficiently managing these devices over their complete life cycle. Further, since security and trust are key requirements in most massive IoT applications, it is important to ensure that the devices are secure, both in terms of communication and data integrity end-to-end (E2E), from device to data usage.
The latest Ericsson Technology Review article explores how to address these challenges in five key technology areas – connectivity, communication protocols, security, identity solutions and machine intelligence (MI). Carefully considered choices in these areas make it possible to achieve the desired key device characteristics and create IoT devices that support the multitude of existing and emerging massive IoT use cases.
With 5G bringing in new possibilities for operators across the globe, a higher capacity microwave backhaul becomes even more important to ensure high-quality mobile broadband. This year’s Ericsson Microwave Outlook report discusses how this demand can be met with advanced microwave technology, spectrum, combination with fiber, and machine intelligence.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
1. xxxx ✱
#01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 1
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 2 | 2 0 1 5 — 0 1
WI-FICALLING
EXTENDINGVOICE
ANDVIDEO
OVERLTE
Review
TECHNOLOGYTRENDS
thelatestinICT
fromthecto
RADIOACCESSAND
TRANSPORTnetworks
SHAReINFORMATION
Ericsson
Technology
5. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 5
contents ✱
Mobile phonesOther devices
Wireline devices
OpenStack as the API framework
for NFV: the benefits, and the
extensions needed
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) offers a
flexible and scalable way to deliver and deploy
Virtual Network Functions (VNF) services. Use of
virtualization and cloud computing is becoming
increasing popular as these techniques can
dramatically reduce time-to-market. However, the
transformation to VNF services and deployment
scenarios needs an API framework – and Open-
Stack is a suitable candidate. But is it enough, and what
improvements are needed?
(Originally published on April 2, 2015.)
Wi-Fi calling — extending the
reach of VoLTE to Wi-Fi
Using untrusted Wi-Fi to carry voice and video
communication is an opportunity to extend current
voice and video calling over lte (volte/
vilte) services in, for example,
indoor locations where cellular
coverage may be spotty.
Closely aligned with volte
architecture, Wi-Fi calling
supports mobility between
lte and Wi-Fi accesses.
(Originally published on
January 30, 2015.)
Design, architects, and complex
communication systems:
painting the bigger picture
Modern communication systems are complex, and
not just at the system level. Today’s systems are
designed collaboratively, taking the viewpoints of many
stakeholders into consideration, and so
complexity also arises at the
organizational level. Good
systems design has become
a significant factor for cost
control.
(Originally published on
May 13, 2015.)
Gearing up
support
systems for
software
defined and
virtualized
networks
The global communication
infrastructure has created a new
market of digital services in which people
and organizations can expose digital assets,
which can be rapidly combined with partner
assets to create new, more useful, and more
interesting services. But, to capture the
digital market opportunity, both telecom
networks and support systems – OSS/BSS –
need to gear up.
(Originally published on June 5, 2015.)
Setting the future media
services architecture
Many industries are undergoing
transformation, moving away from
physical products and communication
to virtual products and massive
digitalization. The benefits of an ICT
transformation that takes advantage of
commercially available IT systems, networking
equipment, and cloud-based
services are many. The media
industry in particular stands
to benefit greatly. As we
move deeper into the
Networked Society,
media production and
consumption will take
on a more prominent
role in shaping
requirements related
to network design and
performance.
(Originally published on
February 24, 2015.)
Radio access and transport
network interaction — a concept
for improving QoE and resource
utilization
By adopting a holistic
approach to network architecture, one that
enables the radio and transport domains to
share information, proactive measures to
avoid congestion can be put into place, to
increase the number of users at or above the
desired QoE level.
(Originally published on July 3, 2015.)
Technology trends
When it comes to technology,
relentless and continuous
development remains a
constant expectation.
Within this context, certain
significant shifts and
opportunities — or technology
trends — have a tendency to
stick out.
18
32
29 62
52
44
08
6. 6 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
E r i css o n
T e c h n o l o g y
R e v i e w
Bringing you insight into
some of the key emerging innovations
that are shaping the future of
information and communications
technology. 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.
ADDRE S S
Ericsson
SE-164 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 719 00 00
PUBLI S HING
All material and articles are published
on the Ericsson Technology Review
website: www.ericsson.com/ericsson-
technology-review.
Additionally, articles are
available through the Ericsson
Technology Insights app,
which is available for Android and iOS
devices. The download links
are also available on the Ericsson
Technology Review website.
PUBLI S HER
Ulf Ewaldsson
EDITOR
Deirdre P. Doyle
deirdre.doyle@sitrus.com
TE C HNOLOGY
TREND S
Kristina Gold (Ericsson)
ART DIRE C TOR
Kajsa Dahlberg (Sitrus)
TE C HNI C AL
ILLU S TRATION S
Claes-Göran Andersson
cg@cga.se
ISSN:
0014-0171
Volume: 92, 2015
7. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 7
editorial ✱
First, I welcome you to the new Ericsson Technology
Review. For some months now, we have been
working on how to continue to deliver our in-depth
technical insights this journal is renowned for, but also
how to offer a broader perspective on technology
developments in ict. So here it is...
I am delighted to be able to share some of my
thoughts and the stories of Ericsson experts – their
perspectives, concerns, and insights on advancements
being made in technology.
Perhaps the most obvious change we’ve made
is the name of the journal. As industries merge,
overlap, and collaborate more, we find ourselves
changing too. I daresay the situation is the same
everywhere. Today, Ericsson’s experts have
different sets of skills compared with just a few
years ago. Our customers also have different
problems: subscribers are more demanding,
and technology is more complex as it
weaves its way deeper into the fabric
of our lives. Some of the people I
have conversations with today
work in businesses that didn’t
exist, even a couple of years ago.
So, in an attempt to clarify what
this journal is about (reviewing
technology), we added the word
technology to its name.
To our long-standing readers, I would
like to emphasize that the fundamental
nature of our content — in-depth analyses
of specific technologies, their consequences and
benefits — hasn’t changed.
The biggest change comes in the form of a new
technology trends section. As the cto of a global ict
player, I am in the fortunate position of hearing about
all kinds of innovations that are shaping our industry,
and I get to hear them from the multiple perspectives
of many different experts. And while technology
development often follows an innumerable set of
investigation paths, some of them tend to stick out.
So, together with a couple of Ericsson experts, I have
highlighted the five trends that I believe all of us in ict
should keep an eye on in the coming year. I'd say that
virtualization, network slices, more data, more mobile,
security, and billions
of things are today's
primary drivers in ict.
Otherwise, it’s
business as usual...
Every month, we
publish a new article
online. Perhaps not
surprisingly, 5g
is on the agenda,
including a vision for
the core network,
how transport networks will need to evolve, and
how 5g will enable remote control. We’ll round off
the year with some insights into cryptography and
designing secure algorithms.
You can access all of our content on the new
Ericsson Technology Review home page, download
the articles to your mobile device through our Ericsson
Technology Insights app, or read them on SlideShare.
