Competition between DVB-C and IPTV

For the fixed network operators, the cell phone industry has strong impact on the traditional fixed telephone industry. The expense of cell phone reduces constantly while the rent of traditional fixed telephone must be paid monthly. As a result, the number of fixed telephone increases slowly, even in some areas the number of the customer who has quitted the telephone service is much more than the newly-increased customer. Consequently, China Telecom and China Netcom take the IPTV     

DBA algorithm for the support of multi-tiered bandwidth guarantee in Ethernet passive optical networks

Access Networks based on Passive Optical Network (PON) technology can offer transport services to broadband service providers, such as mobile backhauling/fronthauling for Mobile Network Operators and multi-ONU Service Level Agreements for Virtual Network Operators. Besides that, Infrastructure Service Provider (InP) also provides broadband access services to end-users, such as residential subscribers and single or multi-site enterprises. In such a scenario, the InPs support diverse customers in the same PON. This paper proposes a bandwidth slicing mechanism to assure bandwidth isolation for different PON customers who rent part of a PON infrastructure from the InP. We introduce a Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation algorithm for Ethernet PONs called MAB-IPACT, which assures bandwidth on different granularity: conventional customers with a single ONU, multi-ONU customers owning a group of ONUs and providing a single type of service, and multi-ONU customers having diverse types of services. The MAB-IPACT algorithm also prioritizes bandwidth distribution among subgroups of ONUs of the same multi-ONU customer. A subgroup of ONUs is a subset of ONUs that belongs to the same multi-ONU customer, which are employed for the same type of service (e.g., ONUs for business service.). Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism improves the network performance of multi-ONU customers with subgroups of ONUs serving different services.

     

Integrated management architecture for IP-based networks

IP telephony will bring about a dramatic change in the way IP services are planned, provisioned, managed, and billed. In order to build and retain a strong customer base for these new services, service providers need to meet, if not exceed, the customer expectations set by today's traditional voice services. Acceptance of IP telephony will depend on the quality and efficiency with which service providers offer, deliver, and manage IP services. Installation, configuration, and activation must be rapid and error-free. Furthermore, customers will want direct control over the reconfiguration of services and real-time visibility into the impact change has on their operating costs. Once the service is activated, customers will want the provider to guarantee service quality as defined by industry standards. Corporate customers in particular will need to be assured that the provider is proactively monitoring performance to avoid problems and providing them visibility into the performance data collected. This article discusses an integrated management support system for IP-based networks illustrating the functions needed to support the unique challenges of managing VoIP services. An example of a service management system is also described     

电信运营商物联网客户运营分析系统的构建及应用

简要分析了中国联通在物联网客户运营能力上的挑战与诉求,结合中国联通研究院的大数据分析能力,提出运用能力构建完善标准体系,推动物联网规模应用,实现物联网客户运营大数据化的目标。基于电信行业物联网运营模式的实践经验,描述了如何以大数据能力为基础进行面向运营商的更为精细化的企业客户运营,从技术创新的角度实现客户运营服务的精准化、高效化。以提升客户数据运营的准确性和前瞻性为目的,探索如何利用数据分析能力,构建精准的客户运营支撑体系。最后,讲述了大数据应用于客户运营场景的重要价值和对客户运营未来的展望。     

Session-Based Quality of Service

A primary objective of a next generation network architecture is to develop a set of infrastructure capabilities that facilitate the creation and delivery of premium services. One of these capabilities, session-based quality of service (QoS), may be used by service providers or application service providers to assure the quality of delivery of their IP content/application sessions over broadband networks.This paper introduces session-based QoS and discusses a number of considerations arising in the design of this capability for broadband services in the next few years.     

