7750 sr – your edge in service evolution - tmcnet · alcatel-lucent 7750 service router: your...

ALCATEL-LUCENT 7750 SERVICE ROUTER: YOUR EDGE IN SERVICE EVOLUTION ApplicAtion note

TAbLE Of CONTENTS

Service evolution drivers and opportunities / 1

external innovation driving service evolution / 1

Residential service trends and opportunities / 2

Business service trends and opportunities / 2

Mobile service trends and opportunities / 3

Service evolution challenges / 4

Scale and performance / 4

Differentiation and service richness / 5

operational complexity / 5

Alcatel-lucent 7750 SR: the edge in service evolution / 6

Higher performance / 6

More services / 6

integrated intelligence / 7

Greater operational efficiency / 7

Alcatel-lucent 7750 SR: ip edge evolution examples / 9

large global tier 1 provider / 9

national tier 1 provider (eMeA) / 9

Summary / 10

Alcatel-lucent 7750 Service Router: Your edge in Service evolutionALCATEL-LUCENT AppLICATION NOTE

1

Driven by the latest innovations in Internet-based services and multimedia-enabled TVs, PDAs and smartphones, consumers are once again fueling change in the network services industry. Whether it’s mobile subscribers consuming more applications and video content while on the road, residential customers demanding more personalized, on-demand video services, or enterprises looking to fully leverage the efficiencies of cloud computing, service providers (SPs) are faced with both the challenge — and the opportunity — of evolving their services to meet the changing needs of their customers.

The opportunity is substantial. The market for public cloud-based services is expected to reach $176.8 billion by 2015. PayTV services have already reached $200 billion annually and are experiencing healthy growth despite the recent economic downturn. The extent to which SPs can transform these opportunities into new revenue streams will often hinge on their ability to overcome challenges at the IP edge of the network that stand in the way of service evolution. Maximum return mandates an IP edge with the flexibility, scale and operational efficiency to capitalize on new service opportunities while keeping rising bandwidth costs under control.

Many SPs have embarked on their service evolution journey and are driving new revenue in a profitable manner with the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) at the edge of their IP network. The 7750 SR allows SPs to:

• Diversifytheirnetworkservicesportfoliowithneworextendedservices

• Delivermorebandwidthmoreefficientlytomeetgrowingdemand

• Distinguishtheirservicesfromthecompetition

• DriveoperationalefficiencyandOPEXreduction

This document provides SP product marketing, network architecture and network operations executives with an overview of changing enterprise and consumer needs. It describes the new opportunities now open to SPs, the transformational challenges they face, and how these challenges and opportunities are best addressed with an IP services edge based on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR.

SERVICE EVOLUTION DRIVERS AND OppORTUNITIESExternal innovation driving service evolution When the first network services were introduced decades ago, the innovation cycle was driven by the service providers themselves — they defined connectivity services, brought them to market and added incremental enhancements along the way. In the past decade, technology innovations outside the domain of the service provider — in Internet-based services and in personal computing devices — have turned this model upside down and changed how subscribers view and consume connectivity services. To re-establish their central role in the new network-based service value chain, SPs must evolve their services to meet the changing needs of their customers, as they embrace the best of what technology innovation has to offer.


2

Residential service trends and opportunitiesIn the residential broadband services domain, the catalyst for service evolution is video, which is set to permeate every aspect of a subscriber’s online experience. Driven by the freedom and flexibility of video on demand (VoD) services delivered over the top (OTT),thehigh-qualityviewingexperiencedeliveredbymanagedIPTVservices,andanexplosion in consumer electronics devices (such as tablets and Internet-enabled TVs) that consume content, subscribers are demanding a more flexible and personalized broad-band experience, one in which they can consume any content on any device, anytime, anywhere. While flat-rate usage caps can be effective in minimizing the impact of surging OTTVoDbandwidthonthenetwork,SPscanthriveinthevideo-dominatederaofhigh-bandwidth services by enriching their current lineup of voice, High-speed Internet (HSI) and linear IPTV services with the following offerings (illustrated in Figure 1):

• VoDserviceswithguaranteedQoSlevels

• EnhancedlinearTVserviceswithhighvideoqualityandfastchannelchangecapability

• HSIplanswithapplication-awaremeteringcapabilitytopersonalizetheserviceexperience

• Application-awarezeroratingandusage-basedbillingtomonetizeOTTtrafficandensure fair share use.