All links can be found on our new website at: www.
ericsson.com/ericsson-technology-review.
embracing relentless
change in ict
Ulf Ewaldsson
Senior Vice President,
Group CTO, and head
of group function
technology
90% of the
world’s population
over 6 years old
will have a mobile
phone by 2020*
* Ericsson Mobility Report, 2015
8. 8 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Better customer experience
Radio access and
transport network
〉〉 Stefan Dahlfort
Shahryar Khan
Jonas Rosenberg
Anton Smith
Shuo Yang
Mats Forsman
and Tomas Thyni
a concept for improving QoE
and resource utilization
In today’s networks, radio access and transport are largely unaware of each
other, but are inherently related, as impaired conditions in either domain
can adversely affect user experience. As QoE has a significant impact on
customer satisfaction and customer retention1, potential improvements in
user experience are of key business interest.
interaction
t o i m p r o v e o v e r a l l QoE, a holistic
approach to network architecture is vital —
one that takes into consideration conditions
in both radio and transport domains, and that
results in the creation of proactive measures
for preventing congestion.
Theconceptofran transportinteraction(rti)
introducescoordinationbetweentheradioand
transportdomains,andaimstoprovidetheholistic
approachneededtoimproveQoE.Inthisarticle,the
principlesandbenefitsofthisconceptaredescribed,
asisthehigh-levelsetofbuildingblocksforthe
rti solution,andthewholeisexemplifiedwitha
fewselectedusecases.Insomeway,rti canbe
viewedasanexampleofcross-domaininteraction2
.
Specifically,thisarticleaddressestheradioaccess
andtransportcomponentsoftheoverallnetwork.
Whythecallfornewtechnology?
Theincreasingglobaldependenceonmobile-
networkingservicesiscausingcongestionin
networks.Therateofuptakeofmobilebroadband,
forexample,issettorisesignificantly:in2014,total
globalsubscriptionstopped7 billion,whichareset
toriseto9.2 billionby20203
.Andso,congestion
issueswillcontinuetobeamongthemoresignificant
factorsthatimpactusersatisfaction.
Whilerapiddevelopmentsintechnologyand
communityfoundations,suchasexploitationofnew
frequenciesandconceptsforenergyconservation,
areshapingnextgenerationnetworks4
,perhaps
themostsignificantchangefactortodayishow
societyandindividualsareusingmobile-broadband
services.Thecurrentdemandforsuchservicesand
capacityisonanupwardcurvethatshowsnosignsof
levelingoff.
10. 10 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Better customer experience
Transport-unaware radio RAN-unaware transport
Am I aware of congestion in
the transport path?
=> QoE impact
Am I aware of granular
RAN flows?
=> non-optimized transport paths
RAN Transport
Transport-aware
RAN
RAN-aware transport
Transport path load
and capacity
Granular RAN
traffic treatment
Optimal distribution of
RAN flows to help avoid
congestion in transport
Better utilization of
available diverse paths
Reduction in network
state and energy waste
Figure 1
rti problem (left)
and opportunity
(right) formulations
Figure 2
rti: a phased approach
to congestion mitigation
Proactive
congestion
avoidance
1 Redistribute
Reroute
Congestion
handling
(if congestion
avoidance fails)
2 Fairness
RAN
Holistic network configuration
Transport
12. 12 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Better customer experience
Congested link
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
PE
PE
RNC
CSR
CSR
CSR CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR CSR
xGW
No congestion
LAG
10 GE 10 GE
20 GE
20 GE
Agg
RBS
RBS
RBS
RBS
Figure 3
Example use case: proactive congestion
avoidance
13. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 13
Better customer experience ✱
BE flows
Access network
BE flows
HQoS
threshold
RAN flows
RAN flows
Agg
20 GE
High load
High load
Low load
Low load
Low load
20 GE
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
Agg
PE
PE
RNC
CSR
CSR
CSR CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR
CSR CSR
xGW
LAG
10 GE 10 GE
Agg
RBS
RBS
RBS
Figure 4
Example use
case: optimized load
balancing
Figure 5
Example use case:
fairness
14. 14 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Better customer experience
congestion.Thiscongestioninformationcanbeused
toenhancethehandoverprocedure.
Toavoidhandovertoaneighboringcellwherethe
radioaccessisconnectedtoacongestedtransport
path,informationabouttransporttopologyis
needed.Thisinformationenableshandoverto
neighboringcellsthatareconnectedtouncongested
transportpaths.
Theprobabilityofaneighboringcellbeing
connectedtoanuncongestedtransportpath
correlatestothesystemgainforproactive
congestionavoidance.Thelevelofsystemgain
attainableishighlydependentonhowthenetworkis
built,intermsofcelldensity,transporttopologyand
technology.Urbanareas,forexample,tendtoexhibit
highnumbersofcellswithinreachofaue.Asa
result,thepotentialforimprovedsystemgainishigh
insituationswherethecellshavediversetransport
paths.
Holistichandoverdecisionsarethusformed
onthebasisoftransportcongestiontogether
withthetypicalsignalstrengthandneighboring
cellinformation—allofwhichareweighted.
Byincludingtransportutilizationinformation,
moreinformedhandoverdecisionscanbemade,
whichtogetherwithanabstractionoftherelevant
transporttopologyenablesacelltofindasuitable
neighboringcelltohandoverto.
Thebenefitsofrti forthisusecasecanbe
summarizedas:byusingcongestioninformation
fromthetransportdomain,theradiodomaincan
placeusertrafficoptimallyacrossradiocells,from
acombinedpointofviewofradioandtransport
characteristics.Figure 3illustratesanexampleof
thisproactivecongestionavoidance,wherethe
secondmilelinkisthecongestedpart.
Onahighlevel,thebenefitforthisusecaserelates
tothenumberofadditionalusersortrafficforwhich
theQoErequirementscanbemetinrelationtothe
availableradioresources(suchasspectrumand
radioequipment).Inthiscase,rti canbeusedto
handovertrafficgeneratedbyusersinacellwith
congestedtransporttoanothercellwithinthe
coverageareathathasuncongestedtransport.As
trafficismovedawayfromthecongestedcell,rti
hasapositiveimpactonusersthatremainconnected
totheoriginalcell—usersthatcannotbehanded
overtoanuncongestedcellbecausetheyarenot
withincoveragearea,orcannotbehandedoverfor
otherreasons.Thispositiveimpactresultsfromthe
loaddropintheoriginalcongestedcellasproactive
handoveractionsaretaken.
Thepotentialgainforrti canbemeasuredbythe
increaseinusersatorabovethedesiredQoElevel
comparedwithanetworkwithoutrti.
Naturally,actuallycalculatingthegaindepends
onthespecificnetworkcaseandneedstoconsider
factorssuchastheutilizationofcongested/non-
congestedtransportandcells,userbandwidthand
priority,anddifferenceinradioquality.