Resource Management for Virtual Private Networks

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have rapidly emerged as a leading solution for multi-site enterprise communication needs. Provider-managed solutions modeled on RFC 2547 serve as a popular choice for layer 3 VPNs, and the hose model has emerged as a common and simple service specification. It offers a hose of a certain contracted bandwidth to customers. With the growth in size and number of VPNs and the uncertainties in the traffic patterns of customers, providers are faced with new challenges in efficient provisioning and capacity planning for these networks and satisfying customer service level agreements (SLA). We suggest that a set of techniques can be used to help the provider build an adaptively provisioned network. These techniques involve continually processing measurement information, building inferences regarding VPN characteristics, and leveraging them for adaptive resource provisioning. We developed scalable techniques to infer VPN characteristics that are important for provisioning tasks. We demonstrated the feasibility of such provisioning techniques with existing measurement obtained using SNMP infrastructure from a large IP/VPN service provider. Our examination of measurement data yielded interesting new insights into VPN structure and properties. Building on our experience with analyzing VPN characteristics, we articulate an adaptive provisioning architecture that enables providers to effectively deal with the dynamic nature of customer traffic     

The Broadband Access Facility

The deployment of broadband access networks will revolutionise many aspects of society in the early years of the next millennium. Manufacturers, telecommunications providers and cable television operators world-wide are investing heavily on research into networks that provide broadband multimedia services to customers. BT has developed a prototype of a full service access network that can connect customers via optical fibre, digital subscriber line or radio technologies. This paper describes the physical implementation of the prototype network and the wide range of services that it can support.This prototype network, referred to as the 'broadband access facility' is enabling BT and its partners to understand the best access architectures for a given environment through practical testing. The network now serves as an experimental platform, that can be used for communicating broadband concepts, designing operational processes, developing management solutions and testing advanced applications.The full service access networks (FSAN) initiative is a collaboration involving fourteen of the world's leading telecommunications network operators and major equipment manufacturers. Its vision is to create a shared requirements specification for access systems supporting narrowband and broadband services. This common specification will mean that broadband network components can be developed for world markets, thus raising volumes and driving down unit costs. The common system specification is based around an ATM/SDH (asynchronous transfer mode/synchronous digital hierarchy) core network, with local optical fibre distribution via an ATM PON (passive optical network). DSL (digital subscriber line) systems maximise reuse of existing copper plant. The exact DSL system used depends upon where the optical system is terminated, e.g. in the local exchange, cabinet, kerb or home. Hence this broadband access system can support a range of access architectures — this flexibility is fundamental to the consensus achieved in FSAN.     

Do we need quality of service in the customer environment?

The paper introduces the concept of quality of service (QoS) in the customer environment, as related to broadband customer premises equipment. The paper describes the BT vision for the customer environment, with a QoS-enabled ‘customer gateway’ and ‘home networks’ delivering a range of broadband services to the end user. The reasons behind the need for QoS are discussed and the differing requirements of the downstream (network to end user) as distinct from the upstream (end user to network) data paths are described.Incorporating downstream QoS protocols in the customer gateway is less likely to give an effective perceived performance benefit due to the simple fact that the traffic priority is essentially predetermined by the network/service provider and only marginal benefits can be seen by its application. Extending downstream QoS across the home network will be essential to provide an effective customer experience. The paper looks at the future strategy for implementing QoS, not just within the customer gateway, but also up to the end terminal, as it should be remembered that all elements of the service such as end user appliances, home networks, customer gateways, the network provider and service provider all have their own distinct parts to play to guarantee the best quality of service and customer experience.The paper concludes that the predominant area for QoS implementation in the customer environment, is in the upstream direction where even a basic QoS implementation such as simple queuing is likely to give noticeable improvements in the customer experience. New real-time services such as voice over IP (VoIP) will require upstream QoS.Thus it should be possible to specify QoS enhancements that are straightforward and likely to be simple (and therefore cost effective) to implement, in low-cost CPE. The paper concludes that it is essential that the next generation of customer gateways and home networks, support appropriate QoS functionality to support new services delivered over BT’s network.     

Design for performance of broadband signalling and services

As the telecommunications industry evolves, and broadband services start to arrive, customers are increasingly coming to expect the perception of instantaneous access to service providers, together with transparency to network failures. System performance dictates that response times need to be minimised, sufficient redundant capacity be installed in case of failure, and controls be embedded within the design to manage the exceptional situations (such as media-stimulated events) that continually threaten network integrity. A vital part of this system is the broadband signalling network, which underpins the dialogue with the customer, and which enables the delivery of the service. Network design based on a 'top-down', 'end-to-end' methodology plays a fundamental role in delivering solutions that meet customers' performance needs. Simple, approximate performance models at an early stage in this life cycle are valuable to uncover major performance problems which affect the design of the architecture. Performance issues identified can then be fed back into the design process in an iterative way, to ensure that the design solution will conform to performance requirements.This paper outlines performance studies of a number of design scenarios for providing broadband services. These studies consider interactive multimedia services, looking at service demand, physical network topology, signalling message flows, the mapping of functional entities to physical components, and routeing, as part of the network design process. The most significant performance issues identified relate to bottle-necks, capacity requirements, and load-dependent response times as perceived by the customer.     

