Nokia offers VNS to telcos as a complementary service

Sri Reddy, Vice President & General Manager, IP Routing Division, Nokia

Please elaborate on Nokia’s portfolio of IP/MPLS (core and edge) and Mobile Gateways (MME/SGSN, S/P GW, GGSN).

Nokia’s IP/MPLS Portfolio is the most complete, end-to-end family addressing all major applications. What differentiates us and our portfolio is the common, foundational technologies that underpin all our software, systems and services. Specifically, all our platforms run the same Service Router Operating System (SR OS) and are managed by the same Carrier SDN solution, the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP). This is unique to Nokia and a massive advantage to our customers who get consistent features, functions and operational capabilities independent of the hardware they deploy and where they deploy it. This includes mobile any haul (for front haul, backhaul, core), converged aggregation (for fixed, mobile and enterprise services), IP service edge (for both virtual and physical implementations, and for mobile, fixed and enterprise gateways) and the core IP network.

Our re-designed and purpose-built Evolved Packet Core (EPC) portfolio supports an expanding scope of new and legacy applications. The converged portfolio combines Nokia’s strengths in IP and mobile to address Narrowband IoT, VoLTE/WiFi and emerging 4G/5G applications for fixed, wireless and hybrid access, and using licensed and unlicensed spectrum. In particular, the portfolio’s cloud-native architecture delivers new levels of scale and reliability to address new IoT applications which have vastly different service characteristics than legacy core applications.

What is the GTM strategy followed by the IP Routing Division especially with respect to India?

 There are two market segments in India which we are targeting:  telecom service providers and large enterprises/public sector companies. The telecom service provider market is handled directly by Nokia sales teams and the non-service provider market is addressed through channel partners. More than 20 channel partners are signed-up in India to sell our IP portfolio of products and services.

Please brief about some of the IP routing success stories in India

We have been very successful in India, started focusing on India IP business in year 2009 and in last 7 years we have more than 20 customers who are using Nokia IP technology and the majority of telecom service providers and cable/MSO/ISP are using Nokia IP/MPLS routers in their networks. We also have power utilities companies who are using Nokia IP/MPLS routers for modernizing their communication network based on our advanced IP technology.

How can Nokia help telcos extend their Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)?

Nokia offers Virtualized Network Services (VNS) to telcos as a complementary service to their existing IP and Carrier Ethernet (CE) VPN services. Known in the industry as 'SD-WAN' and delivered by our SDN venture, Nuage Networks, VNS differs from traditional VPN services in that it was specifically developed to serve enterprises that are adopting a cloud-based IT consumption model. VNS customers include a who's who of tier 1 operators including BT, Vodafone, China Telecom and others.

Traditional VPN services are tightly connected to a dedicated network infrastructure. Nuage Networks VNS is based on an overlay model that uses any IP network to provide connectivity between sites, including existing VPN, fixed broadband or mobile broadband. This gives customers maximum flexibility and the option to choose from available access/last-mile technologies including copper, fiber or wireless.

With Nuage Networks VNS, both telcos and their customers benefits from cost savings and efficiency advantages. Automation and self-care help you both lower operational costs. Enterprises gain a network that is tailored to their unique needs, without incurring the costs and complexities of a customized network. Telcos benefit from reduced churn, thanks to increased customer satisfaction and the addition of a differentiating service to their portfolio. Telcos can also expand their addressable market to include unmanaged IP-VPN customers.

How would you advise a telco to turn its IP network into a profitable service delivery engine?

In two words:  automation and agility.  Using Carrier SDN to create networks as agile as the cloud was initially focused on cost savings. But the growing enterprise demand for a cloud-like network service experience has changed the carrier SDN conversation from cost savings to service innovation at network providers everywhere. Why? Customers want network connectivity services that can be provisioned in seconds – not in days or weeks – so they can be consumed when they want, where they want and how they want. They want rapid delivery of new network features so network services can keep up with the ever-evolving ways in which cloud services are being consumed.

To address these challenges, operators and vendors are refocusing Carrier SDN to incorporate a DevOps operating framework where building, testing and releasing software can happen rapidly and more frequently. From a network perspective, this means making the network simpler and easier to program so that new features and services can be delivered in a continuous stream.

At Nokia, we fully embrace the concept that service providers can reach the operational speed, efficiency and service innovation necessary in order to create a network environment as agile as the cloud. Our Carrier SDN solution, the Network Services Platform (NSP), gives operators a fresh, inventive approach that takes the complexity out of IP/optical networks so they can be consumed and programmed on demand. That enables telcos to deliver the dynamic service experience enterprise customers want, with the efficiency and scale service providers need.

Please elaborate on the updates to your Motive Customer eXperience Solutions (CXS) software portfolio

We recently announced updates to two products in our Customer eXperience Solutions (CXS) software portfolio: Nokia Motive Service Management Platform (SMP) 7.0 and Motive Care Analytics (CAL) 2.0. SMP 7.0 and CAL 2.0 add support for machine learning algorithms developed by Nokia Bell Labs, delivering new levels of proactive customer care – improving the detection, troubleshooting and resolution of subscriber issues.

Nokia Motive SMP 7.0 features Dynamic Intelligent Workflows: a new self-optimizing system that determines the ideal sequence of tasks that deliver the highest probability of resolving billing, subscription and network service issues in the shortest amount of time. It analyzes data from previous workflow executions, the network, customer premises equipment, and trouble tickets, enabling service providers to quickly find the optimal remediation to issues when subscribers contact help desk agents or use self-care.

Nokia Motive CAL 2.0 is the first solution of its kind that automatically correlates customer help desk calls and self-care actions with network, service and third-party application topologies to identify call anomalies (e.g., unusual patterns in help desk calls that indicate the location of customer-impacting network and service issues). Once anomalies are identified, Motive CAL initiates actions through Motive SMP to resolve service disruptions and other issues before they become widespread problems, triggering call deflection to IVR systems and OSS alarm correlation for rapid fault localization and identification.

Together they help service providers lower costs by reducing average help desk handling times 5 to 15 percent and eliminating inappropriate truck rolls (dispatching a service technician to a customer location) related to network outages by as much as 90 percent. They also enable service providers to improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn by eliminating 85 percent of outage-related help desk calls.

Please explain the benefits of the complete templating system for Virtualized Network Function (VNF) lifecycle management

In December, 2016, Nokia announced enhancements to CloudBand including an open templating system that enables automation of virtualized network function lifecycle management.  This is the industry's first solution based on the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's Network Functions Virtualization (ETSI NFV) specifications. Its benefits include:

- enables service providers to streamline VNF on boarding and integration, and automate VNF lifecycle management processes,

- reduces the cost and time required to deploy multi-vendor NFV networks; enriches the selection of services that service providers can offer customers, and

- allows VNF suppliers to more quickly support multi-vendor networks, thanks to its data model for the VNF Descriptor and access to open tools.