CASE STUDY BULGARIAN TELCO PIONEERS MOBILE "TRIPLE-PLAY" SERVICES OVER WIMAX

Max Telecom uses Navini Smart WiMAX and Cisco Carrier Ethernet solutions to deliver
nationwide mobile services.
Business Challenges Max Telecom entered the telecommunications market in Bulgaria just two and a half years ago and quickly established itself as a new-generation operator by adopting the latest network and business innovations and giving subscribers industry-leading services and capabilities. The “greenfield” company is garnering international attention with its nationwide network based on mobile WiMAX™ technology. The ambition of Max Telecom is to extend its modern, highly efficient network to the entire population of the country within the next few years. The aggressive build-out has challenged the company to select technology partners that can deliver the required hand-held devices as well as help Max Telecom deliver its vision of mobile access for all services.
The company currently offers Internet access, VPNs, voice services, video, and IPTV.
Having already selected Cisco® for the core network, Max Telecom evaluated radio vendors to determine the best possible foundation to meet its goal of delivering all services using mobile WiMAX. The company simultaneously evaluated all alternatives for an efficient access/aggregation solution. To shorten time to market and keep costs low, Max Telecom decided to lease parts of the network. A third-party provides Ethernet to the home (ETTH) for access to base stations in various cities, and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) lines to connect its headquarters with the smaller cities. To build out the mobile access network, Max Telecom looked for base station equipment and an overall architecture that could scale aggressively and
help ensure security within its leased transport environment. The company aims to cover 90 percent of the 7.5 million residents of Bulgaria by the end of this year.



The major requirements for the base station selection and overall design included:
● Controlling capital expenses and operating expenses by minimizing cell counts and
improving in-building coverage. Evolving from fixed services (desktop modems, PCs) to mobile services (handheld and embedded devices) as new 802.16e wireless broadband devices become available
● Enabling a broad range of services for competitive differentiation and to gain market share Network Solutions Aiming to pioneer mobile WiMAX services, Max Telecom focused its selection process on a rigorous evaluation of the leading WiMAX technologies. The company identified Smart Beamforming as a breakthrough that could enable its aggressive goals. This led the operator to Navini, the global leader for broadband wireless access solutions. With an established relationship with Cisco, Max Telecom also had confidence in Cisco as a partner that could enable a fast deployment. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. The Max Telecom 802.16e WiMAX Network



Leading-edge WiMAX Navini Smart WiMAX combines both Smart Beamforming and beamformed multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) technologies, two advancements uniquely combined by Navini to push the capabilities of broadband wireless networks. The unique combination doubles the data throughput for mobile WiMAX, extends the range, and enhances the signal strength. By using both Smart Beamforming and MIMO technologies, Navini offers base station and smart antenna solutions that enable data transmissions at rates up to six times faster than other WiMAX solutions. Smart WiMAX also extends coverage. In many places where standard signals cannot be received, the enhanced beamformed MIMO signal has the power and performance to break through. The results
are better mobility, higher throughput rates, and better coverage both indoor and outside. The Navini technology also enables fewer cell sites while increasing overall network capacity. “In terms of technology, Navini was clearly the best for our WiMAX deployment,” says Kroum Manoilov, chief operating officer for Max Telecom. “Now that Navini has been acquired by Cisco, we feel even better about the solution. Cisco and Navini have extensive worldwide deployment experience, and we have relied on their knowledge of the WiMAX space to help us meet our fastpaced rollout of mobile services.”
Smart WiMAX service has enabled Max Telecom to begin rolling out mobile services. The
company offers fixed and nomadic services today, and will enhance mobility when IEEE 802.16ecompliant CPE and hand-held devices are available in early 2008. Max Telecom has already built out more than 150 base stations and introduced fixed and nomadic WiMAX service to more than 10 cities.
Cisco Aggregation
The WiMAX network officially went live in October 2007, allowing transfer speeds of up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps). Max Telecom plans to increase that rate to 5 Mbps in early 2008. To aggregate traffic from the base stations, the operator decided to use Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (EoMPLS) and Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service (H-VPLS). This Carrier Ethernet solution allows Max Telecom to efficiently and securely tunnel all WiMAX traffic over the leased transport connections.
Max Telecom selected the Cisco Catalyst® 3750 Metro Ethernet switch for aggregating base station traffic. The Cisco Catalyst 3750 nodes are connected to Cisco 7600 Series routers (over the EoMPLS/H-VPLS network) for a complete aggregation solution. With greater intelligence at the edge, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 metro switches enable more differentiated Ethernet services and give Max Telecom hierarchical quality of service (QoS), traffic shaping, intelligent 802.1Q tunneling, VLAN mapping, and EoMPLS support. This robust feature set helps Max Telecom offer different service-level agreements (SLAs) and flexible service options.
End-to-End Solution Cisco and Navini products provide a complete mobile WiMAX solution for Max Telecom. The open, flexible design can accommodate Access Service Network (ASN) gateways as the mobile service subscriber base grows, and a full suite of features help to differentiate the carrier from the competition. End-to-end QoS, over-the-air activation, and self-provisioning contribute to a costeffective
business model and enable a growing portfolio of services.

