Policy Rules in 4G

8/3/2019 Policy Rules in 4G

1/11

september 2010

fercewireless.com

september

Thank you

To our sponsors:

diamond:

plaTinum:

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was a success. AT&T has said that

its low-priced option (200 MB or

$15 per month) allows consumers

to upgrade to an integrated device

with data services without orking

over $30 or more per month.

Nevertheless analysts say that

these steps are minor compared to

the potential business models that

policy control tools may unleash.

As more devices become

wirelessly-enabled and mobile data

consumption intensies, wireless

operators will likely need to nd

new ways to manage and optimize

their networks. Policy control tools

hold that promise but very ew

operators are taking advantage o

these tools today. Why? Because

ater encouraging consumers to

use mobile data with fat-rate data

price plans, wireless operators now

ear they will alienate the consumer

i they dramatically alter this busi-

ness model.

AT&T Mobility and Leap Wireless

boldly stepped into the limelight by

being the rst operators to oer

tiered data price plans in the U.S.

Early indications are that this plan

Putting avalue on

Policy control

From creating sophisticated pricing

packages that let amilies slice

and dice their data usage to using

personal preerences to create

customized services and applica-

tions, policy control tools hold a lot

o potential or the uture.

Although policy control tools are

available or todays 3G networks,

most experts say that policy control

is an aterthought or operators and

thereore we will likely see more

sophisticated use o policy controlwhen carriers deploy their LTE net-

works. What will likely be the rst

iterations o policy control? Some

believe tiered pricing packages

will be the mainstay or awhile

beore we see policy control 2.0

techniques, which include real-time

transactions and the ability to acti-

vate or de-activate new services on

the fy.

Whatever the implementation,

policy control tools will likely be

a hot topic o discussion in the

months and possibly years ahead

as more operators migrate rom

3G to 4G. In this eBook, Fierce-

Wirelesswill take a deep-dive into

all the various aspects o policy

control rom the potential that it

holds to the possible problems and

issues operators may ace.

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3Technology,

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10Evolution o Policy

Management: rom

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11Network Throttling:

A Courtesy or

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13Do Customized

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14Policy: Shaping

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16Unleashing the

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Next-GenerationPolicy Control

17Does The Net

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18Operator Use Cases

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september 2010 september

Experts say that policy

control tools will oer a lot

o advantages when LTE is

deployed. But or now, very ew

operators are using them.

The need or policy control is

increasingly evident as mobiledata trac builds, but opera-

tors are sidestepping ull-blown

policy control as they try to dis-

cern approaches that are not only

technologically possible but also

politically savvy.

Its no secret that mobile network

congestion is being driven by a

boom in data usage. According to

Forrester Research, some 52

million U.S. mobile subscrib-

ers accessed the Internet rom

their phones at least once a

month during 2009. By 2014,

106 million U.S. mobile cus-

tomers, or 39 percent o the

nations customer base, will be

categorized as regular mobile

internet users. However, although

Forrester predicts U.S. mobile

data access revenues will near an

impressive $20 million in 2014 the

rate o growth will slow as the aver-

age monthly price o a data bundle

decreases rom $17.34 per month

in 2009 to $16.64 in 2014.

Flat-rate unlimited usage plans

or all data types have powered the

adoption o mobile data and the

mobile Internet. These plans have

a downside in that they limit uture

data revenues while encouraging

wanton usage, Forrester said in

its report.

Thereore, carriers are attempting

to shit rom fat-rate pricing using

various methods. Some operators

are engaging in trac throttling or

users who surpass usage caps,while others, such as AT&T Mobility,

have initiated price hikes or tiered

pricing or high-megabyte users.

Yet operators or the most part

are taking baby steps toward ull-

blown policy control. Peter Jarich,

service director at Current Analy-

sis, contends that operators nd it

dicult to select a specic a path

that takes them away rom fat-

rate pricing.

Jarich recalls that years ago, a

hot topic was the idea o leveraging

premium charges or dierent con-

tent, such as charging dierently

or real-time video vs. Web brows-

ing vs. email downloads. According

to Jarich, this idea has so ar been

let in the dust because operators

couldnt discern how to charge or

dierent types o content without

alienating users.

Technology, Experimentation areKeys to Policy Controls Futureby tammy parker

Right now were charging every-

one the same or a certain level o

service, and were really not using

policy or related tools much at all,

said Jarich, who noted that tiered

services the proverbial gold, silver

and bronze pricing packages are

oten discussed but not actually

implemented.

Policy inherent in

new networksThe deployment o next-generation

networks will bring a new dawn or

policy control, which will no longer

be an add-on or postpaid-network

architecture but will instead become

an integral part o the core network.

Policy or 3G was almost kind

o a retrot. It came along ater

the initial denition, and so it

wasnt greatly adopted, said Dan

Warren, the GSMAs senior direc-

tor o technology.

However, policy is a undamental

part o LTE architecture. You cant

implement an LTE core network

easily without having a policy

control unction, Warren said.

The business case becomes trivial

when policy is a key part o the

network you want to deploy.

Copyright 2010 Tellabs.All rightsreserved.The following trademarksand service marksare owned by TellabsOperations,Inorits affiliatesin the United Statesand/orothercountries:TELLABS,TELLABS and T symbo

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d 5

Policy or 3G was almost kind o a retroft.It came along ater the initial defnition,and so it wasnt greatly adopted.

dan Warren, senior direCTor oF TeChnology, gsma
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According to Warren, those ina-

mous gold, silver and bronze pricing

packages will nally see the light

o day once LTE is implemented,

with tiered packages oering, or

instance, dierentiated peak rates

or prioritization within the network.

