FutureWorks

Nokia White paper

Technology Vision 2020
May 2014

Technology Vision 2020

Personalizing the
Network Experience

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CONTENTS

Executive summary

Why personalizing the network experience matters 4

Optimize network, experience and business
simultaneously

Use cases

Use case predictive performance

Use case real time customer care

Use case applications performance

Use case value based Quality of Experience

10

Driving actions at the speed of the user

11

Signaling data tell us much about the user status

12

Turning vast amounts of data into immediate

business value

13

Telco scale big data technology

14

Conclusion

15

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Executive summary
Ask a typical mobile broadband operator what their key optimization
problem is from a business perspective and they may well answer:
How do I provide the best experience for my subscribers, while at the
same time utilizing my limited network resources well and maximizing
my revenues?
In reality, todays networks are mostly a case of one size fits all.
Exponential traffic growth is not matched by revenue growth. High
average revenue per user (ARPU) subscribers churn due to poor
network experience. All traffic, whether high or low value, is treated
equally. Unfortunately, such mismatches are likely to worsen as many
more applications, devices and sensors become available.
By Personalizing the Network Experience many operators can solve
their major optimization problem - aligning resources, revenues
and experience. To do this, a telco-scale system is vital to enable all
signaling data across the network to be captured in real-time, and
then correlated with customer and business data to allow immediate
action. Such an approach would enable the network to accurately
predict what will happen next and then act on these predictions, even
down to the level of an individual connection. In practical terms, the
system would, among other things, be able to:
Automate and correct in real time any faults that are degrading
services for subscribers
Ensure a consistent video experience by using predictions for a high
value user traveling a specific route
Dynamically adapt the network to sudden changes in use
Dynamically alter policy and radio settings according to user value
and network load
Analyzing the colossal amount of raw network data and turning it
into immediate business value can only be achieved with big data
technologies applied to telco environments and enhanced by machine
learning and machine reasoning . Nokia is running several innovation
projects to realize the personalized network experience. For example,
a FutureWorks innovation project, overcomes the most critical
challenge of telco big data - scaling up processing capacity in line with
the growing volume of data. The project uses parallel computing and
a virtualized architecture to handle massive volumes of telco big data
in real time, with no theoretical capacity limit. It has already processed
one million messages per second, reflecting the peak hour data
volume of a real 3G network with 10 million subscribers.

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Technology Vision 2020

Technology Vision 2020 focuses on enabling mobile broadband networks to profitably deliver
1 gigabyte of personalized data per user per day by 2020. Technology Vision 2020 comprises
six technology pillars:
Enabling 1000 times more capacity to meet accelerating data demand in traffic hot spots
Reducing latency to milliseconds to prepare for the applications of the future
Teaching networks to be self-aware and simplify network management by extreme automation
Personalizing network experience to enable the business models of the future
Reinventing telco for the cloud to create on-demand networks that are agile and scalable
Flattening total energy consumption despite accelerated traffic growth

Why personalizing the network

experience matters
Network resources, revenue and customer experience need to
be balanced in order to deliver data profitably to subscribers.
Personalizing the network experience is vital to achieve this.
Some fundamental changes in the market are encouraging operators
to adopt a personalized network experience approach.
The first is the increasing competition for scarce network resources
by different data streams. Rapid growth of mobile broadband will lead
to a 1000-fold increase in traffic within ten years. This growth will be
accompanied by more diverse requirements driven by the changes in
devices, throughput and performance needs. The pressure on network
resources will explode as billions of subscribers demand high quality
network performance and millions of different applications become
available. Personalization can help to allocate network resources in the
best way.
Secondly, the investment needed to build the capacity required for
exponential traffic growth is not matched by increasing revenues.
Although the overall mobile communications market (including
operator services, applications, advertizing, content, devices and
infrastructure) is predicted to grow by 2020, network operators will
face increasing pressure on their overall share of the market (Source:
GSMA: VISION 2020). Personalization will help operators to gain the
largest possible share of the overall global mobile communications
market.

