Nokia Networks Intelligent base stations

Nokia Networks Intelligent base stations

Nokia Networks

Nokia Networks white paperIntelligent base stations

Contents

Executive summary 3

The mobile broadband experience 4

Changing communications landscape 5

Evolution of the mobile base station 6

Service and experience expectations 12

Value chain disruption 15

Conclusion 17

Abbreviations 18

Page 2 networks.nokia.com

Executive summaryThis paper will discuss the changing role of the mobile base station, highlighting the opportunity for it to become a hub for service creation and the delivery of highly personalized services. Additional opportunities in terms of the technological disruption in today’s telecom and IT-based ecosystems will also be touched, due to the changing nature of the various player’s roles as they develop new ways to work together and monetize from the provision of an enriched mobile broadband experience.

The capability to generate new forms of revenue is an opportunity for mobile operators they cannot ignore as their traditional primary revenue sources (e.g. voice & messaging) continue to decline. Services such as Skype, Tango, Viber, FaceTime, Acrobits, Gizmo, Whatsapp, TextMe, iMessage, etc, are some reasons for this decline that are further exacerbated by ‘all-you-can-eat’ data plans that mobile operators launched to attract subscribers.

It is crucial for mobile operators to stake out new territory by offering compelling services that treat subscribers to a truly gratifying and personalized mobile broadband experience. Moving content in close proximity to the mobile subscriber is one such example, providing a more responsive experience as content can be delivered quicker and with lower latency. In addition, services should be tailored to subscribers’ individual needs, including location and social-based preferences, making the service experience more personal from the interaction between the smart device, the subscriber’s surroundings and the mobile network.

This paper will also outline the benefits of moving service creation and delivery to the edge of the mobile network, realized through a set of IT-based capabilities inside a mobile base station. These capabilities extend applications and services that would normally reside within the Internet or the mobile operator’s centralized core and data centers, placing them in close proximity to the mobile subscriber. The associated benefits result in the delivery of a fresh and exciting mobile broadband experience that is characterized by low latency, contextualized and innovative applications and services that can be deployed with greater flexibility and agility.

Enhancing the mobile network in this way offers a compelling opportunity towards other ecosystem players to innovate and develop appealing new services that can leverage the processing power located close to the mobile subscriber.


The mobile broadband experienceBurgeoning traffic, increasingly diverse services and rising standards for premium-quality, personalized services are compelling the communications industry to adapt and adopt. Fierce competition, a vigorous and often volatile market, and flat-rate – some would say cutthroat – pricing policies are other factors driving sweeping change.

Traffic explosionTraffic growth shows no signs of abating, with video already clogging the various pipes of the mobile network. Data traffic, in particular, is on the rise, as mobile devices proliferate and become even smarter. Mobile broadband is the most convenient access technology for people today and will continue to be so.

Many machines also communicate across mobile networks, adding to the rise of data traffic. Applications such as remote metering, security, environmental monitoring, healthcare, tracking, tracing, etc, are thriving, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication traffic is snowballing. Mobile operators need to break through capacity barriers, minimize their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and deliver the gratifying experience that savvy users expect. Essentially they need to do more for less.

Network fundamentalsAs mobile operators strive to provide a best-in-class mobile broadband experience, the first step is to get the fundamentals right: the provision of a decent connection and sufficient bandwidth at the right price.

Network availability and performance carry great weight with mobile subscribers(1), but the look, feel and ease of use of content and applications also shape people’s perceptions. With the successful deployment of 3G and with LTE deployments now well underway in many parts of the world, these fundamentals have been established by the majority of mobile operators.

With the fundamentals in place, it is important to go beyond the basics to deliver the innovative services that sophisticated subscribers want. People are willing to pay premium rates for premium services, but they expect an excellent experience in return.

The service perception of mobile subscriber is often shaped by services offered from other content providers (e.g. Over-The-Tops or OTTs) that generate little or no revenue for the mobile operator. Furthermore, traffic from these OTT services burdens the mobile network, with it being treated no more than just a bit-pipe connection to the mobile subscriber.

(1) - Nokia Solutions and Networks Acquisition and Retention Study 2013


Changing communications landscapeAs well as growing traffic and higher expectations, mobile operators also need to handle increasing numbers of mobile broadband subscribers as traditional revenue sources decline. Developed markets have reached saturation in terms of mobile operator choice and competition has become intense.

