New-Tech Europe Magazine | February 2018

7 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT… why the network of the future will be DPI-enabled

New-Tech Europe Magazine

Alexander Muller tells New-Tech Europe Magazine how IoT device connectivity and IoT-ready networks create new challenges and revenue streams for operators, and how embedded deep packet inspection can help operators and network equipment vendors to assure connectivity and security across networks, devices and applications in this new world. 1. IoT devices introduce new network and service requirements for operators The Internet of Things threatens operators with a loss of end-to-end control and introduces a new level of operational scale. This places new demands on how operators will assure the security and integrity of their networks. Operators are used to serving a limited range of types of end devices that are directly under their management. Now, they

will instead serve a wide diversity of connected devices that could be deployed by players from across a wide value chain of enterprises, service providers and manufacturers. Consider for instance a connected alarm clock with a SIM: It will require data download in order to display the time and weather changes, but it will also add an upstream load by sending data on how and when the device itself is being used back to the manufacturer. 2. Networks need to be managed more efficiently to cater to this increasing demand Similarly, the application environment in the IoT will be radically different from the current ecosystem: Apps requiring a multitude of different parameters, serving use cases with different tolerances and sensitivities to network performance and presenting very different usage profiles to the

network. All of this will place new demands on the management of network elements, service quality and security. A connected car, for instance, will need to be constantly connected and any downtime might threaten human life. A connected fridge, on the other hand, needs to sync with the user’s phone once an hour. SLAs with the different companies, which require to collect IoT data, will change depending on the use case. However, in order to guarantee connectivity, one must be able to manage data in realtime. 3. SDN and NFV can help manage the network – and DPI is a key enabler To meet these new demands, operators are leaning on the promises of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). They do so to architect a programmable network, in which

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