You can do a whole bunch o

clever stu around not just oering

better quality o experience around

all applications but being able to

oer a premium service to custom-

ers, which would generate a higherARPU, and a ser vice more similar

to the best-eorts service that we

have today to those who would

want to remain on the consumer-

based package and not pay or

that kind o premium treatment,

Warren said.

One key ingredient in policy con-

trol is deep- packet inspection (DPI),

which riles consumer watchdogs.

Though DPI need not be applied

to most trac on a network, it is

sometimes necessary, such as

when an operator must lter trac

rom potentially nearious sources.

DPI can be the greatest orce or

good or the greatest orce or evil,

depending upon how you look at

it, said Warren.

Carriers might also open them-

selves to criticism i they give

higher prioritization to one kind o

trac vs. another. Operators right

now are very sensitive to the ocus

which regulators are placing on a

level playing eld, he said, adding

that, nonetheless, there is a grow-

ing appreciation that some trac

requires a certain kind o handling

within a network.

Pondering the Possibilities

Warren oresees a day when opera-

tors make policy and DPI tools

available to developers or use in

application dierentiation. That

could produce a really nice end-to-

end story which allows developers

to responsibly dene the policy

which should be applied to their

applications, Warren said.

Policy-based apps with un-

damentally dierent QoS

requirements could all coexist on

a single device and be handled

automatically and correctly in the

network or an overall positive

consumer experience, he said.

Jarich, meanwhile, hopes opera-

tors become more upront about

their pricing motives. He noted, or

instance, i a carrier throttles down

a customers download speeds

once a usage cap is surpassed,

even when the network is not con-

gested, then the throttling is being

initiated more as a matter o prin-

ciple or in an attempt to make more

money o o the customer, who

might be led to sign up or a plan

with a higher usage cap in order to

avoid being throttled. In that circum-stance, said Jarich, then dont tell

me this is all about network con-

straints or resource constraints.

He added that operators should

make it easier or customers to

upgrade service plans on the run,

so users can, or instance, increase

short-term download speeds or

exceed a spectrum cap once in

a while. Not making things as

simple as possible is leaving a lot o

money on the table, Jarich said.

According to Warren, once

operators can quickly shape tra-

c by adjusting delays, bit-error

rates, packet delivery, buers and

more that will change the service

model on a per-application and per-

consumer basis. Because policy

control will be inherent in LTEs

architecture, then its down to the

operator to almost play with it oncetheyve got the tools in their hands

to nd what works best or them

and their consumers, Warren said.

Current Analysis Jarich also

said carriers need to start experi-

menting with dierent policy tools

and usage plans, adding that he

believes operators ultimately will

gure this out. l

Customers are in

love with smartphones

and other advanced

wireless devices. They

use them or every-

thing rom watching

videos late at night to

working on projects

during morning com-

mutes. With so manyapplication downloads

consuming huge

amounts o bandwidth,

mobile operators traditional pric-

ing modela fat monthly ee or

unlimited data usagejust doesnt

work any longer.

Some operators switched to

tiered billing, in which subscribers

pay a fat rate or data usage limited

to, say, 200 Mbps or 2 Gbps per

month. They hope this approach

discourages excessive use o

bandwidth, helps them control

the CAPEX/OPEX costs o adding

more network capacity and still

satises subscribers.

limited value of tiered

Pricing alone

Yet chances are tiered pricing will

prove to be o little value to opera-tors or subscribers. For operators,

tiered pricing relegates them to the

role o a utility provider o a dumb

pipe, which does nothing to help

them achieve long-term success

in the market. Subscribers behav-

ior wont change overnight. Many

people inevitably will go over data-

usage limits and experience sticker

shock when their bills arrive. They

may deect to another operator in

search o a better deal.

bundling value-added

services with tiered Pricing

Tiered pricing based on policy con-

trol is an important rst step. But,

by incorporating customized servic-

es in pricing models, operators can

avoid the aorementioned problems

and achieve their primary goals.

The ability to create valued-added

services and bundle them with

tiered pricing requires a subscriber-

and content-aware networking

solution, such as the Tellabs

SmartCore 9100 Platorm.

Compatible with 3G and 4Gtechnology, this type o solution

delivers real-time intelligence

about subscriber behavior, includ-

ing where a given customer is

physically located and the content

he/she is using. With this intel-

ligence, the operator can create

content-inspection services

mobile Internet oerings tailored

to individual subscribers usage

patterns. These might include,

instance, one or parents who

smartphones to monitor their c

drens Internet activities; anoth

or movie bus who watch str

ing video on mobile devices; a

another or road warriors who

mobile access to enterprise pr

ductivity applications.

a two-Part Pricing modeA subscriber-aware network als

makes it possible to develop a

two-part pricing model. One pa

consists o a base plan, priced

xed monthly ee, which cover

dened amount o data usage.

top o that is a value-based plan

priced at an incremental level,

the customized services select

by the consumer. Because the

pays or these services as part

o value-added pricing, the data

involved are not included with t

data measured or the tiered po

tion o the plan.

intelligence delivers

a win-win solution

Value-added services give subs

ers more control over bandwidt

usage and keeps them in the o

For operators, they create newrevenue streams, reduce costs

and help sustain protability. It

intelligent pricing scenario tailo

or success. l

sPonsored conte

Customized Services Lead toNew Mobile Pricing Models

d 3

Forecast: U.S. Data AccessRevenues, 2009-2014

annualdataa

ccess

revenues

($billions)

average monthly data access Price

2009

$17.34

2010

$17.24

2011

$17.13

2014

$16.64

2013

$16.83

2012

$16.99

$10.7$12.9

$14.7$16.4

$18.1$19.8

Source: Forrester Research Mobile Adoption and Sales Forecast 9/09 (U.S.)


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As unlimited data pricing

nears the end o its

liespan, U.S. operators

will experiment with user-

riendly plans.