From the perspective of the OTT and other similar players, mobile applications, services and content provide significant growth prospects. For mobile operators, this also represents a significant opportunity where they can leverage their important position within the value chain to drive value. They actually have the ability to play pivotal, complementary and profitable roles within the respective business models of the other communication ecosystem players. This can be seen from Figure 1.

Content delivery in mobile networksSeveral distinct trends, all of which are primarily centered on data and multimedia consumption, are influencing the type of content that is being delivered over mobile networks:

• Strong growth in applications and services that empower users to participate in communities, generate content and interact in virtual worlds

• Popularity of streaming services that deliver individual video content on demand Emergence of mobile, interactive remote gaming and real-time gaming as major industries in their own right

• Wider use of mobile office capabilities, including smart phones, notebooks, ubiquitous broadband access and advanced security solutions, which free business users from their office environments

Mobile operators• Mobile broadband usage is growing (>60%)*• High margin products (Voice 40%, SMS 70%) are being eroded**• Current telco business models will fail to be profitable by 2015***

Web service providers/ISVs• M2M, mobile advertising, m-health, m-payments, etc, will drive more than half of all incremental revenue growth**• Cloud-based computing will increase to 72% of all data services by 2020**

*Nokia Solutions and Networks Acquisition and Retention Study (2011)** The Future of Telecom: New models for a new industry, Delta partners (2012)

*** End of profitability, Tellabs Insight (2011)

Figure 1: The communications ecosystem


A positive mobile broadband experience, which depends on factors such as network capacity, throughput rates, signaling response time and latency, right across the network to the very edge, are the key requirements for these trends to materialize in mobile operator networks. While subscribers have no particular interest in the type of technology deployed within a mobile network, they do expect unimpeded access to the Internet, anytime and anywhere. All of these factors are under the direct influence of the mobile operator.

Rise of cloud computingMobile technologies will dominate the growth in the number of people and devices connected, and mobile networks will need to handle a huge number of devices, such as laptops, netbooks, tablets, eBook readers, smartphones, MP3 players, digital cameras, portable navigation devices, connected cars, and body sensors, to name just a few. Many of these devices and the applications that run on them depend upon the delivery of real-time content to and from the Cloud.

Storage and server capabilities that handle content for this array of devices are typically situated in Cloud-based data centers outside of the mobile network, which can flexibly scale in line with the increasing number of users and their devices. As the mobile network does not have the same flexibility in terms of scale, it can become a bottleneck as the amount of traffic increases.

Approximating data centers at the very edge of the mobile network is a unique solution to this challenge. Rather than just expanding capacity within a centrally located data center, a transformed mobile base station can provide both the needed computational capacity and meet the communications industry’s needs for robust networking.

In essence, mobile networks can deliver distributed intelligence into today’s applications infrastructures to embrace big data for consumers, businesses and suppliers.

Evolution of the mobile base stationThe following general trends have a major impact on the architecture of mobile networks:

• Circuit Switched (CS) connectivity services are being replaced by Packet Switched (PS) services - as a result, legacy voice services will eventually disappear and be replaced by Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services

• Mobile networks are evolving towards flat architectures, which enables more favorable economies in terms of capacity for the ever-increasing amount of user traffic

• Cloud computing is also permeating into future network architecture evolution, where the Control Plane (C-Plane) is expected to be handled by sophisticated software running on powerful servers (also known as virtualization) and User Plane (U-Plane) data passing through optimized routing platforms


With the third generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 6 (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access WCDMA), both the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the Core Network (CN) were defined hierarchically. The RAN was primarily composed of the base station (NodeB, NB) and the Radio Network Controller (RNC), and the CN contained the Serving General Packet Radio Service Support Node (SGSN) and the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

The next evolutionary step was with 3GPP Rel.7, where the concept of direct tunnel between the RNC and GGSN was introduced. This meant that the U-Plane traffic could bypass the SGSN (also referred to as a flat CN). A further evolutionary step was pioneered by Nokia Networks, who merged RNC functions into the base station (referred to as flat RAN). The Long Term Evolution (LTE) network architecture, introduced with 3GPP Rel.8, is built upon the same principles, with the CS network completely eliminated.

LTE is closely aligned to the 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE), which defines the overall evolved 3GPP architecture and operation in conjunction with the Evolved Universal Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN).

The SAE function within 3GPP has been renamed as the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Together, the EPC and LTE form the Evolved Packet System (EPS). Similar to the definitions within WCDMA, the EPC U-Plane nodes are called the Serving Gateway (S-GW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW), which are often combined as the SAE Gateway (SAE-GW).

C-Plane functions in the EPC are allocated to the Mobility Management Entity (MME). RNC functions have been merged into the LTE base station (eNodeB, eNB). During the evolution from 2G to LTE (including LTE-Advanced), PS performance of the mobile network has increased dramatically. However, the PS mobility concept remained unchanged: mobility of the User Equipment (UE) is achieved through ‘bearers’ that originate in the CN and are terminated in the UE.

The GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) is used in both 3G (UTRAN) and (E-UTRAN). Figure 2 illustrates the protocol stack in LTE.

Functional split between IT and telecom One of the 3GPP design principles is to separate the IT domain (which is about user applications and servers with IP traffic in between) from the telecom domain. From the perspective of the UE, the very first network element that has access to the user’s IP traffic is the SAE-GW in the CN.

For economic reasons, mobile networks have typically been built with very few centralized CNs. As a consequence, CN elements can be some distance away from the UE, in networking terms. This geographical distance translates into propagation delay, which is further increased by latencies introduced by the many networking hops in-between.


Furthermore, the Mobile Backhaul (MBH) network is a significant cost factor for the mobile operator. In most cases, over-dimensioning is prohibitive, meaning that traffic congestion is likely to occur. This has an impact on service quality, perceived as Quality-of-Experience (QoE) by the user.

The functional split between RAN and CN, as defined by the 3GPP, has yet another consequence: the majority of the real-time information related to the radio interface is kept hidden. Even the mobile operator’s CN elements cannot access this data. Making this hidden data available would improve the quality of many services and open up a number of possibilities for the development of contextual-based services.

Tapping the value of the user planeThe ability to break into the U-plane is one method to access the potential of this hidden data. As illustrated in Figure 3, this can be achieved most effectively inside the base station with a Traffic Offload Function (TOF) that has full access to the user’s IP traffic but does not conflict with any 3GPP protocols. Additional value can be achieved if the software has real-time access to the 3GPP C-plane and Radio Resource Management (RRM) information, also from inside the base station.

IT domain

Telecom domain(3GPP)

Application IP

User app

IP

UE eNB SAE-GW Edge router/server

PDCP

LTE MAC

LTE PHY

PDCP

GTP-U

(NAT)

GTP-U

UDPUDP

IP

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

IP

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

Eth MAC

IP

Server app

Eth PHY

LTE MAC

LTE PHY

3GPP TNL IP

Mobilebackhaul

Internet

Figure 2: LTE protocol stack


Base station application architecture

Once access via a TOF is achieved, applications can utilize this capability to offer an enhanced mobile broadband experience. As indicated in Figure 4, applications can be categorized as embedded or add-on applications. Life cycle management of applications in these two categories is very different. Embedded applications would typically be created by the base station vendor and are provided as part of a software release, whereas add-on applications would be created by the vendor or third parties (e.g. Independent Software Vendors or ISVs) and provided independently from a vendor base station software release. The latter concept allows for expedited release cycle times when compared with traditional telecom network elements.

Platform services such as Radio Network Information Service, Location Service, etc, which applications can take advantage of, bring additional value. These services are provided through well documented Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

In line with the notion of distinct IT and Telecom domains as previously discussed, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) would be addressed by domain specific tooling. For example, Nokia Networks’ NetAct would address the telecom domain, and its Application Framework Manager (AFM) would address the IT domain.

IT domain

Telecom dom.(3GPP)

Application IP

User app

IP

PDCP PDCP

LTE MAC

LTE PHY

GTP-U

(NAT)

TOF aap

GTP-U

UDPUDP

IP

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

IP

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

Eth MAC

IP

Server app

Eth PHY

LTE MAC

LTE PHY

GTP-U

UDP

IP

GTP-U

IPIP

UDP

IP

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

Eth MAC

Eth PHY

3GPP TNL IP

UE eNB TOF SAE-GW Edge router/server

Mobilebackhaul

Internet

Figure 3: Traffic Offload function (TOF)


Edge computing and storage

Low latency and distributed processing,lower cost of delivery

Radio data exposure and export

Real time, fine granular network context – unexploited to date

Standard IT environment

Rapid development and flexibleapplication lifecycle management

Application connectivity

Ability to export data to/from externalapplications platforms

Figure 5: Logical layers of a mobile edge computing capability

Figure 4: Base station application architecture

Embedded applications Add-on applications

API

Platform service

API

Platform service

API

Platform service

API

VM

API

VM

API

VM

API

VM

API

VM

Application platform (laaS)

