The telecommunications landscape is experiencing a period of remarkable change, leading to new opportunities for service providers.
World bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank are pushing countries and service providers alike to increase the availability of IP services and Internet Communications Technologies in developing parts of the world. These technologies have now become a foundation for economic growth, and key indicators of economic prosperity routinely track the penetration of broadband services.
In many parts of the world a significant demand for IP services has developed, outpacing the ability of service providers to address this demand with traditional fiber- and copper-based technologies. In developed markets, consumers are now demanding much greater service personalization, greater capabilities to link services, tools that let them produce as well as consume content, and of course greater mobility.
To address this shifting landscape, service providers are racing to develop new service models, new ways to create value for their customers, and more ways to remain relevant as the application landscape changes almost daily.
Governments, countries, consumers, application developers, and service providers are all pursuing a more connected world - the Connected Life (Figure 1).
The Connected Life
Figure 1. The Human Network and the Connected Life
The Connected Life is the application of networking technologies and services to connect people with people, people with businesses, cultures with other cultures, and countries with global communities. It enables the evolution of the Human Network where people, businesses, and governments can interact freely across borders and time zones. The Connected Life empowers people to communicate, collaborate, and innovate no matter where they live, and no matter where they are - home, work, or on the move
The Connected Life is not about a single technology or group of technologies, but rather about delivering services that meet the needs of communities while enabling service providers to build solid business cases - both must be able to benefit.
Broadband access is the key enabler for the Connected Life, and the types of services that can be enabled grow in sophistication and innovation as the amount of bandwidth increases.
These services - connectivity, Internet access, security, voice, and video, for example - will be delivered over IP Next-Generation Networks (NGNs) and will cross segment boundaries, reaching consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, and even wholesale markets where services are bundled, integrated, and resold.
IP NGNs allow operators to deploy a single network infrastructure that enables the delivery of a limitless number of services and applications. An IP NGN provides the four key Connected Life enablers:
• Connectivity to reach customers at home, at work, and on the move
• Bandwidth to support attractive, innovative, high-value applications
• IP services to manage and orchestrate personalized, differentiated services for residential and business customers
• IP applications to create and deliver rich content - voice, video, and data
Cisco Broadband Wireless Solutions
Rapid advances in wireless technologies coupled with the efficiencies of converged IP NGN architectures enable service providers to:
• Economically extend connectivity and bandwidth to millions of new customers without the need to dig trenches, build overhead facilities, or deploy expensive copper-based wired infrastructures
• Rapidly realize a return on investment (ROI) through the delivery of valuable IP services and applications - adaptable to the economic conditions of almost any market
• Improve not only their service footprint, but also their ability to meet the tight time-to-market constraints present in economically vigorous regions such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and China
• Provide portability and mobility as key features of their service offerings - an important draw in markets with large transient populations
Cisco® Broadband Wireless Solutions (Figure 2) create new opportunities for service providers, enabling the delivery of Connected Life services and capabilities to millions who are today beyond the reach of wired broadband technologies. Cisco Broadband Wireless is an IP NGN architecture integrating IEEE 802.16e-2005 Mobile WiMAX and IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi access, enabling service providers to deliver IP services and applications using both licensed and unlicensed radio technologies.
Figure 2. Cisco Broadband Wireless Solutions
Cisco Broadband Wireless enables service providers to:
• Deploy new networks, efficiently reaching new markets and new geographies, leading to faster growth and shorter time to market
• Deliver new services - valuable Connected Life experiences for a faster ROI and increased revenue
• Accelerate demand through differentiated, personalized services that increase service provider relevance and improve customer retention
• Optimize business by leveraging the transport efficiencies inherent to IP and decreasing the capital and operational expenses associated with service deployment
The Cisco Broadband Wireless architecture can be segmented into four essential functional areas, mapping to Figure 2 from left to right:
• Subscriber devices and services: services and applications with essential value and relevance to both residential and business customers, and the devices that enable the delivery of these services
• Broadband wireless access: the devices and solutions that enable the delivery of broadband access over Mobile WiMAX and Wi-Fi technologies
• Carrier Ethernet network: the converged IP transport infrastructure that supports the delivery, protection, and differentiation of services at both the aggregation and core network layers
• Service Exchange Framework: the network elements that provide subscriber awareness, subscriber management, and the control, management, and optimization of IP services and applications
The following sections explore each area in detail.
Subscriber Devices and Services
Service providers will need to become "experience providers" in order to be successful in many competitive markets. Experience providers will offer a broad choice of "any-play" services, on demand, to any device, and personalized for each customer, delivering significant value to their customers. This value will derive from being able to recognize and adapt to each customer, providing customers what they want, when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it. These services must not only address consumer, small- and midsized-business (SMB), and enterprise markets, but also link them through greater awareness of location and device capabilities.