Thanks to compelling

smartphones and fat-ratedata pricing, data usage has

skyrocketed on the nations

3G networks. So ar the trend

has translated into signicant

revenue growth or opera-

tors, but soon data trac will

outpace revenue. Wireless

operators will need to nd

new ways to monetize their

networks. As such, it appears

unlimited data plans are on

their way to extinction.

According to a recent

survey rom international

law rm Freshelds Bruck-

haus Deringer, nearly hal o

international mobile execu-

tives 48 percent predict

mobile operators will ocus on

developing new pricing mod-

els over the next three years,

with 55 percent agreeingthat tiered pricing is the way

orward in mature markets

and 47 percent arguing that

fat-rate all-you-can-eat data

tari plans are damaging their

ability to increase revenue.

The question now is: How

do operators crat user-

riendly plans that make

Pricing Models or TodaysWireless Consumer

by Lynnette Luna

more ecient use o their net-

work resources?

In the U.S., AT&T Mobility and

Leap Wireless have taken the

plunge into tiered pricing. AT&T

had already elt the pain o network

capacity problems in several big cit-

ies throughout 2009 thanks in partto the popularity o the iPhone. For

smartphones, AT&T oers 200 MB

or $15 per month or 2 GB or $25

per month, and users can purchase

additional buckets o data in each

billing cycle. Leap is now oering

2.5 GB o data or $40 per month,

5 GB or $50 per month or 7.5 GB

or $60 per month. Previously, Leap

oered 5 GB or $40 per month.

AT&T declined to be interviewed

by FierceWirelessbut pointed to

comments its executives made

during the companys most recent

quarterly conerence call about

some o the trends it is seeing.

AT&T CFO Rick Lindner said that

early results rom the companys

move to tiered data pricing plans

have been encouraging. In par-

ticular, he said the company had

expected a lot o customers to

migrate to the lower price point

($15 per month or 200 MB o

data) but a large portion migrated

to the $25 per month or 2 GB o

data plan. In addition, he said AT&Tis seeing benets rom lowering

the point o entry so custom-

ers can move into the integrated

device category and try data ser-

vices. We believe over time they

will migrate to higher-tiered plans,

he said.

A drawback to megabyte pricing,

however, is the act that operators

put the onus on the end user to

d 9
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gure out what a megabyte o data

really is, despite real-time alerts

about usage and other tools rom

operators that try to help custom-

ers understand what sort o actions

might gobble up their megabytes.

As such, megabyte-pricing is

expected to serve as the launching

pad or more innovative usage-

based pricing. Susie Kim Riley,

chie marketing ocer with net-

work policy company Tekelec, sees

AT&Ts recent move as an encour-

aging sign as the company seeks to

segment data services.

They are starting o by count-

ing bytes, but that is only thebeginning, she said. Operators

will be able to do a lot more cre-

ative things.

Riley said options could range

rom paying or a higher quality o

service such as aster data speeds

to picking and choosing video pack-

ages or paying or better quality or

certain applications such as gaming.

TeliaSonera, which operates

the worlds rst LTE networks in

Sweden and Norway, is mulling

a new mobile data pricing model

that involves bundling the network

usage charges with the cost o

mobile content used into a single

pricing plan. As such, subscribers

would pay or the content and net-

work resources they use instead o

simply paying or a certain amount

o data.

Roger Entner, senior vice presi-

dent and head o research and

insights or the Telecom Practice

o Nielsen, believes the next

innovation in packaging pricing

will come in the orm o what he

calls the total communications

package. Just as operators on the

voice side have instituted am-

ily plans that pool voice minutes,

they will do the same on the data

side, and charge another $5 to

$10 per person.

Mark Lowenstein, managing

director o Mobile Ecosystem, also

expects to see a more aggressive

move to incorporate data as a part

o amily plans. Thats one o the

major benets o AT&Ts $15 pric-

ing plan. We will see creative ways

to add members o a amily ontodata plans via lower priced plans or

plans that include buckets o giga-

bytes that can be shared across the

amily, he said.

In the same vein, smartphone

users are increasingly becoming

tablet users as well. Operators will

also have the opportunity to oer

single-pricing package plans or

both devices, Entner said. Today,

AT&T charges separate tiered pric-

ing or both Apples iPhone and

iPad. The iPad, however, uses a

pay-as-you-go pricing plan.

It will be about this: I take care

o you and have a relationship

with you as the customer. I dont

have a relationship with the phone

or the tablet. I want to take care

o your communication needs,

Entner said. l

With the current demand or

broadband, operators are being

orced to walk a tightrope between

competitively priced customer

oers to grow market share, and

managing the network costs o

surging data trac.Policy Managements ability to

dynamically control and manage

the subscriber experience, when

using a service or application, has

emerged as an enabler o service

dierentiation and a source o

incremental revenue. As well as

providing a means to better allocate

network capacity, and manage the

associated capital expenditure.

Intelligent next generation net-

works bring with them the promise

o a more personalized, immedi-

ate and connected experience or

subscribers. I the nancial benets

o this investment are to accrue to

operators, theyll need to evolve

their oerings beyond current

approaches that simply oer a big

bucket o data or fat-rated plans.

business modelimProvement

Policy Management provides

operators with a means to improve

their current business models,

improving how data subscriptions

are packaged, and creating oppor-

tunities or incremental revenues.

There is a huge disparity in the

amount o data and bandwidth

subscribers consume even or

customers using similar devices.

Policy Management acilitates data

plan innovation, enabling operators

to fexibly congure a combina-

tion o bandwidth speed, data

allowance, device type, duration,time-o-day, or the exclusion o

certain applications into attractive

market oerings.

