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