Business Results WiMAX has fulfilled its promise and enabled Max
Telecom to rapidly and cost-effectively achieve national coverage. The Navini and Cisco solutions have created the WiMAX foundation for mobile services, and put Max Telecom in an enviable position for service innovations. As soon as mobile equipment vendors introduce new handsets and other devices, Max Telecom can give subscribers
anytime, anywhere voice over IP (VoIP) and IPTV as well as the full suite of other broadband services. The new network gives the operator a build-as-they-grow solution, with the current plans for expanding capacity for up to 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2008. To compete against larger DSL and cable players, Max Telecom has also adopted an aggressive wholesale strategy. The operator is developing relationships with LAN service providers, and will pass through its voice and other services that can be bundled with the data services from these providers. The 802.16e WiMAX network enables this business, and is also enabling Max Telecom to expand its “tripleplay”
business by teaming up with a Bulgarian satellite TV provider to bring more content to subscribers. Within the first few months after deploying the new mobile WiMAX solution, the results are promising:
● Capital expenses will come down from about US$430 per potential subscriber to less than
US$200 within three years.
● Data subscribers are expected to grow from less than 10,000 to between 50,000 and
100,000 by the end of 2008 (depending on the availability of mobile WiMAX devices).
● Scalable capacity can support more services, with plans in place for creative service
bundles. For example, Max Telecom plans to bundle mobile VoIP and broadband.
● The low operating expenses achieved with the WiMAX solution will enable differentiating
services including a free TV service (MaxTV), rebranded Google applications (mobile
MaxApps), and a mobile e-mail service (MaxMail).
“Cisco has helped us establish a very strong market position,” says Manoilov. “We have hit all of our schedule targets and are confident that our WiMAX network can help us bring exceptional service quality to our subscribers. The combination of Navini WiMAX and Cisco Carrier Ethernet technologies put us ahead of the incumbent providers and other competitors.”
For More Information To find out more about Cisco Carrier Ethernet solutions, go to: www.cisco.com/go/cedesign.
To find out more about the Navini WiMAX solutions, go to: www.cisco.com/go/wimax.

CISCO WIMAX STRATEGY

Alan J. Weissberger
IEEE ComSoc SCV Program Chair

As the end of the year approaches and everyone is pressed for time, we are going to cover only a few sessions of this excellent conference: Big Picture Mega-Trends, Internet traffic growth, Cisco’s WiMAX strategy resulting from their Navini Networks acquisition, and an informal chat about Cisco’s Service Provider mobility strategy.

1. Big Picture Mega-Trends

Cisco CEO John Chambers kicked off the conference presentations by leading the audience through what he referred to as a “Disruptive Journey.” Here are his key points:

· We are now in the second phase of the Internet, which is being driven by increased use of video, collaboration, and Web 2.0 technologies (social networking, P2P sharing, and wiki’s).
· Globalization will continue to level the playing field and benefit developing countries. (Hence, Cisco sees those countries as important new markets).
· Personalization of content and information will transform business models.
· User behavior is driving collaboration and innovation. High quality video conferencing (e.g. Telepresence) is a good example of this.
· There is a blurring of the lines between users and consumers. It’s important for a vendor/ service provider to deliver the maximum flexibility to enhance the user experience.

Cisco is thinking 3 to 5 years out for business opportunities. They are planting a lot of seeds and nurturing them. Trends they see stimulating growth:

· Telepresence is changing every aspect of how Cisco interfaces with customers and themselves. Video collaboration will dramatically transform business models and change the nature of business. Within three years, customer contact will be almost entirely virtual, according to Chambers. The network will change to enable new business models that will result from this dynamic.
· Social networking inside organizations will enable correlated information flows, which will result in higher performance.
· Virtualization will continue: any device to any format to any content to anywhere in the world, with security. This is what routing is all about, according to Chambers.
· Service providers must transition from supplying infrastructure-like basic services (e.g. pipes) to advanced new Web 2.0-like services. They will need to partner with content providers and pursue advertising based business models.
· Voice and video broadcasts will become free. New collaboration services will be added on top of those freebies. All services will be delivered over an IP network.
· Video is the killer application of Web 2.0: for both residential (IPTV and video sharing) and business (video conferencing) markets.