It makes it easier or operators

to segment their customer base,

oering data plan options and pric-

es to cover heavy and light users.

This ensures subscriber revenues

are optimized, and ensures those

who use the most data, contribute

most to the costs. It also provides

an incentive or subscribers gen-

erally, to moderate their usage,

providing some protection againstnetwork congestion.

Promotions

Policy Management, when com-

bined with charging capabilities,

also makes it easier or operators

to promote and sell services. Trig-

gering an in-session redirect, a

subscriber can be re-directed to a

sel-care portal in real-time, ope

tors can respond dynamically to

changes in subscriber or netwo

state or activity. This makes it

possible or operators to dynam

cally oer promotions, based o

individual subscribers activity t

up-sell and cross-sell services e

to renew a data allowance, pur

chase a roaming bundle, or req

a bandwidth boost.

subscriber -configuredcontrols

Increasingly, operators are also

looking to policy management

dierentiate their services, by

ing value to the user experienc

Policy-based controls such as

notications, bill shock / roamin

controls, parental and content c

trols, URL ltering, and time-o

restrictions shape the custome

experience, especially when th

can be congured and controll

by subscribers.

summary

Policy Management helps oper

tors to eciently allocate nite

network resources, improve

business models, and oer a d

erentiated customer experienc

In a rapidly evolving market or

access, policy controls give opetors much needed fexibility to

quickly respond to competitor t

tics, new devices, applications

changing consumer data habits

Learn more: www.openet.com

sPonsored conteEvolution o Policy Management:rom Network Controls toService DierentiationJonathan Downey,

Director of proDuct marketing at openet

d 7

Smartphone users are increasingly becoming tabletusers as well. Operators will also have the opportunity

to oer single-pricing package plans or both devices.

roger enTner, senior viCe presidenT and head oF

researCh and insighTs, TeleCom praCTiCe oF ni elsen

Today, AT&T hasseparate tiered

pricing or the iPadbut analysts saythat this modelmay change in

the uture.

Simply oering a bigbucket o data provideslimited scope or servicedierentiation or value-add
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NetworkThrottling:A Courtesy orHindrance toHeavy Users?by peggy aLbright

Bandwidth throttling is one

way to control subscribers

who use excess data but

consumers typically dontfnd this tactic appealing.

Bandwidth throttling is

an easy way to control sub-

scribers excessive data

consumption to ree up

capacity or other users, but

due to the punitive nature

o the technique, operators

hesitate to apply it. Throttling

is nding new acceptance,

however, in value-added ser-

vices and applications. It will

also have a place in emerging

advanced trac management

strategies that, combined

with service prioritization

techniques, should make bet-

ter use o the network overall.

Throttling reers to the

practice o slowing the data

speed or individual users

who exceed their monthly

bandwidth limits. Throttled

customers can still make

voice calls and use mobile

data, but they may not receive

the ull bandwidth they previ-

ously enjoyed or downloading

or uploading content. Throt-

tling is temporary; as soon

as the subscribers account enters

a new billing period, the eature

is cancelled and the subscribers

service returns to normal.

Throttling gained attention this

year when T-Mobile USA divulged

that it would slow data speeds or

subscribers who exceed their 5GB

monthly limits. T-Mobile positioned

the method as a means to deter

excess usage and help customers

avoid costly overage ees.

Sprint Nextel is adamantly against

slowing data speeds or custom-

ers o its 3G or Clearwire-based

mobile WiMAX services. However,

it has reserved the right to suspend

o-network data services or cus-

tomers that use data excessively

while roaming on other operators

mobile broadband networks.

In general, throttling is intended

to prevent individual subscribers

rom using the network unairly,

to the detriment o other custom-

ers. It is applied according to air

usage and bandwidth limits delin-

eated in a customers mobile data

service contract.

Throttling has several benets.

It can help ree needed spectrum

or operators whose network

limitations are too severe to allow

or true, all-you-can-eat services

and help ensure that all custom-

ers receive the highest-possible

service quality. It can make a

dierence or operators that are

short on radio access network

capacity, struggling to obtain

cell site permits, or engineering

around backhaul bottlenecks. It

also can help an operator maxi-

mize the value o its operational

and capital expenditures.

Throttling is oten positioned as

a courtesy to heavy usage custom-

ers, who might unknowingly incur

exorbitant per-megabyte charges

when they exceed their service

plan limits. Operators must have

the capability in Europe, where

laws designed to prevent bill shock

caused by mobile data roaming

require notiying customers when

their data roaming reaches a certain

trigger point and stopping service

under certain conditions.

The biggest disadvantage or

throttling is the negative associa-

tion o being heavy handed. Even

though it is applied under strictly

dened terms, many customers

dont pay attention to their service

agreements and can be surprised

when throttling occurs.

Throttling can also be miscon-

strued as getting in the way o net

neutrality. Because o this sen-

sitivity, operators need to make

sure they are explaining it clearly

to their customers.

You dont want it to be con-used with blocking access, said

Rehan Jalil, senior vice president or

IP and mobile Internet at Tellabs.

Essentially, an operator enables

throttling by programming the

policy controller to activate the

throttling eature when the network

observes that a user has exceeded

their usage quota. It is airly easy

to implement because it does not

require more complicated and

sometimes controversial approach-

es such as deep packet inspection.

Most operators have the capability

in their networks, even i they dont

use it.

Any operator that has a air

usage clause in their contracts

needs to have this capability, said

Ali Shah, director o broadband

strategy in the strategy and mar-

keting organization or Ericsson

North America.