• Wi-Fi®accessthatseamlesslyextendsthehomeconnectivityexperienceoutintothecommunity and beyond

business service trends and opportunitiesInbusinessservices,thecatalystiscloudcomputing,storageandapplications.Enterprisedemands for increased flexibility and operational efficiency have spawned whole new industries around these areas, including application hosting and software-as-a-service. However, issues, such as loss of visibility and control and lingering concerns over the security and performance of cloud-based applications, are dampening enterprise adoption of these services. At the same time, margins in traditional connectivity services, such as VPNs and business Internet, are shrinking as universal availability transforms them into a commodity.

Figure 1. Residential service opportunities

ENHANCED VIDEO SERVICES• Highest quality IPTV• Distributed content caching for highest VoD quality and scale

NEW APPLICATION SERVICES• High performance gaming, personal video conferencing, many more

LOCATION FREEDOM (Wi-Fi)• “Home experience” at Wi-Fi hot spot• Wholesale excess capacity to mobile networks

METERING AND FAIR SHARE USE• Business intelligence gathering• Application-aware metering• Personalized plans

OTT MONETIZATION• OTT application zero rating• HTTP error redirection

Residentialbroadbandnetwork

SUBSCRIBERS


3

SPs can thrive in this new cloud-dominated era of business services by leveraging their strengths in building highly reliable networks to become the go-to choice for enterprises headed to the cloud. They can evolve their business service portfolios to include the following offerings (shown in Figure 2):

• CloudaccessVPNsandbusinessInternetservicesthatrestoreapplicationvisibility and control to enterprise IT managers

• Network-baseddistributeddenialofservice(DDoS)mitigationservicesthateliminatepotential threats before they can impact enterprise customers and the cloud data centers they rely on

• End–to-endSLAsthatguaranteeperformanceforapplicationshostedintheSPdatacenter and delivered by the SP network

• RapidserviceprovisioningforcloudVPNaccess

Figure 2. Business service opportunities

Mobile service trends and opportunitiesA new generation of smartphones and portable computing devices is rapidly changing the previously predictable networks of mobile providers. As bandwidth utilization andrelatedsignalingsurges,widerspectralbandsusedinLongTermEvolution(LTE)technology are bringing bandwidth efficiencies, but they do not replace lost voice and Short Message Service (SMS) revenues or provide a way to monetize the ever-increasing flow of traffic. SPs can increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and service profitabil-ity through the following offerings and capabilities (shown in Figure 3):

• Personalized,application-awareserviceplansthatallowsubscriberstomakethebestofavailablebandwidthwhilemonetizingOTTtraffic

• Value-addedvideodistributioncapabilities—suchasadaptive,high-qualitystreaming— enabled by integrated service intelligence

• Higher-capacitymobilepacketcorethatcanaccommodatemoresubscribersandbandwidth more efficiently

• Wi-Fiaccessnetworksthatmovetrafficofftheradionetworktoprovideaseamlesshigher-bandwidth connectivity experience

Enterprisedata center

Clouddata center

End-to-end hosted application SLAs

External threatmitigation services

VPN and cloudapplication monitoringand control services

EnterpriseSOHO

Enterprisebranch

Internet

DDoSCloud optimizedbusiness Internet

Cloud optimizedIP VPN

Cloud optimizedEthernet VPN

Data center


4

Figure 3. Mobile service opportunities

SERVICE EVOLUTION ChALLENGESMany of the challenges SPs must overcome to ensure successful service evolution are centered at the point in the network where service policies are implemented — at the IP edge.Chiefamongthesechallengesarescaleandperformance,enablingdifferentiationand service richness, and reducing high operational complexity and cost.

Scale and performance The surging tide of bandwidth has surpassed the performance capabilities of legacy edge routers.Centralizedpacket-processingarchitecturesarebucklingundertheload,andtechnology limitations in commercial or off-the-shelf routing silicon are forcing providers to trade off raw capacity for feature processing. Surging bandwidth is also creating bottlenecks at centralized IP edge routers, limiting service availability and scale.

Residential video transport costs are escalating with the proliferation of per-subscriber videoondemandsessions.Eachsessionmusttraversetheentirenetworktoreachtheinitiating subscriber, consuming bandwidth along the way and creating congestion at performance-limitedIPedgerouters.Centralizedcontentinjectionandedgeroutersdesigned for yesterday’s Internet speeds no longer make economic sense.

