With telecommunication service providers constantly adapting to the changes in technological advancement, they need to leverage cloud computing so as not to break the bank – but security concerns abound. Here is how the industry can address them.
Over the course of less than two and a half decades, the telecommunications sector has experienced significant technological developments. There is a staggering transformation that has affected the manner in which people live their lives, communicate with one another and access information. Further, the telecommunications sector has fundamentally changed the manner in which businesses function, as the world is now connected in ways that were previously inconceivable. The technology being utilized by the telecommunications industry has also witnessed a rapid pace of progress with 2G services quickly being eclipsed by 3G and 4G. Presently, various countries are in the process of implementing 5G services, raising expectations for both citizens and businesses alike. However, it is necessary to be mindful of the benefits and pitfalls that come with the advance of any technology, and this rule holds true for the telecommunications industry as well. With change comes a tide of advantages, disadvantages and consequences. In telecom, the evolution of tech has now brought the industry to cloud computing’s doorstep – with its many benefits, but also with its security concerns. It is vital that the challenges are recognized and duly dealt with before they adversely affect the industry.
Opportunities for Telecom with Cloud
In order to ensure that there is a seamless switch from one generation of technology to its successor, telecommunications service providers, or TSPs, are required to make significant investments to keep pace. Such investments are crucial for success and continued innovation and, in turn, benefit the manufacturers of the equipment that allows for the aforesaid technological switch (i.e., original equipment manufacturers or OEMs).
All industries have various entities that perform functions that allow for the end product to reach the desired outcome. In this case, the goal is for the product to end up in the hands of the consumer. Currently, the industry is set up to allow for OEMs, such as Nokia and Ericsson, to add to their coffers every time there is an advancement in telecom technology. This is due to the fact that TSPs have to procure equipment, along with overhauling their entire internal systems, to allow for the benefits to be passed on to the consumer.
However, is this system about to change in a manner that would fundamentally alter the way the telecom industry operates? The simple answer is, yes. The manner in which the industry is structured and how it operates is about to experience a serious change, directly linking it to the manner in which cloud computing has evolved. Cloud computing is the practice of utilizing a network of remote servers, which are hosted on the internet, to allow for the management, storage, and processing of data, to be accessed on a physical local server, computer, or array thereof. Over the past few years, cloud computing has experienced its own technological evolutions, which have made the service affordable, secure and efficient. Most of us are utilizing cloud services as cellular phones, tablets and computers all have provisions for the storage and access of data and applications on a cloud service. Hence, it is reasonable to contend that cloud computing is now a thoroughly tested and widely used system, which can be readily applied to telecommunications systems.
Currently, there are two systems or approaches that would allow cloud computing to be utilized by TSPs to allow for the provision of telecom services to end-users: Software Defined Networks (SDN) or Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN employs an approach whereby network administrators are permitted to programmatically initialize, control, change, and manage network behavior dynamically via open interfaces and abstraction of lower-level functionality, by utilizing open protocols such as OpenFlow, to apply globally aware software control at the edges of the network to access network switches and routers that typically would use closed and proprietary firmware. On the other hand, NFV is a network architecture concept that uses the technologies of IT virtualization to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that can be connected or linked in order to create communication services. NFV relies upon but also differs from, traditional server– virtualization techniques, such as those used in enterprise IT. NFV consists of one or more virtual machines, running different software and processes on high volume servers, switches, and storage devices, or even cloud computing infrastructure, rather than having custom hardware appliances for each network function.
The most obvious advantage of both SDN and NFV is that these employ bare minimum hardware and are reliant on software with upgrades and functionalities of the hardware being consistently modified and updated from the cloud itself. By utilizing hosting plane functions via cloud computing, there is a significant reduction in expenditure, effort, and requirements pertaining to manpower. For example, Cisco is developing routers with generic hardware setups, with the entire management system for this purpose, i.e., control plane, located in the cloud. These systems allow for a great deal of flexibility as TSPs are required to have less hardware within their systems, and hence, the issues pertaining to heavy investment in hardware, which will be rendered obsolete with the progression of technology, will no longer arise. This means that TSPs will save on capital costs.
