Posts Tagged ‘traffic management’

Device Awareness: The Key to Service Planning

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by Cam Cullen

Recently there has been a lot of talk among DPI vendors about location awareness. Location awareness is critical to understanding where the bottlenecks on your network occur, and giving you the ability to actively manage traffic in those locations. Although this is a key capability of what Procera offers (and in much more depth than many other vendors), I want to focus on another key “awareness” component that is not often talked about that can vastly improve the capability of an operator to plan their capacity upgrades and pricing plans.

What is device awareness? Simply put, device awareness is the ability of the DPI system to understand what device is sending/requesting traffic on the network. With so many “internet-connected” devices on networks today, the variety of places and formats to access data has exploded. You can watch Netflix on many TVs, DVD or Blu-Ray players, dedicated boxes (like Roku), consoles (PS3, Wii, and Xbox), smartphones, tablets, or your PC, and Hulu on many of the same.

Why is device awareness important? Understanding what devices your users have connected to the network helps an operator to understand the potential impact of several different scenarios:

1)     If I have x users with a certain device on my networks with a certain location bias and usage profile, what happens if that number becomes 2x?

2)     If a new application comes out (say for example Netflix for PS3, or Hulu Plus for PS3), and I have x users with that device, what is my exposure if 20% of my users start using the new application?

3)     If I want to launch a service with a new device (new iPhone or Android device) and other operators have announced that the normal usage profile for that device is 200GB/month, what might happen to my network with an aggressive take rate?

For Product and Marketing planners, being able to answer these types of questions ensures that the network can handle any changes in user behavior – either application or device related. For users, it ensures that the network can adapt to their usage and not experience dissatisfaction with network performance as usage patterns morph over time. All operators are very aware of the user dissatisfaction issues floating around the world as Smartphone and mobile broadband laptop connections become mission critical for corporations. Proactive management and planning are possible with the right kind of awareness and reporting engines.

How is device awareness implemented?  There are many ways that this can be gathered on the network. In mobile networks, it is common for operators to include this information in the Business or Operational Support Systems for each user account, and often make it part of the user authentication and accounting exchange where it can be snooped by a DPI system. It can also be determined by the applications used by the subscriber (i.e. if the traffic matches Rock Band for the PS3, the user is most likely using a PS3). Another method is by information gleaned from the user agent or application specific information that can be gathered by the DPI engine during Layer 7 analysis. Although each of these methods is not a fail-safe method to gather device information, the combination of these methods can provide a very close approximation for network operators. For example, a query on how many unique subscribers matched a PS3 signature during the month could provide the basis for determining how many subscribers would have access to the new Hulu Plus video streaming application when it was released for the PS3, and another query to see how many of those subscribers had used Hulu (or any streaming video service) before would provide additional planning input to determine the impact of that new service on their network.

Device awareness is a key aspect of the “Awareness” capability of the Procera solution, and without awareness, analysis and control are not possible. I will have more to say on location awareness in a future blog, as this is another key awareness factor, not only for mobile networks, but also for fixed and wi-fi deployments as well. As devices proliferate, being able to ensure that the content is served appropriately for those devices and ensure the correct amount of bandwidth is available will be critical.

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Mobile Data Overtakes Voice In Revenue

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 by Jon Linden

Only 18 months ago I was sitting with a mobile operator who told me that their main objective was to ensure that data services didn’t cannibalize their voice revenue. The reason was simple – data service generated about 5% of the revenue.

Fast forward to June 2010. The sun is shining and the World Cup in soccer is just about to kick off, but more importantly Softbank Mobile Japan announces that data services for the first time overtook voice services in revenue in Q1! Japan has always paved the way for mobile data services, and NTT DoCoMo are expected to follow suit during the second half of this year.

