Operators have learned some very hard lessons rolling out 3G networks and are looking to avoid making the same mistakes with their new 4G/LTE networks. 3G is often referred to, in confidence, by network engineers at the large operators as “the best effort network,” due to its rigid and inflexible nature. 3G was not properly specified and, more pointedly, a lot of equipment supplied by vendors has proved unsatisfactory in providing operators with the tools to properly handle the rapid increase in data and video traffic.
 
The technical benefits of LTE are well-documented. However, it would be dangerously naïve to believe that the same network planning techniques should be used when rolling out LTE. We are very much at a cross roads, LTE specifications provide vendors with the blue print to build equipment for a more intelligent network. Leading operators are quickly shifting from the “get it working” stage of LTE to really analyzing how it will give them very granular and dynamic control of subscribers and service types. 
 
The realities of 100 percent year-on-year traffic growth driving a need for 30 percent year-on-year CapEx growth do not synch well with three per cent revenue growth.  Without having a finely-tuned network that maximizes revenues and deals with capacity issues, operators know they are in a perilous situation.
 
By working with the world’s leading service providers, Ixia has a first-hand account of how those carriers are preparing their networks to handle the most important trends in mobile broadband. With innovative test equipment and best practices for validating VoLTE, creative charging models, and the ability to make the move to business-grade video, we can help you build a smarter 4G/LTE network. 
 
Atul Bhatnagar, Ixia president and CEO will speak on this subject at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 29, 2012. He will share an insider view and his experience working with the leading mobile operators to prepare their networks to handle wireless security, VoLTE, business grade video, tiered service plans, and Wi-Fi offload.
 

Ixia has drawn on its industry expertise and experience working with global customers, industry forums, and test labs to predict the networking industry's top trends for 2012. We expect growth to come from data center, wireless, security, IPv6, and Carrier Ethernet deployments. Check out our predictions for the following technology areas:

1. Next-Generation Data Center
2. Internet Security
3. Cloud Computing
4. IPv6
5. Long Term Evolution, Mobile Backhaul, and the Evolved Packet Core
6. Next-Generation Networks

1. Next-Generation Data Center

40- and 100-Gigabit Ethernet (GE): Virtualized servers will generate more traffic than 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) connections can handle. Currently, only a few data center switch vendors support 40Gbps ports. In 2012, we will see most major NEMs offer higher speeds in their top-of-rack and end-of-row switches, and major server manufacturers offer 40GE interfaces in their high-performance servers. Development will be largely fueled by the availability of low-cost QSFP+ interfaces. Look for 100Gbsp ports on new offerings for links between core switches. Testing traffic and application delivery at 40/100Gbps speeds (over various distances) will be required to ensure new hardware implementations can meet scalability and quality of service (QoS) requirements.

Converged Fibre Channel and Ethernet Networks: The widespread use of low-cost 10Gbps Ethernet networking, coupled with new data center bridging (DCB) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technologies, is finally making LAN/SAN convergence and its economic benefits a reality. Thus far, only Brocade, Cisco, HP, and Mellanox have announced FCoE support on their data center switches. In 2012, we expect to see many additional switch vendors jumping on this trend with FCoE offerings of their own. Conformance and performance benchmark testing will play a significant role in differentiating switch equipment based on overall scalability, traffic prioritization, low latency, and storage I/O performance. 

Back to top

2. Internet Security

Defending the Network: Zombies – compromised computers ready to act as robot attack systems – are ticking time bombs throughout the Internet. For example, the recent attacks on the WikiLeaks servers in Sweden demonstrate network vulnerability. The latest unified threat management (UTM) devices include multiple security mechanisms: firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), anti-virus software, anti-spam and URL filters, and VPN gateways. Ixia predicts expanding distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks will cause NEMs, service providers, and enterprises to validate that their network security is air-tight, up to date, and doesn’t impact network performance.

Back to top

3. Cloud Computing

In 2012, Ixia predicts that cloud providers will start to compete on more than price, highlighting reliability, security, and responsiveness. To do this they will need to test their overall compute, storage, and network scalability. Cloud providers need to ensure their infrastructure is ready to offer high availability for all customers with different QoS levels for different tiers of service. Enterprise customers are also looking for ways to validate that their cloud providers are meeting service level agreements (SLAs) and shortening schedules to deploy applications in the cloud. Only by testing all aspects of cloud data-centers can one expose bottlenecks and optimize cloud infrastructures. Uncovering sources of performance degradation include:

• testing data center storage I/O in converged LAN/SAN environments
• access and aggregation switching tiers at 10/40GE
• core switching tiers at 100GE (data-center interconnect)
• virtualization layers with application workloads
• security effectiveness and accuracy

The consumers of cloud services will also need test solutions that can advise how much and where compute resources are needed to deliver adequate user quality of experience (QoE).

