AIRCOM

AIRCOM's European channel partners

 

AIRCOM’s European channel manager, gives us an insight into AIRCOM’s channel strategy through the region.

Here at AIRCOM, we are proud to count a number of excellent sales channels as an AIRCOM ethos when doing business locally. Some of our partners, such as Enkom Inventis in Switzerland and ASI in Bulgaria offer dedicated teams who provide first line support when needed, meaning the customer receives local support in local language.

In Hungary, our channel partner Koonsys has systems integration experience that AIRCOM has also been able to use outside of Hungary, with tier one operators throughout Eastern Europe.

 

In some countries, such as Poland and Turkey, we have both a channel partner and an account manager. While the account manager is ultimately responsible for sales in their particular country, they work very closely with the channel manager to close business in the region. In some countries such as Sweden and Spain the account manager is also the channel manager. AIRCOM account managers are typically responsible for business in several countries and cannot be physically everywhere, so in these situations, having a channel partner adds huge value in terms of maintaining existing customer relationships.

AIRCOM takes great care to ensure that our own regional channel managers ensure our partners have access to the latest sales collateral & pricing and offering general sales support, and we employ strict diligence to ensure that our partners meet our strict criteria to deliver the ultimate level of customer service to operators, who are looking to boost network performance by integrating AIRCOM's range of network management tools and services into their network infrastructure.

Our partners range from small operations who have a particular skill set that matters in their country, or have key contacts in target accounts, through to systems integrators who compliment AIRCOM by providing first line support, training, consulting or even integration services.

Our existing European partner network covers: Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Scandinavia, Turkey and Israel, and in 2009, we have taken on five new partners in Romania, Spain, Sweden, Lithuania (covering all the Baltic states) and Hungary.

We are currently looking for partners in Czech Republic and Slovenia. Please contact graham.leigh@aircominternational.com if you feel that you may fit the bill.

AIRCOM Shorts: Have you seen our YouTube Channel?

....http://www.youtube.com/aircomint takes you right to it. We're constantly updating this channel, but here you can see some of AIRCOM's key team members talking about their products, AIRCOM services and the telecoms industry as a whole.

Recently, we've added some stuff about the strategy behind our ENTERPRISE product suite:

 

And some stuff about the future of LTE:

An overview on our microwave planning product, CONNECT:

 

And information on how AIQ can provide a network 'health check':

 

We'll run another monthly recap as to what's new in early December. Otherwise you can go direct to our channel from here.

AIRCOM Gurus: What Happens To Transmission When RF Bandwidth Exceeds Backhaul?

 

The increasing popularity of smartphones is placing increasing pressure on operators’ data bandwidth. A myriad of phone applications and live video streaming are all causing networks to feel the strain. Technologies such as 3GPP HSPA and EVDO have led to an increasing consumer demand for bandwidth-hungry services that far exceed simple web browsing. Emerging 4G technologies such as WiMAX and EPS are pulling together to present a true mobile broadband experience. The capacity of these systems is growing, with the potential to be huge. Today’s peak rates of up to 45Mbps with HSPA+, is, in 4G, expected to reach up to 100Mbps DL. Even for multiple users in a single cell site, this equates to 5-10Mbps per user (downlink) and 1-4Mbps (uplink). Compared to the average fixed broadband rate of 8Mbps, this compares pretty well.

These high data rates can be achieved by applying a number of changes to the radio interface, such as introducing MIMO or adaptive modulation and coding along with higher modulation schemes, new multiple access techniques (OFDMA), etc. Yet the high bandwidth rates can become severely limited by network backhaul, leading to a notably degraded service, or potential signalling failures resulting in dropped packet calls. This is because the majority of current backhaul networks are deployed using TDM/ATM transmission techniques - efficient for voice services, but not optimal for bandwidth-hungry data services. This means that a redesign or significant upgrade of backhaul networks is having to be considered by operators, to cope with already perceivable backhaul bottlenecks.

The straightforward solution is to increase the number of leased lines and/or microwave links to provide more backhaul bandwidth. However, this approach is very costly and not really efficient for such a dramatic increase in capacity (typically a mobile broadband user requires 30x the backhaul bandwidth of a traditional mobile ‘voice services only’ user). Furthermore, 4G technologies are defined only for all-IP transport logic, meaning that the whole network would have to be transmitted over IP.