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Furthermore, network quality is increasingly important as a

competitive factor. Nokias global Acquisition and Retention study
reveals that network and service quality are responsible for 30 to
40% of customer loyalty, and are becoming increasingly important.
In particular, high ARPU customers will switch operator if they feel
they are getting inadequate quality. Personalization can reduce
churn by matching user value and expectations with network and
service quality.
Operators typically seek to provide the best customer experience,
ensure network resources are well utilized and maximize revenues
- all at the same time. In reality, networks are mostly one size
fits all, where the exponential growth of traffic is not adequately
monetized, where high ARPU customers churn due to poor network
quality and where both high and low value traffic are treated with
the same priority.

Customer
Experience

Differentiate
the customers

Differentiate
the offering

Personalize
network
experience

Network
resources

Revenue

Differentiate the traffic

Fig. 1: Aligning resources, revenues and experience to increase

operator profitability
Personalizing the network experience provides a new way to
differentiate customers, traffic and the delivered services in order
to solve the key optimization problem.

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Optimize network, experience and

business simultaneously
Network elements, devices, applications, users and revenues generate
massive amounts of data every second. By using these data sources
to support their decision-making and action-taking, operators
can optimize network performance, business goals and customer
experience simultaneously.
In January 2014, Nokia launched Teaching Networks to be SelfAware as part of its Technology Vision 2020. This encompassed
a cognitive networks approach with automation, self-optimization,
predictive operations, network coordination and decision support all
working to improve network quality and productivity.
Personalizing the Network Experience is the next step in this
cognitive networks approach and allows decisions previously taken
by humans to be performed at machine speeds and scales. Machine
learning and machine reasoning enables real-time optimization based
on customer experience management and business guidelines.
The approach entails processing massive amounts of data from
metrics, then analyzing the results to develop insights. This enables
the operator to differentiate the network traffic, the customer and the
offering to customers. Additionally, business guidelines are developed
to govern the real-time implementation of customer experience
management in the network.

Personalize
network experience
Differentiate
the customers

Customer
Experience

Personalize
network
experience

Network
resources

Guidelines

Business
Differentiate
the offering

Revenue

Management

Experience

Differentiate the traffic

Teach networks to
be self-aware

Network

Optimization

Self-management

Networks

Devices

Metrics

Applications

Insight

Ins ight

Metrics

Metrics

Users

Revenue

Fig. 2: Optimize network, experience and business simultaneously - leveraging data and machine
intelligence technologies

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To illustrate these possibilities, the next section describes some

use cases, in which cognitive network techniques overcome specific
business challenges and produce a better experience for the
subscriber.

Use cases - predictive performance

A subscriber pays for high quality service to be able to listen to
SpotifyTM music streaming while traveling. While delivering this
higher service package to enable the subscriber to enjoy a consistent
quality of experience (QoE), the operator must also avoid service
deterioration for best effort subscribers in the face of limited network
resources that create cell congestion in the area.
Business guidelines: allocate scarce network resources while
minimizing the impact on the experience of all users
User: heavy user of audio streaming - listens to Spotify five hours a
day, particularly when traveling to work in the morning
Network: normally good but known to have a few cell sites that can
become congested

User perspective

8:15 am
Predicted cell
congestion

8:20
95%

8:25
85%

8:30
70%

Fig. 3: Predictive performance for

services like Spotify

The operator collects data on the network and user behavior for
a period of time. The network realizes that the subscriber uses
music streaming along the same route at about the same time
each day. The operator can even predict when cell congestion will
happen, based on long term measurements from network prediction
algorithms.
One particular morning, foul weather is forecast which will lead to
heavy congestion along the route. From immediate monitoring,
the network can see the high value user, subscribed to a streaming
service, is traveling through the area and streaming music.
The network sets a higher session priority for the user and reduces
the scheduling frequency of subscribers using interactive, but delaytolerant, services like Facebook and Twitter.
The user is able to pass through the congested area with break-free
music playing at the same quality as always. Meanwhile, other users
notice no change in their service since only delay-tolerant services for
budget users were scheduled less frequently.
Long term data gathering allows networks to accurately predict
network performance down to the cell level which, when combined
with information on user behavior and subscribed service levels,
allows the operator to sell and deliver higher service packages
customized to users needs. The high value user gets whats been
paid for - a consistent streaming performance - while the operator
is able to efficiently schedule other users in a way that doesnt affect
their quality of service.