But Japan is no different (at least not in this specific sense) than any other country in the western world. I see mobile operators here in Sweden spend the majority of their TV advertising on promoting mobile data services. It has become a differentiator and a big enough piece of the pie. We will shadow Japan and probably break the 50% marker in 2011 in many cases. Mobile data is a $50bn+ business this year in the US according to Chetan Sharma Consulting; a significant business where minor changes and adjustments in packaging, pricing, production cost and ARPU has a substantial impact on bottom-line.

Chetan Sharma also said that the US mobile subscription penetration was approximately 94% at the end of Q1 2010, and past 100% if we take out the demographics of 5 yrs and younger. Growth won’t come from winning new voice users, but from making the ones you have more profitable and to steal customers from the competition – e.g. with compelling data offerings. And you’ll have to control production cost since they’ll constantly expect more at the same price.

The conclusion is that mobile operators must take a seriously look at the packaging of their data services. “All you can eat” is not the best for (almost all) your customers, and it’s certainly not the best for your business case – especially as access speeds go up. That’s why we see more and more mobile operators moving away from flat rate data packages, as Cam referred to in his recent blog post. Tiered services are happening – thank God!

Eventually we will have options for people with different needs. But let’s stop for a second and consider what you’re trying to accomplish. Tiered services can either be a customer incentive or a cost insurance – or both. Don’t get too introvert in controlling potential exceptions with caps and limitations. This will add complexity, customer concern (even if they’re not even close to any limit/cap), and you’re up against some serious competition out there. But still, as said, small changes can have a big impact. Offloading peak hours to better utilize your network, attract new customers, or offer added value services that can boost ARPU can boost your profitability and ability to invest even more in your services and customer support.

I hate to say it, but we know from experience that devices (e.g. iPhone launches or subsidiesed phones) actually sell more subscriptions than any packages we produce. But service packages will support the devices and add to the differentiation. Make sure you know who your customer is, where he is, what applications he’s running, and what device he’s using – in order to accommodate his then current and general needs. Make sure your information is reliable since accurate intelligence enables proper business decisions.

So what are my recommendations? I’ve said it before (Do’s and Don’ts in Bandwidth Control) – keep it simple! Your biggest challenge will be to communicate it, implement it, and justify it (“is YouTube video or web?”). Know your customer. Define your target group and offer applicable services. Serving young savvy nerds with the same offering as unsophisticated 65+ Internet users won’t work. Don’t become too technology-driven and introvert in your business model. And avoid too many options since they will cause confusion.

So, do I need to say that we know this space and offer the solution you’re looking for? Well, we are, and we’re darn good at it! I look forward to you reaching out to me to discuss this further, but in the meantime I’ll kick back and enjoy some seriously good World Cup soccer. Sweden didn’t qualify this year, which gives Swedish mobile operators another four years to work out a business model that supports the network being flooded with real-time streaming video. Good luck (no irony intended).

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Mobile Data Plans that Work

Monday, June 7th, 2010 by Cam Cullen

Mobile data plans have been in the news quite a bit lately, with Verizon (LTE plans) and AT&T (iPad and iPhone plans) updating the market on their mobile data positions. Verizon has all but announced that there will be no unlimited data plans on their LTE network, which is now scheduled to go live in 30-40 cities in Q4 2010, and people will pay based on their usage. AT&T announced that they are doing away with the unlimited iPad plan (already) and will now support tethering for the iPhone (but only for a 2GB/month plan). Other mobile operators also would rather have data plans based on usage rather than unlimited plans, but it remains to be seen how long or if operators with rich data devices can hold out, or if the pain of congestion will hit their network as it has for AT&T.

