aepona white paper naas mcc feb 2010

8/2/2019 Aepona White Paper NaaS MCC Feb 2010

1/20

AEPONA LTD Page 1 FEBRUARY 2010

Network as a Service

And

Mobile Cloud Computing

WHITE PAPER


2/20


Copyright

February 2010

Aepona Limit ed,

Interpoint Building,

20-24 York Street,

Belfast BT15 1AQ,

N. Ireland.

All rights reserved. This document or any part thereof may not , wit hout t he writ ten consent of

Aepona Limited, be copied, reprinted or reproduced in any material form including but notlimited to photocopying, transcribing, transmitting or storing it in any medium or translating it

into any language, in any form or by any means, be it electronic, mechanical, xerographic,

optical, magnetic or otherwise.

The informat ion contained in this document is proprietary and confident ial and all copyright,

trademarks, trade names, patents and other intellectual property rights in the documentationare the exclusive property of Aepona Limit ed unless otherwise specif ied. The information

(including but not limited to data, drawings, specification, documentation, software listings,source or object code) shall not at any time be disclosed directly or indirect ly t o any third part y

wit hout Aepona Limiteds prior wri t ten consent.

The information contained herein is believed to be accurate and reliable. Aepona Limit ed

accepts no responsibi li ty for its use by any means or in any way whatsoever. Aepona Limi ted

shall not be liable for any expenses, costs by damage that may result from the use of the

informat ion contained wit hin this document. The information contained herein is subject tochange wit hout notice.


3/20


WHITE PAPER

NETWORK AS A SERVICE AND MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING

As more and more mobile operators embrace the Telco 2.0 model and provide

open network APIs to enable the Network as a Service (NaaS) business model, it

becomes increasingly necessary to provide cross-network single points of access

for Application Service Providers, for both commercial and technical interaction

with mult iple operators. Mobile Cloud Computing , provided by Cross Network

Service Providers (CNSPs), represents a significant business opportunity for

CNSPs, Application Service Providers and mobile operators alike.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4

2. Network as a Service .......................................................................................................... 6

3. Mobile Cloud Computing ................................................................................................... 9

4. Mobile Cloud Business Model ....................................................................................... 114.1. An Example ................................................................................................................................ 12

5. Industry Initiative GSMA OneAPI ............................................................................. 146. Implementing Mobile Cloud Computing .................................................................. 16

6.1. Standardised Interfaces ........................................................................................................ 166.2. Platforms and Architectural Requirement ..................................................................... 16

6.2.1. Cross-Operator Abstraction and Routing .............................................................................. 166.2.2. Privacy Management ...................................................................................................................... 166.2.3. Payments and Settlement ................... ................... .................... .................... .................... ........... 176.2.4. ASP Support ....................................................................................................................................... 176.2.5. Reliability, Availability and Maintainability.......................................................................... 176.2.6. Scalability ............................................................................................................................................ 17

7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 19


4/20


1. Introduction

One of the most excit ing and potent iall y profi table developments in computing and the Internetis the emergence of Cloud Computing . Wit h their valuable communicati ons assets and massivesubscriber base, the global (mobile) telecom network can tap this market and provide valuable,

revenue generating cloud computing capabilities in the form of Network as a Service (NaaS).

Cloud computing is essentially the evolution of computing in which processing and data storage

move away from desktop and laptop computers and back int o large data cent res. Cloud Servicesare applications, products, and services that take advantage of Cloud Computing by hosting the

primary processing or data storage in t he Cloud and making them available, on demand. Cloud

Services require real-t ime access to the Internet , interworking with low footprint applicat ions onusers devices (such as browsers, email cl ients, widgets, etc). The high access bandwidth that is

now available within both wireline and wireless domains is one of the key enablers driving the

adoption of Cloud Computing across many industry sectors.

