Mobile Virtual Network Operators, (MVNO’s) are seeking the power of policy control across one or more networks, including 3G networks, to provide their customers with consistent quality, personalized service, and the ability to roll out new services on top of the mobile network operator’s (MNO) existing offerings.

 

Torres Networks offers MVNOs a turnkey PCRF solution for managing policy, making virtual network policy control easier and more affordable than ever before. This 'policy in a box' solution provides MVNOs with a pre-configured appliance making implementation of policy control easier than ever before.

 

Todays subscribers look for more personalized service delivery. Given globalization, the demographic profile of any geography is a mix and match of cultures, people with different preferences and tastes. MVNOs play an important role in catering to these aspects in the market. Service differentiation with more personalization becomes key for MVNOs. Though, MVNOs do not own the entire network infrastructure, most MVNOs own billing systems and AAA systems to ensure proper accounting of their service providers.

 

With the advent of Policy Control, MVNOs can show much more differentiation today with new value added services, buy on the go plans, tie up with over the top application service providers, etc. MVNOs are now starting to deploy Policy Control solutions as part of their network infrastructure with integration to the MNO’s main network deployment so as to present a strong case for differentiation.

 

Knowing that MVNOs have very limited subscribers in the order of tens of thousands, a full fledged policy deployment will not be cost effective for MVNOs. Torres has identified all these key elements which are important for MVNOs and devised ‘policy in a box’ solution.

 

More than just PCRF, Torres’ 3G-MVNO solution includes a number of components that virtual network operators require to make the most of policy control. In addition to a robust Policy Control Server, the appliance contains a core Rating & Charging Engine, and Subscriber Database. Web portals for both operators and subscribers also come standard.

MVNOs can quickly and easily start utilizing powerful policy control use-cases to monetize services, provide excellent quality of service, and offer personalized services and messaging to subscribers.

 

Technical Specifications

Hardware

Server Type	IBM X3650 or Sun Netra 65xx series or any other server with Intel x86 CPU architecture
Processor	Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.33 GHz or higher
RAM	8 GB, DDR2
HDD	320 GB SATA

Software

• OS: RHEL 4 + Or Any Linux Server Edition
• DB: Oracle 10g OR MySQL 5.1
• Number of Users Supported: 20,000
• Transaction rate: 1,00,000 transactions per minute

 

Fair use of bandwidth

Subscribers use their broadband networks to not only download data, but also watch movies, play games, do video downloads, share files and extensively use social networking sites. This has an impact on the network bandwidth usage with HTTP traffic being predominant. Operators have to balance between providing bandwidth to their users for internet access, provide equal opportunity to all their subscribers and ensure that revenue generating services are prioritized and guaranteed bandwidth. Torres Policy Control helps operators make fair use of their bandwidth. Traffic prioritization and bandwidth management policies can be enforced in an intelligent manner that would control the internet access while ensuring QoS of critical services. The solution enables the operator to keep its subscribers well informed and in control of the policies being applied to their traffic.

 

QoS for VoIP

Rollout of VoIP service gives Telecom Operators an existing large subscriber base. To ensure uptake, VoIP QoS should be comparable to circuit switched voice. Torres Policy Control solution prioritizes VoIP traffic and guaranteed bandwidth resulting in enhanced and predictable QoE. The solution also enables the VoIP traffic to be metered and differential charging applied.

 

Maximize Revenues

Torres solution monitors application sessions and generates accounting triggers. CDRs are created using these notifications and application specific rating plans are applied on them. When integrated with third party billing systems, the operators can now charge the customers based on applications invoked rather than plain vanilla bandwidth based billing prevalent now. Subscribers use more of internet for gaming, video watching, movie downloads, social networking and file sharing. Each of these require different kind of browsing experience. While a 1 mbps connection is good for emails, even a 5mbps connection does not guarantee a good movie experience. So, different services require different level of QoS. Each of this require specialized packages to suit the subscribers needs.

 

Reduce Costs

To achieve overall efficiency, the operator requires a holistic view of the network in terms of services as well as subscribers. The Torres solution helps in network monitoring and provides visibility through near-real time as well as historic reports. Analysis of these reports enables the operator to set policies for efficient network resource usage and ensures optimal usage of the network usage. This helps in reducing costs of network operations and deployment.

 

Minimize Churn

Torres Policy Control enables the operator to define user specific policies that control the QoS and QoE. The solution identifies subscribers as well as application flows and associates the two. A personalized billing cycle, a personalized data plan with a knob to toggle parental control, or a more personalized gaming plan will all help operators meet various expectation of a new age subscriber. Torres solutions help roll out various use cases and services that helps personalize services and hence to minimize churn.