References
1. Ericsson, 2012, Why Superior Network Performance Matters, available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/news/120917_why_superior_network_performance_matters_244159018_c
2. Ericsson, 2014, Ericsson Review, Architecture evolution for automation and network programmability,
available at: http://www.ericsson.com/news/141128-er-architecture-evolution_244099435_c
3. Ericsson, June 2015, Mobility Report, available at: http://www.ericsson.com/mobility-report
4. Ericsson, 2015, Anticipating Opportunities with 5G, available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/news/150305-anticipating-opportunities-with-5g_244069647_c
5. 3gpp, ts 29.060, gprs Tunnelling Protocol (gtp) across the Gn and Gp interface, available at:
http://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/29060.htm
6. ietf, 2005, RFC 4301 Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol, available at:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4301
7. ietf, 2008, RFC 5357, A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (twamp), available at:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5357
17. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 17
Better customer experience ✱
Stefan Dahlfort
◆Hasabackground
withincumbenttelecom
operatorsandlargetelecom
vendors.Hefoundedastart-
upbeforejoiningEricsson
◆ In2007asmanager
forfttxresearch.Heled
Ericsson’sresearchinthe
areaofbroadbandaccess
andtransportinSilicon
Valley2010-13,andsince
then,hehasbeenhead
ofDevelopmentUnitip,
SystemsandTechnology.
HeholdsanM.Sc.anda
Ph.D.inopticalnetworking
fromkth RoyalInstituteof
TechnologyinStockholm.
Jonas Rosenberg
◆ JoinedEricssonin2000
andiscurrentlysystems
and solution manager
at Development Unit ip,
Systems and Technology.
He is a senior specialist
in network architecture
and solutions with a focus
on strategic technologies
for orchestration and
assurance solutions in
mobile transport networks.
He holds an M.Sc. in
electrical engineering
from kth Royal Institute of
Technology in Stockholm.
Mats Forsman
◆ JoinedEricssonin1999
toworkwith intelligent
networks. Since then
he has worked within
the IP, broadband and
optical networks areas.
Today, his focus is on new
concepts for transport
within ran at Ericsson
Radio; one such concept
area is ran and transport
interaction. He holds an
M.Sc. in mathematics and
natural science from Umeå
University, Sweden.
Anton Smith
◆ Isaseniorproduct
manager for Ericsson’s
metro and backhaul
product line. He has over
12 years’ of experience in
the IP vendor and service
provider industry, including
architecture, design and
operation of production
ip/mpls networks for
mobile backhaul and triple
play services at multiple
operators. He holds a
Bachelor of Information
Science from Massey
University, New Zealand.
Shuo Yang
◆ JoinedEricssonin2009
andiscurrentlyasenior
systemdesignengineer
atDevelopmentUnitIP,
SystemsandTechnology.He
holdsanM.Sc.inelectrical
engineeringfromHarbin
InstituteofTechnology,
China.
Tomas Thyni
◆ Isanexpertintheareaof
IPandtransport networks.
A telecommunication
and network engineer, he
joined Ericsson in 2000
and has worked within the
IP, broadband and optical
networks areas. Today, he
works on new concepts
for transport in ran at
Ericsson Radio; one such
concept area is ran and
transport interaction.
Prior to joining Ericsson,
he accumulated 15 years
of experience as an IP and
transport network designer
at various network
operators.
Shahryar Khan
◆ Hasnearlytwo
decades of experience in
architecture design and
integration for multiservice
IP and transport networks
for telecom operators
and large enterprises.
He has managed diverse
roles within Ericsson,
and he recently worked
as a principal solution
architect for IP and SDN
in Engagement Practices
for tier-1 customers. At
present, he is working
as an expert and chief
architect in multiservice
ip and transport networks
in Development Unit ip,
Systems and Technology
(Sweden).
theauthors
18. 18 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Illustrative architecture
The task of building, maintaining and developing communication systems
is complex. The level of complexity rises as the number of stakeholders
involved in creating these systems increases.
As a result, vendors, system integrators, operators — and increasingly
their business partners — need to communicate more. And so, besides
understanding how their own systems work, modern designers and business
developers need to grasp how other stakeholder systems work, and to have
an appreciation of the various possible approaches to architecture design.
〉〉 Ulf Olsson
Toni SiljamÄki
Francis Bordeleau
bigger
picture
Design, architects, and
complex communication
systems: Painting the
19. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 19
Illustrative architecture ✱
The ability to grasp complex structures can be
greatly facilitated by using visualization tools.
A common illustration approach enables
modern system architects to share design
concepts. Support tools that help designers
to maintain, communicate and discuss
structures are a fundamental part of modern
systems architecture. This article presents
Ericsson’s methodology for developing such
support tools.
Designing the best system
e x p e r t s w h o buildandmaintainvery
largesystemsarecontinuouslylookingforwaysto
increaseproductivityandimprovequality.Raising
thelevelofabstractioninvolvedinsystemdesign
isonewayofdoingthis.Itreleasesdesigners(and
others)fromtheneedtokeeptrackofanever-
increasingnumberofdetailsanddependencies—a
numberthatrisesexponentiallywithsystemsizeand
complexity,productrangeandstakeholdercount.
Model-basedengineeringhasbeenused
successfullyformanyyearstoachievethebest
combinationofcomputepoweranddesign
knowledge.Tocapturethestructureofasystem,this
methodologyusesalogicalmodelofaggregation
anddependencies—whicharevisualizedina
graphicalformat.Inthisway,proposedmodelscan
bevalidatedandmodifiedeasily.
Owingtothecomplexityofmodern
communicationnetworks,systemsarchitecture
isoftensplitintovariousdomains,eachwithan
assignedgroupofarchitects.Inadditiontodesigning
andmodelingtheirrespectivedomains,these
architectsareresponsibleforensuringthatallof
theirpeershaveacommonunderstandingofthe
domaininterfacesandfunctionalallocations.
Model-basedengineeringoffersthelevelof
person-to-personinformationtransferneededto
designlarge,modern,complexsystemsefficiently.
However,designingmodernsystemsrequiresa
toolset:onethatiscapableofbeingadaptedtoawide
rangeofconstantlyevolvingdemands,posedby
manydifferentstakeholders—includingproducers,
systemsmaintainers,andtheactualusersofthe
designs.
Thewantedoutputisacomplete,coherent,
consistentandrevisablenetworkdescription—one
thatenablesthenetworktoevolveinacontrolled
manner,addressnewchallenges,andabsorbnew
technologies.
Buttocreatethebestsystem,facilitatingamutual
understandingamongarchitectsisonlyonekey
ingredient.Architectsalsoneedasetofcompanion
tools—toolsthatcan,forexample,helpthemto
validateproposedmodels,analyzethepotential
impactofsuggestedchanges,detectinconsistencies,
andeasetheimplementationprocess.
Supporttoolsforsoftwareandhardwaredesign
haveexistedfordecades,but,unfortunately,they
donotaddresshowtobridgethegapbetweenthe
abstractrepresentationsusedbydesignerstomodel
therealworld,anddetailedones,whereeveryaspect
ofaprocessorastructuremustbedescribedinfullto
enableautomation.
Inthecontextofnetworkprogrammability,
theabilitytobridgethisgapbecomesevenmore
significant.Identifyingthecapabilitiesthatcan
beinvoked,anddetermininghowtocontrolthem
fromoutsidethenetworkproper,becomesmore
challengingasthelevelofautomationrises.
