White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2009 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 2

INTRODUCTION

Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policybased Strategies

Globally, network data usage, for both wireless and wireline networks, continues to grow very strongly. Moreover, there are no signs of that growth ending, as smartphone and tablet devices move into the mainstream market, consumers adopt cloud-based Over-the-Top (OTT) services, and machine-to-machine deployments become more widespread. A side effect of this growth is that the operators have to add capacity at unprecedented levels of investment, and the performance of networks has become harder to predict. Left unmanaged, small numbers of heavy users, the growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive traffic, such as streaming video, and cell-specific constraints can result in all available resources being consumed thus negatively impacting the customer experience. To keep up with demand, operators cannot afford to address the issue by blindly throwing capacity at the problem, as the cost of adding capacity does not always equate to new revenue. While the strong data traffic growth curve initially caught many network departments unaware, the lessons have been learned. Openet, through its various Policy and Charging Control (PCC) implementations, has observed that there are positive signs that operators are bringing the traffic growth curve under control. Operators, through a series of incremental improvements, are balancing the need for investment for reliable connectivity with network cost control. Advanced operators are doing this by putting in place demand-side subscriber policy controls, influencing customer behaviour by tightening terms and conditions of data plans and prioritizing certain traffic. This has been complimented by supply-side improvements to intelligently augment capacity and improve network efficiency, through the use of real-time, policy control-driven video optimization, and traffic management techniques. Central to this approach is a fundamental understanding that not all traffic is the same and not all types of subscriber data traffic is equal in terms of revenue opportunity. Operators are becoming more subscriber- and application-specific in how they manage data traffic and congestion on their networks. They are seeking to dynamically manage traffic and subscribers, in real-time, to both optimize the customer experience and minimize congestion in the network. Operators understand that several interconnected initiatives are required to address the different causes of congestion and their impact on subscribers. Sophisticated, real-time, context aware policy-enabled congestion management can give a competitive edge, both in terms of cost-control, Quality of Experience (QoE)-based differentiation, and monetization of network assets. This paper describes essential bearer-plane congestion management use-cases, and the ways in which operators can be more effective with smarter policy and congestion management solutions.

This whitepaper covers the following top 5 strategies based on policy management: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Predictive Congestion Management Wi-Fi Offloading Dynamic Network Management Intelligent Video Optimization Smarter Subscriber Usage Management

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 3

1) PReDICTIve CONgeSTION MaNageMeNT

Traditionally, operators have attempted to address network congestion with reactive or trigger based policies between radio nodes, costly network probes or Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) platforms and first generation policy management systems. However, by the time these have been activated, services have usually already degraded, with the customer experience been negatively impacted, which may result in losing high-value customers. For this reason, it is paramount that operators are able to accurately predict congestion points before they occur and to take proactive actions that consider the context of the subscribers activities and the value of the customer. Such a proactive approach will enable operators to substantially reduce congestion and maintain the QoE of the greater whole of customers, making subscriber satisfaction a key differentiator. To achieve this, operators require a tight combination of accurate traffic forecasting and dynamic policy control, enabling them to make proactive network optimization decisions that take into account the subscriber context and profile.

Figure 1: Visualizing and predicting congestion

Predicting Points of Congestion

To effectively predict when congestion would occur, operators needs to be able to model network and usage activity, and track network key performance indicators. Predictions should take into account historical data, special events, and seasonality, as well as the effect of recent changes to a network. This enables more precise and less invasive network monitoring.

applying Proactive Policy Controls

Being able to diagnose where and when a problem is going to occur is only useful if action can be taken dynamically. By targeting points where congestion is predicted to happen for policy controls, rather than the entire network, operators will be able to implement targeted Quality of Service (QoS) controls that block, redirect or modify traffic to match service requests with available network resources. This gives operators the ability to be more location- and application-specific in the way they manage data traffic congestion, and to better address subscriber frustrations associated with network congestion issues.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 4

Making Subscriber and Context -aware Decisions

Being able to understand the context to a resource request from a subscriber in a congested area, makes for a more precise and value-enhancing decision. The service being requested, a subscribers data plan, the type of device, or cause of congestion make any decision affecting a subscribers quality of experience complex. When a network or cell-site is congested, policy decisions need to be made in real time through combining subscriber entitlements (e.g. high priority subscriber), with service awareness (e.g. identifying an activity as a low priority: routine over-the-air update), to balance network requests with the resources available. Combining predictive network analytics software and dynamic policy management enables operators to predict specific congestion points, pro-actively plan intelligent policy decisions, and applying them in real time. With such a capability, they can address congestion before it occurs, increasing network efficiency and meeting subscribers quality of experience expectations.