But is the ideal answer for mobile data to always bill based on usage? Although I understand the issues that are driving the operators to implement usage based plans (cost control, congestion management, etc.), I think that there are hybrid plans that could significantly accelerate the adoption of mobile data usage (and fixed mobile substitution for some users). Mobile operators could serve their customers better by offering flexible plans that were targeted towards different “consumer” types on their mobile network that were sensitive to application usage and time of day. These plans would be ideal for the new generation of rich media devices (Android phones/tablets, iPhone, iPad, and laptops) and accelerate their adoption by the consumer groups that covet the devices but are still afraid of bill shock (which will be even higher now that overage charges are going to be pervasive). It has been proven that devices can sell data plans, but the plans can also stunt the usage of the devices if using them becomes too complicated and expensive.

What would these plans look like? Most plans would be similar to the existing plans, with usage meters for the majority of data and separate usage meters for the applications that are attractive to specific consumers, with streaming video, audio, and file sharing leading the pack. Although web pages can be a lot of data (I once read an analysis that said the BBC front page was 1MB of data, which could cost you a pretty penny when you are roaming!), the real problem for mobile operators are long-lived streaming or downloading applications that can cause persistent congestion in a cell or on the network. Some examples of targeted plans:

  • Streaming Video: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 25GB of data, unlimited nights and weekends
  • Streaming Audio: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 10GB of data, unlimited nights and weekends
  • Unlimited Web: Unlimited web browsing and email, 2GB streaming media and other applications
  • Social Media: Unlimited Facebook/MySpace/IM/email, 2GB other applications

These plans could either be an add-on to an existing data plan, or part of different bundles for users. A very attractive iPad plan would offer unlimited web browsing, but a usage meter on other applications. I don’t see these plans as being negative towards Network Neutrality, since they will be selected by the users – as an alternative to the pure usage-based plan that the mobile operator would also offer. Time-based plans are already popular among mobile operators for voice, and could easily be popular among students and business travelers (i.e. Nights and Weekends plans).

My concern is that placing restrictive limits on bandwidth usage will stifle or limit the potential of the nascent market for rich data devices, or limit their use to Wi-Fi networks, which completely misses the goal of upgrades to LTE and other high speed mobile data networks – which is to make access ubiquitous for users (and not ubiquitous just for email). The challenge of implementing these plans is on the systems that would be used to meter the different applications (i.e. DPI systems) to ensure that the application classification is accurate.

An innovative mobile operator that offered these plans as an alternative to a more restrictive plan could tip the scales in their favor when competing for the “high value” users for mobile data. In the highly competitive mobile market, operators that think outside the box and find ways to best leverage the technology that they are already deploying in their networks will emerge victorious and profitable. Flexibility will be a key success factor.

As a user – would you be more likely to purchase a plan that gave you flexibility in how you used your mobile broadband?  I know that I would.

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Does Network Neutrality impact DPI?

Friday, May 7th, 2010 by James Brear

FCC Chairman Genachowski’s recent letter has instigated a lot of talk about Net Neutrality, some of it apocalyptical (“The end of the Internet is here!”), some of it reasonable (“Nothing has changed, business as usual”). Both sides of the discussion have valid points to their arguments, but what really is the impact?

Without going into details (I will leave that to the experts), the FCC has reset the status quo to what it was before the Comcast court decision. As Genachowski himself states in the document “…this approach would restore the status quo”, resetting the ability of the FCC to manage broadband as they have in the past, preserving the FCC’s mission.

This is not “the nuclear option” that had been proposed by some, which would have made every aspect of broadband service open to regulation and restriction, and it is also not a capitulation to the Comcast ruling which would essentially make the FCC powerless against ISPs. Instead, as Genachowski himself headlined in his letter, this was a third way to look at the problem. Under this framework, the FCC would ensure that open access to networks is maintained, and focuses on the connections to the network, and not the content or services that run on that transport.

So now we are back to where we were before the Comcast ruling. However, there still are some concerns about stifling innovation and curtailing investments in broadband, but I think much of the uncertainty has been removed for ISPs (Procera customers) that want to continue to invest in their infrastructures because the evolving needs of their customers require it.

But….we are not exactly back where we were two years ago. Several changes have already come about because of this whole exercise.