Oten, throttling will deliver only

incremental improvements to net-

work capacity. Because heavy data

users represent a small portion o

the customer base, and because

throttled customers represent an

even smaller segment, its use is

generally limited. Also, because

throttling is triggered by an indi-

vidual subscribers usage and not

network conditions, it may not

be necessary i the network has

plenty o capacity available at that

time. Finally, throttling one cus-

tomer in a cell site can be utile i

multiple, other heavy users in the

site are adversely aecting network

perormance anyway.

As operators move away rom

all-you-can-eat plans and adopt

volume-based pricing, and as

more operators add policy con-

trollers to their networks, morewill have opportunity to introduce

throttling mechanisms. Vendors

are already nding innovative

ways to employ tools developed

originally or throttling purposes

to create more personalized plans

and quality-o-service eatures or

individual customers.

The myPolicy application oe

by Bridgewater Systems, or ex

ple, enables customers to conn

to the policy controller to set th

own usage limits and usage ale

provision quality-o-service pre

erences or their accounts. The

application also helps educate

users about data consumption

Ericssons Shah and Tellabs

Jalil are each excited about th

capabilities throttling will oer

when it is enorced on a dynam

or as-needed basis to help reli

network congestion.Doing it more intelligently, c

I think, be the biggest opportun

we have, Jalil said.

Shah recommends combinin

it with prioritization. I capacity

is available, a customer who ha

exceeded their quota will not e

rience throttling. When conges

occurs, the network will allocat

data throughput to users based

the priority level they have paid

The network will manage the t

rom quota-violators or all users

necessary according to air usa

terms and in ways the custom

understand. In theory, the appr

optimizes network access at al

times in a way that should kee

users satised.

We believe i prioritization is

added to throttling, there is a m

advantage o combining these

two, Shah said. l

We believe i prioritization is added to throttling,there is a major advantage o combining these two.

ali shah, direCTor oF broadband sTraTegy in The sTraTegy

and markeTing organizaTion, eriCsson norTh ameriCa.


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Policy control tools can be

used to better understand the

customers usage patterns and

activities. But operators must be

mindul o how they implement

these services.

In years past, mobile operators

used policy management tools to

control bandwidth or balance load

at the network level. Today, with

the use o policy control technolo-

gies deployed in the packet core,

operators have new opportunities

to congure services in much more

specic ways and at the individual

user level.

However, the new business

opportunities created by these

cutting-edge policy control tools

also introduce new complications,

and that is the issue o customer

privacy. Customization by denition

requires a close understanding o

what the user wants or needs, but

the highly granular understanding

o user subscriptions, application

requirements, location or other

personal details that many newapplications require can involve

particularly sensitive matters o

condentiality. To what extent do

customized services undermine

the customers privacy? How do

operators build businesses with

technologies and services that

involve privacy issues?

Fortunately, while many emerg-

ing customization services require

that the network have an under-

standing o potentially condential

inormation, this is not always the

case. Policy management doesnt

necessarily require drilling into indi-

vidual user inormation, said FredKemmerer, chie technical ocer at

Genband.

Policy controls used to adjust

an individuals data bandwidth,

or example, can be activated by

metering triggers in the network

that identiy when the customers

usage quota is exceeded, without

the need to observe characteristics

o customers trac.

Policy controls can also be used

in ways that are highly transparent

to the user, and with the users

direct consent and involvement. As

operators introduce data plans that

have bandwidth limits, or example,

they will be able to oer policy con-

trol applications that subscribers

can activate to customize, monitor

and manage their data consump-

sPonsored conte

Whats in a name? That which

we call Policy Control by any other

name would not sound so dire.

The people that came up with the

industry term that reers to our

niche o the telecommunications

industry really didnt seem to think

things through sure technically it

might have some merit, but to the

wider public it just sounds scary.Policy Control is essentially

implemented in mobile networks to

achieve two distinct tasks:

Maximizetheefciencyofthe

data network that is to make

sure that even when parts o

the network are congested,

time or delay sensitive trac

(such as VoIP or Video) can

still operate eectively and

deliver an acceptable level o

user experience (Control or

Optimization)

Offermobilebroadband

subscribers (i.e., customers)

a better quality and more

personalized mobile Internet

experience.

Fundamentally, we are concerned

with keeping the networking run-

ning, the applications fowing and

enabling access to content. Whenconditions on the data network are

less than optimum we endeavor

to ensure all subscribers get air

access to whatever bandwidth is

available. While individual operators

may have dierent views o how

to best manage their own network

under adverse conditions, tools that

provide granular visibility down to

the application,

subscriber and

into the topology

are critical or

making an intel-

ligent decision on

how to optimize

their inrastruc-

ture.

The same tech-nology enables

operators to

dierentiate cus-

tomer oerings.

For too long subscribers have had

little choice in how they purchase

Internet access and over-the-top

services. Mobile Internet and Policy

Control are together changing that.

Policy Control enables opera-

tors to set policies or individual

subscribers, giving customers the

chance to choose an Internet expe-

rience (or service plan) that suits

both their needs and their budget.

While some internet users just like

to catch up on the latest news and

email, others may be heavily into

online gaming, or social network-

ing. Dierent content, applications,

usage habits and devices all

contribute to where the MobileInternet is heading.

It seems viable that the mobile

core, o which policy control is

already an essential eature, will

become the central hub or all

access topologies. We are already

seeing the convergence o xed

and mobile networks, where

operators want to provide custom-

ers with a single policy (service

plan) across all types o topolo

whether mobile, WiFi, DSL Ca

etc. The intelligence and the de

sion making ability o the Polic

Charging and Control unctiona

as dened in the 3GPP will ena

users to benet rom a single

policy across multiple devices

(smartphone, iPads, ebooks,

dongles, etc.), topologies, appl

tions and content.