As well as well-known, ubiquitous applications such as web mail and video streaming, manycompanies have launched Cloud Computing services in the form of cloud based soft ware and/ or

platforms. Referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS), or Platform as a Service (PaaS),

examples include:

Salesforce.com Provides cent ral ised sales force and Customer Relationship

Management SaaS, as well as providing a CRM oriented platformfor 3rd parties to develop and run their own services andapplications or to extend or customize the base CRM capabilities

Google Provides APIs towards a variety of its services (e.g. Google maps).Most involve some commercial relationship with the 3rd party

Amazon Offers powerful APIs and host ing facil it ies to it s merchants

Facebook Facebook and other social network sit es off er APIs for extending

the service. Typically, t hese are used by 3rd parties to provideservices, chargeable to individual users

The APIs provided by the SaaS/ PaaS providers are used by enterpr ises or 3rd party ApplicationService Providers (ASPs). The latter provide services to their users, whom they may or may not

charge (the services may, for example, be advert ising funded). A generalised view of t hese

relationships is shown on the following diagram:

Cloud Comput ing Main Players


5/20


There are many business models in the general Cloud Comput ing model and the business modelsfor paying or part paying for services (i f not advert ising funded). However a generic business

model for Cloud Comput ing can be characterised as follows:

SaaS providers provide software services to users on demand- sometimes charging their users (t ypicall y if t hey are enterpri ses)

PaaS providers provide plat forms and APIs on which 3rd part ies (enterprises orASPs) can develop their own applications and services

- charges may or may not apply depending on the business arrangementsbetween the parties

ASPs provides services to their users- and may charge for the services

Telecom operators are sitting on a huge gold mine in the form of their powerful

telecommunicat ions resources and massive subscriber bases. By opening APIs to access and

control these resources and allowing payments to be made through end-users accounts,operators can extend their Network as a Service capabilities into the Cloud Computing domain,

enhancing existing services and enabling new ones, thus generating a valuable addition to theirown revenue streams.

In the mobile domain, mobile devices have become indispensable tools for consumersworldwide. Due to t he publicit y and ensuing success of t he iPhone and simi lar smart -phones,

increasing numbers of subscribers are becoming aware of the growing practical uses of themobile phone beyond communicat ions. Mobile Internet use is growing rapidl y and smart -phone

sales are on the increase despit e the global recession. However these devices are st il l very

limit ed in power and real estate. Mobile Cloud Comput ing is the obvious answer, where thedevice provides the access, user interface and local capabilities, while the core service is

provided on demand in t he cloud .

Network as a Service and the associated Telco 2.0 business model, is being adopted by many

individual operators. However, currently, t here is a lot of fragmentation, l imit ed number ofcapabil it ies, and a lack of cross-operator int er-operabil it y. Mobile Cloud Comput ing has a huge

potential , but it requires on-demand access to NaaS services (network and payments resources)

across multiple operators.

This paper examines NaaS in the mobile cloud, its enormous potential and benefits to operators

and application service providers alike. It discusses the solut ion requirements along with therole played by industry bodies such as GSMA, whose OneAPI initiative aims to provide an

indust ry-wide commercial and technical f ramework for Network as a Service and Mobile Cloud

Computing.


6/20


2. Network as a Service

Telecom operators (Telcos) are recognizing t he so-called Telco 2.0 business model and adoptingthe idea of t he Network as a Service (NaaS) in t he same way that the soft ware market i sevolving into the Software as a Servi ce (SaaS) approach. With the NaaS model, Telcos treat

their key network assets communications, information and intelligence, and a billable customerbase as marketable resources that can be offered to third parties on a commercial basis.

The Telco 2. 0 Two-Sided Business Model

NaaS is fundamentally a coll aborat ive model, under which application service providers andTelcos cont ribute t heir unique capabil it ies to t he creat ion of compell ing composit e applicat ions

or mash-ups that can be highly targeted towards thousands of niche markets. Since this typeof collaboration has been common in the Internet for many years, NaaS is the extension of awell-proven model into the telecoms arena.

At its simplest, NaaS involves the Telco opening network and payments APIs to ASPs, enterprisesand merchants, supported by an appropriate management and business infrastructure.

NaaS - Net work as a Service


7/20


In technology terms, NaaS follows exactly the same principles as Web 2.0 in that the Telco isfollowing the Webco model of exposing its capabilities through a set of APIs to the broadest

possible communit y of developers. These APIs can be presented eit her as SOAP-based Web

Services, or the simpler REST interfaces that are ext remely popular amongst web developers. Ineither case, developers can use familiar programming techniques, as well as their existing tools,

to integrate telecom capabilities into their applications, without having to learn and implementarcane t elecoms protocols such as SMPP or ISUP.