TheapproachwetooktodeveloptheEricsson
toolsetdemonstrateshowopen-sourcetechnology
Termsand abbreviations
css—Cascading Style Sheets | dsl—domain-specific language | dsml—domain-specific modeling language |
egit—Git with Eclipse | emf—Eclipse Modeling Framework | Git—open source control model | gmf—Graphical
Modeling Framework | nwa dsl—network architecture dsl | ocl—Object Constraint Language |
PaaS—platform as a service | svg—Scalable Vector Graphics | sysml—Systems Modeling Language | ui—user
interface | uml—Unified Modeling Language | Xtext—framework for developing programming languages
20. 20 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Illustrative architecture
RAN EPC
S1 Gi ISC
IMS
core MTAS
OSS/
BSS
M
IMS
client Mb
Gm
Mw
Cx ISC
Mb
MrIq
AGw MRF
MTAS
S/I-
CSCFP-CSCF
HSS
Function - IMS core
Figure1
Top-level network diagram
Figure2
Exploring a function
23. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 23
Illustrative architecture ✱
P-CSCF
Cx ISC
Mw
Mr
MRF
MTAS
Media
handling
HSS
Registrar
SIP
routing
Function - S/I-CSCF
Figure3
Drilling down into a logical
function
28. 28 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ Illustrative architecture
Ulf Olsson
◆ Hasabackgroundin
software architecture for
large-scale distributed
systems, ranging from
military command and
control to current and
futuretelecommunications.
He joined Ericsson in
1996, working mainly with
packet-based systems
like Packet pdc, gprs,
umts, cdma2000 and
ims. He then moved on
to systems architecture
in areas like service
exposure and analytics.
He is currently a senior
expert at Group Function
Technology, focusing on
overall system architecture
issues including how to
represent them formally
and informally. He holds
an m.sc. in engineering
physics from the kth Royal
Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Toni Siljamäki
◆ Hasabackgroundin
modeling and software
development for
embedded systems in the
Swedish defense industry.
He joined Ericsson in 1997
to work on bridging the gap
between hardware and
software design disciplines,
and held responsibility for
Executable uml modeling
support and model
compiler development —
transforming uml models
into executable code in
Erlang, Java, Plex-C and C
for different platforms.
Since 2013, he has
focused on basic core
capability and usability
improvements of Papyrus,
with a special focus on
dsml development and
customization. He has also
designed and developed
the nwa dsl for Papyrus
described in this article.
Francis Bordeleau
◆ Isproductmanagerinthe
eittesoftware design group
at Ericsson. His primary
focus is model-based
engineering and modeling
tools. In this role, he is
responsible for defining
product specifications
and roadmaps, developing
business cases, managing
budgets, running open
source initiatives, and
collaborating with other
companies, researchers,
and academia. Before
joining Ericsson in 2013,
he was founder and ceo
of Zeligsoft — a provider
of domain-specific model-
based engineering. He
has held the position of
Assistant Professor at
the School of Computer
Science of Carleton
University, Ottawa,
Canada. He holds a b.Sc.
in mathematics from the
Université de Montréal
(1989), a Bachelor of
computer science from the
University of Quebec (1991),
and a Master in computer
science (1993) and Ph.D.
in electrical engineering
(1999) both from Carleton
University.
theauthors
29. xxxx ✱
#01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 2929
When it comes to technology, relentless and
continuous development remains a constant
expectation. Within this context, certain significant
shifts and opportunities — or technology trends
— have a tendency to stick out.
Tech
trends:
5
30. Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
networking
asaplatform
F r o m s i n g l e - s e r v i c e to multi-application platform,
the communication network becomes a massively distributed
compute, storage, and networking infrastructure.
Just how much impact mobile communication, the network
infrastructure that carries it, and the applications that make it
interesting and useful have had on the world is not news. Every
industry on the planet is undergoing a transformation, adopting
digital and virtual processes, products, and ways of working — even
the mobile communication industry itself. And each individual and
organization is adapting to make the most of it. Virtualization and
programmability are at the core of this transformation. The network
resources that make it all possible are becoming virtual, more flexible,
and more usable, to form a versatile and global platform.
30
As d e p e n d e n c y o n networks rises, focus on security and
privacy increases. As networks transform from being closed, protected
environments into open, programmable, and distributed platforms, the
significance of security and privacy is gearing up a notch. The technology
challenge lies in utilizing the openness and global reach of the network
platform, while protecting assets and user privacy, so that society as a
whole can reap the benefits of new network capabilities without being
subject to attack or breaches of security.
HerearethefivetrendsthatourCTObelieveseveryoneinict shouldbe
keepinganeyeon.Theyrepresenttheprimarydrivingforcesbehindnew
businessopportunities.Insomecases,theywillcausediscontinuities,
andelsewheretheywillpresentchallenges.Buttogether,theywillsetthe
directionfortechnologydevelopment.
tighter
security
andprivacy
31. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 31
analytics
everywhere
I n c r e a s e d c a pa b i l i t i e s in analytics and machine learning
will unlock new ways of doing business.
Modern networks carry massive amounts of data, and the growth trend
shows no signs of leveling off. This volume of data is a highly valuable
resource, as it provides insight into customers, improves traffic pattern
predictions, highlights potential business opportunities, and can help
identify the services that are being used and those that aren’t. The key to
delivering these benefits is real-time analysis of network metadata.
31#01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review
theiotopportunity
C u s t o m i z e d n e t w o r k s l i c e s to support
upwards of 26 billion devices (beyond 2020) of all shapes and sizes to
suit all needs. In our most recent Mobility Report, Ericsson estimated
that the global number of connected devices is set to top 26 billion
by 2020. Estimates from other ICT players are similar. Some predict
slightly more, some predict slightly fewer, but whatever the exact
figure, that’s a lot of devices to provision and a lot of data to manage.
And so, networks need to gear up, becoming more flexible and
rapidly scalable to cope with widely varying use cases.
moredigitaland
evermoremobile
As i n d u s t r i e s s h i f t to provide virtual products and services
Two major transformations — digitalization and mobilization — are changing
the way people and society function, and the media industry is leading the
way. Media has undergone several transformation cycles, from broadcasting
and the sale of physical products (like CDs and DVDs) through actual stores,
to selling digital products (downloads, pay-per-view, and on-demand TV)
through user portals, to selling services (like streaming) on a subscription
basis. This transformation has taken place at the same time as the dual shift
in the consumption of content (from the single fixed screen to multiple mobile
devices) and the creation of content (from enterprise to everyone).
Read more about each trend on http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/our_publications/ericsson_technology_review/archive/technology_trends_2015
32. 32 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
〉〉 Carlos Bravo
Francesco Caruso
Christian Olrog
Malgorzata
Svensson
András Valkó
The business environment of operators and service providers is going
through a fundamental transformation. By 2020, more than half1 of
the envisioned 50 billion devices will already be connected. And
while the ever-expanding use of connectivity presents a major growth
opportunity, it also creates new and tougher demands on networks
— and particularly on the processes for managing users
and devices.
for software defined
and virtualized networks
support
systems
Gearing up
33. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 33
The agile network ✱
Parallel to the connectivity revolution,
the digital economy has triggered a
transformation in the way services are
produced and consumed. Enabled by the
global communication infrastructure, a new
market of digital services is emerging. In this
market, people and organizations can expose
their digital assets, which can be rapidly
combined with partner assets to create new,
more useful, and more interesting services.
c o m m u n i c at i o n networkshaveakey
responsibility:toprovidetheplatformthatenables
thedigitalmarkettocontinuetodevelop.This
responsibilitypresentsoperatorsandserviceproviders
withauniqueopportunity.However,thisopportunity
isoffsetbythechallengesofpricepressureaswellas
theperceivedcommoditizationofnetworks.
