TalkTalk - Huawei

04/2013 

Issue 16 

TalkTalk 

keeps the 

conversation 

lively 

TELUS: An MBB journey 

SDN: Network 

revolution is coming 

China Mobile looks to 

raise its network IQ

Hear what operators want to share in person, 

see how peers succeed in a fierce marketplace, 

and delve into their secrets to success. 

At WinWin, it’s all about success. 

Sponsor 

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 

Publisher 

Huawei COMMUNICATE Editorial Board 

Consultants 

Ken Hu, Eric Xu, Guo Ping, 

Ryan Ding, Zhang Wenlin, Heymans Zhu 

Editor-in-Chief 

Sally Gao (sally@huawei.com) 

Editors 

Pearl Zhu, Xue Hua, Julia Yao, Jason Patterson 

Michael Huang, Joyce Fan, Linda Xu, Xu Ping 

Cao Zhihui, Li Xuefeng, Pan Tao 

Chen Yuhong, Zhou Shumin 

Contributors 

Li Yingying, Huang Dongyang, Li Zhipeng 

Huang Shengqiang, Chen Lin, Zhang Xuelei 

Mo Yongbo, Ren Ling, Liu Xun, Ella Wong 

E-mail: HWtech@huawei.com 

Tel: +86 755 28786665, 28787643 

Fax: +86 755 28788811 

Address: B1, Huawei Industrial Base, 

Bantian, Longgang, Shenzhen 518129, China 

Publication Registration No.: 

Yue B No.10148 

Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2013. 

All rights reserved. 

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted 

in any form or by any means without prior written consent of 

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 

Disclaimer 

The contents of this document are for information purpose 

only, and provided “as is”. Except as required by applicable 

laws, no warranties of any kind, either express or implied, 

including but not limited to, the implied warranties of 

merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, are made 

in relation to contents of this document. To the maximum 

extent permitted by applicable law, in no case shall Huawei 

Technologies Co., Ltd be liable for any special, incidental, 

indirect, or consequential damages, or lost profits, business, 

revenue, data, goodwill or anticipated savings arising out of 

or in connection with any use of this document. 

Change we need 

A debate is raging in China as to whether or not telcos should start 

charging for WeChat (China’s equivalent of WhatsApp). The service has 

already attracted some 300 million users and counting, and has become 

as vital to the social lives of China’s urbanites as texting was in the heyday 

of the flip phone. Since its launch in January 2011, WeChat has rendered 

SMS obsolete among China’s screen worshippers, and it is no doubt taking 

money out of the voice coffers as well. However, WeChat’s usurping of 

traditional voice and text stems not only from its no-charge model, but 

more importantly, its ease of use and sharing – a critical aspect of a superior 

data-oriented user experience. 

On the other side of the globe, T-Mobile has reaffirmed its commitment 

to “uncarriership” through its no-contract offerings, but lost amidst the 

unsubsidized hype has been the fine print stating that unlimited voice and 

text are included with up to 500MB of data for USD50. The subscriber 

interprets this as tariffed data, with free text & voice as a bonus. This 

certainly represents a new way of thinking about your phone bill, and may 

lead to the retirement of the term as telcos look to unify the four-screen 

world. Phone companies are becoming data providers (two of China’s bigthree 

telcos derive over half of their revenue from non-voice sources), and 

some industry players view this as glorified dumb pipe provision; those that 

do are looking for an answer. 

As we usher in a data-oriented world, operators must rethink their 

business and operational models, and explore sustainable models for 

OTT partnership. In the WeChat case, PCCW has recently launched an 

unlimited WeChat package for a little over one U.S. dollar a month, but 

Mainland China’s big three telcos have yet to settle with local Internet 

giant Tencent (WeChat’s provider), a process that will require wisdom on 

both sides. There is no one-size-fits-all solution in this arena, but any & all 

models that prove viable will surely have a better customer experience at the 

core. 

However, business models cannot be innovated in a vacuum; the 

underlying architecture must support it, and this is where SDN comes into 

play. SDN is a revolution in network architecture and operation where your 

brilliant ideas are no longer bound to network standards and the expensive, 

specialized gear that implement them. Through cooperation, competition, 

or a little of both, SDN can enable a steady stream of innovative services, 

and some will prove the differentiators that will keep telcos out of the dumb 

pipe trap for the next decade. 

For electronic version and subscription, 

please visit www.huawei.com/winwin 

Sally Gao, Editor-in-Chief

04/2013 

Issue 16 

WHAT’S 

INSIDE 

Voices from Operators 

01 

TalkTalk keeps the conversation lively 

TalkTalk has emerged as a game changer 

in British media and communications, 

thanks to a savvy sense of the market that 

starts at the top. Through double-digit 

growth, the operator’s commitment to 

being the “value-for-money provider” has 

paid off, as have its outside-the-box moves 

in broadband, mobile, and television. 

05 

Sunrise has a certain quality 

Sunrise is Switzerland’s second-largest 

operator, now providing mobile, landline, 

Internet, and TV services. After recent 

price cuts by the incumbent, CEO Oliver 

Steil saw quality as the key to his company’s 

long-term success. He recently sat down 

with WinWin to talk the latest trends and 

strategies in Alpine communications. 

09 


TELUS is at the forefront of smart device 

adoption, enabled by an ecosystem where 

industry players & governments continue 

to operate in an environment that rewards 

investment and promotes innovation. 

Technology Strategy and Operations EVP 

Eros Spadotto shares the telco’s LTE story, 

successes, and challenges ahead.

Perspectives 

13 

SDN: The new frontier in ICT 

More and more ICT professionals guarantee 

that SDN will bring revolutionary changes 

to traditional network architecture, but 

what is SDN architecture, what problems 

does SDN solve, and how should vendors 

and customers prepare for SDN? Dan Pitt, 

Executive Director of the Open Networking 

Foundation, has the answers. 

Winners 

31 

China Mobile looks to raise its 

network IQ 

China Mobile is trying to improve the network 

maintenance process by creating an internal body 

of thousands of homegrown experts, developed 

through initiatives such as U-Practice, a training 

program the operator carried out in conjunction 

with Huawei in 2011. 

17 

20 

SDN: Network revolution is coming 

From Clean Slate to SDN 

Tao of Business 

25 

Big data and how to use it 

Software-defined networking (SDN) 

is at the vanguard of a telco revolution. 

Great importance should be attached to 

its development and impact on network 

elements so that resource utilization, service 

deployment flexibility, and user experience 

reach their full potential, according to 

Zhao Huiling (China Telecom). 

34 

37 

40 

China Telecom: Smooth coverage for 

a bumpy landscape 

Mobile Extreme: Striking paydirt in 

Latin America 

Data center modularity keeps 

Phoenix flying high 

Phoenix New Media managed to completely relocate 

its operations to a new office building within three 

months, thanks to a modular data center solution 

that conserves energy, accelerates deployment, reduces 

investment, and protects the environment, laying a 

solid foundation for its global footprint. 

27 Mobile security management 

43 UC&C keeps Huawei on the same page

VOICES 

FROM OPERATORS 

TalkTalk 

keeps the conversation lively 

TalkTalk has emerged as a game changer in British media and communications, thanks to a savvy 

sense of the market that starts at the top. Through double-digit growth in a market crowded with 

industry titans, the operator’s commitment to being the “value-for-money provider” has paid off, as 

have its outside-the-box moves in broadband, mobile, and television. 

By Linda Xu 

TalkTalk is a telco success story, one that rests on an 

operator actually doing what the market has been 

talking about endlessly – providing innovative 

products and services that inspire loyalty in 

customers. What’s more, this has been done primarily with 

fickle, cash-strapped consumers in a moribund economy, at a 

time when most telcos see the well heeled and/or corporate as 

the path to sustainable margins. 

Broadband as the cornerstone 

TalkTalk has enjoyed growth rates in the upper-teens 

to low twenties since its 2010 spinoff from The Carphone 

Warehouse (an independent mobile phone retailer) and 

currently serves over five million customers across Britain. It 

is now in a close third behind Virgin Media in terms of fixed 

broadband market share, with both near 20%, a 10-point 

margin behind market leader BT Retail. 

TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding, who has been in charge 

since the March 2010 spinoff, attributes the operator’s success 

to audacious internal reforms that created a leaner and more 

efficient company. “We were an octopus, because we grew 

partly organically and partly through acquisition. Three years 

ago, we had arms and legs all over the place. We removed 

quite a few arms and legs as we simplified the business and are 

now in a place where we’re growing the company and offering 

more products to our customers as, hopefully, a young adult.” 

Harding has a retail background, having cut her teeth at 

British firms such as Thomas Cook, Tesco, and Sainsbury, 

making her an unorthodox choice for telco leadership, though 

not from a TalkTalk perspective. In 2006, the operator shook 

up the market by offering free (though complimentary would 

be a more accurate description) broadband services, which 

attracted so much interest that it became something of a 

double-edged sword for the operator in terms of waiting 

times. “When we launched free broadband, the team at 

that time thought that we would get a couple of hundred or 

thousands of customers in the first three months. Yet, they 

came in the first three days and finally we found ourselves not 

1 

APR 2013

We always look to 

introduce products as 

significantly better value for 

money than the incumbents. 

And we try to do things 

differently to challenge 

conventional wisdom in 

the way we work. 

— Dido Harding, TalkTalk CEO 

APR 2013 

2

VOICES 


TalkTalk’s view of how you promote any new service is that you 

should invest in the customers rather than lots of advertising. That’s a 

much more powerful way of investing and driving growth. 

quite ready for this unexpected boom of demands,” Harding 

states. 

However, despite some reputational setbacks related to 

those wait times, TalkTalk irrevocably changed the market. 

“Six years ago, broadband in the U.K. cost about 60 

pounds a month,” says Harding. “As a result of TalkTalk’s 

entry, the prices for phone and broadband came down very 

dramatically. And at the same time, entirely related to that, 

demand for broadband and usage of digital connectivity have 

grown dramatically in the U.K. So today, U.K. consumers 

spend more time online than any other consumers in the 

world. The product (broadband) is easy to buy and much 

more affordable.” 

TalkTalk has recently raised its broadband speeds to 

better compete with more premium offerings, launching 

its 38Mbps and 76Mbps “superfast” services at 10 and 

15 pounds a month, respectively, and the uptake has 

been solid. “We’ve been selling superfast broadband for 

eighteen months and gained over 30,000 customers 

out of our five million user base. Roughly 40% of our 

customers have the will and can subscribe to the superfast 

broadband if they want it, but the demand isn’t there yet. 

What the vast majority of TalkTalk customers need is a 

reliable broadband connection and they can do pretty 

much everything they want to, including live streaming of 

HDTV, with 8-to-9Mbps on average.” 

The fixed broadband market is one where cynicism 

reigns, but Harding speaks of it very positively. “If you 

look at the way consumers and businesses are using digital 

connectivity, I think the really interesting thing is that all 

our customers are using it more and more. So there is an 

ever increasing demand for more bandwidth in our network. 

How we build our network for the future is to make sure 

that we are ambitious enough about the demand for great 

bandwidth and creative enough in the way we design our 

networks so that we can bring the costs down to meet those 

customers’ needs.” 

Veering towards TV and mobile 

In Great Britain, the broadband and fixed voice businesses 

are starting to plateau. “The U.K. today has roughly 80% of 

the population connected by broadband. I think that when 

my children have their children and grandchildren, 100% of 

the population will be online. So the rates will continue to 

grow, but there won’t be exponential growth in connections,” 

notes Harding, who believes it imperative to tune TalkTalk’s 

strategy. “For the last six years, we have mainly sold phones 

and broadband. Yet recently, we’ve launched TV and mobile 

phones on top, and we expect that’s where the bulk of growth 

3 

APR 2013

for our business will be coming from.” 

In July 2012, TalkTalk dived into a pay TV market already 

cluttered with whales in the forms of BT Vision (750,000+ 

customers), Virgin Media (3.7 million cable customers) 

and Sky (10 million TV customers). However, TalkTalk 

aims to lure 7.5 million Freeview (a U.K. free-to-air service) 

households into the realm of pay TV. 

“What TalkTalk is trying to do with our TV product is 

to provide those Freeview customers who currently don’t pay 

anything for TV with the opportunity to buy a little bit to give 

them the access to all of the amazing content you can get in 

the U.K. and elsewhere in the world without having to spend 

40, 50, or a 100 pounds a month committing to all of it. Our 

job in TV is not to bring a new technology that no one on the 

planet has ever seen; it is to make something affordable and 

easy to use for people who currently don’t have any form of pay 

TV service in their home. So what we’re trying to do is really 

create a new market in the mass market mainstream.” 

TalkTalk’s TV service could eventually cover several million 

customers. It offers a classic series archive, as well as sevenday 

TV catch-up service. Its cornerstone is Huawei’s YouView 

set-top box (STB), which integrates a digital video recorder 

with a Freeview channel receiver and an Internet connection 

for TV on demand. The box, priced at GBP299, is free to 

TalkTalk’s 1.1 million premium subscribers, along with a 

one-year contract with LOVEFiLM online video rentals, 

unlimited broadband, and free domestic landline calls. “We 

work really hard to make sure our TV proposition is fantastic 

value for money,” says Harding. 

TalkTalk’s pay TV is both reducing churn and attracting 

subscribers, to the tune of over 1,000 TV subscribers per day. 

“Our view of how you promote any new service is that you 

should invest in the customers rather than lots of advertising. 

If you have a really brilliant disruptive proposition that’s 

free, you can actually afford not to spend lots of money in 

advertising or promoting, because you’re giving the money 

to the customer. And that’s a much more powerful way of 

investing and driving growth.” Harding constantly reiterates 

TalkTalk’s mantra of not being a “bleeding-edge innovator.” 

“We want to be the marketplace for content, not the 

content rights’ owner. It’s a big-boy’s game, buying rights.” 

As of December 2012, TalkTalk had signed up 80,000 

subscribers, providing them with access to TV content and 

working in concert with OTT content providers. 

TalkTalk’s value-for-money philosophy is also reflected 

in its device lineup, as budget-minded consumers may not 

worship upscale handsets. “I’m not selling iPhones. My 

customers are more interested in value-for-money phones for 

the future, such as those from Huawei.” In general, Harding 

speaks highly of TalkTalk’s collaboration with Huawei. 