A star-configured fiber-to-the-curb system

Fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) system proposals have arisen because of the present high cost of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems. With FTTC systems, fiber is brought only as far as the service access point (SAP). From there, copper drops carry signals from the SAP to several residences. Owing to the extensive sharing of optical sources and the fibers running to the SAP, the per-subscriber system cost is greatly reduced relative to the per-subscriber cost of a FTTH system. In addition, elimination of the optical network unit (ONU) at the home may offer new options for powering and battery back-up. This paper presents an analysis of a star-configured, fiber-to-the-curb distribution network that serves up to ninety-six customers, initially providing two plain old telephone service (POTS) channels to each customer. Three system variations, serving either four, six, or eight customers per SAP, are examined. We also estimate the installed first costs (IFC) of the distribution link (remote node to customer) for the three FTTC scenarios and compare them to the IFC of a FTTH system with similar capabilities. Star-configured FTTC architectures can be installed for substantially less ($1180-$825/customer for four to eight customers per SAP) than the estimated $2920 per subscriber cost associated with FTTH systems. Finally, we propose an upgrade strategy, consistent with the passive photonic loop (PPL) network, to support future high bandwidth services.     

Networks and systems for BT in the 21st century

This paper provides an overview of BT’s 21st century network architecture. Analysis shows that this will deliver an improved customer experience, faster service provision and a significant overall cost reduction on today’s base. These aims can only be achieved by a ground-breaking approach which moves from multiple networks each providing one service to a true multiservice network where the services are delivered by combining reusable capabilities. The architecture is therefore based on network, intelligence and operational support systems built from reusable components and an application layer that can expose these capabilities through open interfaces.     

A Million Segments of One — How Personal Should Customer Relationship Management Get?

The foundation upon which customer relationship management (CRM) stands is a single, definitive view of customers which spans functions, channels, products and customer types and drives every customer interaction. CRM purports to recreate the ‘traditional corner shop’ experience to millions of clients. However, as techniques for data mining and pattern matching allow companies to build a relationship with customers, customers are questioning whether they actually want to have a relationship with companies. As CRM becomes more personalised, is it providing the experience that customers want? Are companies spending on personalised CRM only to reap limited benefits? This paper considers the different ways that companies such as Capital One, First Direct, Amazon and Tesco are personalising a CRM experience and examines the resulting relationship that they develop with their customers. Ultimately, the future of personalised CRM is dependent on non-intrusive, mutually beneficial and cost-effective strategies delivered through the appropriate medium for the customer. This requires recognition that CRM is more than just deployment of technology. It is a fusion of strategy, process and technology. Companies need to consider what customers want from them and whether the personalised solution that is being proposed reaps financial benefits. Building a million segments of one may work for some companies but others need to consider what kind of relationship their customers want from them and what they (and their customers) can gain from the data that they gather.     

Defining network capabilities using the voice of the customer

AT&T's Switching Systems Business Unit (SSBU) is establishing requirements for future network fabric capabilities. To help ensure that these capabilities are driven by the needs of various telecommunications customer segments, SSBU chose to use elements of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to collect and organize customers needs. QFD is a leading-edge team-based approach for gathering the voice of the customer and converting it into deployable product and service attributes. After collecting the needs set, the SSBU team validated the needs (including perceived importance ratings) with customers as a check on the integrity of the set. The validated needs will be used to guide establishment of technical requirements as products are developed. This paper describes how SSBU applied elements of the QFD toolset to generate the customer-validated set of network fabric needs. The QFD approach was used on a project that had already started, allowing a comparison of existing methodology to the QFD methodology     

我国宽带接入市场现状及赢利模式分析

近年来宽带接入快速发展。宽带运营商除了中国电信和中国网通外还有一些中小运营商。分析了它们的发展策略及竞争策略后提出，宽带运营商要想赢利，应该提供灵活的资费策略及宽带内容的配餐制，建立宽带价值链，为大客户提供个性化解决方案，开发宽带增值服务以找寻更多赢利点，内容提供从宽带驻地网开始，同时要加强服务。     