  • ISPs know that they MUST be transparent in what they do on their networks, and consumers are watching them very closely, so no funny business is likely to slip by end users. This is a very good thing for consumers, and will force ISPs to think twice before they implement new policies, as they will be tried in the court of opinion well before any court case could be filed, and consumers will vote with their wallets and switch if practices are not to their liking.
  • There is general agreement that applications should not be discriminated against during normal operations (I qualify that because congestion management is still a problem, especially for real-time services).
  • Reasonable network management is OK. Although “reasonable” is open to interpretation, I think again the court of public opinion and consumer’s wallets will guide ISPs to a mutually agreeable definition (and this is also where congestion management is again an issue).
  • The door is open to ISPs that want to be creative and find ways to have service plans that innovate new services and deliver LOWER cost options for subscribers that use the network less and higher cost for the users that consume more resources.

So what is the impact of Net Neutrality on Procera?, neutral to positive. I don’t see any ISPs “behaving badly”, and no application vendors claiming discrimination. I do see smart phone customers still complaining, and some broadband customers concerned about video and voice performance, but our “reasonable” network management solutions can help ISP’s take their service to the next level.  Creating better customer experiences and evolving their networks to keep up with the innovations of technology.

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Economy of Scaling To 10G Networks

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 by Jon Linden

“PacketLogic is now available with gigabit interfaces!” This is not today’s announcement, but it’s also not ancient history. We launched the second generation of PacketLogic with (almost) gigabit capacity in April 2004. Four years later, in May of 2008, we released our high-end PL10000 family with 10G interfaces and what is still the highest capacity of any DPI system available in the market today.

What I’m saying is that we love breaking speed records. Now we’re doing it again; but in a very different way. The new PacketLogic PL8720 is the first 10 Gbps DPI system that comes in a slick, real estate and power efficient 2RU appliance with the market’s highest port-density per rack unit. Most importantly, it’s cost efficient.

Numbers typically speak louder than words. I happened to read the following earlier today: “Market tracker Dell’Oro Group says 10G, which makes up 25% of the market in terms of revenue, will drive growth in Ethernet switching this year. […] Dell’Oro expects 10G to reach $3.6 billion in revenue for 2010, up from $2.8 billion in 2009.”

This means that not only big carriers deploy 10G these days. Tier 2 and 3 operators, even higher education institutions, deploy 10G. And they will have to in order to cope with a growing traffic volume and to ensure that the Internet remains the innovation engine it is. More speed means more traffic, which means an even bigger need to understand what’s going through your network, and automate detection of potential threats to both users and the performance of the network.

Doing deep packet inspection at a 10 Gbps rate is computing intensive. This is why it historically has been done in chassis-based solutions – products that are and still will satisfy the large operators’ requirements for resilience and upgrade capabilities. The extensive computing intensity is the reason why DPI has been such a big investment that many small to mid size network operators have postponed this decision. Not deploying DPI puts them in an unfavorable competitive situation. We saw this gaping market demand and set out to develop a cost efficient product that’ll upgrade all the way to 10 Gbps – without compromising on functionality.

Are you getting the dignity of this? Do you see why cost efficiency is so important? I’d say this is flat out a game changer! You’ll see. PL8720 will have first-mover advantage in a rapidly evolving market where we put DPI in the hands of a new set of service providers and higher education institutions. They, and their users, will experience the benefits of a full-blown DPI product. Many of these have hesitated to make this investment, though they’re fully aware of the need, because they know they’ll still make further network upgrades and will transition from GE links to 10GE. Now this is not an obstacle anymore.

I just wanted to let you know what we’re doing to change the world of networking. Pretty interesting, huh?!?

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Mobile World Congress…It is all about the Apps!

Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Cam Cullen

I have spent the week in Barcelona attending the Mobile World Congress event. Anyone that thinks that there is no vibrancy in the networking world should have been here to see the show. The halls were packed, the booths were busy, and the meeting rooms fully booked. There is a lot of excitement about where the mobile industry is going, and the opportunity that exists for mobile providers going forward.