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Use case real time customer care

A potential new revenue stream for operators is to offer higher
level SLAs to corporations or high value users by monitoring user
connections. This requires real-time customer care and is achieved
by enabling the network to detect faults, even those affecting just
a single user, and automatically correcting them before users call to
complain.

User perspective

Session drops

Business guidelines: maintain Service Level Agreement (SLA) Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs) for corporate users
User: high value user based on a corporate SLA with the operator
Network: monitoring all calls in the network with triggers based on
QoE issues of high value users
A corporate user is experiencing session drops while traveling along a
particular route.
The corporations SLA calls for a real-time trigger with session
information to be generated for analysis. Since the network is
monitoring all calls, the QoE of other users in this area, as well as
network KPIs are analyzed to discover whether the session drop is
specific to the area, cell or radio frequency (RF) carrier, or to the user,
application or device, or other fault.

Corrected

Quality monitoring of
all network sessions

Fig. 4: Real time customer care

After analysis against multiple data sources, the network determines

that the packet connection is experiencing hangs and instructs the
packet core to reset the connection and reconnect to fix the problem.
Using multiple data sources or crowd sourcing helps to determine
that the problem is user specific, eliminating other possible causes
and speeding up the resolution of the problem.
The SLA for the corporate user is maintained by spotting problems
quickly using network data and solving them before other customers
have cause to complain.

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Use case application performance

User perspective

Sudden changes in traffic patterns can be created by shifts in the

popularity of Internet content, such as viral videos. Operators need
to ensure that the network continues to deliver a good experience to
users despite these rapidly changing events (a video today can go viral
within 24 hours).
Business guidelines: maintain video quality for all users by reducing
speeds, if necessary, to avoid stalling
User: high value user and budget users stream the same YouTube
video

High Value

Budget

Network: monitoring all sessions and optimizing for video buffer

depletion and congestion per subscriber segment
Users start to watch a suddenly popular YouTube video, which has
taken off in the last days. An operator is concerned about video
performance because this is a key competitive differentiator for its
network.

Fig. 5: Application performance

for services like YouTube

Data from the network shows that a users video session, which
started well, is being degraded by video buffer starvation. The
operator needs to know whether this is because the user is in a
bad coverage area, whether there are YouTube server issues due to
sudden demand, or whether there is cell congestion or a network
fault.
Data from several sources is analyzed - around the user at the cell
level, compared to other users watching the same video, and YouTube
network throughput, to determine the severity of the problem.
Actions need to be taken quickly since YouTube videos are relatively
short, on average around 3-4 minutes, stalling of video being far more
disturbing for a user than lower quality.
Network analysis shows that this is a congestion issue in the cell and
since the operator has adopted a business rule to always have good
quality for video as a differentiator, the network enforces hard limits
for minimum acceptable video data rates in that cell. In addition,
delay-tolerant services are scheduled less often to give preference to
video over best effort services. This ensures all users can watch the
viral video without stalling.
The ability to make these kinds of experience optimizations comes
from insights into network performance, application performance and
usage, guided by business logic.

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Use case value-based Quality

of Experience

User perspective
Aggregated traffic 3G/LTE cell
Morning
Afternoon

An operator wants to provide different QoE levels for users based on

their value, even while cell level traffic changes.
Business guidelines: match differentiated offering with service
quality while optimizing the use of all network resources
User: high-value user of video streaming, budget user of social
media
Network: cell with both LTE and 3G experiences morning and
afternoon congestion
User A is high value, consuming high bandwidth services like video,
particularly in the morning and evening while watching financial news
on a smartphone. User B is a budget user who enjoys social media
apps throughout the day.
Network traffic in the cell varies greatly, with congestion peaks in the
early morning and late afternoon and a mid-afternoon lull.