Base platform (computing, storage, connectivity)

Hardware

TOF architecture

Platform software

ApplicationManagers

ApplicationFrameworkManager

OSS


These principles are applicable to many current and future implementation variants of mobile base stations. Deployment could be applied in a Distributed RAN (D-RAN) scenario, co-located with a macro base station or with a network element aggregating traffic from multiple micro or pico base stations. A Centralized RAN (C-RAN) scenario is also possible, with this capability co-located with the baseband resource pool. From a protocol perspective, this type of innovative architecture within a base station can be installed anywhere within the traffic path from the eNB to the SAE-GW. While value through exposure to radio information will be retained anywhere along this path, the benefits resulting from proximity to the UE will fade as the distance is increased from the base station.

Mobile edge computingA base station with this additional capability provides computing resources, storage capacity and connectivity, located at the very edge of the mobile network. It also supports cloud computing functions, such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), where applications reside in their dedicated Virtual Machines (VMs) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which supports Java-based applications. This capability combines several logical layers, as shown from Figure 5:

• Radio gateway which allows applications to access the U-Plane and extract radio network context information

• Server with its own processing power and storage

• Private cloud providing the capability to configure and manage IaaS, as well as PaaS

• Interface to applications (API) to feed radio context information in a specific format

The capability to cache popular content at the edge of the mobile network provides key advantages, both in terms of the user experience and in cost savings for the mobile operator. This is primarily due to the content not having to be pulled from the Internet and across the mobile network every time it is requested.

A cache located inside a base station can contain frequently requested or popular content that is sent directly to the mobile subscriber over the radio interface. Content that is accessed from the base station is typically up to five times faster than from caches located elsewhere in the network. When content is stored inside a base station, load is alleviated on the rest of the mobile network. For example, backhaul efficiency between the base station and core network is improved through base station caching.

To provide a contextual experience, real-time radio data can be extracted from inside the base station to enable location-specific content such as special offers from nearby businesses, or information about tourist and visitor attractions in the area.


These new capabilities inside a base station open up fresh and exciting opportunities to positively impact the subscriber’s mobile broadband experience, with personalized service offerings and improved performance. A mobile edge computing capability inside a base station will make it possible to tailor content based on subscriber context, which will fundamentally change the definition of personalized services as well as transform the operator’s mobile network into a value creation engine that does much more than provide basic connectivity.

Service and experience expectationsExpectations for service fall into the categories of usability, availability, reliability, responsiveness and quality. Attracting and keeping mobile subscribers requires an excellent Quality of Experience (QoE).

QoE is the overall performance of a network from the subscriber’s point of view. It is a subjective measure of end-to-end service performance and is an indication of how well the network meets their needs.

Quality of Service (QoS) is a measure of performance from a network point of view. It refers to a set of technologies that allow a mobile operator to manage the impact of congestion on application performance as well as providing a differentiated service to selected network traffic flows or subscribers. QoS metrics include objective network layer parameters such as packet loss, delay, and jitter.

The challenge for the mobile operator is to bring all of this together in order to deliver a positive mobile broadband experience:

• Assured QoS in real time(minimum delay and latency) with exceptional interactive responsiveness to congestion or packet loss

• Support of mainstream and innovative services and applications, including high-definition video services and premium content

• High reliability and availability

With a mobile edge computing capability, applications and services are extended to the very edge of the network, placing them in close proximity to the mobile subscriber. This enhances the QoE and delivers an improved QoS that realizes a full range of benefits, including low latency, faster and more contextualized content delivery.

Proximity and context are two factors that significantly shape QoE & QoS. Proximity brings value for the entire value chain and ecosystem, as it reduces latency and enhances the end user experience, which is one of the major reasons for customer churn. The same is true for context, which brings benefits to other ecosystem players, who can use this information to notch up the intelligence of their applications and services based on radio conditions or user statistics, further enhancing the mobile broadband experience.


New experience scenariosSubscribers expect their mobile broadband experience to offer a high level of individualization that is tightly bound with their preferences, context and communities.

Professional communities and social networking are creating demand for such information and location sharing. In addition, content and applications, such as advertisements, entertainment and connected objects are being tailored to the needs of specific subscribers and groups of users.