A true Network as a Servicestrategy must encompass the management of Service Level

Agreements (SLAs), including policy management, an online port al providing web-based partnerregistration and self-care, automated provisioning capabilities to speed up the partner on-

boarding process, and comprehensive tools and resources to help partners develop and launchtheir applications in the shortest t ime possible. The NaaS vision is part ly about att ract ing many

hundreds, perhaps thousands of partners, reaching the Long Tail of niche markets andconsumers that Telcos have traditionally found difficult to service due to the relatively low

revenues generated per customer compared with the cost of acquisit ion and management. Thirdparty management with rapid and efficient sign-up and ongoing management both technicallyand commercially is crucial to a successful NaaS platform.

Perhaps most important of all, a NaaS platform needs to support payments and settlementservices and associated business infrastructure, which allow ASPs and merchants to charge their

customers through their accounts with an operator. Known as Bil l on Behalf of (BoBo), t hesepayment and sett lement services are very valuable to both ASPs and operators alike.

For ASPs it provides a way of gett ing paid for their services, without t he needfor their own, complex financial instruments

For operators, it provides a valuable revenue source in the form of both

commission (revenue share) on the payments transactions, and charging 3rdpart ies for the use of t heir network resources

The business cases for operators adopting the Telco 2.0 business model and opening APIs to their Network as a Service and off ering payments services is compell ing. Nevertheless, they cannot

tap the whole market . The Telco-specif ic walled garden service business model is no longerviable for mass-market services, which is where the real potential of NaaS li es. Whilst

exclusivi ty can be effective for high value services, it does not work in the mass market. In this

context, it is worth noting that Apple could hold out for exclusivity for a relatively short time,but even it is now succumbing, recognizing, perhaps, that the bigger t he cake, t he more for

everyone .

From an ASP s perspective, the main chall enge to the eff ective use of NaaS is the fragmentat ion(technical and commercial) and t he lack of cross-operator inter-working for certain services,such as payments, l ocat ion, or any subscriber information services. Telcos offer dif ferent APIs,

multiple business relationships need to be established, and ASPs need to handle number

portabil it y issues to determine with which operator to obtain service. The Telcos that havedeveloped their own API programs are using a variety of technical approaches, which makes it

dif f icult for developers to both offer services to the full subscriber base in a given country oracross countr ies, and to port their applications from operator t o operator. This is in stark

contrast to the Internet model that developers have become accustomed to, whereby they can

reach a global customer base for t heir applicati ons easil y. This disenfranchises all but a fewlarge ASPs (t radit ionally known as Large Accounts ).


8/20


Up to now a few aggregators have emerged, but these are by and large oriented towardsmessaging and, t o a lesser extent (pr imari ly in North America), location services. Even then the

fragmentation st il l remains with mult iple interfaces and commercial arrangements. Hence, a

new breed of aggregators, an inter-working cloud of cross-net work servi ce providers(CNSPs),is needed, who provide on-demand access across multiple networks to both network capabilities

and payments resources. Enter Mobil e Cloud Computingand Cross Network Service Providers.


9/20


3. Mobile Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing represents a huge opportunity for the mobile industry as a whole. Therenowned analyst firm, ABI Research, forecasts that the number of Mobile Cloud Computingsubscribers worldwide wil l grow rapidly over the next f ive years, ri sing from 42.8 mill ion

subscribers in 2008, (approximately 1.1%of all mobile subscribers) to just over 998 mill ion in2014 (nearly 19%) representing a global revenue opportunit y of almost $20 bil li on. According to

ABI, business productivity applications will soon dominate the mix of mobile cloudapplications, particularly collaborative document sharing, scheduling, and sales force

management apps. (Source: ABI Research: Mobile Cloud Computing report, July 2009).

