Communication service providers are continually challenged by ever-increasing volumes of OTT traffic, much of it encrypted and unmanageable. Sandvine recognizes the critical need for operators to know what’s going on with application and content type usage in their networks, and with their customers and their devices.
To help, Sandvine, the App QoE Company, is delivering several new technologies and solutions that will enhance its flagship application classification product, AppLogic, and deliver greater accuracy, speed, and value to customers.
With these new technologies, operators will not only be able to see which applications are being generated over their networks, but also the types of content within those applications. This will enable them to manage the network to ensure the best QoE for subscribers at the lowest cost, as well as monetize with innovative plans and set up for accurate renumeration from OTT providers.
What’s New
Building on the 95% accuracy of its industry-leading application classification product, AppLogic, Sandvine is introducing App QoE Scoring, the world’s most accurate depiction of real-time subscriber sentiment. App QoE Scoring measures and scores a customer’s satisfaction with an operator’s network based on current application performance and quality of experience. This score enables operators for the first time to deliver proactive customer service. Using AI/ML propensity and prediction models, operators can now solve network problems often before the subscriber even realizes there is a problem.
Easy to Deploy – To ensure all Sandvine solutions work on any hardware or in any virtual or cloud environment, Sandvine is introducing the Sandvine Installation Engine, a state-of-the-art deployment and management tool that will now be included in all Sandvine offerings. This fully automated system will enable one-click installs that configure and auto test in a matter of hours, lowering operator TCO and fostering greater control over hardware usage and lifecycles. This solution will also promote reuse and local procurement for the good of the planet and the bottom line.
Easy to Use – To help operators realize even greater value from Sandvine’s App QoE solutions, Sandvine is introducing two new automated, visual workflow tools that will enable efficient and effective network management, customized for the role, and delivered to the desktop:
Operations Insights is engineered for Operations, Performance, and Customer Care teams, quickly identifying correlations between subscriber experiences and network anomalies so the areas in which subscriber experience is suffering are addressed rapidly. The solution answers the 5Ws of network troubleshooting: who, what, when, where, and why, and features configurable alarms, automatic issue detection and diagnosis through AI/ML, and identification of subscriber issues based on locations, network elements, devices, and applications.
Planning Insights is engineered for Capacity Planning and Big Data teams, providing software-based analytics and workflows to fuel AI/ML-based data models. High-quality data becomes a single-source-of-truth about KPIs, capacity measurements, and predictions. This helps operators quickly identify congestion by domain, links, and nodes, driving decisions about when and where to upgrade, and prioritizing at-risk locations. The result is better node capacity utilization that eliminates the need to overprovision for worst-case-scenarios.
Combined with the contextual subscriber sentiment data provided by AppLogic and App QoE Scoring, Planning Insights and Operations Insights utilize the different dimensions of subscriber experiences to convert customer sentiment into actionable insight that can reduce contact center calls, trouble tickets, escalations, truck rolls, and possible churn.
These real-time insights into subscriber sentiment also lay the foundation for additional revenue opportunities, identifying which subscribers might be open to plan upgrades or more customized offerings.
All of these new products are built around Sandvine’s leading application identification and classification product, AppLogic, which provides network operators with:
Unmatched application identification capabilities. Compared to standard DPI technologies that deliver only 50-60% identification accuracy, Sandvine’s AppLogic delivers over 95% accuracy in identifying even encrypted traffic, allowing for better security, better planning, and better customer service.
First-ever content categorization. AppLogic is the first solution that enables operators to identify the different content types within applications – e.g., Facebook videos v Facebook messages – so they can surgically optimize their networks to deliver the best application experience for the least cost.
Detailed traffic data by application. With AppLogic, operators can accurately measure and track application-specific traffic volumes down to the node. This level of granularity could enable network operators to invoice OTT providers for infrastructure investments needed to deliver content with high levels of QoE.
If you want to learn more about the deep application and subscriber insights of AppLogic, App QoE Scoring, Insights solutions, or any of Sandvine’s industry-leading App QoE products, contact us for a demo or meet us at MWC Barcelona.
Sandvine Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Cantor
By understanding exactly what’s going on in your network – who is generating what traffic and how much that traffic is costing you – you can better design sustainable and profitable business models, including renumeration for network costs. And by knowing how people feel as they engage with applications over your network, you can better target how and where you dedicate resources to troubleshoot issues before customers get upset or churn. Using the AI/ML application classification and categorization of AppLogic, combined with the actionable insights revealed through Insights, means you deliver the best experience possible without throwing capacity at problems that don’t really exist, and without neglecting trouble spots where problems do exist.
Sandvine Chief Solutions Officer Samir Marwaha
With these enhanced products, we unlock better decision-making across Planning, Operations, Product Development, Marketing, and Customer Care. Capacity planning and operations that are based on actual App QoE optimizes networks and lays the foundation for better customer satisfaction, and a greater likelihood customers will be open to more innovative offerings that are tailored to actual usage and behaviors.