So,tocapturethedigitalmarketopportunity,both
telecomnetworksandsupportsystems—oss/bss
—needtogearup.
Gearingup
Business agility is one way to respond to the trends
of digitalization and pressed profit margins. By
being able to apply technologies that increase
the level of flexibility in networks, operators and
service providers can gear up from delivering
network infrastructure to becoming providers of
innovation platforms.
Todothis,valuableassets(likenetwork
infrastructure,thesubscriberbase,useridentities,
securitycredentials,locationandmobility
information,serviceandproductcatalogs,charging
andbillingfunctions,connecteddeviceidentities,
andmanymorecapabilitiesthatcanbeusedto
createdigitalservices)
needtobeleveragedin
newways.
Inthedigital
economy,onlyafew
playerswillownall
theassetsthatare
neededtocreate
attractiveservices.
Typically,assetsfrom
differentplayerswillbe
combineddynamically
incollaborative
organizations.Operatorswillblendtheircapabilities
togetherwithpartnerassetstoexposenovel
services.Theresult:innovation,mashedservices,
andhighlysatisfiedusers.
Thekeytosuccessinthedigitalmarketisthe
abilitytoadapt,andtruebusinessagility(illustrated
inFigure 1)requiresflexibilityinallthree
dimensions:networks,services,andcustomers.
Networkagility
Cloud,sdn andnfv arekeyelementsofnetwork
agility:thecapabilitytoefficientlyplanandbuild
networks,adaptthemtochangingrequirements,and
providesuperiorservicequality.
Serviceagility
Thekeystoachievingserviceagilityare:theability
tocreatenewservicesrapidly,tolaunchanddeliver
superior-qualityserviceswithease,andtobeableto
monetizethem.
Customeragility
Thekeystoachievingcustomeragilityare:theability
tointeractwithconsumersinawaythatisflexible
Time-to-market:
how quickly the
changing needs of
modern consumers can
be detected, and how
quickly they can be
reacted to
Terms and abbreviations
api—applicationprogramminginterface|etsi—EuropeanTelecommunications StandardsInstitute|nf—networkfunction|
nfv—NetworkFunctionsVirtualization|nfvi—NetworkFunctionVirtualInfrastructure |oss/bss—operationssupportsys-
tems/business supportsystems|pnf—physicalnetworkfunction|sdn—software-definednetworking|se—serviceenable-
ment |soa—service-orientedarchitecture |ttm—timetomarket|vApp—virtualappliance|vDC—virtualdatacenter |
vim—VirtualInfrastructureManagement |vnf—VirtualNetworkFunction
34. 34 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
OSS/BSSandSE
Network
function
Cloud system
infrastructure TransportEquipment
Experience
assurance
Enterprise
catalog
Customer
partner
interaction
Customer
partner
management
Order
management
NF domain
management
Non-
virtualized
application
Transport
Virtualized
application
Transport
domain
management
vApp
management
Cloud SI
management
Revenue
management
Resource
management
Service
inventory
Service
enablement
System
infra-
structure
M M
SDN-C SDN-C SDN-C
Figure2
oss/bss architecture
for sdn/nfv-enabled
networks
Figure1
Business agility
$
Customer/partner management
and interaction
MAKE IT
EASY
MAKE IT
BETTER
MAKE IT
ACTIONABLE
MAKE IT
ACCESSIBLE
MAKE IT
PAY
MAKE IT
HAPPEN
MAKE IT
REAL
MAKE IT
WORK
Experience-to-
resolution
Service-to-
cash
Lead-to-
service
Idea-to-
implementation
Data-to-experience
Customer agility
Service agility
Network agility
Network and cloud management
Plan-to-
provision
35. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 35
The agile network ✱
anddynamic,theabilitytoexposenewservices,and
themeanstoproactivelyresolveproblemsorreactto
issuesrapidly.
Networkagility
Bothsdnandnfvplaykeyrolesingearingup
tothelevelofnetworkagilityneededtoexplore
theopportunitiesandaddressthechallenges
presentedbytheNetworkedSocietyandthedigital
economy.
The concept of network virtualization
— providing physical network resources
as virtualized entities — has already been
successfully applied to telecom networks.
Examples of this type of network partitioning
include vpns and vlans. In 2012, a group of
service providers launched the nfv initiative.
Their aim was to apply best practices from the it
industry — as it virtualized data centers and server
rooms — to the telecom domain. In other words,
how can network elements be virtualized so that
the maximum benefit from commodity-computing
technologies can be achieved, while improving
service agility and service efficiency at the same
time? The short answer is nfv and sdn.
nfv
Fromatechnicalpointofview,nfv promotes
thedecouplingofnetworkfunctions(nfs)from
hardware.Byapplyingvirtualizationtechnologies,
thesoftwareofnetworkfunctionscanbebroken
apartfromhardwareappliances.Inturn,this
separationunleashesmassiveflexibilityintermsof
hownf canbedynamicallydeployed,elastically
resized,andofferedonanon-demandbasis.Some
ofthepotentialbenefitsofthisflexibilityarereduced
costandlowerpowerconsumption,butgainscan
alsobemadeintermsofincreasedspeedand
efficiencyinthedeploymentoftelecomnetworks.
sdn
sdn providestheabilitytoprogrammaticallydefine
andmanagenetworks,whichenablesthecomplexity
ofunderlyingimplementationtobeabstracted
fromtheapplicationsthatrunonthenetworkand
consumeresources.Fromatechnicalpointofview,
sdn enablesseparationofthedataplanefromthe
controlplane.
Serviceproviderstypicallyusesdn totake
aholisticviewoftheirnetworks,applyingsdn
conceptsacrossnetworklayersanddomains,which
inturnenablesend-to-endprogrammabilty.
sdn andnfv together
Originally,theaimofcombiningnfvandsdnwas
todecoupleservicesfromresources,butwhen
thesetwotechnologiescometogether,theyprovide
theadditionalbenefitofdetachinglifecycle
managementfromphysicalconstraints.Today,
itispossibletoprovisionansdn/nfvservice
instantaneouslywithouttheneedtodeploynew
physicalresources.Thisflexibilityisthefoundation
ofnetworkagility.
Serviceagility
AtEricsson,oss/bss aredesignedaccordingtoa
functionaldecompositionofnetworkarchitecture
domainsthatnativelyaccountforsdn andnfv.
Similartonetworkagility,sdn andnfv playkey
rolesingearingupthelevelofserviceagility.