On demand access to cross-operator network and charging services adds a new dimension toCloud Comput ing. Specif ical ly i t enables the Cloud Computing players to enhance their services

wit h network capabil it ies. Of course, for this to be realist ic, it needs to be properly

commercialized, end-t o-end. This is where t he cross-network service providers (CNSPs) comeinto the picture. Their role is crit ical t o the successful commercialisation of Mobile Cloud

Computing.

It must be st raightforward to enfranchise large numbers of ASPs. Just as Internet commerce is

predicated by, and thrives on, volume and diversit y, the same wil l be true of t he mobile cloud.It is clearly not realisti c for all but a few sophisticated ASPs to interwork wit h and have

commercial relat ionships wit h large numbers of Telcos. Just as with SMS, the CNSP will beessential, both in providing the technical interfaces and supporting the commercial models.

The essential difference is the need for a standard set of interfaces, both technical andcommercial. ASPs can then create mass market services and applications that use a combination

of standard NaaS APIs and existing APIs from the Web and/ or device domains, without being"locked in" to a specif ic operator.

Of course operators must st il l be able t o dif ferentiate based on their own unique capabil it ies

(t he embrace and extend model). ASPs are then in a posit ion t o combine common cross-Telcoenablers with Telco-specif ic enablers, j ust li ke they do in the Internet. This gives the Telcos the

best of both worlds a larger playing f ield combined wit h the abil it y to diff erentiate.

As discussed in t he previous section, payments services should be one of t he jewels in t he crown

of a Telcos NaaS off ering. This becomes even more import ant in the mobile cloud. Introducingpayments and settlement capabilities across multiple Telcos allows ASPs (and SaaS providers) to

charge their customers via their phone bil l, regardless of their subscript ion network.

The real power of cross-operator payments is evident when one considers the benefits to MobileCloud Computing. The simpl ici ty of charging services to their phone account, wi ll not only

encourage subscribers who discover and use services from their handset, to avail themselves ofthe payments services but also to increase the total number of such services that are adopted.

Everyone benefi ts:

Telcos get additional revenue from the payments services, with reducedoverheads

CNSPs get more customers and more chargeable t ransact ions

ASPs, SaaS providers, etc, not only sell more services but reduce costs

Finall y the end user gets access to more advanced capabil it ies with simple andsecure methods of payment


10/20


As reported in t he UK Sunday Times (10-Jan-2010) business sect ion Remember one numberabout Apple: iTunes has over 100m credit cards on account . Compare this with the eventual

commercial connectivity to 5bn mobile users that a globally available payments API would

provide!

There are many parallels. As a comparison, i t is worth looking at one of t he major success

stories of mobil e communications. Quit e apart from phenomenal success of t he mobil e phoneit self , SMS text messaging has mushroomed into one of the world s major communications

media, bringing massive revenues to operators and aggregators alike, and also enabling a wide

variet y of value added services, which themselves bring revenue to ASPs. Until int eroperabil it ywas achieved and, moreover, the service was enabled for pre-paid subscribers, SMS was a niche

service only used by the technical ly knowledgeable. Now SMS is used by nearl y everyone as apersonal messaging medium, and, thanks to aggregators, is widely used for value added services.

So, wi th cross-network avail abil it y of all network capabil it ies (not j ust SMS) and of payments

services, t he same will be true of t he mobile cloud and the underlying Telcos NaaS. Wit hstandard ubiquit ous access, Telco resources can be accessed on-demand via the Cloud and

mashed-up wit h Web and device APIs to create or enhance almost any Web, device, enterpriseor desktop applicat ion. Development eff ort s will be more cohesive and less fragmented get t ing

closer to a wr it e once, run and sell anywhere goal. The resultant market is potentially huge.

Most mobile cloud applications will be sophisticated mash-ups of all sorts, including

applications that incorporate core mobile phone and Telco capabil it ies, li ke location, presence,phone calendar, address book, and cameras.

Perhaps one of the most interesting and exciting aspects is that of device based applications.Due to the relative size and price points that consumers demand in mobile handsets, vendors are

limited in the amount of processing power, and data storage they can put on a mobile device.Because mobile cloud applications move processing power and data storage into the cloud, theyrequire a great deal less bat tery power and can run on less-expensive processors than nat ive or

downloadable applications.

