Peter Jarich

Accelerating 5G: Unleashing New Spectrum via Sharing

July 10, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband

Summary Bullets:

In the run-up to 5G launches, new shared and unlicensed spectrum usage is helping to open up new business models for mobile operators.
Beyond the development of technologies like LTE-U, LAA, CBRS and MulteFire, development of the ecosystems around those technologies and examples of how they can be commercially put to use will drive their success.

To date, most commercial, mobile wireless services have been built on a foundation of licensed spectrum. Going forward, 5G won’t change that.

Where the next generation of wireless technology requires a massive technology investment, mobile operators will want the network quality and availability assurances (not to mention competitive advantages) that licensed spectrum delivers. 5G will, however, bring an understanding that new spectrum access regimes are required that are tailored to the availability of spectrum, tailored to the requirements of the digital industries being targeted, and tailored to the opportunity to improve the efficiency of spectrum usage in unlicensed and shared spectrum bands. Continue reading “Accelerating 5G: Unleashing New Spectrum via Sharing” →

Accelerating 5G: Taking Gigabit LTE to the Masses

May 31, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband

Gigabit LTE (LTE networks, services and devices supporting theoretical peak speeds of a Gigabit or more) has been a big part of 5G discussions in 2017. But it’s also – as the name implies – an evolution of LTE. 3GPP R13 LTE-Advanced Pro, to be specific.

It’s fair to ask, then, what’s the link to 5G?

While it would be technically inaccurate to position Gigabit LTE as a 5G technology, there’s no denying that it will support 5G rollouts and services. As 5G rolls out in targeted pockets, Gigabit LTE will ensure consistent network-wide user experiences. Likewise, as service providers investigate the specific IoT and broadband use cases 5G will support, Gigabit LTE will help them understand the options and opportunities ahead of them not to mention fundamental 5G technologies that start getting introduced into the network with Gigabit LTE. Continue reading “Accelerating 5G: Taking Gigabit LTE to the Masses” →

Accelerating 5G: Bringing NR to Reality

May 8, 2017May 9, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband

Every new generation of cellular technology has come with its own, new, air interface. 5G is no different, introducing 5G New Radio (NR). And, as with so much of 5G, 2017 promises to be a big year for 5G NR.

Long before AT&T announced 5G Evolution services based on LTE technologies last week, it was clear that service provider strategies and vendor positioning, alike, include LTE technologies as new air interfaces in their 5G service and marketing plans. With LTE continuing to evolve, its inclusion in 5G discussions makes sense (a topic we’ll come back to). But it also begs the question of why a new air interface for 5G is necessary. Beyond any interest in delineating a new technology with a new air interface, 5G NR promises a number of important features and functionalities: support for diverse spectrum, including low-band (sub-1 GHz), mid-band (1 to 6 GHz) and high-band, mmWave (24 GHz and up) assets; lower latency; added network capacity; improved spectral efficiency (lower cost-per-bit); improved service uniformity (EG, at cell edge); and the flexibility to support 5G’s diverse use cases (massive IoT, critical communications, and enhanced mobile broadband) with one unified design.

The 2017 Story

Against this backdrop – and a general interest in moving 5G forward – it’s not surprising that operators including AT&T, Verizon, and SKT have committed to commercial and pre-commercial 5G deployments this year incorporating mmWave spectrum and an air interface beyond LTE. It would be wrong to call the technology used in these launches “5G NR” since these operators aren’t waiting for the 5G NR specifications to be complete. Regardless, these launches are important, if only because they point to three key realities: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) as the first 5G use case focus; demand for moving quickly on implementing new 5G air interfaces; the progress made to date in bringing that new air interface to life. Continue reading “Accelerating 5G: Bringing NR to Reality” →

Accelerating 5G: The Pivotal Role of 2017

April 18, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband

On the proverbial “Road to 5G,” you might think that 2017 is just another year, taking us just a little closer to the commercial 5G networks and services we’ve all heard will arrive in 2020. You would be wrong, on multiple fronts.

First off, the analogy itself is somewhat flawed. 5G is not a finish line being raced towards; just like 4G LTE, the technology will evolve long after initial services debut, with most operators launching services at their own pace. Perhaps more importantly, the earliest commercial service and network launches won’t be coming in 2020. They’ll arrive sooner. An extreme eagerness to get 5G up and running across the world means that we will see large-scale 5G NR (the global 5G standard) based services starting in 2019 along with pre-5G NR efforts starting as soon as the end of this year. One year sooner than originally expected may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re talking about the development of new technologies and new ecosystems, it’s massive. Continue reading “Accelerating 5G: The Pivotal Role of 2017” →

IoT @ MWC17: What the Silicon Players Were Up To

March 21, 2017March 22, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation

Summary Bullets:

• Where IoT factored into a broad set of vendor messaging at Mobile World Congress 2017, there were diverse messages coming out of various camps: silicon vendors, LPWAN network providers, incumbent telecom vendors, specialist telecom and IT players.

• Major chipset vendors came to MWC17 ready to talk up their progress, most of which seemed to focus on automotive use cases, differentiators beyond connectivity and connectivity beyond NB-IoT.

IoT is a big topic, dominating many discussions around the future of wireless networks and telecom service providers.

It wasn’t surprising, then, that it was a major topic of discussion at MWC this year. Likewise, given the broad reach of IoT use cases and the broad set of players in the IoT ecosystem, it wasn’t surprising to see different parts of the market show up with their own stories. A look at the announcements from various segments of the market – silicon vendors, LPWAN network providers, incumbent telecom vendors, specialist telecom and IT players – helps to illustrate the stories they showed up to tell.
Continue reading “IoT @ MWC17: What the Silicon Players Were Up To” →

IoT @ MWC17: What the LPWAN Players Were Up To

March 20, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things

Summary Bullets:

Where IoT factored into a broad set of vendor messaging at Mobile World Congress 2017, there were diverse messages coming out of various camps: silicon vendors, LPWAN network providers, incumbent telecom vendors, specialist telecom and IT players.
LPWAN network providers came to MWC ready to talk up their progress with building out network coverage, their ecosystems and use cases. Some, however, failed to make their presence known at all.