“Huawei is an absolutely vital strategic partner of TalkTalk. 

There are some parallels between TalkTalk and Huawei. 

Both businesses love setting themselves ridiculous challenges, 

trying to do things faster, better, and more simply, at a more 

affordable price than looks in any way achievable when you 

first set out. That brings out the best in our company and I 

hope brings out the best in Huawei as well, which means that, 

together, we’re a powerful combination.” 

Stable & happier customers 

TalkTalk advocates a safer, freer, more affordable and 

overall better Internet environment for its subscribers. 

Inspired by the concept of road safety, TalkTalk worked in 

conjunction with Huawei to launch its parental control tool, 

HomeSafe, in May 2011. “It is free to all our customers. 

That is the theme of what we do in TalkTalk. And we now 

have over half a million of our customers actively using it. It’s 

a huge differentiator. No one else in the U.K., thus far, and 

no one else in Europe is doing anything like it. It is giving 

us a real competitive advantage over the rest of the market. 

Customers who use HomeSafe are much less likely to leave 

us. So it’s been a fantastic investment.” 

TalkTalk is also a staunch supporter of net neutrality, having 

signed the Open Internet Code of Practice in July 2012. “The 

Internet is as free and open as any of our consumers would 

hope for. We’ve signed the code of practice to make sure that 

we are all way clear and open, with our customers and anything 

we’re doing to our customers involving a choice of what we do.” 

Harding herself may be a chief executive, but she’s not 

afraid to mix it up in the trenches, frequently getting on the 

helpline to address customer complaints in person. “I whisper 

to the agents and ask them to put the customer on hold and 

say they’re going to pass the call to their manager. Then I say 

that I’m the chief executive and I want to explain what’s going 

on and see what I can do. It has the most brilliant impact… 

I get probably 20 or 30 emails a day from customers. I will 

be in the email dialogue personally with customers every 

day. Actually I’m encouraged by that. Although that’s not so 

statistically significant, it’s a really powerful measure to see 

what the new issues are. You can personally see the trends as 

they emerge and spot the new things and notice the things 

that have died down.” 

Harding concludes that “roughly 20% of U.K. households 

and about 7% of U.K. businesses take their phones, broadband 

and digital services from TalkTalk. So in lots of ways we mirror 

the whole of the nation. We always look to introduce products 

as significantly better value for money than the incumbents. 

And we try to do things differently to challenge conventional 

wisdom in the way we work. We expect our customers to 

use more and more bandwidth, and more and more digital 

connectivity over the course of the next five years.” 

Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com 

APR 2013 

4

VOICES 


Sunrise has a certain quality 

Since its founding in 1996, Sunrise has grown to be Switzerland’s second-largest operator, now 

providing mobile, landline, Internet, and TV services. After recent price cuts by the incumbent, CEO 

Oliver Steil saw quality as the key to his company’s long-term success. He recently sat down with 

WinWin to talk the latest trends and strategies in Alpine communications. 

By Joyce Fan 

the only player that provides all products. 

Strategic changes 

WinWin: So what does the Swiss market need and 

what is proving popular in terms of service trends? 

Steil: Switzerland has the highest smartphone 

penetration in Europe (in terms of contract customers), 

having reached 60% now. People use data a lot and they 

are also looking for more applications. Speed and coverage 

are what they need. There is a very good chance for Sunrise 

if we have the right network in place to really monetize 

data and drive its growth. 

Another trend in Switzerland is bundled services. IPTV 

has been very successful. We are also in the midst of an 

FTTH rollout and will soon have a significant footprint. 

There are quite a few progressive bundles of fixed, TV, 

Internet, and mobile services on the market. This is an 

opportunity for us because, next to the incumbent, we are 

WinWin: Would you describe the competitive 

landscape in the Swiss telco market? 

Steil: I would say that it has significantly increased 

recently. Currently, we have three mobile operators 

competing in the market – the incumbent, Swisscom, 

who enjoys 60% market share; we are number two with 

a roughly 25% market share, and then we have Orange, 

which has 15% market share. We all expect that at some 

point there might be a cable operator with mobile offerings 

and some MVNOs entering the market. 

In July 2012, Swisscom announced a significant price 

cut and introduced a new tariff scheme based on data 

speed. Only with the highest data tariff (around 140 euros) 

can you get LTE speed, and with the lowest one (50 euros) 

you get only 256Kbps. This made the entire competition 

in Switzerland about price and data speed, a challenging 

position for us and our other competitors, who had been 

competing based on cost up until that time. So, our 

reaction was to move to quality. 

WinWin: What have been the strategies and 

specific moves that you have made under these new 

circumstances? 

Steil: We have some strategic pillars – we are going to 

strengthen our brand, our shopping network (retail stores), 

and our residential offerings with end-to-end bundled 

services. Also, we will be more active in the B2B segment, 

providing business customers with cloud and IP-based 

services. The key pillar is to basically compete in the Swiss 

5 

APR 2013

Switzerland has the highest 

smartphone penetration in 

Europe. People need speed 

and coverage. There is a very 

good chance for Sunrise if 

we have the right network in 

place to really monetize data 

and drive its growth. 

— Oliver Steil, Sunrise CEO 

APR 2013 

6

VOICES 


We are carrying out our network modernization program while transitioning from 

our previous managed service provider to Huawei. This has brought a lot of pressure 

to bear on both organizations, as most companies would do one at a time. 

market based on network superiority. The Swiss market is 

more about quality, data speeds, and customer service, and 

you can only win in the long run if your network is at least 

comparable if not better than the incumbent’s. 

In the past, Sunrise focused on lower price offers 

and the network was good but not great. Now we want 

to move away from that and say that the prices are still 

competitive and attractive but without any perceived 

differences in terms of network quality when compared 

with the incumbent. 

TQ Net program 

WinWin: Sunrise launched the TQ Net program 

this past summer? Tell us more about the program, its 

scope, targets, and overall plan? 

Steil: Yes, we launched a project called Top Quality 

(TQ) Net, with Huawei as our partner. The idea was to 

completely change both our mobile network itself and the 

way we run it. 

We are carrying out a large network improvement 

program that will span a couple of years. It includes not 

only the infrastructure for the fixed and radio networks 

and backhaul network, but also the value-added services 

and other additional features. The first step is to swap all 

the radio equipment on the GSM and UMTS networks 

using the latest technologies from Huawei, while in the 

meantime having the ability to move to LTE very quickly 

and smoothly. 

WinWin: So the project involves network swapping. 

What challenges are you meeting and how are you 

going to solve them? 

Steil: The biggest challenge is that we are carrying out 

the network modernization program while transitioning 

from our previous managed service provider to Huawei. 

This has brought a lot of pressure to bear on both 

organizations, as most other companies would do one at a 

time; this is very difficult. 

We need to determine how many resources we put 

into this program. We want to make sure that our 

internal people, all the people who have been taken over 

by Huawei, and also Huawei’s R&D people can work 

together very closely and develop the best network in 

Switzerland. Certainly this will require a heavy CAPEX 

investment from our side over the next 18 months so that 

we can get the equipment in place as quickly as possible. 

And apart from that, we all know that we are living 

through a very difficult twelve-month period until we get 

the network in better shape. What is important is absolute 

dedication from both sides. This is why we chose Huawei, 

because we believed that we would get a very dedicated 

new partner. 

WinWin: Any stories from the front lines that you 

would like to share? 

Steil: Our old managed services provider operates a 

network operating center (NOC) in Romania and was not 

willing to invest in an operating center in Switzerland. One 

of the nice things that we’ve seen from Huawei has been 

its willingness to help build a local NOC in Switzerland, 

even though it was very empty at the beginning. Huawei 

rented the building and set up everything in a very short 

timeframe (around two months). This gave our people 

a clear view on how dedicated Huawei is as a partner to 

making it work. This has been a very positive story. 

Second-gen managed services 

WinWin: What were your key criteria and concerns 

when selecting a managed services provider for your 

overall network? 

7 

APR 2013

We believe that Huawei is giving us a reasonable price for these managed 

services and good visibility for some years. You have all the relevant technologies 

and fantastic R&D. You also have absolute dedication to our success. 

Steil: Criterion number one was maximum 

transparency in terms of cost. A five-year contract is too 

long. We wanted to make sure that the partner is able to 

give us a good understanding of the costs, both CAPEX 

and OPEX, involved in running such a program. 

Second, we wanted a partner able to effectively supply 

all the relevant technologies, for mobile and fixed, and run 

the operation at the same time. We were coming out of 

the situation where our previous managed service provider 

was running our network. When we encountered unstable 

equipment, it always came from somebody else. This has 

been a very negative experience, so we wanted a partner 

who can do everything. 

The third criterion was dedication. How dedicated will 

this partner be to us? We have a history of being a smaller 

operator in a small country who has always been the last 

to get the relevant service. We wanted to have a partner 

who really prioritizes Sunrise at the top and is willing to 

make our success in the market space happen and dedicate 

resources and time to us. This was the third criterion. 

To conclude, we believe that Huawei is giving us a 

reasonable price for these services and good visibility for 

some years. You have all the relevant technologies and a 

fantastic R&D department to drive the development of 

that technology. You also have absolute dedication to our 

success. This is why we chose Huawei. 

WinWin: Huawei is taking over your managed 

services from a previous vendor. What typical 

challenges have you met in this so called “second-gen 

managed services” scenario? 

Steil: Like always, you will have all the typical challenges 

of any big transition. You are moving people, then you have 

to motivate people. You are moving technology, then you 

have to understand the processes. You are serving the business 

segment, and you have to understand these processes which 

are completely different from the residential segment. It is 

much more complex in terms of basic engineering. You need 

to understand what the topology and the network is like, 

what needs to be consistent with the past because it has been 

working well and what needs to be changed in order to get a 

better network and better processes. 

Speaking of second-generation managed services, this 

has been a three-way transition because people have moved 

from the old provider to Huawei, from Sunrise to Huawei, 

and back from the old provider to Sunrise. I think this is 

much, much more difficult than first-generation managed 

services, where you can look at the operator and say that 

I will take over all your processes, documents and people. 

For the first two years, I will do it the way you have done 

before, and then we will start to transform it to something 

better or more meaningful. 

Our case is another story. We had our previous managed 

service provider for four years. They took over from Sunrise 

and changed our processes already in place. For example, 

they put the NOC in Romania, changed our processes and 

staffing, and shared some of their resources with us. So 

when Huawei comes in, it is something in between. You 

take all these pieces and need to put things into order again. 

WinWin: What do you consider to be the key success 

factor? 

Steil: The key success factor would be a dedicated team 

that consists of Huawei’s engineers from China and other 

places, local service people, and people you took over from 

our previous managed service provider. This joint service 

team should focus on engineering, drive quality, understand 

the local market, and bring in international best practices 

and the massive R&D capacity that you have. In this way, 

they can collectively work together effectively and drive the 

quality of service and innovation. You need to form such a 

big and powerful team that wants Sunrise to win, and that 

can lead to a big improvement. 


APR 2013 

8

At TELUS, our top priority 

is to ensure our networks, 

technology solutions, 

and innovations deliver 

exceptional experiences 

for our customers and 

positive impacts for our 

shareholders. 

— Eros Spadotto, TELUS EVP of 

Technology Strategy and Operations 

9 

APR 2013

VOICES 



TELUS and other Canadian telcos are at the forefront of smart device adoption, enabled by an 

ecosystem where industry, suppliers, and governments continue to operate in an environment that 

rewards investment and promotes innovation for the benefit of all Canadians. At the Huawei MBB 

2012 Forum, Eros Spadotto, EVP of Technology Strategy and Operations at TELUS, shared the telco’s 

LTE story, successes, and challenges ahead. 

By Ella Wong 

WinWin: What makes Canada stand out in the 

global wireless industry? 

Spadotto: Canadians are truly a connected population. 

In their latest study, J.D. Power and Associates reports 

that smartphone penetration in Canada has risen to 54%, 

which is up from 36% in 2011. This means that more 

than half of all wireless customers in Canada are using 

smartphones today. 

Recently, comScore also reported that Canada’s 

smartphone market penetration by percentage of mobile 

subscribers was 62% as of December 2012. This is an 

increase of 17 points over 2011. They also found that 

Canadians continue to be highly engaged online compared 

to the rest of the world; nearly 100% visit the web every 

day. 

Looking ahead, we have a tremendous opportunity 

to continue delivering powerful mobile solutions to 

Canadians. Canada has earned a strong leadership position 

in the telecommunications industry and has held leading 

positions in the world for telecom service adoption as 

a result of its dynamic ecosystem of global innovators, 

leading partnerships that tailor global solutions and make 

them work for Canadians, and a federal government that 

balances investment, competition, and spectrum to benefit 

the needs of all citizens. 

More than 46% of all information and communication 

technology (ICT) employees have been in their position 

for more than five years and half have been in their 

position for at least 36 months, changing jobs less 

frequently than their American counterparts. And lower 

turnover rates mean higher profits. 

The result is that even with one of the sparsest 

populations in the world and challenging market 

economics, most Canadians benefit from stiff competition 

and have ready access to the fastest mobile networks in 

the world with HSPA+, HSPA Dual Carrier and LTE 

technology available today. It’s a remarkable homegrown 

success story. 

WinWin: What is changing the global wireless 

industry? 

Spadotto: I see four key trends that are impacting the 

global wireless industry and driving the cycle of smarter, 

more powerful devices, richer applications and faster, more 

reliable networks. 

APR 2013 

10

VOICES 


The trend for technology adoption has dramatically evolved in the 

past five years. In the past, we’ve seen technology innovation trickle from military 

to enterprise to consumers. Now, we see an innovation storm at the consumer 

level that is influencing enterprise strategy. 

Firstly, social media is changing how we connect and 

when we connect. In terms of populations, Facebook has 

more than one billion active users, and more than half of 

them use Facebook on a mobile device. Every single day 

users spend more than 10 billion minutes (that’s 20,000 

years) on social networks, and traffic from mobile devices 

tripled in 2011. Every day, hours of video are uploaded 

to YouTube every minute, 25% of global YouTube views 

come from mobile devices, and people watch one billion 

videos on YouTube mobile. What’s more, YouTube is 

now available on 400 million devices, and 2012 saw 175 

million tweets per day, with the top Twitter moment in 

history seeing 25,000 tweets per second. 