One thing that jumped out at me during the show was the growing focus on the applications that are driving mobile usage. Yes, there was plenty of LTE hype, and lots of platform and operating system buzz (you should have seen the line for the Android developers lab as well as the push Microsoft made for Windows 7 Mobile), but focus seems to be shifting towards the applications that are driving mobile usage. The operators are keen on pushing new applications, because they will drive up data usage and increase the urge for users to upgrade their devices and service packages.

There is a clear recognition that mobile success may be won or lost on the application front. In the US, Apple has done a good job with marketing the iPhone by focusing on the everyday things that it can do to make your life easier with mobility (finding restaurants, checking on movie showtimes, etc). Google did a great ad during the SuperBowl (American Football for those outside the US) that showed Google search used to progress a storyline for a person’s life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU) which is not specifically targeted at Android, but can be applied to Android and mobility. Microsoft was showing the same type of applications and integration at MWC as part of their booth show. Ericsson announced an applications store (eStore) with more than 30,000 applications that carriers can offer those apps to their own customers.  A new alliance was formed between 24 operators (including ATT, China Mobile, Orange, etc) called the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) designed to simplify how application vendors get their applications to the end user.

Why is this important to a DPI vendor? Mobile operators who want to understand what applications are clicking with their users need to look no further than to a “robust” DPI system to understand what applications, clients, and software their users are running – even down to the device level. Application vendors obviously want the operators to know that their application is popular, since it will open up more opportunities to sell that application, whether it is through the operators own application store or the mobile OS store (iTunes, Android market, etc). The DPI “lite” solutions provided by some vendors will never keep pace with the ability of a dedicated DPI solution. At Procera, application recognition has always been a core element of our solution, we release updates every two weeks to keep pace with the new applications our customers encounter in the wild, and this includes mobile applications.

The applications that really jumped out at me are the “useful” applications that can simplify or make life easier for people. Simple navigation capabilities can be helpful even if you are walking through a large city – looking for a specific location for a meeting, searching for a restaurant, looking for a store. VOIP applications (which are finally being approved for mobile use by some operators) can be cheaper than international calls in some instances (or using the VOIP over wi-fi is even better). Even bar-code scanners that allow instant internet price comparisons are really useful if you are shopping and want to make sure you are getting a better deal.

As mobile operators look to understand what they need to do to generate revenue, I am certain that going forward, applications will be a big part of that plan – whether it is enabling some of the applications in real-time (even if it is not sold by the operator – like GPS), or form a retail perspective in their application stores. DPI can help them understand where their greatest opportunities are – and will allow them to service their customers better by meeting their expectations.

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Don’t Invest In DPI Until Net Neutrality Has Been Resolved

Monday, January 25th, 2010 by Jon Linden

Sorry, there should be a question mark at the end of that heading, and the answer is No!  The fact is you need to invest in DPI now. I know I’m biased, but that’s why I possess hands-on knowledge and facts of what our customers do and why.

DPI does not equal P2P throttling and Net Neutrality infringement. P2P control originally presented itself as an opportunity for DPI with a quick ROI on a hair-on-fire issue where P2P filesharing rampaged at an exponential growth rate, which meant exponential cost. But today we’re in the second, or I would even argue the third generation of DPI, and both products, and the use of these products, have evolved and become much more sophisticated.

Today the most common request is visibility. Visibility of what traffic is traversing the network in order to detect changes early in user behavior to avoid surprises on the core business and business models. Today’s rapid increase in streaming video is both a threat and an opportunity to cable MSOs, whose core business is TV distribution.

This is a good illustration of why network traffic intelligence is so important. Today we don’t watch TV as we did before. We don’t watch in real-time since we have TiVo and subscribe to episodes as they are “released”. It’s just a small step to Hulu and the broadcasting companies’ Play services. Early detection of these phenomena gives the operator the ability to offer relevant packages, change pricing, and develop new services without being left far behind.

