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Prepared by
Gabriel Brown
Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading
www.heavyreading.com
on behalf of
www.amdocs.com
May 2013
Control-Plane Virtualization & Service Agility
To drive a lower cost of operations, scale networks elastically and increase "service
velocity," leading mobile operators are pursuing Network Functions Virtualization
(NFV) strategies in the 4G core covering both data plane elements such as
packet gateways and the "intelligent control plane," including policy servers,
subscriber databases and IMS applications.
While NFV in the 4G core is initially focused on improved cost of ownership, control
plane virtualization also offers service model and service agility advantages to
mobile service providers.
This white paper will identify which 4G core applications are the best candidates
for virtualization and can be abstracted from hardware to run on carrier cloud
infrastructure. It will discuss key use cases and argue that service innovation and
agility is fast becoming as important a driver for virtualization as cost-efficiency.
The conclusion will identify emerging best practices in the area of virtualization for
mobile operators, with specific reference to the 4G core control plane.
The 4G core, based on the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), is a new, or recent,
investment for mobile operators. This makes it one of the most attractive parts of
the network to virtualize and offers operators an opportunity to create a new,
service-oriented "foundation architecture" that can be extended in the future.
However, there are differences between mobile operator networks and those of
Internet and cloud providers. Mobile networks are inherently distributed, can be
very large-scale, are multiservice and have specific reliability and performance
requirements. To address the unique nature of telecom networks, operators have
formed the NFV group within ETSI to develop the requirements, frameworks and
processes needed to commercialize the technology.
For mobile operators, the motivations for 4G core network virtualization can be
summarized as follows:
Separate software from hardware. One goal of NFV is to break the link be-
tween a logical function and hardware. This software-centric approach
means that performance, scalability and feature development can be
decoupled from slower hardware development cycles.
Elasticity and rapid scaling. With virtualized applications, operators can
scale resources according to demand and to the requirements of specific
use cases. There is less need to overprovision hardware initially.
Increase service velocity & agility. With software-centric networks, opera-
tors can create virtualized core network instances that are suited to spe-
cific customer types, use cases and traffic models. A service definition and
"workflow" can be rapidly configured in software to meet the needs of a
specific enterprise, for example.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 2
Virtualization, SDN & Cloud
NFV is closely linked to two other major transitions in networking occurring at the
same time: cloud and software-defined networking (SDN). Although the three are
linked, they are also distinct from one another. Virtualized core network applica-
tions can deliver benefits independently of SDN, for example. Figure 1 summarizes
each technology.
SDN Centralized "SDN controller," which maintains a global view of the (IP) network;
appears to the applications and policy engines as a single, logical switch.
An SDN is managed and manipulated at an abstract level through its north-
bound API.
Applications use the northbound API to specify how they want the network
configured for their specific latency, security, SLA, routing, etc. needs.
As the operator looks to define and develop a broader SDN and telco cloud
strategy, virtualized applications can be ported over to that environment. In this
sense, the virtualized 4G core becomes an application on an SDN network. Thus
NFV is decoupled from SDN and cloud, but ultimately operators will benefit from
tighter integration over the longer term.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 3
Identifying which mobile core functions are the best candidates for virtualization is
a judgment on which applications are technically suited (i.e., easier to do) to
abstraction to generic x86 servers and are most pressing for operators. This is
complicated because different operators have varying priorities and pain points.
Many operators have already made EPC deployment decisions, or need to do so
in the near future, and cannot wait for technology that today is still in the proof-of-
concept or prototype phase.
A way to think about virtual EPC, therefore, is a series of steps toward a target
architecture where, over the longer term, the entire EPC is virtualized. Four of the
key early opportunities are described below:
The initial focus is on the control plane. Policy servers and subscriber databases, for
example, are already server-based, and most vendors are now working to port
their applications to COTS servers and VM environments. The application layer and
control layer in IMS is also relatively well advanced. A number of vendors will offer
IMS on COTS servers this year, and progressive operators are planning to use
virtualized Telephony Application Servers (TAS) to introduce VoLTE in 2014.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 4
Figure 2: Virtualization In & Around the EPC
Another area of near-term interest is so-called "Gi-LAN services." These are func-
tions deployed in the "services LAN" between the mobile network and external
services (and even the operator's own cloud services). To reduce complexity and
latency, operators have moved to consolidate Gi functions into fewer boxes
(sometimes the P-GW itself). More recently, however, a new trend toward ab-
stracting these functions to run as virtualized services in the telco cloud has
emerged. Some of these applications (video optimization, parental control and
ad insertion, for example) are more suited to virtualization than others.
