Where is the Network Edge?MEC Deployment Options, Business Case & SDN Considerations

Ian Goetz, Chief Architect, Vodafone Global Account, Juniper Networks

August, 2016

Market Trends & The Network Environment

Mobile Market Trends: The Customer Experience

Pervasive Coverage

Seamlessly Converged

Trusted Reliability

Application Optimized

• The Smartphone and Tablet, combined with 3G HSPA and 4G have driven the proliferation of applications for business,lifestyle and pleasure with most coming from OTT Web Companies

• Availability of those applications and the network latency impacting them is key to the end user experience which in turn impacts Churn and Market Share for mobile operators

• The drive to 5G Highlights latency and IoT as key areas to address for mobile operators with low latency and distributed application requirements inherent in the services.

OTTAPPLICATIONS

Mobile Backhaul Environment: Moving To Extensive 4G & Multi-Service Access

Site 3

Site 2

Site 1

Hub-Site

Hub-Site

Hub-Site

Hub-Site

Core-Site

• Mixed 2G, 3G HSPA, LTE, LTE-A Coverage• Macro Sites Used as Hub-Sites for surrounding Small-Cells• Hub-Sites Aggregate 10-20 Macro and associated Small Cells• All IP, MPLS Access Network• For 4G, IPsec Tunnels from Base Station (eNode B) to Core Site, terminated on SecGW• All data traffic is currently backhauled to the core – cost and latency impact• Accurate Timing (Freq & Phase) a key requirement with distributed security

Site 4

• Many operators centralise their EPC:• Usually to fewer sites than current 3G core (RNC, MSC etc)

• 3GPP CUPS (Control User Plane Separation) Allows EPC User Plane to move closer to the user

• Potentially as far as the base station.• This could reduce the Core Network Latency, placing the SGi close to the user BUT…..• Mobility issues and signalling volume are likely to drive a complimentary approach:

• CUPS allows centralised, NFV based vEPC Control Plane functions and distributed User plane – Former RNC/MSC Sites

• MEC allows applications to run cost effectively at hub sites.

Hub-Site

Hub-Site

5G Impacts : Distributed EPC .v. MEC

Telco CloudCore-Site

MX104

MX104

FormerRNC/MSC

Site

Other Core VNFs

AggregationRouter

Telco CloudBorderRouter

vEPCControl Plane

(GTP-C)

CUPS ControlInterface

(Sx a, b , c)

S1

S1

SGi

MEC Deployment Options & Business Case

Mobile Edge Computing: Is The Device The Edge?

The Device (User or IoT) would be the logical network edge for MEC:

• Compute, Storage and Power Provided by the user• Minimum Latency• Known application distribution method

BUT:

• Content/Application security is an issue• Content/Application distributed for specific user is the

the same as current applications• User Privacy issues for operator “facing” applications• Many Device and OS Versions to manage

Hence, the network offers the scale and most of the latencyBenefits without the device management issues

C-RAN Site

Small Cell Hub Site

Enterprise Site

Pre-Agg/Hub Site

Core Network Site

Internet/

Roaming

Partner

MEC edge applications

MEC Server (Access)

MEC Gateway (Core)

MEC Deployment options

Small Cells

WiFi

Compute CPEOr

COTS Server

OutdoorSmall Cell Hub Router

Small Cells

Macro Cells

RemoteRadioHeads(RRH)

COTS ServerAdjacent to Pre-Agg

Router

COTS ServerAdjacent to C-RAN

Control Server

S1 SGi

LI

Charging

EPC

Core LTESecGW

SGiService LAN

Hub Site Deployment Offers Best Business Case:Compromise Between Quality, Cost & Speed Of Deployment

JUNIPER MODELLING CONCLUSIONS

• Faster rollout to hub sites leads to greater average improvement in customer experience (& revenue) due to

the faster rollout

• Direct costs includes normal opex costs from the business (e.g. sales & marketing, interconnect, etc…)

• Significantly higher compute costs at cell site, for limited additional backhaul savings

• Overall benefits higher at hub site with much greater ROI

• Long term service improvements from cell site deployment do not outweigh additional costs and time to deploy

$412

$32

$349

$37

$150

$2 $127

$12

$291 $246

$-$50

$100$150$200$250$300$350$400$450

Revenue Directcosts

Compute& Storage

Backhaul Netbenefit

Revenue Directcosts

Compute& Storage

Backhaul Netbenefit

5 y

ea

r to

tal (M

illio

ns)