In addit ion t o the services accessed by t radit ional means such as via mobile handsets or web

browsers, there is huge potential for machine-to-machine (M2M) services availing of MobileCloud Computing. Recent forecasts suggest that t here wil l be up to 50 bil li on mobile connected

machines over the coming years, including appliances, smart meters, securit y systems,

healthcare devices and many others all of which can benefit from network capabilitiesaccessed on-demand from t he mobile cloud.

A ubiquitous mobile cloud wil l benefi t the telecoms indust ry as a whole, by making it much moreatt racti ve for application service providers to create new services, or t o enrich exist ing services,

that use capabil it ies, informat ion and intell igence provided by mobile and f ixed telecomsoperators. Eliminat ing fragmentat ion wil l result in a much larger addressable market of ASPs,

resulting in increased service innovation, customer satisfaction, and new revenue sources for the

indust ry as a whole, and consequent ly f or individual operators. Moreover, a Cloud-based, cross-operator manif estation, such as that being implemented for t he GSM Associat ion's Commercial

OneAPI Pilot in Canada, wil l further drive adoption by the ASP communit y, whilst st il l allowingoperators to dif ferent iate based on their own unique capabil it ies.


11/20


4. Mobi le Cloud Business Model

By necessity, any description of a business model in a paper such as this one, is a simplificationas there are many possible variants. However, t he main players are clear, wit h two key playerslogically extending the generic cloud-computing model:

Network operators providing NaaS services,

Cross Network Service Provi ders (CNSPs) who make these services

ubiquitously available and create the mobile cloud.

The following picture shows how this works.

Mobi le Cloud Comput ing

Hosted services (SaaS) are extended wit h NaaS features. These features are then offered t o

enterprise and consumer users by 3rd part y applicat ion service providers. Alt ernat ively, t heymay be independent appli cations, ext ended with NaaS features; they may take the form of

chargeable plug-ins int o exist ing SaaS services; or t he ASP may simply use a PaaS provider splat form. Finall y a SaaS/ PaaS provider can themselves offer t he NaaS features (and sell them).

Whatever t he actual demarcation between SaaS/ PaaS and ASP, users (whether individuals orenterprises) subscribe t o the enhanced services and ult imately pay for t hem, eit her bundled int o

a subscription or on a pay per use basis1

1 For the sake of simplicity, advertising-based business models are not considered here, although the same

general pri nciples apply

.


12/20


Going through a CNSP all ows the ASP to have a single interf ace and single business relationship,but interwork wit h mult iple Telcos. For SMS services, whilst it is import ant to be able to send

and receive across operators, it usually doesn t matt er t hrough which operator messages are

actually sent. However for locat ion and presence based services, f or payments, and for othercustomer oriented functions, the end service needs to be handled by the correct operator,

appropriate to the end user 1

One of t he most valuable services, that can enfranchise many thousands of new ASPs, is the Bil l-

on Behalf -of (BoBo) abil it y for t hem to be paid through their customers phone accounts.Comprehensive payments and settlement and the associated business infrastructure, is a critical

component of Mobile Cloud Computing. This is not j ust a simple mat ter of submit t ing a

payments request and get t ing paid (a proport ion). For this to work in the mass market, acomprehensive inf rast ructure is needed that is full y t raceable (audit able, for dispute

management), can handle refunds as well as charges and can take account of network usage.

.

The CNSPs in t he mobil e cloud can take over the complexi ty from the operators, handli ng thedif ferent payment models and policies that need to be catered for; these include:

Who pays (e.g. enterprise or user);

Bulk payments versus pay per use;

Dif ferent sett lement terms (revenue share);

Recurrent subscript ions;

Advice of charge and mandating payments;

Tax considerations;

Refund policy

Incentives

4.1. An Example

The potent ial power of Mobil e Cloud Computing is best shown by an example. A SaaS provider,

for example SalesForce.com (and Force.com), sells as a subscript ion service, powerful CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) and sales force management cloud services to ent erpr ises.

Plug-ins from third parties are actively encouraged, many of which are independently subscribed

to by end users. Whilst some plug-ins are free, many are chargeable, eit her as a one-offpayment, or as a subscription.