Instead, operators are looking to make their backhaul predominately not only packet but entirely IP based for the first time. This is a step change from the early GPRS backhaul support required for the first mobile packet networks back in 1997/8. Now, operators have to migrate to entirely packet switched technologies such as MPLS/IP in new backhaul deployments, not only to be able to support the new services advertised, but to make a step towards the necessary 4G upgrades for truly distributed Radio Access Networks (RAN).

This upgrade will most likely happen in phases. As a first step towards IP backhaul, HSPA/EVDO traffic can be offloaded over Ethernet transmission networks, while voice services can remain transmitted over traditional TDM/ATM networks. There is already a plethora of equipment available to support this hybrid technology approach as Multi-Service Platforms. Bridging technologies/techniques such as xDSL/Pseudowires (PWE3) can then be introduced to emulate circuit switched networks over underlying IP/Ethernet networks and allow the transmission of TDM/ATM over Ethernet where necessary.

Eventually, transmission networks will evolve to all optical/cable based solutions that support Ethernet/IP pure packet networks with traditional technologies only ever emulated as necessary for legacy systems.

Mobile operators have to significantly upgrade their transmission networks as they are moving towards 4G, as speeds are expected to be half an order of magnitude faster than today. However, known data latency issues being experienced today hint at the fact that this evolution is not happening fast enough to support even the current demands! AIRCOM is working to support customers in this evolution. Early next year will see the launch of our latest software, Conductor which tackles these complex issues bringing together mobile and transmission planning, enabling migration planning scenarios to be evaluated quickly for an optimal solution.

Y.G./G.F – Mobile Networks Systems Team

Tip of the week: For Operators to Remain Competitive in a Crowded Market, LTE Offers a Solution

In part three of a three-part video series on LTE, AIRCOM CTO Ricky Watts discusses how -- for some global operators -- migrating to LTE is necessitated by competitive market pressures.

Both Verizon in the U.S. and NTT in Japan are adopting LTE as a competitive differentiator because it enables them to “leapfrog” other operators with HSDPA networks that deliver higher 3G mobile broadband speeds than EVDO or CDMA.

 

 

To find out more about AIRCOM’s LTE consultancy and its new “Cost of LTE Calculator” for operators looking to adopt the new technology,

Product spotlight: AIQ

Anyone that has worked in the network team at an operator understands the pressure arising from the continuous aim to improve the radio performance of the network. Often operators spend significant time, resources and inevitably money to gain improvements in targeted KPIs like DCR, HOSR or CSSR. But what does it mean for the business?

Recently, AIRCOM has undertaken to optimise the network of major Asian operator and, using its AIQ solution, has been able to achieve improvements in the targeted KPIs of more than 20%.

KPIs		Improvement
Drop Call rate	(DCR)	26%
Call Set up Failure Rate	(CSFR)	27%
SDCCH Rate of Failure	(SDRF)	46%
Handover Failure rate	(HOFR)	41%
Mean Time between Drops	(MTBD)	27%

Impressive performance improvement - but what does it really mean for the operator? What’s the real value?

With the collaboration of the operator, AIRCOM converted the performance improvement into a financial value, to quantify the performance impact. In the process, we identified two components:

· Revenue increase: The KPI improvement can be approached in many different ways but the bottom line is that the intention is to allow subscribers to talk more. The more they talk, the more revenue they generate. Analysis of the traffic before and after  optimisation indicates that the area being optimised, which extended to about 150 sites, can carry an extra  4.5% of traffic or 500 Erlangs on average after the optimisation took place. Obviously different operators extract different revenue from each Erlang carried, ranging from $10-$15 in Europe to as little as $1 in India and Africa, but the relative revenue increase will be similar - about 4.5%. In the case of the Asian operator we examined, 4.5% is £850K for the region in question and more than £33M for the whole network per annum!

· Churn reduction: Studies by several authors (JD Power, Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management*) indicate that between 30-50% of customers consider performance as a key reason for churning. The importance is more emphatic in countries with less mature networks that have significant performance differences between the operators. Indeed, from most of the operators in 2G the performance of the radio accounts for a large proportion of the overall network performance. In turn, improvement of the KPIs means that a proportion of the subscribers considering churning may change their minds and remain with the operator. Our calculations indicate that the performance improvements could influence 6% of the subscriber base to remain loyal. Considering, as indicated by the Yankee group, that the cost of capturing one customer to replace one lost is between $50-$100, the impact is clear to be seen. Over the whole network, our Asian customer could gain as much as $17M. Adding on that the revenue that these subscribers will generate over the year, the additional revenue is almost $18M.