Another advantage of cloud computing is that TSPs would be able to use generic hardware to support all the new technologies, which will be introduced, implemented, and controlled by software. For example, going forward the same hardware used for 5G operations/ services will be able to support 6G services, which was not the case when TSPs were switching from 2G to 3G networks. Although such an approach will have an effect on OEMs as they operate at present, the market for cloud computing is valued at approximately $100 billion over the next five years. Thus, there will be a reversal in the manner in which such deployment of technology takes place in the telecom industry, with software playing a more prominent role.
Bracing for Challenges
There are several important concerns with cloud computing, however. One of the main challenges with introducing a system whereby cloud computing becomes the driver of technology implemented rather than hardware is guaranteeing that all the services associated with the provision of telecom services are not hindered in any manner whatsoever. This is especially important considering that telecommunications networks and systems are interlinked, and issues in every part of the chain have a cascading effect on the whole.
Also, as mentioned before, the telecommunications industry is struggling with automation, which needs to be rectified in order to allow for the proper implementation of cloud networks. TSPs are used to handling static data, but with fast-moving data, real-time analysis is crucial. This issue takes precedence due to the fact that cloud services are vulnerable to threats, which could cripple the TSPs’ ability to provide telecommunications services. When the entire management moves to the cloud, chances of a security breach are high. Additionally, cloud computing requires OEMs to share proprietary information, which may be provided to their competitors - and understandably, OEMs are concerned.
It’s imperative for the telecommunications industry to gauge these challenges by establishing systems that go against the norm. Ensuring the requisite systems are in place is vital, and must be addressed as early as possible. This will allow for greater automation and ensure there is the capacity to dynamically configure all the services for monitoring, performance management and fraud management.
Solutions for a Secure Cloud Network
While there are concerns, they don’t outweigh the advantages of cloud computing – and there are processes that can be put in place to manage security issues.
By studying traffic patterns and monitoring slight changes, predicting breaches becomes easier – since when there is a threat, certain spikes in the volume of traffic are recorded and analyzed. This real-time data can be continuously captured, and allow operators to ensure the integrity and security of their systems. As with any system, certain redundancies and precautions are prerequisites - and cloud computing requires operators to have several layers of insight, including at the user level, the core network level (Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), log analysis), and ticketing data. Further, social media is a very important tool that can be used along with DPI to conduct real-time analysis and handle data fraud. Correlating all this collected data helps build an intelligent analytics platform that can quickly identify and flag issues, enabling operators to implement a solution.
It’s also important to analyze the content of data traffic, not just the headers or the volume. DPI can be integrated into intelligent detection engines that analyze the data. The idea is to leverage DPI data that operators collect for service assurance, engineering, and network planning. Users can take that data - along with ticketing data and devices logs - into sophisticated fraud detection engines, which can identify suspicious or abnormal activity and build alerts and cases around them.
For effective management of services in the virtualized environment, where performance is highly dependent on underlying cloud infrastructure, self-learning and predictive techniques must be developed to manage end-to-end service performance by linking inputs at all levels and across different locations.
Whether OEMs will support such an initiative is in question. Buying into this approach goes against their fundamental business interests. TSPs will not be constrained buying a particular OEM’s equipment, on account of the fact that there will be reliance on software configurations rather than on hardware. However, it appears that the telecommunications industry supports this shift since it will lead to a simpler manner of functioning, with a greater ease in the deployment of new technologies. Additionally, it provides the ability to deploy the latest advancements in a significantly shorter time span, due to the fact that TSPs do not need to overhaul their entire network. This would imply that the shift from a hardware-oriented approach to reliance on software is imminent. The only question is how quickly this change will be implemented within the telecommunications industry.
About the Authors:
Avnish Kumar is VP of Engineering and Head of IoT and Engineering Analytics for Incedo. Anupam Wahi is SVP, BU Head of Communication Engineering at Incedo.