Back to top

4. IPv6

IPv4/IPv6 Co-existence: On February 1, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last freely-available block of IPv4 addresses, pushing IPv6 addresses to the forefront. Service providers and enterprise are under the gun to prepare their networks for the influx of IPv6 traffic. Two major catalysts for IPv6 implementation are the large number of government-driven policy initiatives (US, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, and many others) mandating IPv6-ready hardware and software deployment across public agencies, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries – such as the Netherlands  providing financial incentives for organizations to accelerate the IPv6 deployment. Service provider investment in upgrading access networks to support both IPv4 and IPv6 will continue through 2012. In the latter half of 2012 we also expect to see many large enterprises rolling out IPv6 on corporate networks. To ensure this evolution is transparent to networks users, NEMs, service providers, and enterprise IT will engage in both public and private tests that demonstrate equipment readiness.

Back to top

5. Long Term Evolution, Mobile Backhaul, and the Evolved Packet Core

Long Term Evolution (LTE): By the end of 2011 there will be more than 30 commercial LTE deployments and many more trials ongoing world-wide. 2012 will see a doubling of commercial LTE networks, with North America and Asia leading the way in early deployments. As smart phone adoption rates increase and the use of media-rich applications expands, mobile operators will see continued capacity challenges. 2012 will see operators use multi-pronged approaches to solving capacity issues including:

• deployment of more spectrum-efficient technology
• increased data offload using Wi-Fi and small cells
• improved network traffic management
• new business models and charging plans

With these approaches, operators hope to not only increase raw capacity, but to lower the delivery cost per bit. Operators are spending billions to make their network more efficient, and prudent operators will thoroughly validate their networks in order to deliver on these objectives. The realistic simulation of millions of clients using media-rich applications will be a key driver for performance and capacity assurance. The very first implementations of voice on LTE networks using VoLTE will begin to occur in 2012, but don’t expect wide deployment until 2013 or beyond. 2012 will see mobile data networks become a more fertile ground for security attacks, causing wireless security testing needs to also ramp up.

Evolved Packet Core (EPC): The EPC is the aggregation point for all traffic originating from multiple wireless access types, including LTE and different variants of 3G technology. In 2012, “scalability” will be the mantra for new EPCs. These core networks must handle massive amounts of converged voice, video, and data traffic on a single IP-based network. The network and its component devices must prove their scaling capabilities in multiple dimensions. In particular, control plane scalability will be a major concern for NEMs and operators in 2012. Poor performance and faulty deployment plans can have severe consequences. History serves as evidence that subscriber dissatisfaction from a sluggish network or service outages is a real threat. The complexities of performance and how to properly manage network traffic are far too great for guess work. In 2012 and beyond, successful NEMs and operators must give due diligence to these critical issues and seek validation from test companies that are experts in this space.

Mobile Backhaul: Driven by bandwidth-hogging multimedia and mobile data, mobile operators are actively transforming their legacy TDM backhaul networks to a cost-effective IP-over-Ethernet paradigm. Clock synchronization is no longer a “barrier” to IP/Ethernet backhaul. The functionality and inter-vendor interoperability of IEEE 1588v2 precision time protocol has been proven in multiple public industry tests over the past 2 years, and 58% of service providers plan to deploy it by 2013 (source: Infonetics). The last hurdle for service providers is benchmarking the performance of boundary and transparent clock implementations, at scale, in the context of real-world traffic delivery. The onus will be on NEMs to prove the performance of their backhaul switches with tangible, repeatable test results. Service providers will also engage in pre-deployment testing to determine how to optimize network configurations to accommodate network growth and SLAs.

Back to top

6. Next-Generation Networks

MPLS-TP: In 2012, the industry will turn to MPLS-TP performance testing to validate critical measurements such as scalability and automatic protection switchover. Public industry tests will also focus on MPLS-TP features that equip service providers with more advanced network management. Ixia expects to see very few service providers deploying MPLS-TP on their networks in 2012. In our opinion, widespread deployment is still at least 18 months away because only a handful of vendors have participated in public interoperability events – indicating an immaturity of many vendor implementations. Furthermore, proving MPLS-TP as a viable technology is only the first milestone toward widespread deployment. Service providers want evidence that MPLS-TP delivers service at scale with guaranteed QoS and “five 9’s” reliability.

