Cover Interview - Gaining a universal edge
Kim Perdikou is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Juniper 
Networks' Infrastructure Product Group. She tells European Communications how her company can help carriers and service providers meet the challenges that they face today
EC: What challenges are your customers facing in the evolution of their business models?
Overall, the challenges are largely similar for them all. The challenges they face are being driven by the changing demands and expectations of their customers. Previously the expected experience could be summed up as static - you logged in at home or in your office, you downloaded or had a conversation, and that was it. Now, the expected - the required - experience is dynamic. You log in wherever you happen to be, access media-rich multimedia services and assume the video will play, the music download will be quick, the voice quality will be excellent. Our customers need to provide real-time services everywhere.
Another challenge overlaying this is scale; in the past the scale was in one dimension only for carriers and SPs - the number of subscribers to manage. Now, they should be thinking in terms of dynamic 3D scale: subscribers, bandwidth and services.
Subscribers are also very focused on security, and rightly so. This is driving our customers to build effective and extensive security into their services from the ground up, as well as securing their own infrastructure to protect it from attack. They need a versatile solution that doesn't create a bottleneck which cancels out their investment in high-performance, multi-terabit bandwidth capability.
All of these challenges need to be balanced against capital and operational cost, if their business models are to succeed.
EC: What impact are competing service providers from different areas having on their services businesses - both in consumer and enterprise fields?
The SP business has never been more competitive. The popularity of being able to access multimedia applications on the move is sustaining strong growth potential for mobile services provision. Numerous analysts are suggesting that mobile data traffic will double every year into the next decade.
Another angle on this is the competing SPs you refer to; the landscape of 10 years ago tended to have the traditional PTT fixed provider and over time a mobile spin-off, plus one or two LLU competitors. The growth in demand for applications and services has driven a huge proliferation in sources of services and content.
This is all great for the consumer, but it has created a massive challenge for operators, over whose infrastructure these typically bandwidth-hungry services are being delivered. The user has one focus - the experience. He/she doesn't think: "Well, I've downloaded this video from X while I'm on the move, but it was running over Y's network and they don't see any of the money I'm paying for the video, and it is a huge file, so the latency is acceptable." They just blame their provider and potentially go elsewhere for service the next time.
This also applies to the business user - applications are large, and people are increasingly accessing them while on the move. Multimedia also plays a big part in modern business. They expect a consistent level of performance that is as good as when they are in the office.
EC: Are carriers facing inevitable commoditization of their core capability or can they compete on services?
It is true that in the wireline market, broadband connectivity has become largely commoditized, and that while wireless connectivity is still in its ascendancy, it is likely to ultimately mirror the evolution of fixed broadband and reach a saturation point. This creates a time of decision making - where each SP has to decide to transform their business model or use a transport-only company focused on cost containment and reduction.
Juniper believes that the carriers' core capability - the operation of a fast, reliable, secure and scalable network - should play a key role in the value chain that lies between the user and the content/ service/ application. Their ability to do this is unique, so a mutually-beneficial relationship between carrier and content provider makes sense. This partnership, this co-dependence, creates the platform for a happy, loyal, empowered customer. Whether fixed or wireless, carriers need to consider their future business model evolution in terms of sharing in the content/services revenue, based upon investment in a high-performance network infrastructure that is capable of handling bandwidth-rich multimedia material on demand in a mobile world.
EC: What constraints are carriers facing as they seek to face up to these challenges?
In a nutshell, doing more with less. Capital constraints are a direct result of the economic downturn, but are amplified by the commoditization in the fixed space. Carriers may have to run their networks hotter at a time when they are trying to prove their worth - so the margin for outage, lack of bandwidth, security breaches etc is very, very slim.
This is also true of operational expense and other resources. Fewer people with more limited skills may be available to keep a network at "5 9s minimum" levels of operation. Training issues - for example maintaining numerous operating systems from technology to technology - can be a huge drain on resources and capability.
Technically, over-complication of the network infrastructure has crept up on many network operators over the years. A sprawl of concepts, devices, management systems, operating systems, versions, proprietary approaches has inevitably developed from the first iterations of the Internet (it's worth noting that the Internet turned forty back in October 2009 - and most forty year olds have developed a few bad habits over time!).
EC: Are their networks aligned to support the business they would like to become?
This is another way of looking at a summary of the challenges that face carriers today. The world is changing fast and irrevocably, with telecommunications at the heart. Carriers' "unique selling point" is network infrastructure at scale. To ensure this USP has a place in the new world, it has to become a "new network".
Juniper is working with our customers to build high-performance networks that do align with their business aspirations. In addition, we are working with them on turning off legacy networks which cost to run and in many areas are more expensive (i.e. power).
