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ClearSky Technologies offers virtualised hosted policy management for regional CSPs

Research Case Study

ClearSky Technologies’ virtualised hosted policy

management helps regional CSPs stay competitive

May 2014

Glen Ragoonanan and Gorkem Yigit



ClearSky’s virtualised policy management solution enables regional CSPs

to optimise cost and increase network control to stay competitive

The mobile market in North America (NA) is one of the most advanced and lucrative markets, where mobile data is the main driver

of growth. A few Tier-1 communications service providers (CSPs) dominate the market and a large number of smaller regional

players operate in the areas underserved by these Tier-1 CSPs.

Regional mobile CSPs in NA are losing subscribers to Tier-1 CSPs as they expand their reach through new roll-outs and

acquisitions. Smaller regional mobile CSPs often find it difficult to compete against Tier-1 CSPs because of lack of access to capital

for large network investments and spectrum. To stay competitive and generate maximum return from their constrained resources,

regional mobile CSPs use providers of hosted infrastructure and managed services to gain access to more-affordable systems and

expertise.

ClearSky Technologies is a provider of hosted infrastructure and managed services to mobile CSPs, mainly in NA but also in South

America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. It delivers a wide array of products and services under the following three main

solution areas: traffic and policy management, hosted LTE services suite, and Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS). It has a customer

base of more than 50 regional mobile CSPs across the Americas, served from three data centres in Dallas, Denver and Orlando.

ClearSky’s Total Traffic Manager (TTM) solution is a hosted policy management solution that enables mobile CSPs to manage and

monetise rapidly growing mobile data traffic. TTM use cases include roaming management, quota enforcement, tethered device

management, fair usage, bill shock notification, tiered access speeds, zero-rate charging and shared data plans.

ClearSky and regional CSPs face the challenge of increasing capex and opex that stem from deploying more enforcement systems

closer to the edge of the network for more-intelligent policy decisions and optimising network capacity to support growing subscriber

numbers and mobile data traffic.

To cope with the increasing costs, ClearSky partnered with Sandvine, which already provides its Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) for the

traditional TTM enforcement platform, to virtualise core elements of its TTM solution with network function virtualisation (NFV).

The virtualised TTM solution promises to enable regional CSPs to implement more enforcement points in their networks with the

same level of investment because of less-expensive hardware capex and comparable managed services opex.

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Business environment: Mobile data revenue growth in NA is slowing, but

data traffic growth remains steady, requiring a reduction in the cost per bit

The mobile market in NA is one of the most advanced and

lucrative in the world. The market size is estimated at

USD200 billion in 2013, growing 3% from USD194 million in

2012. ARPU in NA is the highest worldwide.

Mobile data is the main driver of growth in NA. All CSPs in

NA have almost completed LTE roll-outs and the USA has

the largest LTE footprint in the world. NA had more than

97 million 4G mobile connections in 2013, which is

forecasted to reach 329 million in 2018. We estimate that

71% of active handsets in NA were smartphones by the end

of 2013.

A few Tier-1 CSPs dominate the market and many smaller

regional CSPs operate in the areas underserved by these. By

4Q 2013, all major CSPs in Canada and the USA provided

LTE coverage to at least 60% of the population. Bell Canada

and TELUS had already covered at least 77% of Canada’s

population by September 2013, and AT&T planned to cover

85% of the US population by the end of 2013.

Spectrum policy in the USA has led to an imbalance of

spectrum assets among the mobile CSPs and created a

marketplace for operator-to-operator transactions. Tier-1

CSPs have targeted medium and small CSPs for acquisition

in recent years to obtain additional spectrum, and expand

coverage and subscriber numbers.

Figure 1: Mobile service revenue by type, and mobile data traffic, North

America, 2011–2018 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]

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Data

Non-data

Data traffic

Mobile service revenue:

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

0

50

100

150

200

250

201

1

201

2

201

3

2014

201

5

201

6

201

7

2018

Mo

bile

da

ta tra

ffic

(p

eta

byte

s, th

ou

sa

nd

s)

Mo

bile

se

rvic

e r

eve

nu

e (

US

D b

illio

n)



Regional mobile CSPs in NA deploy hosted policy management solutions

for network cost protection and revenue generation

Regional mobile CSPs in NA are losing subscribers to Tier-1

CSPs as they expand their reach through new roll-outs and

acquisitions. Regional CSPs often find it difficult to compete

against Tier-1 CSPs because of a lack of access to capital for

large network investments and spectrum.