IoT is a big topic, dominating many discussions around the future of wireless networks and telecom service providers.

It wasn’t surprising, then, that it was a major topic of discussion at Mobile World Congress this year. Likewise, given the broad reach of IoT use cases and the broad set of players in the IoT ecosystem, it wasn’t surprising to see different parts of the market show up with their own stories. A look at the announcements from various segments of the market – silicon vendors, LPWAN network providers, incumbent telecom vendors, specialist telecom and IT players – helps to illustrate the stories they showed up to tell. Continue reading “IoT @ MWC17: What the LPWAN Players Were Up To” →

Affirmed Sends a Signal: The Enterprise Will Feature Prominently in MWC17 Messaging (Hopefully Alongside Partners)

February 24, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Vendor Transformation

Summary Bullets:

In an effort to expand beyond their traditional customer bases, service providers and the vendors selling into them have talked up the opportunity presented by diverse digital industries (vertical markets).
In announcing an upgrade to its virtualized IoT platform, Affirmed acknowledged the trend by partnering with Tech Mahindra in order to tap its “enterprise domain expertise.” Other vendors (and carriers) will doubtless follow suit at Mobile World Congress. To do the messaging right, they’ll need to involve partners.

Earlier this week, Affirmed Networks announced an upgrade to its IoT platform offer, including support for NB-IoT. Perhaps more importantly, the announcement called out work with Tech Mahindra to tap its enterprise domain expertise in supporting IoT rollouts.

Why would this be ‘more important’? Beyond consumer use cases, IoT is inherently about supporting specific enterprise applications – applications requiring intimate domain expertise. But, this is about more than just IoT. In an effort to expand their addressable markets, telecom vendors and carriers have been talking up their plans to target the enterprise. This messaging has been so loud and consistent that we’ve called it out as something we hope to concrete examples of at Mobile World Congress this year [see page 6]. And, to some extent, we’ve seen lots of enterprise-focused announcements within a telco context in the run-up to MWC. Continue reading “Affirmed Sends a Signal: The Enterprise Will Feature Prominently in MWC17 Messaging (Hopefully Alongside Partners)” →

AT&T, ECOMP and the Increasingly Difficult Pace of Virtualization

February 8, 2017February 8, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation

Summary Bullets:

Last week, AT&T leveraged its Shape event in San Francisco to unveil 5G launch plans, new virtualization goals for 2017, and herald the handover of ECOMP to the Linux Foundation.
While not immediately obvious, open-sourcing ECOMP and meeting its virtualization goals (75% of network functions by 2020) are intimately linked because, every year, virtualizing additional functions will only become harder and harder – and AT&T will need all the support it can find.

Last week, AT&T held its co-called Shape event in San Francisco. On the agenda: progress with its AirGig solution, initial commercial 5G markets for this year and 2017 virtualization goals, and success in moving continued development of its ECOMP platform to the Linux Foundation. Coming out of the event, an article from SDxCentral called out that these last two items were intrinsically linked – open sourcing ECOMP is critical to helping AT&T execute on its long-term virtualization goals. Continue reading “AT&T, ECOMP and the Increasingly Difficult Pace of Virtualization” →

2G Shutdowns, Multivendor NFV: The Glacial Pace of Telecom Change vs. Future Aspirations

January 25, 2017 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation

Summary Bullets:

Last week, AT&T highlighted how it had shut down its 2G network on January 1st. On the same day, Ericsson announced it had worked with Cisco to address Vodafone Hutchison Australia’s SDN and NFV needs.
While not formally linked, both events showcase how slowly telecom service providers change the way they think about and run their networks – with implications for IoT and 5G plans.

Last Monday was a holiday in the U.S. The good folks at AT&T, Cisco and Ericsson, however, weren’t taking it easy. They had news to announce.

AT&T – with a blog post from Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan – started off the week by talking up the shutdown of its 2G network at the start of the year, positioning it as a part of their 5G network evolution. Ericsson and Cisco had their own milestone: following the signature of a “global business and technology partnership” back in November 2015, the two network infrastructure heavyweights were eager to announce a joint win at Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), supplying SDN and NFV solutions including data center assets, SDN controllers, service and network orchestration products, and VNFs. While the two had already won other joint deals, the win at VHA was heralded as “the first major collaboration between Ericsson and Cisco on Telecom Cloud infrastructure.” Continue reading “2G Shutdowns, Multivendor NFV: The Glacial Pace of Telecom Change vs. Future Aspirations” →

2016: What Was Most Important in the Service Provider Network (or, at Least, Most Read About)

December 29, 2016 by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation

Summary Bullets:

By looking to our top-read analyses of 2016, we can paint a picture of what was top-of-mind for telecom network players – operators and vendors – over the past 12 months.
Key themes included SDN and NFV, IoT, and the rivalry between Nokia and Ericsson. This also implies other important themes were getting less attention than they probably should.

While it’s common for the start of a new year to be accompanied by predictions for telecom and technology markets, it’s just as important to look back at the year that just passed. Why? While predictions are speculative, highlights from the past 12 months point to very real trends and themes. What’s more, most good predictions recognize that the themes and trends of 2017 will be built from (evolutions of) the themes and trends of 2016. Continue reading “2016: What Was Most Important in the Service Provider Network (or, at Least, Most Read About)” →