PROPOSAL:

CONTROLLING THE ASSAULT OF NON SOLICITED

PUBLICATION AND MARKETING (CAN SPAM)

SUBMITTED ON

AUG 28, 200z

By

XXX
Sec-
Roll No. YYYYYYY

Professor:

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

 CAN SPAM

CAN SPAM

Proposal presented to:

TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP, HUTCH

On: yy-XXXXXXXX-zzzz

By

XXXX
VP, Communication Business Unit,
Ittiam Systems
E-Mail: yyyy@ittiam.com

© Copyright Ittiam Systems. All Rights reserved. 1

 CAN SPAM

CONTROLLING THE ASSAULT OF NON SOLICITED

PUBLICATION AND MARKETING (CAN SPAM)

"Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted

communication, whatever its merit… We therefore categorically reject the argument that
a vendor has a right under the Constitution or otherwise to send unwanted material into
the home of another."
-U.S. Supreme Court: ROWAN v. U.S. POST OFFICE DEPT., 397 U.S. 728

INTRODUCTION

The official meaning of SPAM is "Self Promotional Advertising Message." A Spam is

characterized by being unsolicited and automatically generated. Till now the focus has
been mostly on spams that use the Internet as the communication medium – primarily
through e-mails. Spams have proven to be the biggest bane of the advent of the network
age.
Now with the rise in popularity of mobile phones as a communication medium, spam is
beginning to be employed via SMSs and voice calls. Mobile-phone spam is particularly
harmful to consumers because they often have to pay for the time it takes to delete the
SMS or to take the call; the users do not have a good discretion to identify a spam when it
comes on a mobile phone. Also a mobile-phone is considered to be in a more personal
space than an e-mail, a mobile-phone spam call necessitates the users to take a prompt
action, they can’t choose to handle the spam call at their own leisure, unlike an e-mail.
Till date all the anti-spamming work has been done for e-mails, we don’t have any
commercial product or technology to block spam on mobile phones.
Ittiam Systems has been doing research on this area for 20 weeks as on 25th August 2004
and we have developed a system to deal with the problem. Our CAN SPAM algorithm
for the same has been patented under the U.S. laws. In this context, it is proposed that
Ittiam Systems builds an anti spamming solution for Hutch – a USP now but a necessity
in the future.

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 CAN SPAM

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The biggest challenge in blocking mobile-phone spams is that this cannot be a content-
based technology, since there’s no call data till the time the user actually answers the call.
There are 2 ways to deal with it:
1. Reactive System - Setting up spam filters at a user level, where the user can
choose to block specific phone numbers.
2. Proactive System - Doing a pre-analysis at the network level to statistically and
probabilistically identify a spam call or message and drop it before being send to
the user.
The reactive method is like a fingerprinting based system and here the user is always
trying to catch up with the spammers. We have been working on developing a proactive
system that uses Bayesian probabilities to statistically identify a call or an sms as spam
and drop it before being send to the user. The basic trouble with using a proactive system
is that of the false positives, if the system wrongly identifies a call or a sms as spam, then
that message will get dropped, therefore we bias the probabilities slightly to avoid false
positives. The system works by using k-means clustering technique to slot calls or
messages into various types of baskets, where each basket is linked to a degree of
confidence and then depending on the user’s security level settings, the call is either
dropped or forwarded to the user. The system has been devised as a genetic algorithm,
which is self-learning and continuously imbibes all the data collected on the network to
fine-tune the cluster baskets. We have been testing our algorithms on a virtual test
network and the results have been shown in the annexure.
Keeping in mind the exponential growth in the spams on the cellular network, it is
imperative that the operators will have to start looking for solutions. Not only do the
spams annoy the end user, leading to decreased satisfaction levels with the service, it also
jams the network and decreases it’s useful throughput value. In view of this we propose
to build a system for Hutch based on our CAN SPAM algorithm, which can proactively
detect and drop spam data messages and voice calls.

© Copyright Ittiam Systems. All Rights reserved. 3

 CAN SPAM

PROJECT METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE

It is proposed that the entire project will be divided into the following phases.

Phase I: Based on the requirement specifications, we make a detailed design and once
approved, build and test the system.

Phase II: The system is deployed on a small portion of the Hutch network, and any
corrective changes if required are made. Once the system is stable, the results are studied
for a period of 2 weeks.

Phase III: Hutch announces the feature to its customers and the system is officially
deployed on the Hutch network.

Phase IV: We provide full support for 2 months from the deployment date and handle
any issues concerning the system. We will also survey consumers and understand the
consumer acceptance of this novel feature. We plan to do a do a dip-stick survey among
2000 Hutch users.

