Supporting mobility in the RAN cloud

Michael Fitch BT 23rd October 2012

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Cloud basics
On-Demand Self-Service A consumer can provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, automatically as needed Broad Network Access Network capabilities and accessed through mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations Resource Pooling Physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. Rapid Elasticity Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released to scale rapidly with demand Pay-As-You-Go Leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service
Taken mostly from NIST definition of Cloud Computing, special publication 800-145, September 2011

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Service delivery models

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Processing, storage, networks etc. The consumer can deploy, manage and run arbitrary software, including operating systems and applications. Platform as a Service (PaaS). Consumer applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. Software as a Service (SaaS). Consumer uses the providers applications running on a cloud infrastructure. Accessible from client devices such as a web browser or a programmable interface.

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Business Relevance / Advantages

Network Virtualization
Enable Cloud paradigm (
New business models

IaaS/NaaS)

Easy service deployment High flexibility Easy scalability Optimal resource utilization Energy saving

Decentralization of processing and storage resources

Cost-reduction due to backhaul capacity savings High QoE (low delay) Access to local or location-based services
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile architecture reminder

IP Services (IMS, Internet etc)
SGi S4 S6

SGSN
Gb lu S3

MME

SAE gateway
S5 S1 S7 S2

HLR / HSS PCRF

BSC BTS
2G

RNC NodeB
3G

eNodeB
4G ?

Non3GPP
WiFi etc

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

System Architecture Evolution Policy Control and Routing Function Serving GPRS Support Node Mobility Management Entity IP Multimedia Subsystem

Mobile operators are suffering. 1/3

Difficult deployment/roll-out of new services:
IMS is still not rolled out and can only offer traditional operator services Roll-out of new Internet-like operator services (e.g. online storage, VoD) only possible through deployment of dedicated HW at central locations 3rd party services (e.g. Google caches/docs) can only be hosted in central data centers and based on special arrangements and/or custom solutions Value-added services (e.g. based on location or proximity) is very difficult due to lack of network/service integration Operators lack truly flexible(!) service deployment/delivery platforms Note: Flexibility in terms of no restrictions on protocols (e.g. SIP) or platform specific APIs, but rather on the level of Virtual Machines.

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile operators are suffering. 2/3

High CAPEX/OPEX with disproportionate RoI
Due to the explosive growth of mobile data traffic, operator network infrastructure needs to be constantly upgraded Operators are considered mere bit-pipe providers

Difficult to dimension network entities deployments

Current network entities typically serve a single-purpose Unused resources can not be made available to other services Flexible scale-up of resources/performance (e.g. processing power, memory, etc.) is lacking Operators must carefully plan and dimension current singlepurpose network entities to avoid bottlenecks and high investment for under-utilized equipment
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile operators are suffering. 3/3

Excluded from the revenue value chain of the Internet ecosystem
Operators are considered mere bit-pipe providers
3rd party Service Provider 3rd party Service Provider

API

Mobile Network Operator

service revenue

Mobile Network Operator

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Subscribers

Subscribers

Ingredients of a successful solution

Decentralization of Service Processors / Information Storage
Enables operators to offer (network) services close to user Advantages Low delay fast service experience Significant cost saving in backhaul Optimum resource utilization in the backhaul

Cloud/Virtualization Technology:
Extension of existing infrastructure for multi-purpose use Enables operators to flexibly and dynamically deploy new (network) services E.g. Network as a Service (NaaS), Internet-like operator services, 3rd party services and Telco services Enable new business models and revenue streams go beyond bit-pipe provider Facilitates more optimal resource utilization Facilitates flexible and dynamic scale-up of resources Lower investment risks

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

1st Step: Decentralized Mobile Carrier Cloud

Decentralize Mobile Cloud

Local P+S-GW Local P+S-GW Local P+S-GW

LTE LTE MobileCloud Networking

British Telecommunications plc

LTE

LTE

LTE

P + S GW = PDN Network +Serving Gateway

1st Step: Decentralized Mobile Carrier Cloud

Carriers Cloud Carrier Cloud services Decentralize server are providedCloud are provided close to Mobile closethethe user to user acceleration! acceleration!