Positive Negative Total

HUB SITE CELL SITE

~6x ROI of cell site

Mobile Backhaul Environment: MEC & SDN Enablement

• MEC Enables applications to be deployed at the mobile network edge

• SDN Enables the chaining of MEC Applications and the Life-cycle Management of MEC Application VNFs using automation

• Juniper CONTRAIL & Contrail Service Orchestrator SDN Control automates the creation of service chains in the Telco Cloud DC and MEC Eco-system

• VNF Orchestration, such as Juniper Service Maestro, can be used to instantiate VNFs and manage their Life-Cycle

• Service chaining is needed to automate the link of IPsec termination (vSecGW) and MEC Server

• With appropriate subscriber awareness, different MEC service chains can be applied to different customer traffic, enabling monetised service bundles

Hub Site Small Cell Hub Enterprise uCPE

HubSite

WiFi & Smallcell HetNet

OS

VM1

vSecGW

JunipervSRX

Hypervisor (KVM)

x86 COTS Server

Juniper SDN Service Chaining

S1-U IPsec

VM2

MECSERVER

SDN Control Link

VM3

MECApplication

1

VM.. N

MECApp

N

Hub Site: SDN Enabled MEC

Enterprise uCPE

Juniper MX104

S1-U IPsec

Subscriber A

Subscriber B

VM5

MECApp

2

VM4

vSecGW

JunipervSRX Internet/

Roaming

Partner

S1 SGi

LI Charging

Core LTESecGW

SGiService LAN

Core Network Site

EPC

SDNControl&VMOrchestration(ETSI NFV)

Virtualised NetworkFunctions

e.g.• EPC, MGE/MSC Server• HLR/HSS, IMS• IN, PCRF• SBC, CMTS• NAT, Gi LAN

MEC Gateway

Mobile Backhaul Environment: MEC In The Backhaul Network:Enterprise uCPE Use Case

HubSite

CSR

SDN Control Link

SDN Enabled Enterprise uCPE

EnterprisePremises

Small Cell Hub Router

Enterprise uCPE

JUNIPER NFX250: Enterprise Compute CPE

EnterpriseLTE Small

Cells

• Enterprise deployments of small cells allow LTE Coverage and

capacity to be delivered to high value corporate users on

premises

• SDN enables and automates the ability to provide enterprise

VNFs on a customer premises and the routing of VPN services

through the network

• These capabilities are termed vCPE and uCPE:

• vCPE deploys CPE services as VNFs on x86 compute in

the network

• uCPE allows VNFs to be deployed on the customer site

and the automation of VPN routing

• As LTE Small Cells are deployed the uCPE platform can be

used to host the MEC server and vSecGW

• This allows enterprise and customer specific applications to be

hosted on the customer site

• Hence a CPE with compute capability and SDN Service

Chaining is needed

S1-U IPsecOS

VM1

vSecGW

JunipervSRX

Hypervisor (KVM)

JuniperSDN Service Chaining

VM2

MECSERVER

LTESecGW

Subscriber A

Subscriber B

VM3

MECApplication

1 …… N

VM4

vSecGW

JunipervSRX

S1-U IPsec

S1-U IPsec

LTESecGW

x86 COTS Server

S1-U IPsec

MEC Use Cases

MEC Use Case 1: Saves Network Resources, Fast

P2P Traffic, Analyze, Store, Control at the Edge

SHORT TRANSACTIONS EXTENDED BATTERY LIFEBased on Microsoft cloudlet research by Dr. Victor Bahl

Core NetworkRadio Access Network (RAN) Internet

SGiS1MEC RAN Solution

MEC Core SolutionLocal IoT Gateway

MEC Use Case 2: Software Defined Secure Networks

• Policy defined in Policy Engine• “Attacks from infected mobile

devices should be blocked in the Mobile Hub site”