Business networks have similar issues, as enterprise adoption of video communications andcloud-basedclient/serverapplicationsaretaxingPEroutersandlimitingthecyclesavailable for new services.

Inmobilenetworks,theintroductionofLTEandsmallcellradioinfrastructureandWi-Fioffloadtechniquesareresultinginhigherbandwidthutilizationandamuchhighertrafficburdenatthemobilepacketcore(MPC).Performanceisalsoanissue:AsmoreInternet-capable devices, from tablets to smartphones, tap into the mobile network, the performanceburdenontheMPC—whichisresponsibleforprocessingtheirmobileIPconnections — also increases.

NEW REVENUES• Personalized service packaging• Next-generation digital media distribution

MONETIZATION• Application/user aware metering and charging• Per event/session/ application charging

Wi-Fi AND CELLULAR• Secure and trusted connectivity across Wi-Fi and cellular with seamless broadband experience

LTE AND SMALL CELL• Increased bandwidth capacity and coverage to satisfy subscribers

Internet andother networks

Mobile servicepacket core

Wi-Fi 4G/LTEsmall cell


5

Differentiation and service richnessThe most effective way for SPs to achieve sustainable differentiation for their services — whether it’s enhancing VPNs to resolve cloud migration issues or providing a higher qualityvideoexperience—istoaddhigh-touchpacketprocessingcapabilityinthedatapath. Traditional edge routers often lack this capability outright, or they lack the perfor-mance and scale to support large-scale or high-bandwidth deployments. To compensate, someSPshavedeployedspecializedappliancesattheedgeoftheirnetworksandinCPElocations.Whilethisapproachallowsforsomedifferentiation,itrequiresSPstodeployand maintain multiple platforms and hundreds of additional nodes and linkages. This greatly increases operational complexity while reducing service scale and reliability. Feature consistency across a diverse set of platforms is difficult to achieve, limiting an SP’sabilitytodifferentiatewhereitmattersmost—inprovidingaconsistentqualityofexperience to customers that consume multiple services.

Operational complexityTraditional IP edge routers were single-purpose devices targeted for specific mobile, residential or business services. This fragmented approach to product development has resulted in a similarly fragmented IP-edge infrastructure. It is not uncommon to have separateedgeroutersforIPTVservices,HSIservices,EthernetVPNs,IPVPNsandbusi-ness Internet services — all configured as overlays over the same aggregation and access networks. Mobile networks are also commonly fragmented, with separate mobile packet corestoaggregate2G,3G,LTEandWi-FiaccessnetworksandtoofferIP-basedservices.

The operational impact of this siloed approach to service deployment is massive. SPs must deal with the operational complexity of maintaining multiple service networks, certifying and maintaining multiple router operating systems, and providing their custom-ers with a consistent experience across all their disparate service offerings. Delivery of new services and enhancements to existing services is a slow, complex affair. Service integration and blending — such as providing IPTV content through an HSI service — are difficult to achieve, as is network capacity planning across services based on sub-scriberrequirements.

The rapid growth of Internet-ready personal computing and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices has transformed IPv6 migration from a future consideration to a pressing real-ity for both business and consumer networks. SPs must grapple with the operational complexity of how to grow the network when there are no new public IPv4 addresses available. They must also determine how to transition to IPv6 while maintaining IPv4 continuity for application, networks and services that may not be ready to make the change. IPv6 migration is also compounding scale and performance issues by adding yet another processing hurdle for legacy edge routers already straining under the load.


6

ALCATEL-LUCENT 7750 SR: ThE EDGE IN SERVICE EVOLUTIONOvercomingserviceevolutionchallengesrequiresanewgenerationofIProutersattheservices edge, the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR). The 7750 SR provides the following advantages:

• Higherperformancetodelivermorebandwidth,moreefficiently

• Moreservicessupportedconcurrentlyonasingleserviceroutingplatformtoenableportfolio diversification

• Integratednetwork,serviceandapplicationintelligencetodistinguishservicesfromthecompetition

• GreateroperationalefficiencytodriveOPEXreduction

higher performance Powered by the industry’s fastest network silicon — the FP3 400Gb/s network proces-sor — the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR delivers more bandwidth to more subscribers, more efficiently.The7750SRenableshigh-density10GigabitEthernet(GE)/40GE/100GEnet-working, a path to 400Gb/s networking in the future, and the ability to scale performance and services concurrently with no compromise. Innovations in power consumption allow FP3-based routing platforms to consume 50 percent less power per bit transported, enabling additional operational savings and service efficiency. IPv6 and IPv4 can be run concurrently, at line rate, providing maximum flexibility for IPv6 migration.