Busy hour fluctuations

Sample per user traffic in cell

User A
User B

Fig. 6: Value based Quality of

Experience

The operator faces the challenge of handling the different users

QoE needs as traffic peaks and dips in the cell throughout the day.
The operator must optimize network capacity and quality across the
heterogeneous layers to minimize CAPEX and OPEX, while continuing
to meet demand.
During congestion, the network will automatically alter the policy and
radio settings for all users, matching demand and quality according
to user value. The high value user stays on LTE but the maximum
data rate is capped during congestion and uncapped in non-busy
hours. Meanwhile, the budget user stays on uncongested LTE cells
and is handed onto 3G when the LTE cell becomes congested.
Handovers between LTE and 3G are based on the value of the user
and the application being used versus the available capacity of
the cell. Instead of blindly making handovers or changing schedule
parameters, the network can intelligently make QoE decisions to
account for the value of the user, application type used, and the
ability to support services as cell load varies throughout the day.

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Driving actions at the speed of the user

All the use cases discussed in the previous section are time
dependent, allowing rapid action to be taken to ensure users get
a personalized level of service. Nokia envisions that networks will
drive actions at the speed of the user, where network elements are
supporting user actions instantaneously. For example, instant actions
happen in the present or now which would be network attaches,
handovers, etc. from milliseconds to seconds to support reflexive
activities.
For periods of more than about 15 minutes, operators need to
know how to predict future needs. Having an ultimate knowledge of
network and subscriber behavior allows the use of predictive models
to fix network problems. They can even be used to predict user
behavior and adjust the network to serve a user before they arrive in a
congested area, as in the streaming audio example.
Finally, between these two extremes is the middle time space for
dynamic adaption, covering actions from seconds to minutes, a period
where three of the use cases are placed.
This is the new sweet spot for moving the network to the speed of
the users, allowing it to make immediate changes to personalize the
network experience for the user in a real and tangible way.

Predictive
performance
based user habits

Customer Care
Value based QoE
Application
performance

> 15 minutes

minutes

Immediate
Dynamic adaptation

seconds

NOW

Instant
NW reflex

Fig. 7: Driving actions at the speed of the user

The speed of action over wireless has progressed from weeks and
hours and even to half an hour with the possibility of a quarter of
an hour time period. However, the hurdles to making adaptations in
times below 15 minutes, as in our use cases, requires an appreciation
of the enormous amounts of data a wireless network produces.

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Signaling data tell us much about the

user status
Telecom networks generate not just big data, but colossal amounts of
data every second. To put this into some perspective:
The Visa credit card network hits bursts of 18,000 transactions/sec
during peak shopping times such as Christmas
Twitter had a peak in 2013 when it was processing 143,000 tweets/
sec from 250 million users
Whatsapp performs around 578,000 transactions per second for
450 million active users
A wireless network for a country of 10 million people produces an
astounding one million transactions per second
Every time a subscribers device interacts with the network, signaling
data points are generated. Each user generates a unique footprint
in the network, and through their combined activities, these users
produce large volumes of data every second. Taking the entire
subscriber base and network into account this adds up to a large
volume and variety of data produced every second. Networks must
check the data for the accuracy of what is happening, in order to
enforce polices. To handle the immediate time and adapt to users
actions as they occur, operators need to solve the big data problem.
To be clear, big data in our context is not about the private messages
and contents of the subscribers.