Rich Media: A perfect storm is developing for network operators. Smartphone users expect information and entertainment 24 hours a day, in full living color. Wireless data usage will continue along its anticipated exponential growth curve, and large amounts of inexpensive bandwidth are no longer available. Enterprises will continue to move to the cloud, and critical applications will depend on guaranteed network access and performance.

We predict that network operators will need to compete and live up to their reliability commitments. They will need to maintain customers by ensuring that all types of customer service levels meet expectations and contractual requirements. Pre-testing network upgrades and advances prior to initial deployment is crucial to insure readiness for anticipated customers’ usage. This type of testing will involve real-world subscriber modeling that simulates a large quantity of mobile, home, and enterprise application usage – web, email, streaming video, VoIP – in typical and unusual scenarios.

Back to top

The realities of 100% YoY traffic growth driving a need for a 30% YoY Capex increase do not fit with single-digit operator revenue growth. Without having a finely-tuned network to maximize revenues and intelligently deal with capacity issues, operators will be in a perilous situation. 

So how can mobile broadband networks most-effectively use a single IP-based infrastructure to support the unique traffic-handling and QoE requirements of converged voice, video, and data services? Since over-provisioning the network is cost-prohibitive, a positive user experience must be obtained through efficient partitioning of the available wireless network resources using QoS and policy management.

Before spending billions of dollars on equipment and deployments, forward-thinking operators will carefully evaluate network equipment vendors and proactively measure the QoS and policy management functions of their network devices. Validating mobile multiplay service quality requires saturating the network with a high load of real-world mobile subscriber traffic, and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) that identify QoE.

Operators must understand:

• Why QoS and policy control mechanisms are critical for managing capacity issues and how to validate them
• How to make sure their LTE network can deliver high-quality voice using VoLTE
• What the best practices are for validating creative charging models, service tiers, and speed tiers
• How to confidently move from consumer video to business-grade video

To better understand how QoS and policy management can add the intelligence to your LTE network that is necessary to deliver high-quality voice and video services, download our Quality of Service (QoS) and Policy Management in Mobile Data Networks white paper.

Ixia and VeriWave Customers:

We want to share the exciting news that Ixia has completed its acquisition of VeriWave, a move that continues Ixia's quest to provide our global customers with a total end-to-end converged testing solution. This strategic move fortifies and extends Ixia's wireless leadership - testing aspects of 3G/4G and WLAN networks such as smart wireless devices, wireless access infrastructure, the wireless core network, the IP core network, and the converged data center. With this addition Ixia becomes a unique company in the world by possessing four strong pillars of technology leadership - IP, Ethernet, LTE, and Wi-Fi - to provide end-to-end wireless testing capabilities. 

The use of Wi-Fi is growing exponentially with the proliferation of new wireless devices such as smart phones and tablets. The increase of media-rich content, like video-based applications, is placing more strain on enterprise networks and demands new quality expectations. 

LTE and Wi-Fi will form a potent technological combination for many years to come. Wireless operators are realizing that additional 4G bandwidth will not keep pace with the increasing requirements of the emerging media-rich devices and social media applications. Hence, Wi-Fi is a key offload technology to siphon traffic from the overloaded 3G and 4G networks. The synthesis of Wi-Fi and LTE will be an essential combination to deliver the necessary bandwidth required by the industry for emerging video-heavy, media-savvy applications. 

The combination of Ixia and VeriWave technologies provides the tools needed to test from the wireless edge to the Internet core. VeriWave supports world class Wi-Fi and WLAN testing, while Ixia's leading solutions for 3G and 4G/LTE networks, wired networks, and data centers provide strong complementary testing options. 

For the immediate future, continue to work with VeriWave in the manner you are accustomed. From the VeriWave web site you can still reach product information, customer support, and sales. We will update you as we progress with further integration. 

We look forward to continually providing you with the most innovative and forward-thinking technology solutions. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact your sales representative. 

All the best, 

Atul Bhatnagar

President and CEO, Ixia

The continual demand for more and more data over wireless networks is fueling HSPA+ and LTE technology roll-outs. With this growth comes an increase in femtocell use in order to provide access in places that are not suited for traditional wireless deployments and to offload congested macro cells. ABI Research forecasts that the total femtocell market will exceed 45 million globally within five years. This increase of the technology’s acceptance will be fueled by the availability of femtocell services as deployments migrate to the mass market. Several Tier 1 European mobile operators including Vodafone in the UK, Qatar, Spain, and Greece as well as Telefonica in Spain, are actively pursuing femtocell deployments.