Secondly, the Internet is mobilizing. Essentially we are 

entering the dot-com 2.0 era. All industries are taking 

advantage of this trend, from retail to automotive to 

entertainment. Data is growing exponentially and there 

are big opportunities relating to identity, commerce, 

payments, advertising, cloud, health, analytics and much 

more. 

Thirdly, consumerization is the new driving force 

in terms of always-on, any-device, anytime, anywhere. 

The trend for technology adoption has dramatically 

evolved in the past five years. In the past, we’ve seen 

technology innovation trickle from military to enterprise 

to consumers. Now, we see an innovation storm at the 

consumer level that is influencing enterprise strategy. 

Who would have thought that consumers would have a 

choice from more than 800,000 apps in the App Store 

and 800,000 in Google Play? The consumerization of 

information technology (IT) further fuels this technology 

innovation and evolution, which is based on nontraditional 

forces and sources. These change agents are less 

structured and less controlled by our established industry 

players and the result is that the pace of evolution is now 

much faster and the process of innovation happens in real 

time. 

Fourthly, hyperconnectivity is the way to describe today’s 

global wireless industry. Two key trends have emerged here 

– everything is connected and everything is connected 

all the time (83% of our devices don’t go to sleep). For 

new network operators, the impact has been to focus on 

the convergence of fixed and wireless, the convergence of 

communications, and the delivery of pervasive broadband 

connectivity, security and entertainment. 

WinWin: What do you see as the latest challenges for 

network design and growth? 

Spadotto: All of the above forces contribute to a 

data tsunami, and signaling storms create challenges 

for network operators from a mobile traffic growth 

perspective, in particular with respect to payload and 

signaling. To illustrate, in Canada, while the data traffic 

has seen tremendous growth of more than 100% year over 

year for the past three years, the signaling traffic has grown 

by a staggering 2700%. 

For network operators, smart device signaling is 

emerging as a challenge. As an example, our 4G networks 

generate 30 times more signaling than traditional voice 

networks and the “retry” mentality doesn’t back off. The 

Yahoo! mail app sends out 240 automated signals per day, 

while Twitter’s sends out 90, Facebook’s sends out 125, and 

Yahoo! Messenger sends out 360 signals per day. What’s 

more, the chattiest Android apps can generate a staggering 

2400 signals per hour. 

Spot coverage has also become a key issue. We provide 

spot data usage service where people congregate in large 

numbers, for example, at sporting events and flash mobs. 

11 

APR 2013

These events also have implications for public safety. 

Due to the exponential growth in data traffic, many 

carriers today are operating Giga sites (cell sites that are 

served by 1Gbps fiber connections). Giga sites represent 

unique challenges to every operator, since by definition 

they require the use of a large number of cells or sectors and 

require extensive engineering design to mitigate the impact 

on interference and overlap. TELUS was one of the early 

adopters of Giga sites and they did help us serve high density 

areas like downtown Vancouver. Giga sites in downtown 

Vancouver, for example, typically handle more than 1.2 

terabytes per month. 

WinWin: What makes TELUS a leader in mobile 

broadband? 

Spadotto: At TELUS, our top priority is to ensure our 

networks, technology solutions, and innovations deliver 

exceptional experiences for our customers and positive 

impacts for our shareholders. I like to say coverage is king 

but experience is queen – it all comes down to working 

through specific challenges to deliver a dynamic and 

reliable experience across our networks. 

The rollout of new networks will always be a challenge. 

We rolled out HSPA in 2009, HSPA Dual Carrier in 

2011 and now, just two years later, are taking LTE out to 

our customers. To meet the challenge we actively manage 

network and spectrum assets to stay ahead of customer 

demand for smartphones and data applications. We have 

an excellent track record of leveraging technology evolution 

to enhance our network capabilities and performance. We 

demonstrated this again in 2012 by building the largest 

LTE wireless network in Canada, offering faster speeds to 

more than two-thirds of Canadians. Combined with 97% 

HSPA coverage, our wireless broadband network is one of 

the best in the world. 

We are also expanding and enhancing the speed and 

capabilities of our advanced wireline broadband network, 

covering more than 2.4 million households, or two-thirds 

of those in our service areas. Our hybrid network approach 

includes VDSL2 technology overlay, fiber to the home in 

new areas, and fiber to the suite in multi-unit dwellings. 

We are now overlaying VDSL2 bonding technology with 

the ability to double speeds up to 50Mbps. We are also 

testing new technologies in our labs, offering further 

potential speed and capability increases in the future. 

Our broadband network investments allow us to offer 

a superior entertainment experience. TELUS was the 

first carrier globally to allow customers to control their 

TV with hand gestures and voice commands. Our Optik 

TV (TELUS’s IPTV service, offering 600+ channels) 

has a robust technology roadmap, with new IP-based 

innovations continually in the pipeline. 

The need to reduce technology costs and centralize 

infrastructure is critical to meeting the challenges of 

the data tsunami and the needs of our customers, 

which are evolving into cloud computing and unified 

communications, requiring secure, managed data hosting 

services. Our new Internet data centers, which are among 

the most power-efficient in the country, have achieved 

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 

gold status, positioning us extremely well to stay ahead 

of government and enterprise demand for managed and 

cloud services. 

We will keep building, evolving, and enhancing our 

networks and solutions to provide customers with a 

superior service experience at home, at work, and on the 

move. 

WinWin: What is the future of MBB? 

Spadotto: From a Canadian industry perspective I 

believe there are two key success levers. Firstly, industry 

spectrum planning continues to remain in lock step as 

Canada leads the world to exponentially-higher data 

consumption. And secondly, Canada continues to have a 

healthy balance of regulation and free market economics, 

ensuring the future of a healthy and vibrant MBB sector. 

At TELUS, putting our customers first is inherent 

in our culture. So, looking at the unique mix of our 

government, enterprise and consumer base and their everchanging 

needs, we’re continuously transforming our 

networks to address the colossal increase in data demand 

that our consumers are asking for. At the heart of the new 

design landscape lie microcells – pole-mounted low-power 

sites using Huawei’s HetNet (Heterogeneous Network) 

product line. 

TELUS’s spearheading introduction of Huawei’s worldfirst 

LTE microcells in 2012, at the downtown core of 

our home base in Vancouver, British Columbia, was a 

significant success that answered challenges regarding 

technical readiness, implementation issues, and user 

experience as anticipated. The sites are fully commercial 

and provide impressive results in terms of capacity offload 

and overall data experience that comply with and surpass 

TELUS expectations from the project. 

TELUS continues to lead global efforts in microcell 

development and is currently planning the extension 

of both geographical and functional scope. In close 

collaboration with Huawei, the company has provided 

seminal feedback and recommendations that shape 

product and feature evolution. The superior data 

experience that TELUS customers have become 

accustomed to will be further empowered by additional 

microcell deployments. 


APR 2013 

12

Dan Pitt is the Executive 

Director of the Open Network 

Foundation and President of 

Palo Alto Innovation Advisors, 

which advises entrepreneurs 

in Silicon Valley and Canada. 

He is also a former Dean of 

the School of Engineering at 

Santa Clara University. 

13 

APR 2013

Perspectives 

SDN: The new frontier in ICT 

Software-defined networking (SDN) is becoming the new focus of the ICT industry. More and more ICT 

professionals guarantee that SDN will bring revolutionary changes to traditional network architecture, but what 

is SDN architecture, what problems does SDN solve, and how should vendors and customers prepare for SDN? 

Dan Pitt – Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) – has the answers. 

By Soheila Soheil 

Reporter: Why do we need a new network paradigm 

such as SDN? 

Pitt: We have been operating on a 30-year-old network 

paradigm, where a networking switch or router has had 

to have the complete network intelligence in it governed 

by (up to 6000) distributed protocols. This has led to 

nearly every new organizational need being met with 

yet another protocol tacked onto the others, ultimately 

creating a bucket of networking protocols that takes years 

to work through standards committees and proprietary 

implementation environments. SDN makes networks 

directly programmable and thereby able to more flexibly 

meet operators’ needs. 

Reporter: How do you define SDN? What is SDN 

architecture? 

Pitt: SDN facilitates direct, real-time programming 

of network functionality by taking the control functions 

out of the switching devices in the network and moving 

them into a logically separate control environment, called 

a network operating system, that runs on a garden-variety 

computer server that anyone can program. So, control no 

longer resides solely in routers that only the manufacturer 

can program. Programmability of a logically-centralized 

control plane is the essence of SDN. 

Reporter: What is OpenFlow’s role in SDN? 

Pitt: OpenFlow is one of the three critical components 

of SDN. The first is the separation of forwarding from 

control, with forwarding becoming simply fast packet 

processing in network switches, and control becoming 

logically centralized in the network operating system as 

just described. 

The second is the OpenFlow protocol, which conveys 

to the switches the forwarding tables they need to process 

the packets (with traditional networking, the switches 

and routers had to determine this themselves, with all 

of the negative consequent cost, performance, and timeto-market 

implications; with SDN, the control software 

determines the paths according to how the operator wants 

to govern the network). 

The third is the consistent, system-wide programming 

interface to the network operating system, which actually 

makes the network programmable, or software-defined. 

Without separating forwarding from control, nearly all 

the benefit of SDN is lost. With separation of forwarding 

and control but without OpenFlow, some other means of 

conveying the flow-table information to the switches is 

required. OpenFlow is the industry standard for doing so 

and is extremely “general purpose.” 

If separation of forwarding and control is 1, the 

OpenFlow protocol is 2, and the consistent, system-wide 

programming interface is 3, then SDN = 1 + 2 + 3. 

Reporter: Why SDN? What problems does SDN 

solve? 

Pitt: Primarily, SDN solves the problems of 

network inflexibility, slowness in response to changing 

requirements, inability to be virtualized, and high costs. 

With the infrastructure the way it is now, operators aren’t 

able to offer new services quickly because they must 

wait for vendors (and standards committees) to approve 

and incorporate new functions in proprietary operating 

environments. 

With SDN, the operators can simply write their 

own software to determine network functions. SDN 

enables new initiatives through flexibility, agility, and 

virtualization. SDN allows network operators and 

APR 2013 

14

Perspectives 

SDN makes networks programmable by ordinary programmers using ordinary 

software running on ordinary operating systems on ordinary servers. This opens the 

door to a huge market with vast customer choice for highly-customized solutions. 

enterprises to create and offer new services virtually 

anytime using ordinary software. By abstracting the 

networking functionality through OpenFlow’s forwarding 

instruction set, networks can now be virtualized and 

treated by applications as logical resources. 

Eliminating the need to tie applications to specific 

network details like ports and addresses makes it possible 

to evolve the network’s physical aspects without the delay 

and cost of both rewriting the applications and manually 

configuring the network devices. The perpetuation of 

manual configuration through command-line interfaces 

has long held networking back from the advances in 

virtualization enjoyed by the computing world, and has led 

to high operating costs, long delays in updating networks 

to meet business needs, and the introduction of errors. 

Reporter: What are other benefits of SDN? Business? 

Economics? 

Pitt: SDN makes networks programmable by ordinary 

programmers using ordinary software running on ordinary 

operating systems on ordinary servers. This opens the 

door to a huge market with vast customer choice for 

highly-customized solutions. The whole way the network 

behaves becomes based on open software, not on vendorproprietary 

hardware and software, for new feature 

implementation. 

Moreover, some network features become vastly simpler 

to provide, such as multicast and load balancing. Topology 

restrictions (such as tree structures that inhibit the nowdominant 

east-west traffic in data centers) also disappear. 

In general, the five biggest benefits of SDN are: 

• It creates flexibility in how the network is used, 

operated, and sold. 

• It promotes rapid service introduction, because network 

operators can implement the features they want in 

software they control, rather than having to wait for a 

vendor to put it in-plan in their proprietary products. 

• It lowers operating expenses and has fewer errors 

because of the reduction in manual configuration. 

• It enables virtualization of the network and therefore 

the integration of the network with computing and 

storage so the entire IT operation can be governed more 

sleekly with a single set of tools. 

• And it better aligns the network, and all of the IT, with 

business objectives. 

Reporter: What progress has been made recently 

in paving the way for the acceptance of SDN? What 

are the biggest hurdles that remain, and what are the 

prospects for addressing them? 

Pitt: In the last year, ONF has fostered implementation 

and deployment of OpenFlow-based SDN through 

the production of implementable standards, prototype 

demonstrations, interoperability experiments, plugfests, 

whitepapers, solution briefs, and tutorials. These have 

driven product announcements and releases involving 

vendors and operators. 

OpenFlow-based SDN has already been applied to 

environments as diverse as hyper-scale data centers, 

enterprise data centers, public and private cloud service 

providers, multi-tenant hosting facilities, logistics 

coordination, telecom networks, campus networks, circuitswitched 

networks, and optical networks. It is also being 

used for services ranging from network virtualization, 

security, and access control to load balancing, traffic 

engineering, address administration, and energy 

management. 

Progress on the OpenFlow standard has included 

updating it to incorporate IPv6, extensible expression, 

tunnels, and other features. The foundation (ONF) has 

also added standards covering switch configuration, 

interoperability testing, and conformance testing. 

15 

APR 2013

SDN promotes rapid service introduction, because network operators can 

implement the features they want in software they control, rather than having 

to wait for a vendor to put it in their proprietary products. 

ONF is exploring the architecture of the orchestration 

functions above OpenFlow that interface to applications, 

management systems, existing control planes and carrier 

services, and we are enabling OpenFlow to be used not 

just for switching Ethernet LANs but also optical, circuit, 

and wireless transport technologies. 

Finally, we are making it easier for networks to exploit 

the performance benefits of hardware OpenFlow switches 

and for those deploying OpenFlow-based SDNs to easily 

introduce OpenFlow capability into the legacy networks 

in which they have significant investment. With so 

much of the OpenFlow technical foundation in place 

and now in development by vendors, we are starting 

to see the emergence of value-added elements that ride 

on OpenFlow. That is the benefit of our having made 

OpenFlow an industry standard. 

Reporter: What are the next steps for vendors? 

Pitt: Next year, the market will see that networking is 

not only getting exciting again but is capable of driving 

tremendous business value, and vendors want to bring this 

value to their customers. We are rapidly seeing OpenFlow 

capabilities being added to switch and router families and 

to network control and virtualization software products. 

Others are hastening the production of L4-7 softwarebased 

virtual appliances that run over an OpenFlow 

substrate and replace purpose-built hardware appliances. 

We will continue to advance technical standards and 

architectural understanding to increase applicability, 

utility, and implementation, and the next step for vendors 

is to translate these advances into announcements of 

prototypes, products, platforms and tools designed to 

facilitate rollout of SDN. 

Reporter: What are the next steps for customers to 

prepare for SDN? 

Pitt: I always encourage those who deploy or operate 

networks to take a three-step approach to SDN. First, ask 

your vendors about their SDN solutions and how closely 

they adhere to the OpenFlow standard and how well they 

interoperate with products from other suppliers. 

Second, try to at least get your hands dirty with a trial 

deployment. Find out what works for you, what needs 

drive your interest, what products you want to procure 

and what software you want to write yourself, and what 

skills you need to upgrade or acquire. Determine if your 

adoption of SDN is primarily to save money or make 

money; this will determine how to approach upper 

management for the funding of larger and larger projects. 

Finally, consider joining ONF to drive the technology 

in a way that best meets user needs. We particularly 

welcome users of the technology, and ONF is set up to 

give users a controlling role in what gets worked on and 

approved, and how. 

(Adapted from ICT Insights, a Huawei Enterprise magazine) 


APR 2013 

16

Perspectives 

SDN: Network 

revolution is coming 

By Zhao Huiling, Wang Qian, & Shi Fan, Beijing R&D Center, China Telecom 

What is SDN? 

S 

DN is a revolution in telecommunications where 

the network control plane is decoupled from the 

forwarding plane through programmable control. 

Standard SDN architecture consists of three layers. 

The application layer is the top, and supports the various 

services and applications. The middle layer is the control 

layer, which allocates data resources and maintains network 

topology and status information, while the infrastructure is at 

the bottom, processing and forwarding status information. 

With current networking, traffic control and forwarding 

are fulfilled by the network gear, which integrates vendorspecific 

operating systems and other hardware that 

services greatly depend on. But with SDN, network gear 

merely forwards the data, with the hardware itself less 

specialized and the original operating system replaced 

by an independent (vendor-agnostic) OS compatible 

with a wide variety of services, which, like the hardware 

communication routes, are no longer hard-wired, making 

for a telco world that’s a lot more flexible. 

Background 

Since its establishment in 2011, the Open Networking 

Foundation (ONF) has been committed to standardizing 

and commercializing SDN and OpenFlow technologies. 

The IETF proposes the Forwarding and Control Element 

Separation (ForCES) protocol as a standard framework 

and mechanism for interconnection between control and 

forwarding elements in IP routers and their ilk. The IETF’s 

Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) working 

group has also put forward a traffic localization protocol 

meant to reduce the overall load through provision of 

location and ranking information to peers through nearestpeer 

connection, as opposed to random connection. The 

IETF has also founded the I2RS working group to study the 

requirements of opening up router systems, the architecture 

17 

APR 2013

Software-defined networking (SDN) is at the vanguard 

of a telco revolution. Great importance should be attached 

to its development and impact on network elements so that 

resource utilization, service deployment flexibility, and user 

experience reach their full potential. 

Zhao Huiling 

in general, and the various application scenarios. 

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector 

(ITU-T) has three teams – SG13, SG11, and SG15, studying 

SDN standards. SG13 focuses on SDN architecture, while 

SG11 focuses on protocols and interfaces, and SG15 works 

out standards for software-defined optical transport. 

The China Communications Standards Association 

(CCSA) is also making some headway with SDN, with 

three teams assigned to the matter. The TC1 team is 

working on application scenarios & requirements, problem 

analysis, and protocols, while TC3 studies SDN smart 

pipes and TC6 tries to iron out software-defined OTN. 

Commercial interest 

Vendors generally believe that SDN should enhance 

rather than replace legacy gear, with commercial studies, 

thus far, focusing primarily on equipment virtualization 

and software-based control. Virtualization lies in the 

integration of packet-switched data network (PSDN), 

BRAS, and SR devices, among others, while softwarebased 

control should bring about a programmable network 

based on OpenFlow and its protocol cousins. 

Many vendors have SDN-based hardware platforms 

and software in place. Some pundits even predict that 

hardware manufacturers will gradually transform into 

software suppliers. Chinese vendors suggest that carriers 

use controllers to realize end-to-end forwarding control. 

Carrier study of SDN is still nascent. NTT DOCOMO 

has developed the 2.0 version of its virtual network 

controller for unified service and on-demand deployment 

for multiple data centers, and it is now in use across a 

reasonable swath of the global business community. 

Key elements of SDN 

SDN decouples the control plane from the forwarding 

plane, with the control function programmable. One 

physical network can be virtualized into various subnets 

that support more customers and more applications. 

The application layer manages and controls the forwarding 

and processing of application/service traffic; it also supports 

network configuration, increases network utilization, and 

ensures service security and quality. The control layer, also 

called the network operating system (NOS), processes logical 

information concerning the data forwarding plane, and this 

includes the collection and maintenance of network topology 

and status data. The NOS also utilizes software to control 

and manage the resources of the forwarding plane. The 

infrastructure layer, also known as the data forwarding layer, is 

responsible for data processing, as well as the forwarding and 

collecting of status information. With traditional networks, 

these tasks are performed by separate network devices, but with 

SDN, a single unit, connected to the control layer through 

programmable interfaces, is needed. 

Decoupled from service features, hardware is responsible 

for forwarding and storage only, so a software-defined 

network can be built from relatively cheap components. 

Network functionality is strictly software-enabled, so the 

gear itself is relatively unspecialized (modular). The NOS 

(server) controls network operation; various network 

parameters, such as route, security, policy, QoS, and traffic 

APR 2013 

18

Perspectives 

Smart pipes are ubiquitous and speedy, and this is made possible 

through rapid resource allocation, flexible access, and on-demand service 

quality guarantee – all ancillary benefits of SDN. 

priority, can be customized and configured in real time, 

making for a drastic reduction in TTM for a service. 

Impacts of SDN 

Besides the much trumpeted control-forwarding 

decoupling and improved resource utilization, SDN brings 

a large number of other benefits to network owners as well. 

Control plane centralization and virtualization simplify 

network O&M, reduce OPEX, and facilitate O&M proxy 

and service coordination, while the open-source software 

involved can be customized with ease, enabling service 

innovation while shortening its TTM. What’s more, the open 

nature of the network will draw more champions to the SDN 

banner, enabling lower costs for construction and gear. 

However, the control plane is critically important to 

SDN, as the NOS becomes the kernel for the network. 

A centralized control plane warrants both tighter security 

and greater network reliability, and this could give NOS 

vendors more power over the industry chain. The control 

plane will become the key battlefield for NOS vendors 

and carriers; as such, carriers must seek their trustworthy 

vendors to help them apply SDN in their smart pipes to 

contend. 

Thanks to the effective network resource scheduling 

that it entails, SDN has also seen action outside the telco 

industry. Google has applied it for its data centers, thus 

easing the giant’s dependence on carrier networks. As 

a commercial pioneer in the field, Google was testing 

SDN’s nascent elements as early as 2011. Google’s 12 

key data centers, which span three continents, are now 

connected through 10Gbps links that feature precise traffic 

engineering and priority queuing, which increase link 

utilization from the 30-to-40% norm to nearly 100%. 

Smarter pipes 

The smart pipes much valued by the telco industry 

depend on SDN. They are smart, ubiquitous, and speedy, 

and this is made possible through rapid resource allocation, 

flexible access, and on-demand service quality guarantee – 

all ancillary benefits of SDN. 

The CCSA’s TC3 team has been established to study 

the requirements, architecture, and key technologies of 

an SDN-based smart pipe. This research primarily focuses 

on elements such as user experience analysis, traffic 

scheduling, and policy control, as well as the network 

virtualization requirements, network architecture, and 

key SDN technologies involved, such as virtualization of 

functionality, offerings, and the overall network. 

Data centers 

SDN’s first applications were in data centers, both 

between and within. For SDN-connected data centers, one 

physical network can be virtualized into multiple logical 

networks, bearing the traffic of multiple data centers, 

and resources can be pooled, regardless of their dispersal. 

SDN routers can be deployed at the data center egress to 

monitor link bandwidth utilization and traffic, while data 

center controllers control the SDN gear there to facilitate 

scheduling of virtual links and traffic. This improves 

bandwidth efficiency, solves the problems of flexibility and 

scalability faced by cloud data centers that serve multiple 

tenants, and realizes smart networking between data 

centers. 

For intra-center networking, the migration of 

corresponding network policies must be in sync with that of 

the virtual machines (VMs). Thanks to SDN, data switch 

interfaces from different vendors can be standardized for 

connection to the data center management platform. When 

VMs migrate, the management platform will discern their 

sources and destinations, after which the platform implements 

the policies of the source switch and delivers the VMs to the 

target switch, ensuring enjoyment of the same services after 

migration. 

Editor: Xu Shenglan xushenglan@huawei.com 

19 

APR 2013

From Clean Slate to SDN 

Software-defined networking (SDN) is considered the next stage in the evolution of telco architecture, 

but it is worth noting that it is in fact a splendid example of technological cross-pollination; OpenFlow and 

its protocol brethren came about through recent efforts to remake the Internet for the 21st century, and 

these technologies will no doubt continue to intertwine for the foreseeable future. 

By Haisang Wu 

It all started with the Internet 

Born in 1969 as a Defense Advanced Research 

Projects Agency (DARPA) test network, the 

Internet is now more than 40 years old. The 

TCP/IP-based Internet was destined to succeed 

due to three factors – connectionless packet switching, besteffort 

operational principles, and end-to-end transmission; 

all have helped it prevail over traditional circuit-switched 

architecture at each turning point in its development. 

However, the Internet has inherent flaws in its 

scalability, security, mobility, and QoS. Improvements 

and innovations have been carried out to address them, 

including classless inter-domain routing (CIDR), network 

address translation (NAT), and multiprotocol label 

switching (MPLS), which, miraculously, 

have enabled the Internet to stay 

ahead of obsolescence to 

this day. However, 

the Internet’s 

fundamental flaws remain, and no amount of patching can 

ultimately overcome them. Many researchers are starting 

to believe that the problem can be ultimately solved by 

redefining the network structure, though this a task is on 

par with replacing a jet engine at 30,000 feet. 

This radical solution, known in academia as the “Clean 

Slate,” represents the abandoning of the original network 

structure altogether with a new one built from scratch, 

one that can satisfy current as well as future needs. 

The Clean Slate moniker in its proper sense refers to 

a research program initiated by Nick McKeown from 

Stanford, but it has since expanded to include a variety of 

government-led projects such as the Global Environment 

for Network Innovations (GENI) project, a subproject of 

the Future Internet Network Design (FIND) initiated by 

the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF); the Future 

Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE) project, a 

subproject of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) 

of the EU; and the AKARI and corresponding testbed 

JGN2+ projects sponsored by Japan’s National Institute of 

Information and Communications Technology (NICT). 

APR 2013 

20

Perspectives 

The Internet has inherent flaws in scalability, security, mobility, and QoS 

that no amount of patching can overcome. Many researchers believe that these 

problems can be solved by redefining the network structure. 

The birth of SDN 

In 2007, Nick McKeown, his student Martin Casado, 

and Professor Scott Shenker from the University 

of California-Berkeley, founded Nicira, a network 

virtualization company with the slogan “OpenFlow.” In 

July, 2012, Nicira was acquired by VMware in a USD1.26 

billion deal; what VMware was after was Nicira’s network 

virtualization technology. In 2011, Nick McKeown 

and Scott Shenker co-founded the Open Networking 

Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization, seeking 

to expand the influence of OpenFlow and SDN beyond 

academia. 

Though a college-level project, Clean Slate has a bold 

aim – reinvent the Internet. It advocates starting from 

scratch and abandoning the traditional incremental and 

backwards-compatible rules. Program coordinators have 

identified five key areas for research – network architecture, 

heterogeneous applications, heterogeneous physical-layer 

technologies, security, and economics & policy. 

This program relies on the academic, scientific, and 

commercial resources of Silicon Valley to successfully draw 

both attention and funding. Clean Slate was phased out in 

January 2012, giving way to four major follow-up projects 

– Internet Infrastructure: OpenFlow and Softwaredefined 

Networking; Mobile Internet: Programmable 

Open Mobile Internet 2020 (POMI 2020); Mobile Social 

Networking: MobiSocial; and Data Centers: Stanford 

Experimental Data Center Laboratory. As an incubator, 

Clean Slate has undoubtedly been successful. The four 

follow-up projects are also attractive and promising. 

Clean Slate’s research on network architecture started 

with OpenFlow. OpenFlow can be explained in traditional 

routing and switching terms. A traditional router or 

21 

APR 2013

In terms of network applications, separation of the control from the forwarding 

facilitates VM migration and security policy control. This flexible software-based 

control lays the basis for the software-defined networking (SDN). 

switch has a forwarding plane and a control plane, with 

the latter performing route calculation and the former 

forwarding data. An OpenFlow switch separates the two 

planes by shifting the route calculation function to an 

independent controller. The controller and the OpenFlow 

switch communicate through the OpenFlow protocol. 

The forwarding plane on the OpenFlow switch can then 

abstract the flow table to determine formats, matching 

rules, and actions for packets. One of the aims for 

OpenFlow is the development of new network protocols 

so that the forwarding plane does not necessarily forward 

packets based on IP xTuple. 

Initially, OpenFlow was simply defined as a Layer-2 

control protocol, which is certainly not enough to 

revolutionize Internet architecture. If the forwarding 

planes for all nodes in a network are deployed externally 

through OpenFlow, the control and the forwarding for the 

entire network will be separated, allowing for more refined 

and sophisticated traffic management than access control 

lists (ACLs) and routing protocols on traditional routers 

would allow. In terms of network applications, separation 

of the control from the forwarding also facilitates virtual 

machine (VM) migration and security policy control. 

This flexible software-based control lays the basis for the 

software-defined networking (SDN). More revolutionary 

than OpenFlow, SDN popularizes the idea of network 

virtualization, with OpenFlow functioning as an enabler. 

OpenFlow is an enabler of SDN 

Centralized network control and distributed forwarding are 

not new concepts. OpenFlow was first developed to control the 

forwarding planes of switches or routers through the network. 

This out-of-band model very much resembles public switched 

telephone network (PSTN) architecture – a typical example 

of centralized control. Centralized network control is 

orthogonal to distributed Internet route calculation. The 

new wrinkle here is that OpenFlow is capable of controlling 

out-of-band equipment and testing new network-layer 

protocols in incubators such as campus networks. By 

supporting OpenFlow, a traditional equipment vendor 

is able to provide hooks to users that enable out-of-band 

control of devices, without releasing system implementation 

details. 

After the control and forwarding planes are separated, 

the gear no longer needs to calculate routes for packet 

forwarding, making the task itself that much easier. With 

SDN, bottom-layer hardware is virtualized, independent 

of VMs and applications running on it. OpenFlow’s 

design goal also aims at router commoditization, just like 

PCs with Windows operating systems and applications. 

Existing routers on the network can be transformed into 

OpenFlow-enabled nodes, with newly-deployed network 

elements now OpenFlow-dedicated nodes, all with a 

simple forwarding plane. Network services can then be 

delivered flexibly as applications through application 

programming interfaces (APIs) or native applications. 

However, the communications community is known 

for its resistance to radical reform. Since router design is 

dominated by major vendors as opposed to the OpenFlow 

community, the software layer is commonly added between 

the applications and the network engine, which functions 

as an alternate controller. Some alternate controllers are 

open-source applications, others are provided with APIs to 

access the network engine, while still others have no APIs 

at all. However, OpenFlow is only one of many possible 

ways to connect the forwarding plane with the controller, 

and major vendors often choose other practice-proven 

protocols. 

APR 2013 

22

Perspectives 

SDN cannot replace the Internet at this point, and neither can a lot 

of other innovations. In fact, it is inappropriate to compare SDN with the Internet, 

as each attempts to solve different problems. 

Technically, SDN-based network virtualization makes 

connection between applications and the network possible. 

The type of controller determines how difficult that 

connection is to make. However, technical difficulty is a 

secondary concern to carriers, who may be more worried 

about network deployment and evolution. 

Will SDN replace the Internet? 

The jury is still out on this question. For the Clean Slate 

project, SDN is a new networking method that features 

the separation of the control plane from the forwarding 

plane, with unified OpenFlow acting as the channel and 

interface between the control plane and forwarding planes. 

The centralized control plane makes the entire network 

topology transparent to applications and services, as well 

as virtualization and bottom-layer programming. In other 

words, this network restructuring does nothing less than 

redefine the Internet. 

However, SDN cannot replace the Internet at this 

point, and neither can a lot of other innovations. In fact, 

it is inappropriate to compare SDN with the Internet, as 

each attempts to solve different problems. 

If the forwarding and the control planes are separated, 

they still need to be connected in some way. And what’s 

more, distributed controllers also need to be connected, 

but direct interconnection of the planes or the controllers 

is surely impossible on a large scale. So what else can 

be used? Most current SDN ideas assume a traditional 

network, which means standard autonomous systems, 

routing, and peering architecture for interconnection. 

In this sense, SDN is a supplementary layer or a 

virtualization layer of the current network, driven by 

technologies such as cloud architecture, dynamic resource 

allocation, mobile computing, and virtualized computing. 

It aims to help carriers decouple services from interfaces to 

facilitate network O&M and simplify network structure. 

SDN and the routing-based Internet can be compared 

to the kernel space and user space in an operating system. 

Modern operating systems use process space to realize 

isolation and protection, and employ system calls to 

help applications access the kernel, while the memory 

management unit (MMU) maps virtual and physical 

addresses. However, isolation of the kernel and user space 

would seem to degrade system performance, and therefore 

many high-performance embedded operating systems allow 

users to directly access the kernel, without employing user 

space. Nevertheless, isolation, protection, and virtualization 

do have their uses. Programmers need only visit the virtual 

address, without considering the problem of kernel crash. 

This makes application development kernel-independent, 

facilitating development and maintenance, and today’s 

software industry is based on this mechanism. 

If SDN is to be applied to the current network, 

the prerequisite is the keeping of traditional bridging, 

routing, and switching functionalities, which secure 

scalability, interoperability, and reliability (similar to 

the basic functions of the operating system kernel). The 

upper SDN layer (or virtualization layer) decouples 

services from physical interfaces, interface features, and 

network topologies (similar to the kernel/user space 

isolation in the operating system). The upper layer 

services are similar to applications in the operating 

system. Such services seen in carrier use today are 

basically cache, carrier grade NAT (CGN), firewalls, load 

balancing, IPTV, and VPN. In view of the development 

of the software industry, it’s easy to envision that new 

SDN application scenarios will be available for carrier, 

enterprise, and data center networks. 

23 

APR 2013

SDN helps carriers improve operational efficiency, service quality, 

and resource usage, while facilitating service deployment and not bringing 

about network architecture revolution. 

SDN application scenarios 

SDN cannot replace the Internet at this time, but it can 

be used in certain scenarios, especially in data centers and 

infrastructure as a service (IaaS) applications that use large 

numbers of VMs. Network virtualization obscures the location 

information for VMs, so customers who buy a large number 

of them need not know the details. Network virtualization, 

along with storage & computing virtualization, can implement 

flexible resource allocation in cloud environments, while 

simulating traditional interprocess communication (IPC) to 

deliver resource scheduling among VMs. 

Niche applications will also be easier through SDN. 

In an operating system, consecutive virtual addresses may 

correspond to discrete physical addresses. Similarly, the 

scattered storage space of data centers can be integrated 

into a pool to improve resource use efficiency. What’s more, 

SDN makes their load balancing easier. Traditionally, link 

state update notifications are sent to each egress router, 

while distributed SDN can inform each server cluster, or 

even each hypervisor (virtual machine monitor) for link 

state updates. VMs and SDN have spawned many startups, 

who apply distributed dynamic resource computing to 

traditional services such as load balancing and firewalls. 

As the old stomping grounds of SDN, campus networks 

are natural applications. FlowVisor (an OpenFlow 

controller) and SDN can create multiple independent 

and programmable logical networks (slices) on a physical 

network, which is advocated by the Global Environment 

for Network Innovations (GENI). 

In the telco field, the most likely market is access 

services as carrier networks are in desperate need of flexible 

service migration. SDN and network virtualization 

effectively control traffic, making network planning and 

O&M easier than static in-band processing. 

Key challenges of applying SDN to carrier networks 

are performance, service complexity, and security. Most 

conservative carriers are skeptical of network openness; 

thanks to, or unfortunately because of, subscriber-aware 

services such as AAA (authentication, authorization and 

accounting), IPTV, and VPN, carriers cannot change their 

services/applications as often as Google and Facebook do. 

SDN as a guiding philosophy 

IT enterprises are service-oriented. They hope to use 

SDN to virtualize networks, computing, and storage, 

ensuring dynamic and flexible resource allocation for 

profitable business. Carriers, thus far, have been network 

oriented. Network bandwidth is a scarce resource and 

carriers face less competition than enterprises in other 

industries. In this sense, SDN helps carriers improve 

operational efficiency, service quality, and resource usage, 

while facilitating service deployment and not bringing 

about network architecture revolution. 

SDN can serve as a guiding philosophy, with 

OpenFlow, controllers, floodless deployment, and 

symmetrical/asymmetrical deployment supporting it. 

Networking, computing, storage virtualization, and cloud 

computing have brought limitless opportunities for SDN 

and have greatly driven its development. 

SDN is a rare opportunity for IT enterprises, carriers, 

and manufacturers. The problem is how to seize the 

opportunity. Once a bold presumption is established, you 

need to verify it. In the case of SDN, what the IT/telecom 

enterprises need to do is to see it through, to figure out the 

best ways (mechanisms) to fulfill their goals. 

Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com 

APR 2013 

24


Big data and how to use it 

Big data has been a hot topic for quite some time, and yet it is still largely an untapped 

resource in the telco industry, despite the fact operators are sitting on a mother lode of reliable, 

accurate user data. Needless to say, they need to get digging. 

By Gao Qingzhong 

Big and bigger data 

T 

he global volume of data is vast and growing 

geometrically. IDC indicates that 2.8 

zettabytes (2.8 billion terabytes) of data were 

generated in 2012, and this figure is expected 

to hit 40ZB in 2020; the big data era is here. 

However, big data does not just mean “a lot of ones 

and zeroes,” it also represents a plethora of data categories, 

complex data structure, and dynamic data rates. Data 

sources can include cloud computing, the mobile Internet, 

smartphones, tablets, personal computers, sensors, and the 

Internet of Things (IoT); this is leading to overwhelming 

growth in unstructured data (exceeding 80% of the total 

volume) that can hardly be processed by traditional databases. 

Non-relational databases and distributed operational 

architecture (based on the Hadoop software framework) 

have been emerging to help extract value from vast, 

complex data. Featuring great scalability, the Hadoop 

framework can process many categories of data at less cost, 

and is now widely in use by Internet service providers 

(including Facebook, Amazon, Taobao, and Baidu), 

operators, banks, and more. 

Such technologies will bring operators many 

opportunities to boost productivity and increase revenue. 

A study from the University of Texas indicates that a 10% 

increase in big data utilization will result in a 17% boost 

in operator productivity, amounting to USD9.6 billion in 

revenue. In addition, big data analysis will help operators 

better understand user behavior, leading to more effective 

marketing; if operators can identify unsatisfied customers, 

coupons and other inducements can be offered to bring 

them back into the fold. 

25 

APR 2013

Strategic operator positioning 

Although global telcos invest more than USD10 billion 

annually in broadband network infrastructure, they still 

lag behind in meeting user demand for bandwidth. Also 

lagging is revenue growth, anemic in the face of so much 

traffic, while profit stagnates under the pressure of the 

ISPs. Big data offers telcos a way out. 

During daily operations, telcos accumulate a large 

amount of high-quality (i.e., truthful) user data. This 

might include name, age, gender, home/office address, and 

precise location. Call activity information such as who is 

called and when, as well as the phone bill itself (a good 

indication of household income) can also be gathered. 

With all this in hand, operators and/or third parties can 

take their marketing efforts far beyond “Dear User.” 

There are three paths available to operators in terms 

of how they utilize big data and what data sources are 

tapped (users, network infrastructure, or both) – smart 

network operations (infrastructure), over-the-top (OTT) 

service provision (users), or integrated information service 

provision (both). 

Smart network operations – Operators prioritize telco 

network operations, ensuring cost-efficient network scale 

and intelligent traffic operations. In this scenario, big data 

analysis is carried out for network logs, signaling, and 

OSS statistics, enabling personalized customer services 

while enhancing network quality, user experience, and 

brand image. Smart network operators also provide 

wholesale services for MVNOs and ISPs, in addition to 

direct network access to end users. With strengthened pipe 

operations, these operators can minimize or completely 

leave Internet services to more inclined third parties. 

OTT service provision – Operators attach much more 

importance to consumer services than smart network 

operations. When obtaining more income from consumer 

services (such as OTT services) than network operations, 

said operators may just decide to get out of the telco game 

altogether and focus strictly on service provision. Big data 

analysis, in this case, is carried out for consumer and BSS 

data, revealing underlying customer needs and enabling 

product customization and a timely response. Such service 

providers will also build relational product databases to 

identify target customers and ideal distribution channels. 

With innovative data and Internet services, these said 

service providers can use other operators’ networks for 

service distribution and transform themselves by focusing 

more on OTT services. 

Integrated information service provision – Some 

telcos focus not only on smart network operations as pipe 

providers, but also expand their business to consumer 

domains (offering OTT services, for instance). This 

scenario uses big data to the fullest, with both users and 

the infrastructure at large utilized for analysis. Big data 

analysis is applied not only to network logs, signaling, 

and OSS statistics, but also to consumer and BSS data 

to ensure optimal user experiences, network quality, and 

consumer services. Service delivery platforms (SDPs) play 

a key role here as they smoothen the cooperation with 

third-parties and converge their applications. What’s more, 

operators can offer big data analysis to third parties as a 

nascent service. 

We’ve embraced big data, now what? 

Operators must choose a strategy for how to gain value 

from their data sources; there are three available – network 

operations, new platforms, and customer services, though 

they need not be mutually exclusive. 

Network operations – Relying on vendors’ solutions, 

operators build high-efficient, scalable, and cloud-based big 

data processing systems, while adding layered, cost-effective 

storage for network and signaling data. With shortened 

data processing procedures and ample bandwidth for the 

transmission of big data, operators can shorten their data 

analysis time and improve O&M efficiency. In this way, 

operators can enhance E2E QoS, resource allocation, and 

operational efficiency, with reduced OPEX. 

Customer service strategy – Operators build user data 

markets that require reliable, scalable, and cloud-based data 

platforms that support various analytical methods. In this 

scenario, operators rely primarily on vendors’ solutions for 

building big data processing systems. Based on user data 

analysis, operators can provide diversified and customized 

services to enhance user loyalty, discover new opportunities, 

increase revenue, and strengthen core competence. 

New platform strategy – Operators rely on selfdeveloped 

big data solutions, build cost-effective cloud 

computing platforms, and launch big data processing 

platforms using open-source software such as Hadoop. 

By cooperating with open-source organizations, operators 

can strengthen their R&D into core technologies and 

key applications; they can also proactively launch testing, 

pilots, and applications for big data services, while 

providing Internet data center (IDC) services. 

In short, operator utilization of big data is not a 

question of if but when, and the latter should be as soon 

as a strategy, such as the ones above, is decided. If it is not, 

the operator in question may find itself lagging behind, 

facing a long road ahead against the competition. 

Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com 

APR 2013 

26


Mobile Security Management 

Growing consumer mobility and social networking are thrusting security challenges upon operators 

whose infrastructure inevitably exposes user data to attack. One global operator has presented a visionary 

framework for a more agile and comprehensive security platform, one that better handles the dynamism and 

increasingly IP-based nature of the modern communications network. 

By Dr. Ning Chang & Wei Pan 

A 

n estimated 9% of all mobile subscribers will 

be using LTE by 2015, and the terminals 

that they use will more and more resemble 

mobile computers, with all the capabilities and 

security baggage that this implies. Online payments, social 

networking, and enterprise access all represent tremendous 

security risks for both users and the network at large, with 

the former possibly not considering the relevant security to 

be their responsibility – not a tenable position for either. 

A new framework 

Greater employee mobility and security management 

complexity are altering the way business units relate to 

corporate IT. Enterprises must leverage new technologies to 

innovate their businesses, without inappropriately increasing 

the risks involved. 3GPP specifications 33.102 and 33.401 

define the security architectures of 3G and SAE/LTE, 

respectively. Five security feature groups are defined – Network 

Access, Network Domain, User Domain, Application Domain, 

and Visibility & Configurability. 

Compared to 3G, LTE security requires a different 

system protection mechanism, with packet-based 

architecture making matters worse as the hacking tools and 

know-how needed to compromise it are already widespread. 

Enterprises need to understand and change their static and 

abstract security standards into operational tools that apply 

dynamic policies to tackle ever-changing security risks, so 

that business productivity stays on track. 

A certain global operator has created a framework for 

mobile security management that reflects a strategy of assertive 

self-defense within the five aforementioned feature realms. 

This framework defines the legal, functional, architectural, 

managerial, operational, and system integration requirements 

for the creation of a network content filtering center 

(NCFC) that would reduce the impact of malware in the 

mobile network through the detection and inspection of 

suspect programs, and the elimination of those deemed 

harmful, all without violating the relevant laws governing 

privacy for both users and content. This framework has 

four functional components: 

Network anomaly detection system – Identifies users 

suspected of generating malicious traffic. Such a system would 

not only detect spammers but any & all sources of malware. 

Network content filtering center – Where suspect users 

will be redirected so that more definite evidence can be 

gathered. False positives will be moved back to the general 

traffic flow, while malware sources will be prompted and 

given a certain amount of time to voluntarily cease the 

traffic in question, which will be cleaned up by the center. 

The design and architecture in place here is intended to 

allow easy adaptation to any type of malware. 

Service portal – Enables real-time communication with 

and feedback for malware sources, who may be otherwise 

unaware that their terminal is generating anything malicious, 

so that a timely and satisfactory resolution is reached. 

Network policy controller – Manages the overall 

system, controls the different security phases that suspected 

malware sources pass through, and executes the necessary 

actions for the network elements; this includes malware 

suspect list generation based on anomaly detectors, trusted 

source lists, and user complaints; provision of the necessary 

resources to recognize said list; ordering of provisioning 

actions needed to apply to each user the relevant policy for 

his/her current stage in the malware generation lifecycle; 

service portal control; real-time user situation reporting and 

allowance of manual status modification; user history and 

27 

APR 2013

LTE security requires a different system protection mechanism, 

with packet-based architecture making matters worse as the hacking tools and 

know-how needed to compromise it are already widespread. 

malware statistical reporting; and percentage breakdowns 

for remedied users, blocked users, cooperative users, etc. 

Where to from here? 

Most of the security architecture in use today is 

static, enforcing policies derived from yesterday’s wars 

in circumstances that have minimal context, leading 

to unreliable enforcement with a lot of false positives. 

However, a proactive framework such as the one 

mentioned here would not only reduce the amount 

of malware on the system through context awareness, 

derived from multiple sources (application, identity 

and content), which is good in and of itself, it would 

also reduce the number of subscriber complaints, which 

should keep churn more manageable, as should the direct 

user interaction/assistance that is done once infection is 

confirmed. This new framework would fit in well with the 

general trends in IT modernization towards integration 

and suite-/platform-orientation, security policy dynamism, 

security measurability & visibility, and user-friendliness 

(ease of use, transparency and privacy). 

The 3GPP has standardized a single core network, as far 

as policy control is concerned, that manages multiple access 

methods. Many operators now employ intelligent network 

policy control, compliant with the 3GPP policy and 

charging rules function (PCRF), to guarantee bandwidth 

for high-revenue services, enable market segmentation, 

assure fair usage of the network, stop or reduce services that 

degrade network performance, and guarantee an optimal 

end-user experience. This policy and charging control 

architecture enables a level of granularity where, at the user 

level, suspect service traffic and malicious code type can 

be defined, thanks to operator configuration of user access 

control nodes such as GGSN and BRAS or a one-box 

deployment for security policy application on traditional 

fixed and mobile networks. The next step towards realization 

of this framework would be a proof-of-concept prototype. 

Such a prototype would demonstrate a core-network 

based solution fully compliant with policy and charging 

control (PCC) and mobile content security across fixed 

and wireless access, enabling seamless end-user movement 

from the fixed to the mobile network or vice versa (LTE 

subscribers can access the mobile core via the home node), 

setting the stage for true multi-access networks. In most 

cases, the four aforementioned modules could be comprised 

of conventional network equipment and IT systems. 

Network anomaly detection 

The network anomaly detection system (NADS) would carry 

out the policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) where 

the GGSN/BRAS or service-aware node (single PCEF) enforces 

the authorized individual subscriber security inspection. With 

its integrated QoS engine, the PCEF provides subscriber- and 

application-level security, employs behavioral detection to identify 

specific attack pattern or virus characteristics, and helps protect 

the network and subscribers from malicious attacks. Subscriber 

text or email prompts regarding access limits or security breaches 

will be processed and synchronized by the PCEF with the 

network policy controller. With various security services such 

as firewalls, IPS, traffic shaping, anti-virus measures, anti-spam 

measures, web content filtering, and application control (for 

instant messaging or P2P), the PCEF might stop remote attacks 

with familiar patterns and filter out malicious but easily-tackled 

code immediately, before things get out of hand. 

APR 2013 

28


Most of the security architecture in use today is static, 

enforcing policies derived from yesterday’s wars in circumstances that have minimal 

context, leading to unreliable enforcement with a lot of false positives. 

Configurable post-analysis traffic-shaping mechanisms 

should never affect the traffic sent to the NCFC. Generally, 

operators cannot be held liable for the exploitation of this 

data, but many customers will hold them at least partially 

responsible for its protection. 

Finally, the detection system should cater to the creation 

of cloud-based security capabilities, which can be deployed 

either as an enabler for the operator’s outsourced service 

partnership for customer device management, or it can 

provide management of devices directly from the cloud. 

Network policy control 

The network policy controller (NPC) contains the PCRF, 

report management, and security function add-ons such as 

URL category credit service, and functions as a database of 

known problematic websites, categorized by subject matter 

into groups, to ensure acceptable use and productivity while 

reducing security risk. A subscriber policy register (SPR) node 

also provides subscriber-specific data to the PCRF to assist 

in evaluating policy decisions. The controller makes policy 

decisions for fixed and wireless access, providing a centralized 

control based on a single subscription; one subscription is 

maintained that associates subscriber access identities, location 

information, device status, network path, user authentication, 

accessed application & services, and behaviors. 

Mobile security has always been about context, as there 

are so many possible ways that users can gain access to and 

carry out their work. Identity can come in the form of mobile 

subscriber ISDN (MSISDN), international mobile subscriber 

identity (IMSI), or network address identifier (NAI). As to 

location, issues might trigger a warning or remote lockdown 

if a mobile system moves outside a designated work area 

or territory, where working is deemed an unacceptable risk 

(involving location-based spam or other malware that transmits 

location data). 

For device status, the relevant issue is whether or not the 

mobile user is working with a healthy and approved system 

with its security components intact; poorly configured systems 

are vulnerable to compromise. The network path helps assure 

that the mobile user is on an appropriate, safe, and approved 

network, one that complies with access policies, while two-factor 

authentication can reduce the risk of digital impersonation. 

As for applications and services, the question is, “Has the 

user been offered only the correct applications and networks for 

his or her needs (context)?” Mobile users should not be given 

access by default to everything on the provider’s infrastructure. 

User behavior, in this case, refers to the transactions, 

accessed applications, and measurable user interface (UI) 

actions, and whether or not they are typical for the user in 

question. Robust UI features on mobile devices can provide 

ample data for a quick decision in this area. 

In terms of architecture, the PCRF and SPR, which may 

have bilateral interaction with the accounting, authentication, 

and authorization (AAA) and billing systems’ components 

in the existing infrastructure, also support connection to 

the network application layer via standard protocols or web 

service technology for easy integration with application 

functions that do not implement 3GPP protocols. The 

controller should support internal or external databases to 

store subscriber (LDAP), structured query language (SQL), 

and extensible markup language (XML) data. 

Network content filtering 

The network content filtering center (NCFC) carries 

out the key functions associated with the use of underlying 

content filtering engines that make for a management console 

of sorts that could be considered a secure distributed web 

gateway that can transition to virtual appliances or software 

as a service (SaaS). Far-reaching organizations with a large 

number of branches and a lot of road warriors are attracted to 

29 

APR 2013

Thousands of pieces of new malware are detected each month, 

with attacks now more targeted and specialized than ever before, diminishing 

the likelihood of anti-malware vendors obtaining every new malware sample 

and variant for signature development. 

the ease of implementing SaaS. With granular policy controls, 

the NCFC could be designed to inspect web traffic only or 

all traffic in general. It could also present several architectural 

options for dealing with user authentication and traffic 

redirection via VPN. The NCFC could also be augmented 

by the anomaly detection system, which analyzes every web 

request to determine if the requested content contains any 

malicious threat or intent and prevents said content from 

reaching the network, helping to ensure the security of 

confidential and personal data and eliminate the time and 

resources required to deal with any infected computers. 

NCFCs offer granular control over all web content, 

including SSL encrypted communications, utilizing 

multiple techniques such as real-time dynamic web content 

classification, a URL filtering database, file-type filters, and 

early warning filtering. Site reputation analysis and real-time 

code analysis to dynamically classify URLs are provided by 

the URL category credit service and anti-malware server 

that might manage applications such as Skype and instant 

messaging (IM), which requires broader port/protocol 

inspection and special network traffic signatures when dealing 

with automated machine-learning heuristics. Manageability 

and scalability, delivered through a graphical dashboard, realtime 

rule-based filters, a best-in-class URL database, policy 

synchronization between devices, and multiple network 

deployment options enhance the administration experience 

and minimize administration overhead. 

However, an NCFC also needs to integrate reporting 

capabilities and offer reporting data to the report management 

console for review, ongoing trend following, and forensic audit. 

Global coverage and multi-language domain support have to be 

considered to ensure secure web access management regardless 

of location or how end users access the Internet. While offering 

granular web policy security, future operator requirements may 

enable an integrated policy that helps prevent leaks of confidential 

or personal data to the web, which would limit potential exposure 

to bad press, lawsuits, and other financial penalties. 

Service portal 

A service portal must obtain customized information 

regarding the malware generation lifecycle status for each user; 

display it for the user; notify the controller as to the moments 

a user is informed about an infection, consent for inspection is 

given, and traffic clean-up and final remedy are completed; all 

while being integrated with the policy controller. A temporary 

and private information storage capacity in the portal is necessary, 

ensuring correct delivery at any moment until delivery to the 

controller is confirmed. Popular signaling protocols such as 

SOAP must be supported if this interface is to be implemented, 

and to ensure data integrity and confidentiality, communications 

within must be encrypted and authenticated. 

A brave new world 

Thousands of pieces of new malware are detected each 

month, with attacks now more targeted and specialized 

(utilizing multiple malware variants) than ever before, 

diminishing the likelihood of anti-malware vendors obtaining 

every new malware sample for signature development. 

Operators have to step in with a proactive security platform 

that combines multiple detection technologies – signature, 

reputation, early warning, behavior detection, and automated 

machine-learning heuristics, culminating in a vast web dataset 

where all web traffic is scanned immediately, as opposed to a 

mere check against known categorization databases. 

Context-awareness focuses on the user experience; the 

operator needs to proactively develop policies related to 

provider and customer responsibilities for the use and possible 

exposure of private data. However, before a proactive mobile 

security solution can come into being, more understanding and 

study of mobile applications and mobile users is needed. 


APR 2013 

30

Winners 

China Mobile 

looks to raise its network IQ 

China Mobile is trying to improve the network maintenance process by creating an internal body of thousands 

of homegrown experts, developed through initiatives such as U-Practice, a training program the operator carried 

out with Huawei in 2012. 

By Shen Pengjun 

Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com 

31 

APR 2013

A 

s terminals and data services evolve, 

network operation and maintenance 

(O&M) grows increasingly complicated, 

and as the market matures and 

competition intensifies, users grow more concerned 

with service quality. In response to these challenges, 

China Mobile outlined a strategy in 2010 for 

maintaining its market leadership in terms of 

network quality, the foundation of which is a brain 

trust of sorts devoted to the field of network O&M. 

The company sets high expectations for 

these experts, as they must have system-wide 

knowledge and skills that encompass the basic 

network elements, troubleshooting and debugging, 

management and optimization, and user perception. 

U-Practice initiative 

Starting in 2010, China Mobile and Huawei 

spent a year discussing how to build such a body 

of experts, including the qualifications, models of 

competence, and evaluative processes involved, 

finally reaching a consensus that would kickstart 

the U-Practice initiative in 2011. 

Based on a philosophy of practicing while 

learning, implementation of U-Practice involved 

six elements – position-based competence model 

design, trainee selection, learning scheme design, 

centralized training (including phased assessment), 

practice (including phased assessment), and 

summary presentation and defense. Training 

itself involved theoretical instruction, hands-on 

simulation, workshopping, real-world practice, 

summary presentation and defense, and final 

assessment. 

Thought-out, well-rounded 

learning 

For this one-year training initiative, centralized 

training accounted for 20% overall, with the 

remaining 80% reserved for practice, based on 

the 3E principle of experience, exposure, and 

education, with each accounting for 70%, 20%, 

and 10%, respectively, of the program, giving 

trainees enough time to digest and practice what 

they learned and build that into real-life capability. 

Both China Mobile and Huawei carried out 

a strict trainer and trainee selection process. 

Trainer candidates were recommended by Huawei 

and reviewed by China Mobile. For trainees, 

China Mobile carried out an initial quantitative 

competency screening, with select candidates 

receiving more training. Two mentors were 

assigned to each trainee who would both coach and 

supervise onsite, developing the relevant skills step 

by step. 

The program also provided a clear statement 

of work (SOW) for each project that guided both 

trainer and trainee practices, taking into account 

the task items and skill requirements involved, as 

well as the task completion criteria. 

APR 2013 

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Winners 

The program greatly improved my systematic knowledge, widened 

my knowledge scope, and broadened my horizons, through 

both theoretical learning and real-life practice. It also provided a 

valuable platform for communication with peers. 

For each task item, trainees followed the four 

steps of “prepare, act, reflect, and review (PARR).” 

This effectively combines theory and practice, 

ensuring that trainees overcome their professional 

shortcomings quickly. 

Rigorous criteria 

After trainees finished their task items for a 

project, project managers, mentors, and trainees 

had to confirm whether or not all individual 

activities specified in the SOW were in fact 

completed. For activities that could not be 

completed due to unforeseen circumstances, the 

project manager had to include them in future 

projects. During the process, mentors had to pay 

close attention to trainee understanding of the 

project and operations, and guide their thinking 

and methods to make them more like that of an 

expert. Through this combination of training 

approaches and control points, trainee acumen and 

overall competence improved rapidly. 

After all practice items were completed, a 

final test was given, with each trainee asked 

to prepare and implement their own network 

optimization plan for China Mobile’s live network, 

with an expert panel rating preparation (30%), 

implementation (60%), and target fulfillment 

(10%). Final training results combined the 

results from both this test and other tests during 

centralized training. 

Long-term benefits 

U-Practice was implemented from May 2011 

to June 2012; trainees had the opportunity to fully 

concentrate on their studies, guided by experienced 

trainers and supported by part-time trainers from 

the R&D and service departments. Over the course 

of this initiative, Huawei helped China Mobile turn 

91 novices into experts, more than all competing 

programs combined. 

Graduates spoke very highly of this program, 

with one noting, “It greatly improved my systematic 

knowledge, widened my knowledge scope, and 

broadened my horizons, through both theoretical 

learning and real-life practice. It also provided a 

valuable platform for us to communicate with peers 

so that we could form a think tank that will serve 

us well in our future work. Huawei trainers, with 

their wealth of experience and insight, set a model 

for us to follow for our future improvement.” 

Thanks to U-Practice, China Mobile can now 

better quantify competence gaps in its employees, 

formulate future competence development 

plans, and build teams of experts in O&M. This 

will surely smoothen network operations and 

shorten the troubleshooting cycle. In addition, 

the competencies of successful trainees have 

become the new benchmarks in the China Mobile 

Group, giving a spur to the company’s overall 

competitiveness. 

With this initiative, China Mobile has taken a 

solid step forward in its efforts to build a corps of 

elite technical professionals through centralized, 

standardized and computerized training. This 

should strengthen China Mobile’s market 

leadership down the road, through a smarter 

network of people. 

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APR 2013

China Telecom 

Smooth coverage for a bumpy landscape 

Tariff, bandwidth, subsidy, and terminal type all add up to nothing when the coverage is poor. By smartly leveraging 

the merits of pico cells and micro cells, China Telecom’s Chongqing branch (Chongqing Telecom) is overcoming the 

coverage obstacles created by the local terrain, enabling a premium mobile broadband experience where it would 

seem unlikely. 

By Huang Zaixi & Zhang Yucheng 

Editor: Joyce Fan joyce.fan@huawei.com 

APR 2013 

34

Winners 

With their small size, robust indoor coverage, compatibility 

with various network access models, and Wi-Fi offload 

capability, Huawei pico cells helped Chongqing Telecom 

seal coverage holes and boost user satisfaction. 

Populous and mountainous 

T 

he Chongqing municipality may boast 

a staggering population that rivals 

most countries (30 million people and 

counting), but the coverage challenges 

don’t stop there. Its rolling terrain is fertile ground 

for blind spots, and macro base station saturation 

is entering the zone where inter-cell interference 

becomes significant and cost-to-benefit calculations 

break down. Indoor coverage hasn’t exactly been 

plug-and-play either – networks are congested, 

site acquisition is an ordeal, fiber resources are 

inadequate, and the deployment process itself 

is slow and costly. What’s more, Chongqing has 

a higher percentage of pre-paid customers than 

China’s other tier-ones, making churn an everpresent 

threat. A paradigm shift is needed here, and 

Chongqing Telecom is already one step ahead. 

After exhaustive research on heterogeneous 

network (HetNet) architecture, both theoretical 

and practical, Chongqing Telecom proposed a 

hierarchical network infrastructure, where macro 

base stations are used for coverage that is broad 

and thin, with pico cells and micro cells used 

for thicker, more focused deployments. With all 

in place, this multi-layered, optimized network 

structure will be a model for other MBB providers 

to follow. 

No holes in this plan 

In May 2012, Chongqing Telecom and 

Huawei established a joint project team to explore 

the building of a premium MBB network in 

Chongqing. The key obstacle, of course, was 

filling in the gaps in the megacity’s tricky network 

landscape. 

The project team found that the areas most in 

need of denser coverage often lacked open spaces, 

so robust, accurate gear was needed that could 

move mountains and sip power. What’s more, 

these traffic hubs often proved lacking in the 

infrastructural niceties – no access to the mains, no 

dedicated transmission resources, and little space 

for equipment, making project targets seem all the 

more elusive. 

Starting in August 2012, the project team 

analyzed call records in bulk, producing a citywide 

traffic map that accurately identified coverage 

holes and hotspots; it would later serve as the basis 

for joint pilot deployment of CDMA pico cells; 

with their shoebox size, flexibility, and ease of 

deployment, they proved a great success. 

Huawei’s cells sported 500mW output power 

(without macro base station interference), suitable 

for 4000 to 7000 square meters of open coverage. 

At a volume of only 2.8 liters, Huawei’s pico cells 

can be wall-mounted or even ceiling-mounted, 

35 

APR 2013

making deployment nearly hassle-free. What’s 

more, these cells support a variety of public and 

private network access models (FE, GE, XDSL, 

XPON, and satellite), making deployment quick 

and easy, even in areas with limited transmission 

infrastructure. Both EVDO and Wi-Fi are also 

supported, so traffic offload is guaranteed regardless 

of the scenario. 

At present, Chongqing Telecom is exploring 

micro cell deployment for hotspots in outdoor 

areas with weak signals. Micro cells have a modest 

coverage range when compared with their macro 

cousins, but their spectrum density makes them 

workhorses for both offload and transmission, 

easily rigged to streetlight poles, walls, and legacy 

personal handphone system (PHS) stations. 

Chongqing Telecom plans to deploy these cells 

as macro substitutes for areas where indoor 

distribution systems are hard to access or macro 

base stations are just not viable. 

Staying in touch 

Thanks to Huawei’s pico cells, Chongqing 

Telecom can now boast satisfactory user experiences 

for some of its former problem children. 

Underground coverage – Asian supermarkets 

are often in the basement floors of towers and 

shopping malls. One particular site previously had 

no indoor coverage of any kind, with conventional 

telco gear proving impractical. But with Huawei 

picos now in place, connections are smooth and 

seamless. 

Inaccessible locations – A certain riverside 

power station supplied key aerospace facilities in 

the city, but the rolling terrain hindered wireless 

transmission, and indoor access to the mains 

proved unattainable due to logistical difficulties 

and onerous security procedures. Thus, pico 

deployment was carried out in standard office 

spaces, and this proved adequate in terms of 

coverage of the entire station. 

Hotspots – Asia’s busier karaoke parlors are 

designed more like karaoke multiplexes (a lot of 

rooms, throngs of people, few windows). One 

particular establishment was drawing a lot of 

customer complaints, and Chongqing Telecom 

responded with Wi-Fi integrated pico cells, leading 

to significant gains in user satisfaction soon after. 

Overall, the use of micro and pico cells as 

macro station supplements in indoor and outdoor 

scenarios will enable Chongqing Telecom to build 

up a hierarchical MBB network where each layer is, 

in and of itself, optimized. Such a model will allow 

other operators to achieve superior service coverage 

with ease, with traffic offload in hotspots smooth 

and steady, and blind spots a thing of the past, no 

matter how many users there are or where they 

gather. 

APR 2013 

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Winners 

Mobile Extreme 

Striking paydirt in Latin America 

Mobile Extreme, a leading Chinese firm specialized in mobile messaging platforms and products, has enjoyed 

runaway success in Latin America’s value-added service (VAS) market, expanding it to 14 countries in the 

region. Huawei’s advanced Service Delivery Platform (SDP) has been a major part of it, priming the firm for 

success in other developing markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia. 

By Ren Ling 

Editor: Yao Haifei julia.yao@huawei.com 

37 

APR 2013

Founded in March 2005 as a joint venture 

by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean 

investors, and headquartered in Beijing 

with a staff of 50, Mobile Extreme is a 

leading mobile VAS and Internet services provider. 

Based on its flagship product, its proprietary Smart 

Messaging platform, the company has developed 

a range of popular applications, such as Color 

SMS, SMS Manager, Qssage, Message Call, and 

Mobile SNS, to name a few, which have been 

deployed in over a dozen countries and regions 

worldwide. Color SMS and Qssage (an app version 

of Color SMS), in particular, have become tierone 

applications for both China Mobile and China 

Telecom alike. 

Mobile Extreme’s cooperation with Huawei 

started early, with both firms inking a contract for 

Color SMS cooperation in 2006. In July 2009, 

Huawei deployed Telefónica’s new service delivery 

platform (one of the largest of its kind at the time 

in terms of scale and complexity), serving some 

13 (now 14) countries in Latin America. Under 

the revenue sharing model in place, Huawei not 

only provided the platform for Telefónica, but also 

actively sought new services to be deployed over it. 

For Mobile Extreme, this platform proved to be a 

gold mine. 

Staking the right claim 

In 2010, Mobile Extreme signed a contract with 

Telefónica for Color SMS deployment in those 13 

aforementioned countries. It was first launched 

in Colombia in September of that year, with the 

others joining in soon after, promptly attracting 

over one million subscribers in the region in less 

than three months and contributing millions of 

U.S. dollars to Telefónica in 2011. This success 

encouraged Mobile Extreme and Telefónica to 

introduce more Smart Messaging platform-based 

applications, such as Message Call and Group 

SMS, which also proved to be hits. 

Keen strategic insight 

In 2009, Latin America’s mobile Internet VAS 

market was considered a wasteland by most service 

providers and developers, as it was far less lucrative 

than those of the U.S., Japan, Korea, and China. 

Mobile Extreme, however, saw what could be done 

with a handful of seeds and a little nurturing. 

At the end of 2009, mobile connections in 

Latin America exceeded half a billion (86% of the 

population), with mobile broadband penetration 

higher than that for fixed, representing enormous 

opportunity for mobile VAS. What’s more, only 

a small percentage of the millions of mainstream 

applications then available were customized for 

Latin America. And finally, although smart device 

penetration was still in the single digits at the time, 

it was expected to explode along the lines seen in 

other markets. Mobile Extreme was determined to 

be there when it did. 

Product innovation 

As with most developing markets, Latin America 

is moving from a 2G focus to the mobile Internet, 

with smartphones and feature phones coexisting 

side by side, a tricky situation for any service 

provider or developer as traditional 2G-based 

services cannot satisfy smartphone needs while 

smartphone-oriented application stores are out of 

reach for feature phones. 

Mobile Extreme, with its developing-market 

origins, understands this dilemma better than 

most, placing a high priority on meeting the needs 

of both kinds of users while still driving the market 

towards a mobile Internet focus. This is reflected 

in how the company customizes its offerings. 

For any product, multiple versions are developed 

to cater to different device categories, and more 

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Winners 

Thanks to its profitable partnership with Huawei, 

Mobile Extreme can commit to providing premium 

services to the world’s mobile Internet subscribers 

for well into the future. 

importantly, different services can interact with 

one another, bringing consumers a seamless 

experience. For example, with Color SMS, Mobile 

Extreme simultaneously launched SMS, WAP, and 

app versions to cater for both feature phones and 

smartphones. And what’s more, Voice SMS allows 

feature phone users to use voice services similar 

to WhatsApp Messenger, while Message Manager 

allows users to receive/post Tweets and Facebook 

posts via WAP, web portal, or SMS, making it 

easier for users, particularly feature phone users, to 

stay connected at all times. 

SDP support 

Leveraging Huawei’s resource integration 

prowess, Mobile Extreme quickly integrated its 

Smart Messaging platform with the former’s SDP, 

enabling easy service creation and rapid time to 

market; Mobile Extreme was able to recreate its 

Color SMS service in 12 different countries in less 

than one year. 

Chris Hwang, Mobile Extreme’s CEO, has 

stated, “Huawei SDP has helped us realize singlepoint 

access, global connection, and unified 

settlement. To be specific, global deployment can 

be realized through single-point interconnection 

thanks to SDP’s simplified and sealed API function. 

Meanwhile, through SDP’s aligned payment 

channels, we just make settlements with Huawei, 

saving us the hassle of complicated cash settlement 

with operators from different countries in different 

currencies.” 

New frontiers 

In less than three years, Mobile Extreme has 

successfully consolidated its position in Latin 

America’s VAS market, having established a viable 

cooperation model with leading operators such 

as Telefónica, America Movil, and Tigo, gaining 

competitive advantages in service innovation, 

market expansion, and localization. 

Thanks to its partnership with Huawei, Mobile 

Extreme is set to recreate its proven business model 

in even more markets. At Huawei’s Innovation and 

Transformation Summit 2012, Mobile Extreme 

inked letters of intent with operators such as XL 

and MTN. According to Hwang, operators from 

30 countries have launched or plan to launch Color 

SMS, targeting a combined market of 380 million 

users. 