More servicesUnlike single-purpose edge routers, the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR contains the industry’s most comprehensive set of IP-based services across the residential, business and mobile domains (see Figure 4). Services are based on the 7750 SR’s feature-rich and highly robustsoftware,theAlcatel-LucentServiceRouterOperatingSystem(SROS).SROSallows SPs to diversify their network services portfolios by layering new services on one common IP platform, eliminating the operational complexity of overlay networks. Newservicescanbeintroducedquicklytoleveragenewopportunitiesandgeneratenewrevenue streams,

Figure 4. Service opportunities with the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR and SR OS.

Mobile Gateway

Mobile Backhaul Router

Wireless LAN Gateway (Wi-Fi)

IPsec Security Gateway

Broadband Network Gateway (BNG)

Wireless LAN Gateway (Wi-Fi)

Video Router/Content Caching

IPv6 Transition

Layer 2 Provider Edge (PE) Router/Ethernet Services Edge

Layer 3 Provider Edge (PE) Router/Multiservice Edge

7750 SR

RESIDENTIAL

ENTERPRISE

MOBILE


7

Integrated intelligence Service providers looking for a flexible approach to differentiate their services can leverage the Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SR’s multi-service integrated service adapter (MS-ISA) to introduce high-touch processing to the common edge platform (see Figure 5). With MS-ISA applications and subscriber-aware monitoring and control capabilities, residential and mobile providers can create personalized service plans that are optimized for individ-ual consumer needs. IPTV services can be revitalized to stand apart from the competition withfastchannelchangeorhigher-qualityvideodelivery.Mobilevideosessionscanbeintercepted to support automatic transcoding with specialized appliances or to provide upgradedqualityofservice.Fordifferentiatedbusinessservices,MS-ISAallowsenterprisecustomers to monitor and control their cloud and enterprise applications, without the expense of a large-scale appliance rollout. New revenue streams in secure network and cloud services are enabled by adding DDoS protection capabilities to any service, at any point in the IP network.

Figure 5. Service differentiation with the MS-ISA

Greater operational efficiency The ability to drive operational savings is built into all aspects of the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR network. A common management platform for services, network elements and applica-tions allows SPs to reduce service provisioning times by up to 97 percent and virtually eliminates provisioning errors during reconfiguration. Integration of new services into IT andOSS/BSSsystemsisgreatlysimplified,acceleratingtimetomarketfornewservices.Integrated service intelligence enables additional operational savings by allowing SPs to optimize their networks through application-level trend analysis or by extending IPv4 address continuity through carrier-grade network address translation (NAT). A recent study by Bell Labs identified multiple operational benefits obtainable through the con-vergence capabilities of Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR, including streamlined sparing, training, repairsandOSSintegration.IntegrationofbusinessandresidentialservicesonacommonIPservicesedgeresultedin60percentOPEXsavings(seeFigure6).

• Industry’s fastest channel change• Retransmit on error for high QoE• PerfectStream video conditioning• Video quality monitoring• Content caching/delivery*

VIDEO

• Application-to-subscriber monitoring and control• Metering and fair share usage• Service personalization and consistency• Application-aware business services

APPLICATION ASSURANCE

• Carrier grade NAT• Multiple tunneling and IPv6 migration capabilities

*Future capability

IPv6 MIGRATION

• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack mitigation• IP Sec

SECURITY SERVICES


8

Figure 6. OPEX savings with residential and business service convergence on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR (Source: Alcatel-Lucent)

The ability to distribute service intelligence — such as application monitoring, policy enforcementandcaching—righttotheedgeofthenetworkprovidesthehighestqualityof service for customers and the greatest operational savings for carriers. In a distributed architecture, subscriber management, content caches and high-touch processing capabili-ties move to the edge of the network, closer to the customer. By distributing service intelligencetotheedge,SPscanprovisionmorebandwidthandfewersubscribersperGEport to accommodate the growth of video and other high-bandwidth services. Video on demand (VoD) sessions are initiated closer to the subscriber and no longer traverse the entire IP network (see Figure 7). This has the dual benefit of enabling long-term scale and lower cost per bit for video transport. Since VoD content delivered by the SP has a muchshorterdistancetotravelthancontentfromInternet-basedOTTvendors,SPscanalsooffersignificantlyhigherservicequalityandperformancethanOTTofferings.

