Intelligent Network Architecture

Network operators are, and should be, excited about their immediate business prospects. Built on the current broadband-network foundation, and ignited by the simultaneous maturation of new waves of broadband technologies – 4G, IPTV, powerful handheld mobile devices – broadband services will diversify rapidly. Data loads are certain to rise sharply and steadily for some years to come, raising revenues as surely as boats in harbor rise on the incoming tide. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, there is a gray lining inside this silver cloud.

Current networks simply are not architected to cope with the demands of this tide of opportunity. Developments are moving so quickly, time is not an ally of network operators. Carriers cannot put off till tomorrow planning and investing that they need to do today if they are to seize the opportunities so clearly visible just ahead. The data surge will challenge backhaul strategies that just few years ago seemed adequate. Network operators prepared for the new world will prosper mightily, while the unprepared face painful winters of discontent – or worse – while they play catch up.

Nor is capacity the only issue. The new data loads will require a level of network intelligence that contemporary networks are ill-equipped to provide. In the emerging world, traffic cannot be productively lumped into just a few big, undifferentiated buckets like voice, data and video.

Video is a great example, since it is undergoing a metamorphosis as stunning as any in the world of biology. The distinction between types of video – for instance, between enabling video chat and serving high-definition movies – soon will be as important to network operators as the current distinction between voice and data.

A final but critical complication is that network operators cannot merely roll out new networks that replace current networks. Both technological and economic realities forbid such a clean solution. All network operators will have to create strategies that take into account the characteristics of existing networks, and recognize that even the most sophisticated services will have to be served over hybrid networks for the foreseeable future.

These challenges, and their attendant economic considerations, cut right to the heart of network operators’ businesses. The choices they make in this hour will shape their businesses for decades. This is a moment of great excitement and great risk for network operators.

On Nov. 8, V2M will publish a special Report, written by Editor-in-Chief Tara Seals, entitled “Architecting the New Intelligent Network – A Deeper Look at Next-Generation Mobile Broadband Infrastructure." The Report, underwritten by Cisco, will define the challenges network operators face – and will point to promising lines of planning and investment they can explore, such as the EPC (Evolved Packet Core).

This Report follows up on material covered in an earlier V2M Report, “Towards The New Intelligent Network." That Report was published in mid-October and also was underwritten by Cisco. (By the way, V2M has published seven Reports thus far in 2011. All V2M Reports are available here.)

The next Report will be published on Tuesday, Nov. 8. It is free and available only on V2M. Pick up your copy in less than two weeks.

Larry Lannon is group publisher of VIRGO ’s Communications Network, which includes Billing & OSS World , Channel Partners  and vision2mobile.