基于路由交换技术的静态专线冗余备份方法

为提升政企高端市场宽带保障的服务质量和客户满意度,南京电信政企客户支撑中心综合考虑客户接入设备层次、网络管理水平和客户需求等因素,以公司推进的维护服务产品化工作为契机,创新性地提出基于路由交换技术的静态专线宽带冗余备份方法,并及时在省市级重点保障大客户中推广,极大地提升了政企大客户的静态专线宽带接入冗余保障能力。     

An early implementation of a DAVIC V1.0 system — use of dynamic connections for interactive multimedia services

Advances in networking technology and the provision of greater wide area bandwidths are the catalysts for the emergence of new broadband services in both the business and residential market. This is in turn producing new, more complex, business models involving service consumers, content providers, service brokers and network connectivity providers. Such business models require the underlying technology to enable sophisticated network signalling to set up, monitor and tear down connections reliably and in real time.This paper describes the evolution of a broadband call control demonstrator believed to be the first of its kind in the world to provide a practical realisation of the signalling required in such business models. It focuses on signalling and switch control and has developed into an end-to-end implementation of a Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) V1.0 system.The evolution of the switch control and signalling architecture is described, showing where existing standards have been implemented to provide basic connectivity across an ATM network. Additional capabilities are built upon this platform through the adoption of emerging signalling concepts, such as session control, and application control using distributed object-oriented principles, for the access and control of a video-on-demand service.To further understand the evolutionary path for emerging consumer systems, the paper illustrates how work was undertaken to separate set-top box (STB) functionality into a set-top unit (STU) and a network interface unit (NIU), allowing easier access to future broadband network capabilities.     

Narrowband and broadband infrastructure design for wirelessnetworks

There has been an explosion in the number of wireless subscribers. A number of air interface technologies, such as GSM, TDMA and CDMA, are available to wireless service providers for offering wireless services. In addition, a variety of networking technologies, such as STM, ATM and frame relay, are available to the wireless services provider for designing their infrastructure networks. The abundant choice of technologies, and their associated capabilities and costs, creates a need for network design tools which can help vendors and wireless service providers to understand the economics of investing in different technologies. This article is concerned with the design of narrowband and broadband infrastructure networks for wireless access. The article first describes the different technology alternatives and tariff structures and their impact on wireless infrastructure network design. The general infrastructure design problem is then stated and a solution methodology outlined. Examples of the economic trade-offs involved in narrowband and broadband networking technologies are also presented     

电信运营业客户价值研究的紧迫性及方向探讨

价格竞争是目前我国电信运营商客户资源竞争的主要手段，由此所导致的增量不增收是困扰我国电信运营业健康发展的难题，并成为新竞争环境下电信运营业客户管理工作必须尽快解决的问题。客户价值(Customer Value)研究是解决这一问题的营销理论基础。本详细阐述了客户价值研究对于电信运营业客户管理的紧迫性，并探索了国内研究的具体方向。     

Optical fiber access-perspectives toward the 21st century

The vision of an all-fiber telecommunications network delivering an ever increasing variety of services to both business and residential customers has been the subject of much speculation for more than a decade. However, although optical fibers are now used routinely for longer haul transmission and for connections to large business customers; fiber to provide the final link to the generality of customers has proved to be a tougher challenge than originally expected. The extent to which fiber will penetrate the network depends not only on technical capabilities and economic performance, but also on regulation, competition, and the types of service that customers will actually want. The interplay between these complex factors is discussed, and potential scenarios are described. An endpoint vision of a future broadband infrastructure is described in order to illustrate the major new service delivery and operational benefits, which can flow from the revolutionary new technologies that can now be unleashed     

A look at the video dial-tone network

As organisations with information to sell implement an array of multimedia services for the home, others, too, are hard at work. Telephone companies, as well as cable operators, are busy developing broadband intelligent networks to underpin those broadcast and interactive offerings. The phone companies define their network as a common-carrier transport service, in that it grants equal access to all information providers, including themselves, and enables consumers to "dial up" video or multimedia applications offered by third parties. This kind of service has become known as a video dial-tone network. The user first gets a menu from the network provider. He or she then picks an information provider, which sends its own interactive menu of services to the customer