2) WI-FI OFFlOaDINg
Wi-Fi networks have long been viewed as separate entities to mobile networks, only available in selected locations and used primarily by laptop owners. However, a number of trends are changing this. Firstly, more and more mobile devices now have the capability to connect to both mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Secondly, while operators are doing their best to provide the most appropriate mobile data experience to their users despite network capacity challenges, it has been established that a high proportion of the mobile data traffic is actually generated in the users home or indoors. And finally, although Wi-Fi is already widely spread, Wi-Fi hotspots are still due to more than quadruple to 5.8 million by 2015 (Global Developments in Public Wi-Fi, WBA Industry Report, 2011) With these facts in mind and knowing that Wi-Fi is cost-effective as it uses unallocated spectrum, mobile operators are presented with an excellent opportunity to unburden their mobile networks by leveraging Wi-Fi infrastructures. By offloading some of their mobile data traffic to Wi-Fi networks, mobile operators will be able to cost-effectively reduce their network congestion issues. This strategy will be all the more effective as next generation hotspots (NGH) are introduced, allowing users to seamlessly roam between mobile and Wi-Fi networks using their mobile SIM card as authentication, which will alleviate concerns about authentication, network discovery, and security. To effectively reduce congestion through Wi-Fi offloading, mobile operators need to be able to decide when to offload to which network and to enable a common experience across the mobile and Wi-Fi networks. To achieve this, they require flexible policy controls that can support multiple business models and be applied across both networks.

Offloading at the right time and to the right network

A mobile operator may want a user to only offload under certain conditions in order to effectively manage congestion. These conditions could vary based on the type of content the user is consuming, the time of the day, the mobile network conditions, the available alternate Wi-Fi networks etc. For example, an operator may wish that a subscriber only offloads at certain times of the day, or only when using certain applications, or only when in range of a particular set of Wi-Fi hot-spots. Also while many Wi-Fi networks have high capacity and throughput, this is not always the case. Many Wi-Fi networks will be best effort and can result in poorer performance than a mobile network (e.g. hotel Wi-Fi vs. LTE). In some cases it may be preferential to keep users on the mobile network in order to provide the best experience. To offload at the right time and to the right network, mobile operators need to be able to create offload policies based on traffic type, time, subscriber information, location and other contextual information.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 5

Enabling a common experience to offloaded traffic

To keep users satisfied and drive acceptance of Wi-Fi offloading in order to relieve network congestion, mobile operators need to provide a common experience on mobile and WiFi networks - or at least the experience should not degrade when going from the mobile network to a Wi-Fi network. To enable this, common policy and charging controls should be implemented on both the mobile and Wi-Fi network, as well as access to the same services provided on mobile networks. Without this control, functions such as parental controls cannot be realized. Similarly, Gold level subscribers or a subscriber on a premium video package, whose traffic needs to be managed to ensure it is of sufficient quality, cannot be managed efficiently if the traffic is offloaded to a network in which the operator has no control. Wi-Fi offloading offers a unique opportunity for mobile operators to relieve the burden mobile data places on the mobile network. Through the use of convergent policy controls, they can truly benefit from this opportunity by being able to decide when, where, and under what conditions to offload, and by enabling a common experience across the mobile and Wi-Fi networks. The ideal scenario being for an operator to use Wi-Fi networks as a complementary technology to their mobile radio networks.

