Total Telecom - April 2010

Mobile operators could deploy innovative new services by using deep packet inspection technology, but the business models could still be some way off.

Deep packet inspection promises to make mobile operators smarter in how they manage fast-growing data in their networks. But the technology will likely play a more fundamental role impacting expenditure and income, particularly once the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard is widely adopted.

Industry analysts believe operators must follow the path of enabling new revenue-generating services, making the transition from flat-rate bandwidth-on-demand to tiered service offerings. Deep packet inspection (DPI) vendors claim operators already are highlighting such an interest in request-for-proposals.

“Operators are interested in services based on applications and subscriber awareness,” says Jonathon Gordon, director of marketing at DPI specialist Allot Communications. “We are seeing RFPs from operators interested in using DPI to generate revenues rather than save costs.”

Yet ask some of the operators and they shy away from such claims, stressing the challenges involved in exploiting DPI. “Most suppliers want to paint a picture of using DPI to up-sell value-added services,” says Johan Andsjö, CEO of Spanish 3G mobile operator Yoigo. “I don’t believe in that. There is a clear distinction between the operators and [DPI] providers here.”

Mark Ellis-Jones, head of data network design and planning at T-Mobile, agrees. “[DPI is] almost like UMTS: it has the technical capability, but will anyone leverage it for commercial gain?” he asks. “There is no view in achieving that any time soon.”

DPI, as the name implies, involves detailed analysis of a packet’s fields. “Shallow packet inspection provides basic information—where a packet is coming from and where it is going,” says Shira Levine, directing analyst, next-generation OSS and policy at Infonetics Research. Such packet routing activities are classed as layer 3 tasks, based on the seven-layer OSI model. In contrast, DPI involves tasks at the highest, seventh application layer. “DPI identifies what is inside the packet, providing [operators with] a wealth of information,” says Levine. For deep packet inspection, not only is packet header information looked at, but also footer, source, destination and payload information as well, with the latter used to identify applications and protocols.

“DPI is not just one-packet analysis,” says Rehan Jalil, senior vice president of mobile Internet at Tellabs. DPI requires multiple packets to be tracked that may be thousands of packets apart in the operator’s network, to identify flows and identify the protocols involved; protocols that can change dynamically. “It is all about connecting the dots,” says Jalil.

In turn, packet identification typically is followed by some form of operator intervention. YJ Kim, senior director, embedded processor group at Cavium Networks, which develops programmable processors for DPI, says examples include an operator blocking undesired peer-to-peer traffic that is guzzling network resources; or dropping packet flows due to security concerns.

In spite of its promising applications, however, DPI is still in its infancy when it comes to use by mobile operators. In 2008 the DPI market totalled US$207 million globally, according to Infonetics Research, with the bulk of deployments for wireline networks. Only in the past year have mobile deployments started, spurred by rapid growth in data traffic. Yet it is in the mobile market where the real growth is likely to come: Infonetics forecasts that by 2013 the global DPI market will be worth US$1.5 billion, with wireless accounting for 70% of that total.

Mike Coward, CTO of Continuous Computing, believes there will be two DPI adoption phases by mobile operators. Initially, DPI will be used for information gathering to determine what customers are doing and their traffic patterns. Phase two will use DPI to deliver different revenue-bearing services—for example, tiered services with gradations of bandwidth and service priority.

“Most mobile operators don’t have a good picture, for example, of what percentage [of applications] is generating the most traffic,” says Coward. “They put DPI equipment in and turn it on; they don’t manage [the traffic]. The DPI is purely to understand what is going on.”

By better understanding and managing network traffic, operators can postpone costly network upgrades. According to Bareld Meijering, head of market channels for network systems at Nokia Siemens Networks, by quantifying traffic in real-time and where it is happening, operators can reduce the degree of over-provisioning they otherwise must use to accommodate potential traffic spikes.

Prioritising traffic
But it is not all about controlling costs. Early adopter operators already are using deep packet inspection for tasks beyond just traffic management.

T-Mobile uses DPI to enhance a customer’s experience by giving priority to what it calls “conversational” real-time traffic. “To give more response to low-latency traffic such as video compared to background tasks such as file downloads,” says Ellis-Jones.

Yoigo is also prioritising real-time ahead of less critical traffic. The operator is also using DPI to meet new EU mobile roaming regulation that requires that users are warned when they have accrued a certain charge level. And it is using DPI to identify and block child abuse Web sites identified by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). “Unless you are doing URL blocking [for child protection] you are not doing anything,” says Andsjö.

DPI can also be used to tackle mounting security issues surrounding mobile handsets. Tackling malware is more difficult for mobile devices than traditional PCs, argues Jalil at Tellabs. “In the PC environment there are fewer operating systems and users are used to dealing with viruses,” he says. “With handsets there is no guarantee that they are not vulnerable, such that the network plays a central role [in ensuring handset security].”

Potentially of even greater attraction to operators, DPI can also help to enable innovative service offerings. Continuous Computing highlights how operators are planning to promote handsets tailored to social networking. Such handsets will be based on a limited data plan, but as a lure, traffic from social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace will be free. “This seems a simple use of DPI, but since there will be third party applications involved it will require very intelligent control to understand where the data is coming from,” says Coward.

“DPI has the ability to classify a subscriber’s packets based on the applications they value,” says Gary Leonard, director of marketing for Alcatel-Lucent’s IP activities. “Operators can offer plans enabling applications a user cares about.” Such custom services are one way for operators to realise revenue growth, claims Alcatel-Lucent.

Managing bandwidth
DPI can even be used to take advantage of traffic monitoring to replace or add content. “The coolest one we have come across is when a user requests a picture and [to save bandwidth] the operator replaces it with a thumbnail,” says Pierre Lynch, technical product manager, wireless core, at IP text company Ixia.

One example of added content is targeted advertising. “Such advertising is an enormous opportunity, but it also raises issues of privacy,” says Levine at Infonetics Research. BT last year abandoned plans to use Phorm’s DPI technology to provide tailored advertising to Internet users after concerns that it would breach user privacy. BT had carried out trials of the technology without informing users.

“Mobile operators know a great deal about you and could sell such information to third parties,” says Levine.

DPI proponents say one of the main reasons for adopting the technology in future will be its ability to help manage bandwidth usage. LTE offers a five-fold improvement in bandwidth, says Coward, yet mobile traffic is doubling every year. “This is why DPI is so important for operators,” he says. If operators continue with all-you-can-use packages based on a fixed monthly fee, after three years all the investment and extra bandwidth LTE delivers will be consumed.

Industry analysts also believe operators are planning to adopt tiered services, with DPI playing an integral role in the implementation. “All operators at some point will,” says Peter Jarich, principal analyst for wireless infrastructure at Current Analysis. “An all-you-can-eat [model] is not going to be viable.” Operators may be downplaying DPI partly because they are waiting to see which among them will move first, he says.

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