Move Cloud Nodes close to the Radio Node (i.e. into the Backhaul NW)

Local P+S-GW Local P+S-GW

Fast service experience Local Optimal P+S-GW routing Reduction of traffic in backbone/core network

LTE LTE MobileCloud Networking

British Telecommunications plc

LTE

LTE

LTE

2nd Step: Mobile Carrier Network Cloud

Virtualize Mobile Core Nodes and Gateways (e.g. P/S-GWs, MMEs, PCRFs)

Virtual Mobile Core Nodes/Gateways

LTE LTE MobileCloud Networking

British Telecommunications plc

LTE

LTE

LTE

Mobile Carrier Network Cloud

The carrier network cloud allows for IaaS/NaaS Example services Mobile operators can run their Mobile Core Network functions as a network cloud service (e.g. SGSN, GGSN, MMEs, S-GWs) Advantages Single, integrated platform for both end-user and network services Reduced time for network functionality/service development and deployment Reduced infrastructure cost Enables new business models
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Moving the cloud edge towards the air interface

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Centralised virtualisation needs fibre to all BSs

RRH

RRH

Fibres

Datacentre

RRH

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

There is not fibre on all links.

RRH

Cloud edge
RRH

Datacentre

Fibres
RRH

Maybe fibre Maybe not

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

- There may be bandwidth restrictions on backhaul links, so what should run at the cloud edge and what in the DC ? - How big should clusters be ?

Virtualising the mobile network - how far ?

IP Services (IMS, Internet etc)

SGi S4 S6

SGSN
Gb lu S3

MME

SAE gateway
S5 S1 S7 S2

HLR / HSS PCRF

BSC BTS

RNC NodeB

eNodeB

Non3GPP

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Virtualising the mobile network - how far ?

IP Services (IMS, Internet etc)
SGi S4 S6

SGSN
Gb lu S3

MME

SAE gateway
S5 S1 S7 S2

HLR / HSS PCRF

BSC BTS

RNC NodeB

eNodeB

Non3GPP

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Virtualising the mobile network - how far ?

IP Services (IMS, Internet etc)
SGi S4 S6

SGSN
Gb lu S3

MME

SAE gateway
S5 S1 S7 S2

HLR / HSS PCRF

BSC BTS

RNC NodeB

eNodeB

Non3GPP

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

BBU, antenna processing, radio resource allocation can be moved to a cloud processor

Envisioned Mobile Cloud Architecture

Mobile data services provided by geographically distributed data centers, administrated by the same and/or different cloud providers

Distributed Cloud

Data Center 1

Data Center 2

Data Center 3

Decentralized Mobile Carrier Network, provided as a cloud service (NaaS)

Flat Mobile Network

Decentralized Evolved Packet Core

P-GW 1 S-GW 1 P-GW 2 S-GW 2 P-GW 3 S-GW 3

Consumer devices MobileCloud Networking

British Telecommunications plc

Heterogenou UEs, UEs implementing specific application logic that minimizes users intervention to receive the service

SAP 2007 /

Follow Me Cloud Concept Service Mobility

Seamless Service Migration

Distributed Cloud

Data Center 1

Data Center 2

Data Center 3

Flat Mobile Network

Access to Mobile Cloud Service

Distributed EPC
P-GW 1 S-GW 1

P-GW 2 S-GW 2

P-GW 3 S-GW 3

Service continuity

Consumer MobileCloud devices Networking

British Telecommunications plc

User Mobility

Material thanks to NEC

SAP 2007 /

IaaS Service Level Request/Negotiation (e.g. to launch of new service/virtual network/platform, increase capacity, change QoS)

Customer
(e.g. Mobile Service Provider, Virtual MN Operator)

IaaS API

Cloud Resource Manager

(sorts out the right NaaS/PaaS configuration based on customer request)

Infrastructure Provider Domain

NaaS Configuration Ex. 1 (LTEaaS) BBU BBU

NaaS Configuration Ex. 2 (EPCaaS) PGW MME SGW

PaaS Configuration Ex. 3 (FMCaaS) FMC FMC

CE-APIs

Configuration Enforcement APIs (e.g., GMPLS, OpenFlow, etc.)