Figure 7. Long-term scale and lower bandwidth costs with a distributed eBNG architecture and on-net CDN

New NMS/CLI intro/integration

Fault and performance management

NMS

Total operational expenses

OPEX SAVINGSCUMULATIVE - 5 YEAR CONVERGED RESIDENTIAL, BUSINESS, MBH EDGE

Router SW upgrades

NMS/CLI recertification

Power

Training

Router installation and configuration

Space lease

Separate edge NWs

New router introduction

7750 SR fully converged edge

External CDN or

transparentcache

Internet

Videoservers

SUBSCRIBER IP SERVICES EDGE

Content partnerorigin serversWi-Fi

accessFixedaccess

eBNG

Peercaches


9

ALCATEL-LUCENT 7750 SR: Ip EDGE EVOLUTION ExAMpLESLarge global Tier 1 providerA large global Tier 1 provider selected the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR to provide the flexibility, scaleandoperationalefficiencyrequiredtoremainatthecuttingedgeofserviceinnovation,as they converged multiple networks into one (see Figure 8). The 7750 SR supports EthernetVPN,IPVPNandresidentialservicesonacommonplatformtomaximizeopera-tional savings and enable a consistent customer experience across services. Distribution of the subscriber management and business VPN functions closer to customers allows the provider to increase operational savings while enabling even greater flexibility and scale.

Figure 8. Enabling service innovation flexibility through the convergence of multiple service networks into one

National Tier 1 provider (EMEA)A national Tier 1 provider selected the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR to drive the strategic transformation of their network to support concurrent delivery of multiple IP-based services, including new HD video services, to mobile and residential customers (see Figure 9). Key requirementsincludedlinerateIPv6supportto100Gb/sandahigh-availabilityservicedelivery platform that would allow “always-on” services. The ability to integrate the mobile backhaul of cell site routers de-risked the service transformation process, as mobile backhaul became just another IP service on a common IP service platform.

Figure 9. Concurrent delivery of new bandwidth-intensive service to mobile and residential customers

Retail

Residentialand business

Wholesale

7750 SR7750 SR7750 SR

Corenodes

Metronodes

Tier 1exchange nodes

5620 SAM

IP services

Competitors’IP services

Business

Residential

Access

Access

7750 SR

MSEand BNG

Aggregation

Core

7750 SR

Cell site router

Mobile switchingcenter

Video officeand data center

RNC

www.alcatel-lucent.com Alcatel, lucent, Alcatel-lucent and the Alcatel-lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. the information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. copyright © 2012 Alcatel-lucent. All rights reserved. M2012104655 (october)

SUMMARYWhether it’s video consumption from any device anywhere or the operational flexibility of cloud computing, subscribers want to benefit from the latest innovations in network and computing technology. Satisfying their needs means making changes at the IP services edge to reduce the operational complexity that slows service introduction and increasesOPEX.Italsomeanseliminatingissuesofscaleandlimitedperformance.TheAlcatel-Lucent7750SRisuniquelyqualifiedenablethistransformationbyprovidingthefollowing features (see Figure 10):

• Theindustry’sfastestnetworksilicon—theFP3400Gb/snetworkprocessor—todeliver more performance and more bandwidth to more subscribers, more efficiently

• Theindustry’smostcomprehensivesetofIP-basedservices—acrossresidential,business and mobile domains — to diversify SP service portfolios

• Theintegratedintelligencetodistinguishservicesfromthecompetition

• Operationalefficienciesateverylevel—includingintegratedservice,elementandapplicationmanagementandacommonserviceplatform—todriveOPEXreduction

Figure 10. The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR is uniquely qualified to evolve residential, business and mobile services.

7750 SR

DIVERSIFY AND DISTINGUISH SERVICES WITHOUT ADDING A NEW OVERLAY NETWORKDELIVER BANDWIDTH EFFICIENTLY AND DRIVE OPERATIONAL SAVINGS

RESIDENTIAL

ENTERPRISE

MOBILEPERFORMANCE

SERVICES

INTELLIGENCE

EFFICIENCY

7750 sr – your edge in service evolution - tmcnet · alcatel-lucent 7750 service router: your...

Documents