THE LTE SUBSCRIBER: UNRAVELEDSOLUTION BRIEF

As the momentum towards 4G is picking up, it is evident that unlike previous evolutions of technology (e.g. 3G) which were driven by service providers’ need to increase capacity; 4G is being driven by the subscribers’ realization that they can use mobile data applications in their everyday life.

UNDERSTANDING THE LTE SUBSCRIBER

1. LTE USERS WILL BE MULTI-DEVICEDespite most ‘crystal-ball’ predictions of the early 2000’s, the LTE subscriber will not have a single, do-it-all super-device. More and more purpose-built devices, such as eBook readers, network video/photo frames, digital cameras and navigation devices will appear on the market. The current devices will continue to co-exist with LTE devices.

To support the multi-device nature of the LTE subscriber, service providers will need a multi-profile, flexible SDM solution that can relate these devices to a single unique subscription, and understand real-time registration statuses with the capability of selecting the right device and the right domain for a given data application.

2. NON-VOICE-CENTRIC DEVICES WILL PERVADE EVERYDAY LIFEMachine-to-machine devices and inter-connectivity of everyday things will flood the market and their presence in a subscriber’s daily life will grow exponentially. Other than the usual mobile devices and laptops: home appliances, cars, electricity meters, and other electronic devices will be connected to the 3G/4G network and exchange information over it.

The ability of a service provider to link these non-voice services to the mobile 3G/4G subscription will drive a huge revenue opportunity. Achieving this would require multiple devices and identities to be enrolled into a single user subscription using a central subscriber identity. The eSDM solution would need to have limitless scalability with limitless profiles per subscription.

6. USERS WILL CONSUME “DATA APPS” MORE THAN EVER With the influx of applications for mobile devices and the increased demand for real-time content delivery; new online applications and ‘App Stores’ will drive monthly spending and become a major component of service provider’s ARPU. Apple and Google have demonstrated how much money service providers leave on the table by not properly addressing the end-user application space.

Rapidly engineering and introducing such applications will become a critical competitiveness element. An eSDM solution should support a relational global schema that can be easily customized and extended by the service provider while being in-service, to support in-house and third-party applications.

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3. USERS WILL EXPECT SERVICE UBIQUITY AND CONTINUITYServices available on 3G, such as voice and SMS, will need to be available in LTE. Several 3GPP work items are attempting to address such topics and are basing their architecture on IP Multimedia Sub-System (IMS). While this is an interesting long-term goal, today’s service deployments are mostly pre-IMS-based. An eSDM solution for LTE will have to cope with web-based (SOAP) and pre-IMS SIP-based (IETF) service frameworks, and enable voice and SMS continuity across the CS domain and LTE’s IP-based access pipe.

7. THE LTE USER WILL SEEK A PERSONALIZED MOBILE EXPERIENCE As more aspects of the user’s day-to-day life get connected to the network, ranging from home electronics and mobile devices to cars and security systems, there will be a pressing demand for a more personalized end-user experience. The service provider would need to know the subscriber in order to meet their demands and sustain market share.

The service provider’s goal is to leverage the richness of subscriber information and manage the ability of applications to blend together, to create a truly personalized 4G end-user experience.

LTE is rapidly becoming the global mobile broadband choice, with several service providers selecting the 3GPP evolution as their preferred 4G technology. What remains to be understood is how the end-users and their devices will use this immensely large, mobile, connection-pipe to access and share information. Let us unravel the expected end-user behavior and requirements of a LTE subscriber to understand how an evolved Subscriber Data Management (eSDM) solution can enable the LTE service provider to efficiently manage those expectations.

4. THE LTE USER WILL DEMAND SEAMLESS MOBILITY For the years to come, LTE coverage will consist of small 4G islands surrounded by a sea of 2G/3G coverage. The eSDM solution will be required to consolidate and seamlessly share real-time subscriber information, such as subscriber context and location, across all access domains.