Wireless network

Verified for
accuracy

1,000,000

Every second in
real-time

Transactions per second

Music most
popular in the
mornings

Massive
network data
WhatsApp*

Unique
footprint

578,000

QoE equals
user policy

Twitter*

Video quality
links to
coverage

143,000
Visa*
18,500

Data

Variety

Volume

Velocity

Veracity

Fig. 8: In telco data is not big its colossal and most of it is real-time

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Turning vast amounts of data into

immediate business value
Nokia advocates the use of big data and analytics to translate the
volume, variety, velocity and veracity of big data into business value.
It all starts with the network signaling data to support a users actions.
The challenge is to build a system which can extract, expose and
analyze the data stream.
1. To extract the signaling data, it first needs to be normalized into a
format across all the different network elements
2. Then the data needs to be decoded and enriched to bring out
events and counters
3. Using a real-time database or direct interface, the data is
exposed to external apps using open interfaces, which support
customization and continuous queries
4. Finally, the network uses pattern detection, insight creation and
machine learning technologies to analyze and create actions.
This is an easy problem to solve for one user, 100 users or even 1,000
users, but to do this for every user in real-time at a rate of a million
or more transactions per second, requires wholly new methods.
The biggest problems start at the collection of data, where queue
management must be simplified. Next, the use of cloud technology
enables computing on demand as well as massive parallel processing
of all the data streams. Finally, the system needs to be protected
against data loss and faults in order to handle data at the extreme
level of reliability demanded by telcos.
Building a telco scale data engine that can handle the variety, volume
and velocity of data is not a simple engineering problem. It requires
the application of novel ideas and methods.

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Telco scale big data technology

The challenge lies in the performance of the big data technology and
its combination with analytics and automation. The design of Nokias
real-time time data processing engine innovation project overcomes
the most critical challenge of telco big data, which is to scale up
processing capacity linearly as the volume of big data grows.
Nokia has been able to implement a system that resolves the
bottlenecks, allowing the engine to handle massive volumes of telco
big data in real time, and grow with the data volumes with a proven
linear scalability.
Nokia has tested its real-time data processing engine to one million
transactions per second, which meets its telco scale goals. The latest
development is a field test phase in live customer environments. This
engine can scale to even higher loads and Nokia will keep pushing its
capabilities through operator collaboration.

Scaling processing capacity with growing big data volume

Performance
Tested up to 1 M transactions/sec

Proven linear
scalability
Parallel computing and
virtualized architecture

> Live customer network

testing ongoing
> Innovation cooperation
with big data technology
leaders
> Built in multi-vendor
capability

Personalize the network

experience
Compute power

Fig. 9: Meeting the operational requirements to process telco big data

Nokia combines high performance big data capabilities with analytics
and automated action to allow dynamic QoE management. This means
that the QoE of end users can be automatically optimized on the fly,
according to insights about the network, the session and the user.
Nokia is already offering leading Customer Experience Management
(CEM) and Self-Organizing Networks (SON) portfolios and as these
innovations mature they will continue to allow faster, more intelligent
decision making.

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Conclusion
Nokia believes that with Personalizing the Network Experience,
operators will be able to align data traffic growth, revenues and
customer experience by changing from a conventional network
model to actions at the speed of the user for profitable delivery.
Personalizing the Network Experience is the fundamental approach to
increase operator profitability:
1. Exponential growth of data traffic can better be monetized by
differentiation of traffic, users and offerings.
2. Churn of high ARPU customers can be lowered as network and
service experience accounts for 30 to 40% of the loyalty of
mobile users.
3. Different traffic streams can be better handled according to their
individual requirements. This will become ever more important
as the variety of different traffic patterns increases with new
applications such as machine-to-machine and HD video services.
Personalizing the Network Experience can be summarized as the nexus
between network automation, CEM and predictive analytics.
Nokia is putting all these building blocks in place to create a
personalization solution with cognitive networks to solve operator
challenges and eliminate the one size fits all network model.
The data in the network is immense, rich and can unlock business
value if processed for dynamic adaptation to user needs in less than
15 minutes or in timescales longer than 15 minutes for long term
predictions.
Cognitive networks can be made a reality, as Nokia has solved one
of the biggest hurdles for exposing the data. This technique is being
used by more than ten innovation projects which Nokia is working on
with operators. With its Technology Vision 2020, Nokia will continue
to develop the technology enablers for Personalizing the Network
Experience, which is good for delighting the user but even more
essential for the future of mobile operators.

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Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks
or trade names of their respective owners.
Nokia
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-00985-WP-201405-1-EN
Nokia 2014.

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