Initiate Project Functional

Specifications

Detailed Desig n

Build & Test

Deployment

Project Management
Support
Note: Execution of activities may overlap in time, as shown above

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 CAN SPAM

PROJECT TIMELINE AND MILESTONES

The following is the proposed timeline of the project:

Table 1 Project Timeline

Weeks
Phase Description 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8-14
I Design and development
Design and development
No. Of people working 8 15 15 15 7 7 2

Table 2 Project Milestones

DAY MILESTONE
1 Project Initiation. Signing of the contract
5 Functional Specifications have been frozen

12 Detailed design completed

17 First Version released for testing

23 Interim report submitted

28 System released for test deployment

42 System ready for actual deployment

49 Deployment done and final comprehensive report submitted

MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES

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 CAN SPAM

We would require the following support from Hutch to ensure successful project
completion: -
• Clear and unambiguous definition of the project scope and deliverables.
• Mentoring session by the company’s technical division for increasing our
understanding of the Hutch network.
• Access to information wherever required and relevant.
• Review by an identified Hutch personnel after every stage of completion.
• Access to Hutch’s intranet and necessary project servers for the Ittiam onsite
coordinator and Ittiam offshore development team.

On our part, we shall guarantee complete adherence to the project framework:

• Appropriate knowledge transfer to Hutch personnel, for them to understand the
CAN SPAM system.
• Carrying out the project exactly as per mutually agreed.
• Coding the project so that it is easily extensible in the future.
• Complete sharing of information during each stage of the project.

ACCEPTANCE PARAMETERS

• The throughput of the network should not decrease because of the CAN SPAM
system.
Both the parties would need to mutually agree upon the following performance levels
of the system: -
• Percentage of spams detected
• Percentage of false alarms raised by the system.

COMMERCIAL TERMS

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 CAN SPAM

The cost is on Time and Material basis. The total cost involved in the project is as worked
in the appendix.
The total estimated project cost is Rs. 25,51,655 (including contingency costs and
royalty).
Incidentals would be based on actuals.

Payment Terms
Ittiam Systems follows a policy of minimum credit. A contract-signing amount of Rs
2,00,000 is to be paid after which the project will start. This will be adjusted in the first
phase installment. Payment terms/amounts initially agreed upon would be non negotiable
once the project commences. All the payments for the completed phases need to be paid
before starting the next phase. Payment would be done after a common review of the
deliverables has been done and a mutual agreement arrived at. The contingency cost and
the royalty cost is to be paid within 15 days of finishing the Phase III.

CONCLUSION

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 CAN SPAM

Spam data messages and voice calls are exponentially growing, making it not only an
annoyance but also possibly a threat to the continued usefulness of the mobile phone
itself. Ittiam Systems has developed and patented the algorithm for spam detection and is
at least 6 months ahead of the competition in research. The CAN SPAM project offers
Hutch a USP to offer to its customers. Also it will enjoy the first mover advantage in the
market. As a byproduct of spams being dropped from the hutch network, the useful
throughput of the network will increase considerably leading to faster connection
responses to its users.
The estimated completion time of the project is 7 weeks and we also offer 8 weeks of
post deployment support. The estimated project cost is Rs. 25,51,655.

Annexure

PROFILE OF ITTIAM SYSTEMS

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 CAN SPAM

Founded on January 1, 2001, Ittiam Systems is a DSP systems company. Our mission is
“to be the World's best DSP Software and Systems Company”. We have competencies in
multiple end equipment domains, covering Wireless, Wireline, Speech/Audio, and
Imaging/Video. We undertake product development for customer specifications, covering
all or part of the steps in the overall product development cycle. Ittiam Systems is led by
a team of professionals with over 130 years of experience in the management,
development and marketing of high technology products. We are headquartered in
Bangalore, India, with offices in the US, UK and Taiwan and representation through
authorized Associates in the US, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore.

PROFILE OF PROJECT TEAM

YYYY who has over 14 years of industry experience will lead the project. He is widely
renowned as an expert in Data mining and genetic algorithms. He is a member of the
Asia leadership team and a member of the Karnataka State IT Task Force.

ZZZZZZZ will be the technical lead for the project. He has over 6 years of industry
experience and has been the chief architect of the CAN SPAM algorithm.

The team will also comprise of 2 senior development engineers, 7 development

engineers, 4 test engineers and 2 support engineers. The team brings with it over 55 years
of experience. Ittiam experts across the world from various fields will ably support the
team.

PRICING DETAILS

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 CAN SPAM

Table 2 Rates

Role Rate/Hour
Project Manager xxxx
Development Engineer yyyyy
Test Engineer zzzzz
Deployment Engineer wwwwww
Support Engineer uuuuuu

Table 2 Costs
No. Of hours Total Cost
Phase P.M. Dev Engg. Test Engg. Dep Engg. Supp Engg.
I
II
III
IV
Contingency z% of total
Royalty for CAN SPAM algorithm

The total project cost is Rs. yyyyy (including contingency costs and royalty).

In case any installment is not paid by the date on which it is payable, a notice may be
served to pay the installment within a period of two months together with a penalty which
may extend up to y%of the amount due.

TEST RESULTS

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 CAN SPAM

Virtual Network size Spam Detection False Alarms

5000 97.6 % 0.07 %
25000 98.4 % 0.075 %

ASSUMPTIONS

• Hutch will not sublease the CAN SPAM network to any other cellular operator.
• Ittiam will not use the intrinsic knowledge gained about the Hutch network
outside of the project.
• Guaranteed results in terms of 100% spam detection rate and 0% false alarms are
out of scope.
• Acceptance tests will be performed only by Hutch personnel, Ittiam will only
resolve/fix any issues identified.

© Copyright Ittiam Systems. All Rights reserved. 11