Day: December 5, 2014

Comptel: Can It Pump Data Refinery to Oil Operator Big Data Objectives?

by Ron Westfall, posted in OSS/BSS/CEM
Ron Westfall
Ron Westfall

Summary Bullets:

• Comptel, with its new big data refinery approach and data mediation technology, Comptel EventLink 7.0, targets operator objectives to enrich and link their vast data stores to intelligent data streams with actionable, real-time capabilities.

• Comptel needs to address how open source big data standards, such as Apache Spark, relates to its data refinery proposition, as well as how it can enable operators to uphold in-country data regulations.

Comptel unveiled its data refinery concept to support the release of its big data mediation product, Comptel EventLink 7.0, designed to cultivate intelligent data streaming. The Compel data refinery approach advocates operators use updated data mediation technology to validate and refine raw, historical and real-time data into operational and business intelligence. Combined with reporting and machine-learning capabilities, data refinery aims to improve the efficiency and actionable range of operator back-office applications such as real-time network and service monitoring and proactive QoS maintenance.
Continue reading “Comptel: Can It Pump Data Refinery to Oil Operator Big Data Objectives?” →

Revisiting Gigabit Broadband: Will 100+ U.S. Telcos Light a Fire Under Cable Operators?

by Erik Keith, posted in Ultra Broadband
Erik Keith
Erik Keith

Summary Bullets:

  • In the past few months, ADTRAN and Calix have both publicly asserted supporting more than 50 customer networks that can offer Gigabit broadband connectivity, primarily in the U.S. market. Alcatel-Lucent also provides the access networking solutions that anchor Gigabit service delivery in several high-profile, pioneering Gigabit networks. At present, more than 100 U.S. operators offer Gigabit services.
  • After first downplaying the need for Gigabit services, major cable operators – joined by telco AT&T – have asserted pending Gigabit service implementations where demand dictates. But, cable network support for mass-market residential Gigabit service deployments will require major network upgrades (ultimately FTTH).

Six months ago, I asked, “Gigabit Broadband: Do We Need It? Why Not?” Since then, we have seen some additional momentum on the Gigabit front, at least in the U.S. market, with notable fixed access networking vendors ADTRAN and Calix both announcing their support of 50 networks, cities or communities that offer Gigabit connectivity. While there are some devil-in-the-details caveats to these claims (for example, Calix’s separate counting of CenturyLink’s Gigabit deployments in eight different U.S. states), the bottom line is that in a surprising number of U.S. metro areas, Gigabit services are a reality. As an added bonus, a good number of rural and smaller-market operators – exemplified by C Spire (leveraging ADTRAN gear), which is deploying Gigabit services in 10 Mississippi cities/towns – are also investing in the Gigabit future. Finally, there is Google Fiber, which is still keeping key details about its network build-out and subscriber base secret, but is apparently on the verge of announcing another major shift forward or geographic expansion. Continue reading “Revisiting Gigabit Broadband: Will 100+ U.S. Telcos Light a Fire Under Cable Operators?” →

Oracle and InfoVista: How Far Can They Drive Network-as-a-Service?

by Ron Westfall, posted in OSS/BSS/CEM
Ron Westfall
Ron Westfall

Summary Bullets:

• Oracle and InfoVista teamed up to demo their Carrier Ethernet 2.0 NaaS Orchestration PoC at the MEF’s GEN14 event targeting operator expansion and investment in cloud-based services aimed at enterprises.

• Oracle and InfoVista gain a key starting point to sell operators and enterprises on adopting CE 2.0 NaaS applications but gain additional marketing credibility by firming up their NFV MANO proposition and recruiting CE equipment partners.

Oracle and InfoVista collaborated to demonstrate “Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0 Network-as-a-Service Orchestration (NaaS) Orchestrated and Assured” at the MEF GEN14 Proof of Concept (PoC) Showcase. The goal of the PoC sought to show the potential for self-serve ordering of NaaS across operator and wholesale partner networks, including its design for network technology abstraction. The PoC demo combined SDN/NFV, service orchestration, and automated provisioning elements to showcase its potential effectiveness in supporting operator NaaS service packages. Key elements of the PoC included: Continue reading “Oracle and InfoVista: How Far Can They Drive Network-as-a-Service?” →