Augmented realityAugmented reality is a good example of how these capabilities work in practice to provide an exciting new level of individual experience. Although not a new concept, augmented reality can be transformed if the augmented content is placed in close proximity of the mobile subscriber, inside the base station. As depicted from Figure 6, a simple scenario would be a tourist pointing his smart device camera towards a touristic attraction, for example, a monument. With the smart device running an augmented reality application, this would trigger a virtual guide who would share the history of the monument. Today, this augmented reality experience would need to access content located somewhere in the Internet. As the content travels over the Internet, congestion and latency issues typically degrade the quality and subscriber experience, especially for video delivery.

Figure 6: An enhanced augmented reality experience


Imagine what happens to the same augmented reality experience when the content (e.g. the virtual guide) is stored in close proximity to the mobile subscriber:

• The video of the virtual guide is always requested and streamed from one physical base station location, making it possible to build future services using small distributed and specifically relevant databases

• The mobile broadband experience is enhanced, as the virtual guide would start much faster than in a centralized architecture - the likelihood of the video freezing is lower, as there are no other bottlenecks than the radio interface itself

• While the virtual guide is running, the remainder of the mobile network is not occupied by the transmission of the video, therefore can serve more traffic that typically has higher margins than data connectivity (e.g. voice, SMS, MMS)

Video caching and header enrichmentAnother example is video caching, both transparent (e.g. caching content in a dynamic way based on subscriber behavior) and smart caching (e.g. pre-populating the cache with the most popular, exclusive or smart content). Further improvements are possible by sending radio context information, known as Header Enrichment, to Media Optimizers (e.g. the Nokia Networks Flexi Content Optimizer), that further enhances algorithms for efficiency and utilization of network resources. Header Enrichment can also be leveraged to create new opportunities in premium new markets, such as Enterprise and financial segments.

Machine to machineMobile network technologies are also ideal for various M2M applications, in particular when the machine itself is mobile (e.g. a car or truck), and where the data can be treated similarly to subscriber data. The M2M market is expanding rapidly as more and more applications and potential uses are uncovered. With mobile edge computing, mobile operators can apply localized data storage, processing and routing capabilities to offer services for the M2M environment.

Remote health monitoring is one application area that is growing with importance, as the population ages and needs more extensive medical services. Faced with mounting budget pressures, health care providers are looking for cost-saving measures to avoid long stays in hospitals or other care facilities simply for monitoring the patient’s overall well-being. Non critically ill patients can stay at home and nursing staff can monitor their vital signs remotely.

Mobile-based services will become critical to treatment in remote or developing regions where the distances involved and lack of transport infrastructure make it difficult to provide conventional healthcare.


The capabilities and proximity benefits of mobile edge computing enable fast response times that can vastly increase effectiveness and usability in this area.

M2M security and observation systems, such as audio and video surveillance, are another scenario suitable for mobile edge computing. Such systems typically generate large amounts of data and consume considerable bandwidth. Localized storage and processing of this data at the very edge of the mobile network would alleviate the network load, as only significant changes in status (e.g. movement within a restricted area) would be transmitted to a centralized server.

EnterpriseExisting enterprise customers could also benefit from specific applications to solve business-critical issues or help improve their productivity. By developing these applications to work in conjunction with base station capabilities, mobile operators could sell beyond connectivity or just SIMs.

In this category, the capability to connect several sensors is a new area for service development and commercialization. Instead of transmitting information from sensors and cameras to a centralized server, the data could be pre-processed in the relevant radio sites where the machines are running. Another potential use of mobile edge computing would be to send radio information (e.g. measurements and/or statistics) to existing enterprise applications to enhance their capability and intelligence.

Value chain disruptionIn the context of this white paper, there are essentially two distinct value chains:

• Mobile operators and their subscribers, along with telecom suppliers

• Other ecosystem players (e.g. OTT, ASP, ISV)

These are actually two independent value chains, with a clear separation between them. Mobile operators have previously investigated collaborations outside their value chain in an effort to compensate for their declining revenues rather than try to block or inhibit OTT traffic. There has been mixed success. Some mobile operators have experimented with combined OTT services (e.g. Sprint & Google Voice). Other mobile operators have gone down the acquisition route (e.g. Telefonica purchasing Jajah, in order to launch their own mobile-based VoIP applications). With a mobile edge computing capability, the mobile operator has the potential to create a new environment that will attract OTTs, developers and Internet players to innovate over a new disruptive technology and enable context-aware applications to run in close proximity of the mobile subscriber.