Some regional CSPs are launching LTE services to compete

more effectively and monetise rapidly growing mobile data

traffic. However, they face the significant challenges of limited

spectrum and network capacity.

These CSPs rely on roaming partners to extend their limited

coverage to nationwide access. Roaming costs may be

excessive if subscriber usage is not managed properly.

To stay competitive and generate maximum return from

constrained resources, regional CSPs turn to providers of

hosted infrastructure managed services, such as ClearSky, in

order to gain access to affordable systems and expertise.

The deep packet inspection (DPI) component of policy

management systems provides customer insight from

network traffic for churn reduction and development of new

targeted customer services.

Figure 2 provides some examples of ClearSky’s commercial

policy management deployments, using its Total Traffic

Manager (TTM) solution.

CSP

customer

State or

country1

Scope

MTA Alaska, USA Deployed ClearSky TTM to increase ARPU

by enabling customers to top up when they

reach thresholds and upgrade to higher-tier

data plans that permit tethering.

MTPCS Montana,

Louisiana

and Texas,

USA

Chose TTM initially to reduce roaming

settlement costs. TTM now also improves

customer experience on popular social

networking and video streaming sites

through caching and content optimisation.

CellularOne Arizona,

New Mexico

and Utah,

USA

Uses TTM to offer 2G and 3G individual

and shared data plans, redirecting

subscribers to top-up page when they

reach their quota. TTM also helps deliver

tiered data plans, bill shock notification,

tethering detection and customised

packages.

iWireless Iowa, Illinois,

and

Nebraska,

USA

Chose TTM initially for traffic management

and network protection use cases by

enforcing existing fair usage provisions in

the operator’s terms of service. TTM has

since been used to launch new metered

data plans and control roaming costs.

1 Each CSP’s operations typically only cover a portion of the USA state(s) listed.

Figure 2: ClearSky’s commercially deployed hosted policy management use

cases with its TTM solution [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]

4



ClearSky Technologies helps mobile CSPs stay competitive by providing

fast and economical access to advanced solutions

ClearSky Technologies is a provider of hosted infrastructure services to mobile operators. It delivers a wide array of products and

services under the following three main solution areas: traffic and policy management, hosted LTE services suite, and Small Cell as

a Service (SCaaS). It has a customer base of more than 50 mobile CSPs across the Americas, served from three main data centres

in Dallas, Denver and Orlando.

It helps regional mobile CSPs stay competitive against Tier-1 CSPs by providing advanced network technologies and monetisation

solutions cost effectively with a fast implementation time.

ClearSky’s Total Traffic Manager (TTM) solution is a hosted policy management solution that optimises the capex of these regional

CSPs by managing network traffic such as to maximise limited network capacity and extend the longevity of network infrastructure.

Additionally, ClearSky’s policy management solution provides a range of use cases for churn reduction while delivering a high

quality of service at an optimal managed service opex.

TTM use cases include roaming management, quota enforcement for tiered pricing, tethered device management, fair usage, bill

shock notification, tiered access speeds, zero-rate charging and shared data plans. TTM is comprised of two main components:

TTM Control Platform, a centralised, self-contained, in-house-developed, non-3GPP policy control and charging (PCC) solution

that contains elements for policy control and data collection including a policy management engine (PCRF), usage collector,

charging manager, share correlation and analytics.

TTM Enforcement Platform, an on-premise platform with policy enforcement functions (PCEF) such as traffic engine, bypass

switch and content engine, which can now be virtualised.

ClearSky deploys TTM Enforcement Platform in client CSPs’ networks for traffic monitoring and policy enforcement while its TTM

Control Platform resides in ClearSky’s centralised data centres for policy creation, orchestration charging and analytics functions.

ClearSky delivers its TTM solution as a managed service with a monthly service charge. It also offers various service bundles for

implementation of different policy-based use cases, based on the mobile CSP market and customer usage.

