Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance User Experience Data Sheet
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PCA UE allows network performance, utilization and user experience scores to be correlated, visualized and acted upon for faster issue resolution, improving both performance and reliability. These advancements lead to reduced Operational Expenses (OpEx) and targeted Capital Expenditures (CapEx), allowing service providers to do more with fewer resources.
By improving network performance and user experience, PCA UE not only addresses existing challenges but also equips service providers to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive network landscape, positioning them for long-term growth and innovation.
PCA UE addresses consumer QoE through three key use case offerings:
● Network Intelligence captures end-to-end user experience data with granular detail (per flow, cell, application, and user). It identifies and characterizes all traffic types and encapsulations (Quick UDP Internet Connections [QUIC], TCP, User Datagram Protocol [UDP], GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP), Multiprotocol Label Switching [MPLS]/Segment Routing [SR]/SR over IPv6 [SRv6]), supporting use cases like network performance monitoring, customer care, and CapEx planning. Data is processed in real time and accessible via the PCA dashboard.
● Network Optimization leverages the Network Intelligence data and applies traffic shaping to elephant flows, boosting user throughput during congestion and providing instant cell site capacity relief, thus reducing the need for frequent spectrum upgrades. It also protects real-time traffic (e.g., videoconferencing, collaboration) from high bandwidth flows, preserving user QoE.
● Energy Reduction uses the Network Intelligence data to predict which cellular network radios can be powered off based on real-time traffic demand without affecting user QoE. It sends energy-saving recommendations via API to the RAN controller, suggesting dynamic frequency band switching to optimize RAN energy consumption by redistributing users to fewer frequency bands.
Table 1. Key benefits of PCA User Experience
| Feature |
Benefit |
| Consumer QoE |
● Provides real-time traffic insights with a router software add-on and offers actionable recommendations.
● Benchmarks QoE and identifies sites with insufficient QoE before customers churn.
● Correlation of PCA UE and PCA active monitoring (TWAMP) insights on the transport layer gives both the underlay and overlay QoE, helping to pinpoint the root cause of issues.
|
| Monetization |
● Provides deep insights into service provider network traffic (QUIC, TCP, UDP, GTP), driving new monetization use cases Examples include selling Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), converting consumers to higher-priced plans, recommending video upgrades based on usage, improving Net Promoter Score (NPS) for brand marketing, and leasing excess assets.
|
| Reduced CapEx and OpEx |
● Network Optimization delivers faster user speeds using existing hardware in both wireless and wireline networks.
● Real-time congestion management reduces the need for frequent network or cell site upgrades, providing a cost-effective alternative to new RAN equipment and spectrum purchases and optimizing CapEx.
● Increases cell site capacity by 40%, boosts average user throughput by 20% during congestion, and reduces CapEx and OpEx by 20%.
● Proactively forecasts future cell site investment needs based on consumer Service-Level Agreements (SLAs).
|
| Sustainability |
● Efficient spectrum energization helps achieve sustainability and OpEx goals.
● Energy Reduction delivers ~40% energy savings by using real-time consumer experience metrics to control spectrum energization with existing hardware.
|
PCA UE provides compact, actionable data with efficient AI-ready metrics, and is scalable with minimal back-end resources. This closed-loop solution correlates Consumer Experience (CX) metrics from each user IP traffic flow and cell site / endpoint with metadata such as geo-coordinates, site information, as well as,dynamic RAN and mobile core data (S1-U/S1-MME/S11/N4) to proactively manage network performance and customer experience.
Provider Connectivity Assurance User Experience Solution Overview
High-level architectural topology
PCA UE consists primarily of two key elements:
● PCA UE Traffic Processor Sensor: A Docker container hosting a software agent on a Cisco Cell Site Router (CSR) or on dedicated x86 compute.
● PCA platform: The router monitors the desired interface and sends packets via the Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) to the PCA UE Traffic Processor Sensor. The sensor analyzes and characterizes traffic flows, exporting metrics through the metrics collection and enrichment, to the data platform for visualization, analysis and actions.
Supported router product IDs
Supported platforms
● N540-24Q2C2DD-SYS
● N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS
● N540(X)-ACC-SYS
● N540-24Z8Q2C-SYS
● N540X-16Z4G8Q2C-D/A
● N540-12Z20G-SYS-D/A
● N540X-16Z8Q2C-D
● N540-28Z4C-SYS-A/D
● N540X-12Z16G-SYS-D/A
We also offer a server-based solution for customers who do not currently have the Cisco CSR platforms deployed. In this deployment mode the PCA UE Sensor software runs on one or more dedicated servers that connect via SPAN from aggregation routers with connectivity supported through 10/25/40/100 Gbps interfaces.
Like the integrated router solution, the server-based solution comprises two components:
● PCA UE Traffic Processor Sensor: The sensor can be deployed back in the aggregation network on Cisco UCS® rack servers. A typical Cisco UCS deployment can scale up to 320 Gbps of raw user data per server.
● PCA platform: In both the integrated and standalone offering, the PCA platform has two components:
◦ PCA platform
◦ Ingestion of site and flow records from the data collector(s), and an AI-driven analytics solution that can be deployed on a customer premises or hosted by Cisco.
◦ System compute requirements vary based on the amount of data ingested and how long data is retained.
◦ Please contact your Cisco account representative to get the appropriate sizing for your use case.
◦ Metrics collector
◦ The metrics collector supports collecting data over a variety of protocols and securely streaming to the PCA platform.
◦ It is commonly deployed near the Traffic Processor Sensors.
The three PCA UE use cases are available as separate per-endpoint add-on licenses
| SKY-ADV-UE-NI |
Per endpoint license for Network Intelligence metrics |
| SKY-ADV-UE-NO |
Per endpoint license for Network Optimization |
| SKY-ADV-UE-ER |
Per endpoint license for Energy Reduction |
The three use case licenses are independent and can be ordered separately or together depending on the required feature set.
Contact your Cisco account representative today for pricing and ordering information.
Services from Cisco and our partners help you get the most value from the PCA UE solution, quickly and cost-effectively. In addition, we can help you:
● Solidify your vision
● Create a strategy
● Develop a roadmap
● Build a scalable design
● Strengthen your team by sharing what we know
Cisco Services (CX) delivers award-winning services with a history of market-changing innovation. In addition, Cisco Services is globally recognized for expertise in engineering IP next-generation network solutions and managing large system and network integration projects.
Learn more at www.cisco.com/go/spservices.
Cisco environmental sustainability
Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environmental Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report.
Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environmental Sustainability” section of the report) are provided in the following table.
Table 2. Links to sustainability topics
| Sustainability topic |
Reference |
| Information on product material content laws and regulations |
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| Information on electronic waste laws and regulations, including products, batteries, and packaging |
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Let’s build the efficient network together
Working together, we can build a more efficient mobile network that delivers the finest customer experience possible. Start to improve network efficiency, not just build the bigger network. For additional information, visit Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance.