Moving beyond Ethernet in Asia
I recently presented in an APAC Light Reading webinar – "Convergence Towards Carrier Ethernet", and shared some thoughts on building new services on top of current Ethernet-based infrastructures.
These ideas include, but are not limited to, content delivery in Long Term Evolution / Evolved Packet Core (LTE EPC) wholesale and Software as a Service (SaaS) over Ethernet Virtual Private Network (VPN).
In my presentation, I focused on adding innovative new services beyond Ethernet. The results of two poll questions during the webinar show that a majority of the audience "somewhat agree" with question A. Question B indicates that most people believe that – in the next 12 months – bandwidth, pipe-based, wholesale mobile backhaul will offer the best opportunities for growing incremental revenue.
| A. In many cases, the smarts' needed
to deliver advanced applications are already embedded in CE service provider networks. |
B. Over the next 12 months, which of these customer segments offers the best opportunities for growing incremental revenue? |
| Strongly agree 16.3% | Bandwidth pipe-based wholesale mobile backhaul 37.8% |
| Somewhat agree 51% | Value-added service wholesale mobile backhaul 20% |
| Don't know 20.4% | Bandwidth pipe-based Enterprise VPN (P2P & MP2MP) 22.2% |
| Somewhat disagree 8.2% | Infrastructure/software-as-a-service with VPN 8.9% |
| Strongly disagree 4.1% | Over-the-top application guarantee service with VPN 11.1% |
Comments on question A
For networks to support "smarts" based application aware services, the network must:
- derive application knowledge,
- check against policy decisions,
- classify and separate application flows, and,
- apply policy-based treatments on application flows.
While some Ethernet networks can perform these functions, I believe most deployed Ethernet infrastructures do not POSSESS the "smarts" for advanced application-based service support. Even in developed markets, networks require some degree of infrastructure upgrade or enhancement to support such advanced services effectively.
Comments on question B
I disagree with the poll results. Not many service providers in Asia sell mobile backhaul services, since most mobile operators here are also fixed-line, full-service providers. Pure mobile operators accustomed to leasing TDM backhaul are now switching to leasing Ethernet backhaul. But doing it this way actually generates less revenue for wholesale providers. Pipe-based Ethernet backhaul helps mobile operators save costs, but may not open new revenue opportunities for wholesale providers. Hence, I suggest that the added value in pipe-based Ethernet backhaul is the ability to grow new revenue streams.
Webinar audience demographics can also color the poll response (i.e., percentage mix from developed markets vs. developing markets). From this exercise, I realize that it is not easy to generate accurate industry data, statistics, reports and analysis. That's why it's important for those of us working in the industry to add our own observations and expectations to analyst reports and polls. The ongoing dialogue helps the industry evolve to meet changing needs.
Do you agree with the webinar poll results?