Mobil e Cloud Comput ing enables these payments to be made through customers phone accounts(BoBo). Furt hermore plug-ins can take advantage of NaaS features.

An example of such a third party plug-in could be an ad-hoc mini-conferencing service integratedwith users SalesForce contacts. Via the ASPs server, this would invoke call-control f eatures

provided by a CNSP, and ult imately from one or more Telcos. In addit ion, SMS andlocation/ presence features provide a rich set of capabil it ies. In the general case, t he facili t ies

would be available from a browser, ei ther in a desktop or on a mobile phone. Though the user

interacts with the plug-in on the force.com platf orm, the requests would be handled by theASPs server.

1 Number portability needs to be handled by the CNSP.


13/20


These Network as a Service capabil it ies need to be paid for. For il lustrat ion, in this part icularcase the ASP charges a f lat rate for sett ing up conference call s, and other services such as

location requests. The ASP is paid by utilizing BoBo services and submit t ing payments requests

via the CNSP s APIs. Users may be charged by the ASP on a per usage basis; alt ernat ively, theymay buy credit from the ASP. The user (or t heir enterprise, depending on the agreement the

model must allow for both) will then be bil led by their end operator on their phone bil l. Usersmust, of course, mandate the CNSP to accept such charges, either on an advice of charge basis

or over a user-defined period for that ASP.

SalesForce.com NaaS Plug-in Example of Mobi le Cloud Comput ing

The CNSP provides access and connect ivity across mult iple operators. On one side they sett le

with the individual ASPs, taking a commission, and on the other side they procure NaaS services

from the individual operators. These NaaS services are both network resources and BoBopayments services. The revenue share for t he latter provides perhaps the most powerfulbusiness case for Telcos and CNSPs alike.


14/20


5. Industry Initiative GSMA OneAPI

The global mobile industry s main t rade body, the GSM Association (GSMA), has recognized t heneed for (mobile) telecom operators to treat their assets as marketable resources and to offerAPIs to third part ies, i. e. t o embrace the NaaS model. Moreover, i t recognizes that in order for

this model to be successful, the industry must better address the needs of third partydevelopers, in particular to reduce the current level of fragmentation in the industry relating to

APIs.

Launched in 2008, GSMAs OneAPI is an init iat ive to define a commonly supported API to allow

mobile (and other network) operators to expose useful network, informat ion, and payments

capabil it ies to applicat ion developers. It aims to reduce the eff ort and time needed to createapplications and content that is portable across mobile operators.

The GSMA OneAPI is intended to complement exist ing client-side and server-side APIs byproviding a missing piece: access to network capabilities and information, regardless of

operator. As such it can be accessed by client and server side technologies when required.

(Court esy GSMA)

GSMA OneAPI Prov ides t he Missing Piece

The GSMA OneAPI init iat ive is adding momentum to NaaS and Mobil e Cloud Comput ing through arapid expansion of the two-sided business model: mult iple Telcos per ASP, thousands of ASP s

per Telco. Following the highly successful reference implementation in 2009, and ongoing workwit hin the OMA to ident if y the appropriate standards, a commercial pilot is being launched in

Canada 1Q2010, involving all three major operators in that country (Bell Canada, Telus andRogers). This pilot i s aimed at demonst rat ing the technical and commercial benefit s of a

ubiquit ous aggregation model.


15/20


GSMA OneAPI Canadian Pilot

In ef fect the GSMA is act ing as the Cross Network Service Provider, providing ASPs access tonetwork capabili t ies and payments services of al l t he Canadian operators. Comprehensivepart ner relat ionship management (portal, self care, development tools, sandboxes for off -li ne

testing, etc) makes it a quick and easy process for application developers and ASPs to sign up,

test their applications and deploy them commercially.


16/20


6. Implement ing Mobile Cloud Comput ing

The requirements for implementing Mobile Cloud Computing are three-fold:

a. Developer friendly standardised interfaces

b. Appropriate carrier grade platf orms and archit ecture, which support both t he

highly technical communication infrastructure and secure and auditablepayments, sett lement and charging infrast ructure

c. Cross network service providers to establish the necessary business relationships

with operators and with each other (for int er-region access). The GSMA s

OneAPI commercial pilot in Canada is paving the way for this.

