Nokia Siemens Networks

The Network of One — long-term success in the age of the zettabyte

Billions of connected people and trillions of connected things - Nokia Siemens Networks CTO Stephan Scholz describes how the telecommunications industry will transform to manage them all.

Even today, in late 2009, just 25% of the world’s population, 1.7 billion people, have access to Internet services. There is plenty of room for growth, and the expected explosion in usage of broadband communication, both fixed and mobile, will make it possible for more than five billion people and an even larger number of devices to be connected. The result will be a tidal wave of information being created and shared by people and devices from all corners of the globe.

To meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that this explosive growth will bring, CTO Stephan Scholz from Nokia Siemens Networks advocates the Network of One. (To watch Stephan Scholz presenting the Network of One, please click here).

“Our aim with the long-term view, is to help Communications Service Providers (CSP’s) transform their business models, infrastructure and operations to realize the full potential of their resources and ensure an ideal experience for their subscribers.”

The Network of One comes at the best possible time, as the demands on CSPs grow for services that not only meet the daily needs of subscribers, but are also easy to find and activate, with tariffs and charges that are intuitive and transparent. At the same time, as traffic reaches unprecedented levels, new investment in capacity, as well as upgrades to new technology such as LTE will be required.

The question that arises, however, is whether traffic growth will bring correspondingly higher revenues. Or, combined with the increased investment needed, will it put even greater pressure on profitability?

On top of this, CSPs are also looking for opportunities related to the environment in their own operations, by significantly reducing energy consumption, for example. There are also real business benefits for CSPs that help other industries to strengthen their green footprint.

Common to all these requirements is the need for greater efficiency in every aspect of the CSP’s business.

Scholz continues; “The market evolution presents many opportunities for CSPs, but they are also under pressure like never before. As the challenges become increasingly complex, it is no longer feasible to deal with them separately. This is why we are advocating a transformation that moves beyond the traditional network-centric approach where subscribers are at the periphery of the picture.

“In our view, subscribers are anything but passive recipients of services; instead they need to be at the heart of the CSP’s business. Their individual experiences will increasingly drive the success – or failure – of CSPs.”
 
Scholz describes the six components of the Network of One, which cover the network itself, as well as service control and enablement, customer data, unified management and charging and business-optimized operations.

“Together they provide holistic answer to the question of how CSPs will reduce complexity to survive and thrive in a changing world. The Network of One is a true foundation for success.” 

Six initial components of the Network of One:

• One simplified network. CSPs are urged to evolve towards a flat, IP-centric architecture allowing much more efficient handling of traffic.

• One convergent service control. Converging fixed and mobile voice on one IMS based service control infrastructure enables rich communications for customers.

• One view of customer data. Consolidating customer data that is today distributed across multiple databases and applications gives CSPs a better ability to leverage customer insights.

• One flexible service enablement. Flexibility in service enablement allows fast and easy launch and pull down of own and third-party services.

• One unified management & charging. Consolidating heterogeneous silo management systems into one highly automated system improves efficiency and service delivery to end users

• One business-optimized operations. Outsourcing and partnering improve efficiency and help differentiate business/service offerings.

To learn more about the Network of One, click here