Network Capability Exposure Connects Mobile Internet

According to China Mobile Internet Development and Security Report (2016), the number of active mobile netizens in China reached 780 million in 2015. With the advent of mobile Internet, telecom operators have benefited from increased voice and data service revenues, but face challenges promoting voice, SMS, and MMS services due to the introduction of WeChat and other instant messaging applications. How then can telecom operators continue to showcase their network communication values?

Opening Network Capabilities

Within the telecom operator market, the convergence of telecom and IT technologies is increasing, and the communication behavior patterns and consumption habits of subscribers’ are changing. These changes are causing a decline in the use of traditional voice, SMS, and MMS services, impacting communication pipe values. Internet enterprises are laying out the ICT industry using new business models to accelerate the transfer from demographic dividend, to data and information dividend. Industry competition is also changing focus from product services to higher platforms and ecosystems. This means telecom operators are facing enormous pressures for service substitution, network bypass, and industry chain reconstruction.

Mobile Internet has huge potential for growth. Despite their strong innovation capabilities, Internet vendors suffer from difficulties in accessing telecom resources and high R&D costs, stimulating their desire for open communication capabilities. Facing digital transformation, operators hope to open their capabilities to realize third-party service innovation, break communication service limitations, and promote enterprise and industry market development. Industry and enterprise applications are expected to become the next opportunities in the mobile Internet. Early enterprise applications were integrated with communication capabilities, which provide enterprise users with convenient experience and higher production efficiency. However, enterprise users had to purchase both IT application software and hardware systems, and a PBX or an entire Computer Telecom Integration (CTI) system, resulting in high investment costs. Nowadays, enterprise users only need to directly purchase software as a service (SaaS), helping to reduce these costs.

Telecom operators need to change their current operation model to focus on opening network resources and cooperating with partners to build a healthy, cooperative ecosystem. Against this background, Huawei with its telecom operator partners, have jointly launched a network capability exposure platform – Communication as a Service 2.0 (CaaS 2.0). With the construction of the CaaS and Open Mobile Foundry (OMF) ecosystems, real-time voice & video, QoS, location, and application integration capabilities of telecom networks can be opened, helping telecom operators innovate within industry and enterprise markets. The CaaS ecosystem focuses on service innovation based on open real-time voice & video capabilities, while the OMF ecosystem focuses on service innovation based on open QoS, location, and application integration capabilities.

CaaS provides programmable APIs and Java and C language SDKs, that open traditional PSTN capabilities and minimize communication barriers. Enterprise users now only need to purchase SaaS or other enterprise IT applications, but not telecom hardware devices such as a PBX. Communication capabilities are directly integrated in enterprise IT applications, improving efficiency and reducing costs for enterprise users. Additionally, these capabilities can be applied to a variety of mobile Internet products to improve user experience. By using CaaS 2.0, the Beijing-based company Yonyou introduced their enterprise office software Yonyou Dudu, which enables subscribers to initiate conference calls through mobile apps or PCs, improving overall work efficiency.

Powering the Internet through Communications

Huawei CaaS 2.0, with REST APIs, opens telecom networks’ call control capabilities such as instant messaging, voice, click-to-call, video, and conferencing, to developers.

Since 2014, the cooperation between Huawei and one telecom operator has opened traditional network capabilities to third-party developers, enterprises, and vertical industries through the Internet. These capabilities provide services for thousands of partners, covering Internet voice, telemedicine, and Internet finance. For example, a developer can use the privacy protection API to provide temporary phone numbers for repossession agents or online car services. Those phone numbers are used only during transaction, minimizing repeat customer calls.

By 2015, there are 150 million VoLTE subscribers and 130 million IPTV subscribers around the world. IMS-based video calls across multiple screens, such as mobile phones and TVs, will become a mainstream service for operators. Operators can open video capabilities to multiple industries, such as E-education, telemedicine, and Internet finance. For example, with APIs and SDKs available on CaaS 2.0, an Internet-based fitness service platform can integrate the video capabilities of mobile phones and TVs to provide remote, private fitness services across various screens.

Due to increased mobile Internet usage, the mobile game industry is rapidly developing; however, mobile games have high requirements for bandwidth and delay. Telecom operators open their QoS capabilities through CloudUIC and based on which game software developers and video service providers adjust the network bandwidth and delay to meet service requirements, improving user experience and enhancing product competitiveness. For example, Tencent uses the QoS API to develop advanced equipment for mobile games. Once players purchase this equipment and activate the QoS control function, they can experience better and faster response speeds in their mobile games.

Private data generated from the use of personal mobile applications is susceptible to hacks. Data obtained from operator networks is often more reliable and secure. For instance, anonymous location data can be opened for mobile payments, advertising, and retail site selection. This means a banking system can obtain subscriber location information through APIs, and compare it against the actual location, to help prevent theft, fraudulent activities, and loss of subscribers.

Furthermore, operators can integrate third-party capabilities to develop a larger platform that satisfies more requirements. However, it is difficult for software developers to promote their self-developed data applications, such as a firewall, GreenNet, and video transcoding optimization, to end users. To solve this issue, Huawei cooperates with operators to integrate software capability modules of third-party software developers into the CaaS platform based on NFV technology, perform service orchestration based on the Service Chain technology, and finally release services to end users. This mode not only improves user experience but also gives application platform providers an innovative business model. For example, after video optimization transcode and cached application modules are deployed on the Huawei CloudMSE platform, video transcoding will be automatically enabled based on network bandwidth and congestion status, optimizing the viewing experience.

In summary, Huawei will collaborate with telecom operators for more partnership in the network capability exposure field, creating a mutually beneficial and open ICT industry. Huawei also welcomes partners and developers from every field to participate. From August 31 to September 2, Huawei will host HUAWEI CONNECT in the Shanghai Expo Centre and World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. Focusing on network capability exposure, the Huawei Cloud Core Network Product Line will hold five workshops to demonstrate its successful business practices with various operators, and over 20 innovative applications with partners. More than 30 engineers will provide technical consulting and guidance for developers on-site.

Reference: http://net.it168.com/a2016/0830/2888/000002888676.shtml 

For more information, please visit HuaweiConnect 2016 website.