Monitoring LTE Networks

Fueled by the uptake of advanced applications like Web browsing, video and content downloads,
mobile data traffic is skyrocketing. A look at industry statistics tells the story. In 2008, the number of mobile broadband subscribers increased dramatically in the U.S., Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. And there’s no end in sight. Informa predicts a staggering growth rate in mobile data traffic of 1,000 percent overall between 2007 and 2012.

Technological advances, flat rate billing plans, smarter devices, and attractive data services are driving the accelerated adoption of mobile broadband services.

The Downside of Success
The widespread success of mobile data services should be good news for global operators, but there is a downside to success. Escalating data traffic is straining the capacity of existing mobile networks and driving up network costs. To remain competitive, operators must increase network capacity while lowering the cost for delivering data services.

To meet this challenge, global operators are looking for an upgrade path for their current universal mobile telecommunications system 3G networks that will enable the delivery of more bandwidth and services at a lower cost. Recent deployment figures indicate that many network operators are choosing long term evolution as their course for network evolution. Designed to increase bandwidth, LTE lowers network operation costs and improves network performance for time-sensitive services such as mobile TV, Web browsing, IP voice and video.

The Challenges of Implementing LTE and High-Bandwidth Applications
With the advent of LTE, subscribers will demand data-intensive services like mobile TV, video streaming and Web 2.0 applications as routinely as they used to request voice service. As mobile data traffic swells, operators face a growing challenge: How to cost effectively provide monitoring and performance management for their entire network. Other challenges include:

Network security The proliferation of increasingly intelligent mobile devices poses a particular security threat to operators and mobile users. Subscribers are becoming more and more dependent on their mobile devices as a primary communication tool, creating an ideal opening for cyber criminals to access sensitive personal and corporate data.

Quality of service Operators need to move beyond basic network monitoring and troubleshooting tools to advanced systems capable of overseeing end-to-end network connectivity and service interaction. Quality of service is a key differentiator in this service/subscriber-focused business model, and is often the single most critical factor that separates one operator from another in the subscriber’s mind.

Quality of experience Numerous factors can degrade a session’s connection quality – a delay in packet delivery (latency), missing data (loss of packets), data arriving out of order or jitter. Imperfections
in the transmission media, particularly in the RAN, can result in pulse degradation or loss, leading to throughput degradation and delays that negatively impact the customer’s QoE.

LTE Monitoring System Requirements
The ability to perform a call or session trace network-wide across multiple interfaces/protocols is critical. Operators must have the ability to test multiple network technologies, route calls efficiently and effectively, and monitor all traffic passing through their networks. In addition, troubleshooting in real time is essential to supervising transactions between domains and monitoring protocols as they traverse and convert across gateways. It enables operators to test and assure interoperability as new services and network elements are deployed.

The key to profitability in delivering multimedia services across converged networks is having access to data that allows the carrier to understand the quality of the subscriber experience. To maintain customer satisfaction and ensure the successful delivery of new services, providers need tools that track service availability, reliability and delivery.

About Tekelec’s Integrated Applications Solution
Tekelec’s Integrated Applications Solution (IAS) provides operators with complete visibility to everything going on within their networks. Tekelec’s solution supports: KPIs; multi-protocol and multi-technology support; real-time and historical data gathering; drill-down capabilities; end-to-end network visibility and call/session tracing; and configurable user-data filtering, sampling and reporting. The IAS system processes and archives call detail records, transaction detail records, and IP detail records from the network that can be used to generate service packages for optimizing a variety of services.

Summary
As operators deploy LTE networks, monitoring and performance management will have a direct impact on competitiveness and profitability. Network-wide visibility is essential to protect revenues and ensure application interaction, service delivery and quality of experience. As data traffic increases, operators need the capability to choose the type and quantity of data they collect so they can scale their monitoring systems and data collection incrementally. LTE networks require a configurable, network-wide monitoring solution that can provide a holistic view of the entire network – one that supports both existing as well as emerging technologies and protocols.

Philippe Besset is product marketing manager at Tekelec (www.tekelec.com).

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