News And Views Re: The Changing Policy-Management World

The Quantum Network Suite, a policy management platform developed by telecom policy-control vendor BroadHop, has passed interoperability muster with all major deep packet inspection (DPI) solution providers, including Allot, Arbor, Cisco, Procera and, most recently, Sandvine.? ?The suite enables real-time network service control and dynamic scalability for fixed and mobile network operators.

"[Our customers] are now able to move well-beyond deploying basic services, such as fair use, and bandwidth throttling solutions, and can focus on delivering innovative solutions such as video optimization and personalization, converged charging for content services, and enhanced delivery and monetization of over-the-top applications,” commented Jim O’Brien, vice president/Business Development at BroadHop, in a statement.

As such, policy control is becoming more of a “must have” than a “nice to have” addition to an operator’s network-management portfolio.

According to Infonetics’ latest policy-management report, the policy market is heating up as a growing number of operators deploy policy solutions to address near-term concerns like handling network congestion, delivering value-added services and complying with regulatory requirements, in addition to deploying policy management during their LTE trials and deployments. Infonetics expects the global policy-management software market to jump 49 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, and to hit $1.61 billion in 2015.

Global revenue from policy-management software deployed in mobile networks? is forecast by Infonetics to nearly triple in the five years from 2011 to 2015, ?driven by operators seeking to:

• ?Manage bandwidth usage during peak hours to alleviate strain on shared RAN resources caused by 3G- and PC-based data services;
• ?Offload traffic onto Wi-Fi networks;
• Enable advanced subscriber controls and variable charging based on time of ?day or subscriber profile;?
• Create specialized service packages around such specific applications or services as social networking or high-definition video;?
• Control rating and charging for mobile broadband roaming and day passes;
• ?Deliver over-the-air provisioning of modems/CPE and support QoS requirements associated with delivering voice services over WiMAX and LTE networks; and?
• Support convergent services that span fixed and mobile networks.

As policy control continues to gain importance for wireline operators, established vendors look for expertise. In August, Amdocs purchased Bridgewater Systems for approximately $211 million. (For more, see Amdocs Completes Bridgewater Acquisition).

"The acquisition of Bridgewater Systems by Amdocs marks a shift in the policy management market by creating an integrated policy/charging solution backed by a large, well-established vendor with a strong sales force," said Shira Levine, directing analyst for next-gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research. "Going forward, solutions that integrate policy management with charging and some degree of subscriber awareness will become table stakes as operators move beyond basic bandwidth management into value-added services and innovative pricing models. Suppliers without that capability will be at a significant disadvantage."

-Linda Hardesty