3) DyNaMIC NeTWORk MaNageMeNT

It is generally accepted by regulators, and expected by the public at large, that operators engage in reasonable network management, especially during periods of congestion. In addition, there is an expectation that operators maintain network security and integrity for the network and its users, protecting them from harmful and illegal traffic e.g. such activities as denial of service attacks, malware, and rogue user behaviour. Subject to net neutrality considerations, the network may also use application awareness to optimize reasonable network management. Whilst traffic management, that is the handling of traffic flows on networks, was previously a static approach based on admission control and static QoS; there has been a growing requirement for more dynamic mechanisms that optimize the packet flows of distinct services or subscriber groups, to improve the aggregate QoE and improve network efficiency. Traffic Detection Functions classify traffic in-line and can also apply optimization enforcements actions selectively to the various classified traffic flows. Coupling this capability with operatordefined network, subscriber, and application policy rules, gives a more granular, fine-tuned traffic management function. Policy Management brings to bear service-gating and traffic shaping capabilities, enforced via a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) device. This is then applied to certain traffic types enabling them to be allowed, blocked, or shaped by subscribers, time-of-day, location or any combination of these variables. This allows operator-defined optimization enforcement actions, to be coupled to corresponding operator-defined network, subscriber, and application policy rules. For example the optimization can be: Applied to all flows, within a specific service classification Applied to flows of a specific subscriber type, based on a subscriber profile Enabled for all subscribers using a specific type of application, such as IP (Internet Protocol) multimedia subsystem (IMS) services, video optimization, or parental controls

Being able to dynamically manage applications, by applying appropriate controls by traffic type, network conditions, and prioritization, allows operators to adopt a more intelligent and fine-tuned approach. While net neutrality is a consideration, meaning minimally providers may not block or engage in unreasonable discrimination. The reality is that many of the applications traversing todays networks were not designed with the architectural constraints of the wireless last-mile in mind. Policy controls in conjunction with DPI, can mitigate the impact of these.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 6

4) INTellIgeNT vIDeO OPTIMIzaTION

Customer demand for data connectivity continues to accelerate globally, driven by the adoption of smart devices and the increased consumption of video content. Video content has grown to account for over 50% of all data traffic and is forecast to reach 70% by 2016 (Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 20112016). Many operators have deployed video optimization solutions to relieve the burden video places on network bandwidth, to improve the customer experience, and to reduce the requirement for immediate network capacity investments. Operators are also investing heavily in separate policy and charging control solutions (PCC) to control and monetize access to their data networks through initiatives such as advice-ofcharge to avoid bill shock, fair usage charging and tiered pricing plans. The issue is the lack of integration between video optimization nodes and PCC systems that can give rise to contradictory policies that negatively impact network performance, and ultimately damage the customer experience. To avoid this risk, operators must tie video optimization policies back into Policy Management systems and benefit from an extended policy management framework that is subscriber-state, network-state, and service aware. This will enable them to co-ordinate policy decisions across their PCC and video optimization infrastructure, to intelligently identify and prioritize video content, and to give customers the best and most appropriate quality of experience.

Figure 2: Intelligent video optimization

Synchronizing Policy Management and Video Optimization

The traditional approach to implementing video optimization relies on static policies that are stored locally on the video optimization node, independently of the policy management platform. The growing use of dynamic policies by operators raises the risk that local policies on the video optimization node may compete or contradict with policies, such as Traffic Shaping, which are controlled by PCC systems. To intelligently manage video traffic and reduce network congestion, operators need their Policy Management platform to be able to support dynamic interfaces to multiple policy enforcement points, including video optimization nodes; and to deliver dynamic policy rules based on real-time events such as network congestion, time of day and volume threshold limits. This will enable them to fully synchronize their policy decisions to reduce the risk of contradicting policies and more effectively reduce congestion.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 7

Identifying and Prioritizing Content

Treating all content equally benefits no-one: heavy users overwhelm the network and shut out average users, who in turn demand infrastructure improvements that are extremely costly but represent no increase in revenue. To address this lose-lose situation, operators must enable smart pipes (e.g. smarter networks) that are not just service aware (e.g. web vs. video vs. P2P), but are also content aware (e.g. Netflix vs. Hulu). Content identification is an absolute must to create two sided business models and make intelligent PCC decisions for video optimization. Whilst being content aware is great, the greater power is enabling differential treatment for premium content/media. To enable content prioritization to be done intelligently, policy decisions need to take into account the network and subscriber state, with factors including but not limited to: Peak vs. Off-Peak On-Network vs. Off-Network (data off-loading) Subscriber Service Plan (service tiers) Network Congestion (subscriber location) Consumption Limits (monthly fair usage, service pass) Device Type (HD video on small screen devices is pointless)

