Cisco Helps Service Providers Monetize Data in Motion

The new Cisco technologies enable service providers to deliver new, better and more personalized connected experiences and to gain more intelligence about those networked connections that they can utilize to deliver new revenue-generating services.

Many of the new business opportunities presented by the growing connectivity of people, data, processes, information and devices (the ‘Internet of Everything’) center on analyzing and monetizing “data in motion.”

Data in motion consists of real-time and near real-time data generated by mobile and fixed connections between people, things and processes. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, by 2017 there will be more than 10 billion mobile-ready devices/connections—including 8.6 billion personal mobile devices and 1.7 billion machine-to-machine connections

To help ensure service providers accommodate exploding network traffic and profit from it, Cisco is aggressively delivering innovative mobile solutions in three key areas: software, access and infrastructure.

“We’ve moved past the stage where small cells can be either licensed or unlicensed; operators need both sets of technologies. At the same time, we’ve moved past the stage where architecture (small cell versus macro cell) trumps the need for service intelligence backed by a solid focus on software. Cisco has proved that it understands these dynamics,” said Peter Jarich, vice president of consumer and infrastructure, Current Analysis.

Intelligent Software via Cisco Quantum

To better enable service providers to analyze and monetize the data in motion in their networks, Cisco is today introducing the Cisco Quantum. The result of the integration of more than $1.5 billion in recent acquisitions with in-house innovation, Cisco Quantum delivers unparalleled mobile network intelligence to service providers and enables greater network programmability, a key building block for the delivering of new network services. The suite includes:Cisco Quantum Network Abstraction Suite: provides a real-time network abstraction layer for network data collection, aggregation and orchestration to augment available information in all network decision processes.Cisco Quantum Policy Suite: offers a next-generation policy management solution that enables service providers to scale, control, monetize and personalize any service on any type of network through a flexible, interactive architecture that supports application-centric policy capabilities.Cisco Quantum Analytics Suite: provides business and network analytics capabilities that enable both historical and real-time predictive policy decisions. It includes dashboards for data visualization and programmable interfaces to create system alerts in conjunction with policy.Cisco Quantum Wide Area Network (WAN) Orchestration Suite: provides network management tools to simplify capacity and traffic management, increase network efficiency, and reduce operational costs for service providers, particularly in IP/MPLS (Internet Protocol/Multiprotocol Label Switching) environments.

Global service providers, including Vodafone Netherlands, are recognizing the importance of using an intelligent network to deliver new experiences and expand revenue opportunities.

Cisco Intelligent Access

To provide improved coverage and capacity to the mobile network architecture, Cisco is also transforming small cells into a platform for business and service innovation, with new small-cell licensed radio technology. Cisco’s market leadership in the small-cell market sets the stage for success in the licensed radio market. Innovations include:Cisco 3G Small Cell Module for Cisco Aironet Access Points is Wi-Fi compatible and integrates licensed and unlicensed small cells with a plug-in 3G radio for ease of deployment.Cisco 3G Small Cell expands Cisco’s proven solution for enterprises with an unsurpassed channel to market for premises-based deployments.Cisco ASR 901S is designed to enable wide-scale deployment of outdoor small cells by extending carrier-class small-cell routing to the outdoor installation pole to break the backhaul bottleneck.

Service Providers Share Their Perspective

Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet services providers; WiLine Networks, a provider of fast, flexible, affordable broadband solutions; and Telkom, a wireline and wireless telecommunications provider in South Africa, have joined more than 100 global service providers selecting Cisco as their infrastructure partner for wireless carrier backhaul and licensed data backhaul services.

“Softbank’s customers have come to expect instantly available mobile broadband wherever they happen to be, on whichever device they happen to choose,” said Keiichi Makizono, Corporate Officer, Deputy Unit Head, Technology Unit, and Division Head, Network Division, SoftBank Mobile Corp. “We use Cisco today for backhaul, including the Cisco ASR 903 for Internet Protocol radio access network. The new Cisco small-cell backhaul technology will potentially help enable us to expand our service portfolio so that we can provide customers with anytime, anywhere access on any network.”

“With the accelerated growth of mobile networks, speed and flexibility are hallmarks of successful next-generation backhaul providers,” said John McGuire, CEO, WiLine Networks. “WiLine Networks chose Cisco and the Cisco ASR 901 Series, which provides unequaled flexibility to both address immediate demands and the expected growth of backhaul driven by the advance of small cells. Our relationship with Cisco is a win for our customers, speeding time to deploy Ethernet services with best-in-class network solutions.”

“With the rapid growth in the number and sophistication of mobile devices, mobile networks are challenged to provide adequate capacity and performance,” said Zoltan Miklos, executive, Telkom South Africa. “Telkom South Africa prides itself on delivering the highest quality and reliability to our customers. With that in mind that we are implementing the Cisco ASR 900 Series of routers for cellular backhaul and mobile aggregation requirements today, and look forward to utilizing the next generation in small cell backhaul.”

Video: Cisco Mobile Internet Innovations 2013- Kelly Ahuja, Cisco's SVP/GM of SP Mobility Group discusses how mobile Internet innovations from Cisco, including the new Cisco Quantum and Intelligent small cell and transport infrastructure, enable the intelligence in next-generation mobile networks to deliver an enhanced consumer experience.

Learn more, visit Cisco at Mobile World Congress 2013

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