In all honesty, very few of our customers and prospects even consider limitation of competing over-the-top (OTT) services. Savvy end-users catch what they do, draw attention to it, and the operator is caught with their pants down. You don’t “get away with it”.

But knowledge is power. Based on proper network intelligence you can make proper decisions. For example reach out to emerging services and join them instead of trying to beat them, look at the value add of your paid-for services compared to free OTT services, see the impact on your network of new applications, and project the investments required to accommodate these new services.

You could actually go as far as to say that DPI is required to enable Net Neutrality. Transparency is a cornerstone in Net Neutrality and DPI offers the tools that verify that you are transparent, that you’re not preventing good service levels due to obsolete policies supporting an old reality.

We, Procera, have not seen an impact on our DPI business from Net Neutrality, and I think it’s due to the above. Operators understand this, have understood why DPI is necessary, how it’s used properly, and are able to discard the background noise of an infected discussion while listening to creative and reasonable input.

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DPI + Policy Control = True

Monday, January 11th, 2010 by Jon Linden

The rumor is true, DPI and Policy Control are confirmed to be a couple and have been seen hand-in-hand even in public recently. Feelings are mutual and this is bound to last “until death do us part”.

The 3GPP framework rules! At least in the mobile space and it’s also making headway into fixed. That’s good. DPI has become a critical component in a service provider network, which requires DPI to interact with surrounding systems. On top of this complexity grows with tiered services, volume quotas, sponsored sites, and premium gaming and telecommuter services.

This is where the policy server, or PCRF (Policy Charging and Rules Function), comes in.  DPI is an excellent traffic analyzer and policy enforcer. But since DPI in most cases resides inline and manages large volumes of traffic, it can’t afford  “wasting” cycles on polling information from other systems and correlating a lot of conditions.

This is a perfect assignment for the out-of-band PCRF server. PCRF is a decision point – PDP (Policy Decision Point). Once the decision is made it’s sent out to one or more PEPs (Policy Enforcement Point). DPI is a great PEP, but other equipment in the network might occasionally be better suited to host certain policies. The Gx interface in 3GPP enables standardized integration between DPI and PCRF. But the fact is that most installations still use a SOAP interface and a more or less proprietary API, but Gx is starting to make an entrance.

Since DPI and PCRF is part of the same eco system, resolving the same challenges, it’s quite understandable that there is some confusion as to whether or not DPI competes with PCRF vendors like Camiant, Openet, Bridgewater and Volubill. That’s certainly not the case. It’s rather the opposite where everyone’s working with everyone. I dare say it’s flat out promiscuous. Do I also dare to assume there will be consolidation within and between the two segments? Well, let me put it this way: anything else would surprise me.

We, Procera, see that most of our customers and prospects either made a decision or are making a decision on PCRF as they deploy DPI today. This is great. It opens up even more opportunities and options for how to create new services, how to strengthen the operators’ business case, and how to adjust to accommodate the ever-changing reality.

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Mobile Internet – Just A Bit Pipe?

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 by Jon Linden

I’ve argued that mobile Internet is “just another Internet access”. This used to be a controversial and provocative statement when talking to mobile operators who defended their premium network investments they made,  in order to deliver pretty fast Internet connectivity.

Imagine my surprise when I recently attended a traffic management conference in London where all mobile operators in chorus surrendered to being just a bit-pipe competing with wireline broadband… What happened?

I assume they’re realizing that they don’t have the recipe for the all-resolving secret sauce, which is why it currently feels a bit hopeless. Walled gardens didn’t work, a price war has driven prices down, customers don’t pay for added-value services, and another network upgrade, this time to the fourth generation, is just around the corner.