Delivering a Consistent Customer experience

The integration of video optimization with PCC enables operators to selectively optimize video content based on dynamic policy rules such as network conditions, service priorities, and subscriber entitlements. The Policy Manager can be used for example to instruct video optimization nodes to set larger buffer size for prioritized premium content and offer a lower buffer size for all other content types. Customers will benefit from a more consistent video viewing experience, especially when the network congestion, with more intelligent traffic management. Intelligent Video Optimization leverages policy management to dynamically control video optimization, improving the return from existing video optimization and PCC investments, and delivering a better, more cohesive quality of experience.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 8

5) SMaRTeR SUbSCRIbeR USage MaNageMeNT: FaIR USage aND DaTa TIeRS

Smarter Fair Usage
As a matter of good business practice, most operators have put in place subscriber controls, in an attempt to influence customer behaviour and its impact on the network, by introducing stricter terms and conditions on data plans especially fair usage quotas. It has long been observed that a disproportionately high percentage of the available data bandwidth is being consumed by a small number of users. To address this issue operators have been implementing fair usage limits to help moderate excess usage. Generally speaking, simply applying fair usage does not address the impact of congestion, especially when its effects are most likely to be felt, which is during busy peak network hours. However, the adoption of a fair usage limit does have a moderating affect on the amount of aggregate usage, changing customer behaviour by providing an incentive for users to minimize their usage. This not only reduces the overall demand on the network, but more importantly depending on how the quota is enforced, it can provide an opportunity to earn more revenues by selling additional quota. However, there is an issue with fair usage in that applying a limit does not typically correlate a users contribution at the time of network congestion. Typically, users who generate large volumes, including those that are above their fair usage limit, during times of congestion receive the same relative bandwidth and priority as users who rarely contribute to congestion. This anomaly has seen operators move away from using fair usage limits as simple caps, to using them as a method to change subscriber behaviour. As part of that process, fair usage is moving from being a passive, post-billing activity, to a more active and dynamic process. Adopting a more intelligent bandwidth management approach, factoring in real-time network congestion levels, and individual subscriber usage, allows operators to selectively trigger a number of congestion-specific relieving strategies including: Fair Usage limits that require rate-limiting rules enforced beyond the provided quota level busy Hour Fair Usage: throttling heavy users when cap is exceeded at certain times of the day. This requires inline, real-time indications of which flows and users are contributing to congestion, and options to extend a usage limits via a top-up purchase. Differential Treatments by application/application class, by time-shifting bandwidth intensive applications for customers who have reached their fair usage limit e.g. to prioritize traffic like web browsing when the network is heavily loaded, and allowing Peer-to-Peer applications, such as BitTorrent, to burst when capacity is available. Time-dependent Pricing - used in conjunction with usage caps or overage pricing, users can be encouraged to shift their consumption habits toward off-peak periods by discounting or zero-rating their usage during the determined periods.

Incentivizing off-peak usage with time-dependent pricing

Whilst the fast growth of mobile data traffic is said to be responsible for operators network congestion issues, the core issue is the traffic generated at peak times. By switching some of the peak time traffic to off-peak times, operators could significantly reduce network congestion. To achieve this, they can apply time-dependent pricing that incentivizes users, especially heavy users, to consume data during off-peak times. For instance, some operators offer Happy Hours during which data usage is free. This would encourage subscribers to, for example, download videos during off-peak times and watch them later. As a result, they benefit from free data usage and a better video experience; and the operators network suffers less from congestion for the benefit of all. Knowing that video traffic is the most significant contributor to data traffic growth and congestion issues, this is a typical example of how operators can make off-peak usage incentives a win-win proposition for all.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

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Adding capacity to improve congestion is ineffective unless operators put controls in place to ensure the capacity is fairly used. Dynamic, subscriber-aware fair usage enforcement may not be a panacea for network congestion, but it does affect customer behaviour and is a good building block for linking data traffic usage with its cost.