5



ClearSky Total Traffic Manager (TTM) architectural overview

Figure 3: ClearSky Total Traffic Manager (TTM) architectural overview [Source: ClearSky Technologies and Analysys Mason, 2014]

6

ClearSky TTM

components

CSP’s network

elements and

systems

Key

TTM Control

Platform Hosted in ClearSky

data centres

TTM

Enforcement

Platform On-premise in each

CSP client network

Traffic

engine

Edge router PDSN/GGSN/

P-Gateway

Charging

manager

Operator

OSS/BSS

Content

engine

TTM Enforcement

Platform

RADIUS

Data

RevShare

(billing)

Bypass switch

TTM Control

Platform

ProVision

(provisioning)

Interactive

portal

ProTrends

Analytics

Policy

management

engine

Provisioning

events Billable

purchases

UDRs

Bill shock

SMPP

Website

access via

HTTP

Control

and data

collection

Usage

collector Notification

manager

Share

correlation

platform

SMS

centre

Internet



ClearSky is virtualising its policy control and enforcement to effectively

improve traffic management throughout its customers’ networks

As CSPs increase their subscriber bases, they need to optimise network capacity using effective policy management. Policy

management plays an integral role in traffic and congestion management while assuring the quality of the customer experience.

Regional CSPs in NA need to offer new tariffs such as family plans, shared data and value-added services in order to generate

more value from data usage, attract new subscribers and reduce churn by matching their offerings to those of Tier-1 CSPs.

Conversely, CSPs in Caribbean markets need to manage network traffic differently, to service the lucrative roaming revenue from

tourists. As such, each CSP needs to invest in policy management systems that can deliver unique policy-enabled services.

CSPs want to deploy more enforcement systems closer to the subscribers so that policies can be delivered more effectively and

intelligently, that is at the subscriber level and with reduced network signalling traffic back to the core network. However, the

deployment of more enforcement points (PCEFs) in the distribution and access networks is costly to deploy and manage as the

sites increase in number and geographical spread.

To address the need to increase enforcement points and contain the cost, ClearSky partnered with Sandvine to find a solution.

Sandvine is already a vendor to ClearSky and provides ClearSky with its Sandvine Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) for the traditional

(non-virtualised) TTM enforcement platform. Sandvine provided a virtualised PTS solution that ClearSky combines with its virtual

Content Engine (vCE) to deliver policy enforcement more cost effectively.

The virtualised TTM Enforcement Platform promises to enable CSPs to implement more enforcement points in their networks with

same level of investment because of less-expensive hardware capex and comparable managed services opex from ClearSky.

Moreover, this virtualised TTM solution allows ClearSky to cost-effectively monitor, manage and control its CSP customer networks,

to optimise network capacity with effective traffic management and recommend mobile data monetisation services based on in-

depth usage behaviours.

The new virtualised Enforcement Platform is an innovative approach and solution to solve common network traffic, content and

usage problems more resourcefully. Combined with pre-integrated Control Platform tools to notify and interact with their

subscribers, TTM empowers policy management and enforcement as well as enabling new service creations and interactions to

increase ARPU.

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Implementation details: ClearSky is deploying scalable virtualised TTM

Enforcement Platforms to provide better end-to-end managed services

ClearSky expects to virtualise a number of elements of its TTM solution, including the entire TTM Enforcement Platform in its CSP

customers’ networks (see Figure 4 on next slide).

The implementation will start at the TTM Enforcement Platform, which uses Sandvine’s PTS on-premise in each CSP customer’s

core network. ClearSky will use Sandvine’s PTS Virtual Platform (PTS VPL). Using standard PTS configurations on virtual

machines will make deployment immediate and maintenance of virtual TTM Enforcement Platform greatly simplified, with no site

visit required.

ClearSky’s centralised TTM Control Platform, including Sandvine’s virtualised Service Delivery Engine (SDE), already makes

extensive use of virtualisation. The virtualised SDE fulfils several roles including charging functions, quota management, and

session-to-subscriber mapping.

Sandvine’s Subscriber Policy Broker (SPB) is currently deployed as part of the TTM Control Platform using its subscriber data

repository (SPR) for integrated, real-time support to the Sandvine SDE, as well as to existing ClearSky charging and analytics

systems. Future SPB releases are expected to allow virtualisation of the many of the SPB functions to increase capacity and

availability.

ClearSky has a pool of skilled resources on the Red Hat Linux operating system and its KVM hypervisor, because it has trained

staff on Hewlett-Packard (HP) hardware – ClearSky’s preferred IT hardware provider. As such, Sandvine’s virtualised solutions were

required to work on HP hardware virtualised with Red Hat KVM hypervisors and installed on Red Hat Linux operating systems in

this test trial.

ClearSky has developed its own proprietary orchestration and management software for existing virtual resources in its data

centres and expects to use it to manage these new virtualised network functions (VNFs) from Sandvine.