With rapidly declining traditional voice and SMS usage on smart devices, mobile operators will find it impossible to reverse the shift towards OTT-types of communication. Therefore they should focus on managing this decline in a tactical manner and with new strategies that are agile and adaptable to rapidly changing consumer behaviors. One such strategy is the transformation of the traditional mobile asset, the base station, equipping it with a range of IT-based capabilities. This not only realizes a technological innovation, but also creates a new value chain and a refreshed ecosystem, where all players benefit from greater cooperation.

For many reasons, the mobile operator is in an enviable position in this new ecosystem. They own the primary relationship with the mobile subscriber, which includes intimate subscriber knowledge, they control the delivery capability to the subscriber’s device and also the mobile subscriber billing. The opportunity for them would lie in leveraging these unique attributes and collaborating with ecosystem partners.

By taking full advantage of technology that exploits subscriber knowledge, context and proximity, they could work together to create fresh content, applications and services that would benefit the entire ecosystem.

Mobile operators Web service providersIndependent SW vendors

Figure 7: Two distinct value chains


ConclusionA transformed mobile base station that possess IT-based capabilities towards service creation and the delivery of highly personalized services has the potential to realize a totally unique mobile broadband experience that translates into a capability for revenue generation. A mobile operators’ dense network of base stations creates proximity and subscriber interaction benefits that only they can offer, giving them the ability to change the definition of personalized service and shatter forever the perception of the mobile operator network as a bit-pipe. These benefits are also seen as valuable by the other entities within the ecosystem (e.g. the OTT).

Proximity reduces latency and significantly accelerates web-based services, which in turn enhances the mobile subscriber experience. For example, the delivery of video can be greatly accelerated if it is cached directly at the edge of the mobile network. This also realizes additional benefits, in terms of network efficiency, as network load is alleviated from the backhaul and core network elements, reducing peak traffic loads. Proximity and corresponding low latency allows large complex problems to be distributed into many smaller and more manageable pieces. These pieces are physically located at the source of the information, which is typically from devices that are connected to the mobile base station. Context facilitates software intelligence to be adapted, based on radio conditions or other statistics, again providing enhancements to the overall mobile broadband experience.

A mobile edge computing capability needs to provide at least localized processing and storage capabilities. If this is then enhanced with the ability to collect real-time network data (e.g. radio conditions, subscriber location, direction of travel, etc), this data can be exploited by applications to offer context-relevant services that differentiate the mobile broadband experience and which can be monetized. New applications can be developed to take advantage of exposure to this real-time network data, that connect mobile subscribers with local points-of-interest, businesses and events. Mobile operators will have the ability to host content, which could be their own or content from third parties, locally on the base station. Content, applications and services can be assigned quality of service guarantees, to ensure the timely delivery of priority traffic.

Service creation and delivery at the edge of the mobile network will disrupt the connected ecosystem, facilitating a never-seen-before interaction between the mobile operator, service provider and other entities, as they mutually cooperate and play complementary and profitable roles within their respective business models.


AbbreviationsAFM Application Framework Manager

API Application Programming Interface

ARPU Average Revenue Per User

ASP Application Service Provider

C-Plane Control Plane

CN Core Network

C-RAN Centralized Radio Access Network

CS Circuit Switched

D-RAN Distributed Radio Access Network

eNB LTE base station

EPC Enhanced Packet Core

EPS Enhanced Packet System

E-UTRAN LTE Universal Terrestrial RAN

GGSN GPRS Support Node

GPRS General Packet Radio System

GTPU GPRS Tunnelling Protocol U-Plane

IaaS Infrastructure as a Service

ISV Independent Software Vendor

LTE Long Term Evolution

MBH Mobile Back Haul

MME Mobile Management Entity

MMS Multimedia Messaging System

MP3 MPEG layer 3

M2M Machine to Machine

NB 3G base station

NodeB 3G base station

OTT Over The Top

O&M Operation & Maintenance

PaaS Platform as a Service

P-GW Packet Gateway

PS Packet Switched

QoE Quality of Experience

QoS Quality of Service


RAN Radio Access Network

RNC Radio Network Controller

RRM Radio Resource Manager

SAE System Architecture Evolution

SAE-GW SAE Gateway

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

S-GW Serving Gateway

SMS Short Messaging Service

TCO Total Cost of Ownership

TOF Traffic Offload Function

UE User Equipment

U-Plane User Plane

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial RAN

VoIP Voice over IP

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project


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Nokia Networks Intelligent base stations