So in total, the value of the improvements across the whole network is approaching $68M for our customer in Asia.  In today’s OPEX sensitive world that’s very good news.

The next question of course is how can you get these improvements?  To find out more about AIQ, click here.

DD, AIRCOM Product Service Solutions Director 

*Research from the following:  ‘Keep the Customers Satisfied’ – Telecoms Asia, February 2009, Fiona Chau; ‘Churn Management in the Telecom Industry of Pakistan’, Sadia Jahanzeb, January 2007; J.D. Power and Associates Reports: ‘The Gap in Call Quality Performance among Carriers Narrows As Competition Intensifies across the Wireless Service Industry’, March 2009

Tip of the week: Migrating to LTE Requires Sound Business Dynamics

In part two of a three-part video series on LTE, AIRCOM's CTO Ricky Watts discusses how AIRCOM helps operators evaluate LTE.  What does it really offer?  What do they need to understand to make LTE work?

With operators doing more network sharing to reduce the cost of getting mobile broadband to consumers, decisions on LTE and other technologies need to be based on sound business dynamics.

 

Product spotlight: CONNECT - Saving OPEX, using adaptive modulation

 
Next generation networks are fast becoming a reality. WiMAX and LTE are on our doorstep, promising to provide us with the ultimate ‘anytime, anywhere’ broadband experience. Mobile multimedia revolution, rather than evolution, is ready to rule. But we are not there yet. Mobile operators need to protect their profitability, ensuring financially viable next generation networking.

The explosion in the usage of the mobile internet means that the volume of data travelling over the whole network will reach unprecedented levels. This is not an issue in the core part of the network, where optical fibers can transport huge amount of information, but what about the network edges? Let’s take a look…

The current infrastructure to connect the core network to the base stations (backhaul) is mainly based on E1/T1 lines and microwave links. The increase of capacity over the T1/E1 lines  translates to a tremendous increase in operators’ OPEX. Therefore, microwave links are a much more cost effective and efficient means to providing a transport network. Another efficient alternative would be transporting via optical fibers, but unfortunately,  digging up half the world to install fibers is not especially feasible, even if they do offer optimum capacity.

Backhaul transmission needs to evolve to cope with the future demands of next generation networks. One ingenious new trend that addresses this is adaptive modulation (AM) in microwave networks, where the modulation order of the radio changes according to the link characteristics. In modulation, the data message is transferred over a radio signal. In order to be more efficient, we can transfer more bits at a time, considerably increasing the total amount of data transmitted at a minimal cost. And this is the key point of success for adaptive modulation; delivering more data with less money.

AIRCOM’s CONNECT microwave backhaul and transmission planning tool understands the importance of adaptive modulation and we have introduced it as one of the tool’s core features. The available schemes that the equipment operates on are defined, as well as the required throughput that needs to be delivered. By adapting the right modulation scheme for continuously varying throughput requirements, based on the operating bandwidth for all links operating in the network, CONNECT ensures that it always fulfils users needs. The average throughput is a linear function of bandwidth and operating modulation scheme. The higher the bandwidth, the higher the spectrum costs. 

 

Just work out a cost calculator for yourself in terms of spectrum - by managing the modulation alone based on throughput requirements dynamically, you will start to realize the amount of savings on licensing costs of the spectrum. This in many cases is will be in the order of $1M when managed effectively.

 

Mobile operators need to make the most out of their investment in their existing infrastructure (TDM and not all-IP), so they will be reluctant to dismiss it all overnight. And that is not all; higher order modulation schemes (256QAM compared to 8PSK) mean that links would be unavailable more often, which it is not a major problem for internet browsing, but would prove catastrophic for voice calls.

Envisioning such needs, and looking towards tomorrow’s technology today, CONNECT provides all the necessary information to a planner, enabling them to make better use of their resources, have a better understanding of their needs and to have a more control over required spending, while maintaining the required Quality of Service. In this business, that balance of control and quality is vital.

 

JR & AS, CONNECT product team.

 

Tip of the week: Will LTE Relieve the Mounting Pressure on Global Operators?

In part one of a three-part video series on LTE, AIRCOM CTO Ricky Watts discusses the mounting pressure on global operators to reduce the cost of delivering mobile broadband to consumers.

With trends toward network sharing and industry consolidation, along with increasing strain on networks with the exponential proliferation of smartphones, global operators are deeply investigating LTE as the only way to meet consumer demand for bandwidth.