The data plane is perhaps the most challenging to virtualize from a performance
perspective. Packet gateways, in particular, can deliver greater performance
using specialized packet processing hardware (for example, based on a router).
This can also apply to DPI boxes and firewalls where throughput is also important.
However, even in the data plane, there are initiatives from vendors and operators
to virtualize these functions to run on COTS servers.
The idea is to program virtualized instances of the EPC (and related services)
according to different service definitions, which incorporate traffic models,
mobility profiles, policy and charging, security requirements and so on. This is
presented in Figure 3.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 5
Figure 3: Service Chaining & Workflow
In each scenario, a service definition is created for each user type or application,
and a workflow is configured accordingly. In some cases, the user would be highly
mobile and consume a lot of bandwidth, and thus require a particular EPC, traffic
management and security configuration; whereas another type of service may be
more static and predictable, and thus require a different workflow configuration.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 6
Virtual EPC Control Plane Use Cases
This section identifies some key use cases enabled by virtualized control plane
elements such as PCRF and HSS. In each case programmable workflows, service
partitioning and elastic scaling play an important enabling role.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 7
Use Case 2: Enterprise Services
Another use case that highlights the benefits of a virtualized core relates to
enterprise service offerings. A typical large enterprise would have its own require-
ments (e.g., in terms of policies, security, etc.) and very likely several different
requirements for different user groups.
A car manufacturer, for example, may require network services to collect teleme-
try data from vehicles, to deliver software updates, or to stream audio or video
entertainment to vehicles, as well as needing standard employee connectivity.
Four different use cases, each with different workflow requirements, from the same
large enterprise customer (in this case a car manufacturer) are shown in Figure 5.
Using virtualized core instances, the operator can scale resources on-demand for
this customer and offer the appropriate "in-line services" (security, optimization,
etc.) for each use case. For example, in-vehicle entertainment services (such as
streaming audio and video) will consume significant bandwidth, will likely benefit
from traffic optimization and caching, and might be charged for in a way particu-
lar to content services.
Collection of vehicle telemetry data, on the other hand, would typically be low-
bandwidth and predictable. But on occasion e.g., if a software patch needs to
be urgently distributed the elasticity of virtualized EPC would mean the operator
could provide the customer with "burst capacity."
A virtualized control plane enables these use cases because of the role the
control plane plays in orchestrating policy, and because being virtualized itself,
specific instances of the HSS and PCRF can be created for the customer type and
use case.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 8
Use Case 3: M2M Services
Another proposed use case for virtual EPC is for machine-to-machine (M2M)
services. This type of network-as-a-service offering to M2M companies represents a
new business model for operators.
The logic is that M2M has a traffic model different from "normal" services, in that it is
often transaction-oriented, predictable, low-throughput and can be time-of-day
dependent (e.g., to check stock levels on vending machines at midnight). This use
case can be supported on standard infrastructure, but may be better suited to a
virtualized core instance that is configured for the particular traffic model.
Because M2M traffic is often not delay-sensitive although in some cases, such as
healthcare monitoring, the opposite may be true it is an opportunity to experi-
ment (i.e., innovate) with virtualized EPC. The main "production network" operates
as normal, while the M2M traffic is split off at the RAN level and is processed in the
new virtual EPC, which is configured according to the demands of the service. In
this way, operators gain experience with the model with a lower risk of disruption
to their mainstream services. As the technology matures over time, it will be able
to move more services to the virtualized environment.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 9
Public safety agencies, however, continue to have specific security and perfor-
mance needs. Although multiple agencies (fire, police, ambulance, etc.) would
share the access network, each would need their own interoperable core
networks. This makes the ability to offer "customized" virtual core network instances
a high-value activity.
Key vEPC Features for Public Safety Given that emergencies, by nature unpredictable, will be at
Elasticity: To adapt to the unpredicta- different times and locations, and that a public safety
ble demand associated with emer- network would need to be able to support a sudden increase
gency and first-responder use cases in capacity, a virtualized core network hosted in the cloud
would in theory be attractive because of the way it is able to
Dynamic QoS & Prioritization: To ensure "scale on demand."
key services and users are prioritized
during emergencies; especially Because multiple agencies are operating over a shared
valuable in shared access networks access network, there is a need to prioritize users, and to
Custom Configuration: Agencies have ensure QoS for critical applications such as VoLTE. The ability
specific use cases and security to do this dynamically for this inherently unpredictable
requirements that require custom environment is vital.
configuration of the vEPC instance
The challenge is that public safety is not a use case where it is
acceptable to experiment in a way that increases the risk of
service disruption relative to a "classic" core network deployment. This makes a
progressive approach to core virtualization attractive, and again highlights the
logic of starting with control-plane functions.