Figure 2showstheoss/bss andservice
enablement(se)architectureforsdn/nfv-
enablednetworks.Thediagramhighlightsthe
mainfunctionalblocks:oss/bss andse,network
functions,equipment(representingthecollectionof
physicalresources),thecloudsysteminfrastructure,
andtransport.
Figure 2 oss/bss architectureforsdn/nfv-
enablednetworks.
Annf canbesupportedbynative(non-
virtualized,physicalnf)orbyvirtual(avirtualized
applicationoravirtualizednf)resources.Froma
managementpointofview,nf aregovernedacross
twoorthogonalplanes:
〉〉 thenetworkfunctiondomainmanagementplane
—illustratedasNFdomainmanagementinFigure 2;
and
〉〉 thesupportingresourcesmanagementplane
—illustratedasvAppmanagement,inFigure 2.
Thenf domain-managementplanesupports
operationalneedsofnfs,suchasfaultmanagement,
performancemanagementandspecific
Virtual resource
A virtual resource is an
abstraction of a physical
resource — compute,
storage, or network.
Virtual resources can be
shared among multiple
consumers in such a way
that they appear to be
dedicated.
36. 36 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
Business
logic
creation
environment
OSS/BSS
Network
function
Cloud system
infrastructure
Transport ITAccess
Resource
spec
Read
resource
spec
Service
spec
Read
service
spec
Define
service
spec
........
.......
.......
Assurance
logic
spec
Charging
logic
spec
Add
assurance
logic
Customer
segment
spec
Add
customer
segment
Product
offering
Publish
product
offering
Service
enablement
M
Domain
management
Customer
management
MCloud SI
domain
management
Resource
inventory
Service
inventory
Service
catalog
Product
catalog
Add
charging
logic
........
.......
.......
Orchestration
creation environment
Orchestration
execution
OSS/BSS
Cloud system
infrastructure
Transport ITAccess
........
.......
.......
Handle
customer
order
Handle
customer
request
Handle
service
order
Activate
resources
Domain
management
Domain
management
Service
catalog
Product
catalog
Resource
order
Cloud SI
domain
management
Customer
interaction
Customer
order
Product
order
Service
order
Network
function
Service
enablement
M M M M M
Figure 4
Lead to service
Figure 3
Idea to implementation
37. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 37
The agile network ✱
configurationfornfs;whilevApp management
handlesresourcesrequiredbyanetworkfunction
throughoutitslifecycle.
Thecloud-system-infrastructurefunction
aggregatesandmanagesvirtualresourcesacross
differentinstancesandtechnologies,offeredby
cloudsysteminfrastructures(inetsi terminology
nfvi +vim).
Clouddeploymentsoftenspanseveraldifferent
physicalsitesjoinedthroughaconnectivityfabric,
whichmayhaveaseparatemanagementfunction.
Thisfabric,illustratedbytransportinFigure 2,
canbeorchestratedtogetherwiththeresource
infrastructureusingsdn,effectivelyimplementing
avdc (oravirtualresourceslice)thatprovidesa
networkservice.
Thefunctionsintheoss/bss andse planeare:
〉〉 experienceandassurance—offeringservice
assurance;
〉〉 customerandpartnerinteraction—enablingboth
partiestointeractwithsupportsystemsthrough
multiplecommunicationchannels;
〉〉 ordermanagement;
〉〉 revenuemanagement—providingthecapabilitiesto
chargeandinvoiceforanytypeofproductorservice
usage;
〉〉 resourcemanagement—providingaunifiedresource
inventoryforbothvirtualandphysicalresources;
〉〉 serviceinventory;
〉〉 customer/partnermanagement;
〉〉 enterprisecatalog—consistingofproducts,services
andresources;and
〉〉 serviceenablement—providingserviceexposure
capabilitiestopartnersforserviceinnovation.
Theoss/bss andse planeinsdn/nfv-enabled
networksprovidescapabilitiestointroducenew
virtualnfsorvAppsprogressively.Inotherwords,
newvirtualnfsorvAppscanbeinstantiatedin
adedicatedslicecalledtrial.Atthesametime,
aninstanceofthesamenf canbeexecutingin
anotherslice—calledproduction.Theredirection
ofusersfromtheoldtothenewnf/applicationcan
becarriedoutgradually,withminimumimpact,
andmanagedprogrammaticallyinawaythatis
transparenttousersoftheservice.
Rapidbusinessinnovation
Supportsystems—oss/bss —providethe
necessaryfunctionstoencapsulatesdn/nfv
servicesandcombinethemwithotherassetsinto
productofferings.Thesesupportsystemsalso
handleproductlifecyclemanagement,thecapability
tochargeforproducts,andtheprocessforexposing
productstousersandpartners.
However,oneofthemostsignificantchallenges
foroperatorsandserviceproviderstodayistimeto
market(ttm).Onewaytoshortenthetimefrom
concepttodeliveryistohaveagoodunderstanding
ofbusinessprocesses,sothatthelevelofautomation
inprocessescanberaised.Byhavingwell-
documentedbusinessprocesses,preconfigured
solutionsandsuitescanbedelivered,whichinturn
enablesadditionalbusinessprocessinnovationand
increasedspeedwhenintroducingnewofferings,
allwhilemaintainingflexibilityandtheabilityto
integrate.
Assdn andnfv facilitatenewservices,these
technologieshavegreatestimpactonthebusiness
processesthatliebetweentheformationofanidea
anditsimplementation—suchasplanning,design
anddeployment.
Figure 3illustratessomeoftheactivitiesincluded
intheideas-to-implementationprocess.Itshows
apossiblescenarioforcreatingaproductoffering
fromtheservicesandresourcesmanagedbyseveral
functionaldomains.
Withinoss/bss,thekeylogicalfunctionofthe
idea-to-implementationprocessisthebusiness
logiccreationenvironment,whichisillustratedin
Figure 3.Resourceandservicespecificationsaswell
asproductofferingsarecreatedinthisenvironment,
whichallresultinaproductcatalogentry.
Theidea-to-implementationprocesscanbe
brokendownintoanumberofspecification
phases:networkfunction,resource,andservice
specification.
Networkfunctionspecification
Domainmanagementusestheinformation
providedinthenfspecificationtobuildthe
resourcesneededtoconstructthedesiredservices.
Virtualdata
centers(vDCs),
slicesandnetwork
services
A vdc is an instance of
a data center operated
on a per-tenant basis,
with flexible network
topology and basic
services — compute,
network, and storage —
as well as more complex
ones such as firewalling
and load balancing. A
vdc may span multiple
physical data centers
or be constrained
to a subset of the
infrastructure within a
single dc.
A virtual resource slice,
referred to as a slice, is
an isolated view of the
virtual resources — a
vdc in other words.
A network service (ns)
is composed of vnfs,
pnfs, virtual links
and vnf forwarding
graphs that support the
communication service.
38. 38 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
Insomecases,thisisaready-to-usespecification
providedbythenfvendor.
Resourcespecifications
Thevirtualinfrastructureresourcesneededby
thenfsthatthecloudsysteminfrastructurewill
exposeneedtobespecified.Theseresourcesare
describedusingvdc andvApp templates,andmay
beprovidedbythevendor.