Also at the summit, Mobile Extreme received a 

Best Service Partner Award from Huawei, making 

it the only VAS provider to receive this honor for 

three consecutive years. Hwang highlighted four key 

benefits for third parties when working with Huawei, 

namely its global sales networks, service re-creation, 

technical support, and vast marketing resources. 

Huawei’s global sales networks allow partnered 

service providers to reach a wider scope of operator 

clients around the world, with the vendor also 

providing a secure test environment and professional 

technical support as well. Service providers can 

utilize an operator’s far-reaching marketing channels 

through Huawei’s local resources, so that successful 

services can be recreated more easily on a global 

scale. 

Thanks to its profitable partnership with 

Huawei, Mobile Extreme can commit to providing 

premium services to the world’s mobile Internet 

subscribers for the next decade. 

39 

APR 2013

PNM 

Data center modularity 

keeps Phoenix flying high 

Phoenix New Media (PNM) managed to completely relocate its Beijing office to a new building within three months, 

thanks to a modular data center (DC) solution that conserves energy, accelerates deployment, reduces investment, and 

protects the environment, making for a solid building block in the firm’s global operations. 

By Xu Ping 

Editor: Xu Shenglan xushenglan@huawei.com 

Headquarters of ifeng.com, a Phoenix New Media property 

APR 2013 

40

Winners 

PNM can monitor the operation of IT equipment 

remotely through friendly interfaces. Thanks to the 

openness and scalability of its surveillance platform, 

PNM can better expand and develop it. 

Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG) is a 

leading global media with an integrated 

platform consisting of an Internet portal 

(www.ifeng.com), a mobile channel 

(3g.ifeng.com), and a video channel (v.ifeng. 

com), providing premium media content and 

services for the global Chinese community on a 

seamless platform that spans the Internet, wireless 

communications, and television. 

According to Alexa (a leading web metrics firm), 

ifeng.com ranked ninth in terms of daily page 

views among all websites in China in September 

2012. It also ranks among the world’s pre-eminent 

TV and print media sites such as CNN, the New 

York Times, and the BBC. 

Liu Changle, Chairman and CEO of Phoenix 

Television (PNM’s holding company), once stated 

that the development of PNM is pivotal to the 

Phoenix group as a whole, thanks to the ad revenue 

it generates. However, in the short-to-medium 

term, traditional media remains indispensable 

due to its authority and influence, so this means 

that good old-fashioned journalists are vital, and 

they need ubiquitous access to Phoenix’s databases 

and other web functionalities such as search and 

upload, making a global cloud-based information 

platform a must. 

Moving on up 

Since its 2011 listing on the New York Stock 

Exchange, PNM has been the fastest growing 

subsidiary of the Phoenix group, and this includes 

staff size and storage capacity, making office and 

equipment room expansion a must. 

The lease for PNM’s original offices in Beijing was 

set to expire on June 30, 2012, leaving only three 

months to construct its new data center (DC) in a 

different office building, a demanding task for the 

contractor. The new site was on the fourteenth and 

fifteenth floors of a typical 21-story office building, 

which made the task more complicated than it 

would be for a typical ground floor data center with 

dedicated wiring and environmental controls. The 

new data center would be 36 meters away from the 

top of the building, making the usual precision air 

conditioning arrangements (which have a 25-meter 

height difference limit for the outdoor components) 

impossible. Piping (which is not laid in straight lines) 

also proved to be an issue, as it could be no longer 

than 60 meters. Other PNM demands included: 

High scalability – The new DC had to sustain 

multi-network transmission, multiple physical 

interfaces, and flexible technology upgrade/update, 

guaranteeing smooth scaling and a protected 

investment. 

Centralized management & automation – 

Equipment management tasks will proliferate as 

PNM grows, so a comprehensive management 

and surveillance system that rapidly locates 

faults, enhances equipment room performance & 

reliability, and simplifies maintenance, was needed 

as well. 

Ecofriendliness – PNM expected the power 

usage effectiveness (PUE) value to be below the 

generally accepted cutoff level of 1.6. 

DC modularity 

41 

APR 2013

PNM’s new office building 

PNM was invited to Huawei’s Cloud 

Computing Congress in December 2011, where 

it was made aware of Huawei’s solutions and 

products. In March 2012, Huawei provided its 

Oceanstor N8300 clustered network attached 

storage system to PNM for proof-of-concept (POC) 

testing, after which the media firm’s engineers 

spoke highly of the system’s user-friendliness and 

operability, and this helped lead to PNM adopting 

Huawei’s modular DC solution (IDS2000) for its 

April 2012 relocation project. 

Modular DC (IDS2000) consists of server 

cabinets, a power distribution frame, and in-row 

precision air conditioners. Key benefits include: 

Rapid deployment – As all hardware is 

prefabricated and pre-engineered at the factory, 

onsite assembly can be done rapidly (PNM’s 

rollout was only 8 to 12 weeks, with a 50% shorter 

construction period than a conventional solution 

would entail). DC modules can also be installed 

on concrete floors or electrostatic discharge (ESD) 

floors, requiring an indoor clearance height of only 

2.8 meters. 

Flexible expansion – Thanks to the IDS2000’s 

modular components and unified interface 

standards, PNM can expand its modules at the 

level of an individual dual-rack. In addition, the 

power density of Huawei’s single cabinets can be 

upgraded smoothly from 3 to 25KW. 

High efficiency – Isolated hot and cold aisle 

containments are utilized to prevent air mixing, 

while the air conditioner layout enables on-demand 

distribution of cool air and underfloor ventilation 

ensures more precise cooling and greater energy 

efficiency. Compared with traditional DC design, 

PNM’s DC consumes about 30% less energy, and 

the real-time PUE figure (which is in fact kept 

below 1.6) can be read at all times. 

Intelligent management – The IDS2000 

features cabinet-level monitoring of energy 

consumption and fault alarm, so PNM can 

monitor the operation of mainstream vendors’ IT 

equipment remotely through friendly interfaces. 

Thanks to the openness and scalability of the 

surveillance platform, PNM can expand and 

develop the platform when necessary. 

The world is watching 

PNM boasts a substantial customer base 

and global influence. Its adoption of Huawei’s 

advanced modular DC solution not only propelled 

its swift relocation; it also has had a strong effect 

on the media industry at large in terms of DC 

construction standards. 

In this era of omnimedia content delivery, PNM 

is continuously pressured to process and analyze big 

data, expand storage capacity, and deploy other ICT 

to support business expansion, so it must always be 

at the forefront of IT deployment, which is in line 

with Huawei’s philosophy of innovation, so both 

companies jointly established an “Omnimedia Joint 

Innovation Center” in November 2012 to facilitate 

synergy between Phoenix’s robust media expertise 

with Huawei’s innovative ICT practices. In the 

long run, both companies will be able to jointly 

develop and promote new technologies, platforms, 

and applications for the world of media, steering it 

towards a favorable industry ecosystem. 

APR 2013 

42

Winners 

UC&C 

keeps Huawei on the same page 

Huawei’s footprint is as global as any, with 150,000+ employees spread across 100+ countries. This makes our own 

company as good a proving ground as any for our United Communications & Collaboration portfolio, which has been 

refined over the span of several years in house into a finely-honed and massively-scaled instrument of information and 

synchronization, ready for use by any & all large-scale enterprises looking to keep employees in sync. 

By Zhang Xuelei 

Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com 

43 

APR 2013

UC extends Huawei’s global 

presence 

A 

s of the end of 2012, Huawei’s Unified 

Communications (UC) solution, under 

the brand name of eSpace, has been 

deployed across more than 300 Huawei 

branches and partnering businesses in over 100 

countries. As of February 2013, there were over 266,000 

users worldwide, including various business partners, 

120,000 concurrent users, and 85,000 mobile client 

users. This new communication platform has enabled 

Huawei’s employees and business partners to smoothly 

communicate and collaborate worldwide in a secure 

framework. Based on “cloud+device” architecture, 

Huawei’s eSpace solution can be accessed via PC, 

smartphone, tablet, and IP phone, converging voice, 

data, and video services while enabling instant messaging, 

file transfer, desktop sharing, and conferencing that is 

both quick and easy. Huawei has refined this system 

through internal use and is now looking to ease the 

communications burdens of our customers. 

One internal element that utilizes eSpace is iTools, 

an IT application for the frontline that provides allencompassing 

upgrade and integration services from 

network infrastructure to upper-layer application and 

terminal access. Another internal accessory system, 

Huawei’s W3 web platform, functions as the personal 

employee portal that converges all electronic workflows 

and applications, facilitating communication between 

the frontline and headquarters. 

In February 2012, employees of Huawei’s Enterprise 

Business Group (BG) in Shenzhen moved to a new office 

building, equipped with an integrated communications 

system that combines UC soft client and IP telephony. 

This made for a whole new communication experience 

where phone calls are only a click away and contact 

information does not change, even if the employee in 

question has relocated to another city or another country. 

Users can view contacts’ online status and search 

for new contacts by name or employee number. 

As a call comes in, the caller’s icon, department 

information, and phone number are displayed. 

Clicking on the contact’s icon reveals more detailed 

information such as the contact’s office address and 

mobile number (if entered into the system). 

What’s more, eSpace enables conference access via 

a variety of access points. A simple click enables access 

via UC client, portal, or short message service (SMS) 

notification, and attendees can share via audio, video, 

or data, making for a conferencing solution that is 

both convenient and ecofriendly. 

In 2011 alone, the eSpace UC solution and its 

accessory elements added USD472 million in value 

in terms of benefits to Huawei’s business processes, 

improving overall global communication efficiency 

by 40%. All Huawei employees can safely access 

the company’s intranet from any terminal, anytime, 

anywhere. 

Huawei telepresence brings 

continents face to face 

In November 2009, Huawei started to build out 

an IP intranet-based telepresence system for all its 

regional sites, delivering full HD video, CD-quality 

three-channel audio, and ease of use through wireless 

touch panels and plug-and-play operation. Moreover, 

users can share encrypted data, and all mission-critical 

components are developed and produced in-house, 

with high availability and a low fault rate. 

As of the end of 2012, Huawei deployed 328 

telepresence stations for internal use, employing it for 

interviews, customer dialog, strategic discussions, and 

the like, totaling 94,700 hours of communication 

for that year. In addition to improving internal 

communications efficiency and accelerating our 

response to customers, the system reduced travel costs 

by USD150 million for 2012, when an average of 

6000 telepresence meetings were held each month. 

Huawei Contact Center: Efficient 

& considerate 

Huawei’s Contact Center (CC) solution has been 

in use internally since 2008, first being utilized for 

our travel hotline, which provides one-stop ticket 

booking, ticket issuance, and reservation management/ 

forwarding (based on our UAP3300 switch platform), 

greatly facilitating employee travel and its management. 

The system now handles an average of 60,000 calls 

and 25,000 tickets per month, serving the needs of 

over 100,000 employees for hotel booking, expense 

APR 2013 

44

Winners 

Over the course of Huawei’s rapid globalization, our UC&C solutions 

have been applied worldwide, effectively promoting collaboration 

and supporting the company’s globalization strategy. 

reimbursement, and other ancillary needs. 

Huawei’s Contact Center solution, after successful 

implementation for our internal travel, IT, and 

compensation inquiry services, was utilized by our HR 

Shared Service Centers (SSCs) to better serve internal 

and external customers and effectively promote overall 

corporate efficiency and public image. 

HR SSC leverages the latest technologies and 

integrates cloud- and web-based CC, based on our 

UAP6600 hardware platform. With our IT help and 

compensation inquiry hotlines both annexed into 

it, the system now handles all network inquiries, as 

well as enterprise resource planning (ERP), product 

data management (PDM), web applications, email, 

proxies, online security, office automation (OA), 

and other IT-related areas. As of 2012, Huawei has 

deployed 1,180 agent stations and set up 1,150 

interaction voice response (IVR) channels. 

Distance education 

As Huawei’s global footprint grows, so does our 

need for a remote training system. With Huawei’s 

global distance training platform, one lecture can reach 

thousands of trainee desktops simultaneously via our 

corporate intranet, with training content shared in real 

time. Electronic whiteboards are also available, so longtime 

trainers can use the methods they feel comfortable 

with, even in this new medium. This system was put 

into use in February 2012, and 1685 training sessions 

were carried out over the next ten months, involving 

some 64,000 participants. 

On October 13, 2012, Huawei’s supply chain 

conducted a cross-region workshop with 55 

directors from 29 countries divided into six groups, 

participating via 18 telepresence stations and 17 PC 

terminals. Communication proved smooth, drawing 

praise from the participants for its interactivity 

and general quality. They seemed particularly 

impressed that such a utility could enable a level 

of communication on par with face-to-face (with 

information transferred even faster), at such an 

affordable cost. In other words, it proved a hit. 

Intelligent recognition for 

monitoring/video surveillance 

Huawei’s video surveillance solution leverages 

advanced technologies for monitoring that is 

controllable, visible, and traceable. In May 2011, this 

solution was piloted at Huawei’s Hangzhou office (and 

is now used for customer demonstration purposes), 

spanning 137 cameras, including sixty-nine 2MP HD 

gun-type cameras and ten 3MP HD gun-type cameras 

(both used for mission-critical scenarios), as well as 

ten 1.3MP HD dome cameras for wide coverage 

monitoring and 48 analog cameras for more ordinary 

scenarios. Real-time video surveillance is carried out 

for all major office areas, and HD video surveillance 

is available for critical areas, with recorded video kept 

for a period seen appropriate for the scenario. 

Earlier deployments include video surveillance for 

our Nanjing and Beijing research institutes, which 

were implemented in 2008 and 2009, respectively. 

By October 2012, Huawei deployed a total of 18,673 

video surveillance cameras, of which 11,210 were 

connected via UC&C. 

Over the course of Huawei’s rapid globalization, 

our UC&C solutions have been applied worldwide, 

effectively promoting collaboration among all Huawei 

employees and supporting the company’s globalization 

strategy. With our UC&C success, Huawei is providing 

a valuable laboratory for realizing companywide 

communication on a massive scale. 

45 

APR 2013

APR 2013 

46

TalkTalk - Huawei

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