Cloud Probes

Statistical Profiling Of Cloud and NW

CN CN

NW Probes

CN CN

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Research Challenges towards a Decentralized Mobile Carrier Cloud

Infrastructure / Network Virtualization Generic node/platform design for network/service cloud
What network functionality is needed? How are network functionality (native?) and virtual platform integrated?

Service deployment/control API for 3rd parties (incl. SLAs) Resource management of physical infrastructure/resources
Slicing Load balancing / concentration Real-time migration mechanisms

Energy saving Decentralization of physical cloud nodes Self-management for decentralized cloud infrastructure Self-organization/optimization for Service Placement & Migration (mobilityaware) Virtualization of mobile network functions (e.g. MME, S-GW, P-GW) Distributed Mobility Management New roaming paradigm

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Presenting MobileCloud Networking Project

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Objectives to define / evaluate / design

A cloud-based mobile network architecture to bring mobile communication and mobile cloud services to the mobile enduser. Business models that indicate commercial potential A novel virtualisation layer, general monitoring system, and general provisioning across the various domains namely Radio Access Network, Mobile Core Network, and Data Centre. A worked example mobile network (Radio Access + Mobile Core) based on 3GPP LTE/EPC. In particular, BBU-pooling, EPCaaS, and Distributed Mobility Management, will be proven. A platform for services and applications. In particular, FollowMe Cloud, Cross-Domain QoE, Rating and Charging Test beds among partners to prove above concepts Dissemination etc
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Overall MobileCloud Networking architecture

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Macro datacentres will evolve towards micro datacentres

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

MobileCloud Networking vital statistics

EC Framework 7 call 8 Integrating Project 16.2m Euro budget with 10.8m funding from EC 36 months from 1st November 2012 18 partners

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile cloud workpackages and their interactions

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Co-ordinator

Technical co-ordinator

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Advertisement

There is an upcoming "MobileCloud Networking" workshop co-located with IEEE ICC 2013 1st international Workshop on Mobile Cloud Networking (MCN 2013) June 9-13 in Budapest
http://mcn2013.unibe.ch/
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Thankyou for listening

Follow the MobileCloud Networking project at www.mobile-cloud-networking.eu
MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Spare slides

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Vision of Mobile Cloud - Unified Architecture for Mobile Cloud Infrastructure

New business models Flat Mobile Network Architectures

Cloud Controller

Billing SLA Mgt SVC Mgt

Cloud Controller Billing SLA Mgt SVC Mgt

Resource Limited, Mobile Devices

Image DB

Image DB
LT E

Internet Cloud Service Platform

Cloud Service Platform

Cloud Provider

Wi-Fi
AX

AAA

iM W

HA CDN

Personalized rich cloud services infrastructure SLA-based E2E QoE

SLA
Image DB Cloud Controller Billing SLA Mgt SVC Mgt

DM

Prosumers Mobile cloud access acceleration

End User SLA Mgt Billing CRM

Mobile Network Services

Cloud Service Platform

Mobile & Cloud Operator

Cloud Provider

MobileCloud Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile Cloud API for dynamic deployment and control of (network) services (e.g. PaaS, NaaS)

End-to-end Service on-demand Experience

SAP 2007 /

Mobile Carrier Cloud Acceleration

Cloud technology combined with decentralized deployment has the potential to greatly reduce latency for data-rich and QoS sensitive mobile Cloud Cloud services Technology Example cloud services:
Enterprise applications (e.g. Thin Client) Content delivery Application, product and MobileCloud service delivery
Networking
British Telecommunications plc

Mobile Carrier Network Decentralization

High-speed & cost-efficient

Mobile Carrier Cloud

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