5. THE LTE-USER WILL REQUIRE AN ALWAYS-ON AND ALWAYS-CONNECTED EXPERIENCE Social networking has cultivated an expectation to communicate freely with whatever they want, whenever they want, with whomever they want, using whichever mode they want.

Service providers will need a supremely reliable eSDM solution with a high-availability architecture offering all scenarios of internal and geographic redundancies. The solution would need a distributed and layered database structure.

THE LTE SUBSCRIBER: UNRAVELED

Blueslice NetworksGlobal Leaders in evolved Subscriber Data Management Solutions

8. THE LTE USER WILL BE MORE EDUCATED ON THEIR PRIVACY RIGHTS Social networks and other online applications have taught us that end-users are not going to accept infringements on their personal life, and will seek more control on what they accept to share publicly.

3G service providers currently benefit from an unequaled ‘trust relationship’ with their end-users. As a trusted provider, they will also have to ensure that efforts to leverage subscriber data for mobile personalization will not cross the privacy boundaries of each user.

BENEFITS OF THE CSP 3000™ FOR LTE

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Figure 1: The LTE Architecture A converged eSDM approach can manage 2G, 3G and 4G subscribers in a single logical solution. eSDM consolidates and seamlessly shares subscriber information across all domains.

Centralized subscriber provisioning across all access domains.

Centralized Authentication and Authorization

Common ngHLR for shared subscriber context and volatile data in 2G, 3G and 4G networks

Flexible and modular solution

Service provider customizable subscriber templates.

Unlimited scalability without “central index” bottlenecks

Unified subscription for all combinations of end-user devices.

Shared user presence between domains

Guaranteed call-termination across networks using redirection techniques.

Support for Single-sign-on

Ability to host several value-added services and applications on a single logical platform.

A future-proof solution with the flexibility to add next-generation technologies

There is a delicate balance that can only be achieved by a flexible eSDM system that manages per-subscriber rules and preferences.

MANAGING AND SERVING THE LTE SUBSCRIBERIt is evident from the demands of the LTE end-user that the success of LTE will be underlined by the intelligence of the network to manage and serve the LTE subscriber. For this purpose service providers are seeking a best-of-breed and future-proof solution termed as evolved Subscriber Data Management (eSDM).

The proposed approach will go beyond traditional Subscriber Data Management by integrating the shared and centralized subscriber data under a single, central subscriber identity. The eSDM solution will enable support for enhanced multimedia applications across

multiple domains and create a platform for hosting next-generation services. New vendor-agnostic applications and services can be easily added using open-standard interfaces and flexible in-service global schema modifications. The eSDM solution will consolidate and seamlessly share subscriber information across all access domains (2G, 3G, IMS, VoIP, 4G etc.).

© 2010 Blueslice Networks, Inc. The material contained in this document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, or stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without the written permission of Blueslice Networks.

Blueslice Networks, Inc. 1751 Richardson Street, Suite 7500Montreal, Quebec, H3K 1G6 Canada

Tel: +1-514-935-9700Fax: +1-514-932-9701www.blueslice.com

PC Card and USB dongles

Mobile Devices

Smartphone

Multimedia handheld devices

Laptops & Notebooks

And More...

Security Devices

Home Appliances

Cars

CPE & Router

Personal Electronics

GERAN

UTRAN

E-UTRAN

Non-3GPPe.g. WiFi

LTE User Devices Pre-Release8 Core evolved Subscriber Data management (eSDM)

SDS 3000™

ngHLR 3000

AAA3000

HSS3000

SIP-AS3000

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3G

4G

3GPP

WLAN

WiMAX

3GPP

TISPAN

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FMC

IMS

SIP

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SLF

MNP-SRF

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PRE-IMS

3rd Party

Blueslice CSP 3000™

evolved Packet Core (EPC)

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PGW GGSN

PCRF

SGSN MSC VLR

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