ClearSky expects to commercially deploy the TTM Enforcement Platform virtualised solution in the second half of 2014. It will use a

phased approached, whereby customers that require upgrades or expansions will have the virtualised TTM Enforcement Platforms

implemented.

8



Virtualised TTM policy management deployment scenario

9

Virtualised TTM

enforcement in CSPs’ core

networks

Virtualised TTM

enforcement extended into CSPs’

distribution networks

Access

networks

Figure 4: ClearSky virtualised Total Traffic Manager (TTM) deployment scenario [Source: Analysys Mason and ClearSky Technologies, 2014]

TTM Control

Platform Hosted in ClearSky

data centres

RevShare ProVision

ProTrends

Analytics

Share

correlation

platform

HP hardware and Red Hat Linux

Sandvine SDE

PCRF Quota

management

CSP 1 CSP 1 CSP 1

x86

KVM

RNC

x86

KVM

RNC

x86

KVM

RNC

x86

KVM

RNC

x86

KVM

RNC

x86

KVM

RNC

Interactive

portal

Usage

collector

Sandvine SPB

Sandvine SDE

x86

KVM

x86

KVM vCE

Sandvine

PTS

x86

KVM

CSP 3

GGSN/

EPC

OSS/

BSS

Notification

manager

CSP 2

GGSN/

EPC

OSS/

BSS

ClearSky proprietary CSP’s network elements and systems Key Virtualised elements

vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS

vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS vCE

Sandvine

PTS

CSP 1

GGSN/

EPC

OSS/

BSS



Expected benefits: ClearSky is primarily seeking to reduce its costs, while

increasing its end-to-end visibility of its CSP customers’ networks

ClearSky mainly expects to achieve cost reduction by first

virtualising its on-site TTM Enforcement Platforms. This will

enable its regional CSP customers to deploy multiple

enforcement platforms closer to the access network, for

around the same cost. This is expected to provide the

following key benefits.

More-effective traffic management throughout the network,

increasing the longevity of network infrastructure, leading

to deferred capex investments, even with increased

subscriber numbers or mobile data traffic.

Less-expensive and faster deployments, upgrades and

expansions of virtualised TTM, because the number of site

visits will be reduced considerably.

ClearSky can extend its proprietary virtualised resource

manager to manage its TTM solution end-to-end, thus

reducing its management system costs (capex and opex).

CSP customers will have more floor and rack space and

lower power and cooling opex with this virtualised solution.

CSPs will gain more real-time, in-depth insight of mobile

data usage behaviour at the subscriber level, which can

lead to new policy-enabled services to reduce churn or

increase revenue.

Capex savings Opex savings

Increased number of PCEFs

deployed with the same investment,

to optimise network capacity and

reduce network capex

Simplified management of

virtualised resources with

ClearSky’s existing management

system

Reduced truck-rolls for

deployments, upgrades and

expansions of virtualised TTM

Smaller physical footprint reducing

floor and rack space and lower

power and cooling costs

Improved scalability on more-

affordable IT hardware

Less complexity and costs for

operating and maintenance

Lower cost for redundancy across

centralised data centres and CSP

customers’ sites

Existing IT and virtualisation skills

are already resident in ClearSky

Figure 5: Expected benefits of the live deployment of ClearSky’s virtualised

Total Traffic Manager (TTM) [Source: Analysys Mason, 2014]

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About the authors

Glen Ragoonanan (Principal Analyst) is the lead analyst for Analysys Mason’s Infrastructure Solutions, Service

Delivery Platforms and Software-Controlled Networking research programmes. He joined Analysys Mason in 2008

and has worked as a consultant on projects on next-generation IT and telecoms networks, systems and

technologies for incumbents, new entrants, private companies, regulators and public-sector clients. His primary

areas of specialisation include operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) solution architecture and

integration for business process re-engineering, business process optimisation, business continuity planning,

procurement and outsourcing operations and strategies. Before joining Analysys Mason, Glen worked for Fujitsu,

designing, delivering and managing integrated solutions. Glen is a Chartered Engineer and project management

professional with an MSc from Coventry University.

Gorkem Yigit (Research Analyst) is part of the Telecoms Software research team, contributing to the Service

Assurance, Infrastructure Solutions, Service Delivery Platforms and Customer Experience Management strategies

programmes. He started his career in the telecoms industry with a graduate role at a leading telecoms operator,

before joining Analysys Mason in late 2013. He has also written an academic paper about market acceptance of

cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and he earned cum laude an MSc degree in Economics and

Management of Innovation and Technology from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).

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