Cisco Broadband Wireless includes a proven portfolio of class-leading service-delivery platforms, each fully integrated and tested to enable valuable, reliable consumer and business services.
Figure 3. Services Enabled by Cisco Broadband Wireless
Linksys®, a division of Cisco, offers devices that are highly valued by both consumers and service providers, with a reputation for innovation, high-performance, reliability, and manageability.
The Cisco Integrated Services Router is Cisco's premier services delivery platform for businesses ranging from small to large. It provides enormous value to businesses with a single, integrated platform for all of their services - voice, firewalls, VPNs, intrusion prevention, wireless networking, URL filtering, WAN optimization, and hundreds more enabled by Cisco IOS® Software. For service providers, the Integrated Services Router enables a wide range of revenue-generating managed services including VPNs, security, voice, and other emerging applications.
Cisco has been instrumental in some of the largest VoIP deployments in the world with its flagship Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch. The Cisco BTS 10200 is deployed globally by broadband providers that are offering services such as residential primary and secondary lines over broadband, and converged voice and data services to business clients. Service providers can use the Cisco BTS 10200 to deliver multiple services over a common broadband access network, expanding their market potential.
Broadband Wireless Access
The Cisco Broadband Wireless Solution integrates both licensed and unlicensed wireless access technologies into a converged IP service delivery architecture.
Cisco Mobile WiMAX
The IEEE802.16e-2005 Mobile WiMAX specifications define the various functions in the Access Service Network (ASN). The ASN is that portion of the service provider network that includes the WiMAX radio base stations, antenna systems, traffic aggregation, radio resource management, subscriber authentication, IP traffic management, and IP gateway functions.
Figure 4. Cisco Mobile WiMAX
Cisco Mobile WiMAX is the latest in wireless technology, fully centered on the power of IP and wireless standards. Its speed, coverage, and IP integration combine to make Cisco Mobile WiMAX an attractive choice for new mobile services or for the addition of new converged services to fixed network architectures.
This open-standards solution is compliant with the Mobile WiMAX specification and the Profile C Network Reference Model. It includes a full suite of base stations, antenna systems, ASN gateways, management systems, and customer premises equipment. In the Cisco Broadband Wireless Solution, the Cisco Broadband Wireless Gateway (BWG) and Cisco BWX Broadband Wireless Access System provide IEEE 802.16e-2005 Mobile WiMAX compliant ASN gateway functionality.
The Cisco BWG is software capability delivered on the advanced Cisco Service Application Module for IP (SAMI) - a high-performance service module for the carrier-class Cisco 7600 Series Router (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Cisco 7604 Router with SAMI
The modularity of the Cisco 7600 Series and the 5-Gbps forwarding performance of the SAMI enable service providers to scale ASN gateway performance from 5 to 45 Gbps in a single chassis.
The Cisco BWX 8300 Series (Figure 6) includes Mobile WiMAX base stations and antenna systems that are the first to integrate advanced beamforming technologies with standards-based Multiple-Input Multiple-Output antenna multiplexing techniques to delivering class-leading RF link budgets without the need for expensive high-powered amplifiers.
The Cisco BWX 8305 provides support for the industry's only eight-element Mobile WiMAX antenna system, and the BWX 2305 supports two-element arrays to provide in-fill coverage when required. The Cisco BWX Series allows for multi-megabit service delivery, increased coverage, and greater indoor penetration, so that subscribers experience high-quality wireless services and service providers receive fewer service calls, quicken the time-to-market of new services, and improve cost efficiencies.
Cisco ServiceMesh and Unified Public Wireless LAN (PWLAN)
While the Cisco BWG and BWX products provide an excellent solution for service providers who have access to licensed radio spectrum capable of supporting Mobile WiMAX deployments, Cisco also provides industry-leading solutions for unlicensed wireless access over IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi technologies.
Figure 7. Cisco ServiceMesh and Unified PWLAN
The Cisco Aironet® 1520 and 1250 Series indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi access points enable service providers to deliver broadband wireless access for implementations of any size while benefiting from the ubiquity of Wi-Fi-enabled devices for service delivery.
The Cisco ServiceMesh solution for outdoor wireless and the Unified PWLAN solution for indoor hot-spots offer service providers many key features for ease of implementation and reduced OpEx including zero-touch configuration, intelligent wireless routing that dynamically manages the creation and maintenance of the wireless network, and innovations such as Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol that optimizes, balances, and protects all traffic traversing the mesh. The Cisco Wireless Control System provides centralized design, control, and performance monitoring for both Wi-Fi mesh and Wi-Fi hotspot networks, integrating easily with existing network management and provisioning systems.