Smarter Data Tiers

A variation on fair usage is the data tier whose essential elements can comprise of different bundles of data volume (quota) and/or bandwidth speeds. Being able to offer data tiers provide a method for subscriber segmentation, enabling offers to be created to target the needs of specific user types. In terms of mitigating network congestion data tiers, similarly to fair usage, does not provide real-time, cell-level relief. But it can improve the aggregate network experience, by moderating unchecked heavy subscriber usage, and reducing the need to over dimension networks. Importantly, data tiers do help to match revenues with network utilization and provide an upsell path for subscribers and third-party application providers.

Figure 3: Example of Service Tiers In addition to the use-cases discussed in fair usage, data tiers establish the concept of treating subscribers differently. This becomes important from a congestion management perspective when: Tiers are differentiated by the amount of data volume included in a plan, as rate-limiting can be enforced when the respective limits are reached

This becomes especially powerful when this is applied beyond data quotas, to include different speeds and prioritized access, which enables operators to: Assign different QoS profiles to subscriber data plans to control how the available capacity is assigned Prioritize access for certain subscriber types, treating subscriber traffic differently in case of congestion, and therefore how a subscribers QoE is impacted. Create data plans that differentiate what a subscriber can do by data plan, and how applications are treated e.g. combining low price points with service type exclusions/ de-prioritization.

By having the capability to provide a choice of data plan and prices, composed by speed of access, data volume limit, device, location, time-of-day or week, excluded applications, and much more. The operator can effectively control minimum and maximum service level and relative priority of users and services by up- and downlink.

Copyright Openet Telecom, 2012

White Paper Reducing Network Congestion: Top 5 Policy-based Strategies 10

CONClUSION
While data revenues power the growth of mobile operators businesses, network congestion is on the rise, threatening customer satisfaction. Operators can address this issue by combining different strategies that leverage policy management to reduce network congestion and its negative impact on the mobile data experience; top 5 strategies being: Predictive Congestion Management: A tight combination of accurate traffic forecasting and dynamic policy control enabling proactive network optimization decisions that take into account the subscriber context and profile. Wi-Fi Offloading: Leveraging Wi-Fi networks to effectively unburden the mobile network by using convergent policy controls to decide when, where, and under what conditions to offload, and enable a common experience across the mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Dynamic Network Management: Being able to dynamically manage applications, by applying appropriate controls by traffic type, network conditions, and prioritization, allows operators to adopt a more intelligent and fine-tuned approach. Intelligent Video Optimization: Tying video optimization policies back into policy management systems to be able to co-ordinate policy decisions across PCC and video optimization infrastructures, to intelligently identify and prioritize video content, and to give customers the best and most appropriate quality of experience. Smarter Subscriber Usage Management: Applying smart strategies that modify the subscriber behaviour, such as: fair usage policies that factor in real-time network congestion levels and individual subscriber usage; and data tiers that help to match revenues with network utilization by targeting the needs of specific user types with a choice of data plan and prices, composed by speed of access, data volume limit, device, location, time-of-day or week, excluded applications, and much more.

about OPeNeT
Openet is the most innovative provider of Service Optimization Software (SOS) to tier one communications and media service providers, and a world leader in proven policy management solutions. To succeed, todays operators must know their customers, deploy innovative business models and control the allocation of network resources. Openets offerings are engineered to attract subscribers and provide an optimal experience, minimize the cost to serve them and maximize revenuemaking the most of every network and customer. Ranked #1 by Infonetics, Openets Policy Manager and associated software has been deployed by operators in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. For more information, please visit www.openet.com.

Effective next generation policy management should provide a flexible and extensible approach for operators to reduce network congestion. The ability to quickly implement and change policies in response to competitors, new devices, applications and changing consumer behaviours is essential. Policy management has evolved from its original use of enforcing static policies, i.e. at the beginning or end of a session, to be more dynamic, being able to affect network resources in mid-session with real-time triggers based on internal and external events.

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Copyright Openet Telecom, 2011