The bottom line is that Mobil

Broadband is the uture a utu

that is already here. Enabling po

cies on networks to better opti

the delivery o content, and at t

same time giving the consumechoice in how they use (and pa

or) that content is key in shapi

how that uture will look. l

Do Customized Services Impedeon Customer Privacy?by peggy aLbright

Policy managementdoesnt necessarily requiredrilling into individualuser inormation.

Fred kemmerer, ChieF

TeChniCal oFFiCer, genband

tion and presence, location and

other personal inormation.

To suggest another example,

parents will be able to use policycontrol applications to speciy

which hours during evening when

their young children can access

certain mobile data services, or

provision their childs phone to dis-

allow service during certain periods

o the day.

d 15

Policy: Shaping the Futureby Jonathon gorDon, Director ofmarketing, aLLot communications


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As operators oer policy-related

options that have privacy implica-

tions, Kemmerer says they will

draw rom established and well-

developed mechanisms to protect

privacy and make sure data is not

used inappropriately.

What were all about here is

extending the privacy protections

that carriers have used or years in

the areas o their business where

the regulatory ramework is more

clear, as well as extending theusers ability to adopt services and

control them to make the whole

thing work, he said.

Privacy control applications that

are most likely to generate privacy

concerns are those that will be

used in conjunction with subscriber

data management tools to add

a measure o sophistication to

mobile advertising, location-based

and other value-added services.

In these cases, the application o

easy-to-understand and very speci-

ic privacy precautions will do much

to make these emerging services

more acceptable, appealing and

meaningul to customers.

For example, policy control

techniques can be employed, along

with strict rules on how the data

will be used and shared with third

parties, to let customers denewhen, where and under what

circumstances they are willing to

receive mobile advertisements and

whether those ads should have

access to location-related inorma-

tion. The tools also can be used to

let customers control how pres-

ence-related inormation on social

networking sites is used.

I you have opt-in and opt-out

capabilities, a sense o who the

customer is, what is valuable to

them and what would be useul,

then I think you have a stronger

oering, said Shira Levine, direct-

ing analyst or next generation OSS

and policy at Inonetics Research.

In act, when it comes to mobile

advertising and location-based ser-

vices, operators will need to have

that understanding i they want the

program to succeed. An advertis-ing solution that does not employ

some level o analytics to make

sure advertising reaches only those

customers who are riendly to it,

or example, could risk alienating

the larger customer base or, worse,

create a backlash in the media.

Kemmerer described a scenario

in which a customer might agree

to opt-in to a program

that oers the customer a

higher amount o bandwidth

per month i they allow the

operator to observe aspects

o their trac, make it

anonymous and aggregate

it with other data or use

in advertising programs.

Assuming that operators

will protect user privacy and

promise anonymity in ways

that compare, at minimum,

to those used legally by

search engines today,there is certainly a strong

component o people in

the industry that believes

operators should be allowed

to employ such techniques,

he said.

So ar, operator con-

cerns about privacy and

uncertainty surrounding

regulatory treatment o privacy

issues have discouraged most

companies rom allowing services

such as targeted mobile advertising

on their networks.

Eventually, however, operators

needs to create advanced ser-

vices strategies to drive revenues

on their 4G networks will motivate

them to introduce customized

value-added services. And as

advertising regulations becomes

clearer, the need to ensure privacycould become a driver or invest-

ing in policy control solutions,

Levine suggested.

Any mobile advertising initiative

will need to include some sort o

policy element to really ensure that

subscribers are being treated in a

way that protects their privacy,

Levine said. l

Unleashing the Possibilities oNext-Generation Policy Controlby Lynnette Luna

Network throttling is the

start but more advanced

policy control solutions oer

the potential or real-time

transactions.

Its clear that the popularity

o wireless data has caught onin most places around the globe

witnessed by the act that AT&T

Mobility the exclusive provider

o Apples iPhone and other

providers such as Orange in the

U.K. ound themselves grappling

with network congestion that hit

its peak in 2009. As such, a host

o companies oer solutions to

throttle and shape network tra-

c to handle the congestion. But

policy companies say managing

congestion is just the beginning

o what operators can do to help

better monetize data services.

Bill Diote, president o policy

management company Broad-

Hop has termed network

throttling solutions as Policy

1.0 that will progress into more

sophisticated policies orcharging or services and their

attributes, such as quality o ser-

vice. He calls this Policy 2.0.

Policy 2.0 goes hand in hand

with enorcement unctions but

digs down into an operators

network to nely slice and dice

new service oerings based

on policy and charge them in

real time. Rather than ocus-

ing closely on mobile gateway

control such as current genera-

tions o policy control solutions,

Policy 2.0 requires sotware-ba

components that are centralize

and can communicate in real-ti

with multiple mechanisms, rom

the mobile gateway to the GGS

and have the capacity to proce

massive amount o real-time tra

actions, Diote said.

It creates a host o possibilitie

Peter Ahimovic, head o band

width and policy management

Telcordia, talks about the ability

operators to sell base packages

but allow subscribers to contin

add on to their packages, whetthats or 30 days, one day or a

hour. For instance, a subscribe

plan may not include peer-to-pe

le sharing, but i that subscrib

attempts to perorm that type o

unction, he or she may receive

notication the service can be

ed or a ee. Perhaps a subscrib

wants better quality o service

a particular video download but

others. Operators can charge o

that, he said.

Now it gets into the whole

paradigm o giving eedback to

customer, Ahimovic said. Yo

have a base service and can up

packages, all o which would ha

their own corresponding charge

and QoS.

Diote also envisions operator

beginning to layer additional se

vices onto base packages or dusers, and he sees policy capa

ties added to devices, turning t

into remote controls o sorts to

select programs, applications a

service levels.

You can tie it into the whole

throttling story by oering peop

d 13

d


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choice to continue their application

in high bandwidth or switch to low

bandwidth in exchange or credits

to use later, Diote said. The key is

giving users a choice.