The good thing is that this puts the spotlight on the fundamentals – production cost. You consider how you can limit OPEX by minimizing helpdesk calls, you look at how you can maximize the utilization of your network, you want to automate up-sales, and you implement cost thresholds like volume quotas and international roaming control. Oh by the way, these are all things you can do using DPI.

Once we’re past this realization we must get ourselves out of this sorrow and start looking forward. Mobile Internet certainly has added value over wireline. The growth in mobile Internet is probably the best validation of this. But speed, i.e. bandwidth, is not one of them. Maybe it’s time to take the lead on selling non-bandwidth-centric services? How can you leverage mobility? For what customers is mobile Internet the only, or the best, option? How will built-in 3G modems in laptops impact the market and the ability to sell pre-paid services?

This is putting a lot of demand on the business developement and product management people at mobile operators. It’s time to get your moneys worth guys! Every case is certainly unique. Do you provide mobile and fixed line, do you go after specific customer segments, or are you the low price option? This will impact your strategy more than ever.

So I guess I must convert to the other side and argue “Mobile Internet is more than just a bit-pipe”. It doesn’t feel as controversial, but a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

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Do’s and Don’ts in Bandwidth Control

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 by Jon Linden

Suddenly it all happens at once. We went from zero to two events focused on DPI in one week – Light Reading’s virtual tradeshow Policy Control & Deep Packet Inspection, and Informa’s Broadband Traffic Management event IRL in London early last week. These events are good validation that DPI has grown up to get proper attention.

I was on-site at the event in London – and I apologies for the hotel lobby background noise on my line in the LR panel discussion. But I also had the pleasure to be on a panel in London together with Benny Lim from SingTel and David Hodgers from O2 Ireland, moderated by Mark Newman from Informa. The topic was “Lessons Learnt: The Do’s and Don’ts of Bandwidth Control”.

So what are the lessons learnt on bandwidth control? Let me quickly go through my conclusions and what I told the audience. When looking at do’s and don’ts I see two categories: what works and what ‘s ethical. The latter is more challenging with today’s fast moving social media where bad news travels fast and subscribers vote with their feet.

How do you manage this? Well, don’t expect to “get away with it”. Internet users are savvy and operators in London confirmed that non-transparency came back to bite them. You must be able to defend what you’re doing, and a good test is if you’d accept it yourself. Greed is not an acceptable reason, though a viable business case normally is.

Do’s and don’ts also depend on what you’re trying to achieve. DPI and bandwidth control spans over a broad range of applications, from network protection and congestion control to quality assurance and service differentiation. We tend to be very introvert and technology-driven in this industry, but you must start from business benefits and objectives in order to define intentions and make it understandable to your end-users.

The key to what works is knowing what’s going on. It’s not an option to guess what your customers do and how your network is doing. And conditions change – all the time. What used to be 80% filesharing a year and a half ago is today replaced with 40% streaming video as the largest bandwidth consumer. A policy rule-set that is not up-to-date will cause some strange consequences.

I wish I could provide a blueprint for what works, but every situation is unique. Your product mix, fixed and/or mobile, target groups, price positioning, and on top of this there are geographical differences like what applications are used and what bandwidth control practices are accepted.

This means that the number one thing to do is try. You will have to try it out and assess the outcome in your specific situation and your environment. I know this sound scary, but be adaptive, be quick, and make sure you make qualified decisions based on facts rather than guesstimates and assumptions.

Let me also summarize my don’ts: Don’t lie – be transparent. Don’t insert packets – honor integrity. Don’t get introverted and super techie – understand your business and your customers. And don’t do nothing – this is the most expensive decision of them all…

Let me wrap up with one more suggestion for what you should do: Keep it simple! Complexity kills this cat. If it’s too complicated you won’t be able to communicate to your subscribers, it’ll be impossible to update and change, and you won’t be able to measure if you successfully achieved what you intended to. This is hard to make simple – which is why we, Procera, are here to help ;-)

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