Servicespecification
Describes how transport service connectivity
could also be exposed and bundled together with
the target services defined by the market’s needs
into product offerings. These product offerings
may be targeted to any segment, such as media
providers or health care providers.Theservice
specificationincludescharacteristicsthatdefine
specificsoftheserviceinrelationtorequirements
ofthetargetsegment.
Thecatalog-drivenapproachfacilitates
onboardingofnewservices,throughsimple
modelingbasedonprincipleslikemodularityfor
definingservicesandreusabilitytoconstructricher
andaggregatedservicesandproductofferings.Itis
oneofthemainpillarsoftheideas-to-implementation
process,complementedbyeaseofintegration
throughstandardinterfacesandpre-integrationand
automationoftheend-to-endprocesses.
Instantlyavailableservices
Virtualizationofnetworkfunctionsandthe
decouplingofsoftwarefromhardwareenablefull
automationofthelead-to-serviceprocess(shownin
Figure 4)acrossfunctionaldomains.Automating
thisprocessincludesinstantiationoftheentire
softwarestackofnfsthatareencapsulatedin
aservice,reducingtimefromordertoservice
activation,andimprovingresourceutilization—as
resourcesbecomeallocatedshortlybeforeuse.
Service-orientedarchitecture(soa)and
innovativemicro-servicesprovideprogrammable
interfacesdesignedaccordingtowell-established
industrystandardsandmakemajorcontributions
toorchestrationandautomation.Theyaresomeof
thekeyarchitectureprinciples,whichtogetherwith
acommoninformationmodelexposeservicesusing
apis,enablingeaseofintegration—asdescribed
inapreviousEricssonReviewarticle2
.Thesekey
principlesallowtheinstantiationofnfsandthe
resourcesneeded.Theyfacilitatethecreationof
productofferingsfromservicesandresources
definedindifferentdomains—oss/bss,transport,
cloudsysteminfrastructure,andit.
Customeragility
Similar to network and service agility, sdn and
nfv play key roles in gearing up the level of
customer agility.
Inthedigitaleconomy,theroleofpartnerships
andecosystemsismoresignificantthantraditional
economies.Digitalizedbusinessescollaborate
more,andcombinetheirassetstogetherwith
partnerassetstoprovidecustomerswiththebest
services.Inthisenvironment,newwaysthatenable
mashedofferings,serviceexposure,andblended
servicesareneeded.
Serviceenablement,asshowninFigure 2,
includesthefunctionsneededtoenableoperators
andserviceproviderstomonetizetheirassetsand
connecttoothers.
Serviceexposure,oneofthecorefunctionswithin
se,providesaccesstonetworkcapabilitiesexposed
bytheservicedevelopmentenvironmentthrough
programmableinterfaces.Exposureenables
developers—eitherattheoperator,apartnerora
3pp —todesignandcomposeinnovativeservices.
Supportsystems—oss/bss —providethe
capabilitiestomanagepartnersanddevelopers,to
handleallcommunicationchannels,andtoorganize
theadministrationofproductsandservices.
Technologieslikesdn andOpenStackprovide
developerswithprogrammableinterfaces,which
canbeusedtogetherwithoss/bss capabilitiesso
thatnewservicescanbedeployedandexecutedin
isolatedvirtualenvironments.
Inadditiontoexposingnetworkprogrammability
throughOpenStackandOpenDaylightapis,
developershaveaccesstootherservicesand
capabilitieslikeuseridentification,chargingand
networkpolicies,andconfigurationinformationto
programnfs.
39. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 39
The agile network ✱
Instance 4
Instance 3
Instance 2
OSS/BSS
Network functions
Health care
provider
Media
provider
Media
provider
Any industry
verticle
RAN
Instance 1
EPC-1 HSS-1
EPC-4 HSS-4
EPC-2 HSS-2IMS-2
EPC-3 HSS-3IMS-3
Figure5
Providing new
services with NFV
40. 40 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
M M
OSS/BSS
SDN app
SDN app
specific
API
Root SDN
controller
Child SDN
controller
Forwarding
element
Router
OSPF
(for example)
BGP
(for example)
Data plane
SDN controller
management i/f
Transport
management i/f
Transport
management
i/f
Settlement
Element
management i/f
Peer
routing
domain
Peer
OSS/BSS
Operator A Operator B
Figure6
Software-defined
networking
41. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 41
The agile network ✱
Newbusinessopportunities
Thevirtualizationofnfsenablesoperatorsand
serviceproviderstodevelopnewservicesfor
traditionalsegments,aswellasprovidingthe
possibilitytoenternewmarkets.Forexample,
virtualizationenablesbundlesthatinclude
connectivityservicestobemashedwithvalue-add
servicesandexposedinaone-stop-shopfashion,
whichcanbecreatedandofferedtovarious
industryverticals.
Traditionally,aconnectivityservicesoffering
forindustryverticalstendsprovidenetwork
connectivityoptimizedforthespecificvertical.Ina
virtualizedenvironment,optimizationissimplified,
asnfscanbeinstantiatedforaparticularvertical,as
illustratedinFigure 5.
Thisillustrationshowshownfsandsupport
systemsinteract.nfsenabletheconnectivityto
connecteverythinginthenetworktogether—such
asmobilephonesandotherhandhelddevices,as
wellascars,andhealthcareandtransportation
equipment.Andthesupportsystems—oss/bss —
managethenfsandtranslatetheircapabilitiesinto
tangibleservicesthatcanbeofferedtoanyindustry
verticalthroughoperatorandserviceprovider
capabilities.
Operationalsimplicityandefficiency
Software-definednetworkingusuallyreferstothe
unbundlingorseparationofthecontrolplaneand
theforwardingplaneofnetworkelements.Itcanbe
solvedinmanyways,andOpenFlowisacommonly
usedprotocol.Traditionally,management
functionshavetypicallyinteractedwithinterfaces
exposedbythecontrolplanebutwithsdn,the
separatedforwardingplanebecomesamanaged
entityinitself.
Theseparationsdn providesresultsinfewer
controlplanes;thisinturnmakesiteasiertoalign
thedifferenttypesandversionsofcontrolplanes
andraisesthebarfortheleastcommondenominator
offunctionality.Takentotheextreme,thisconcept
resultsinasinglesdn controllerbeingsufficient,
andsoprovidesthebenefitsassociatedwithreduced
networkcomplexity.
While sdn is not a prerequisite for efficient
reconfiguration of
network resources,
it does provide a
solid foundation for
network agility. For
example, separation
has already led to
improvements and
new forwarding
service paradigms
like service
chaining3,4
.
Operational efficiency — not just for the single
service but the entire delivery operation — is
greatly enhanced by implementing an sdn fabric
that supports dynamic, automated and model-
driven reconfiguration. Furthermore, when
applications are added to the sdn controller
dynamically, the possibility to perform dynamic
protocol analytics increases, which in turn eases
troubleshooting.
Inannfv context,bothsdn controllersand
forwardingelementscanbedeployedasVirtual
NetworkFunctions(vnfs).Typically,hypervisors
alreadyincludeasoftware-definedforwarding
functionthatissdn capable,whichcanworkin
conjunctionwithphysicalforwardingelements.