2. Global IP Traffic Trends and Service Provider Architectural Implications

· Global IP traffic will grow by a compound annual rate of 42% from 2006 to 2011.
· By 2011, there will be 30 Exabytes per month sent over networks (an Exabyte= all the worlds printed material; 5 Exabytes= all the words ever spoken).
· Consumer and IP video are driving traffic growth now. Mobility and 4G services will drive future growth, especially in emerging markets.
· Internet traffic is growing much faster then private network traffic, mostly because of video downloads and streaming videos.
· By 2011, core network traffic will triple, while metro traffic will quintuple. Cisco sees 18.5 E bytes/month for the core, 28.5 E bytes/month for metro, and 29.5 E bytes/month for the access network.
· AT&T’s recent upgrade of their IP core network (via Cisco CRS-1 Routers) to 40G transport was due to the increase in Internet video traffic.
· Traffic is increasing in the Control Plane as well as the Data plane. Cisco believes they can distribute the Control Plane traffic amongst multiple BGP sessions, using their IOS based Routers. New software releases can be easily rolled out, resulting in a very scalable Control Plane.
· There are 3 types of video traffic: video delivery of stored content, real time video conferencing and broadcast video, any to any multimedia. There will be a lot of any to any multimedia applications coming within the next 3 to 5 year time period.
· Key question: Will Service Providers (SPs) continue to throw bandwidth at the problem of providing increasing video traffic, or will they use QOS and discriminate against some types of traffic and prioritize other (real time) traffic flows? Core will probably be over-provisioned, but converged access network will require QOS.
· SPs are now delivering increased amounts of bandwidth to homes (Verizon FIOS and AT&T U-Verse). Their goal is a converged infrastructure which includes broadband Internet, video, voice, and mobile communications. The NGN will enable this (but who knows what the NGN will actually be?).
· Network needs to be more service aware, and NGN will make that happen (Cisco will face still competition from China’s Huawei and others in the NGN equipment market).
· Almost 60% of the traffic on any pipe is P2P traffic (we find that hard to believe). As IPTV is offered to more customers, that will change. Presumably because IPTV broadcasts will be delivered via IP Multicast.
· Traffic mix will change to be 50/50 upstream vs. downstream, because of large amounts of uploaded files and increased use of bi-directional video conferencing.
· France is the most sophisticated video market. Content providers are treated the same as ISPs.
· Hong Kong has very viable IPTV business models. PCCW was the first SP to adopt IPTV on a large scale.

3. WiMAX and Cisco’s Mobility Strategy

Cisco has a very broad definition of mobility. It involves keeping a person connected irrespective of where they go or whether they have wireless or wire-line connectivity. This provides convenience and scalability for users to do whatever they want, wherever they are, using the best network available for the job. This will provide the “connected life” everywhere, according to Cisco.

WiMAX is seen as an enabler for “digital inclusion” in emerging market countries. There are over 2.7B people not yet connected to the Internet. Broadband wireless solutions and Internet communications have the potential to transform countries. This transformation includes: energy, finance, tourism, entrepreneurial, community and education. The network is seen as the platform to drive this transformation. Build multiple wireless network based apps to drive growth and create new opportunities.

WiMAX is important because of its all IP foundation and use of licensed spectrum. For more on this theme, please see slide 7 of Cisco’s WiMAX presentation at:

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le21/le34/cscape/2007/post/presentations/BRK1053.pdf

Sriram Viswanathan of Intel Capital:

Success of WiMAX will depend on the effort the entire ecosystem (i.e. WiMAX Forum companies) puts in.
Every major network equipment company is developing mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) gear.
We are early in WiMAX development- it’s the 1st or 2nd inning. Highly data sensitive devices (not cell phones) will be needed for WiMAX to realize its full potential.
At the Spring IDF, Intel announced the “Menlo platform” for low power, always connected, smaller (i.e. shirt pocket) size devices. Such devices could much better utilize WiMAX’s video transport capabilities then a cell phone could. The premise is to provide a rich user experience on a handheld device with mobile WiMAX built in. Then, new data and video services could be enabled and SPs economics would improve as notebook PCs and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) get integrated into the network.

3 Reasons why Cisco acquired Navini for its WiMAX technology:

Build green field networks in emerging market countries
With an open (standardized) broadband wireless network, more subscribers can use it to achieve a rich broadband fixed or mobile experience.
Technology synergy to enable an end-to- end solution from one vendor. WiMAX is the right technology for emerging market countries at this time. One might expect Scientific Atlanta STBs, Linksys home networking gear, or even access Routers to support WiMAX in the future.

Roger Dorf, CEO of Navini:

Emerging markets are users of desktop PCs and it will be that way for several years. Even with notebook PCs, users will be nomadic or portable, but not truly mobile.
As a result, Fixed WiMAX will be used in place of cable or DSL in countries without wire-line infrastructure.
Residential gateways with WiMAX air interfaces will attach to desktop devices via Ethernet (10/100 Base T) in coming years. This implies use of IEEE 802.16e in Fixed Mode.
Many different devices will attach to WiMAX networks: desktop and notebook PCs, consumer electronic devices (e.g. digital cameras), smart phones, etc.

