SP360: Service Provider

May was a busy month for trade shows and industry events. So much so, that keynote after keynote, session after session began to blur together. Given the event filled month, I find myself thinking about some events more than others. In particular, I want to take the opportunity to take another look…

On June 7th of this year, Cisco’s Visual Networking Index released its annual Global Traffic and Service Adoption forecasts, for the years 2015-2020. The reports predict fixed and mobile IP traffic growth, as well as application trends for the next few years. Some of the topics covered in the report…

Policy Control is most commonly associated with PCRF, the 3GPP-defined standard for implementing policy and charging rules. It is the enforcement of these rules at the various network gateways that enable mobile operators to control and monetize their services. Network-based policies create the foun…

Not “New Data” But “New Ways of Getting Data” Model-driven telemetry has been one of the most fun projects I’ve worked on in a long time. Right from the start, we worked hand-in-hand with customers to identify their biggest pain points when it came to network operational data. To my surprise, the pr…

The first SNMP release came out in 1988. 28 years later, SNMP is still around… Will this still be the case in 10 years from now? Difficult to say but the odds are lower these days. Why are we predicting SNMP could go away? If you’re already savvy about SNMP, check out this blog for getting insight i…

Here’s an observation that happened to serve as the basis of a keynote I had the opportunity to give the other day, at the TIA 2016 “Network of the Future” conference, in Dallas: Yes, it would be wonderful indeed if broadband service providers saw 50% annual revenue growth — if only to offset…

We’re always on the lookout for the next big application to drive Internet traffic. When we see a type of traffic almost doubling in a year, we put it on our watch list. Below are five that topped our watch list based on the most recent Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Complete Forecast. VIRTUA…

DOCSIS 3.1 has finally arrived! After years of talk and development, we are finally beginning to see the initial roll-outs of this next-generation technology.  A few years have passed since the benefits of DOCSIS 3.1 were touted.  Are those benefits still relevant today? It is worth revisiting what…

Delivering Managed network services now costs less than ever. Whole new markets are ready and waiting for the benefits they bring. It took years for alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power, to become affordable to consumers and profitable for providers. The same is true of managed n…