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Challenges to Virtualized EPC
Applications Written for the Cloud
To deliver the programmability and scalability benefits associated with virtualiza-
tion, it is becoming clear that applications "written for the cloud" will work better
than a straight port of an existing application to run in a VM environment.
This need to rewrite applications for a VM platform varies by vendor. Many are
already a fair way along the journey, but this is, nevertheless, a disruptive factor in
the transition to virtualized EPC.
Server technology from the IT world has not historically been able to deliver
required reliability or performance. In the mobile core, and especially in the
bearer plane, vendors have been able to differentiate on the platform and its
underlying performance. This has, in fact, been a key determinant of competive-
ness over the years.
Reliability also speaks to the type of cloud infrastructure on which virtualized core
network applications will run. The private telco cloud owned and run by the
operator is deemed more suitable for carrier-grade
telco applications, and at this point is the preferred
platform for NFV. If telcos are investing in cloud Software is the solution to
infrastructure for their end users, they can use this running high-performance
same platform for NFV so the theory goes. applications on unreliable,
commodity hardware
More broadly, it is becoming apparent that software is
the solution to being able to run high-performance
applications on unreliable, commodity hardware. This highlights the importance of
the management layer and the value to operators of better, more mature tools
on which to run virtualized network functions.
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Management & Orchestration
The process of provisioning compute resources according to the needs of the
applications running in VMs is one of the biggest challenges to implementing NFV.
"Elasticity" depends on the network and application being able to call up re-
sources as needed from the cloud. For critical NFV applications, the network must
know for certain that resources will be available on demand. This places great
responsibility on the cloud management (orchestration) layer and its interaction
with the network and applications.
Operators are rightly wary of being locked into a single vendor of management
software, and different operators will select different platforms. This means that
application software will need to interface with several different cloud manage-
ment layers, and be hypervisor-independent. Many operators are using VMware
today, but some larger operators (and larger vendors) are developing their own
platforms based on Openstack.
Typically some of the skill set required for NFV is found in the IT and data center
groups running internal systems and supporting enterprise customers. These groups
have experience of virtualization, but generally have little insight into the specific
demands of network applications.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 12
Conclusion: Best-Practice NFV in the 4G
Control Plane
Leading mobile operators are pursuing NFV strategies in the 4G core. While the
initial driver is to lower costs, fundamentally the value of software-centric core
networks is to provide operators with greater service agility and innovation
potential so they can address and create new market opportunities more quickly.
The goal at this stage should be to create a framework that allows the
NFV strategy to evolve, according to changing technology and commer-
cial needs, and to new insight. There are many uncertainties; being able
to adapt as technology and the market changes is critical.
Create an organizational structure across the network, service platform
and IT divisions that enables, and champions, software-centric network
development. Communication between divisions is a prerequisite for shar-
ing infrastructure and processes, and to unlocking the benefits of NFV.
Identify lead applications and use cases to prototype and commercialize
in parallel to the production network. Good examples include policy and
HSS, the IMS applications layer and certain Gi-LAN services. Operators
should think in terms of developing a hybrid architecture that comprises a
mix of virtualized applications and classic, engineered systems.
Ensure vendor roadmaps have clear and committed paths to virtualiza-
tion for any new equipment or major upgrades, and will be able to sup-
port your chosen orchestration layer. Modular scalability is better suited to
VM environments than direct ports of monolithic applications.
Identify service opportunities and new use cases enabled by NFV, and
make this central to the strategy. Cost savings and efficiencies are valua-
ble, but the programmability of software-centric networks and the ability
rapidly reconfigure assets to support new use cases and services will also
determine success.
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 13
Background to This Paper
About the Author
Gabriel Brown
Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading
Brown was previously the editor of IP Wireline and Wireless Week at London's
Euromoney Institutional Investor. He often presents research findings at industry
events and is regularly consulted by wireless networking technology leaders.
Brown is based in the U.K. and can be reached at brown@heavyreading.com.
Heavy Reading
240 West 35th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Phone: +1 212-600-3000
www.heavyreading.com
HEAVY READING | MAY 2013 | WHITE PAPER | CONTROL PLANE ELASTICITY & VIRTUALIZATION THE 4G CORE 14