Larry Lang, VP of Cisco’s Mobility SP Group:

Cisco is likely to transfer the WiMAX technology to Linksys and Scientific Atlanta divisions.
Unlicensed WiMAX operation, e.g. for wireless point- to- point backhaul, is not very attractive to Cisco. It will be a niche market technology at best (we disagree as backhaul of WiFi hot spots and mesh WiFi muni networks will be important for developed market countries, like the U.S. and Europe).
Cisco is considering how to bring soft (VoIP) switch technology over WiMAX to provide voice as well as data services in emerging market countries.
WiMAX is one of many technologies for cellular operators to chose from. Others include: 3G evolving to LTE, mesh WiFi, W-CDMA, HSPDA, EVDO, etc.
With all these heterogeneous wireless access networks, Cisco sees an opportunity to build networks of networks or inter-networks.

4. Lunch- time tech chat with Jeff Spagnola, VP of World Wide SP Marketing, on Cisco’s SP Mobility Strategy. Jeff said that SPs want:

Pervasiveness and ubiquity

To move IP from core network to edge and backhaul; expand IP to include radio environment with an open platform. SPs don’t want a closed (single vendor dictated) architecture, so Cisco is involved in the 3GPP committee (controlled by Ericsson and Nokia). The open platform is one reason Cisco likes WiMAX.
New services and new apps to gain revenue. Cisco will collaborate with SPs to do joint market build outs targeting commercial and SMB accounts. Objective is to help SP achieve accelerated revenues. As an example, Call Manager (Cisco’s IP PBX) hosted or CPE based packages for SPs to offer: mobile voice mail, voice mail to email conversion, FMC (dual mode phones- cellular and VoWiFi), unified communications, etc.
According to the December 15th WSJ: Intel contends that high-end cell phones fall far short of delivering the full capabilities associated with Web use on a PC, such as playing videos, blogging and social networking. The company hopes to promote slightly larger gadgets, using its chips, that fit in a jacket pocket but deliver a full Web experience.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119766800257230083.html

FINALY CISCO GETS NAVINI

Few days ago Cisco has signed to buy WiMax company Navini Networks and their Mobile WiMax solution RipWave MX for $330 Million. Navini has already known in WiMax market their "Smart Beamforming" technology. Cisco believed Navini's smart WiMax base stations will be completely innovation of Cisco Wi-Fi, Mesh Wi-Fi wireless system and make the end-to-end broadband wireless solution with IP NGN architecture. Most of people seeing, it will be a good opportunity to get unlicensed wireless solution that combination of beamforming 802.16m and 802.11n Wi-Fi access and of course their powerful end-to-end Mobile WiMax solution. After this move WiMax interoperability will make more sense in the market because Cisco is a Brand name, if your system doesn't works and supports with Cisco products it is hard to say matured and a real WiMax system. But some people think that it will take a least one year to integrate Navini into Cisco and also Intel's investment into Clearwire to WiMax become as standardized as Wi-Fi. Hope it will make more competition against giants such as Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Alvarion etc companies on WiMax market.

CISCO GOES TO WIMAX BUSINESS

Chief Development Officer and EVP Charlie Giancarlo 3 years ago said Cisco is " not interested in WiMax " also he said "Other than providing the backbone infrastructure that may be behind any WiMax deployment, Cisco is not invested in WiMax, DSL and cable are [already] there, and they are much more deterministic. Why would anyone build two parallel [wireless broadband] networks? Perhaps it will provide a better technology for hotspots like airports, but I still maintain that the case for WiMax is challenging at the moment." at the Next Generation Network conference in Boston. But now Cisco position on WiMax changed, they announced that they seeing Wireless Broadband technology to broad deployment of IP network, said " Cisco® has no current plans to build WiMAX base stations or base stations using any other WAN radio access technology. Where Cisco will participate is in partnership with RAN vendors. Cisco will provide IP technology for next-generation base stations, and our RAN partners will provide the RF component. Cisco will also provide the IP infrastructure to network these next-generation base stations together, and Cisco will provide the IP services layer. " so they are looking for few WiMax vendors whose done quite good enough WiMax deployment around the world. Cisco target is one of Alvarion, Aperto, Navini and Redline companies. Most available company is Alvarion, they are almost 170 deployments 220 active trails, including more than 40 Mobile WiMax. American giants AT&T and DigitalBridge communication's choice and fast growing stock ($14.69 on friday, market cap $923.5 million) hopes will help them to compete Chinese big network manufacturer competitors Huawei, ZTE whose began their WiMax business already.