Innovationinsdn networks
Oneoftheprimaryreasonstoshifttosdnisthe
potentialincreaseinflexibilityandagility.However,
itdoesnotnecessarilyfollowthattheintroduction
ofagiventechnologyautomaticallyleadsto
improvedagilityandmorestreamlinedoperations.
Typically,theadoptionofanewtechnicalmodel
followsahypecurve—adoptiontakesplaceonce
businessvaluehasbeenidentified,andproper
abstractionsareinplacetosimplifytheapplication
ofthetechnology.
InapreviousEricssonReviewarticle,theconcept
ofServiceProvidersdn4
wascoined.Thisconcept
takesaholisticviewofsdn,extendingitbeyond
thedatacentertoincludeabstractionsthatenable
servicestobebuiltthatleverageallthefunctionsof
theentirenetwork.
to capture the
digital market
opportunity, both
telecom networks and
support systems — OSS/
BSS — need to gear up
42. 42 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ The agile network
Shiftingtosdn/nfv
Bynature,sdn andnfv aredisruptivetechnologies,
andassuch,tendtofosterrapidinnovation.They
bringaboutchangesthatfundamentallyalterthe
traditionalwaynetworkshavebeenmanagedand
developed.
Asenablersofautomation,nfv andsdn make
fulluseofoneofthekeyarchitecturaloss/bss
principles—acatalog-drivenapproachbased
onaunifiedmodelpromotingreuse,automation,
speedandcorrectness.
Theconceptsofthevirtualdatacenter(vdc)
andthevirtualresourcesliceenableservicestobe
deployedinparallel,andincontrolledisolation.
Thistypeofparalleldeploymentaddsflexibility
—becauseit,forexample,enablesoperatorsand
serviceproviderstorundifferentversionsofmulti-
tenantappliances,whichcanbedimensionedon
demand,andenablesservicestobepersonalized.
The ability to improve speed and correctness is
a key ingredient of innovation. By containing risk
and ensuring failures are detected early (failing
fast), operators and service providers can test
more concepts, and do this not just for services
and applications, but also for different market
segments.
The concept of time to market is changing.
Traditionally, ttm was about getting a version
of a service into the hands of paying customers
as quickly as possible. Today, ttm is about how
quickly the changing needs of modern consumers
can be detected, and how quickly they can be
reacted to.
Theoss andbss naturallyplayakeyrolein
enablingtheoperationofthisnewparadigm.
Automatingthedifferentflowsrequired,from
theideaofthenewservicetotheimplementation
andoperationofit,ensuresoperatorsandservice
providersareinfullcontroloftheirnetworkand
services,andareempoweredtoactoninsightsand
howtheyareused.
Theconceptsofsdn,nfv andthevirtual
datacenter,aswellasrapidadaptiontochanging
consumerneeds,formthepillarsuponwhich
network,serviceandcustomeragilityarebuilt.
References
1) Ericsson, June 2015, Mobility Report, available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/mobility-report
2) Ericsson, 2014, Ericsson Review, Architecture evolution for automation and network programmability,
available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/news/141128-er-architecture-evolution_244099435_c
3) etsi, 2014, Group Specification, Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Architectural Framework,
available at:
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/NFV/001_099/002/01.02.01_60/gs_NFV002v010201p.pdf
4) Ericsson, 2014, Ericsson Review, Software-defined networking: the service provider perspective, available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/news/130221-software-defined-networking-the-service-provider-perspective_244129229_c
43. #01, 2015 ✱ Ericsson technology review 43
The agile network ✱
Christian Olrog
◆ Is an expert in
cloud service delivery
architecture and chief
architect at Business
Unit Support Solutions
at Ericsson. He joined
the department of New
and Special Business
Operations at Ericsson
in 1999 and has been
involved in research and
development in areas
ranging from wireless
lan standardization and
ip security to embedded
devices and enterprise
applications. He holds
an M.Sc. in physics from
kth Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm,
Sweden.
Carlos Bravo
◆ Isportfoliosalessupport
director and principal
architect in cloud and sdn
at Business Unit Support
Solutions at Ericsson.
He has over 15 years’
experience with operation
and maintenance systems
and processes and
systems integration. He
joined Ericsson in 2000
and has worked in all
stages of product life cycle
in Ericsson, from design
to delivery and execution.
He holds an M.Sc. in
telematics engineering
from the Higher Technical
School of Engineering
(etsi), Seville, Spain.
Francesco
Caruso
◆ Is an expert in cloud
architecture and
management at Group
Function Technology.
He joined Ericsson in
2012 from Telcordia
Technologies, where
he was director of the
Enterprise Integration
Group. He championed
the internal cloud program
to transition oss to the
cloud environment and to
extend oss into the cloud-
management domain. He
has more than 20 years’
expertise in the telecom
oss domain and holds an
M.Sc. in computer science
from the University of Pisa,
Italy.
Malgorzata
Svensson
◆ Isanexpertand oss/
bss chief architect at
Business Unit Support
Solutions at Ericsson.
She has over 15 years’
experience with operation
and business support
systems. She joined
Ericsson in 1996 and has
been involved in research
and development in areas
ranging from revenue
management, ims,
analytics, cloud and sdn.
András Valkó
◆ Isresponsiblefor
architecture and
technology within
Ericsson oss Portolio and
Solutions. He has nearly
20 years’ experience in the
telecom industry, mostly
within the area of network
management and oss,
with a focus on service
assurance, analytics,
performance management,
automation, and self-
organizing networks. He
holds a Ph.D. in computer
science and has a technical
research background.
Before his current
assignment, he was head
of Customer Experience
Management and Analytics,
and previously led the
Ericsson Research unit for
network management and
oss/bss.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully
acknowledge the
colleagues who have
contributed to
this article: Lars Angelin,
Henrik Basilier, Jan
Friman, Ignacio Más, and
John Quilty.
theauthors
44. 44 Ericsson technology review ✱ #01, 2015
✱ A step toward efficient virtualization
Service providers are looking to Network Functions Virtualization (nfv) as
a way to deliver and deploy Virtual Network Functions (vnf) services in a
flexible way, using virtualization and cloud computing techniques. As an IaaS
framework constructed as pluggable api components, OpenStack provides
a given level of automation and orchestration to deploy and provision nfv
services. But is it enough, and what improvements are needed?
〉〉 alan kavanagh
OpenStack as the API
framework for NFV:
the
benefitsand the extensions needed
Both OpenStack and nfv have developed con-
siderably over the past few years from an is/it
and a telecoms perspective.
While these two concepts relate to similar
areas — virtualization, rest-based apis, and
providing fast large-scale services indepen-
dent of underlying hardware — they address
these areas from different angles.
o n t h e o n e hand,etsi nfv aimstodefinean
architectureandasetofinterfacessothatphysical
networkfunctions,likerouters,firewalls,cdns
andtelcoapplications,canbetransformed:from
softwareapplicationsdesignedtorunonspecific
dedicatedhardwareintodecoupledapplications—
calledvnfs—deployedonvmsorcontainers,on
genericservers.
OpenStack,ontheotherhand,addressesservice