Diote said North American opera-

tors are still skeptical about such

charging mechanisms, and, ironi-

cally, emerging markets are coming

to the oreront o this concept.

North America has been ocused

on Policy 1.0, which has been about

deensive uses o technology tell-ing customers what they could and

couldnt do on the network, Diote

said. Meanwhile, the CTOs and

CMOs o operators in emerging

markets were sitting with us asking

us how to use policy to be a plat-

orm or innovation.

Indeed, in emerging markets like

India and Malaysia, where cut-

throat prepaid plans are the norm,

operators are deploying dierenti-

ated services such as a parental

control service that enables par-

ents to create individual settings

or their childrens phones that

includes capabilities such as select-

ing times during school hours that

texting is allowed, limiting Internet

access or even turning o devices

at certain times.

Ahimovic believes North Ameri-

can operators will rst evolve tiered

pricing plans, which are still in their

inancy. He calls that Policy 1.5.

North America may go through

this stage o sharing quotas, such

as amily data plans or one price

and everyone gets to use it, he

said. But I look at it as a consumer

mysel, and the eedback is how do I

know how much a megabyte is?l

The importance o the mobile

control plane, including subscriber,

service and policy controls, is

essential to operators as they

manage the complexities o rapidgrowth in the number o devices

accessing mobile data services

and the corresponding increase in

mobile data trac.

To date, operators have ocused

on implementing air usage controls,

driven by the extensive use o fat-

rate plans. However, as operators

move to tiered and usage based

service plans, the role o policy con-

trol is evolving beyond air usage to

include a plethora o use cases.

the transition from flat-

rate to Personalized,

tiered services

Network, device, and application

policy provides operators with con-

trols to implement tiered service

plans that let subscribers choose

the combination o usage and price

that best meets their needs.

In a tiered model, lower-cost

plans can be used to target casual

users, middle-o-the-road plans can

be crated to meet the needs o the

average user, and premium plans

can be used to target tech-savvy

consumers and business users.

To successully introduce tiered

services, operators must give

subscribers a way to monitor their

mobile data usage in real time

such as on device policy solutions.

Bridgewaters myPolicy solution

provides enterprise and consumercustomers with a real-time view o

their mobile data usage via a smart-

phone application. It also enables

operators to provide real-time,

personalized oers such as:

temporaryserviceupgrade;

freedaypassforanew

service;

bandwidthboostservices;

unlimiteddownloadsduringoff-

peak hours; and

location-basedsocial

networking services.

Pre-Purchase data services

Pre-paid services are a popular way

o increasing market penetration.

They give subscribers the fexibility

to buy a preset amount o data with

the convenience o paying or these

services via credit card, voucher or

promotional oers.

With the recent growth in mobile

data trac, the pre-paid billing

servers used by operators have

become increasingly complex. Pre-

purchase plans make lie simpler

or the customer as well as the

operator, who no longer has to deal

with the cost and complexity o

deploying a pre-paid billing server.

In this scenario, policy contro

enables usage to be metered

based on time or volume whic

must be paid or in advance by

consumer.

machine-to-machine

services

Machine-to-machine (M2M)

services are growing rapidly, w

an estimated 60 billion machin

serving a global audience o six

billion people. Applications in ar

such as healthcare, public saet

and energy are uelling the driv

towards more ubiquitous M2M

services.

The control plane unction in

and 4G networks plays a centra

role in the delivery o these ser

es by managing network resou

devices, and applications. Publ

saety services, or example, ca

benet rom automated comm

nication between trac camer

health monitors, and devices, w

priority given to emergency dat

trac.

These use cases demonstrat

how policy control as an integr

part o the mobile control plane

evolved, with air usage contro

just one o many ways that ope

tors are implementing smarter

network, device and applicatio

controls to deliver new service

Operators have to managenetwork trafc to stop

congestion. But the key

is making sure they dont

discriminate one type o

trafc rom another.

The wireless industry is

hoping the Federal Commu-

nications Commission will

tread lightly when it comes to

placing net neutrality require-

ments on wireless network.

I it doesnt, there will be a

tangled web o unintended

consequences that will stymie

the operators ability to inno-

vate and simply oer quality

service, industry experts warn.

O course, such statements

are viewed by consumer

advocates as threats. When

Verizon and Google announced

a joint public policy statement

on net neutrality that orbids

any kind o prioritization o

Internet trac over wired

networks but proposed to

exempt wireless networks,

Google the staunch support

o net neutrality was labeled

as anti- consumer.

The argument or exempting wire-

less rom the net neutrality debate

has centered on the act that wire-

less spectrum is a nite resource

and operators cant easily throw

more capacity into their networks

to continually meet the insatiable

demand rom their customers or

mobile broadband services. They

must be allowed to shape trac,

throttle heavy users when needed,

charge those who want to take

up more network resources and

prioritize more critical trac, suchas VoIP, over other trac.

The FCC acknowledged the

need to regulate trac on wire-

less networks when it comes

to net neutrality, but its unclear

just how ar operators will be

allowed to go. In September the

FCC issued a notice o proposed

d 16

d 19

Does theNet NeutralityDebate Helpor Hinderthe Need orPolicy ControlTools?by Lynnette Luna

Operator Use Cases or the3 Ps: Policy, Personalizationand Proftability

by DaviD sharpLey,

senior vice presiDent,briDgewater systems

sPonsored cont


10/11

fercewireless.com


rulemaking that pertains to how

wireless networks and specialized

services should be handled under

a net neutrality regime.