Policy

• Sky Infected Host feed• 3rd party feeds• SRX data to Sky

Detection

• Contrail provisions vSRX in the Service Chain

• Traffic from infected mobiles dropped by vSRX

Enforcement

Mobile Hub Site

SDSN Policy

EngineSD

Contrail

Service

Orchestrator

Policy update for Service Chain requirements

Policy Enforcement on vSRX

SKY ATP

3rd Party

Feeds

Mobile SP Network

Dynamic Service Chain w/ vSRX

MEC Use Case 3 Unified Enterprise Communication: Local Break Out

• Deliver a unified customer experience

• Segregate public 4G/3G access from enterprise services: Private Mobile LAN

• Reduce costs for enterprise mobile users

• VoLTE & Mobile Data Break Out from MEC – straight to the corporate LAN

Private Enterprise Voice & data Network

Core Network Site

Internet/

Roaming

Partner

SGi

LI

Charging

SGiService LAN

Enterprise Site

Small Cells

WiFi

Compute CPEOr

COTS Server

Core LTESecGW

S1EPC

Using SDN To Speed MEC Delivery

Partner Open-RAN Architecture

Mobile Edge Computing Platform

• RAN Vendor and Mobile Operator independent

• Operates inside the Radio Access Network; as close as possible to mobile users

• Runs 3rd party applications serving content directly to mobile users

EPCRadio Access Network (RAN)

InternetSGi

S1MEC Server

MEC Gateway

• Enable certified MEC applications to run on the MEC server

• Provide real-time information regarding cell congestion, location,

user and application

• Replay content to the core network

• Steer traffic to the appropriate app

• Accelerate webpage loading with DNS caching

• Preserves core functionality for RAN-generated traffic: LI,

Charging and policy control

• Manages handover for RAN-generated traffic

SRX3XX & SRX1500

Juniper Cloud CPE :Enterprise SDN VPN

Operator Access Network

CPE

Enterprise Customer 1

Enterprise Customer 2

Enterprise Customer 3

CPE

CPE

Juniper MX/vMX/SRX5K

x86 Appliances

PE

PEP

PP

PPE

PE

VPN Network

PE

PEP

P

P

P

PE

PE

Internet Peering Network

ExistingL3 CPE

ExistingL3 CPE

Existing or NewSimplified L2 CPE

ServiceOrchestration

Universal CPE (uCPE)

Cloud Service Providers

EnterpriseCustomer 5

NFX250

EmbeddedSDN Chaining

NATvFirewallJuniper vSRX

Contrail vRouter

Overlay VPN via LTE, ISP Broadband &/Or SP Access Possible

vCPE & IW GW

Contrail Cloud

SDN Controller,

CSO NSC &

Service

Orchestrator

Openstack VIM 3rd PartyVNFs

Internet Connection

x86 Appliances

Laboratory (UK)

NAT

NFV Orchestrator

NCSOvFirewall

Contrail vRouter

MWCBarcelona

SDN Controller

Contrail

Openstack (VIM)

vSRX

MWC16 Multi-Vendor SDN-VPN POC- JUNIPER NFX Now Used for Operator MEC POCs

SCOPE:• Overlay VPN and Cloud Service Chains Using Zero Touch Deployment Compute CPE

COMPONENTS:• Amdocs Orchestration (NCSO) - Service Orchestration• Juniper Contrail - SDN Controller• Juniper MX PE - vCPE Gateway• Juniper NFX250 CPE - Compute CPE• Juniper vSRX FW - Security VNF• RedHat Openstack - VIM

MX480

Enterprise CPE

NFX250Overlay VPN

SDN Control

MEC and Contrail Service Orchestrator Automated Catalog Driven Network Service

End User

ePCSP InfraNFVI

MEC GWCloud Hosted

Aggregation/Edge Mobile Packet Core Gi DC/CloudRAN and Backhaul

Contrail Service Orchestrator Programmable Network Service Layer (REST API)

Portal

Network Service Abstraction of MEC and Gi-LAN services for best E2E experience

Network Service Abstraction

Catalog

Driven

Services

Contrail SDN

Controller

DevOps/NetOps

Network

Designer

Network Facing

Self Care

OSS/BSS

Radio Access Network

Gi-LAN

Internet

vSRX MEC App

MEC Server

Infrastructure

SecGW

SRX LTE SecGW

EPC

S1

S1

SGi

MEC SDN Environment

NFX250

S1 IPsec

S1 GTP

VNF OnNFX250

LocalSecGW

MEC Application(Access Side)

MECGateway

4G Small Cell

4G Small Cell

MECApp Device

Non-MECApp Device

S1 IPsec

BroadbandConnection

S1 IPsec

S1 IPsec

S1 IPsec

HubSite Router

MEC Server

VNF OnNFX250

S1 (User & MME)

MECApplication

(SGi/Cloud Side)

NFV Orchestrator

SDN Controller

Contrail

Openstack (VIM)

NetworkServicesController

MX104

Core

Access

• Juniper is enabling the SDN/NFV Environment for Mobile Network MEC Deployment:• Automated Set-Up of MEC Infrastructure• Security Gateways for secure LTE networks

Thank youThank you