6.1. Standardised Interfaces

As has already been discussed, a global Mobile Cloud is predicated on there being appropriate,

developer friendly and widely accepted NaaS API standards. Wit hout such standards,

fragmentation is inevitable.

The GSMA OneAPI project is championing and actively support ing the defi nit ion and ref inement

of these standards wit hin t he OMA (who took over responsibi li ty from 3GPP). Many of these arealready mature and have been implemented by several operators already and are the basis for

the GSMAs successful OneAPI ref erence implementation and the Canadian pilot .

Whilst operators are strongly encouraged to implement these standards themselves, a great

advantage of Cross Network Service Providers is that they provide the necessary cross-operator

abstraction, mediating operator proprietary APIs (where they have them).

6.2. Platforms and Archit ectural Requirement

It is beyond the scope of t his paper t o go into detail on the various platform and capabili t iesneeded. However, i t i s wort h highlight ing some key points.

6.2.1.Cross-Operator Abst ract ion and Rout ing

The heart of t he requirement is the cross-operator abst ract ion, and rout ing. The APIs being

exposed to t he ASPs need to be operator and subscriber independent. It is the plat form s task toroute requests to the appropriate operator and mediate protocol where necessary. This applies

equally to network capabil it ies and to payments.

Some network capabil it ies are subscriber independent or part ial ly independent, these include

SMS/ MMS and call set -up. Others can only be handled by the subscript ion network of the end

user. These include locat ion, presence, subscriber information and, of course, payments. Forthe former, the plat form needs to support the CNSP s business requirements for least cost or

equit able routing. For the latter the platf orm needs to route requests to the correct networkfor a specif ic end user and take account of number port abil it y.

6.2.2.Privacy Management

Services that use network capabilities and information such as location and presence have tohave the consent of the end user in most cases, whether explicit or implied (law enforcementand emergency services being notable except ions in some countries).


17/20


The platform needs to be able to manage the necessary privacy, and support the CNSP takinglegal responsibi li ty if necessary. This is a complex area, but the primary requirement is to be

able to audit any mandate given by the end user. It is worth noti ng that the advice-of ,

mandating and auditing requirements are very similar to those required for payments.

6.2.3.Payments and Settlement

As this paper has stressed, the business infrastructure in general and payments and settlement inpart icular f orm the lynchpin of the Mobile Cloud.

The payment and settlement solution must allow the service provider to enable ASPs to bill theircustomers safely and securely, via t heir subscript ion operator wi thout exposing the operator, the

CNSP or its customers to potent ial revenue leakage, fraud or unsolicit ed charges. The solut ionmust also support charging ASPs for use of network resources either as part of service delivery to

a customer or simple use on their own behalf.

Support ing a payments API, the solut ion must enable ASPs and merchants to charge subscribers

of t he parti cipati ng operators for their services and to receive appropriate sett lement. As well

as submitting payment requests, ASPs must be able to submit refund requests (with disincentivesto minimise how often this happens); in extreme cases, the service provider needs to be able to

force a refund, though, wi th care, this should be rare.

Preventing unsolicited charges and at the same time preventing user charge repudiation must lie

at t he core of the payments and sett lement solut ion. A combination of explicit user mandating,

advice-of-charge techniques, and comprehensive reports and auditing are required.

Comprehensive 3rd part y and customer care and self-care f unctions are an essential component

of payments and set t lement. As far as possible both ASPs and users should be able to managetheir own accounts and view usage reports.

6.2.4.ASP Support

In the Telco 2.0, two sided business model, t he ASP is the customer and, therefore, requirescomprehensive support and relat ionship management. In addit ion t o the business management

requirements identified above, ASPs and developers require a single point of access (a portal) to

be able to sign up for use of the NaaS service, learn about the APIs, test their services,part icipate in f orums, etc.

6.2.5.Reliability, Availability and MaintainabilityClearly, the platf orms that provide the core funct ions must be capable of being deployed in

carr ier grade configurat ions. Quite apart from their role as an extension of the globalcommunications network, the financial inst ruments therein need to be both highly available and

maintain transaction integrity, appropriate to the size of the transactions.