The ease with which Cisco's Wi-Fi solutions can be deployed and operated, combined with the substantial number of potential Wi-Fi-enabled applications that can be offered, enables service providers to efficiently pursue innovative new revenue opportunities.
Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet
Cisco Carrier Ethernet technologies are foundational to every IP NGN deployment, enabling service providers to deliver converged consumer and business services over a common IP infrastructure that is reliable, secure, efficient, and easily managed.
Figure 8. Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet
Carrier Ethernet technologies play a significant role in the Cisco Broadband Wireless architecture, serving as the converged transport layer in both the access service network and the connectivity service network. The Cisco Carrier Ethernet IP NGN portfolio is extremely versatile, scaling from access devices such as the Cisco ME 3400 Series Ethernet Access Switches, to flexible edge/core devices such as the Cisco 7600 and XR 12000 Series Routers, to the multi-terabit Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems. The majority of these platforms can use interchangeable shared port adapters (SPAs) for maximum deployment flexibility and greatly simplified sparing requirements.
A unique advantage of Cisco Carrier Ethernet technology fundamental to the Cisco Broadband Wireless solution is transport flexibility, which enables split service architectures for business and residential services. Business services can use a centralized control plane for service management, but a distributed data plane for Layer 2 traffic. Residential services centralize both the control and data planes to enable precise control of subscriber traffic and the application of services.
These features enable service providers to deliver profitable, differentiated services including consumer "any-play" alongside Layer 2/Layer 3 VPNs for business - over any access technology, including Mobile WiMAX and Wi-Fi.
Service Exchange Framework
The Cisco Service Exchange Framework (SEF) adds significant value to the Cisco Broadband Wireless Solution and provides a clear differentiation against competitive solutions that lack an ability to enhance the way service providers interact with their customers, deploy services, build their brand, and generate revenue.
SEF (Figure 9) provides the means through which service providers can enable and control the delivery of revenue-generating services by linking subscribers, devices, networks, applications, and services. It helps service providers to ensure subscriber satisfaction, maximize return on the investment in service-delivery capital, and minimize - or in some cases eliminate - operational expenses.
Figure 9. Cisco Service Exchange Framework
SEF does all of these by providing comprehensive IP service control capabilities that enable service providers to deliver:
• Self-service signup and provisioning: the use of retail channels to distribute access devices while providing subscribers with simplified tools to initiate service and provision their own service levels. This eases the customer experience, speeds new service rollout, enhances brand impact, and eliminates the need for any routine operational involvement on the part of the service provider.
• Differentiated services: the ability to isolate and manage consumer- and business-level services within the network while applying the appropriate traffic-management and security profiles to each. This allows for the delivery of tiered services that enable service providers to address multiple market segments, and for the protection of traffic that has stringent transport requirements such as voice or video. SEF provides the visibility and control needed for service providers to establish and maintain valuable service-level agreements (SLAs).
• Application awareness: the ability to recognize network applications, associate discrete service levels with specific high-value applications, and then monetize them based on access or usage. SEF also provides tools that enable the development of application ecosystems wherein application access can be controlled, performance assured, and billing concerns reconciled automatically. This enables the delivery of innovative, high-value applications to subscribers while providing reciprocal benefit to both the service provider and the application partner.
The Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) is the primary coordination facility used by SEF, linking major functional areas such as identity tracking, service control, and service management, along with operations elements such as Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), and Operations Support System/Business Support System (OSS/BSS). The Cisco ISG, like the BWG, is a software capability delivered on Cisco SAMI - a high-performance service module for the carrier-class Cisco 7600 Series Router.
Conclusion
Cisco Broadband Wireless provides a comprehensive, end-to-end solution built around Cisco's proven IP NGN architecture that enables service providers to deliver the Connected Life to their subscribers.
With Cisco Broadband Wireless, service providers can:
• Deploy networks using licensed Mobile WiMAX and unlicensed Wi-Fi technologies that enable faster time to market and new opportunities for revenue growth.
• Deliver new services and applications using the advanced service control capabilities enabled by the Service Exchange Framework for faster ROI, greater customer satisfaction, and improved brand impact.
• Accelerate demand and penetration by delivering true "any-play" services - data, voice, and video, mobility-enabled - into both consumer and business markets.
• Optimize revenue and profits through the application of innovative new business models, and through the CapEx and OpEx reducing capabilities that derive from convergence to an IP network.