EC: How is Carrier Ethernet penetrating the Metro Edge? Is it a market that's reaching maturity?
In most developed markets the Metro Edge is dominated by carrier Ethernet, so from a pure Ethernet deployment standpoint the simple answer is yes. Where we believe that this area is still in its relative infancy is within the consistency of the control plane with the wider IP/MPLS core network. To offer a broad set of Layer 2, Layer 3 and ultimately Layer 4-7 services cost-effectively, Juniper believes that the most effective approach is with a common underlying network control plane -MPLS. MPLS offers great benefits in terms of its carrier class QoS, resiliency and support of a range of Layer 2 and 3 services. Ultimately the real benefits of Ethernet deployment at the Metro Edge and out into the Metro Access layer will only be realised when the ubiquity of Ethernet is combined with the seamless MPLS approach across the entire end-to-end network.
EC: What is the concept of the Intelligent Services Edge? What does the term mean in terms of flexible service delivery?
Nowadays we talk in terms of the "Universal Edge". The goal here is to ‘productise' and simplify a key factor we see a number of service providers beginning to focus on: streamlining their network operations. This focus is driven by two main factors: the desire to reduce overall network complexity and thus cost, plus the desire to offer a growing array of walled- and open-garden services combined with over the top-derived content to any device at any time. At Juniper we think that these two factors will only truly be addressed when all services are delivered from a common point in the network - which we believe will be the Universal Edge. This common point will deliver a rich array of mobile, consumer broadband and business services and in doing so will give service providers the ultimate flexibility in the type and mix of services that can be deployed. This concept takes us back to something we were talking about earlier, around the evolution of business models. We think the Universal Edge will help our service provider customers to do exactly that by providing them with the flexibility and scalability to meet ubiquitous demand for bandwidth, scale and services. This is the vision behind the development of our MX 3D Universal Edge Router family, a product set that provides the required levels of availability, flexibility and performance that carriers need to support the concept of the Universal Edge. Juniper’s vision is “Connect everything, empower everyone”, after all!
EC: What are the key drivers and use cases for your customers? What are the functionalities that must be made available? How can employing services on top of Carrier Ethernet improve differentiation?
Service providers are in a prime position to fundamentally shape the experience that users have as they consume content and applications from a number of different sources. This experience is based on the provider's ability to control the QoS, latency, bandwidth awareness, identity and location or presence information. These are the attributes that we believe service providers will increasingly utilise in the future as they develop new 2-sided or open-garden business models with content partners. Carrier Ethernet and technologies such as MPLS and the Universal Edge I mentioned previously deliver the efficiency and flexibility to make those offerings fit for purpose. Remember, the user is ultimately only interested in the overall experience; the content provider focuses on quality of material/application, and the service provider focuses on delivering that content securely and consistently, wherever the user happens to be. That's a win-win-win situation!
EC: How can operators simplify the way services are deployed across converged networks? Does integrating service intelligence with Carrier Ethernet equipment reduce the number of elements under management and therefore the cost of doing so?
The key here is to do more with less, as we’ve already explored – simplification cannot be at the expense of functionality and quality; its purpose has to be to save capital and operational expenditure while still maintaining and increasing the network’s ability to deliver value.Our belief is that over time service providers will push vendors such as Juniper to deliver increasing levels of scale and intelligence based upon a reduced range of products and platforms. This will help to meet the dual needs of simplicity and service opportunities that today’s multiple disparate networks and array of technologies often inhibit. Of course, the ability to provide unified, intelligent solutions that scale to carrier grade needs has always been the founding principal of Juniper Networks. You could say it is in our DNA, and has always been a differentiator for us. Now it is more relevant than ever.
A key part of this drive will be network virtualisation, using a smaller number of physical network components and instances whilst maintaining the capability to separate autonomous business activities, with high levels of performance, security, and scalability. Our strategy to embrace partnerships with an open platform will meet this customer need.
EC: How big a driver is mobile backhaul? What are the needs of mobile operators and the challenges they face? Where should traffic policies and controls be supplied?
Mobile backhaul is likely to be one of the major growth areas in the next few years, based on the huge bandwidth increases being driven by smartphones. This has led to a need to increase capacity in the backhaul, but in the most cost-efficient manner possible. In the long run, as mobile operators move towards LTE, the network will ultimately become ‘all IP’ with the backhaul piece dominated by carrier Ethernet. In the interim, clearly there will be a need for co-existence between TDM / ATM and IP-based services and transport.In terms of traffic control, where legacy traffic such as TDM or ATM exists, traffic control and policing tends to happen in a more centralised fashion. As the swing towards an “all IP” network takes shape, there will be much greater flexibility in where those control points are deployed, based on the traffic mix and network efficiencies.
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