Major players like Vodafone and T-Mobile have announced upcoming B2B offerings, illustrating the significant applicability of the technology to the enterprise market. Further evidence of growth lies in the total number of deployment commitments. According to Informa Telecoms and Media's 2010 Femtocell Market Status Report compiled for the Femto Forum, as of December 2010 there were 18 commercial services and a total of 30 deployment commitments by year’s end. Deployments have almost tripled in the last 12 months.

Femtocells are low-power wireless access points for connecting standard mobile devices to a mobile operator's network. They work using residential DSL or cable broadband connections and have the potential to change the mobile broadband industry's approach to cell design and deployment. Femtocells operate in licensed spectrum and offer many potential benefits to both consumers and operators, including increased upload/download performance, better coverage (5 bars), and traffic offload from congested macro cells.

Like most emerging technologies gaining wide acceptance, femtocells must overcome a number of important challenges before products and services are fully viable. Major challenges include scalability, security, mobility, ease of deployment and interoperability. Full validation of these areas prevents product and service delays that might ultimately impact small cell market growth. Assessing all network aspects and femtocell devices both individually and as part of an end-to-end system gives equipment manufacturers and operators the ability to test all deployment challenges.

All nodes in the femtocell ecosystem, including user equipment, home eNodeBs (HeNBs), HeNB gateways (HeNB GW), and HeNB management systems must be thoroughly tested to ensure the highest service quality.

For LTE based femtocells validation can be broken down into scalability, security, mobility, ease of deployment, and interoperability:

• Home eNodeB gateway scalability must be fully validated on multiple dimensions, including raw throughput, connections per second, and transaction per second with security enabled.
• Vulnerability to security attacks must be assessed and performance of IPSec encryption and functionality of ciphering technologies must be evaluated.
• Operators must validate mobility between femtocells and macro cells, and both positive and negative handover conditions must be fully feted to ensure a positive user experience.
• To be viable economically residential femtocells must have self-organizing network (SON) capability to avoid site specific radio planning and optimization. The functionality and operation of the HeNB and HeNB management system to the TR-069 standard is critical.
• Operators must offer consumers a variety of access point to select from and each access point must be fully compatible with the operators HeNB gateway.

According the Yankee Group, 65 percent of carriers expect to plan at least some of their LTE coverage using femtocells “from the bottom up” starting late 2012 and Informa expects the femtocell market to experience significant growth, reaching just under 49 million Femtocell Access Points (FAP) in the market by 2014 with 114 million mobile users accessing mobile networks through femtocells. This represents a significant investment in what looks to become a huge installed base of an emerging technology with much market promise.

3G Networks are reaching mass deployment stage around the world. Meanwhile, “on the go” smart phones are emerging as on-ramps to the Internet and the target for media rich applications of the future. The journey to worldwide 4G LTE wireless has begun in earnest. With the advent of 4G wireless applications, the world will shrink even faster, drawing subscribers together in new and powerful ways. We are heading fast towards an always-on, always connected world. Engaging media-rich mobile applications will become the norm. The productivity gain from this hyper interactivity will be profound. The transition from 3G to 4G wireless network, however, will also unleash a level of unprecedented complexity. To mitigate the risks in this 3G to 4G transition, every network equipment supplier and service provider will need to use methodic planning, simulation and network testing tools. 4G networks will usher in increased bandwidth, reduced network complexity and lower operational costs – if deployed with systematic thought to end-to-end quality. Ixia is preparing next generation testing tools for the deployment of LTE networks and applications so as to ensure that subscribers receive outstanding experience from their 4G networks. This requires thorough verification of new generation of 4G network equipment, smart user devices and media rich applications. Ixia’s 3G/4G wireless testing tools, under the IxCatapult branding, are flexible, adaptive and very intuitive to use, testing all facets of the 4G network and media rich applications. IxCatapult can simulate hundreds of connected LTE user devices over the air interface while simultaneously playing the role of the wireless core network. By using these coordinated test solutions, eNodeB network access devices can be thoroughly tested through total exposure to full traffic capacity as well as error conditions. IxCatapult test solutions are used today by leading network equipment manufacturers and service providers in labs around the world. The 4G LTE revolution has started, and we are focused on enabling deployment of reliable, high performance, secure 3G and 4G wireless networks around the world.