6.2.6.Scalability

Proj ections of 50 bil li on connected devices over the next few years, hundreds of t housands ofASPs and other users of NaaS services all means that the plat forms that support mobile cloud

computing must be highly scalable.


18/20


In addit ion to individually scalable plat forms, a global architecture is needed that supportsscalabil it y. The key to both is the support of a network of regional nodes , t hat route t raff ic

between each other. Whether wit hin the same CNSP (support ing mult iple countries), or

between dif ferent service providers, the requirements are basically the same. The essentialdifference is that between service providers, the payments and settlement engines need to

support an additional layer of revenue share.

Scalabi li t y by Regional Nodes

For a truly global service, global commercial mediation will almost definitely need to besupported, in much the same way that there is global mediation for mobile operator

interworking.


19/20


7. Conclusion

Today's communications market presents arguably the richest potential for network operatorssince the beginning of the mass mobile market in the 1990s. The proliferation of the Internetand mobile broadband has sparked the creativity of thousands of application providers

worldwide eager t o deliver t heir products and services into the wait ing hands of wil ling end-users.

This burgeoning "open" movement in mobile has so far focused largely on the handset, due to thesuccess of the iPhone, the Apple App Store, and the push by handset providers to replicate that

model and alter t heir role in t he value chain by becoming service providers. Addit ionally, web

companies have also entered t he value chain and are pushing mobile operators to become bitpipes.

Operators, faced with competition from multiple directions, have therefore been turning theirattention towards opening their networks and are embracing the concept of the "Network as a

Service" (NaaS), exposing their capabilities for consumption by application providers on-demand,to enable new 2-sided business models. Wit h NaaS, the operator s network and bil li ng

capabilities become marketable resources with multiple features that are attractive and readily

available to enterprises, web service providers and application developers.

More recently, the emergence of Cloud Computing, and its extension into the mobile domain,

has brought a new dimension t o NaaS: the vision of a global, int erconnected Mobile Cloudwhere application providers and enterprises will be able to access valuable network and billing

capabil it ies across mult iple Telco networks, making it easy for t hem to enrich t heir services whether these applications run on a mobile device, in the web, in a SaaS Cloud, on the desktop,

or on an enterprise server.

The Mobile Cloud will provide a full commercial environment for applications, providing an easy

way for smaller developers to monetize their services as well as new routes to market. Crucially,

the Mobile Cloud wil l eliminate the commercial and technical f ragmentation that has thus farproven to be a barrier to successful collaboration between application providers and Telcos on a

global scale. However, operators wil l st il l be able to dif ferentiate based on their own uniquecapabilities, exposed directly as APIs via their existing NaaS platforms.

To realize the global Mobile Cloud, Cross-Network Service Providers will emerge to take on therole of providing standardized, harmonized interf aces toward Telco capabil it ies across mult iple

networks. CNSPs will provide a single point of access for Application Provider registration,

provisioning and support , cent ralized payment and sett lement, policy and securi ty control ,routing, security and privacy management.


20/20

Over the past 2 years, Aepona has been at t he foref ront of t he mobile indust ry s evolut ion

towards the Network as a Service business model, and the company s award-winning UniversalService Plat form has become the solut ion of choice for mobile operators implementing NaaS

strategies globally.

Thanks in part to the work Aepona has been doing with the GSMA on its OneAPI initiative,

part icularly it s role in providing the plat form and management services for the worlds f irstOneAPI-based commercial pilot in Canada, Aepona is now poised to become a leading player in

the Mobile Cloud Computing marketplace. Its Universal Service Platform is a comprehensive,carrier-grade solution that contains all of the essential elements for Mobile Cloud Computing

described in section 6 of this paper.

Moreover, through its work with both individual operator NaaS implementations and the GSMA

Commercial Pilot, Aepona has gained unparalleled operat ional experience as well as commercialinsights to the business models that will underpin this new era of Network as a Service andMobile Cloud Computing.

The Global Mobile Cloud, Powered by Aepona

aepona white paper naas mcc feb 2010

Documents