The NPRM seeks comment on

how, to what extent, and when

openness principles should apply

to mobile wireless platorms, with

a particular emphasis on urther-

ing innovation, private investment,

competition and reedom o

expression, the FCC said. Mobile

broadband providers such as AT&TMobility and Leap Wireless have

recently introduced pricing plans

that charge dierent prices based

on the amount o data a customer

uses. The emergence o these

new business models may reduce

mobile broadband providers incen-

tives to employ more restrictive

network management practices

that could run aoul o open Inter-

net principles. Additionally, Verizon

and Google issued a proposal or

open Internet legislation that would

exclude wireless, except or pro-

posed transparency requirements.

Just taking away the ability to pri-

oritize trac would undermine the

very nature o mobile broadband

networks as the quality o services

such as video and VoIP will be

severely compromised, said Phil

Marshall, head o Tolaga Research.You cant do that. Otherwise,

the reduced quality o service will

make these networks less eco-

nomical, much less economical,

Marshall said. There is no mobile

broadband business case i you are

unable to manage trac.

Susie Kim Riley, chie marketing

ocer with network policy com-

pany Tekelec, has spent time with

the FCC looking to understand the

commissions concerns around net

neutrality. She said its clear that

operators have to manage their net-

works to mitigate congestion. The

key is making sure operators dont

discriminate one type o trac

such as peer-to-peer trac over

another when throttling that trac.

Everyone agrees that operators

need to actively manage networks,

but they have to put in techniques

that do it in a non-application-spe-

cic way. That is network neutralriendly, Riley said.

However, the FCC is most con-

cerned about are service providers

who charge content providers to

transmit content over their broad-

band pipes, she said. But that

doesnt mean mobile operators

themselves cant oer a service

that a subscriber is willing to pay

more or, Riley said.

Its no longer the operator charg-

ing the content provider. Its nowabout the subscriber choosing to

pay more or a better service, Riley

said. Sign up or a higher charging

plan o certain applications you care

about and could perorm better.

Tiered service pricing based on

certain buckets o megabytes is

the rst step in that direction, Riley

said. And as the FCC alludes to in

its NPRM, the emergence o new

usage-based pricing plans could

give operators less incentive to

throttle and manage usage on their

networks in the rst place.

Jonathon Gordon, director o

marketing at Allot Communications,

said many aspects o policy control

are positive or the subscriber, but

the industry has been stuck on

talk o throttling users rather than

improving service delivery.

A lot o what we do now is

building on technology that ensures

the network runs more e cientlyby giving operators the ability to

manage services and oer things

such as premium video and con-

tent adaptation or making services

work aster on smartphones,

Gordon said.

This concept is part o the next

generation o policy control that

enables operators to charge based

on services and quality o service,

which in turn have the eect o

mitigating network congestion.The concern I have is that

consumers might look at it in a

negative way since they are getting

charged because they want bet-

ter video, Riley said. Consumers

are conditioned to pay or this big

bucket. Its like everyone being con-

ditioned to fy rst class and all o a

sudden they have to pay or it. l

sPonsored conte

The fat-rate unlimited

data plan is an unsus-

tainable business model

which has dangerously

trained consumers to

believe that data is

cheap. Tiered pricing,courtesy o policy con-

trol, is a step in the right

direction, but its not the

nal answer.

Consumers appetite

or mobile data is here

to stay, so there is little

risk o a serious back-

slide in mobile data usage as tiered

packages become the norm. The

main risk is a return to uncertainty

as consumers will again be let

wondering how much it costs to

go online. Is it cheaper to take a

taxi or walk using GPS on a mobile

device? Conusion leads to dissatis-

action which leads to churn.

So, i unlimited and quota-limited

data packages have inherent dan-

gers, what else can policy control

oer to improve the situation? In

its current orm, not much; thatis probably why the basic quota-

counting and quota cut-o has been

pushed so hard. However, with a

new, subtler breed o application-

specic policy control systems,

the context o what a consumer is

doing can allow service providers to

richer, more personalized oerings

to consumers.

value-based Pricing

Tiered pricing plans need to be

presented to the end-user in a

meaningul way that directly relates

to value. Megabytes and gigabytes

o data simply do not have meaning

to the majority o users. In the retail

world, consumers inherently under-

stand the cost and value o buying

a DVD. The cost o the content (the

movie) and the means o delivering

it (the store) are integrated, so there

is no conusion. But i they had

to pay the retail outlet and studioseparately each time they viewed

it, would they be conused? Abso-

lutely. Thus, the danger o todays

tiered plans is that it disconnects

the inherent value o the content

with the cost o delivering it.

web-integrated Packages

One way to inject real value into

todays data plans is to integra

web actions like sending a

Facebook message into a mo

compelling, more persona

ized package. Why orce

consumers to consider th

per-byte cost o accessin

the Internet on their mobi

device to send a messag

a riend on Facebook?

Instead, operators could

oer a text-savvy packor a certain demographic

that included 1,000 mes-

sages SMS, Facebook,

Twitter doesnt matter.

not about paying or som

thing that was previously

ree; it is about putting a

price on something that h

real value to consumers and let

them monitor their own behav

which includes easy upgrade

downgrade options.

In order to roll out richer prici

plans which are more relevant t

consumers lives, operators ne

to nd a more dynamic, applica

aware version o policy control

greater transparency so consum

can sel-regulate. Without it, th

tiered pricing model will be rau

with conusion and dissatisact

Openwave Trac Mediationpowers more service-oriented

icy management which will ope

the door to the market demand

dynamic and targeted data plan

d 17

There is no mobile broadbandbusiness case i you areunable to manage trafc.

phil marshall, head oF Tolaga researCh

Beyond Policy Control:Developing Customized andTargeted Data Plansby ken Denman, ceo of openwave systems

click to view diagram


11/11

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http://www.fiercewireless.com/

Policy Rules in 4G

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Transcript of Policy Rules in 4G